Miguel Rodriguez.
TRIAL OF LEONARDO PHELIPE,
FOR LUTHERANISM.
MOST ILLUSTRIOUS SIR,
I, the undersigned Secretary, who, in the absence of the Fiscal of this Holy Office, exercise his duties, appear before your Excellency, and declare, that, from the information which I now present, it appears, and is manifest that Phelippe Leonart, a needlemaker, and a Frenchman by birth, now resident in the city of Tarragona, is a Lutheran heretic, commonly swearing, and denying God and the Saints, ridiculing the Holy Sacraments of the Church, never confessing himself, for which he has been declared excommunicated, and committing other crimes.
On which account, I request that your Excellency will order him to be arrested and confined in the secret prison, in order that the ends of justice may be accomplished.
Mattheo Magre, Sec’y.
In the city of Tarragona, on the fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and thirtyseven, appeared voluntarily Tecla Leonarda, wife of Felipe Leonart, needlemaker, a Frenchman by birth, and inhabitant of this city of Tarragona, of age, as she stated, fifty years, or thereabout. She made the following declaration.
‘Señor Commissary, I am the wife of Felipe Leonart, needlemaker, a Frenchman, and have been married to him about twenty years. I cannot learn that during all this time he has confessed himself once, unless compelled to do it during Lent. He has many times been declared excommunicated for not confessing, and for neglecting to comply with the precepts of the church. He formerly lived in Valencia, in the Calle de la Mar, Parish of St Tomas. He never confessed himself here, and was reminded of his neglect by the Rector. Upon being rebuked by me and his son, and advised to confess, he broke out into blasphemies against God and the Saints, with such violence that he appeared more like a demoniac than anything else. It being suggested to him that God did not prosper him because he did not attend mass, nor wear a rosary, nor hear sermons, nor confess, but swore, and blasphemed, and that if the Holy Inquisition knew of this he would be apprehended, he replied that the devil must help him; that he did not care for me nor the Inquisition, that he would not confess, and that God gave him nothing which the devil would give. In particular, last Passion Week his son carried him to the Jesuits to confess; but, on finding to what place he was conducting him, the said Felipe abandoned him and refused to confess, greatly offending his son and the confessor. He has given so many proofs of not being a Christian, that many of his apprentices have left him, declaring that they would not live in a house where God was not venerated and worshipped.’
The deponent further declared that on making a full confession last Lent, of all the sins of her husband and her own negligence in denouncing him, she was directed to give information of the whole to this Holy Office, and was refused absolution unless she complied, and that there were many more things to be told which she could not recollect, as they happened so long since.