"The Inquisition," says Dr. M'Crie, "was not satisfied with preventing heretical men and books from coming into Spain, it exerted itself with equal zeal in preventing orthodox horses from being exported out of the kingdom. Incredible or ludicrous as this may appear to the reader, nothing can be more unquestionable than the fact, and nothing demonstrates more decidedly the unprincipled character of the Inquisitors, as well as those who had recourse to its agency to promote their political schemes. As early as the fourteenth century it had been declared illegal to transport horses from Spain to France. This prohibition originated entirely in views of political economy, and it was the business of the officers of the customs to prevent the contraband trade. But on occasion of the wars which arose between the Papists and Protestants of France, and the increase of the latter on the Spanish borders, it occurred to Philip as an excellent expedient for putting down the prohibited commerce, to commit the task to the Inquisition, whose services would be more effectual than those of a hundred thousand frontier guards. With this view he procured a bull from the Pope, which, with a special reference to the Protestants of France, and the inhabitants of Bearn in particular, declared all to be suspected of heresy who should furnish arms, ammunition, or other instruments of war to heretics. In consequence of this, the council of the supreme, in 1569, added to the annual edict of denunciation a clause obliging all, under the pain of excommunication, to inform against any who had bought or transported horses for the use of the French Protestants, which was afterwards extended to all who sent them across the Pyrenees. For this offence numbers were fined, whipped, and condemned to the galleys, by the Inquisitorial tribunals on the frontiers. Always bent on extending their jurisdiction, the Inquisitors sought to bring under their cognizance all questions respecting the contraband trade in saltpetre, sulphur, and powder."
Freemasonry, as has been already stated, was a very heinous crime in the eye of the Inquisition. The following trial which took place at Madrid, in 1757, will sufficiently prove the hatred of the "Holy Office," to all who were connected with that order. A Frenchman of the name of M. Tournon, had been invited to Spain to instruct the Spaniards in the art of making brass or copper buckles; but in the year above mentioned, he was denounced to the Inquisition, by one of his pupils, as a favourer of heresy. His heresy consisted in having asked some of his pupils to become freemasons, and obtained their consent. At his first audience, the following conversation took place between the Inquisitors and M. Tournon, which, after the cruelties that have been detailed, will both relieve and amuse the reader.[25]