(INQUISITION) REGINALDUS GONSALVIUS MONTANUS (i. e. CASIODOR DE REINA).

John Day

London

1568

A Discovery and playne Declaration of sundry subtill practises of the Holy Inquisition of Spayne. Certaine speciall examples set aparte by them selves, besides other that are here and there dispersed in their most convenient places, wherein a man may see the foresaid practises of the Inquisition, as they be practised and exercised very lively described.

Palau 105552.

AN EARLY ATTACK UPON THE SPANISH INQUISTION. This book first appeared in Latin as Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae (Heidelberg, 1567). Ours is an English translation by an unidentified translator, which enjoyed wide popularity. Other than the anti-Papist sentiment evident in the translator's Introduction, it would seem there was some morbid fascination with the subject of the Spanish Inquisition on the part of the English audience. Regard the following opener: "…the dangerous practises and most horrible executions of the Spanish Inquisition, declared in this boke, which now is brought with fire and sword into the Low Countries, the sodaine imprisonment of honest men without processe of lawe, the pitifull wandring in exile and povertie of personages sometime rich and welthy, the wives hanging on their husbands shoulders, and the pore banished infants on the mothers brests, the monstruous racking of men without order of law, the villanous and shameles tormenting of naked women beyond all humanitie, their miserable death without pity or mercy, the most reprochefull triumphing of the popish Sinagoge over Christians…". Noteworthy is the author's derision of the infamous Siliceus, Archbishop of Toledo, and promulgator of the statute of limpieza de sangre (purity of blood): "The Archbishop was hated of the chief men of the chapter because he had openly and in opprobrious manner reported them to be descended of the line of the Jews; and they on the other side, being men in good estate and not able to bear these reproaches, thought to be even with this foolish bishop that came from cart and plough, and by good hap…without all respect of learning or honesty, was preferred to the highest dignity in all Spain next under the King…" (f. 93r.). See A. G. Kinder, Casiodoro de Reina: Spanish Reformer of the Sixteenth Century (1975).