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
Ferdinand's hand had been forced; he had been obliged to yield to public
opinion, but his resolve was inflexible to undo as far as he could the
results reached by Ximenes. In October he visited Córdova, where he
rewarded some officials of the tribunal by grants out of the confiscated
estates, which should have been restored when the proceedings were
annulled. It is true that the judge of confiscations, Licenciado
Simancas, was suspended, but in November, 1509, he was ordered to resume
his functions and to act as he had formerly done. We happen to know
that, in 1513, the house of the unfortunate Bachiller Membreque was
still in possession of the Inquisition. There was no relief for those
who had suffered. When the new inquisitor, Diego López de Cortegano,
Archdeacon of Seville, revoked Lucero's sentence on the Licenciado Daza,
who had been penanced and his property confiscated, the purchasers who
had bought it complained to Ferdinand and he expressed his wrath by
promptly dismissing the inquisitor and ordering all the papers in the
case to be sent to the Suprema for review and action. The vacancy thus
created was not easy to fill, for when, in September, 1509, Ferdinand
offered the place to Alonso de Mariana he declined, saying that it would
kill him, but he agreed to take the tribunal of Toledo, and it was not
until February, 1510, that the Licenciado Mondragon was transferred from
Valladolid to take Cortegano's place. In fact, the interests involved in
the confiscations were too many and too powerful for the victims to
obtain justice. Martin Alonso Conchina had been condemned by Lucero to
reconciliation and confiscation; when the pressure was removed he
revoked his confession as having been extorted by threats and fear,
whereupon the confiscated property was placed in sequestration awaiting
the result. Unluckily for him one of the items, a ground-rent of 9000
mrs. a year had been given, in April, 1506, to the unprincipled
secretary Calcena, with the result that one of the new inquisitors,
Andrés Sánchez de Torquemada, promptly arrested Conchina, tried him
again, convicted him and sentenced him to perpetual imprisonment, so
that the confiscation held good and the ground-rent, with all arrears,
was confirmed to Calcena by a royal cédula of December 23, 1509. There
seems to have still been some obstacle to this reaction in the episcopal
Ordinary, Francisco de Simancas, Archdeacon of Córdova for, in February,
1510, Ferdinand wrote to the bishop that, without letting it be known
that the order came from the king, he must be replaced with some one
zealous for the furtherance of justice and, a month later, this command
was peremptorily repeated. It is true that the extravagant wickedness of
Lucero was scarce to be dreaded, but, with a tribunal reconstructed
under such auspices, the people of Córdova could not hope for justice
tempered with mercy and its productive activity is evidenced by the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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