Holy Office, but in 1823 liberal forces
were crushed by Ferdinand’s royalist
allies from France.Catholic tradition-
alists were back in power and needed
their French allies to stay there.
The French disdained the Inquisi-
tion, so Ferdinand VII was reluctant
to restore it. Instead, he established
“Faith Commissions”(juntas de fé).
These councils held no true legal au-
thority but enjoyed the protection of
the government and Catholic Church.ATeacher’sFate
In Valencia, a traditionalist strong-
hold, rumors about the behavior ofthe deist teacher had reached church
officials. Ripoll, it was said, did not
take his young charges to Mass, and
instructed them to say“Praised be the
Lord” instead of“Hail, purest Mary.”
Exercising their new power, the Va-
lencia Junta arrested Ripoll in Sep-
tember 1824 for heresy.
For two years, Ripoll refused to
recant his deist beliefs; he was ul-
timately sentenced to death. In July
1826 he was hanged for his beliefs.
Rather than burn his body, sources
say it was placed in a barrel painted
with flames, thrown in the river, and
then buried in unconsecrated ground.
News of the execution was greet-
ed with disgust by Spanish liberals.
Even Ferdinand thought the junta had
gone too far, in part because the king
regarded the ultratraditionalists as a
threat to his power.
It would take almost a decade be-
fore the Spanish Inquisition was
definitively abolished in 1834. Rip-
oll—for whom a square was named in
Valencia—became a hero to Spanish
liberals.Although the Inquisition was
dead, the struggle between conser-
vative Catholics and Enlightenment
liberals continued to deeply divide
the nation,influencing Spain’s brutal
civil war a century later.ORONOZ/ALBUM“FALSE PHILOSOPHY,”FRONTISPIECE OF A 1774 SPANISH
COMPENDIUM OF TEXTS CONSIDERED HERETICAL,
INCLUDING THE DEIST WRITINGS TO WHICH CAYETANO
RIPOLL SUBSCRIBED. BIBLIOTECA NACIONAL, MADRIDNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC HISTORY 75ALBUMFERDINAND VII OF SPAIN
DETAIL OF A PORTRAIT BY
FRANCISCO DE GOYA
THE BANNERS OF FAITH
A procession of the Spanish Inquisition, with
the city of Valencia in the background, in a
painting attributed to Francisco de Goya.
FOUNDATION E. G. BÜHRLE COLLECTION, ZURICHAuthor María Lara Martínez is a specialist on the histo-
ry of the Catholic Church in medieval and modern Spain.