Philip was not given to interceding for those sent to his galleys, for galley-slaves continued to be in great demand. In 1567 the Venitian envoy, Antonio Tiepolo, explains the weakness of the Spanish navy by the fact that its galleys were manned with slaves and _forçats_, who were not numerous enough to keep many galleys at sea. It would be, he says, impossible to man them with free-men, as in Venice, for no one would serve voluntarily, as the ill-treatment of the crews is notorious and their dying for lack of the necessaries of life.[385] It is true that there was a curious source of supply, besides the ordinary criminals and heretics, for the prelates of the religious Orders were accustomed to condemn their peccant brethren to the galleys, from the same economical motive that had actuated Ferdinand--to save the expense of maintaining them in prison.[386] Still, the needs of the armadas were pressing; Philip turned to the Inquisition for aid, and, in 1567, the Suprema issued two decrees intended to assist in manning the royal galleys. One bore that sentences must not be for less than three or four years, for otherwise the penitents cost the king more than the service he got from them, and this was enforced by a royal cédula of 1584.[387] The other suggested--suggestion being equivalent to an order--that sentences to the galleys could be substituted for those to prison and sanbenito. The practical deduction drawn from this is expressed by a writer of the period, who says that, if the accused confesses but does not satisfy the evidence, he is to be tortured and, if he still fails to satisfy the evidence, it is customary to send him to the galleys, but this must be for not less than three years.[388] To appreciate fully this atrocity, it must be borne in mind that torture could only be used in cases of doubt where the evidence was defective, so that, besides the torture the victim was sent to the galleys for suspicion of heresy. [Sidenote: _THE GALLEYS_]