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 a.s.sembly, 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-fe_ 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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sembly, 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 a.s.sembled to decide whether the definitive sentence p.r.o.nounced 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 ent.i.tle 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-fe_ (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_ p.r.o.nounced 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 p.r.o.nounced 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 a.s.sembled, 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-fe_ 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-fe_, 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 compa.s.sion of his judges.
"What more could I do," he exclaimed, "than accuse myself falsely? Know that I have never been summoned to any a.s.sembly, 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-fe_. 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 pa.s.sing 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 Senor _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 a.s.semblies, believed in their doctrines, and persevered in the belief for the s.p.a.ce 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-fe_."
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 G.o.d 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 compa.s.sion for the denounced persons; that the declarations of the witnesses had every appearance of truth, and he therefore entreated him, in the name of G.o.d, 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-fe_ took place at Murcia, one person and eleven effigies were burnt; there were also forty-eight penitents, but the following circ.u.mstance 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-fe_ 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.
CHAPTER XXIV.
OF THE AUTOS-DA-FE CELEBRATED BY THE INQUISITIONS OF TOLEDO, SARAGOSSA, VALENCIA, LOGRONO, GRENADA, CUENCA, AND SARDINIA, DURING THE REIGN OF PHILIP II.
_Inquisition of Toledo._
On the 25th of February, 1560, the inquisitors of Toledo celebrated an _auto-da-fe_, in which several persons were burnt, with some effigies, and a great number subjected to penances. This _auto-da-fe_ was performed to entertain the new queen, Elizabeth de Valois, the daughter of Henry II., King of France. It is rather surprising that this melancholy ceremony was chosen to amuse a royal princess of thirteen years of age, and who in her native country had been accustomed to brilliant festivals, suitable to her rank and age. The Cortes general of the kingdoms was also a.s.sembled at Toledo at the same time, to swear allegiance to the heir-presumptive, Don Carlos, so that this _auto-da-fe_, with the exception of the number of victims, was as solemn as any of those in Valladolid.
In 1561, another _auto-da-fe_ took place in the same town; four impenitent Lutherans were burnt, and eighteen reconciled. Among those condemned to penances was one of the king"s pages, a native of Brussels, named Don _Charles Estrect_, but the young queen Elizabeth obtained his pardon.
On the 17th of June, 1565 (which was Trinity Sunday), an _auto-da-fe_ of forty-five persons was celebrated; eleven were burnt, and thirty-four condemned to penances. Some of these were Lutherans, but the greater number were Jews. Among those designated as Protestants, some were called _Lutherans_, others the _Faithful_; there was a third called _Huguenaos_, after _Huguenots_.
Although the Inquisition of Toledo celebrated as many _autos-da-fe_ as the other tribunals, I do not find any persons of distinction among the victims, until the _auto-da-fe_ of the 4th of June, 1571, when two men were burnt in person, and three in effigy, for Lutheranism, and thirty-one individuals were condemned to penances. One of the men who were burnt ought to be particularly mentioned. He was called the _Doctor Sigismond Archel_, of Cagliari, in Sardinia. He had been arrested at Madrid, in 1562, as a dogmatizing Lutheran, and after remaining for a long time in the prisons at Toledo, he contrived to make his escape. He had not time to get out of the kingdom; descriptions of his person were sent to all parts of the frontier, and he was again arrested, and fell into the hands of his judges. He persisted in denying the facts imputed to him, until the _publication of the witnesses_, when he confessed, and maintained not only that he was not a heretic, but that he was a better Catholic than the _Papists_. He was condemned to be burnt, but persevered in his system, and declared that he was a martyr; he insulted the priests when they exhorted him, and was then gagged until he was fastened to the stake. The archers, perceiving that he pretended to the glory of martyrdom, pierced him with their lances, while the executioners were lighting the f.a.ggots.
_Inquisition of Saragossa._
The Inquisition of Saragossa also celebrated an _auto-da-fe_ every year, when several people were burnt, and about twenty reconciled. Most of these were _Huguenots_ who had quitted Bearn, to establish themselves as merchants in Saragossa, Huesca, Barbastro, and other cities. The progress which the Calvinistic doctrines had made in Spain, is proved by an ordinance of the Supreme Council, in which we read, that "Don Louis de Benegas, the amba.s.sador of Spain at Vienna, informed the inquisitor-general, on the 14th of April, 1568, that he had learnt from particular reports, that the Calvinists congratulated each other on the peace signed between France and Spain, and that they hoped that their religion would make as much progress in Spain as in England, Flanders, and other countries, because the great number of Spaniards who had secretly adopted it might easily hold communication with the Protestants of Bearn, through Arragon." These, and other reports, induced the council to recommend additional vigilance to the inquisitors.
The following circ.u.mstance shows the injustice and cruelty of the Inquisition in a strong light. In 1578, a man was condemned, on suspicion of heresy, to receive two hundred stripes, to be sent for five years to the galleys, and to pay an hundred ducats. His crime was sending Spanish horses into France. Since the reign of Alphonso XI., in the fourteenth century, the introduction of Spanish horses into France was prohibited, on pain of death and confiscation; the particular circ.u.mstances which caused so disproportionate a punishment to the crime to be established are not known; it was however renewed in 1499, by Ferdinand the Catholic. No one will deny that the officers of the customs were the proper persons to arrest these smugglers; but when the civil wars broke out between the Catholics and Protestants in France, Philip thought proper to employ the Inquisition in repressing the practice, pretending, according to the Papal bull, that those who furnished the Protestants with arms, ammunition, &c., were favourers of heretics, and liable to suspicion of heresy. Philip II. commissioned the Inquisition of Logrono, Saragossa, and Barcelona, to take cognizance of all the crimes relating to the introduction of Spanish horses into France.
The Council of the Inquisition added a clause to the annual edict of denunciations, which obliged every Spanish Catholic Christian to denounce persons known to have bought horses to send to France, for the use of the Protestants. Besides these motives of religion, the zeal of the inhabitants was excited by the promise of a reward.
In 1575, the punishment of whipping was decreed for this crime; but though the law is expressed in general terms, the following event shows that it was only inflicted on those whose power and credit were small.
In 1576, a Commissary of the Inquisition met a servant of the viceroy of Arragon going into France with two horses; he seized the horses, but allowed the servant to go away. He gave an account of his proceedings to the inquisitors, who approved of his conduct in not arresting the servant; their opinion was confirmed by the Supreme Council. The inquisitors were on the point of writing to the viceroy, to demand an explanation of the conduct of his servant, and the destination of the horses, when the council ordered them to desist, if they thought it would be disagreeable to the viceroy.
This law was afterwards applied to those who were suspected of smuggling, and to those who favoured the practice. In 1607, Philip II.
ordered the inquisitors to offer rewards to those who intercepted this trade, and the people were at last inspired with so great a horror of it, and those who practised it became so odious, that the government was obliged to declare that the misfortune of being convicted and punished for this crime, did not exclude a person from enjoying honours and offices.
The inquisitors, always eager to extend their jurisdiction, wished to have the right of undertaking the trials for smuggling saltpetre, sulphur, and gunpowder; this attempt did not succeed, and was, in fact, the cause of their being deprived of the powers bestowed on them by Philip, respecting the introduction of horses into France.
_Inquisition of Grenada._
In the yearly _autos-da-fe_ of the Inquisition of Grenada, there generally appeared about twenty condemned persons; for although the Morescoes who denounced themselves were treated with great clemency, yet there were many who refused to accuse themselves, either from the fear which the severity of the Inquisition inspired, or because they were persuaded that those who declared they had been treated with great gentleness, did not dare to a.s.sert the contrary; and others, after having emigrated to Africa, had returned to Spain without considering the danger they were in of being arrested by the Inquisition.
On the 27th of May, 1593, a grand _auto-da-fe_ took place at Grenada; five individuals were burnt in person, and five in effigy; eighty-seven were condemned to penances. The only considerable person among these, was Donna Inez Alvarez, the wife of Thomas Martinez, alguazil to the royal chancery. She was condemned to be burnt, but making a confession on the scaffold, she was reconciled.
The proceedings were the same in the Inquisition of Valencia. The number of Morescoes who relapsed into Mahometanism, and refused to accuse themselves, was so considerable, that many appeared in every _auto-da-fe_, either to be burnt as _impenitent_, or to suffer different penances.