CHAPTER XX.

THE INQUISITION CELEBRATES AT VALLADOLID, IN 1559, TWO AUTOS-DA-FE AGAINST THE LUTHERANS, IN THE PRESENCE OF SOME MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.

First Auto-da-fé.

The trial of Juan Gil, Bishop of Tortosa, so much alarmed many Lutherans, that they quitted the kingdom. Of this number were Cassiodorus de Beina, Juan Perez de Pineda, Cyprian de Valera, and Julian Hernandez; the three first published catechisms, translations of the Bible, and other works written in the Castilian tongue, in foreign countries [19]. Juan Perez published his at Venice in 1556, and they were soon after introduced into Spain by Hernandez, who was arrested by the Inquisition. The citations and inquiries made in consequence of the trial of Hernandez, in order to discover the religious opinions of the persons with whom he associated, caused an infinite number of trials to be instituted during the fifteen years following, in all the tribunals of Spain, particularly in those of Seville and Valladolid. In 1557 and 1558, the Inquisition arrested a great number of persons distinguished by their birth, their offices, or their doctrine. Some indications found in the writings of the trials, of a vast scheme tending to the propagation of the opinions of Luther, persuaded Philip II. and the inquisitor Valdés that it was necessary to treat all the convicted persons with the utmost severity. Philip wrote to Rome on the subject on the 4th January, 1559. The Pope addressed to Valdés a brief, in which he authorized him to give over to secular justice all dogmatizing Lutherans, even those who had not relapsed, and who, to avoid capital punishment, had given equivocal signs of repentance. If history had nothing to allege against Philip II. and the inquisitor Valdés, but the solicitation for this bull, it would be sufficient to devote their names to infamy.

On the 5th of January, 1559, a second bull revoked all the permissions granted for reading prohibited books, and charged the inquisitor-general to prosecute all who should read or keep them in their houses; and as his Holiness was informed that a great number of writings which tended to propagate the Lutheran doctrines were circulating in Spain, the bull commanded the confessors to ask their penitents if they knew or had heard of any persons possessing, reading, or dispersing them; that they should also impose upon them the obligation of communicating such circumstances to the holy office on pain of excommunication; and that the confessors who omitted this duty should be punished as guilty, even if persons they absolved were bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, cardinals, kings, or emperors. It is easy to perceive how much these measures must have increased the number of accusations; and to encourage the informers, Philip renewed the edict of Ferdinand V., published at Toro in 1505, by which they were entitled to the fourth part of the confiscated property.

The multitude of accusations caused by these bulls, induced the inquisitor-general to delegate his powers to Don Pedro de la Gasca, Bishop of Palencia, who established himself at Valladolid, and to Don Juan Gonzales de Munebrega, Bishop of Tarragona, who repaired to Seville. Valdés at the same time executed the dispositions of another bull, which granted to the holy office, on account of its increased expenses in travelling and maintaining so great a number of prisoners, the revenues of a canonship in each metropolitan church, cathedral, and college, in the kingdom. Another brief granted them a subsidy of one hundred thousand ducats of gold, to be imposed on the ecclesiastical revenues of the kingdom, to pay the debts contracted from the same cause. It is surprising that, after eighty years of confiscation, the establishment should complain of distress. These bulls, however, were not sufficient to procure money, owing to the resistance of several chapters, particularly that of Majorca. In 1574 they still remained unexecuted, when Gregory XIII. confirmed them, and the King of Spain was obliged to force the rebel canons to submit.

The arrest and trial of so great a number of Spaniards necessarily caused an auto-da-fé to be celebrated in many tribunals; but as the victims in those of Valladolid and Seville were persons distinguished, some for their nobility, others for their doctrine, and all for the purity of their lives, the ceremonies in these cities were more noted than the others; and I do not hesitate in affirming that all that has been written against the Spanish Inquisition in Germany and France was only caused by the treatment of the Lutherans at Seville and Valladolid (for, until then, scarcely anything had been written on the subject), though the number of Lutherans who perished was small, when compared to the enormous and almost incredible number of those who had suffered as Jews or Mahometans.

The first solemn auto-da-fé of Valladolid was celebrated on the 21st of May, 1559, in the grand square, and in the presence of the Prince Don Carlos, and the Princess Juana, of the civil authorities, and of a considerable number of the grandees of Spain, besides an immense multitude of people. The arrangement of the scaffolds and seats have been already described in several works, and represented in prints. Fourteen persons were relaxed, the bones and effigy of a woman burnt, and sixteen individuals were admitted to reconciliation, with penances. Some details of the principal persons may be found interesting.

Donna Eleonora de Vibero (the wife of Pedro Cazalla, who held an office in the Treasury), daughter of Juan de Vibero, who had a similar employment, and Constance Ortiz, was proprietress of a chapel in the Benedictine convent of Valladolid. She had been interred without any doubt of her orthodoxy; but she was accused of Lutheranism by the fiscal of the Inquisition, though he said she had concealed her opinions, by receiving the sacraments and the eucharist at her death. He supported his accusation by the testimony of several witnesses who had been tortured or threatened, the result of which was that the house of Eleonora de Vibero had been used as a temple by the Lutherans. Her memory and her posterity were condemned to infamy, her property confiscated, her body disinterred and burnt with her effigy, and her house razed to the ground, and prohibited from being rebuilt; a monument with an inscription relating to this event was placed on the spot. I have seen the column and the inscription; I have heard that it was destroyed in 1809.

The other principal persons who perished in this auto-da-fé were, Doctor Augustin Cazalla, priest and canon of Salamanca, almoner and preacher to the king and emperor; he was the son of Pedro Cazalla and Eleonora de Vibero, and descended from the Jews both by his father and mother. He was accused of professing the Lutheran heresy; of having dogmatized in the Lutheran conventicle of Valladolid, and corresponded with the heretics of Seville. Cazalla denied the facts imputed to him in several declarations on oath, and in others which he presented when the publication of the proofs took place. The torture was decreed: Cazalla, on the 4th of March, was conducted to the dungeon where it was to be inflicted, but it did not take place, as the prisoner promised to make a confession. He gave it in writing, and ratified it on the 16th, acknowledging that he was a Lutheran, but denied having taught the doctrine. He explained the motives which had prevented him from making this declaration before; and promised to be a good catholic for the future, if reconciliation was granted to him; but the inquisitors did not think proper to spare him the capital punishment, as the witnesses affirmed that he had dogmatized. Cazalla, however, continued to give every possible proof of conversion until his execution: when he saw that death was inevitable, he began to preach to his companions in misfortune. Two days before his death, he related some particulars of his life. He was born in 1510: at the age of seventeen he had Bartholomew Carranza de Miranda for his confessor, in the college of St. Gregory at Valladolid; he continued his studies at Alcala de Henares, where he remained till 1536. In 1545 Charles V. made him his preacher; in the following year he accompanied that prince to Germany, and stayed there till 1552, preaching against the Lutherans; he returned in that year to Spain, and retired to Salamanca, where he lived for three years, going sometimes to Valladolid. He once attended, by the emperor’s order, at an assembly where Don Antonio Fonseca, president of the Royal Council of Castile, presided, and at which the Licentiate Otalora, the Doctors Ribera and Velasco, auditors of the council and chancery, and Brothers Alphonso de Castro and Bartholomew Carranza assisted. The object of the meeting was to decide on the course to be pursued on the occasion of certain briefs which the Court of Rome had expedited against those who approved of the decrees of the Council of Trent, which continued to assemble in that city, though the Pope had commanded that it should be transferred to Bologna. Cazalla declared that all the members of the junta acknowledged that the Pope only acted from motives of personal interest; and that Bartholomew Carranza particularly distinguished himself by inveighing against the abuses of the Court of Rome. On the 20th of May, the day before his death, he received a visit from Brother Antonio de la Carrera, a monk of St. Jerome, who was sent to him by the inquisitors, to inform him that they were not satisfied with his declarations, and to exhort him, for the good of his conscience, to confess all that he knew of himself and others. Cazalla answered, that he could not say more, without bearing false-witness. The monk replied, that he had always denied that he had dogmatized, though the contrary was proved by the witnesses. He said, that this crime had been unjustly imputed to him; that he was guilty of not having undeceived those who held bad doctrines; but that he had only spoken of his opinions to persons who thought as he did: Brother Antonio then exhorted him to prepare for death on the following day. This information was a thunderbolt to Cazalla, who had expected to be admitted to a reconciliation. He demanded if his punishment might not be commuted: Carrera told him, that if he confessed what he had hitherto concealed, he might hope for mercy. Well then, said Cazalla, I must prepare to die in the grace of God; for it is impossible that I should add anything to what I have already said, unless I lie. He then began to encourage himself to suffer death; he confessed several times in the same night, and the next day to Antonio de la Carrera. When he arrived at the place of the auto-da-fé, he asked permission to preach to those who were to suffer with him; he could not obtain it, but he addressed a few words to them: as he was a penitent, he was strangled before, he was burnt. When he was fastened to the stake, he confessed for the last time, and his confessor was so affected by all that he had seen and heard during the last twenty-four hours, that he afterwards wrote, “that he had no doubt that Doctor Cazalla was in Heaven.”

Francis de Vibero Cazalla, brother to Augustin, a priest, and Curate of Hormigos in the diocese of Palencia, at first denied the charges, confessed them when tortured, ratified his confession, and demanded to be admitted to reconciliation. This was refused, as it was supposed that he had only confessed from the fear of death. In fact, he ridiculed his brother’s exhortations on the scaffold, and expired in the flames without showing any signs of repentance. He was degraded from the priesthood, as well as his brother, before he ascended the scaffold.

Donna Beatrice de Cazalla, sister to the above-mentioned persons, and Alphonso Perez, at first denied the charges, confessed during the torture, demanded reconciliation, but were strangled and burnt.

Don Christobal de Ocampo, of Seville, a knight of the order of St. John, and almoner to the Grand Prior of Castile and Leon, and Don Christobal de Padilla, a knight and inhabitant of Zamora, were condemned to the same punishment for Lutheranism.

The licentiate Antonio Herrezuelo, a lawyer of the city of Toro, condemned as a Lutheran, died without any signs of repentance. Doctor Cazalla addressed some words to him in particular; Antonio ridiculed his discourse, although he was already fastened to the stake. One of the archers, furious at so much courage, plunged his lance into the body of Herrezuelo; he died without uttering a word.

Juan Garcia, a goldsmith of Valladolid, and the licentiate Perez de Herrera, judge of the court against smugglers, in Logrono, suffered as Lutherans. Gonzalez Baez, the Portuguese mentioned in the preceding chapter, suffered as a Judaic heretic.

Donna Catherine de Ortega, widow of the commander Loaisa, and daughter to Hernand Diaz, fiscal of the Royal Council of Castile, was condemned as a Lutheran, and made her confession. She suffered the same fate with Catherine Roman de Pedrosa, Isabella d’Estrada, and Jane Blazquiez, a servant of the Marchioness d’Alcanizes. None of these persons had dogmatized, none had relapsed, but they were condemned because they only confessed during the torture.

Among the persons reconciled were distinguished,—Don Pedro Sarmiento de Roxas, a knight of the order of St. Jago, commander of Quintana, and the son of the first Marquis of Poza. He was condemned as a Lutheran, deprived of his orders, clothed in the perpetual San-benito, imprisoned for life, devoted to infamy, and his property confiscated.

Don Louis de Roxas, nephew of the above, was charged with the same crime; he was exiled from Madrid, Valladolid, and Palencia, and prohibited from leaving Spain; his property was confiscated, and he was declared incapable of succeeding to the marquisate of Poza, which passed to his youngest brother.

Donna Mencia de Figueroa, wife of Don Pedro Sarmiento de Roxas, and an attendant of the Queen of Spain, was condemned, for Lutheranism, to wear the San-benito, to imprisonment for life, and the confiscation of her property.

Donna Anna Henriquez de Roxas, daughter of the Marquis d’Alcanizes, and the wife of Don Juan Alphonso de Fonseca Mexia, was condemned as a Lutheran. She appeared in the auto-da-fé with the San-benito, and was afterwards shut up in a monastery. She was twenty-four years of age, was perfectly acquainted with the Latin tongue, and had read the works of Calvin, and those of Constantine Ponce de la Fuente.

Donna Maria de Roxas, a nun of the convent of St. Catherine of Valladolid, and daughter to the first Marquis de Poza. She was condemned as a Lutheran, conducted to the auto-da-fé with the San-benito, and secluded for life in her convent. The Inquisition commanded that she should be treated as the lowest in the community in the choir and refectory, and deprived of the power of voting.

Don Juan de Ulloa Pereira, a knight commander of the order of St. John of Jerusalem. He was son and brother to the Lords de la Mota, who were soon after made Marquisses, and an inhabitant of Toro. He was condemned, for Lutheranism, to wear the San-benito, to be imprisoned for life, and to be deprived of his property. He was declared infamous, incapable of obtaining dignities, stript of the habit and cross of his order, and banished from Madrid, Valladolid, and Toro, but was prohibited from quitting the kingdom. In 1565, Ulloa represented his situation to the Pope, reminding him of his services in fighting against the Turks, particularly when he took five ships of the pirate Caramani Arraez; he added that the inquisitor-general had remitted the continuation of his penance for more than a year, but that he wished to regain his rank as a knight, as he was still capable of serving. The Pope granted a brief in favour of Ulloa, rehabilitating him in his privileges as a knight, with a particular clause, stating that what had passed could not prevent him from attaining the superior dignities of his order, provided the inquisitor-general and the grand master of Malta approved the decree. Ulloa was then reinstated in his commandery.

Juan de Vibero Cazalla, a brother of Augustin, and Donna Juana Silva de Ribera, his wife, were condemned, as Lutherans, to be deprived of their liberty and their property, and to wear the San-benito.

Donna Constance de Vibero Cazalla, sister of Augustin, and widow of Hernand Ortiz, was condemned to wear the San-benito, to perpetual imprisonment, and the confiscation of her property. When Augustin saw his sister pass, he turned to the princess governess, and said to her: Princess, I entreat your highness to have compassion on that unfortunate woman, who will leave thirteen orphans.

Eleonora de Cisneros, aged twenty-four, the wife of Antonio Herrezuelo, and Donna Francisca Zuñiga de Baeza, were condemned to the San-benito, imprisonment, and confiscation.

Marina de Saavedra, the widow of Juan Cisneros de Soto, a distinguished gentleman, Isabella Minguez, a servant of Donna Beatrice Cazalla, and Antonio Minguez, the brother of Isabella, suffered the same punishment.

Anthony Wasor, an Englishman, servant to Don Louis de Roxas, was condemned to wear the San-benito, to lose his property, and be confined in a convent for one year.

Daniel de la Quadra lost his liberty and property, and took the perpetual San-benito, as a Lutheran.

The sermon on the faith was preached by the celebrated Melchior Cano, after all the assembly had witnessed a scandalous transaction. When the court and all the other attendants had taken their places, Don Francis Baca, Inquisitor of Valladolid, advanced towards the Prince of Asturias, Don Carlos, and his aunt, the princess Juana, to demand and receive from them an oath to maintain and defend the Inquisition, and to reveal to it all that might have been said against the faith by any person within their knowledge. It had been decreed at the establishment of the Inquisition, that the magistrate who presided at an auto-da-fé should take a similar oath, but sovereigns cannot be considered as magistrates. Don Carlos and his aunt took the oath, but subsequent events show how much he was displeased at the boldness of this inquisitor: he was then aged fourteen years.

Second Auto-da-fé.

The second Auto-da-fé of Valladolid took place on the 8th of October, in the same year, 1559; it was still more splendid than the first, on account of the presence of Philip II. The inquisitors had waited his return from the Low Countries, to do him honour in this grand festival.

Thirteen persons, with a corpse and an effigy, were burnt, and sixteen admitted to reconciliation. The king was accompanied by his son, his sister, the Prince of Parma, three ambassadors from France, the Archbishop of Seville, the Bishops of Palencia and Zamora, and other bishops elect; there were also present, the constable and admiral, the Dukes de Naxara and d’Arcos, the Marquis de Denia, afterwards Duke of Lerma, the Marquis d’Astorga, and the Count de Ureña, afterwards Duke of Ossuna, the Count de Benavente, the Count de Buendia, the last grand-master of the military order of Montesa, Don Louis Borgia, the Grand Prior of Castile and Leon, a knight of the order of St. John of Jerusalem, Don Antonio de Toledo, son and brother to the Dukes of Alva; several other grandees of Spain, not named in the verbal-process of this execution, and many persons of lower rank: the Countess de Ribadabia, and other ladies of distinction, besides the councils, the tribunals, and other authorities.

The sermon on the faith was preached by the Bishop of Cuença: the Bishops of Palencia and Zamora degraded the condemned priests; and the inquisitor-general, the Archbishop of Seville, demanded and received from the king the same oath which had been administered to Don Carlos. The condemned persons were:—

Don Carlos de Seso, a noble of Verona, son to the Bishop of Placenza in Italy, and one of the most noble families in the country; he was forty-three years of age, passed for a learned man, who had rendered great services to the emperor, and had held the office of Corregidor of Toro. He married Donna Isabella de Castilla, daughter of Don Francis de Castilla, who were descended from the king Don Pedro the Cruel. After his marriage he settled at Villamediana, near Logroño. He there openly preached heresy, and was the principal author of the progress of Lutheranism at Valladolid, Palencia, Zamora, and the boroughs depending on those cities. He was arrested at Logroño, and taken to the secret prisons of Valladolid. He answered the requisition of the fiscal on the 28th of June, 1558. His sentence was communicated to him on the 7th of October, 1559, and he was told to prepare to suffer death on the following day. De Seso asked for ink and paper, and wrote his confession, which was entirely Lutheran; he said that this doctrine, and not that taught by the Roman Church, which had been corrupted for several centuries, was the true faith of the gospel; that he would die in that belief, and that he offered himself to God in memory of the passion of Jesus Christ. It would be difficult to express the vigour and energy of his writing, which filled two sheets of paper. De Seso was exhorted during the night, and on the morning of the 8th, but without success; he was gagged, that he might not have the power of preaching his doctrine. When he was fastened to the stake, the gag was taken from his mouth, and he was again exhorted to confess himself; he replied with a loud voice, and great firmness: “If I had sufficient time, I would convince you that you are lost, by not following my example. Hasten to light the wood which is to consume me.” The executioners complied, and De Seso died impenitent.

Pedro de Cazalla, curate of the parish of Pedrosa; he was the brother of Augustin Cazalla, and aged thirty-three. He was arrested on the 23rd of April, 1558, and confessed that he was a Lutheran. He demanded to be reconciled, but was sentenced to be relaxed because he had preached the heretical doctrine. On the 7th of October he was informed of his sentence, but refused to confess; when he was fastened to the stake, he asked for a confessor, and was then strangled, and afterwards burnt.

Dominic Sanchez, a priest of Villamediana, adopted the Lutheran heresy, after having heard De Seso and read his books. He was condemned to be burnt, and followed the example of Pedro de Cazalla.

Dominic de Roxas, a Dominican priest; he was a disciple of Bartholomew Carranza. His father was the Marquis de Poza, who had two children punished in the first auto-da-fé. Brother Dominic was forty years of age. He was taken at Calahorra, disguised as a layman; he had taken the habit to conceal himself from the agents of the Inquisition, until he could escape to Flanders, after an interview which he wished to have with Don Carlos de Seso. He made his first declaration before the Holy Office, on the 13th of May, 1558; he was obliged to make several others, because he retracted in one what he advanced in another; he was condemned to the torture for these recantations. Brother Dominic intreated that he might be spared the horrors of the question, as he dreaded it more than death. This request was granted on condition that he would promise to reveal what he had hitherto concealed; he consented, and added several new declarations to the first; he afterwards demanded to be reconciled. On the 7th of October, he was exhorted to prepare for death; he then made some discoveries in favour of persons against whom he had spoken in the preceding examinations; but he refused to confess, and when he descended from the scaffold of the auto-da-fé, he turned towards the king, and exclaimed, that he was going to die for the true faith, which was that of Luther. Philip II. commanded that he should be gagged. He was still in that situation when he was fastened to the stake; but when they began to light the fire his courage failed, he demanded a confessor, received absolution, and was strangled.

Juan Sanchez, a servant of Pedro de Cazalla, and Donna Catherine Hortega; he was thirty-three years of age. The fear of being arrested by the Inquisition induced him to go to Valladolid, in order to escape to the Low Countries, under the forged name of Juan de Vibar. The inquisitors were informed of his intention by his letters written at Castrourdiales, addressed to Donna Catherine Hortega, while she was in prison. The inquisitors gave information to the king, who commissioned Don Francis de Castilla Alcalde, of the court, to arrest him. Sanchez was taken at Turlingen, and transferred to Valladolid, where he was condemned to relaxation, as a dogmatizing and impenitent Lutheran. He was gagged until he was fastened to the stake. As he did not ask for a confessor, the pile was lighted, and when the cords which held him were burnt, he darted to the top of the scaffold, from whence he could see that several of the condemned confessed, that they might avoid the flames. The priests again exhorted him to confess, but seeing that De Seso remained firm in his resolution, he returned and told them to add more wood, for that he would die like Don Carlos de Seso. The archers and executioners obeyed his injunctions, and he perished in the flames.

Donna Euphrosyne Rios, a nun of the order of Santa Clara of Valladolid, was convicted of Lutheranism by twenty-two witnesses; she continued impenitent until she was fastened to the stake, when she confessed, and was strangled and burnt.

Donna Marina de Guevara, a nun of the convent of Belen at Valladolid, of the order of Cistercians; she was related to the family of Poza. Marina confessed the facts, but could not avoid her condemnation, though she demanded to be reconciled. This was the more surprising, as the inquisitor-general made great efforts to save her life; he was the intimate friend of several of her relations, and being informed that the inquisitors of Valladolid intended to condemn her, he authorized Don Alphonso Tellez Giron, Lord of Montalban and cousin to Marina, and the Duke of Ossuna, to visit the accused, and press her to confess what she denied, and the witnesses affirmed; but Marina said that she could not add anything to what she had already declared.

She was condemned to be relaxed, but the sentence was not immediately published, as it was the custom to do so only on the day before the auto-da-fé; and as the rules of 1541 allow the sentence of death to be revoked if the criminals repent before they are given up to secular justice, the inquisitor-general sent Don Alphonso Giron a second time to his cousin, to exhort her to confess all, and avoid death. This conduct of Valdés displeased the inquisitors of Valladolid, who spoke of it as a singular and scandalous preference. Valdés applied to the Supreme Council, which commanded that the visit should be made in the presence of one or two inquisitors. This last attempt did not succeed better than the first; Marina persisted in her declaration, and was burnt.

Donna Catherine de Reinoso, a nun in the same convent, Donna Margaret de Santisteban, and Donna, Maria de Miranda, nuns of Santa Clara at Valladolid, were likewise strangled and burnt as Lutherans.

Pedro de Sotelo and Francis d’Almarzo suffered the same punishment for Lutheranism, with Francis Blanco, a New Christian; who had abjured Mahometanism, and had afterwards fallen into error.

Jane Sanchez, of the class of women called Beates, was condemned as a Lutheran: when she was informed of her sentence, she cut her throat with a pair of scissors, and died impenitent some days after in prison. Her corpse was taken to the auto-da-fé on a bier, and burnt with her effigy.

Sixteen persons were condemned to penances. I shall only mention those distinguished for their rank or the nature of their trials.

Donna Isabella de Castilla, the wife of Don Carlos de Seso, voluntarily confessed that she had adopted some of her husband’s opinions; she was condemned to wear the san-benito, to be imprisoned for life, and to be deprived of her property.

Donna Catherine de Castilla, the niece of the above, suffered the same punishment.

Donna Francisca de Zuñiga Reinoso, sister to Donna Catherine, who was burnt in the same auto-da-fé, and a nun in the same convent was condemned, with Donna Philippina de Heredia and Donna Catherine d’Alcaraz, two of her companions, to be deprived of the power of voting in her community, and prohibited from going out of the convent.

Antonio Sanchez, an inhabitant of Salamanca, was punished as a false witness; it was proved that he had deposed falsely for the purpose of causing a Jew to be burnt: he was condemned to receive two hundred stripes; was deprived of half his property, and sent to the galleys for five years. The compassion of the inquisitors for this sort of criminals is an incontestable fact, although they did not hesitate to condemn heretics to death, if they had only concealment, or an insincere repentance to reproach them with.

Pedro d’Aguilar, a shearer, born at Tordesillas, pretended to be an alguazil of the Inquisition, and appeared at Valladolid with the wand of the Holy Office on the day of the celebration of the first auto-da-fé; he afterwards went to a town in the province of Campos, where he said that he was commissioned to open the tomb of a bishop, and take the bones to be burnt in an auto-da-fé, as belonging to a man who had died in the Judaic heresy. Pedro was condemned to receive four hundred stripes, to have his property confiscated, and to be sent to the galleys for life. This affair proves that the inquisitors considered it a much greater crime to pretend to be an alguazil of the Holy Office, than to bear false-witness, and to cause the death of a man, the confiscation of his property, and the condemnation of his posterity to infamy!

Such is the history of the two celebrated autos-da-fé of Valladolid, of which so much has been said, although nothing certain was known of them. It is an interesting circumstance that the Inquisition was at the same time proceeding against forty-five persons distinguished for their rank or personal qualities; of these forty-five persons, ten had been arrested. It is not to be supposed that the inquisitors only prosecuted these persons: the trial of Carranza, Archbishop of Seville, was the origin of a great number against bishops and other distinguished individuals. I have confined myself to those of which I could consult the papers; it would be a task beyond the strength of one man to read all that have accumulated in the archives.