A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3

by Henry Charles Lea

THE SANBENITO

The penitential habit of sackcloth sprinkled with ashes, customary in the early Church, has passed into a proverb. That the penitents of the Inquisition should be required to wear such a garment was inevitable and, from the foundation of the institution, in the thirteenth century, they were distinguished from other penitents by two yellow crosses, one on the breast and the other on the back. From Eymerich we learn that in Aragon this garment was like the scapular worn by the religious Orders.[455] This saco bendito became known as the sanbenito or, more commonly, abito and was necessarily inherited by the new Inquisition. In 1486, at the Toledo auto of December 11th, two hundred penitents, reconciled under the Edict of Grace, were required to wear in public such a garment for a year, under penalty of relapse.[456] For those reconciled after trial, the infliction was more severe. In 1490, Torquemada ordered that they should wear during life a sanbenitillo of black or gray cloth, eighteen inches long and nine inches wide, like a small tabard, hanging on breast and back, with a red cross before and behind, occupying nearly the entire field. This was hung over the outer garment, and was a conspicuous indication to all beholders of the shame of the wearer, rendering it a punishment regarded as exceedingly severe.[457] In 1514, Ximenes changed the cross to an aspa de San Andrés, a St. Andrew’s or oblique cross, of which the bars traversed diagonally the breast and back.[458] Finally the Instructions of 1561 describe the abito penitencial as made of yellow linen or cloth, with two red aspas, although in some parts of Aragon there are particular customs as to colors which must be observed—referring probably to the use of green cloth in place of yellow, which seems to have been the case in Valencia and Sicily.[459] In some tribunals there was also in use, for those who abjured de vehementi, a sanbenito de media aspa, or half cross, consisting of a single diagonal band. Those who were to be relaxed appeared in the auto de fe in a black sanbenito, on which were painted flames and sometimes demons thrusting the heretic into hell.[460] Llorente tells us that abjuration de levi was performed in a zamarra, or yellow sanbenito without aspas, but I have met with no allusion to its use.[461] The distinction between the sanbenito de dos aspas and the one de media aspa was maintained, and the former was understood to indicate that the wearer had been guilty of formal heresy, that he and his children were subject to the consequent disabilities, and that he was liable to the stake in case of relapse. The latter was worn only during the auto de fe, after which it was laid aside.[462]

Although, in the early period, the sanbenito was imposed perpetually, the expression is to be taken in the same sense as imprisonment. As a rule, the two were coterminous and the sentences are almost invariably “habit and prison for two years,” or perpetual or irremissible as the case may be. Where, indeed, the heresy was trivial or technical rather than real, or the conversion seemed genuine and spontaneous, the sanbenito was merely a symbol, to be worn only during the auto, or even for a briefer period, although it none the less left its ineffaceable stigma. There were gradations suited to every case, as is well illustrated in the Granada auto of May 27, 1593, where, in three cases, it was removed after reading the sentence, in two, after returning to the Inquisition, in two, after twenty-four hours (one of these being the Licentiate Juan Fernández, who had Judaized for thirty-six years), in one case it was imposed for two years and in another for three, and Leonor Fernández had two years of sanbenito and four of prison. It was even put on the effigy of Doña Inez de Tórres, from which it was removed after reading the sentence, because she had confessed and died as a Catholic, with ample signs of contrition.[463] Thus the tribunal could vary the penalty at its discretion, and was not bound to the rule of coterminous abito y carcel. In the Toledo auto of March 15, 1722, two girls of 14, Manuela Díaz and María de Mendoza, were sentenced to six months of prison and two months of sanbenito, while in that of February 24, 1723, Manuel Ximenes had perpetual prison and one year of sanbenito.[464]

From the fact that, in the sentences, the penitents are told that they are not to go out of their prisons or their houses without the sanbenito, it is inferable that it was not worn within doors. Discarding it, as we have seen, was a grave offence, punishable as non-fulfilment of penance and, in the Edicts of Faith, the denunciation of this, as of other infractions, was required. There was one occasion, however, in which this was done on a large scale with impunity, for in the Palermo rising of 1516 against the Inquisition, there was a universal throwing off of sanbenitos. When order was restored and the tribunal was re-established, there was a fruitless effort made to reimpose them. In 1522 the Suprema wrote to Inquisitors Calvete and Cervera calling attention to this as a great disservice to God and a heavy charge on the souls of the penitents, who must be compelled to resume them, and all secular and ecclesiastical authorities were commanded to assist. Then again, in 1525, Inquisitor-general Manrique insisted on the resumption of the sanbenitos, but at the same time he cautioned the inquisitors not to cause scandal or trouble, and we may assume that the attempt was practically abandoned.[465]

SANBENITOS IN CHURCHES

Cruel as was the imposition of the sanbenito, it was a punishment inherited from the elder Inquisition, but Spanish ingenuity invented a still more cruel use of it to stimulate the detestation of heresy. This was the preservation of the sanbenitos, with suitable inscriptions, conspicuously displayed in the churches, thus perpetuating to future generations the memory of the crime and punishment of the delinquent. The origin of this may perhaps be traceable to the ceremonies observed in the early period, when penitents were relieved of the abito. As described, in 1490, at Barcelona, they were assembled in the Inquisition and preached to by the inquisitor. A fortnight later they gathered in the parish church of Santa María del Pino and heard mass; then they marched in procession to the chapel of Our Lady of Monserrat, again heard mass, offered twelve dineros apiece to the Virgin, and passed the night, after which their sanbenitos were taken off and hung in a prominent place near the door.[466] Of course, in the case of those who were burnt, the sanbenito was hung up at once, and this remained the rule, as we learn from the Instructions of 1561—the sanbenito of the reconciled was hung when it was removed, whether during the auto or after years of prison; that of the relaxed, immediately after the auto.[467]

The custom must have been of gradual growth. There is no allusion to it in the Instrucciones antiquas, nor have I found any indication as to the time when it became imperative except that, in 1512, there is a decision of the Suprema expressing the will of the king and the cardinal that the sanbenitos of the relaxed and reconciled of the Campo de Calatrava shall be hung in the churches, except those of the reconciled in the Time of Grace, and that, if any of the latter have been hung, they are to be removed.[468] This indicates a custom favored by the authorities, spreading, but as yet subject to question. It had already passed to Sicily, where one of the incidents of the rising of 1516 was the tearing down of the sanbenitos in the churches, and so great was the popular detestation of it that, at the end of the century, it had not been possible to restore the practice.[469]

It mattered little to the descendants that the sanbenitos of the victims in the early years had escaped this publicity. The perversity which inspired it developed into such malignity that, in 1532, the Suprema ordered the tribunals to make from their records lists of all burnt or reconciled, even under Edicts of Grace, and to suspend in the churches whatever sanbenitos were found to be lacking. The inexcusable cruelty of including the voluntary reconciliados under Edicts of Grace caused this portion of the order to be revoked in 1538, but, in 1539, this was declared inapplicable to those which had already been hung—if they had been removed, they must be replaced. The question was revived, in 1552, and opinions were divided, but the decision to retain them prevailed. Meanwhile, in 1548, the Suprema stimulated the tribunals to fill all vacancies, whether arising from omissions or the surreptitious removal of old ones, and it ordered the hanging of new ones as soon as the autos were held, in order to anticipate the complaints and importunities of the sufferers and their kindred. Then, as though the tribunals were slack in their duty, in 1555 the order of 1532 was revived and repeated.[470] The wilful viciousness of this is indicated by the Instructions of 1561, which point out that, as those reconciled in Time of Grace are exempt from wearing the sanbenito, so their sanbenitos ought not to be suspended in the churches.[471]

SANBENITOS IN CHURCHES

The object was the cruel one of perpetuating the infamy of the victim and rendering it as galling as possible to his kindred and descendants. As the sanbenitos wore out or became illegible with time, they were replaced, and finally superseded by yellow linen cloths, bearing full details of the name, lineage, crime and punishment of the culprit.[472] Originally they were hung in the cathedral of the city of the Inquisition, but this did not bring the disgrace sufficiently close to the descendants and, in some places at least, they were ordered to be transferred to the parish churches of the delinquents, whose infamy was thus kept alive in the memory of their neighbors. A single instance will illustrate the spirit actuating this. In 1519 the Suprema ordered this transfer made by the tribunal of Cuenca, but the command was slackly obeyed and was repeated in 1529. Then the descendants of Lope de Leon and Alvar Hernández de Leon, residents of Belmonte, petitioned the Suprema, saying that the wives of Lope and Alvar had been reconciled; they were natives of Quintanar, where they had committed their heresy, and the descendants now begged that the sanbenitos be hung in the church of Quintanar and not of Belmonte. To this the Suprema replied, April 15, 1529, by instructing the tribunal to hang the sanbenitos in the residence of the descendants, in a place so public that the reconciliation of the women should be notorious to all. It is true that the descendants secured delay until the pressing orders came of 1548, when, on November 9th the sanbenitos of the women were hung in the church of Belmonte.[473]