On the union of the several kingdoms of Spain, by Ferdinand and Isabella, the boundaries of the Inquisition were extended, and its privileges enlarged, in every corner of their dominions. At that period it was principally intended to prevent the relapse of the Jews and Moors who had been, or pretended to be, converted to the Romish faith. In Seville, especially, many of the Jews, not withstanding their profession of Christianity, still continued to practise in secret their ancient rites, which having come to the ears of the archbishop, great numbers of that unhappy nation were arrested in 1481, and thrown into dungeons.[5] After a tedious examination, in some cases by torture, the Inquisitors condemned some of them to the stake, and others to perpetual imprisonment. "By divers ways and means," says Bernaldez, "Inquisitors began to arrest men and women, the most guilty, as well as the most honourable, some from among the magistrates, jurists, bachelors, and lawyers, and also men of great reputation. These they sentenced to be burnt with fire, and brought for the first time, to be consumed on the platform, (a burning place which they had constructed in a field in the vicinity of the city,) six men and women, whom they cast into the flames. A few days afterwards they burnt three of the principal, that is, the richest, persons in the city, viz: Diego de Susan, a great rabbin, whose property was said to be worth ten millions; the others were Manuel Sauli, and Bartholomew Toralva. Pedro Fernandez Benedeba, steward of the church of the dean and chapter, was next arrested, who was one of the principal of them, and had in his house arms to equip a hundred men; also Juan Fernandez Abalasia, who had long been a chief justice, and was a great lawyer, as well as many other principal persons, and very rich, whom they also burnt. At this all the confessed heretics were alarmed, and cast into great consternation, and fled from the city and archbishopric; but an injunction was laid for no one to abscond from Seville under the penalty of death, and guards were placed at the gates of the city; in short, they arrested so many, that there was no place to put them in, and many fled to the estates of lords, to Portugal, and to the country of the Moors."[6]