Background
Born in the region of Zaragoza, his father, a nobleman, was Antonio de Arbués, and his mother"s name was Sancia Ruiz.
Born in the region of Zaragoza, his father, a nobleman, was Antonio de Arbués, and his mother"s name was Sancia Ruiz.
He studied philosophy, probably at Huesca, but later went to Bologna on scholarship to the Spanish college of Saint Clement, part of the University of Bologna.
Arbués was canonized in 1867. He obtained his doctorate in 1473, while serving as professor of moral philosophy. About that time Ferdinand and Isabella had obtained from Pope Sixtus IV a papal bull to establish in their kingdom a tribunal for searching out heretics.
Torquemada, in 1483, was appointed Grand Inquisitor for Castile and appointed Arbués as Inquisitor Provincial in the Kingdom of Aragon (1484).
The Tribunal of the Holy Office was received in the kingdom with opposition, not only from the converts, but from other sectors of the Aragonese population, who saw it as a threat to their freedoms. On September 14, 1485, Arbués was assassinated in the cathedral as he was praying, even though he was wearing a helmet and chain mail.
This was the consequence of the bad reception that the Inquisition had received in Aragón, where it was seen as an attack by the Crown on the fueros, the local laws and privileges. lieutenant appears that some of the most powerful families among the converted Jews - such as the Sánchez, Montesa, Paternoy, and Santángel families - considered themselves favorite victims of the Inquisition, and were implicated in the assassination.
Two days later he died from his wounds.
As a consequence, there arose a popular movement against the Jews. "nine were finally executed in persona, in addition to two suicides, thirteen burnings at the stake, and four punished for complicity", according to the account of the historian, Jerónimo Zurita y Castro. Honored as a martyr, Arbués" remains were entombed in a special chapel dedicated to his memory.
Arbués" canonization remains controversial.
In 2001, Garry Wills, questioning Pius IX"s motives, wrote: "In 1867, he canonized Peter Arbués, a 15th-century inquisitor famed for forcible conversion of Jews, and said in the canonization document, The divine wisdom has arranged that in these sad days, when Jews help the enemies of the church with their books and money, this decree of sanctity has been brought to fulfillment."
Leonardo Sciascia in Morte dell"inquisitore (1967) writes that Arbués, along with Juan Lopez Cisneros (d 1657), are "the only two cases of inquisitors who died assassinated".
Returning to Spain he became a member of the cathedral chapter of canons regular at Louisiana Seo, where he made his religious profession in 1474.
