The declarations of the witnesses who were interrogated at Madrid, after the first revolt of Saragossa in 1591, deposed to facts to which no importance could have been attached, if they had related to other persons and events. But Antonio Perez was concerned in them, and that was sufficient to cause them to be censured as audacious, and suspected of heresy. I shall not stay to prove the insufficiency of this act, but shall give the third of the propositions as an example of the rest. "In speaking of Philip II., and of Vendome, Antonio Perez said that the king was a tyrant, but that Vendome would be a great monarch, for he was an excellent prince, and governed the state to the satisfaction of every one; that he therefore rejoiced on hearing of his victories, and that it was not heresy to pay court to him and speak to him." QUALIFICATION. "The accused shews himself to be impious in respect to God and the holy Catholic faith, a favourer and violently suspected of heresy; and as he now lives in the midst of heretics, it proves that he is himself an heretic."
The inquisitors, who wished to favour the views of the court at any rate, took advantage of a vague report, communicated to them by one of their familiars, that Antonio Perez was descended from the Jews, because in the borough of Hariza, near Montreal, from whence his family came, there had lived a new Christian called Juan Perez, who was burnt by the Inquisition as a judaizing heretic. The registers of the holy office were immediately consulted, and it appeared that one Juan Perez de Fariza had been burnt, and that Antonio Perez de Fariza had died a heretic.
Pascual Gilberte, a priest and commissioner of the holy office, was appointed, on the 16th of April, 1592, to ascertain if there was any degree of relationship between the condemned heretics and the father of Antonio Perez. Many witnesses were examined, both in Montreal, and the neighbouring towns, but they all declared that the two families were perfectly distinct.
All that is known concerning the genealogy of Perez is, that he was the natural son of Gonzalez Perez and Donna Jane d'Escobar, and that he was legitimatized by Charles V. That his paternal grandfather was Bartholemew Perez, secretary to the Inquisition of Calahorra, that his grandmother was Donna Louisa Perez del Hierro, of a noble family of Segovia; that he was great grandson to Juan Perez, an inhabitant of Montreal, and of Mary Tirado his wife; and that there was no relationship, direct or indirect, between his family and that of Juan and Antonio Perez de Fariza. This was afterwards fully proved by the wife and children of Antonio Perez. It must be observed, that if the inquisitors had wished to be truly informed, they might have had a copy of the contract of marriage between Perez and Donna Jane Coello, which states that his father was born at Segovia. In that city, at Calahorra, and even in the Supreme Council, they might have found his real genealogy.
However, the fiscal abused the privilege of secrecy, in the accusation he brought against Perez, on the 6th of July, by supposing that he was descended from the Jews, in order to strengthen the suspicion of heresy, according to the custom of the Inquisition. The accusation was composed of forty-three articles, each more vague than the others, and only founded on words uttered without reflection, during a fit of rage, or in extreme pain, which had no connexion with doctrine, and concerning which no two witnesses agreed in the time, place, or circumstances.
On the 14th of August the fiscal demanded that the depositions of the witnesses should be published; and on the 16th the qualifiers again assembled to censure the propositions already noted, and the works printed at Pau. They censured sixteen as audacious and erroneous; some others as blasphemous, and approaching to heresy, and concluded that Antonio Perez was suspected of heresy in the most violent degree[72].
On the 18th the fiscal required that Perez should be declared contumaceous, and that the definitive sentence should be pronounced. On the 7th of September, the diocesan, different consultors, and jurisconsults (among whom was the first informer, Don Urban Ximenez de Aragues, regent of the royal audience) were convoked, and voted the punishment of relaxation in effigy. The Supreme Council confirmed the sentence on the 13th of October, and on the 20th the judges pronounced the definitive sentence, condemning Perez as a formal heretic, a convicted Hugonot, and an obstinate impenitent, to be relaxed in person when he could be taken, and in the mean time to suffer that punishment in effigy, with the mitre and San-benito. His property was confiscated, and his children and grandchildren in the male line devoted to infamy, besides other penalties. Many other persons suffered in this auto-da-fé, of whom an account will be given in the next chapter.
Perez was in England when he was condemned to death. A conspiracy against his life by some Spaniards was discovered there: it was renewed at Paris by the Baron de la Pinilla, who declared that he had been sent to kill him by Don Juan Idiaquez, minister to Philip II.
The death of that prince, and the consequent change in the politics of the government, inspired Perez with the hope of arranging his affairs at Madrid; but the misfortune of having been prosecuted by the Inquisition rendered his efforts unavailing. The reader is referred to the Relations for all that concerns this part of the history.
Perez had, at Paris, been intimate with Fray Francis de Sosa, general of the Franciscans, then Bishop of the Canaries, and a counsellor of the Inquisition, who often advised him to give himself up to the holy office, as the only means of obtaining a reconciliation. Perez replied that he would do so, and even wished it, but was deterred by the fear of being arrested by the government, after being set at liberty by the Inquisition. Sosa then tried to persuade him that he would avoid that danger by obtaining a safe conduct from the inquisitor-general and the Supreme Council, promising that he should be set at liberty when his trial was terminated by the holy office. Sosa, at that time, was little acquainted with the Inquisition, of which he was afterwards a member.