John, of Austria, 1547-1578; Spain -- History -- Philip II, 1556-1598
But there is no accounting for the memory of an inquisitive woman,
however discreet and prudent she may be, and if few outdid the Governess
of Spain, Princess Juana, in virtue, prudence and discretion, few had
more curiosity, or better means of gratifying it at their command.
As no one had found out from Luis Quijada who Jeromín really was, it
occurred to her that she might obtain the information from Doña
Magdalena, and with this object in view she sent a missive to
Villagarcia about the 15th of May, begging her to come to see the Auto
and to bring the boy she had with her, in the disguise in which he
lived.
The Auto to which the Princess Juana alluded was the celebrated Auto da
Fe which took place in Valladolid on the 21st of May, 1559, at which Dr.
Augustin Cazalla and thirty of his heretic disciples were condemned.
This Lutheran conspiracy had been discovered many months before during
the lifetime of the Emperor, who had urged and begged Doña Juana and the
Inspector-General D. Fernando de Valdés, Archbishop of Seville, to mete
out prompt and severe punishment to the offenders.
There lived then in Valladolid, at No. 13 of the Street of the
Silversmiths, a certain Juan García, a silversmith by trade. For some
time his wife had noticed that he was absent-minded and irritable, and
that he pretended to go to bed early and then went out again. Being a
brave, decided woman, she disguised herself one night and followed him,
supposing some intrigue. When Juan García reached the street now called
after Dr. Cazalla, he at once knocked at the door of a house between
what are now cavalry barracks and the old apothecary's shop in the
Square of St. Michel. The door was opened with great caution, and the
woman distinctly heard a password which seemed to be "Chinela," and Juan
García answered "Cazalla," on which the door opened and he went in. The
wife remained spellbound, and her astonishment grew as she noticed that,
singly and by twos, men and women came from both ends of the street. The
same ceremony took place, and they disappeared into the mysterious
house, which was none other than that of Doña Leonora de Vibero, mother
of Dr. Cazalla. Being, as we have said, a resolute woman, on seeing a
very devout woman (the Juana Sánchez who afterwards committed suicide in
the prison of the Inquisition by cutting her throat with scissors)
approaching, she followed secretly, gave the password, and entered
behind Sánchez into a large, ill-lighted room, where she saw and heard
Dr. Cazalla explain to more than seventy people the doctrines of the
Lutherans which he had brought back from Germany. She understood at once
that she was in a conventicle of heretics, and horrified, but not losing
her presence of mind, she left quietly and the same morning informed her
confessor of all that she had seen and heard. Whether he was infected
with the same doctrines or did not much believe the woman, he only told
her not to worry over the matter.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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