MIGUEL GIBERT, _Not’y of Tarragona_.
* * * * *
In the city of Tarragona, on the day, month, and year above specified,
before the abovementioned Commissary of this Holy Office, appeared,
according to summons, and swore formally to declare the truth, a woman
calling herself Maria Leonart, wife of Joseph Leonart, an inhabitant of
this city of Tarragona, of age, as she stated, sixteen years, or
thereabout.
Questioned, if she knew the cause of her being summoned to appear.
Answered, that she supposed it to be for the purpose of making inquiry
respecting the life and conduct of Felipe Leonart, her father-in-law.
She was married about four months ago to Joseph Leonart, his son, and
what she knew of the matter in question was this;--the said Felipe
Leonart was accustomed to swear a thousand times a day, with and without
cause. He would swear ‘by the head of God;’ and the deponent had heard
him declare, many times, that all his good luck happened in the name of
the devil, and not of God. The deponent had asked him why he did not
confess, observing that to kneel at the foot of a confessor, and relate
his sins, was to relate them to God; and the said Felipe Leonart replied
that this was all babble; that he believed just as he pleased. As to
hearing mass, he would take it upon trust; that the priests said in
their sermons just what they chose, and that they did nothing but
trouble the common folks. Some one asking him if he was not afraid of
dying, he replied that if he knew that there was a tavern in the other
world, he should wish to die immediately. The deponent advised him to
confess himself, as otherwise he would be declared excommunicated. He
replied that he would not confess, and in fact did not, the last Lent,
although his son attempted to carry him to confession. His common oaths
were ‘the sacred host,’ ‘the hours of God,’ ‘the head of God.’ His
common helpers were the devils; saying, ‘by the help of the devil I will
do this,’ &c. So that during the whole space of four months the deponent
has never known a word or action of a Christian to proceed from him,
never kneeling when the signal is given, nor taking off his cap, nor
leaving off eating, although requested to do so by his wife and the
deponent.
The above statement is not made from any but conscientious motives, and
on being read, was declared by the deponent to be correctly recorded.
She promised secrecy, and I, the said Commissary, sign for her.
The Canon,
JUAN FERRER, _Commissary_.