What was that declaration?—It will be found in the writings of the trial. (The declaration was here read to Francis.)
Is what you have just heard true?—No.
Why then did you affirm that it was so?—Because I heard an inquisitor say it.
Are the declarations against other persons true?—No.
Why did you make them?—Because I perceived in the auto-da-fé at which I assisted, that the contents were read in the publication of the depositions, and I thought that if I declared it to be true, I should avoid death as being a good penitent.
Why did you make your ratification after the auto-da-fé, when the fiscal presented you as a witness against your wife, and other persons?—For the same reason.
After this conversation, Francis was sent back to the prison, where he wrote a kind of memorial, in which he said that none of the witnesses were admissible against him, because they differed and contradicted each other in their declarations.
When the visitor was gone, the inquisitors recommenced their prosecution; the fiscal accused Francis Guillen of the crime of revocation, saying that he had imposed on them from fear, ignorance, or some other motive. When Francis again found himself in danger, he, as might have been expected, declared that his first depositions were true, and that the cause of his retracting was a mental indisposition, with which he had been affected. On the 10th November, 1565, Francis was condemned to appear in the auto-da-fé, to receive three hundred stripes, and to pass the rest of his life in a prison. The punishment of imprisonment was commuted for that of serving in the galleys, as long as the strength and health of Francis allowed of it. The judges reserved the right of deciding this point themselves. The prisoner was conducted to the auto-da-fé on the 9th of December, and suffered the punishment of whipping; he was then transferred to the common royal prison.
After he arrived there, he wrote to his judges, declaring himself incapable of serving in the galleys. The tribunal revised the judgment, and sent him to the house of Mercy. This proceeding displeased the fiscal, who protested against it, saying, that the office of the judges did not extend beyond the sentence, and that they had not the right of commuting the punishment, without the consent of the inquisitor-general; the affair stopped here, and Francis had been sufficiently punished for his indiscretion to render him more cautious for the future.
The irregularity and disorder of the proceedings of this tribunal may be seen still more clearly in another trial before the Inquisition of Murcia, about the same time, and which was undertaken in consequence of the depositions of Guillen. It was instituted against Melchior Hernandez, a merchant of Toledo, which place he afterwards left to establish himself at Murcia. As he was descended from the Jews, he was suspected of being attached to the religion of his ancestors. After being taken to the secret prisons from the informations of seven witnesses, he had his first audience of admonition on the 5th of June, 1564; he was accused of having frequented a clandestine synagogue in Murcia, from 1551 to 1557, when the assembly was discovered; and of having acted and discoursed in a manner that proved his apostasy. Two witnesses afterwards appeared, and the accused having denied all the charges, the publication of the nine deponents was given to him: he persisted in his denial, and by the advice of his defender, alleged that the evidence of the witnesses could not be admitted, as they contradicted each other, and several of them were known to be his enemies.