Yet it would not be safe to conclude from this that fanaticism was extinct. At the Llerena auto of June 25, 1752, there were six effigies of fugitives to be burnt and one of a dead woman with her bones. It had always been the custom to have these borne in the procession and to the brasero by carriers of the lowest class, drawn from the hospital for vagrants, who were paid for the service but, on this occasion, it chanced that none of these could be had. The inquisitors were greatly exercised and, as a last expedient, they represented to the Lieutenant-governor, Don Manuel de la Fuente y Dávila, that this was an exalted religious duty which the noblest might be proud to perform, and they offered that the officials of the Inquisition would carry the effigies to the church and then to the secular magistrate, if Don Manuel and other nobles would bear them thence to the brasero. Don Manuel assented and his example was followed by the Governor, the Marquis of Torre Mexia and other nobles; the officials were persuaded to do their share, and thus, we are told, the old custom, so derogatory to the sacredness of the function, was successfully discarded. The procession to the brasero was a triumphal march, to the sound of trumpets, with the escort of all the troops that could be assembled.[656]
SPECTACULAR AUTOS
Notwithstanding such occasional bursts of zeal, the glory of the Inquisition was rapidly departing and, with the extermination of the few remaining Judaizers, its functions continuously dwindled. In the Toledo tribunal, the last auto held in a church was on March 7, 1778, for a single penitent condemned to vergüenza for sorcery. After that, to the close of the century, it had but nine autillos, all held in the audience-chamber, sometimes with open and sometimes with closed doors, and in each of them there was but a single penitent. Five of the cases were for propositions, two for solicitation in the confessional, one for bigamy, and one for administering sacraments without priests’ orders.[657] To this had shrunk the activity of a once prominent tribunal and with this shrinkage the power to impress the popular imagination with its imposing demonstrations.
There is one aspect of the auto de fe which reflects the intensity of Spanish fanaticism in a most suggestive manner. When the Spaniard regarded it as a celebration fitted for a day of rejoicing, or as a spectacular entertainment acceptable to distinguished national guests, he did so in the conviction that it was the highest exhibition of piety, and a service to God, glorious to the land which organized it, and stimulating the devotion of all participants. Probably no autos were celebrated in honor of Ferdinand and Isabella, for the stern and rapid work of the period scarce admitted of the pageantry requisite to adapt the spectacle to royal courtliness, and the Burgundian fashions had not superseded the ancient Castilian simplicity. None of their successors, however, of the House of Hapsburg, were without such a testimonial of pious loyalty. When, in 1528, Charles V passed through Valencia, there was celebrated in his honor an auto, in which there were thirteen men and women relaxed in person, besides ten in effigy.[658] In 1560, the Toledo tribunal contributed an auto, with several relaxations, to the joyous celebration of the marriage of Philip II with Isabelle de Valois, daughter of Henry II of France. It was a notable spectacle, for the royal wedding and the meeting of the Córtes to swear allegiance to the young Don Carlos brought to Toledo all that was most distinguished in Spain.[659] When, in February, 1564, Philip was in Barcelona for the Catalan Córtes, an auto was arranged in his honor, in which there were eight relaxations in person and numerous condemnations to the galleys. They were mostly Frenchmen whom Saint-Sulpice, the French ambassador, had vainly sought to protect.[660]
SPECTACULAR AUTOS
The accession of Philip III was celebrated by an auto at Toledo, March 6, 1600, in the presence of the king, his queen, Margarita of Austria, the Duke of Lerma and all the court, where Philip took the oath to protect and favor the Holy Office. Toledo had but few culprits, as it had held an auto the year before, but a total of forty-six were accumulated by drawing upon Córdoba, Granada, Cuenca, Llerena, Valladolid and Seville. There were but two relaxations in effigy and one in person—the latter being a Huguenot named Jacques Pinzon, whom the Granada tribunal had been leisurely endeavoring to wean from his heresy for a couple of years. He was needed to complete the attraction at Toledo, and his trial was concluded so hurriedly that the Suprema ordered his transfer thither before it had received for confirmation the vote condemning him, so the sentence was made out in blank and sent after him for the Toledan inquisitors to sign. As he is characterized as pertinacious he was probably burnt alive.[661] The great auto of Madrid, in 1632, was held there by the special order of the king, in celebration of the recovery from confinement of Isabelle de Bourbon, wife of Philip IV, and was graced with the presence of both and of their son Don Carlos. There were thirty-seven penitents besides seven relaxations in person and two in effigy.[662] The revolted Catalans, who had given themselves to France, took the same means of honoring the Viceroy Condé, on the eve of his departure for Paris, by an auto celebrated November 7, 1647, in which there were two relaxations in person and two in effigy.[663] The ostensible purpose of the crowning glory at Madrid, June 30, 1680, which fitly ended the long series of autos publicos generales, was to honor the marriage of the young Carlos II with Louise Marie d’Orléans. There were sixty-seven penitents and fifty-one relaxations, of which nineteen were in person. A compañia de la Zarza was formed, numbering two hundred and fifty members, with Francisco de Salcedo as captain. On June 28th they were taken to the puerta de Alcalá, where each man was furnished with a fagot. Then they marched to the royal palace, where Salcedo took a fagot, specially prepared for the purpose, and handed it to the Duke of Pastrana, who carried it to the king. Carlos with his own hands bore it to his queen and exhibited it and then sent it back by Pastrana with the message that it should be taken in his name to the brasero and be the first that was thrown upon the fire.[664] The religious training of the young monarch had evidently not been neglected. It was an earnest of better things in store for Spain when, in 1701, Philip V refused to be present at an auto general proposed to be celebrated in honor of his accession, and the project was abandoned.[665]
We have thus considered the organization of the Inquisition and its general methods of action. It remains for us to examine the application of those methods to the various classes of offenders subjected to its extensive jurisdiction.