The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand VII.

by Juan Antonio Llorente

CHAPTER XX.
THE INQUISITION CELEBRATES AT VALLADOLID, IN 1559, TWO AUTOS-DA-FE AGAINST THE LUTHERANS, IN THE PRESENCE OF SOME MEMBERS OF THE ROYAL FAMILY.

First Auto-da-fé.

The trial of Juan Gil, Bishop of Tortosa, so much alarmed many Lutherans, that they quitted the kingdom. Of this number were Cassiodorus de Beina, Juan Perez de Pineda, Cyprian de Valera, and Julian Hernandez; the three first published catechisms, translations of the Bible, and other works written in the Castilian tongue, in foreign countries[19]. Juan Perez published his at Venice in 1556, and they were soon after introduced into Spain by Hernandez, who was arrested by the Inquisition. The citations and inquiries made in consequence of the trial of Hernandez, in order to discover the religious opinions of the persons with whom he associated, caused an infinite number of trials to be instituted during the fifteen years following, in all the tribunals of Spain, particularly in those of Seville and Valladolid. In 1557 and 1558, the Inquisition arrested a great number of persons distinguished by their birth, their offices, or their doctrine. Some indications found in the writings of the trials, of a vast scheme tending to the propagation of the opinions of Luther, persuaded Philip II. and the inquisitor Valdés that it was necessary to treat all the convicted persons with the utmost severity. Philip wrote to Rome on the subject on the 4th January, 1559. The Pope addressed to Valdés a brief, in which he authorized him to give over to secular justice all dogmatizing Lutherans, even those who had not relapsed, and who, to avoid capital punishment, had given equivocal signs of repentance. If history had nothing to allege against Philip II. and the inquisitor Valdés, but the solicitation for this bull, it would be sufficient to devote their names to infamy.

On the 5th of January, 1559, a second bull revoked all the permissions granted for reading prohibited books, and charged the inquisitor-general to prosecute all who should read or keep them in their houses; and as his Holiness was informed that a great number of writings which tended to propagate the Lutheran doctrines were circulating in Spain, the bull commanded the confessors to ask their penitents if they knew or had heard of any persons possessing, reading, or dispersing them; that they should also impose upon them the obligation of communicating such circumstances to the holy office on pain of excommunication; and that the confessors who omitted this duty should be punished as guilty, even if persons they absolved were bishops, archbishops, patriarchs, cardinals, kings, or emperors. It is easy to perceive how much these measures must have increased the number of accusations; and to encourage the informers, Philip renewed the edict of Ferdinand V., published at Toro in 1505, by which they were entitled to the fourth part of the confiscated property.

The multitude of accusations caused by these bulls, induced the inquisitor-general to delegate his powers to Don Pedro de la Gasca, Bishop of Palencia, who established himself at Valladolid, and to Don Juan Gonzales de Munebrega, Bishop of Tarragona, who repaired to Seville. Valdés at the same time executed the dispositions of another bull, which granted to the holy office, on account of its increased expenses in travelling and maintaining so great a number of prisoners, the revenues of a canonship in each metropolitan church, cathedral, and college, in the kingdom. Another brief granted them a subsidy of one hundred thousand ducats of gold, to be imposed on the ecclesiastical revenues of the kingdom, to pay the debts contracted from the same cause. It is surprising that, after eighty years of confiscation, the establishment should complain of distress. These bulls, however, were not sufficient to procure money, owing to the resistance of several chapters, particularly that of Majorca. In 1574 they still remained unexecuted, when Gregory XIII. confirmed them, and the King of Spain was obliged to force the rebel canons to submit.

The arrest and trial of so great a number of Spaniards necessarily caused an auto-da-fé to be celebrated in many tribunals; but as the victims in those of Valladolid and Seville were persons distinguished, some for their nobility, others for their doctrine, and all for the purity of their lives, the ceremonies in these cities were more noted than the others; and I do not hesitate in affirming that all that has been written against the Spanish Inquisition in Germany and France was only caused by the treatment of the Lutherans at Seville and Valladolid (for, until then, scarcely anything had been written on the subject), though the number of Lutherans who perished was small, when compared to the enormous and almost incredible number of those who had suffered as Jews or Mahometans.

The first solemn auto-da-fé of Valladolid was celebrated on the 21st of May, 1559, in the grand square, and in the presence of the Prince Don Carlos, and the Princess Juana, of the civil authorities, and of a considerable number of the grandees of Spain, besides an immense multitude of people. The arrangement of the scaffolds and seats have been already described in several works, and represented in prints. Fourteen persons were relaxed, the bones and effigy of a woman burnt, and sixteen individuals were admitted to reconciliation, with penances. Some details of the principal persons may be found interesting.

Donna Eleonora de Vibero (the wife of Pedro Cazalla, who held an office in the Treasury), daughter of Juan de Vibero, who had a similar employment, and Constance Ortiz, was proprietress of a chapel in the Benedictine convent of Valladolid. She had been interred without any doubt of her orthodoxy; but she was accused of Lutheranism by the fiscal of the Inquisition, though he said she had concealed her opinions, by receiving the sacraments and the eucharist at her death. He supported his accusation by the testimony of several witnesses who had been tortured or threatened, the result of which was that the house of Eleonora de Vibero had been used as a temple by the Lutherans. Her memory and her posterity were condemned to infamy, her property confiscated, her body disinterred and burnt with her effigy, and her house razed to the ground, and prohibited from being rebuilt; a monument with an inscription relating to this event was placed on the spot. I have seen the column and the inscription; I have heard that it was destroyed in 1809.

The other principal persons who perished in this auto-da-fé were, Doctor Augustin Cazalla, priest and canon of Salamanca, almoner and preacher to the king and emperor; he was the son of Pedro Cazalla and Eleonora de Vibero, and descended from the Jews both by his father and mother. He was accused of professing the Lutheran heresy; of having dogmatized in the Lutheran conventicle of Valladolid, and corresponded with the heretics of Seville. Cazalla denied the facts imputed to him in several declarations on oath, and in others which he presented when the publication of the proofs took place. The torture was decreed: Cazalla, on the 4th of March, was conducted to the dungeon where it was to be inflicted, but it did not take place, as the prisoner promised to make a confession. He gave it in writing, and ratified it on the 16th, acknowledging that he was a Lutheran, but denied having taught the doctrine. He explained the motives which had prevented him from making this declaration before; and promised to be a good catholic for the future, if reconciliation was granted to him; but the inquisitors did not think proper to spare him the capital punishment, as the witnesses affirmed that he had dogmatized. Cazalla, however, continued to give every possible proof of conversion until his execution: when he saw that death was inevitable, he began to preach to his companions in misfortune. Two days before his death, he related some particulars of his life. He was born in 1510: at the age of seventeen he had Bartholomew Carranza de Miranda for his confessor, in the college of St. Gregory at Valladolid; he continued his studies at Alcala de Henares, where he remained till 1536. In 1545 Charles V. made him his preacher; in the following year he accompanied that prince to Germany, and stayed there till 1552, preaching against the Lutherans; he returned in that year to Spain, and retired to Salamanca, where he lived for three years, going sometimes to Valladolid. He once attended, by the emperor's order, at an assembly where Don Antonio Fonseca, president of the Royal Council of Castile, presided, and at which the Licentiate Otalora, the Doctors Ribera and Velasco, auditors of the council and chancery, and Brothers Alphonso de Castro and Bartholomew Carranza assisted. The object of the meeting was to decide on the course to be pursued on the occasion of certain briefs which the Court of Rome had expedited against those who approved of the decrees of the Council of Trent, which continued to assemble in that city, though the Pope had commanded that it should be transferred to Bologna. Cazalla declared that all the members of the junta acknowledged that the Pope only acted from motives of personal interest; and that Bartholomew Carranza particularly distinguished himself by inveighing against the abuses of the Court of Rome. On the 20th of May, the day before his death, he received a visit from Brother Antonio de la Carrera, a monk of St. Jerome, who was sent to him by the inquisitors, to inform him that they were not satisfied with his declarations, and to exhort him, for the good of his conscience, to confess all that he knew of himself and others. Cazalla answered, that he could not say more, without bearing false-witness. The monk replied, that he had always denied that he had dogmatized, though the contrary was proved by the witnesses. He said, that this crime had been unjustly imputed to him; that he was guilty of not having undeceived those who held bad doctrines; but that he had only spoken of his opinions to persons who thought as he did: Brother Antonio then exhorted him to prepare for death on the following day. This information was a thunderbolt to Cazalla, who had expected to be admitted to a reconciliation. He demanded if his punishment might not be commuted: Carrera told him, that if he confessed what he had hitherto concealed, he might hope for mercy. Well then, said Cazalla, I must prepare to die in the grace of God; for it is impossible that I should add anything to what I have already said, unless I lie. He then began to encourage himself to suffer death; he confessed several times in the same night, and the next day to Antonio de la Carrera. When he arrived at the place of the auto-da-fé, he asked permission to preach to those who were to suffer with him; he could not obtain it, but he addressed a few words to them: as he was a penitent, he was strangled before, he was burnt. When he was fastened to the stake, he confessed for the last time, and his confessor was so affected by all that he had seen and heard during the last twenty-four hours, that he afterwards wrote, "that he had no doubt that Doctor Cazalla was in Heaven."

Francis de Vibero Cazalla, brother to Augustin, a priest, and Curate of Hormigos in the diocese of Palencia, at first denied the charges, confessed them when tortured, ratified his confession, and demanded to be admitted to reconciliation. This was refused, as it was supposed that he had only confessed from the fear of death. In fact, he ridiculed his brother's exhortations on the scaffold, and expired in the flames without showing any signs of repentance. He was degraded from the priesthood, as well as his brother, before he ascended the scaffold.