March, 1730.
[Sidenote: Isabel Boxi, alias Modroño. Prison of Sta. Maria.
Maintenance, two sueldos and the bread of the Contractor.]
Isabel Boxi, alias Modroño, widow, native of Vilaseca, in the diocese of
Tarragona, aged sixtythree years, confined in the secret prison of this
Holy Office, with her property sequestered, for witchcraft and
superstition. Respecting this prisoner your Highness was informed in the
month of January, that the witnesses were giving their testimony against
her for publication. Nothing was done in all February, and part of the
present month, with respect either to this or the other cases, for this
reason; the Inquisitor, Licentiate Don Balthasar Villarexo has been out
of health most of this month, and I have been in the same state all the
month of February. For the same reason, also, no account was transmitted
the last month, there being no proceedings to relate. At present, we
have done nothing more than hold an audience for the publication of the
testimony against the above prisoner, and shall proceed with this case
after the holidays.
April, 1730.
The publication of the testimony was done on the eighteenth and
twentyfourth of this month, on which occasions the prisoner made her
answers to the charges, and denied the whole. In this state the case
remains at present.
May, 1730.
The publication was communicated to the prisoner, and she conferred with
her counsel, and drew up her defence. Sentence was passed, and the same
referred to your Highness.
June, 1730.
On the third of this month, the order of your Highness respecting the
prisoner was received, which having confirmed the sentence, an _auto_
was given in the church of Santa Agueda on the eighteenth of this month,
the prisoner being present in penitential garments, with the insignia of
her offences. Her sentence was read and she made an abjuration _de
levi_, after which she was absolved _ad cautelam_.[19] On the
nineteenth, she received a scourging, and on the twentieth, after being
reprehended, admonished, and threatened, she was informed that she must
pass three years of confinement, in Vique, and be banished seven years
more from Tarragona, Barcelona, and Madrid. On the same day, the
audience was held for binding her to secrecy and ascertaining the state
of her connexion with the prison. The day following she was despatched
to Vique where she now remains in the custody of a learned person who is
to instruct her in the Catholic Faith.