Imperfect as are the records, we may endeavor to test these various estimates by such evidence as is at hand respecting a few of the tribunals. In this we may commence with Seville, which was unquestionably the most active. The Inquisition had started there, as the centre of crypto-Judaism; it was the most populous city of Castile, with nearly half a million of inhabitants, and its unrivalled commercial activity rendered it peculiarly attractive to the Conversos, while Isabella’s Andalusian decree of expulsion must have largely increased the number of pseudo-proselytes. In 1524, there was placed over the gateway of the castle of Triana, occupied by the tribunal, an inscription of which the purport is not entirely clear, but signifying that, up to that time, it had caused the abjuration of more than 20,000 heretics and had burnt nearly 1000 obstinate ones.[1153] This is probably an understatement, if we are to believe Bernáldez, who asserts that in eight years, from the founding of the Seville tribunal up to 1488, it had burnt in person more than 700 heretics, besides many effigies of fugitives and an infinite number of bones; those reconciled during the same period he estimates at 5000.[1154] Still its activity must soon have greatly diminished for, in 1502, Antoine de Lalaing, visiting the Castle of Triana, describes it as containing more than twenty heretic prisoners which he evidently regards as a large number, but which would argue a very moderate amount of persecution in view of the leisurely procedure that was becoming usual.[1155] There is therefore an apparent tendency to exaggerate the achievements of the Holy Office in the statement of its secretary Zurita, some half-century or more later, that in Seville alone, up to the year 1520, there were more than 4000 culprits burnt and more than 30,000 reconciled and penanced, besides the numerous fugitives, and he adds that an author, very diligent in the matter, affirms these figures to be exceedingly defective and that, in the archbishopric of Seville alone, there were condemned as Judaizing heretics, more than a hundred thousand persons, including those reconciled.[1156] Cardinal Contarini, when Venetian envoy in 1525, was evidently misled by this tendency to amplification, when he describes the Inquisition as having made a slaughter of the New Christians impossible to exaggerate.[1157]
STATISTICS OF VICTIMS
Unfortunately no authentic records have seen the light by which to test the accuracy of these varying estimates of the activity of the most destructive tribunal during the early period. It is otherwise with several of those that ranked next to it in importance. For the province of Toledo, as we have seen, the first tribunal was established at Ciudad Real where, in its two years of existence, it relaxed in person 47 and in effigy 98.[1158] Transferred to Toledo, in 1485, its operations at first were energetic, but they diminished greatly towards the end of the century until, in 1501, it had a spasmodic period of activity through the discovery of “La Moça de Herrera” (Vol. I, p. 186) a young Jewish prophetess, to whose numerous believers no mercy was shown, for those who had been reconciled thus incurred the penalty of relapse. The total operations of the Toledo tribunal, from its origin in 1485 until 1501, amount to 250 relaxed in person, over 500 in effigy, about 200 imprisoned and 5200 reconciled under Edicts of Grace. Of the personally relaxed, nearly half, or 117, were followers of the prophetess, leaving only 139 ordinary Judaizers and, of those imprisoned, about 140 may be accounted for in the same way.[1159] Saragossa was reckoned as one of the most deadly tribunals in Spain—indeed, Llorente remarks that if he had taken it and Toledo as the basis of his calculations, he would have tripled the number of victims.[1160] For this we have the details of the sixty-five autos, held from 1485 to 1502, furnished by the record printed in the Appendix to Volume I. Summarized, this gives the totals of 119 burnt alive, 5 quartered, beheaded or strangled prior to burning, 3 bodies burnt, 29 effigies burnt and 458 penanced, or an aggregate of 614.[1161] The Libro Verde de Aragon, moreover, gives us an official list of the residents of Saragossa burnt, from 1483 to 1574, in summarizing which it appears that, during these ninety-two years, the total of relaxations in person was 125 and in effigy 77, including seven witches, three sorcerers and four Protestants. Tabulation by years emphasizes the diminution of activity after the close of the fifteenth century.[1162]
Barcelona is another important tribunal of which we have accurate statistics during its early years, furnished by the royal archivist, Pere Miguel Carbonell. From its foundation to the end of Torquemada’s career, in 1498, there were thirty-one autos celebrated in Barcelona, Tarragona, Lérida, Gerona, Perpignan, Vich, Elne and Balaguer. In these the totals are only 10 strangled and burnt, 13 burnt alive, 15 dead and 430 burnt in effigy, 1 reconciled in effigy, 116 penanced with prison and 304 reconciled for spontaneous confession.[1163]
Valencia, of all the tribunals, was the one which best maintained its activity throughout the sixteenth century, owing to the dense Morisco population. We have a list of all persons imprisoned for heresy, from the beginning in 1485 up to 1592 inclusive, amounting in all to 3104, of whom 530 were contributed by the last four years, 1589-92, when the persecution of the Moriscos was particularly active. There is also an alphabetical list of persons relaxed, from the beginning until 1593, unfortunately imperfect and ending with the letter N, but, by adding twenty-five per cent. we can obtain a reasonably close approximation to the total. The list as we have it gives 515 relaxations in person and 383 in effigy, or, with the addition of twenty-five per cent., 643 of the former and 479 of the latter, being nearly an average of six per annum of the former and four and a half of the latter.[1164]
Valladolid had the most extensive territory of all the tribunals, but it comprised the northern provinces, where the New Christians were comparatively few. It was not organized for work until 1488, making its first arrest on September 29th of that year, and holding its first auto on June 19, 1489, when, after nine months’ work on new ground, there were but eighteen relaxations in person and four in effigy. The next auto recorded did not occur until January 5, 1492, when the relaxations in person numbered thirty-two and in effigy two.[1165] This, while sufficiently cruel, indicates that the victims in the northern provinces bore but a small proportion to those in the southern.
STATISTICS OF VICTIMS
At the other extremity of Spain was the little tribunal of Majorca, which acquired a sudden and sinister reputation by the occurrences of 1678 and 1691. It started in 1488 and for some years was fairly active, lapsing in time into virtual torpor, as far as persecution was concerned, so that, including its autos of 1678 and 1691, the whole aggregate of its work for over two centuries amounted to 139 relaxations in person, 482 in effigy and 637 reconciliations, in addition to 338 reconciled under Edicts of Grace in 1488 and 1491.[1166]
In the later periods there are records which enable us to reach a fairly accurate computation of the activity of some at least of the tribunals. A few of these I have had the opportunity of consulting and the researches of future students will doubtless in time compile tolerably complete statistics for the second and third centuries of the Inquisition, after the Suprema had compelled the tribunals to render periodical reports.
CONSCIENTIOUS CRUELTY