THE opinions of Luther, Calvin, and the other Protestant reformers, were not disseminated in the other cities in Spain with the same rapidity as at Seville and Valladolid; but there is reason to believe that all Spain would soon have been infected with the heresy, but for the extreme severity shown towards the Lutherans. From 1560 to 1570 at least one auto-da-fé was celebrated every year in every Inquisition of the kingdom, and some heretics of the new sect always appeared among the condemned persons. Yet the progress of Lutheranism cannot be compared to that of Judaism and Mahometanism, because these religions had been long established, and the ancestors of a great number of Spanish families had professed them. An opinion may be formed of what passed in the other tribunals from some notices of the proceedings of that of Murcia.
On the 7th of June, 1557, a solemn auto-da-fé was celebrated at Murcia, where eleven individuals were burnt, and forty-three were reconciled. On the 12th of February, 1559, thirty victims were burnt with five effigies, and forty-three were reconciled. On the 14th February, in the same year, 1560, fourteen persons were burnt, and twenty effigies: twenty-nine persons were subjected to penances.
On the 8th of September, in the same year, sixteen individuals perished in the flames, and forty-eight were condemned to penances.
On the 15th of March, 1562, another auto-da-fé took place, composed of twenty-three persons, who were burnt, and of sixty-three who were condemned to penances. They were all punished as Judaic heretics: among the first may be remarked, Fray Louis de Valdecañas, a Franciscan, descended from the ancient Jews; he was condemned for having preached the law of Moses; Juan de Santa-Fé, Alvarez Xuarez, and Paul d’Ayllon, alderman or sheriffs; Pedro Gutierrez, a member of the municipality; and Juan de Leon, syndic of the city.
An auto-da-fé was celebrated in the same town on the 20th of May, 1563; seventeen persons were burnt in person, and four in effigy; forty-seven others were subjected to penances. I shall mention those distinguished by their rank or some particularity in their trials.
Don Philip of Aragon, son of the Emperor of Fez and Morocco, came to Spain while he was very young, and became a Christian; he had for his godfather Ferdinand of Aragon, Viceroy of Valencia, Duke of Calabria, and eldest son of the King of Naples, Frederic III. Neither his rank, as the son of an emperor, nor the advantage of having a prince for his godfather, were sufficient to prevent the inquisitors from exposing him to the disgrace of appearing in a solemn auto-da-fé; he was introduced in the ceremony with the paper mitre on his head, terminated by long horns, and covered with figures of devils. In this state he was admitted to public reconciliation, after which he was to be imprisoned for three years in a convent, then banished for ever from the town of Elche where he had settled, and from the kingdoms of Valencia, Aragon, Murcia, and Grenada. The inquisitors boasted much of the lenity of this sentence, and informed the public that it was occasioned by Don Philip’s having given himself up, instead of taking flight as he might have done. It appears that, after his baptism, he had shown some interest and inclination to the sect of Mahomet; he had also given assistance to some apostates, and had shown himself a favourer and concealer of heretics. He was also accused of having made a compact with the devil, and having practised sorcery.
The licentiate Antonio de Villena, a native of Albacete, and a priest and preacher much esteemed at court, appeared in the auto-da-fé in his shirt, with his head uncovered and a flambeau in his hand; he abjured heresy as slightly suspected. He was reconciled, and condemned to one year’s imprisonment, without the privilege of celebrating the holy mysteries; deprived for ever of the power of preaching, banished from Madrid for two years, and obliged to pay five hundred ducats toward the expenses of the holy office. His crime was having spoken ill of the Inquisition, and of the inquisitor-general Valdés, saying that he persecuted him, and that he would find an opportunity of complaining to the king. He had also been unfortunate enough to betray the system of the prisons of the holy office, after having been detained there twice for suspicious propositions.
Juan de Sotomayor, of Jewish origin, and a native of the town of Murcia, appeared in the auto-da-fé as a penitent, with the gag and the cord round his neck. He was condemned to receive two hundred stripes, to wear the San-benito, and to be imprisoned in the House of Mercy for life, with a threat that he should be treated with still greater severity if he presumed to converse with any one on the affairs of the Inquisition. Juan de Sotomayor had already been arrested and condemned to a penance, as suspected of Judaism. When he was set at liberty, he conversed with several persons on the subject, repeated the confession he had made, and some other circumstances. This was the crime for which he was condemned to receive two hundred stripes, and to be imprisoned for life!
Francis Guillen, a merchant, of Jewish origin, appeared in the auto-da-fé, with several persons condemned to be relaxed, in virtue of a definitive sentence confirmed by the Supreme Council, which was to be read during the ceremony, with the charges against him. In the midst of the auto-da-fé Francis announced that he had new declarations to make. Immediately Don Jerome Manrique (son of the Cardinal of that name, and who was afterwards inquisitor-general) descended from the tribunal, took off the insignia of relaxation, and gave Francis those belonging to a person intended to be reconciled.
The history of this trial proves the arbitrary conduct, and the disorder with which the inquisitors pursued and judged the causes, and executed their sentences.
More than twenty witnesses deposed that Francis Guillen had attended assemblies of the Jews in 1551, and the following years. He was sent to the secret prisons, and his sentence of relaxation was pronounced in December, 1561. The process having been sent to the Supreme Council, the Council remarked that two new witnesses having been heard before the end of the trial, their depositions had not been communicated to the condemned; in consequence they commanded that this formality should be fulfilled, and that the votes should be afterwards given, according to law. The inquisitors obeyed, but they did not agree on the sentence; some voted for relaxation, the others that the trial should be suspended, and that the accused should be induced to acknowledge that which was admitted to be true, from the state of the depositions. Francis had three audiences, in which he confessed several other facts which related to himself, or concerned other persons; the inquisitors then voted a second time for the definitive sentence. Francis was unanimously declared to be a false penitent, for having confessed only a part of his crimes, and he was condemned to be relaxed; but it was agreed that as he had concealed facts concerning persons of consideration, he should be induced to make a more extended declaration.
On the 27th of April, Guillen named twelve accomplices in his heresy, and ratified his declaration. On the 9th of May it was decreed that he should be told to prepare to die the next day. Francis inquired if his life would be spared, supposing that he revealed all he knew: they replied that he might depend upon the clemency of his judges. He demanded another audience, named a great many persons as his accomplices, and designated Fray Louis de Valdecanas as the principal preacher of the party. Some time after he accused other persons. On the night of the 19th the inquisitors assembled, with the ordinary and consultors, and decided that Francis should appear in the auto-da-fé with the habit of the relaxed persons, in order to make him suppose that he was condemned to die; but that he should be reconciled, with the punishment of the san-benito, perpetual imprisonment, and confiscation.
When he was placed among those destined to the flames, Francis demanded an audience. The inquisitor Marinque then informed him of his sentence; and when he was taken back to the prison, he made a new declaration against nine persons, alleging that he had forgotten them in his other depositions: he ratified these on the 22nd of the same month.
Some days after the inquisitor-general caused the tribunal to be visited; the visitor declared that the judges had acted contrary to the laws in conducting Francis to the auto-da-fé in the habit of a relaxed person, when they had decided on his reconciliation. The inquisitors endeavoured to justify themselves by saying that they thought it would frighten the accused into making new declarations. The visitor commanded that Francis should be reconciled and taken to the prison of the Penitents, likewise called that of Mercy.
Francis, who was probably a little deranged, declared several times that he had deceived the inquisitors by accusing some persons as heretics who were innocent, because he hoped that he should escape death by this proceeding. These words were reported to the inquisitors, and Francis was taken to the secret prisons. There was an act of accusation against him; he acknowledged all the articles of the fiscal, and affirmed upon oath that all his declarations were true; he ratified them, and begged that he might be pardoned. On the 19th of January, 1564, he was condemned to appear in the auto-da-fé with the gag, to receive two hundred stripes, and to pass three years in the house of Penitence. Francis suffered the stripes, but they did not render him more prudent, for he declared, even in the prison, that he was unjustly treated, for all that he had said was false, and dictated by fear.
In 1565, the Inquisition of Murcia received the visit of a new commissary, who obliged Francis to appear before him as a witness, to ratify a declaration which he had made against Catherine Perez, his wife, for Judaism. The following dialogue took place between the visitor and the witness:—
Do you remember making a declaration against Catherine Perez, your wife?—Yes.
What was that declaration?—It will be found in the writings of the trial. (The declaration was here read to Francis.)
Is what you have just heard true?—No.
Why then did you affirm that it was so?—Because I heard an inquisitor say it.
Are the declarations against other persons true?—No.
Why did you make them?—Because I perceived in the auto-da-fé at which I assisted, that the contents were read in the publication of the depositions, and I thought that if I declared it to be true, I should avoid death as being a good penitent.
Why did you make your ratification after the auto-da-fé, when the fiscal presented you as a witness against your wife, and other persons?—For the same reason.
After this conversation, Francis was sent back to the prison, where he wrote a kind of memorial, in which he said that none of the witnesses were admissible against him, because they differed and contradicted each other in their declarations.
When the visitor was gone, the inquisitors recommenced their prosecution; the fiscal accused Francis Guillen of the crime of revocation, saying that he had imposed on them from fear, ignorance, or some other motive. When Francis again found himself in danger, he, as might have been expected, declared that his first depositions were true, and that the cause of his retracting was a mental indisposition, with which he had been affected. On the 10th November, 1565, Francis was condemned to appear in the auto-da-fé, to receive three hundred stripes, and to pass the rest of his life in a prison. The punishment of imprisonment was commuted for that of serving in the galleys, as long as the strength and health of Francis allowed of it. The judges reserved the right of deciding this point themselves. The prisoner was conducted to the auto-da-fé on the 9th of December, and suffered the punishment of whipping; he was then transferred to the common royal prison.
After he arrived there, he wrote to his judges, declaring himself incapable of serving in the galleys. The tribunal revised the judgment, and sent him to the house of Mercy. This proceeding displeased the fiscal, who protested against it, saying, that the office of the judges did not extend beyond the sentence, and that they had not the right of commuting the punishment, without the consent of the inquisitor-general; the affair stopped here, and Francis had been sufficiently punished for his indiscretion to render him more cautious for the future.
The irregularity and disorder of the proceedings of this tribunal may be seen still more clearly in another trial before the Inquisition of Murcia, about the same time, and which was undertaken in consequence of the depositions of Guillen. It was instituted against Melchior Hernandez, a merchant of Toledo, which place he afterwards left to establish himself at Murcia. As he was descended from the Jews, he was suspected of being attached to the religion of his ancestors. After being taken to the secret prisons from the informations of seven witnesses, he had his first audience of admonition on the 5th of June, 1564; he was accused of having frequented a clandestine synagogue in Murcia, from 1551 to 1557, when the assembly was discovered; and of having acted and discoursed in a manner that proved his apostasy. Two witnesses afterwards appeared, and the accused having denied all the charges, the publication of the nine deponents was given to him: he persisted in his denial, and by the advice of his defender, alleged that the evidence of the witnesses could not be admitted, as they contradicted each other, and several of them were known to be his enemies.
To prove this, and to challenge some other persons, he presented a memorial which was admitted, although it was afterwards considered to have failed in disproving the charges.
A new witness was heard, when Melchior fell dangerously ill. On the 25th of January, 1565, he made the sacramental confession, and on the 29th demanded an audience, when he said that his memory was bad, but he remembered being in a house in 1553, where a number of persons, whom he named, were assembled; he denied having uttered anything concerning the law of Moses, and that the only thing he could reproach himself with, was not having declared that the others had made it the subject of conversation.
Four days after, he declared that all that had been said in the assembly was spoken in jest. Several days after this he said that he had not heard what these persons said; and that he had affirmed the contrary, because the witnesses had deposed to that effect.
Another witness, who was in the prison, was produced, who deposed, that after Melchior had written his memorial, he formed a plan of escaping, and endeavoured to induce his companions to accompany him. The procurator-fiscal read to him the act of accusation, and he denied all that it contained.
At this period, the visitor Don Martin de Coscojales arrived, and examined the prisoner, who affirmed that if he had said anything, he was induced to do it from the fear of death. The advocate made his defence; Melchior wrote a memorial, which he read to his judges, in which he challenged several persons as if they had deposed against him.
On the 24th September, 1565, Melchior suffered the question in caput alienum, with the view of making him confess what he knew of some suspected persons, but he bore it without speaking. On the 18th of October he was declared to be a Jewish heretic, guilty of concealment in his judicial confession, and condemned to relaxation, as a false penitent and obstinate heretic.
Although the sentence was pronounced, it was resolved to press Melchior once more to reveal the truth. The auto-da-fé was to be celebrated on the 9th of December, 1565; he was exhorted on the 7th; he replied that he had confessed all he knew; yet, when he was told on the 8th to prepare for death, he demanded an audience, and declared that he had seen and heard the suspected persons and several others, and that they spoke of the law of Moses, but that he considered these conversations to be of no consequence, and a mere pastime.
On the 9th, before daylight, Melchior was dressed in the garb of the relaxed persons, when perceiving that his confessions were not sufficient to save him, he demanded an audience, and mentioned the persons designated in the information, as forming part of the assembly, besides twelve other individuals who had not been named to him; but he added that he did not approve of their doctrine.
Some minutes after, finding that the marks of condemnation were not taken from him, he added the names of two or three accomplices, declared the name of the person who had preached on the Law of Moses, and even confessed that he approved of some of the things which he had heard.
Lastly, when his confessions did not produce the effect he wished, he said, that he really believed in what was preached in the synagogue, and persisted in this belief for a year; but that he had not confessed, because he thought there was no proof of his heresy in the depositions of the witnesses. The inquisitors decreed that Melchior should not appear in the auto-da-fé of this day, and that they would consult on the proper measures to be taken.
On the 14th of December, Melchior ratified his propositions of the 9th, but on the condition that all that had passed should not separate him from the Catholic communion, or cause him to be considered as a Judaic heretic. On the 18th he desired another audience, and again confessed that he believed in the Law of Moses. Yet on the 29th of June, 1566, he declared that the Holy Scriptures were read in the assembly, that he believed part of what he heard, and had consulted a priest on the subject; that the priest told him it ought to be held in contempt, and that this decision had regulated his subsequent conduct.
On the 6th of May, 1566, the tribunal assembled to decide whether the definitive sentence pronounced against Melchior should be executed. Two of the consultors voted in the affirmative; the inquisitors, the ordinary, and the other consultors agreed that Melchior had confessed enough to entitle him to reconciliation. In an audience on the 28th of May, the accused again asked pardon, alleging that he had only believed what he heard, until he was undeceived by the priest. On the 30th he declared that he thought all he had heard necessary to salvation.
In the October following, he was again admitted to an audience, where he spoke against the inquisitor, who had received his confession on the day of the auto-da-fé (this was Don Jerome Manrique); he complained of the ill treatment he had been subjected to, in order to obtain new declarations. He acknowledged that his confessions on that day were true, but added that the presence of two inquisitors was necessary to prevent the abuse of authority which took place in his case.
The fiscal protested against the act of reconciliation granted to Melchior on the 6th of May, 1566, and demanded that the sentence of relaxation pronounced on the 8th of October, 1565, should be executed, because the accused had shown no signs of true repentance, and would not fail to seduce others into heresy if he was pardoned. The inquisitors consulted the Supreme Council, which decided that the prisoner should be examined again before the ordinary and consultors, and the affair submitted to the Council. The sentence was pronounced on the 9th of May, 1567; three of the judges voted for the relaxation, and two for the reconciliation of the accused.
The Supreme Council decreed on the 6th of May, that Melchior should be relaxed, and the tribunal of Murcia pronounced a second definitive sentence according to the orders which they received. The execution was to take place on the 8th of the following month.
In contempt of the rules of common law, Melchior was called up on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of June, and exhorted to discover his accomplices; as he did not know that he was already sentenced, he referred them to what he had confessed before. But when he found that he was to be arrayed in the habit of a relaxed person, he declared that he could name other accomplices. The inquisitor went to the prison, and Melchior designated another house where the Jews assembled, and named seven persons, whom he said he had seen there; he also wrote a list of seven synagogues, and of fourteen persons who frequented them. He afterwards named another house of Judaic heretics.
He was conducted to the auto-da-fé with the other persons condemned to be burnt. When he arrived at the place of execution, he demanded another audience, in which he named two other houses, and twelve heretics; on being told that this declaration was not sufficient to confirm the result of the trial, he said he would endeavour to recollect others, and a few minutes after he denounced seven persons. Before the conclusion of the auto-da-fé, he desired to make a third confession, and named two houses and six individuals; the inquisitors then agreed to suspend the execution, and to send Melchior back to the prison. This was what he wished, and on the 12th of June he signed his ratification; but when told that he was suspected of having other accomplices, he replied that he did not remember any other.
On the 13th, Melchior declared that he was mistaken in naming a certain person among his accomplices, but pretended to remember another house, and two persons whom he named.
The procurator-fiscal again spoke in favour of the relaxation of the accused, alleging that he had been guilty of concealment; Melchior, supposing that his death was resolved upon, demanded an audience on the 23rd of June, and endeavoured to excite the compassion of his judges. “What more could I do,” he exclaimed, “than accuse myself falsely? Know that I have never been summoned to any assembly, that I never attended them for any purposes but those of commerce.”
Melchior was summoned to fifteen audiences during the months of July, August, and September; his replies were always the same. On the 16th of October another witness appeared, but Melchior denied his statement, as well as that of a witness who was examined on the 30th of December. Melchior wrote his defence, and demanded that his own witnesses should be heard, in order to prove that he was not at Murcia, but at Toledo, at the time specified by his accusers; but the inquisitors did not think the evidence offered by the accused sufficient to invalidate that of the witnesses against him.
Melchior was at last sentenced to relaxation for the third time, on the 20th of March; he, however, had not forgotten the means he had formerly used to save himself, and returned from the auto-da-fé. In five subsequent audiences, he made a long declaration against himself, and denounced a great number of persons. He was then told that he was still guilty of concealment in not mentioning several persons not less distinguished and well known than those he had already denounced, and that he could not be supposed to have forgotten them.
This proceeding destroyed the tranquillity which Melchior had hitherto shown; and after a long invective against the inquisitors and all who had appeared on the trial, he said, “What can you do to me? burn me? well, then, be it so: I cannot confess what I do not know. Nevertheless know that all I have said of myself is true, but what I have declared of others is entirely false. I have only invented it because I perceived that you wished me to denounce innocent persons; and being unacquainted with the names and quality of these unfortunate people, I named all whom I could think of, in the hope of finding an end of my misery. I now perceive that my situation admits of no relief, and I therefore retract all my depositions; and now I have fulfilled this duty, burn me as soon as you please.”
The trial was sent to the Supreme Council, which confirmed the sentence of relaxation for the third time, and wrote to reprimand the tribunal for having summoned the accused before them after passing the sentence, since an audience should only take place at the request of the accused.
Instead of submitting to this opinion, the inquisitors called Melchior before them on the 31st of May, and asked him if he had nothing else to communicate; he replied in the negative: they then represented to him that his declarations contained many contradictions, and that it was necessary for the good of his soul, that he should finally make a confession of the truth, respecting himself and all the guilty persons he was acquainted with.
These words show the cunning of the inquisitors; their object was to induce the accused to retract his last declaration: but Melchior, knowing the character of the inquisitors, replied, that if they wished to know the truth, they would find it in the declaration which he made before the Señor Ayora, when he visited the tribunal. This writing was examined, and it was found that Melchior had said, that he knew nothing of the subject on which he was examined. The following conversation then took place:—
“How can this declaration be true, when you have several times declared that you have attended the Jewish assemblies, believed in their doctrines, and persevered in the belief for the space of one year, until you were undeceived by a priest?”—“I spoke falsely when I made a declaration against myself.”
“But how is it that what you have confessed of yourself, and many other things which you now deny, are the result of the depositions of a great many witnesses?”—“I do not know if that is true or false, for I have not seen the writings of the trial; but if the witnesses have said that which is imputed to them, it is because they were placed in the same situation as I am. They do not love me better than I love myself; and I have certainly declared against myself both truth and falsehood.”
“What motive had you for declaring things injurious to yourself, if they were false?”—“I did not think it would be injurious to me; on the contrary, I expected to derive great advantages from it, because I saw that if I did not confess anything, I should be considered as impenitent, and the truth would lead me to the scaffold. I thought that falsehood would be most useful to me, and I found it so in two autos-da-fé.”
On the 6th of June Melchior Hernandez was informed that he must prepare for death on the following day. He was clothed in the habit of the persons condemned to be burnt, and a confessor was appointed for him. At two o’clock in the morning he demanded an audience, saying that he wished to acquit his conscience. An inquisitor, attended by a secretary, went to his cell; Melchior then declared “that, at the point of appearing before the tribunal of the Almighty, and without any hope of escaping from death by new delays, he thought himself bound to declare that he had never conversed with any person on the Mosaical Law; that all he had said on this subject was founded on the wish to preserve life, and the belief that his confessions were pleasing to the inquisitors; that he asked pardon of the persons implicated, that God might pardon him, and that no injury might be done to their honour and reputation.”
The inquisitor represented that he ought not to speak falsely, even from a motive of compassion for the denounced persons; that the declarations of the witnesses had every appearance of truth, and he therefore entreated him, in the name of God, not to increase his sins at the hour of death. Melchior merely repeated that all his former declarations were false. The royal judge condemned him to be strangled, and his body was afterwards burnt.
Some doubts may be entertained of the sincerity of the last declarations of Melchior Hernandez, but the extreme irregularity of the proceedings of the tribunal must be evident to every one. The intervention of the Supreme Council proves that the same system was pursued in the other tribunals, since it approved of their proceedings, and exercised the rights of revocation and censure.
In 1564 another auto-da-fé took place at Murcia, one person and eleven effigies were burnt; there were also forty-eight penitents, but the following circumstance was the cause of this ceremony being more particularly remembered. Pedro Hernandez had been reconciled in 1561, as suspected of Judaism. In 1564 he fell sick, and through the mediation of his confessor demanded an audience of the inquisitors. One of them went to his house, and Pedro told him that he had denied the crime of which he was accused, and had afterwards made a confession, alleging as an excuse for this conduct, that a French priest had given him absolution. He now confessed that this was not true, and that he wished to relieve his conscience by acknowledging it before he died. The inquisitors presented this declaration to the tribunal, which immediately caused Pedro to be taken from his bed and conveyed to their prisons, where he died three days after.
Three other autos-da-fé took place at Murcia in the years 1565, 1567, and 1568, in which thirty-five persons were burnt, and a considerable number condemned to penances.