MIGUEL GIBERT, _Not’y of Tarragona_.
* * * * *
In the city of Tarragona, on the seventeenth day of the month
abovementioned, and the same year, before the said Commissary of the
Holy Office, appeared, according to summons, and swore formally to
declare the truth, a man calling himself Joseph Leonart, an inhabitant
of Tarragona, of age, as he stated, twenty years or thereabout.
Questioned, if he knew the cause of his being summoned to appear.
Answered, that he supposed it to be for the purpose of learning the bad
conduct of Felipe Leonart, a Frenchman, and his father. For a number of
years the deponent and his mother had concealed many heavy offences
committed by him against the Holy Catholic Faith.
The said Felipe Leonart was a great swearer, saying ‘The head, soul, and
body of Christ’ a million times every day, declaring that he did not
fear God, the king, nor anybody; and that if he knew there was a tavern
in the other world, he should not care if he were to die, although his
body were burnt at Carraxet. Everything which succeeded well with him,
he ascribed to the devil and not to God, saying, ‘The devil will give me
food, for I do not want anything from God,’ and, ‘The devil will give me
luck in this;’ so that his patron and helper in everything was the
devil. He never confessed, and the last Lent the deponent attempted to
carry him to the convent of St Francisco; but on perceiving that he was
leading him to confession, he ran away from him. He declared it nonsense
to relate one’s sins to a confessor, and that a man should tell of
nothing but what he pleased. The deponent had never seen him more than
once at mass. He wore no rosary, nor any sign of a Christian. He had
been declared excommunicated for not complying with the precepts of the
church, in this city, in Barcelona, and in Valencia. He declared that
the preachers were troublers of the people. At one time, in Valencia, he
went to bed after tiring himself with swearing, and told the family that
a woman, a monkey, and a young man then in the house, had appeared to
him in bed, scratched his face all over and thrown him down stairs. They
found him at the foot of the stairs with his face scratched, and
believed that this had been done by the devil, from his mentioning him
so often. The deponent and his wife had advised him to remove his
residence lest the Holy Inquisition should punish him; to which he
answered that he did not care for the Inquisition. Finally, the said
Felipe Leonart lead such a life that he appeared more like a Lutheran
than a Christian.
The above is the truth according to the oath of the deponent, who does
not make this declaration out of malice or ill will against his father,
but solely to discharge his conscience, and to obey the commands of his
confessors. It having been read, he declared it to be correctly
recorded, and signed his name.