Nor were the Inquisitors dilatory in obeying the injunctions of his Holiness, and of their superstitious monarch. In 1558, the Inquisitor-general published a very severe edict against all who should retain a single volume of any of the works proscribed. Every Bible was ordered to be strictly examined; nay, the professors in the University were compelled, on pain of excommunication, to give up their Hebrew and Greek Bibles to the commissaries of the Inquisition; and even works on medicine were seized, although they were not mentioned in the Index.
In 1558, Philip II. issued a most sanguinary law against all "who should sell, buy, keep, or read, any of the books prohibited by the Holy Office"—a law which not only affected the property, but the lives of those who dared to infringe it. From that period till the present, the utmost vigilance has been exercised by the Spanish Inquisition to prevent the people from seeing any work, which, in the plenitude of its usurped authority, it has declared to be heretical. The Index was from time to time either revised or renewed, and the utmost care was taken to prevent the circulation of the word of God, unless that word was disfigured and corrupted by the votaries of Rome.
But it was not the works of the Protestants only, which were obnoxious to the Inquisition. Their persons were equally hateful, and not long after the commencement of the Reformation, many of the followers of Zuinglius and Luther were committed to the flames by the lords of the "Holy Inquisition." The Emperor Charles V. so decidedly seconded all their endeavours to extirpate heresy, that, having with great difficulty introduced the Inquisition into the Netherlands, he bequeathed in his will the care of that infamous tribunal to his son Philip II., in the words following: "Out of regard to my duty to Almighty God, and from my great affection to the most serene prince, Philip II., my dearest son, and from the strong and earnest desire I have, that he may be safe under the protection of virtue, rather than the greatness of his riches, I charge him, with the greatest affection of soul, that he take especial care of all things relating to the honour and glory of God, as becomes the most Catholic king, and a prince zealous for the divine commands; and that he be always obedient to the commands of our Holy Mother, the Church. And, amongst other things, this I principally and most ardently recommend to him, highly to honour and constantly to support the office of the holy Inquisition, as constituted by God against heretical pravity, with its ministers and officials, because by this single remedy the most grievous offences against God can be remedied. Also, I command him, that he would be careful to preserve to all churches, and ecclesiastical persons, their immunities." And again, "I ardently desire, and with the greatest possible earnestness beseech him, and command him by his regards to me, his most affectionate father, that in this matter, in which the welfare of all Spain is concerned, he be most zealously careful to punish all infected with heresy, with the severity due to their crimes, and that, to this intent, he confer the greatest honours on the office of the holy Inquisition, by the care of which the Catholic faith will be increased in his kingdoms, and the Christian religion preserved."
