Before me—
Miguel Gibert, Not’y of Tarragona.
In the city of Tarragona, on the seventeenth day of the month abovementioned, and the same year, before the said Commissary of the Holy Office, appeared, according to summons, and swore formally to declare the truth, a man calling himself Joseph Leonart, an inhabitant of Tarragona, of age, as he stated, twenty years or thereabout.
Questioned, if he knew the cause of his being summoned to appear.
Answered, that he supposed it to be for the purpose of learning the bad conduct of Felipe Leonart, a Frenchman, and his father. For a number of years the deponent and his mother had concealed many heavy offences committed by him against the Holy Catholic Faith.
The said Felipe Leonart was a great swearer, saying ‘The head, soul, and body of Christ’ a million times every day, declaring that he did not fear God, the king, nor anybody; and that if he knew there was a tavern in the other world, he should not care if he were to die, although his body were burnt at Carraxet. Everything which succeeded well with him, he ascribed to the devil and not to God, saying, ‘The devil will give me food, for I do not want anything from God,’ and, ‘The devil will give me luck in this;’ so that his patron and helper in everything was the devil. He never confessed, and the last Lent the deponent attempted to carry him to the convent of St Francisco; but on perceiving that he was leading him to confession, he ran away from him. He declared it nonsense to relate one’s sins to a confessor, and that a man should tell of nothing but what he pleased. The deponent had never seen him more than once at mass. He wore no rosary, nor any sign of a Christian. He had been declared excommunicated for not complying with the precepts of the church, in this city, in Barcelona, and in Valencia. He declared that the preachers were troublers of the people. At one time, in Valencia, he went to bed after tiring himself with swearing, and told the family that a woman, a monkey, and a young man then in the house, had appeared to him in bed, scratched his face all over and thrown him down stairs. They found him at the foot of the stairs with his face scratched, and believed that this had been done by the devil, from his mentioning him so often. The deponent and his wife had advised him to remove his residence lest the Holy Inquisition should punish him; to which he answered that he did not care for the Inquisition. Finally, the said Felipe Leonart lead such a life that he appeared more like a Lutheran than a Christian.
The above is the truth according to the oath of the deponent, who does not make this declaration out of malice or ill will against his father, but solely to discharge his conscience, and to obey the commands of his confessors. It having been read, he declared it to be correctly recorded, and signed his name.
Josef Lleonart.
Before me—