The young San Romano, who had been converted at Bremen, and had been arrested after making great efforts to induce Charles the Fifth to countenance the Reformation, arrived in ill health at Valladolid at the time when the Gospel was working in private circles, and even in general society, but had not yet been boldly preached there as at Seville. He had been roughly treated, and compelled to follow in the emperor's suite as a captive, some say even into Africa; but the treatment which he had to undergo at the hands of the inquisitors of Valladolid, to whom he was delivered up, far surpassed in harshness that of Charles. They confined him in a dark and horrible dungeon; they sent to him incessantly wicked and ignorant monks, who were instructed to worry him and to induce him to abandon his faith; they frequently made a spectacle of him, exposing him to the laughter and contempt of the populace, and daily loaded him with reproaches and insults, in the hope of thereby terrifying him, breaking down his spirit, and leading him to retract his faith. But their attempt was frustrated. They found, on the contrary, that in some marvellous way which they could not understand, his strength, his earnestness, and his resolution day by day increased. He confuted the arguments of the monks, and courageously avowed the doctrines which were the objects of their anathemas. The sacrifice of the mass, said the monks, procures _ex opere operato_ the remission of sins. 'Horrible abomination,' said San Romano. 'Auricular confession,' resumed the inquisitors, 'the satisfaction of purgatory, the invocation of saints'.... But he stopped them and cried out: 'Blasphemy against God and profanation of the blood of Jesus Christ!'[191] These monks, of orders gray, brown, or black, who buzzed about him like wasps, and were incessantly stinging him, were amazed at such language, and asked him what then he did believe. He replied: 'I maintain and will openly and clearly maintain to my latest breath that there is no creature who by his own strength, his own works, or any worthiness of his own can merit the pardon of his sins and obtain the salvation of his soul. The mercy of God alone, the work of the Mediator, who by his own blood has cleansed us from all sin, these save us.' His condemnation was henceforth certain. San Romano, and with him a great number of criminals, appeared before a multitude of the people to receive sentence. He was condemned to be burnt alive as a heretic, the others were absolved. 'Ah!' said one of his friends, "Dat veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas." After sentence had been passed, they put upon the head of the martyr a paper crown, on which were depicted many horrible figures of demons,[192] and then led him away to the place of execution.