This policy of distribution cannot have been universal for, when the Toledo cathedral desired to be relieved of the great accumulation of sanbenitos, the Suprema forbade it, adding that if it was desired to have them in the parish churches it must be done with new ones, leaving the originals in the cathedral. At length, in 1538, the inquisitors Yáñez and Loaysa distributed them among the parish churches, when Sebastian de Orozco tells us that it caused infinite misery to the descendants, leading them all or nearly all to change their family names, so that in Toledo the names actually borne by the Conversos disappeared.[474]
Change of name was not the only device resorted to by the descendants, for they were constantly at work removing surreptitiously the evidence of their infamy. As early as 1518, the Saragossa tribunal was ordered to prosecute with rigor those who had abstracted them from the Dominican church.[475] Their zeal was stimulated by the fact that the inquisitors, in making up the records, included all who had been reconciled under Edicts of Grace, thus affording legitimate ground of complaint, as shown by a long-continued struggle at Frejenal. In 1556, Doctor Ramírez, Inquisitor of Llerena, protested to the Suprema against the efforts of the people of Frejenal for the removal of the names of those reconciled in Time of Grace; it would leave but few for, in 1491, there had been three hundred and fifty-seven reconciliations there, of which three hundred and fifty-four had been under the Edict. To render ancestral infamy more accessible to the public, besides the sanbenitos, the names and details were inscribed on a tablet of parchment. This became torn and nearly illegible and, on August 23, 1563, it was solemnly replaced by another, written in large letters, with printer’s ink, and varnished to insure its preservation. The secret warfare waged against this perpetuation of infamy is described, in 1572, in a deposition of the familiar Rodrigo Carvajo. The people of the town, he said, were mostly descendants of Conversos, resorting to perjury and every other means to conceal their origin. The sacristans were generally Conversos, who connived at the methods employed to destroy the evidence, and the sanbenitos were stolen; there used to be five hundred and ninety-nine, and now there were only ten or a dozen, worn and torn and so placed that they could not be read, while the tablet with the names was gradually being defaced and rendered illegible. Thus it continued until 1576, when Inquisitor Montoyo brought to Frejenal a new set of sanbenitos prepared from the records, which were duly suspended, and a tablet containing names and details was placed where all could read it. This list shows the obstinate persistence with which the names of the spontaneously reconciled were retained. It contained a hundred and sixty-two relaxed and four hundred and nine reconciled, all, with very few exceptions, in the years from 1491 to 1495. There were none between 1499 and 1511, and none later than 1511.[476] Struggles similar to this were doubtless on foot in numerous other places.
SANBENITOS IN CHURCHES
The churches themselves do not seem to have looked with favor on this desecration of their sacred precincts. At Cuenca, there was apparently an attempt to hide the sanbenitos of which the tribunal complained in 1571, when the Suprema ordered it to see that nothing was put before them, even on feast-days.[477] The parish church of San Salvador, at Cifuentes, went further and, in 1561, appealed to Pius IV, explaining to him the Spanish custom, and representing that not only was the attractiveness of the church marred by the prominence assigned to the sanbenitos, but that they led to many scandals, all of which would be prevented if they were removed to some less prominent place or laid away altogether, but that licence from the Holy See was requisite for this. The pope gave the required licence, subject to the assent of the Inquisition to the removal, which of course rendered it inoperative.[478] The cathedral of Granada was more fortunate for when, in 1610, Inquisitor-general Sandoval consecrated as archbishop Pedro González de Mendoza, the latter asked him, as a special favor to his bride, that she should be relieved of the sanbenitos. Sandoval assented and the permission came soon after Mendoza had reached Granada. It was celebrated with great rejoicings and ringing of bells; the sanbenitos of the Moriscos were transferred to the church of San Salvador, in the Albaycin, while those of the Judaizers were hung in the church of Santiago, which was the parish church of the Inquisition.[479] Even when there was not this open antagonism, there was apt to be neglect which was practically more damaging. In 1642, the Valencia tribunal learned that some of those in the cathedral had fallen and were allowed to lie. It made an investigation and, from the report, it would seem as though every available spot was thus decorated and that all required attention for their preservation. The sacristans promised to do what was necessary, but apparently they had been quite willing to see them disappear.[480]
Conscious of this ecclesiastical indifference and of the constant effort of those interested to make way with the visible records of their infamy, the Suprema was incessantly active to counteract the results. The Instructions of 1561 insist imperatively on the duty of hanging the new sanbenitos and renewing the old, so that the memory of the infamy of heretics shall be preserved forever, and inquisitors on their visitations are commanded to see that the parish churches are kept with unbroken lines of the mantetas y insinias of their culprit parishioners.[481] Philip II was no less urgent. In his instructions of 1595 to Manrique de Lara, he calls special attention to the subject; there are sanbenitos now to be hung and others which have never been hung, apparently through favoritism, for which the inquisitors deserve rigorous punishment, for this is the severest penalty which the Holy Office can inflict on heretics and their descendants, and Manrique is to see that all deficiencies are made good.[482]
In fact, the most pressing business of the inquisitor in visiting his district was to attend to this. In 1569 the Suprema ordered every one, before starting, to have full lists made out of the relaxed and reconciled of the region to be traversed and, in each place, these lists were to be compared with the existing sanbenitos and all that had disappeared were to be replaced. In 1600 and 1607 these instructions were repeated with still greater urgency, as a matter not to be neglected for a single day, in view of the evils that would follow.[483] That nothing was to be allowed to interfere with this pious duty is seen when Valencia had no money wherewith to defray the expense of renewals and was told to borrow it from the Depositario de los pretendientes—the sacred deposits of those seeking to prove their limpieza, which were thus used to preserve the muniments that might destroy their hopes.[484]
How, in fact, the sanbenitos were employed for this purpose is indicated in a perquisition conducted at Tortosa, in 1577, by the inquisitor, Juan de Zúñiga. The sanbenitos were carefully examined and lists were made out, classified firstly into those of which the trials could be identified and those of which no trace could be found in the records, and secondly into the penalties inflicted. Then two of the oldest residents—a notary and a priest—were summoned; the lists were gone over with them and their evidence was taken as to the descendants of the culprits, especially whether any had changed their names so as to elude disabilities. Thus a close watch was kept on them and every care was taken that the infamy of their ancestors should be lasting.[485]
SANBENITOS IN CHURCHES
As the seventeenth century wore on, it would seem that the zeal of the tribunals in the matter of sanbenitos was flagging. A general carta acordada of February 27, 1657, assumes this, in calling their attention to the Instructions of 1561 and to subsequent orders of similar import. As many autos de fe had recently been held, and as it was understood that, in some places, the sanbenitos had not been hung in the churches, the tribunals were commanded forthwith to make out lists of the relaxed and the reconciled, and to have corresponding sanbenitos suspended in the churches, as well as to renew the old ones which were worn out. In view of the importance of this to the service of God, a full report in detail was imperatively required to be furnished within four months. This may have excited the tribunals to spasmodic activity but, if so, its influence was but temporary for, in 1691, we find the Suprema ordering reports as to the length of time that had elapsed since sanbenitos had ceased to be hung in the churches; lists of deficiencies were called for; the old sanbenitos were to be examined and statements were to be rendered as to what were lacking and what had become illegible, so that the Suprema might take requisite action.[486]
This looks as if the custom had been falling into desuetude, but it was by no means abandoned and, as late as August 26, 1753, when a deceased delinquent named Horstmann was burnt in effigy at Valencia, two sanbenitos were ordered to be suspended, one in the cathedral and one in the parish church of San Lorenzo.[487] Still the same tribunal furnishes, in 1783, a refreshing evidence of the decline of intolerant zeal in the gradual diffusion of enlightenment. The cathedral had been undergoing restoration, during which the sanbenitos had been carefully stored in a room of the Inquisition. On the completion of the work, the tribunal suggested to Inquisitor-general Beltran that it would not redound to the service of God or of the public to hang them up again, to which Beltran assented; if the chapter did not ask for them, the tribunal was not to raise the question, or to do any thing in the matter and, from an endorsement on the letter, it is to be inferred that the sanbenitos were allowed to repose undisturbed.[488]