Ferdinand's hesitation seems to have been shared by Charles V for, in 1527, the Suprema ordered that penitents should not be sent to the galleys but should have other penances.[381] The motive for this humane provision, however, did not long withstand the more pressing economical considerations. In 1529, Rodrigo Portuondo, captain-general of the galleys, was instructed that no one sent to them by the Inquisition should hold any office or administration, or have charge of the rations, showing that the prohibition had been rescinded.[382] Apparently the superior intelligence of the penitents had rendered them more useful as petty officers and accountants than as slaves of the oar, but this alleviation of their misery did not satisfy the spirit of persecution and it was probably to prevent it that the formula of the sentence was service at the oar without pay--unless, indeed, the penitent was of gentle blood, in which case he could be sent to serve as a gentleman or as a soldier.[383] We have already seen to what profitable account the Inquisition turned the power which it had assumed to grant dispensations from this abhorrent servitude, and a case in 1558 indicates how it guarded against any invasion of its prerogative. Philip II was led to interest himself in the case of Andrés de Frias, condemned to the galleys, and asked to have him dispensed from the remainder of his term. To this the Suprema demurred, saying that the statement of Frias was untrue, for in Rome he had treacherously stabbed to death the procurator of the Inquisition, Doctor Puente, after dining with him and promising to sup with him; moreover the seventeen months which he claimed to have served had not been as a galley-slave, as required by his sentence. Still, if he would present himself and manifest repentance there might be opportunity for the king to show him mercy, but otherwise it would greatly impair the authority of the Inquisition.[384]