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Article FREEMASONRY AND THE SPANISH INQUISITION. Page 1 of 4 →
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Freemasonry And The Spanish Inquisition.
FREEMASONRY AND THE SPANISH INQUISITION .
IN the year 1827 , there appeared a second edition of a work which has now become very rare and scarce , it was a translation of the History of the Inquisition of Spain , by its former secretary , D . Juan Antonio Llorente , Chancellor of the University of Toletto , and a man of undoubted veracity . The work being frequently quoted as authority upon matters of the Inquisition , we think it will interest our readers , and it may at some future time become useful if we transcribe the forty-first chapter , which touches upon Freemasonry .
THE TRIAL OF M . TOURNON , BY THE INQUISITION . * Jansenism , and Freemasonry particularly , occupied the Inquisition under Ferdinand VI . The Jesuits called those persons Jansenists who did not adopt the opinions of Molina on grace and free-will , their adversaries designated them as Pelagians . These parties reciprocally accused each other of favouring heresy . But the faction of the Jesuits prevailed during the reign of PhiliV . and his successorbecause their
p , confessors were of that order . Freemasonry was an object entirely new to the Inquisition , Clement XII . had expelled on the 28 th April , 1738 , the bull in enunenti , in which he excommunicates the Freemasons ' . In 1740 Philip issued a royal ordinance against them , and many were arrested and sent to the galleys . The Inquisitors took advantage ofthe example , and treated the members of a lodge , discovered at Madridwith great severity . The punishment
, of deatb was decreed against Freemasons in 1793 , by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome , in the name of the High Priest of the God of Peace and Mercy ! Benedict XIV . renewed the bull of Clement , 1751 . Fray Joseph Torrubia , examiner of books for the holy office , denounced the existence of Freemasons , and Ferdinand published an ordinance against them in the same year , in which it was said that all who did not
conform to the regulations contained in it , would be punished as state criminals guilty of high treason . Charles III ., then King of Naples , prohibited the masonic assemblies on the same day . The following pages contain the notice of a trial of this nature , which took place at Madrid in 1757 . M . Tournon , a Frenchman , had been invited into Spain , and pensioned by the government , in order to establish a manufactory of brass
or copper buckles , and to instruct Spanish workmen . On the 30 th of April , 1757 , he was denounced to the holy office as suspected of heresy , by one of his pupils , who acted in obedience to the commands of his confessor . The charges were , first , that M . Tournon had asked his pupils to become Freemasons , promising that a Grand Orient of Paris should send a commission to receive them into the Order if they should submit
to the trials he should propose to ascertain their courage and firmness , and their titles of reception should be expedited from Paris . Second , that some of these young workmen appeared inclined to comply if M . Tournon would inform them of the object of the institution . That in order to satisfy them , he told them several extraordinary things , and showed them a sor : of picture , on which were figured instruments of
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Freemasonry And The Spanish Inquisition.
FREEMASONRY AND THE SPANISH INQUISITION .
IN the year 1827 , there appeared a second edition of a work which has now become very rare and scarce , it was a translation of the History of the Inquisition of Spain , by its former secretary , D . Juan Antonio Llorente , Chancellor of the University of Toletto , and a man of undoubted veracity . The work being frequently quoted as authority upon matters of the Inquisition , we think it will interest our readers , and it may at some future time become useful if we transcribe the forty-first chapter , which touches upon Freemasonry .
THE TRIAL OF M . TOURNON , BY THE INQUISITION . * Jansenism , and Freemasonry particularly , occupied the Inquisition under Ferdinand VI . The Jesuits called those persons Jansenists who did not adopt the opinions of Molina on grace and free-will , their adversaries designated them as Pelagians . These parties reciprocally accused each other of favouring heresy . But the faction of the Jesuits prevailed during the reign of PhiliV . and his successorbecause their
p , confessors were of that order . Freemasonry was an object entirely new to the Inquisition , Clement XII . had expelled on the 28 th April , 1738 , the bull in enunenti , in which he excommunicates the Freemasons ' . In 1740 Philip issued a royal ordinance against them , and many were arrested and sent to the galleys . The Inquisitors took advantage ofthe example , and treated the members of a lodge , discovered at Madridwith great severity . The punishment
, of deatb was decreed against Freemasons in 1793 , by the Cardinal Vicar of Rome , in the name of the High Priest of the God of Peace and Mercy ! Benedict XIV . renewed the bull of Clement , 1751 . Fray Joseph Torrubia , examiner of books for the holy office , denounced the existence of Freemasons , and Ferdinand published an ordinance against them in the same year , in which it was said that all who did not
conform to the regulations contained in it , would be punished as state criminals guilty of high treason . Charles III ., then King of Naples , prohibited the masonic assemblies on the same day . The following pages contain the notice of a trial of this nature , which took place at Madrid in 1757 . M . Tournon , a Frenchman , had been invited into Spain , and pensioned by the government , in order to establish a manufactory of brass
or copper buckles , and to instruct Spanish workmen . On the 30 th of April , 1757 , he was denounced to the holy office as suspected of heresy , by one of his pupils , who acted in obedience to the commands of his confessor . The charges were , first , that M . Tournon had asked his pupils to become Freemasons , promising that a Grand Orient of Paris should send a commission to receive them into the Order if they should submit
to the trials he should propose to ascertain their courage and firmness , and their titles of reception should be expedited from Paris . Second , that some of these young workmen appeared inclined to comply if M . Tournon would inform them of the object of the institution . That in order to satisfy them , he told them several extraordinary things , and showed them a sor : of picture , on which were figured instruments of