I, Doctor Francisco Gregorio, Fiscal of this Holy Office, appear
before your Excellency, and accuse criminally, Pedro Ginesta,
brazier, a native of the village of Orliach, bishopric of St Flor,
in Ubernia, in the kingdom of France, resident in this
principality, attached to the secret prison of the Inquisition, and
now present,--stating that the said person, being a baptized and
confirmed Christian, and enjoying the graces and benefits which
such persons do and ought to enjoy, not having the fear of God
before his eyes, but regardless of his own conscience and the
justice administered by your Excellency, has committed offences
against our Holy Faith, by saying and performing things which
savour of the heretic Luther, in the manner following.
The said prisoner being in a certain part of the village of Semiana
in the bishopric of Urgel on the fast of St Bartholomew last, in
company with another certain person, did cause to be cooked a dish
of bacon and onions; and, being reminded to take heed, for it was a
fast, and such food was forbidden, replied by ordering the meat to
be cooked, and in fact when the said meat was cooked, did proceed
to eat the same, in company with the other person mentioned, and
notwithstanding he was informed by another person while eating,
that it was St Bartholomew’s day, and a fast, at which time it was
not allowed to eat such food, the said prisoner continued to eat
the remainder of the said bacon.
Furthermore, the said prisoner being of a nation infected with
heresy, it is presumed that he has on many other occasions eaten
flesh on forbidden days, after the manner of the sect of Luther,
and committed many other offences against our Holy Faith, besides
knowing that others have committed the same offences, and the said
prisoner having been admonished by your Excellency to declare the
truth, has not done it, but has perjured himself.
For which reasons I entreat your Excellency that full evidence
being given to my accusation, or to such a part of the same as
shall suffice for the ends of justice in the decision of the
present case, your Excellency will declare my accusation proved,
and the said Pedro Ginesta guilty of the above offences, imposing
upon him the heaviest punishments fixed by statute upon the said
offences, and ordering them to be executed upon his person and
goods, as a penalty to himself and an example to others; and that
the prisoner, if it be found necessary, be put to the torture, and
that the same be repeated till he confess the whole truth both of
himself and others.
And I formally swear that I do not bring this accusation out of
malice, but solely to accomplish the ends of justice, which I now
request at your hands.