These reckless and indecent proceedings were based on the Instructions of 1484, which evidently reflect the current practice in ordering the prosecution of those who had been dead even for thirty or forty years, and their property with its fruits to be taken from whomsoever is found in possession, although a MS. copy contains a clause, omitted in the printed editions, exempting from confiscation property held in good faith by good Catholics, for fifty years or more.[222] In view of the activity at Ciudad Real and Toledo, it seems somewhat superfluous that Torquemada, in his supplementary Instructions of 1485, deemed it necessary to warn the tribunals that the prosecution of the living should not cause them to neglect the dead, so that their bodies may be disinterred and burnt and their property be seized by the fisc.[223] How far back the retroactive energy of the tribunals extended may be gathered from the case of Fernan Sánchez who had been converted about 1416, had lived as a Christian until his death in 1456, and who yet was disinterred and burnt and his estate confiscated by the tribunal of Cuenca and Sigüenza, probably about 1525.[224] [Sidenote: _PROSECUTION OF THE DEAD_] Notwithstanding the massing of cases in the citations and sentences, the formalities of the somewhat cumbrous procedure were duly observed. The trials were not speedy, but, as large numbers were in progress together, only the scantiest attention could be paid to each and the result was a foregone conclusion. A single case will illustrate the process. At Ciudad Real, August 8, 1484, the fiscal is recorded as appearing and saying that he desires to proceed against certain deceased persons and among them Beatris González. He asks the inquisitors to issue their letters of summons, citation and edict, so that the children, heirs, kindred and others who wish to defend their bodies and bones, their fame and property, may appear. The same day the edict is issued, directed to the representatives of Beatris and two others, some of the kindred addressed being named and others included under the generalization of parties interested. The edict recites that the fiscal is about to accuse Beatris and the others of Judaism, and asks to have them summoned in defence, wherefore they are cited to appear within thirty days after the edict is read to them, or before their house-doors, or published in the public square, or read in the church of San Pedro and affixed to one of its doors; if they come, they will be heard with the fiscal, and justice will be rendered; if they do not appear, the fiscal will be heard and the case will go on without them to the end. The thirty days constituted three terms of ten days each, at the end of each of which the fiscal appeared before the inquisitors and accused the _rebeldia_ or contumacy of the parties cited and, at the end of the third, on September 6th, he presented the accusation, a copy of which was ordered to be given to the