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
Against Yucé Franco and the other prisoners there was at this stage no
charge beyond that--serious enough in itself--of having induced Benito
Garcia to re-Judaize. But the disguised friar now pressed him with
probing questions, asking him what he had done to get himself arrested.
Yucé--who did not yet know what was the charge--entirely duped, and
believing that his visitor was a Rabbi of his own faith, replied that
“_he had been arrested on account of the_ mita _of a_ nahar, _which had
been after the manner of_ Otohays.”[171]
We have left the Hebrew words untranslated to illustrate the
unintelligibility of the phrase to the general.
_Mita_ means “killing,” _nahar_ means “a boy,” whilst
_Otohays_--literally “that man”--is startling because it is identical
with the term used in St. Luke (xxiii. 4) and in the Acts of the
Apostles (v. 28) to designate Christ.
Yucé begged the false Rabbi Abraham to go to the Chief Rabbi of the
Synagogue of Segovia,[172] a man of very considerable importance and
influence, and to inform him of this fact, but otherwise to keep the
matter very secret.
The Dominican repaired to the inquisitors who had sent him with this
very startling piece of information, which was corroborated by the
physician, who had remained well within earshot during the entire
interview.
By order of the inquisitors Frey Alfonso Enriquez returned to Yucé’s
prison a few days later to attempt to elicit from the young Jew
further particulars of the matter to which he had alluded. But the
lad--probably considerably recovered by now, and therefore more
alert--evinced the greatest mistrust of the physician Avila, who
was hovering near them, and would not utter another word on the
subject.[173]
The matter was of such gravity that we are quite safe in assuming--and
we have evidence to warrant the assumption--that it was instantly
communicated to Torquemada, who at the time was at his convent of
Segovia, practically upon the spot.
We know--as will presently transpire--that it was by order of
Torquemada that Yucé Franco and the others came to be in the prison of
the Holy Office at Segovia, instead of in that of the extremely active
Inquisition of Toledo, within whose jurisdiction the accused dwelt
and the crime had been committed. We are unable to give an absolutely
authentic reason for this. But we gather that the examination of Ça
Franco, or of Ocaña, or perhaps of Benito himself--who had said “more
than he knew”--must have yielded disclosures of such a nature that upon
learning them the Grand Inquisitor had desired that the trial should be
conducted immediately under his own direction.
The Sovereigns, who had been in Andalusia since May of the previous
year, about the war upon Granada, now wrote to Torquemada--in July
1490--bidding him join them there.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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