A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3Lea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- Spain
An illustrative case was that of Elvira del Campo, tried at Toledo in
1567. She was of converso descent and was married to Alonso de Moya, a
scrivener of Madridejos, who seems to have been an Old Christian.
According to witnesses who had lived with her as servants, or were her
near neighbors, she went to mass and confession and gave all outward
sign of being a good Christian; she was kind and charitable, but she
would not eat pork and, when she cooked it for the household, she
handled it with a rag so as not to touch it, which she explained by
saying that she had a throat-trouble which made it disagree with her,
and that handling it made her hands smell. There was a little cumulative
evidence about putting on clean linen on Saturdays and not working, but
this was insignificant and the case rested on pork. The chief witnesses
were two of her husband's employees, Pedro de Liano and Alonso Collados,
who lived in the house, and their evidence went much into detail as to
their spying about the kitchen, peeping into cupboards, and watching all
the details of her housekeeping. Liano testified that once he and
Collados talked about her putting a leg of mutton into water to soak
over night, when Collados said he thought there was some Jewish ceremony
in this, and it would please him much to know it, for he would accuse
her to the Inquisition, as he was on bad terms with her. Yet Collados,
before the tribunal, concluded his testimony by saying that he wished
her well for her good treatment of him, that he held her to be a good
Christian, because she went to mass and spoke ill of no one and was very
reserved, rarely leaving her home and talking with but few people.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account