The fourteenth inquisitor-general was the Cardinal Don Ferdinand Niño de Guevara, Archbishop of Seville, who took possession in December 1599, during the reign of Philip III.
It was under Philip II. that the Inquisition committed the greatest cruelties; and the reign of this prince is the most remarkable period of the history of the holy office.
CHAPTER XXIII.
OF SOME AUTOS-DA-FE CELEBRATED IN MURCIA.
THE opinions of Luther, Calvin, and the other Protestant reformers, were not disseminated in the other cities in Spain with the same rapidity as at Seville and Valladolid; but there is reason to believe that all Spain would soon have been infected with the heresy, but for the extreme severity shown towards the Lutherans. From 1560 to 1570 at least one auto-da-fé was celebrated every year in every Inquisition of the kingdom, and some heretics of the new sect always appeared among the condemned persons. Yet the progress of Lutheranism cannot be compared to that of Judaism and Mahometanism, because these religions had been long established, and the ancestors of a great number of Spanish families had professed them. An opinion may be formed of what passed in the other tribunals from some notices of the proceedings of that of Murcia.
On the 7th of June, 1557, a solemn auto-da-fé was celebrated at Murcia, where eleven individuals were burnt, and forty-three were reconciled. On the 12th of February, 1559, thirty victims were burnt with five effigies, and forty-three were reconciled. On the 14th February, in the same year, 1560, fourteen persons were burnt, and twenty effigies: twenty-nine persons were subjected to penances.
On the 8th of September, in the same year, sixteen individuals perished in the flames, and forty-eight were condemned to penances.
On the 15th of March, 1562, another auto-da-fé took place, composed of twenty-three persons, who were burnt, and of sixty-three who were condemned to penances. They were all punished as Judaic heretics: among the first may be remarked, Fray Louis de Valdecañas, a Franciscan, descended from the ancient Jews; he was condemned for having preached the law of Moses; Juan de Santa-Fé, Alvarez Xuarez, and Paul d'Ayllon, alderman or sheriffs; Pedro Gutierrez, a member of the municipality; and Juan de Leon, syndic of the city.
An auto-da-fé was celebrated in the same town on the 20th of May, 1563; seventeen persons were burnt in person, and four in effigy; forty-seven others were subjected to penances. I shall mention those distinguished by their rank or some particularity in their trials.
Don Philip of Aragon, son of the Emperor of Fez and Morocco, came to Spain while he was very young, and became a Christian; he had for his godfather Ferdinand of Aragon, Viceroy of Valencia, Duke of Calabria, and eldest son of the King of Naples, Frederic III. Neither his rank, as the son of an emperor, nor the advantage of having a prince for his godfather, were sufficient to prevent the inquisitors from exposing him to the disgrace of appearing in a solemn auto-da-fé; he was introduced in the ceremony with the paper mitre on his head, terminated by long horns, and covered with figures of devils. In this state he was admitted to public reconciliation, after which he was to be imprisoned for three years in a convent, then banished for ever from the town of Elche where he had settled, and from the kingdoms of Valencia, Aragon, Murcia, and Grenada. The inquisitors boasted much of the lenity of this sentence, and informed the public that it was occasioned by Don Philip's having given himself up, instead of taking flight as he might have done. It appears that, after his baptism, he had shown some interest and inclination to the sect of Mahomet; he had also given assistance to some apostates, and had shown himself a favourer and concealer of heretics. He was also accused of having made a compact with the devil, and having practised sorcery.
The licentiate Antonio de Villena, a native of Albacete, and a priest and preacher much esteemed at court, appeared in the auto-da-fé in his shirt, with his head uncovered and a flambeau in his hand; he abjured heresy as slightly suspected. He was reconciled, and condemned to one year's imprisonment, without the privilege of celebrating the holy mysteries; deprived for ever of the power of preaching, banished from Madrid for two years, and obliged to pay five hundred ducats toward the expenses of the holy office. His crime was having spoken ill of the Inquisition, and of the inquisitor-general Valdés, saying that he persecuted him, and that he would find an opportunity of complaining to the king. He had also been unfortunate enough to betray the system of the prisons of the holy office, after having been detained there twice for suspicious propositions.