“Out of regard to my duty to Almighty God, and from my great affection to the most serene prince, Philip II., my dearest son, and from the strong and earnest desire I have, that he may be safe under the protection of virtue, rather than the greatness of his riches, I charge him, with the greatest affection of soul, that he take special care of all things relating to the honour and glory of God, as becomes the most Catholic king, and a prince zealous for the Divine commands, and that he be always obedient to the commands of the church. And, amongst other things, this I principally and most ardently recommend to him, highly to honour and constantly support the office of the Holy Inquisition, as constituted by God against heretical pravity, with its ministers and officials; because by this single remedy the most grievous offences against God can be remedied. Also I command him, that he would be careful to preserve to all churches and ecclesiastical persons their immunities.” In a codicil to his will, also, he thus enjoins his son:—“I ardently desire, and with the greatest possible earnestness beseech him, and command him by his regards to me, his most affectionate father, that in this matter, in which the welfare of all Spain is concerned, he be most zealously careful to punish all infected with heresy, with the severity due to their crimes; and that to this intent he confer the greatest honour on the office of the Holy Inquisition, by the care of which the Catholic faith will be increased in his kingdoms, and the Christian religion be preserved.”
King Philip was obedient to these commands of his father, as the proceedings of the inquisitors in his several provinces proved, as well as his sanction to the horrid course of persecutions and martyrdoms under his queen, in England. See Chapter IX.
On Trinity Sunday, May 21, 1559, there was a most solemn auto da fé against the Spanish Lutherans, in the Great Square of Valladolid. The Princess Donna Juana (governess of the kingdom, in the absence of her brother, Philip II.), the Prince Don Carlos, and many grandees of Spain, as well as prelates and nobles of Castile, and a multitude of ladies and gentlemen, all assisted on that occasion. Sixteen persons were brought out in that auto, to be reconciled by penance; also, the remains and effigy of a lady, already dead, and fourteen living persons, to be consumed by the devouring element! The lady was Donna Eleonora de Vibero, proprietress of a convent in the city. Her daughter, Beatrice, and her two sons, Francis and Dr. Augustin Cazalla, were sacrificed at the stake in this dread auto, all being convicted of Lutheranism.
At Seville, the same year, another auto was celebrated, in which John Pontius, son of Roderic, earl of Villalon, was publicly burnt as a Lutheran. With him were executed, John Gonsalvus, a preacher, with four ladies of note; Bohorques, scarcely twenty years of age; Maria Viroesia, Cornelia, and Vœnia, in whose house assemblies were held for prayer. Besides these, were seven others, and among them, a student, a physician, and a nun. The sacrifice of this company of thirteen persons, besides several effigies, was attended with great pomp, yet it excited the indignation of not a few of the citizens. Two others escaped the fire, dying previously in prison; Dr. John Egidius, nominated by the emperor as bishop of Drossen, and Dr. Constantine Pontius, the confessor of Charles V. They were victims of the Inquisition, suspected of holding the doctrines of Luther.
Philip being alienated from his queen, Mary, left England in 1557, and proceeded to his army in Picardy; and after his arrival in Spain he demanded an auto da fé, which was celebrated with extraordinary magnificence. De Castro, in his very interesting volume, “Spanish Protestants and their Persecutions by Philip II.,” says:—
“Although so many were burnt or oppressed with ignominious penances at the before-mentioned auto da fé, the inquisitors reserved the greatest number, and most noted of the prisoners for Protestantism, in order to bring them to condign punishment on the arrival of Philip II.; a festival very appropriate to this monarch, whose reign in England, with the barbarous Mary Tudor, had terminated after broiling in the flames there a multitude of Protestants.
“This auto was celebrated on the 8th of October, 1559. In order to greater decorum and solemnity, this most pious monarch thought it opportune to assist, with all his court, in those horrors, and recreate himself in the frightful destruction of many of his subjects, illustrious for their birth, their virtue, and their learning.
“Don Diego de Simancas, then secretary of the holy office, says, ‘The auto of those heretics was most solemnly celebrated in the Great Square, upon a stage made upon a new plan, so contrived, that from all parts the culprits might be seen. Upon other stages were assembled the council and principal persons; and so great was the concourse of people, who came from all the country round, that it was believed the number of persons assembled, including those of the city, could not be less than 200,000! In this fashion the most pious king, the clergy, the nobility, and the people, with tumultuous haste, had recourse to a method of amusement worthy of cannibals, or the ancient Mexicans.’”
In the month of October, 1560, twenty-eight persons, many of them members of the noblest families in Spain, were tied to the stakes and publicly burnt, as Lutheran heretics, in the presence of the king at Valladolid.
Philip was not satisfied, however, with the sacrifice of his citizens; he extended the Inquisition to the navy, appointing an inquisitor to his fleet in the year 1571; so that, among the seamen of Spain, many were sacrificed in a public act of faith, in the city of Messina. He established this court at Lima, in 1571, and in Mexico; and in the year 1574, a public act of faith was held in the market-place of that city. In this, there were eighty penitents; two of them, an Englishman and a Frenchman, were released; some others, for judaising and sorcery, were reconciled; but many of them were burnt to death, in the presence of the viceroy, the senate, the priests, and a large concourse of the Mexicans.