Some doubts may be entertained of the sincerity of the last declarations of Melchior Hernandez, but the extreme irregularity of the proceedings of the tribunal must be evident to every one. The intervention of the Supreme Council proves that the same system was pursued in the other tribunals, since it approved of their proceedings, and exercised the rights of revocation and censure.
In 1564 another auto-da-fé took place at Murcia, one person and eleven effigies were burnt; there were also forty-eight penitents, but the following circumstance was the cause of this ceremony being more particularly remembered. Pedro Hernandez had been reconciled in 1561, as suspected of Judaism. In 1564 he fell sick, and through the mediation of his confessor demanded an audience of the inquisitors. One of them went to his house, and Pedro told him that he had denied the crime of which he was accused, and had afterwards made a confession, alleging as an excuse for this conduct, that a French priest had given him absolution. He now confessed that this was not true, and that he wished to relieve his conscience by acknowledging it before he died. The inquisitors presented this declaration to the tribunal, which immediately caused Pedro to be taken from his bed and conveyed to their prisons, where he died three days after.
Three other autos-da-fé took place at Murcia in the years 1565, 1567, and 1568, in which thirty-five persons were burnt, and a considerable number condemned to penances.
CHAPTER XXIV.
OF THE AUTOS-DA-FE CELEBRATED BY THE INQUISITIONS OF TOLEDO, SARAGOSSA, VALENCIA, LOGRONO, GRENADA, CUENCA, AND SARDINIA, DURING THE REIGN OF PHILIP II.
Inquisition of Toledo.
On the 25th of February, 1560, the inquisitors of Toledo celebrated an auto-da-fé, in which several persons were burnt, with some effigies, and a great number subjected to penances. This auto-da-fé was performed to entertain the new queen, Elizabeth de Valois, the daughter of Henry II., King of France. It is rather surprising that this melancholy ceremony was chosen to amuse a royal princess of thirteen years of age, and who in her native country had been accustomed to brilliant festivals, suitable to her rank and age. The Cortes general of the kingdoms was also assembled at Toledo at the same time, to swear allegiance to the heir-presumptive, Don Carlos, so that this auto-da-fé, with the exception of the number of victims, was as solemn as any of those in Valladolid.
In 1561, another auto-da-fé took place in the same town; four impenitent Lutherans were burnt, and eighteen reconciled. Among those condemned to penances was one of the king's pages, a native of Brussels, named Don Charles Estrect, but the young queen Elizabeth obtained his pardon.
On the 17th of June, 1565 (which was Trinity Sunday), an auto-da-fé of forty-five persons was celebrated; eleven were burnt, and thirty-four condemned to penances. Some of these were Lutherans, but the greater number were Jews. Among those designated as Protestants, some were called Lutherans, others the Faithful; there was a third called Huguenaos, after Huguenots.
Although the Inquisition of Toledo celebrated as many autos-da-fé as the other tribunals, I do not find any persons of distinction among the victims, until the auto-da-fé of the 4th of June, 1571, when two men were burnt in person, and three in effigy, for Lutheranism, and thirty-one individuals were condemned to penances. One of the men who were burnt ought to be particularly mentioned. He was called the Doctor Sigismond Archel, of Cagliari, in Sardinia. He had been arrested at Madrid, in 1562, as a dogmatizing Lutheran, and after remaining for a long time in the prisons at Toledo, he contrived to make his escape. He had not time to get out of the kingdom; descriptions of his person were sent to all parts of the frontier, and he was again arrested, and fell into the hands of his judges. He persisted in denying the facts imputed to him, until the publication of the witnesses, when he confessed, and maintained not only that he was not a heretic, but that he was a better Catholic than the Papists. He was condemned to be burnt, but persevered in his system, and declared that he was a martyr; he insulted the priests when they exhorted him, and was then gagged until he was fastened to the stake. The archers, perceiving that he pretended to the glory of martyrdom, pierced him with their lances, while the executioners were lighting the faggots.