Perhaps the frequency with which torture was overcome may be partially explained by bribery of the executioner. This was rendered difficult by the secrecy surrounding all the operations of the tribunals, yet it was possible, and the kindred of one who was arrested would naturally seek to propitiate the minister of justice in case the prisoner should fall into his hands. At a Valencia auto de fe, in 1594, there appeared ninety-six Morisco penitents of whom fifty-three had been tortured without extracting confessions.[88] It may possibly be only a coincidence that, in 1604, Luis de Jesus, the torturer of the tribunal was prosecuted for receiving money from Moriscos, but we may readily imagine that communities, living in perpetual dread of the Inquisition, might tax themselves to subsidize the executioner regularly.[89] A similar case occurs in the Córdova auto of June 13, 1723, in which appeared the executioner, Carlos Felipe, whose offence is discreetly described as fautorship of heretics and unfaithfulness in their favor, in the discharge of his office.[90] * * * * * [Sidenote: _FREQUENCY_] It is a little remarkable that, although the use of torture was so frequent and must have been generally known, there appears to have been a shrinking from admitting it in the sentences publicly read in the autos de fe, which habitually recited the details of the trials--possibly attributable, in part at least, to a desire to preserve secrecy, although it is particularly marked in the early period when secrecy had not become so rigid as it was subsequently. Indeed, in the sentence of Juan González Daza, who confessed under torture in 1484, at Ciudad Real, it is mendaciously asserted that he pertinaciously denied until he learned that his accomplice, Fernando de Theba, had confessed, when he did so freely.[91] This continued as a rule, though occasionally there is less reticence. In one sentence I have found it alluded to--that of Mari Gómez, at Toledo, in 1551.[92] Sometimes there is a veiled allusion to it, as though the inquisitors could not conceal it wholly, but felt a certain shame in admitting it openly. Thus in the sentence of Elvira del Campo (see p. 24), which gives a very detailed account of the incidents of the trial, it is stated that, on using "mas diligencias," with her she admitted the charges, and in the sentence of Doctor Zapata, in 1725, "cierta diligencia" is alluded to as having been employed.[93] * * * * *