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
“But inasmuch as we are now occupied with other and arduous matters,
and therefore may not personally acquaint ourselves with the said
cases or with any one of them, trusting in the legality, learning,
experience, and sound conscience of you, the said Reverend Father
Inquisitors and of each of you, and that you are such persons as
will well and faithfully discharge what we entrust to you by these
presents we commit to you, the said Reverend Father Inquisitors,
and to each of you, _in solidum_, the said proceedings against and
trials of the aforementioned and of any of them, whether they may
have been participators or accessories before or after the fact of
the said crimes and offences in any way committed against our Holy
Catholic Faith, and likewise of the abettors, counsellors, defenders,
concealers, those who had knowledge of the facts and offenders of
whatsoever degree, to the end that concerning them you may receive
and obtain any information from any part of the said Kingdoms, and
seize and examine any witness, and inquire, learn, proceed, imprison,
sentence, and abandon to the secular arm such as you may find guilty,
absolve and liberate those without guilt, and do concerning them all
things and any thing that we ourselves should do being present....
“And by these presents we order the Father Inquisitors of the City of
Segovia and each and any of them in whose power are the said prisoners
to deliver them immediately in safe custody to you.
“Given in the Monastery of St. Thomas of the said Order of Preachers,
which is beyond and near the walls of the said City of Avila.”[175]
* * * * *
At what stage of the affair the four brothers Franco of La
Guardia--Alonso, Lope, Garcia, and Juan--had been arrested, and upon
whose information, we do not know. But we do know--for the _dossier_ of
Yucé’s trial is complete--that they were not betrayed by Yucé.
That their names had been divulged is a confirmation of the surmise
that the examinations of Ocaña, or Ça Franco, or even Benito Garcia,
had already yielded further information on the subject of the affair of
La Guardia.
It must be understood that the record of any examination of these
prisoners in which the name of Yucé Franco was not mentioned would find
no place in the _dossier_ of the latter’s trial.
The four Francos of La Guardia were brothers, as we have said; but they
were nowise related to the Francos of Tenbleque--Ça and Yucé. They
were dealers in cereals--possibly millers--as we shall see, and they
owned a number of carts which they appear to have further employed in a
carrier’s business. They were baptized Jews, as is already made clear
in Torquemada’s letter by the fact that he does not describe them--as
he does the others--as Jews.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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