Edict of faith

The edict of faith was a solemn proclamation in which, after exhaustively enunciating the practices that were considered heretical or contrary to the Catholic faith, the inhabitants of a city or of a town "visited" by the inquisitors, under penalty of excommunication, to denounce those neighbors who had committed heresy. This first step in the procedure of the Spanish Inquisition replaced the edict of grace from the beginning of the XVI century, in which one invited to denounce oneself as a heretic within a period of between thirty or forty days, during which one would not be punished with severe penalties —so called "grace period"—.

History

In the first two decades of the existence of the Spanish Inquisition (1480-1500) the "edict of grace" was used. The fundamental difference between the edict of grace and the later edict of faith was that in the first, after enumerating a list of heresies, an appeal was made to those who believed they had committed heresy to denounce themselves within a & "grace period", which used to be thirty to forty days. Those who did so were "reconciled" with the Church without suffering harsh punishments.

"After 1500 grace edicts had served their purpose and were usually replaced by edicts of faith, which had no grace period and instead invited denunciation of those who were guilty of the crimes that appeared in a long list of offences". "The obligation to denounce all those suspected of heresy extended to all the faithful, under penalty of excommunication".

When the inquisitors arrived in a city or town, the first thing they did was introduce themselves to the local ecclesiastical and secular authorities. Then, at a mass on a Sunday or on a holiday, at the end of the parish priest's sermon or the recitation of the creed, the inquisitor holding a crucifix addressed the parishioners so that after crossing themselves they swore, raising their right hands, that they would help the Holy Office to persecute heresy. Immediately afterwards, the edict of faith was read, which included a very long list of all heretical beliefs and behaviors. With this "detailed inventory of all words and attitudes likely to reveal heterodox opinions" In short, according to Joseph Pérez, it was "to explain to the faithful how to recognize a heretic". "It was customary to read the edict of faith once a year, on a Lenten Sunday, in the moment of the offertory, slowly and aloud".

The edict of faith does not acquire its final form until the XVII century and it is only read from 1630 text in all courts. It begins by describing the most frequent words and practices among the Judaizers —such as abstaining from eating certain foods or not working on Saturdays—, paying special attention to funeral practices —turning the deceased against the wall, washing him with hot water or cutting off his beard and shave her armpits, place a coin or a pearl in her mouth, etc.—. Next, the indications that betrayed the Moors who continued to belong to the "sect of Muhammad" were discussed, such as fasting during Ramadan, refraining from drinking wine and eating pork, washing the dead and placing honey next to them, milk and other food for the soul of the deceased, etc. The third section was dedicated to the "sect of Luther" highlighting as signs of belonging to it, saying that it was enough to confess sins to God to be saved, without the priests intervening, or that the body was not found in the consecrated host. of Christ, or that there was no point in worshiping the saints and putting images in churches, or that purgatory did not exist, so it was not necessary to pray for the dead, or that clergymen and nuns could marry, etc.. A fourth section dealt with the "sect of the enlightened" whose members recognized each other, according to the edict of faith, when a person extolled mental prayer over praying out loud or defended that marriage was not a sacrament or that there was Let yourself be guided by the Holy Spirit. Lastly, he dealt with various heresies —materialism, blasphemies, witchcraft, solicitation, bigamy, etc.— and with books whose possession and reading was prohibited —the works of Protestant authors, the Koran, the Bible in the vernacular, and all those that appeared in the Index of Prohibited Books published by the Holy Office. In 1738 a paragraph on Freemasonry was added.

Some voices were raised against the public reading of the edict of faith, such as that of Francisco de Borja, because with his meticulous description of the beliefs and heretical behaviors they could paradoxically spread heresy where nothing was known about it -an inquisitor from the court of Logroño wrote in 1611 to the Council of the Supreme Inquisition that witchcraft was not known in his district until it began to be talked about. But the edicts continued to be read until the middle of the XVII century, at least, although after 1660 the edicts were gradually abandoned. custom.

The edicts of faith, like their predecessors, the edicts of grace, were based on the principle on which the very existence of the Inquisition was based: that heresy was not only a sin, but also a crime, for which reason confessors could not absolve heretics. That is why the edict of faith contained a sentence that alluded to this point: the ecclesiastics who confessed to a person who admitted having committed a sin against the faith —being a heretic— had the obligation to report it to the Inquisition. Likewise, when considered a crime, the culprit should be inflicted with the humiliation of a public process.

The edict of faith was one of the main means on which the inquisitorial action in Spain was based, turning citizens into collaborating agents of the Holy Office. However, false accusations were also encouraged, out of interest or revenge, although the Inquisition tried to prevent them from occurring by punishing the forgers.