The inquisition in the Spanish dependencies: Sicily—Naples—Sardinia—Milan—the Canaries—Mexico—Peru—New GranadaLea, Henry Charles
History
The inquisition in the Spanish dependencies: Sicily—Naples—Sardinia—Milan—the Canaries—Mexico—Peru—New Granada
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition
Martin Ximenes seems to have performed his duties with commendable
energy. He commenced by making an alphabetical register of all the
parties denounced under his predecessor, comprising 139 individuals,
besides various groups, such as “the Confesos and Moriscos of
Lanzarote,” “other Confesos, their kindred,” “certain persons of Hierro”
etc., which indicate how slovenly had been the procedure.[266] He made a
visitation of Tenerife and la Palma, from which he returned with ample
store of fresh denunciations.[267] May 29, 1524, all the dignitaries,
civil and ecclesiastical, and all the people were assembled in the
church of Santa Ana, where an edict was read commanding them to render
aid and favor to the Inquisition, and an oath to that effect was
administered. There was also an Edict of Grace, promising relief from
confiscation to all who would come forward and confess as to themselves
and others; also an Edict of Faith requiring denunciation of errors and
specifying the various kinds of blasphemies and sorceries and the
distinctive Jewish and Moorish rites; and finally an edict reciting that
the Conversos were emigrating and forbidding their leaving the islands
and all ship-masters from carrying away suspected persons without
licence from him, under the penalties of fautorship and of forfeiting
their vessels.[268]
The terror inspired by the activity of Ximenes may be estimated from a
single instance. On May 21st, Ynes de Tarifa came before him to confess
that when, a couple of months before, she had heard of the burning in
Seville of her son-in-law Alonso Hernández and of his brother Francisco,
she recalled that after meals Alonso used to read to Francisco out of a
book in an unknown tongue and, if she had erred in not denouncing this
to the Seville tribunal, she begged to be treated mercifully.[269] The
publication of the edicts throughout the islands brought in an abundant
store of denunciations, the record for eight months, from September 13,
1524, to May 15, 1526, amounting to 167. They were nearly all of petty
sorceries by women, in sickness or love affairs, but with an occasional
blasphemy or suspicion of Judaism, and persons of station were not
exempted, for the list comprises the Adelantado Don Pedro de Lugo and
his wife Elvira Diaz, the Dean Juan de Alarcon, the Prior Alonso Bivas
and others of position. The adelantado, in fact, was dead, but the
accusation against his memory is sufficiently significant of the
prevailing temper to be worth relating. The Bachiller Diego de Funes
came forward, by command of his confessor, to state that when Diego de
San Martin was holding for ransom a _Judío de señal_ (one obliged to
wear a distinctive mark) who had been caught on his way to Portugal, the
captive was starving to death because he could not eat meat slaughtered
by Christians: de Lugo charitably gave him a sheep to kill according to
his rites and even himself ate some of the mutton. These petty cases
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