Records of the Spanish Inquisition, Translated from the Original Manuscripts

by Andrew Dickson White

June, 1730.

The prisoner’s defence was received on the third of this month, and the audience for communication with his counsel was held on the eighth, when his final defence was made. On the ninth, sentence was passed with the assistance of the Ordinary, unanimously, that the prisoner should be put to the regular torture, before the execution of which, it was resolved that the case should be referred to your Highness, which was done on the tenth. The matter remains in this state waiting for the decision of your Highness.

August, 1730.

On the first of July we received the order of your Highness to put the prisoner to the torture ad arbitrium. On the twelfth an audience was held, in which a sentence to that effect was passed. The prisoner was informed of the same, and admonished in the customary manner, but persisted in his denial. He was then put to the torture,[18] but suffered the whole without confessing anything. On the fifteenth, with the assistance of the Ordinary, his case was definitively judged by a sentence pronounced unanimously, that the prisoner hear his own condemnation read in the hall of the Tribunal with open doors; that he make an abjuration de levi, be severely reprehended and warned, absolved ad cautelam, and be banished from this city, Madrid, and the court of his Majesty, to a distance of eight leagues, for the space of five years, the three first of which to be spent in the royal garrison of this city. This sentence was referred to your Highness the same day, and on the fourteenth of August, the answer received in which your Highness ordered that the prisoner be brought into the hall of the Tribunal, and there, with closed doors, be severely reprehended and warned, that he be admonished to abstain from the like offences in future, and forthwith dismissed. This was executed on the same day, together with the audience for binding him to secrecy, and making inquiries respecting the prison. The prisoner was then dismissed.

Dr Don Miguel Vizente Cebrian y Augustin.

March, 1730.

Isabel Boxi, alias Modroño. Prison of Sta. Maria. Maintenance, two sueldos and the bread of the Contractor.

Isabel Boxi, alias Modroño, widow, native of Vilaseca, in the diocese of Tarragona, aged sixtythree years, confined in the secret prison of this Holy Office, with her property sequestered, for witchcraft and superstition. Respecting this prisoner your Highness was informed in the month of January, that the witnesses were giving their testimony against her for publication. Nothing was done in all February, and part of the present month, with respect either to this or the other cases, for this reason; the Inquisitor, Licentiate Don Balthasar Villarexo has been out of health most of this month, and I have been in the same state all the month of February. For the same reason, also, no account was transmitted the last month, there being no proceedings to relate. At present, we have done nothing more than hold an audience for the publication of the testimony against the above prisoner, and shall proceed with this case after the holidays.

April, 1730.

The publication of the testimony was done on the eighteenth and twentyfourth of this month, on which occasions the prisoner made her answers to the charges, and denied the whole. In this state the case remains at present.