LIVONIANS, CONVERSION OF THE. See Albert of Riga; and Berthold of Livonia.
LLORENTE, lyo-ren'tề, JUAN ANTONIO: Historian of the Spanish Inquisition; b. at Rincon de Soto (90 m. n.w. of Saragossa) Mar. 30, 1765; d. in Madrid Feb. 5, 1823. He studied at Saragossa and became both doctor and priest before he had reached the canonical age. He was appointed a commissioner in 1785, and secretary general of the Inquisition in 1789. The opportunity that was thus presented for becoming acquainted with the functions and the archives of those in authority was well utilized by Llorente. His endeavor to make the procedure public throughout was frustrated on the fall of his like-minded patrons, the Grand Inquisitor Manuel Abad y la Sierra, and the Minister Jovellanoa. Llorente became so far involved in the latter's fall that he, too, was subjected to prosecution, which resulted, however, in his acquittal. Upon the downfall of the Bourbon Government in 1808, Llorente took the side of the followers of King Joseph. As member from 1808 of the Council of State, Llorente assumed the supervision of the abrogation of the cloisters, at which time he began to write the history of the Spanish Inquisition. This highly important work was first published in French, Histoire critique de l'Irtquisition d'Espagne (4 vols., Paris, 1817-18); then is Spanish (10 vols., Madrid, 1822); then in German, English (London, 1826), Dutch, and Italian. The reactionary Government succeeded in punishing the author, for his ecclesiastical functions were annulled, and at the university there was even issued an order forbidding him to give instruction in his mother tongue, and when the Portrait polilique des Pages (2 vols., Paris, 1822) appeared, he was banished. But being included under the universal political amnesty of 1820, he returned to Spain; he had scarcely reached Madrid, however, when his death occurred. The value of his principal work lies in the fact that it supplies extracts from documents no longer accessible.
Bibliography: Sources for a biography are his own statements in the Notice biographique, Paris, 1818, and the life by his friend Mahul in Revue eneyelopedique, xviii. (1823). Consult further: C. J. von Hefele, Der Cardinal Ximenea, Tübingen, 1851, Eng. transl., London, 1860; P. Gams, Zur Geschichte der apauischen Inquisition, Regensburg, 1878; idem, Die KirchengeaehichG van Spanien, iii., part 2, ib. 1879; KL, viii. 56-59. The German transl. of Llorente's history of the inquisition appeared in 4 vols., Gmund, 1819, and after the 3d ed. of the original, Stuttgart, 1824. The 2d ed. of the Italian transl. appeared, 8 vols., Milan, 1854.
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