and not to celebrate them in Orihuela.[620] It was evidently desired to render them more impressive, and this was further accomplished, about the same time, by requiring all penitents to appear in them for, in 1517, we find the Suprema instructing the tribunal of Navarre that, in future, abjurations _de levi_ were not to be made privately, but in the public autos, which were to be celebrated with all solemnity.[621] There was cruelty in this, for appearance in an auto was in itself a severe punishment, and we shall see that subsequently _autos particulares_, or private autos, were instituted which enabled those guilty of lighter offences to escape without public humiliation. [Sidenote: _IMPOSING SOLEMNITIES_] Thus far autos were held at the discretion of the tribunals, which celebrated them whenever there was an accumulation of finished trials requiring relief to the prisons. A consulta de fe would be assembled, the sentences would be agreed upon, and a day would be appointed. It probably was not often that any external interference was apprehended, as at Cuenca, in 1520, where the tribunal had so excited popular passion by arresting the deputy corregidor, in some collision of jurisdictions, that it was obliged to procure a royal cédula instructing the corregidor not to permit the inquisitors to be impeded in the performance of their functions.[622] Gradually, however, in this, as in so much else, the Suprema assumed control. A commencement of this is seen, in 1537, when it ordered that, whenever an auto was proposed, it should be apprised before any one else, but even the Instructions of 1561 leave as yet the determination with the tribunals.[623] It could not have been long after this, however, that the permission of the Suprema became requisite for, in 1585, we find the Inquisitor of Cuenca, Ximenes de Reynoso, writing, September 3d, for a decision of certain cases, and for authority to hold an auto, as there were thirty penitents, many of whom being poor were a charge on the fisc. The Suprema delayed its answer and, on October 14th, Reynoso sent a special courier, asking the reply to be returned by him; the auto was necessary for the benefit of the sick prisoners, as there was a pestilence raging, and also for the relief of the treasury; it was only by special entreaty that the receiver had paid the expenses of the last month, saying that there were no funds. This brought a speedy answer, with the desired permission.[624] Finally, the customary routine was for the tribunal to send a list of the cases in readiness and to ask for licence to hold an auto; if the Suprema approved, it ordered the auto to be celebrated without delay. Apparently in the active work of the eighteenth century there was an effort to regain control of the matter, for a carta acordada of June 5, 1720, orders that no auto be held without advising the Suprema and awaiting its commands.[625]