Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A HistorySabatini, Rafael
History
Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A History
Sabatini, Rafael
Inquisition -- Spain; Torquemada, Tomás, de, 1420-1498
“The better to dissemble, he went to a tavern, where presently he
was able to communicate with the Jew, and as a result of what passed
between them, the New-Christian went out to await him on the road to
Villa Palomas in a ravine, where presently he was joined by the said
Jew on an ass with the child before him--of the age of three or four
years.
“They went on together, and arrived after nightfall at the said cave,
whither came, as was arranged, the brother of the New-Christian, and
with him other newly-converted Jews, with whom it appears that the
aforesaid matter had been treated.
“Being all assembled in the cave, they lighted a candle of yellow wax,
and so that the light should not be seen they hung a cloak over the
mouth of the cave. They seized the boy, whom the said Jew had taken
from the Puerta del Perdon in Toledo--which boy was named Juan, son of
Alonso Pasamontes and of Juana La Guindera. The said New-Christians
now made a cross out of the timbers of a ladder which had been brought
from a mill. They threw a rope round the boy’s neck and they set him on
the cross, and with another rope they tied his legs and arms, and they
nailed his feet and hands to the cross with nails.
“Being thus placed (_puesto_), one of the New-Christians from the
neighbourhood of La Guardia bled the child, opening the veins of his
arms with a knife, and he caught the blood that flowed in a cauldron;
and with a rope in which they had tied knots some whipped him, whilst
others set a crown of thorns upon his head. They struck him, spat upon
him, and used opprobrious words to him, pretending that what they were
saying to the said child was addressed to the Person of Christ. And
whilst they whipped him, they said: ‘_Betrayer, trickster, who, when
you preached, preached falsehood against the Law of God and Moses;
now you shall pay here for what you said then. You thought to destroy
us and to exalt yourself. But we shall destroy you._’ And further:
‘_Crucify this betrayer who once announced himself King, who was to
destroy our temple_....’ etc. etc.[166]
“After the ill-treatment and vituperation, one of the New-Christians
from La Guardia opened the left side of the child with a knife and drew
out his heart, upon which he threw some salt; and so the child expired
upon the cross. All of which was done in mockery of the Passion of
Christ; and some of the New-Christians took the body of the child and
buried it in a vineyard near Sta. Maria de Pera.
“A few days later the said Jew and New-Christians met again in the cave
and attempted certain enchantments and conjurations with the heart of
the child and a consecrated Host obtained through a sacristan who was
a New-Christian. This conjuration and experiment they performed with
the intention that the inquisitors of heretical pravity and all other
Christians should enrage and die raging (_rabiendo_), and the Law of
Jesus Christ our Redeemer should be entirely destroyed and superseded
by the Law of Moses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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