As the seventeenth century wore on, it would seem that the zeal of the tribunals in the matter of sanbenitos was flagging. A general carta acordada of February 27, 1657, assumes this, in calling their attention to the Instructions of 1561 and to subsequent orders of similar import. As many autos de fe had recently been held, and as it was understood that, in some places, the sanbenitos had not been hung in the churches, the tribunals were commanded forthwith to make out lists of the relaxed and the reconciled, and to have corresponding sanbenitos suspended in the churches, as well as to renew the old ones which were worn out. In view of the importance of this to the service of God, a full report in detail was imperatively required to be furnished within four months. This may have excited the tribunals to spasmodic activity but, if so, its influence was but temporary for, in 1691, we find the Suprema ordering reports as to the length of time that had elapsed since sanbenitos had ceased to be hung in the churches; lists of deficiencies were called for; the old sanbenitos were to be examined and statements were to be rendered as to what were lacking and what had become illegible, so that the Suprema might take requisite action.[486] This looks as if the custom had been falling into desuetude, but it was by no means abandoned and, as late as August 26, 1753, when a deceased delinquent named Horstmann was burnt in effigy at Valencia, two sanbenitos were ordered to be suspended, one in the cathedral and one in the parish church of San Lorenzo.[487] Still the same tribunal furnishes, in 1783, a refreshing evidence of the decline of intolerant zeal in the gradual diffusion of enlightenment. The cathedral had been undergoing restoration, during which the sanbenitos had been carefully stored in a room of the Inquisition. On the completion of the work, the tribunal suggested to Inquisitor-general Beltran that it would not redound to the service of God or of the public to hang them up again, to which Beltran assented; if the chapter did not ask for them, the tribunal was not to raise the question, or to do any thing in the matter and, from an endorsement on the letter, it is to be inferred that the sanbenitos were allowed to repose undisturbed.[488]