Chapter 50: The Reformation of the Heretics (1650-1652)
The death of King Jaime of Hispania in 1646 came as a relief for many (among them, Jaime himself) who blamed him for the break up of the Empire. His son, also named Jaime (1601-1678
) , was a promise brighter than his father, even if his tutor, the Duke of Alba, had some doubts about the heir due to his stubbornness. In fact, it was a bit worse than this. Jaime IV was, all in all, a well educated and informed man, he is a learned man and somewhat of an academic and philosopher and a bit of a perfectionist who saw his fate was to create a more modern state. Later described by historians as probably being a
bit obsessive-compulsive, Jaime IV wanted to have everything ordered and in its place. Thus, when his wishes and reality clashed, it went nasty quite fast. He did not mind changes... provided that they came his way. Determined to rule, he considered that the King had not only to be the head of the Government, but also of the Church. However, no one should have been surprised by this as, in his last years, his father had handed over authority to Jaime bit by bit, even if under the control of the Royal Council. Thus, the change in the throne was a quiet transferral of power, leaving a successful and workable administration and one of the most qualified and educated kings that Hispania had in its history. The Empire needed a change after the trauma of the civil war, and thus it came a younger and more determined monarch, a strong religious devotion and big ambitions.
Just in case, his father had opted for a quiet marriage for his son and he was wedded to the daughter of the Duke of Medinaceli, Antonio de la Cerda y Dávila. Arranged when Jaime was barely a teenager, the marriage was not fated to be a happy one. Cristina was a reserved but fiercely independent woman who missed too much his freedom in the family castle and refused to spend much time in the royal court. Jaime was happy with this once their first son was born in 1628, followed by another in 1630. Thus, he happily packed his wife for the royal palace of Salamanca and forgot about her... once he became king. Then the fight began. Jaime IV demanded to have his sons with him, to learn how to rule the kingdom, but Cristina wanted nothing of that, as they were too young. Thus, husband and wife started a shooting war that horrified the court for his viciousness. They never again had children (Jaime himself is known to have sired at least four recorded bastards, two of which were acknowledged - Alfonso and Ramon Berenguer. For a time, annulment or divorce were both considered but as Jaime was a devout man and he wanted to ensure the support of the church, nothing of that short happened and the two simply avoided one another, Cristina living in the royal palaces of Salamanca, Seville or Valencia, depending on the season until she passed away after a bout of malaria in Seville in 1670.
Soon a crisis erupted. The suffering caused by the war had caused a not unexpected return to religion by the humble classes. The surprise came when a new religious faction appeared in Toulouse and Carcassonne around the late 1630s. All in all, this new group demanded a return to the origins of Christianity, away from the luxury of the Papacy and the wickedness of the world. This was not dangerous enough, but there was a part of their religious ideas that caused a widespread alarm from Toledo to Rome: They addressed the problem of the existence of evil in the world by stating that as God was sheer goodness, he had nothing to do with evil and this he was powerless to act against it, as evil was alien to his nature. This brought to many memories of the Cathars and Pope Urban VIII, in the papal bull
Sanctissimus Dominus Noster of March, 13 1640, gave a stern warning about any ideas that doubted about God's "
perfection,
goodness,
incomprehensibility,
omnipresence,
immutability,
eternity and
oneness." However, in spite of Urban VIII and his successor (Innocent X)'s efforts, this set of ideas was to spread quite fast not only through Occitania but also in Aragon, Navarre, Castile, France and Italy. Called by its enemies and critics as "Neo-Cathars", the followers of this variety of Christianity simply called themselves "Good Christians".
To face this problem, both Jaime IV of Hispania and Eduardo V of Aragon (1605-1655) resorted to a stronger line against religious dissension and a centralised, episcopal reaction led, undoubtedly, by the monarch. In spite of their political ideas, both Jaime and Eduardo agreed on the need of a church united wholly in doctrine and leadership - with them as both temporal and spiritual leaders. To this end, they called a "Grand Council" to bring together all the high ranking members of the church of both kingdoms to agree upon a new charter for the faith. First summoned in December of 1650, the Council opened for Easter 1652 and lasted two months with intense negotiation and debate from the various factions. In one side there were those in support of a centralised church who, quite unsurprisngly, followed quite closely the idea of Jaime IV. There was, on the other side, those who proposed to have the Hispanic and Aragonese churches united but by a covenant or argreement that kept in place their independence. Finally, of course, there were those who tired soon of the argument between the "unifiers" and the "convenanters" and demanded a direct action against the heretics. Then, to the surprise of many, a group representing the "Neo-Cathars" rose and explained to all their program, which was based in the emphasis on poverty; the concept of the universal priesthood; baptism was not necessary for entrance into heaven; Man was an alien and a sojourner in a temporary world and his aim must be to free his spirit, which was in its nature good, and restore it to communion with God; the rejection of most of the Catholic rites, which where all reduced to a single one, the so-called consolamentum, and so on. It goes without saying that this caused a furious uproar among the Catholic bishops and cardinals.
In the end, by the time that ths Council was over (June 1652) it proved to be a complete failure. But for the agreement upon a handful of doctrinal points, the Hispanic and Aragonese churchmen departed without having agreed upon a solution in the Neo-Cathar problem. Jaime IV had reinforced his control over the Hispanic church while Eduardo V had become tired of the endless arguing and, even worse, of the constant bickering between the Bishops and Archbishops for wordly matters. So, while in the end both of them reserved for themselves the position of Defender of the Church, that is, its head and controller, on having printed a translated Bible, the right to appoint all Bishops and Archbishops and over the collection and spending of tithes, there was no agreement about what to do with the "Neo-Cathars". Thus, while Jaime IV simply stated that would be enough with having the heretics being captured, imprisoned and even executed, Eduardo V was not so sure about it. After all, as one of his advisors stated, when asked about why they did not simply expulse the heretics, "
We cannot do that! They are our neighbours and we see them live honorably!". On the Hispanic side, their position was summarized in a simple saying:
"Suffer not the heretic to live!". However, behind this apparent union, Jaime IV had a problem to deal with: the Jews and those who sympathized with the heretics or followed their ideas.
In addition to the political division, it seemed that the former Hispanic Empire was on the verge of a religious split.