A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 1Lea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 1
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- Spain
The penitents were allowed to accumulate and at the first auto de fe,
held February 12, 1486, only those of seven parishes--San Vicente, San
Nicolás, San Juan de la leche, Santa Yusta, San Miguel, San Yuste, and
San Lorenzo--were summoned to appear. These amounted to seven hundred
and fifty of both sexes, comprising many of the principal citizens and
persons of quality. The ceremony was painful and humiliating. Bareheaded
and barefooted, except that, in consideration of the intense cold, they
were allowed to wear soles, carrying unlighted candles and surrounded by
a howling mob which had gathered from all the country around, they were
marched in procession through the city to the cathedral, at the portal
of which stood two priests who marked them on the forehead as they
entered with the sign of the cross, saying "Receive the sign of the
cross which you have denied and lost." When inside they were called one
by one before the inquisitors while a statement of their misdeeds was
read. They were fined in one-fifth of all their property for the war
with the Moors; they were subjected to lifelong incapacity to hold
office or to pursue honorable avocations or to wear other than the
coarsest vestments unadorned, under pain of burning for relapse, and
they were required to march in procession on six Fridays, bareheaded and
barefooted, disciplining themselves with hempen cords.[473] The loving
mother Church could not welcome back to her bosom her erring children
without a sharp and wholesome warning, nor did she relax her vigilance,
for this perilous process of confession and reconciliation was so
devised as to furnish many subsequent victims to the stake, as we shall
see hereafter.
The second auto was held on April 2, 1486, where nine hundred penitents
appeared from the parishes of San Roman, San Salvador, San Cristóval,
San Zoil, Sant Andrés and San Pedro. The third auto, on June 11th,
consisted of some seven hundred and fifty from Santa Olalla, San Tomás,
San Martin and Sant Antolin. The city being thus disposed of, the
various archidiaconates of the district were taken in order. That of
Toledo furnished nine hundred penitents on December 10th, when we are
told that they suffered greatly from the cold. On January 15, 1487,
there were about seven hundred from the archidiaconate of Alcaraz and on
March 10th, from those of Talavera, Madrid and Guadalajara about twelve
hundred, some of whom were condemned in addition to wear the sanbenito
for life. While the more or less voluntary penitents were thus treated
there were numerous autos de fe celebrated of a more serious character
in which there were a good many burnings, including not a few _frailes_
and ecclesiastical dignitaries, as well as cases of fugitives and of the
dead, who were burned in effigy and their estates confiscated.[474]
[Sidenote: _TRIBUNAL OF GUADALUPE_]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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