On Trinity Sunday, May 21, 1559, there was a most solemn _auto da fé_ against the Spanish Lutherans, in the Great Square of Valladolid. The Princess Donna Juana (governess of the kingdom, in the absence of her brother, Philip II.), the Prince Don Carlos, and many grandees of Spain, as well as prelates and nobles of Castile, and a multitude of ladies and gentlemen, all assisted on that occasion. _Sixteen_ persons were brought out in that _auto_, to be reconciled by penance; also, the remains and effigy of a lady, already dead, and _fourteen_ living persons, to be consumed by the devouring element! The lady was Donna Eleonora de Vibero, proprietress of a convent in the city. Her daughter, Beatrice, and her two sons, Francis and Dr. Augustin Cazalla, were sacrificed at the stake in this dread _auto_, all being convicted of Lutheranism. At Seville, the same year, another _auto_ was celebrated, in which John Pontius, son of Roderic, earl of Villalon, was publicly burnt as a Lutheran. With him were executed, John Gonsalvus, a preacher, with four ladies of note; Bohorques, scarcely twenty years of age; Maria Viroesia, Cornelia, and Vœnia, in whose house assemblies were held for prayer. Besides these, were _seven_ others, and among them, a student, a physician, and a nun. The sacrifice of this company of _thirteen_ persons, besides several effigies, was attended with great pomp, yet it excited the indignation of not a few of the citizens. Two others escaped the fire, dying previously in prison; Dr. John Egidius, nominated by the emperor as bishop of Drossen, and Dr. Constantine Pontius, the confessor of Charles V. They were victims of the Inquisition, suspected of holding the doctrines of Luther. Philip being alienated from his queen, Mary, left England in 1557, and proceeded to his army in Picardy; and after his arrival in Spain he demanded an _auto da fé_, which was celebrated with extraordinary magnificence. De Castro, in his very interesting volume, “Spanish Protestants and their Persecutions by Philip II.,” says:-- “Although so many were burnt or oppressed with ignominious penances at the before-mentioned _auto da fé_, the inquisitors reserved the greatest number, and most noted of the prisoners for Protestantism, in order to bring them to condign punishment on the arrival of Philip II.; a festival very appropriate to this monarch, whose reign in England, with the barbarous Mary Tudor, had terminated after broiling in the flames there a multitude of Protestants. “This _auto_ was celebrated on the 8th of October, 1559. In order to greater decorum and solemnity, this _most pious_ monarch thought it opportune to assist, with all his court, in those horrors, and recreate himself in the frightful destruction of many of his subjects, illustrious for their birth, their virtue, and their learning.