According to Bernaldez, the single tribunal of Seville, during the first eight years of its office, committed to the flames seven hundred persons, and condemned five thousand more to perpetual imprisonment or rigorous penance. So fierce was the persecution that even the dead were not spared; the bones of those suspected of heresy were exhumed and publicly burnt, their children forbidden to hold any office or benefice, and their property seized and employed to meet the heavy expenses of the Inquisition. It will be seen that Isabel brought to the task of exterminating heresy the same unshrinking thoroughness that marked her share in the restoration of law and order, and the continuance of the Moorish war. Nor was Ferdinand less zealous. It was in his name that most of the business of the Inquisition was transacted, and his correspondence on the subject shows that the minute interest he exhibited was prompted far more by religious fervour than by financial greed or policy. Lea has described him as “sincerely bigoted”; but though founders and patrons, neither he nor Isabel was the moving spirit of the Holy Office. [Illustration: TORQUEMADA AFTER A PAINTING ATTRIBUTED TO MIGUEL ZITTOZ, FROM “TORQUEMADA AND THE SPANISH INQUISITION” REPRODUCED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR, MR. RAFAEL SABATINI ] The appointment of Tomas de Torquemada as Inquisitor-General of Castile in May, 1483, placed in control of the practical working of this institution a judge, whose bigotry was untempered by ordinary humanity. A Dominican of Jewish extraction, he was for a time the Queen’s confessor and won her favour, like Fra Fernando de Talavera and Cisneros, by his austerities and contempt of the world. From regard for the dignity of his office he accepted an escort of fifty horse and two hundred foot, and wealth, which he lavished freely on churches and monasteries; but his personal asceticism remained unchanged. Till the day of his death, he ate no flesh, nor would he consent to wear linen next his skin, nor to sleep on any bed save a wooden plank; while he sternly refused to a sister more financial help than would enable her to enter a Dominican convent. Under his presidency the Inquisition received what might be called a constitution and laws; for in 1484 a “Supreme Council,” “La Suprema” as it was afterwards known, was established; and “Instructions for the governance of the Holy Office” were issued, informing judges and officials of the exact nature and extent of their duties. They reveal, as Rafael Sabatini remarks in his _Life of Torquemada_, a spirit at once crafty and stupid, subtle and obvious, saintly and diabolical, consistent in nothing,—not even in cruelty, for in its warped and dreadful way it accounted itself merciful, and not only represented but believed that its aims were charitable.