A case already alluded to exemplifies this and is worth relating in some detail, if only for its psychological interest. Fray Joseph Díaz Pimiento was born in Cuba, of Old Christian parents, in 1687. He was bred to the Church and his life was an example of the licence pervading the colonies. He drifted around the shores of the Caribbean, involved in all kinds of disreputable adventures. In Mexico, he forged a certificate of baptism in order to obtain ordination under age. In the Dutch colony of Curaçoa, he professed conversion to Judaism and was circumcised, in the hope of getting a few hundred dollars from the Jews. After incredible hardships he fell into the hands of the Inquisition of Cartagena de las Indias, where he recanted, was reconciled and was sent to Spain for reclusion in a convent. While confined in the episcopal prison he broke gaol, but was captured at Xeres, and was put in a convent, heavily fettered, where he endeavored to get assistance from some New Christians who were under suspicion, but in this he failed, although to excite their compassion, he wrote to the commissioner of the Inquisition that he was a Jew. Then again he escaped and fled to Lisbon, where he worked for a Dutch ship-master, who promised to carry him to Holland, whence he could sail for Jamaica. Then a sudden impulse took possession of him, which carried him to Seville, where he presented himself to the Inquisition. At first he professed to be a Christian but, after a few days, he told the alcaide that he was a Jew, and in this he persisted, stubbornly refusing to make defence. Necessarily, as a relapsed, he was condemned to relaxation in the auto of July 25, 1720, and, during the three days prior to the auto, all the learning and piety of Seville were enlisted in his conversion, while prayers for his soul were put up in all the churches. Then came another revulsion and, after two days, he announced that the grace of God had touched him, and that he was a Christian. But for his relapse, this would have saved him; as it was, it only obtained for him preliminary strangulation and this he sought to reject for, at the stake, he begged to be burnt alive in order to prove that his conversion was the result of conviction and not of fear. This could not be permitted, and the deputy assistente sentenced him to be garrotted and burnt, and his ashes scattered as usual. The pile was fired at 5 <small>P.M.; it took until day-break to reduce the body to ashes, and it was observed that the customary stench was absent. Then the Hermandad de la Caridad asked to have the ashes to give them Christian burial, as he had died a Christian, but the assistente refused and ordered them to be scattered over the fields, in obedience to the royal pragmáticas and apostolical constitutions--all of which, we are told, was done, to the great honor of the holy Catholic faith.[605]