The first of these methods, utilizing the device of contumacy became the one almost universally employed, when time was of no consequence but, in the impatient temper of the early period, speedier processes were preferred. The case of Sancho de Ciudad and Marí Díaz his wife, was tried by the second process and will serve as an illustration. Sancho was regidor of Ciudad Real and a well-known citizen. On November 14, 1483, the fiscal represented that many persons defamed for heresy had fled from the Inquisition, among whom notoriously were Sancho and his wife, whom he intended to accuse, and he asked the inquisitor, on receiving due proof, to cite them to appear. Two witnesses then deposed that it was notorious that they were absent and, as they had departed about fifteen days before the Inquisition came, it presumably was through fear. The edict was issued and the case took its course, all citations and summonses being gravely pronounced before Sancho's house by a notary as though he were personally on trial. When the case reached the stage of proof, the fiscal presented thirty-four witnesses--the most damaging one being Sancho's daughter Catalina, who gave the names of her brothers and of numerous others accustomed to assemble in her father's house to participate in Jewish ceremonies. All the formalities of the trial were observed and duly notified before Sancho's door. By January 22, 1484, the consulta de fe voted for relaxation, which Sancho was duly summoned to hear read, and it was read in the audience-chamber, January 30th, empowering the authorities of any place, where Sancho and his wife might be found, to inflict on them the penalties of the law, and meanwhile, as their persons could not be had, it ordered their effigies then present, to be subjected to the execution of the said penalties.[233] [Sidenote: _PROSECUTION OF THE ABSENT_]