CHAPTER V.

THE AUTO DE FE.

The Act of Faith--the Auto de Fe--was the name by which the Spanish Holy Office dignified the _Sermo_ of the Old Inquisition. In its full development it was an elaborate public solemnity, carefully devised to inspire awe for the mysterious authority of the Inquisition, and to impress the population with a wholesome abhorrence of heresy, by representing in so far as it could the tremendous drama of the Day of Judgement.[616] It was regarded as an eminently pious duty. Ferdinand, in 1499, congratulating the inquisitors of Saragossa on the reports of their autos, and the consequent edification of the people, exhorts them to continue to serve God and to discharge their consciences and his. In a similar mood Cardinal Adrian, in 1517, urged the tribunal of Sicily to celebrate one as early as possible for, besides the service to God, it would greatly edify the people.[617] The old designation of Sermo was derived from the sermon with which the proceedings commenced--originally preached by one of the inquisitors, but subsequently by some eloquent fraile, who dilated on the supreme importance of preserving the faith in its purity and of exterminating heresy and heretics. To insure a large attendance, an indulgence, usually of forty days, was granted to all present at the pious work.

At the height of its power the Inquisition spared no labor or expense to lend impressiveness to the _auto publico general_, as a demonstration of its authority and of the success with which it performed its functions. In the earlier and busier period, the exhibition was simpler, and confined to the practical work in hand. Thus in the first one celebrated in Toledo, August 16, 1486, the victims were marched on foot to the plaza, their hands tied with ropes across the breast, wearing sanbenitos of yellow linen with their names and the inscription "herege condenado," and bearing mitres on their heads. In the plaza they were ranged in tiers on a staging, while the inquisitors and their officials occupied another staging opposite. The sentence of each one was read and, although the culprits were numerous, the affair, commencing at 6 A.M., was over by noon, when the convicts were carried to the _brasero_ or _quemadero_ for burning. Apparently the exhibition consisted only of those condemned to the stake, to the exclusion of the reconciled or otherwise penanced.[618] The autos of the period, moreover, were not confined to the seats of the tribunals. We hear of them in the smaller towns, and, from a letter of Ferdinand, November 21, 1498, it appears that the convicts were distributed to their several bishoprics where the celebration and execution, though on a minor scale, would bring the terror of the Inquisition and the danger of heresy more directly home to the people.[619] By 1515, however, we may assume that they were centralized in the tribunal cities, for a royal cédula of that year orders the tribunal of Murcia to confine its autos to the city of Murcia and not to celebrate them in Orihuela.[620] It was evidently desired to render them more impressive, and this was further accomplished, about the same time, by requiring all penitents to appear in them for, in 1517, we find the Suprema instructing the tribunal of Navarre that, in future, abjurations _de levi_ were not to be made privately, but in the public autos, which were to be celebrated with all solemnity.[621] There was cruelty in this, for appearance in an auto was in itself a severe punishment, and we shall see that subsequently _autos particulares_, or private autos, were instituted which enabled those guilty of lighter offences to escape without public humiliation.

[Sidenote: _IMPOSING SOLEMNITIES_]

Thus far autos were held at the discretion of the tribunals, which celebrated them whenever there was an accumulation of finished trials requiring relief to the prisons. A consulta de fe would be assembled, the sentences would be agreed upon, and a day would be appointed. It probably was not often that any external interference was apprehended, as at Cuenca, in 1520, where the tribunal had so excited popular passion by arresting the deputy corregidor, in some collision of jurisdictions, that it was obliged to procure a royal cédula instructing the corregidor not to permit the inquisitors to be impeded in the performance of their functions.[622] Gradually, however, in this, as in so much else, the Suprema assumed control. A commencement of this is seen, in 1537, when it ordered that, whenever an auto was proposed, it should be apprised before any one else, but even the Instructions of 1561 leave as yet the determination with the tribunals.[623] It could not have been long after this, however, that the permission of the Suprema became requisite for, in 1585, we find the Inquisitor of Cuenca, Ximenes de Reynoso, writing, September 3d, for a decision of certain cases, and for authority to hold an auto, as there were thirty penitents, many of whom being poor were a charge on the fisc. The Suprema delayed its answer and, on October 14th, Reynoso sent a special courier, asking the reply to be returned by him; the auto was necessary for the benefit of the sick prisoners, as there was a pestilence raging, and also for the relief of the treasury; it was only by special entreaty that the receiver had paid the expenses of the last month, saying that there were no funds. This brought a speedy answer, with the desired permission.[624] Finally, the customary routine was for the tribunal to send a list of the cases in readiness and to ask for licence to hold an auto; if the Suprema approved, it ordered the auto to be celebrated without delay. Apparently in the active work of the eighteenth century there was an effort to regain control of the matter, for a carta acordada of June 5, 1720, orders that no auto be held without advising the Suprema and awaiting its commands.[625]

As public autos became less frequent, they lost the simplicity of the earlier period and grew to be imposing demonstrations of the authority of the Inquisition. Possession was taken of the principal square of the city, and two vast stagings were erected, one for the penitents and their ghostly attendants, and the other for the inquisitors with their officials and all the ecclesiastical and secular authorities, while the windows of the surrounding houses were filled with the notables of the place and their families. The participation of prelate and magistrate, in the processions and spectacle, was compulsory, for though, as a rule, they were proud to take their places, causes of quarrel were too frequent and bitter not occasionally to render them unwilling thus to do honor to their imperious adversaries. In 1486, the local authorities of Valencia absented themselves from an auto and, when this was reported to Ferdinand, he rebuked them and ordered them in future always to be present, for nothing was so important as the service of God.[626] Similar commands had to be repeated not infrequently. About 1580, a royal cédula to the viceroy and officials of Majorca instructs them to lend the weight of their authority to the Inquisition, by accompanying the inquisitors in the procession to the staging, and then conducting them back to their palace. In 1588, the President of the Royal Council of Castile issued a general order to all the judges of the royal courts to march in the processions and, in 1598, the inquisitors were empowered to compel by excommunication the attendance of all public officials.[627]

The staging, on great occasions, was elaborate and costly, and the question of defraying the expense was variously decided. In 1553, we find the Suprema settling it, in Cuenca, by requiring the city to erect it, as was customary in Toledo. These two cities and Madrid remained charged with it, but elsewhere it was paid by the tribunals. At the great Madrid auto of 1632, Philip IV ordered the city to construct the staging in conformity with plans drawn by his chief architect, and the same course was followed in that of 1680, where we have long details of the complicated structure erected under the superintendence of commissioners of high rank, who esteemed the duty to be an honor.[628]

[Sidenote: _POLICE POWER OF THE TRIBUNAL_]

It was essential that both inquisitors should be present, and a single inquisitor was forbidden to celebrate a public auto in the absence of his colleague. The day selected must be a feast-day--ordinarily a Sunday--in order to insure a larger attendance. It sometimes chanced, however, in the eccentricities of spiritual jurisdiction, that the city lay under an interdict on the day appointed and, in such case, the Inquisition had to yield. In 1582 the Suprema instructed the tribunals that, when this occurred, they should endeavor to have the interdict lifted for the occasion, but, if those who had cast it refused, the inquisitors must not assume to lift it of their own authority, and must postpone the auto or do the best they could.[629]

In all other respects the inquisitors were masters of the situation. Repeated royal cédulas, commencing in 1523, addressed to the authorities of the cities, made the inquisitors virtual rulers for the time. They were authorized to erect stagings in the public plazas, to regulate the police arrangements of the towns, and even to assign to the secular and clerical officials such seats and precedence as they saw fit. The climax would appear to be reached when Philip II empowered them to distribute at their will the windows of the private houses overlooking the scene. Against this, in 1595, the president and judges of the Audiencia of Granada protested, begging that house-owners should be allowed to rent their windows, and pointing out the hardship of a gentleman of high degree securing the use of a window for his family, and being turned out because the inquisitors chose to give it to a notary for the use of his wife. Philip, however, held good, except in so far that he gave the inquisitors instructions to have special consideration for the houses of the judges and alcaldes.[630] How the tribunals exercised the police power thus conferred on them is exemplified in the Seville auto of September 24, 1559, when they forbade any one, between the preceding midnight and the close of the solemnity, to carry arms or ride on horseback in the city, under penalty, for common folk, of a hundred lashes, and for gentlemen, of forfeiture of the horse or mule, thirty days of prison, and a fine of fifty thousand maravedís.[631]

* * * * *

Numerous relations are extant, in print and in MS., of the great _autos publicos generales_, giving in more or less detail the elaborate ceremonial which developed itself, in the effort to render impressive these crowning manifestations of the piety that regarded, as the highest service to God, the extermination of those who persisted in worshipping him according to their own consciences. These show that fashions varied somewhat with time and place; they give the point of view of the spectator, and we may preferably take as our guide a memoir of the seventeenth century showing the internal machinery, according to the custom of Toledo, drawn up for the instruction of succeeding inquisitors.[632] The minuteness of the rules prescribed shows what importance was attached to rendering the spectacle imposing and to making manifest the subordination of the civil power, while the care taken to designate the exact place of every man or body of men indicates how fruitless was the authority granted to the tribunal in these matters to prevent the inveterate quarrels as to precedence. At the great Madrid auto of 1632, the Franciscans, indignant at the position assigned to them in the procession, after lively altercation, retired sullenly to their convent, for which the Suprema prosecuted them. These undignified squabbles were so much a matter of course that our author, in describing the report to be made to the Suprema, assumes that a place must be reserved in it for them, and for the reasons which governed the tribunal in its decisions.

When cases sufficient for an auto have accumulated, the tribunal reports them to the Suprema, which orders it to be held. Then the inquisitors determine on a feast-day, which should be at least a month off, in order to give sufficient time for the preparations. Word is then sent to the corregidor and the dean of the cathedral chapter to convene their respective bodies at nine o'clock the next morning, to receive a communication from the Inquisition and, at the appointed hour, some of the higher officials, with familiars, announce to them and to the bishop the expected celebration. Then in due time mounted familiars and notaries, with drums and trumpets and clarions and the standard of the Inquisition, move in procession through the streets, and at stated places a bell-man rings a bell and the town crier proclaims "Know all dwellers in this city that the Holy Office of the Inquisition, for the glory and honor of God and the exaltation of our holy Catholic faith, will celebrate a public auto de fe at such a place on such a day."

[Sidenote: _PREPARATIONS_]

No time is lost in making preparation. Commissioners are appointed for the erection and ornamentation of the staging, and wax is provided for the candles in the procession of the Green Cross on the evening before the auto. All the Mendicant Orders and the parish churches are invited to take part in the procession and the auto. Letters of convocation are despatched, summoning all familiars, notaries, commissioners, consultores and calificadores of the district, under penalties and censures, to come on the day previous to the procession of the Green Cross.[633] The frailes, who are to assist the condemned during their last night on earth, are selected and notified. _Corozas_ (conical mitres, about three quarters of an ell in height) are ordered, with flames for those who are to be relaxed, and in the ordinary form for bigamists, sorcerers and false-witnesses; also sanbenitos with flames for the relaxed, with two aspas for the reconciled, and with one aspa, behind and before, for those abjuring _de vehementi_; also halters for the relaxed and for those to be scourged. If there are effigies, they are made half length, to be carried on poles by porters; if there are bones, the boxes containing them are black, to be placed at the foot of those to which they belong; the effigies wear mitres with flames, and sanbenitos with flames on one side and, on the other, the name, residence and crime of the culprit.[634] Green crosses are also provided to be carried by the relaxed, yellow wax candles for the penitents and bundles of osiers for the reconciliation ceremonies. There must also be a box for carrying the sentences, of crimson velvet with gold fringe and a gilt lock and key, while a list of the relaxed and the effigies is given to the magistrates, so that they may have the sentences ready. Besides these there is the large green cross to be borne by the Dominican prior, and the white cross by the mayordomo of the Cofradia, in the procession of the preceding evening. The standard to be carried by the fiscal is to be made of crimson damask, richly embroidered on one side with the royal arms, a green cross rising from the crown, and the sword and olive-branch to right and left, on the other side a shield with arms of San Pedro Martir; the staff is to be gilt, ending in a cross, with pendant cords bearing gold and silver tassels. Elaborate trappings are to be provided for the mules ridden by the officials, and silver-plated batons for the familiars who marshal the procession. The parish church usually supplies the carpets, hangings, and other adornments of the staging, and the singers for the evening procession and the reconciliation ceremonies. Then the preacher is appointed--usually a Dominican calificador--though in Galicia a bishop is generally selected and, in Madrid, the royal confessor. The day before the auto, the altar on the staging is decorated, and torches and candles are arranged around the place where the green cross is to be set. The inquisitors assign all the windows overlooking the plaza; they order that no coaches shall traverse the streets, and decide where the barriers are to be erected; the municipal authorities surrender the city to them and do whatever they require.

[Sidenote: _THE CELEBRATION_]

In the evening preceding the auto, the procession of the Green Cross takes place--a solemn affair in which the standard is borne by a crowd of familiars and gentlemen; the white cross follows with the religious Orders, the cross of the parish church with its clergy, the Green Cross carried by the Dominican prior and his frailes with torches and chanting the Miserere. The procession winds through the designated streets to the plaza, where the Green Cross is planted above the altar and is guarded by Dominicans during the night. The white cross is carried on to the brasero, where it is guarded by a body, existing in some cities, known as the soldiers of the Zarza, whose function is to guard the brasero and plaza and to furnish the wood for the burning.[635] The Inquisition itself is guarded during the night by soldiers who, before day-break, arouse the officials by beat of drum. Within the building, the sanbenitos and insignia are arranged in order and porters are assembled in readiness to carry the effigies and bones and such penitents as have been disabled from walking. At 9 P.M. the senior inquisitor, with a secretary, visits those who are to be relaxed and informs them of their approaching fate; with each of them he leaves two frailes to guide them. If any of the pertinacious or negativos are converted, they are to be heard immediately and their confessions received, when the inquisitors with the Ordinary determine whether to admit them to reconciliation, and the same is done with those converted on the staging.

Before dawn mass is celebrated in the audience-chamber, and also at the altar of the Green Cross. By daylight breakfast is given to all who are to appear in the auto, and also to the frailes assigned to the relaxed.[636] They are not taken from their cells till the hour of forming the procession, when the penitents are ranged along the walls of the audience-chamber in the order of their marching; all are dressed in their sanbenitos with the requisite insignia.

The procession starts with the soldiers of the Zarza at its head; then the cross of the parish church, shrouded in black, with an acolyte who tolls a bell mournfully at intervals. Then come the penitents, one by one, each with a familiar on either side; first are the impostors, then personators of officials of the Inquisition, followed in order by blasphemers, bigamists, Judaizers, Protestants, the effigies and chests of bones and finally those to be relaxed, each with two frailes. Mounted officials follow, then familiars in pairs, the standard of the Inquisition, and finally the inquisitors bring up the rear. Thus the procession moves through the designated streets, filled with a densely packed crowd, kept off by railings, to the plaza, where the culprits are seated in the same order, the lightest offenders on the lowest benches.

The staging is provided with two pulpits, from which the sentences are read alternatively. Between them is a bench elevated on two steps, on which the penitents are brought successively, to sit with their faces to the tribunal and hear their sentences read; the bench is furnished with a rail, kindly provided for them to cling to, in case of fainting, for, with the exception of the relaxed, this is the first definite announcement to them of their fate. Below the seats of the tribunal there is a room handsomely fitted up for refreshments, to which the inquisitors, officials, municipal officers and clergy resort from time to time, and a similar one is provided for the familiars and persons of note. To the former is brought any pertinacious convict who may be converted on the staging previous to hearing his sentence, and there an inquisitor and secretary take his confession, after which the inquisitors and Ordinary consider the case: if he is to be admitted to reconciliation he is sent back to the Inquisition in a coach or chair, or is replaced on the staging, to return with the rest of the penitents. If any culprit dies on the staging, if he is condemned to relaxation his sentence is read, and his body is delivered to the secular arm; if he is one of those to be reconciled, he is absolved and the parish church buries him in consecrated ground; if simply one penanced, he is absolved _ad cautelam_ and the church buries him.

After the preaching of the sermon, a secretary mounts a pulpit and, in a loud voice, reads the customary oath, elaborately pledging all the officials and people present to obedience to the Holy Office, and to the active persecution of heretics and heresy, to which every one responds Amen! If the king is present, the senior inquisitor goes to his balcony and, on the cross and gospels, administers to him an oath to defend the faith, to persecute heretics and to show all necessary favor to the Inquisition.[637]

[Sidenote: _THE CELEBRATION_]

Then the sentences are read from the alternate pulpits, the alguazil mayor producing each culprit to hear his sentence. In this there must be no interruption, as all the sentences must be read, if it lasts till nightfall, for which torches and torch-bearers must be in readiness.[638] Although the sentences of the relaxed are left to the last, yet, if the auto is prolonged into the night they are introduced earlier, as it is essential that the burning should be executed in broad day-light. As these sentences are read, the effigies and chests of bones are ranged on one side of the stage, and the living convicts on the other. They are then delivered to the secular arm, and the judge who utters the sentences does so, either on the stage, or at the table of the secretaries or outside of the staging. If there is a _compañia de la Zarza_, it marches in squadron into the plaza, when the sentences are read, and the men discharge their arquebuses. They surround the condemned and march with them to the brasero, to protect them from the populace which, in some places, is accustomed to maltreat and even to kill them, against which the inquisitors give special instructions. The magistrates provide the asses on which they ride and the wood to burn them. The frailes in charge attend them to the last breath and exhaust all effort to bring about their repentance and conversion.

The public solemnities conclude with the ceremonies of abjuration and reconciliation, after which the alguazil mayor and familiars conduct the penitents back to the Inquisition, where they have supper and are locked up, three or four in a cell. The priests of the parish church remove the black veil from their cross and take it back, while the Dominicans bear the green cross to the Inquisition, singing psalms and escorted by the municipal officials. The next morning the reconciled have the terms of their sentences read over to them; they and the other penitents take the oath of secrecy, and they are conveyed by the alcaide to the penitential prison. At ten o'clock the alguazil mayor, with a secretary and familiars, all mounted, with the public executioner and town-crier, take out those sentenced to scourging and vergüenza, and the punishment is duly administered through the customary streets. On their return, those whose sentences include the galleys are furnished a certificate of their length of service and are transferred to the royal prison, and with this concludes the stately ceremony by which the Holy Office, at the height of its power, impressed its terror on the population.

The place of burning--the quemadero or brasero--as a rule was outside of the city. With this the tribunal had nothing to do, except that a secretary and alguazil were present to certify and report as to the execution of the sentences.[639] Consequently the documents of the Inquisition furnish no details, but some may be gleaned from a relation of the Madrid auto of 1632. For this occasion the city had constructed the brasero beyond the Puerta de Alcalá; as there were seven to be burnt, it was made fifty feet square, and had the requisite stakes with garrotes. The confusion and crowd were great, and so also was the fire, which lasted until eleven o'clock at night, by which time the bodies were reduced to ashes, so that the memory of the impious might vanish from the earth.[640] The scattering of the ashes over the fields, or into running water, was a prescription of old standing, to prevent disciples of heresiarchs from preserving fragments to be venerated as relics. This was not an easy matter, for the total calcination of a human skeleton requires a prolonged intensity of heat not likely to be maintained where wood was expensive, and the bones found with the cinders on the site of the old quemadero of Madrid, when, about 1868, the Calle de Carranza was cut through it, would indicate that part, at least, of the remains of the victims were allowed to lie where they had perished.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: _THE AUTO PARTICULAR_]

The _auto público general_, while looming large in popular imagination, represented, in truth, but a small part of inquisitorial activity. It was a solemnity on a grand scale, in which the Holy Office magnified its importance, but by far the greater number of cases were despatched in _autos particulares_ or _autillos_, held in churches, or in the audience-chamber, or anywhere that circumstances might dictate. In the Toledo record, from 1575 to 1610, there are contained but twelve autos generales, in which three hundred and eighty-six culprits appeared, while seven hundred and eighty-six cases were settled in autos particulares.[641] As stated above, appearance in a public auto was, in itself, a severe punishment, and the sentence always specified whether the offender was to be subjected to a humiliation entailing consequences on him and his family so greatly dreaded that, at a Toledo auto of December 13, 1627, Juan Nuñez Saravia, a wealthy Portuguese, vainly offered twelve thousand ducats to escape it.[642] The great majority of cases deserved no such severity. The jurisdiction of the Inquisition extended over a wide field; it was, in a certain sense, a _custos morum_ and took cognizance of a vast number of comparatively trivial offences--careless speeches, blasphemies, propositions of all kinds, indecent writings and works of art, sorceries and conjurations more or less innocent and the like--which it disposed of without summoning the entire population as spectators. Clerical offenders, moreover, as we have seen, unless degraded for formal heresy, were shielded from the scandal of publicity in the audience chamber.

The _auto particular_, or private auto, was often celebrated in a church, to which the spiritual and civil authorities were not invited, but where such portion of the public as could find room were at liberty to be present. More frequently it was held in the _sala_, or audience-chamber, and here again there was a distinction, for the sentence defined whether it should be with open doors or closed and, in the former case, the bell was often tolled in order to invite a curious crowd of spectators. Even the apartments of the senior inquisitor were sometimes used in this manner, as when, March 23, 1680, three alguaziles of the corregidor of Toledo, for maltreating the purveyor of the tribunal, were sentenced in the apartments to various terms of exile. When nuns were the culprits, the _autillo_ was customarily performed in their convent, as in the case, August 8, 1658, of Sor Josefa de Villegas, for superstitions and sorceries, who was sentenced to various penances, through the grating of the Augustinian nunnery of San Torquato, in presence of the nuns and, on February 13, 1685, Sor Dionisia de Rojas was sentenced in the choir of the Franciscan house of Santa Isabel, in the presence of the superior and four elderly sisters.[643]

As financial distress grew more and more acute, in the seventeenth century, the tribunals shrank from the heavy expenses attendant on the elaborate demonstrations of the great public autos which, however gratifying to their pride, bore too heavily upon their diminishing resources, exposed as they were to the royal exactions. In Barcelona, there would seem to have been no public auto between 1627 and the revolt of 1640; in Valladolid, none between 1644 and 1667. In Toledo one was held, after prolonged consideration, January 1, 1651, in which the number of culprits shows that it relieved the prisons of a long accumulation; it was the last public auto celebrated in Toledo, and there was none even in a church, between 1656 and 1677.[644] Seville appears to have been less hampered and celebrated public autos generales in 1631, 1643, 1648, 1656, and a most impressive one in 1660 at which less fortunate tribunals unloaded their convicts, for there were seven relaxations in person, twenty-seven in effigy and fifty-two penitents, but this appears to be the last of its kind there.[645]

[Sidenote: _CONTRIBUTORY AUTOS_]

In fact, the public auto would have been abandoned ere this, but for the rule that judgements of blood must not be rendered in churches. As early as 1568 the Suprema had decreed that, when there was a relaxation, the auto must be held in the plaza and not in a church, which was in accordance with the ancient authorities.[646] When the public autos became an onerous burden, we can imagine that this led to hesitation in pronouncing death-sentences for, when this was unavoidable, the convict became a troublesome personage. A suggestive case was that of Juan López, condemned to relaxation for Judaism, at Valladolid, in 1633; after he lay in prison for thirty months with no prospect of getting rid of him, the Suprema ordered him to be tortured and another vote to be taken, which resulted, September 1, 1637, in a revised sentence of reconciliation, with severe punishments.[647] A device less damaging to the purity of faith was to transfer a convict from one tribunal to another for execution. Thus when, at Valencia, the Morisco Gerónimo Buenaventura was condemned for pertinacity, there was no auto in which to execute the sentence. On November 19, 1635, the Suprema ordered him to be sent to Valladolid, apparently under the impression that he could be burnt there but, after two years, Valladolid reported that it had no public auto in which to despatch him, so, in 1638 the Suprema ordered his transfer to Saragossa.[648] Whether he met a speedy death there we have no means of knowing, but there is something peculiarly revolting in thus sending a poor wretch from one corner of Spain to another, in order to find some place in which to burn him economically.

When any tribunal managed to celebrate a public auto, it was utilized to disembarrass the others. Thus the Toledo auto of 1651 had effigies contributed by Cuenca, Córdova and Seville. In 1655 Santiago celebrated a public auto, to which Valladolid sent for relaxation one living person and four effigies, two of the latter having been kept waiting since 1644 and 1648. The consulta de fe of Murcia, on July 18, 1658, voted to relax nine fugitive Judaizers of Beas, but the formal sentence was delayed until December 5, 1659, in preparation for the great public auto at Seville, April 13, 1660, when the effigies were duly cremated.[649] The imposing Madrid auto of 1680--the last of its kind--was a general gaol delivery to which all the tribunals contributed their embarrassing convicts.

There was no prospect of an improvement in the situation, although it was supremely humiliating to the Inquisition that it could not afford to burn those whom it condemned, promptly and on the scene of their transgressions, under the alternative of exercising a compulsory mercy. Some relief must be found, and a partial attempt was made, in a carta acordada of September 4, 1657, permitting effigies to be relaxed at autos particulares in churches. Toledo promptly availed itself of this by relaxing, December 9th, eight effigies of fugitives in such an auto,[650] but the other tribunals seem to have discountenanced the device. The further step, of overthrowing the traditional prohibition of uttering sentences of blood in churches, appears to have been under consideration in 1664, when the Suprema called on the tribunals for information as to relaxations in person or in effigy in autos particulares. In reply, Valencia reported that the sentence of Gaspar López, to be relaxed in effigy, voted in 1641, had never been published, for lack of an auto, although the corresponding sentence of confiscation had been executed--which the Suprema pronounced to be highly irregular.[651]

It required time to familiarise the conscience with so revolutionary a measure, and the project slumbered for a quarter of a century, but the pressure to escape the burden of public autos increased, and the Suprema finally conquered its scruples. A carta acordada, of September 23, 1689, pointed out that, in view of the diminished resources from confiscations and of the increased cost of celebrating these public functions with due solemnity, they were avoided as far as possible, and it was no longer practicable to reserve for them the relaxed, whose numbers unfortunately were daily increasing. They had to be fed while lying forgotten in their cells, after their cases were finished; even the expense of transferring them from one tribunal to another was considerable, and it was kindly added that there was risk to their souls in detaining them so long while in ignorance of their fate. Weighing all this and, in view of the fact that there were cases of relaxation in churches both before and after the Instructions of 1561, and that the Council of Constance, sitting in the cathedral, had condemned Jerome of Prague, the Suprema reached the conclusion that judgement of relaxation could be rendered in churches, provided the sentence of the civil magistrate was uttered outside. The tribunals were therefore instructed that they could relieve themselves of their convicts in autos particulares in churches, delivering them to the secular arm outside of the sacred limits. To such autos the civic and cathedral chapters were not to be invited, and the rule as to time was to be observed, so that the burning could be performed by daylight.[652]

[Sidenote: _AUTOS HELD IN CHURCHES_]

Against this there arose a protest on the part of the secular magistrates, who felt slighted at not being invited and having seats allotted to them. To meet this, the Suprema, April 7, 1690, addressed to the king a consulta deploring the impossibility of celebrating the autos with the ceremonial and impressiveness of old. But great numbers of those deserving relaxation had accumulated in most of the tribunals; there were not funds to maintain them in prison, or to despatch them in general autos, and to bring them together would excite horror, as occurred in the auto of 1680. It therefore proposed that the secular officials be stationed outside of the church, where the convicts could be delivered to them, but this was not acceptable to the civil authorities and a compromise was effected, July 20th, designating the single official who was to represent the secular arm. The tribunal was to send him a message, appointing time and place; he was to be at the church door when the procession arrived; he was to follow the inquisitors, the fiscal and the Ordinary, and have a seat near them and, after the sentences of relaxation were pronounced, he was to leave the church for a place agreed upon, where the convicts were to be brought to him, when he sentenced them and executed the sentences.[653]

Thus came to an end the gorgeous general public autos in which, during its more prosperous days, the Inquisition had made so profound an impression on the imaginations of men. Thenceforth, no matter how many living beings and effigies were consigned to the quemadero, the ceremony was conducted within the sacred precincts of a church, in a simpler and more economical fashion. The great autos of Majorca, in 1691, in which so many unfortunates perished, were held in the church of San Domingo. Yet still there was elaboration of display. A writer, in 1724, giving an account of the autos celebrated in Seville since 1719, is vastly more concerned with enumerating the names of officials and familiars, with describing the ceremonial and dilating upon the crimson velvet chairs and cushions and canopies embroidered in gold and silver and the diamond badges worn by the functionaries, than with the real work of the tribunal, grim and cruel though it continued to be.[654]

These gauds might gratify the vanity of the Inquisitors, but the old attractiveness of the imposing public ceremonial had vanished. The population no longer poured in from all the surrounding district, camping out in the fields, in the vast crowds described with so much pride in the relations of the great autos. When we remember the thousand familiars and officials in Logroño, and the grandees who eagerly competed for positions of honor in the processions, we can estimate the change that compelled the complaint of the Seville tribunal, in 1729. It denounced the luke-warmness of the familiars in accompanying its processions, whereby it was losing the respect of the people, and compared unfavorably with the public demonstrations of the Audiencia and civic authorities. It was with this object that the familiars had been so greatly increased in numbers and had been favored with so many privileges and exemptions. Besides the occasional autos, the tribunal made _salidas_, or processions, on five principal feasts of the year, and it ordered the Hermandad de San Pedro Martir to nominate eight familiars, from among whom it would select four, two to accompany it on the regular salidas and two for the autos, with threats of fine and imprisonment for neglect of duty.[655]

Yet it would not be safe to conclude from this that fanaticism was extinct. At the Llerena auto of June 25, 1752, there were six effigies of fugitives to be burnt and one of a dead woman with her bones. It had always been the custom to have these borne in the procession and to the brasero by carriers of the lowest class, drawn from the hospital for vagrants, who were paid for the service but, on this occasion, it chanced that none of these could be had. The inquisitors were greatly exercised and, as a last expedient, they represented to the Lieutenant-governor, Don Manuel de la Fuente y Dávila, that this was an exalted religious duty which the noblest might be proud to perform, and they offered that the officials of the Inquisition would carry the effigies to the church and then to the secular magistrate, if Don Manuel and other nobles would bear them thence to the brasero. Don Manuel assented and his example was followed by the Governor, the Marquis of Torre Mexia and other nobles; the officials were persuaded to do their share, and thus, we are told, the old custom, so derogatory to the sacredness of the function, was successfully discarded. The procession to the brasero was a triumphal march, to the sound of trumpets, with the escort of all the troops that could be assembled.[656]

[Sidenote: _SPECTACULAR AUTOS_]

Notwithstanding such occasional bursts of zeal, the glory of the Inquisition was rapidly departing and, with the extermination of the few remaining Judaizers, its functions continuously dwindled. In the Toledo tribunal, the last auto held in a church was on March 7, 1778, for a single penitent condemned to vergüenza for sorcery. After that, to the close of the century, it had but nine autillos, all held in the audience-chamber, sometimes with open and sometimes with closed doors, and in each of them there was but a single penitent. Five of the cases were for propositions, two for solicitation in the confessional, one for bigamy, and one for administering sacraments without priests' orders.[657] To this had shrunk the activity of a once prominent tribunal and with this shrinkage the power to impress the popular imagination with its imposing demonstrations.

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There is one aspect of the auto de fe which reflects the intensity of Spanish fanaticism in a most suggestive manner. When the Spaniard regarded it as a celebration fitted for a day of rejoicing, or as a spectacular entertainment acceptable to distinguished national guests, he did so in the conviction that it was the highest exhibition of piety, and a service to God, glorious to the land which organized it, and stimulating the devotion of all participants. Probably no autos were celebrated in honor of Ferdinand and Isabella, for the stern and rapid work of the period scarce admitted of the pageantry requisite to adapt the spectacle to royal courtliness, and the Burgundian fashions had not superseded the ancient Castilian simplicity. None of their successors, however, of the House of Hapsburg, were without such a testimonial of pious loyalty. When, in 1528, Charles V passed through Valencia, there was celebrated in his honor an auto, in which there were thirteen men and women relaxed in person, besides ten in effigy.[658] In 1560, the Toledo tribunal contributed an auto, with several relaxations, to the joyous celebration of the marriage of Philip II with Isabelle de Valois, daughter of Henry II of France. It was a notable spectacle, for the royal wedding and the meeting of the Córtes to swear allegiance to the young Don Carlos brought to Toledo all that was most distinguished in Spain.[659] When, in February, 1564, Philip was in Barcelona for the Catalan Córtes, an auto was arranged in his honor, in which there were eight relaxations in person and numerous condemnations to the galleys. They were mostly Frenchmen whom Saint-Sulpice, the French ambassador, had vainly sought to protect.[660]

[Sidenote: _SPECTACULAR AUTOS_]

The accession of Philip III was celebrated by an auto at Toledo, March 6, 1600, in the presence of the king, his queen, Margarita of Austria, the Duke of Lerma and all the court, where Philip took the oath to protect and favor the Holy Office. Toledo had but few culprits, as it had held an auto the year before, but a total of forty-six were accumulated by drawing upon Córdoba, Granada, Cuenca, Llerena, Valladolid and Seville. There were but two relaxations in effigy and one in person--the latter being a Huguenot named Jacques Pinzon, whom the Granada tribunal had been leisurely endeavoring to wean from his heresy for a couple of years. He was needed to complete the attraction at Toledo, and his trial was concluded so hurriedly that the Suprema ordered his transfer thither before it had received for confirmation the vote condemning him, so the sentence was made out in blank and sent after him for the Toledan inquisitors to sign. As he is characterized as pertinacious he was probably burnt alive.[661] The great auto of Madrid, in 1632, was held there by the special order of the king, in celebration of the recovery from confinement of Isabelle de Bourbon, wife of Philip IV, and was graced with the presence of both and of their son Don Carlos. There were thirty-seven penitents besides seven relaxations in person and two in effigy.[662] The revolted Catalans, who had given themselves to France, took the same means of honoring the Viceroy Condé, on the eve of his departure for Paris, by an auto celebrated November 7, 1647, in which there were two relaxations in person and two in effigy.[663] The ostensible purpose of the crowning glory at Madrid, June 30, 1680, which fitly ended the long series of _autos publicos generales_, was to honor the marriage of the young Carlos II with Louise Marie d'Orléans. There were sixty-seven penitents and fifty-one relaxations, of which nineteen were in person. A _compañia de la Zarza_ was formed, numbering two hundred and fifty members, with Francisco de Salcedo as captain. On June 28th they were taken to the puerta de Alcalá, where each man was furnished with a fagot. Then they marched to the royal palace, where Salcedo took a fagot, specially prepared for the purpose, and handed it to the Duke of Pastrana, who carried it to the king. Carlos with his own hands bore it to his queen and exhibited it and then sent it back by Pastrana with the message that it should be taken in his name to the brasero and be the first that was thrown upon the fire.[664] The religious training of the young monarch had evidently not been neglected. It was an earnest of better things in store for Spain when, in 1701, Philip V refused to be present at an auto general proposed to be celebrated in honor of his accession, and the project was abandoned.[665]

* * * * *

We have thus considered the organization of the Inquisition and its general methods of action. It remains for us to examine the application of those methods to the various classes of offenders subjected to its extensive jurisdiction.