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

by Juan Antonio Llorente

On the 14th of December, Melchior ratified his propositions of the 9th, but on the condition that all that had passed should not separate him from the Catholic communion, or cause him to be considered as a Judaic heretic. On the 18th he desired another audience, and again confessed that he believed in the Law of Moses. Yet on the 29th of June, 1566, he declared that the Holy Scriptures were read in the assembly, that he believed part of what he heard, and had consulted a priest on the subject; that the priest told him it ought to be held in contempt, and that this decision had regulated his subsequent conduct.

On the 6th of May, 1566, the tribunal assembled to decide whether the definitive sentence pronounced against Melchior should be executed. Two of the consultors voted in the affirmative; the inquisitors, the ordinary, and the other consultors agreed that Melchior had confessed enough to entitle him to reconciliation. In an audience on the 28th of May, the accused again asked pardon, alleging that he had only believed what he heard, until he was undeceived by the priest. On the 30th he declared that he thought all he had heard necessary to salvation.

In the October following, he was again admitted to an audience, where he spoke against the inquisitor, who had received his confession on the day of the auto-da-fé (this was Don Jerome Manrique); he complained of the ill treatment he had been subjected to, in order to obtain new declarations. He acknowledged that his confessions on that day were true, but added that the presence of two inquisitors was necessary to prevent the abuse of authority which took place in his case.

The fiscal protested against the act of reconciliation granted to Melchior on the 6th of May, 1566, and demanded that the sentence of relaxation pronounced on the 8th of October, 1565, should be executed, because the accused had shown no signs of true repentance, and would not fail to seduce others into heresy if he was pardoned. The inquisitors consulted the Supreme Council, which decided that the prisoner should be examined again before the ordinary and consultors, and the affair submitted to the Council. The sentence was pronounced on the 9th of May, 1567; three of the judges voted for the relaxation, and two for the reconciliation of the accused.

The Supreme Council decreed on the 6th of May, that Melchior should be relaxed, and the tribunal of Murcia pronounced a second definitive sentence according to the orders which they received. The execution was to take place on the 8th of the following month.

In contempt of the rules of common law, Melchior was called up on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of June, and exhorted to discover his accomplices; as he did not know that he was already sentenced, he referred them to what he had confessed before. But when he found that he was to be arrayed in the habit of a relaxed person, he declared that he could name other accomplices. The inquisitor went to the prison, and Melchior designated another house where the Jews assembled, and named seven persons, whom he said he had seen there; he also wrote a list of seven synagogues, and of fourteen persons who frequented them. He afterwards named another house of Judaic heretics.

He was conducted to the auto-da-fé with the other persons condemned to be burnt. When he arrived at the place of execution, he demanded another audience, in which he named two other houses, and twelve heretics; on being told that this declaration was not sufficient to confirm the result of the trial, he said he would endeavour to recollect others, and a few minutes after he denounced seven persons. Before the conclusion of the auto-da-fé, he desired to make a third confession, and named two houses and six individuals; the inquisitors then agreed to suspend the execution, and to send Melchior back to the prison. This was what he wished, and on the 12th of June he signed his ratification; but when told that he was suspected of having other accomplices, he replied that he did not remember any other.

On the 13th, Melchior declared that he was mistaken in naming a certain person among his accomplices, but pretended to remember another house, and two persons whom he named.

The procurator-fiscal again spoke in favour of the relaxation of the accused, alleging that he had been guilty of concealment; Melchior, supposing that his death was resolved upon, demanded an audience on the 23rd of June, and endeavoured to excite the compassion of his judges. "What more could I do," he exclaimed, "than accuse myself falsely? Know that I have never been summoned to any assembly, that I never attended them for any purposes but those of commerce."

Melchior was summoned to fifteen audiences during the months of July, August, and September; his replies were always the same. On the 16th of October another witness appeared, but Melchior denied his statement, as well as that of a witness who was examined on the 30th of December. Melchior wrote his defence, and demanded that his own witnesses should be heard, in order to prove that he was not at Murcia, but at Toledo, at the time specified by his accusers; but the inquisitors did not think the evidence offered by the accused sufficient to invalidate that of the witnesses against him.