Joseph Oliver, a native of this city, aged twentyseven years, a married
man, and by occupation a husbandman. Proceedings were instituted against
this person, and his actions having been attested to, he was ordered, on
the eleventh of this month, to be imprisoned, with a sequestration of
his property, for performing superstitious and magical cures. On the
fifteenth of this month, he was confined in the secret prison of this
Holy Office; and on the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth,
audiences were held, in the last of which, the accusation against him
was presented. In the aforementioned audiences, and in his answers to
the accusation, he confessed the most of his crimes. On the twentieth
and twentyfirst, he communicated with his counsel, and the case was
admitted for proof in a full trial. The customary preparations being
made, and the testimony ratified, the proofs are preparing for
publication, and in this state the case remains.
August, 1731.
On the eighteenth and twentyfirst of this month, the audience for
publication was held, and the prisoner having answered to the charges,
the audience for communication with his counsel, was held on the
twentyseventh. By the advice of his advocate, the prisoner concluded his
defence without alleging anything in his own justification. In this
state the case remains.
September, 1731.
On the sixth of this month, judgment was pronounced before the Ordinary,
and the prisoner was unanimously sentenced to attend at an _auto de fe_
if one should take place soon, otherwise at some church, in penitential
guise, with the insignia of his crimes; and there hear his condemnation
read, make an abjuration _de levi_, be severely reprehended, admonished,
and warned, and be banished eight leagues from this city, Madrid, and
the Court of His Majesty, for the period of ten years, being first
confined three years in the garrison of this city of Barcelona. It was
also ordered, that, before the execution of the sentence, it be
submitted to your Highness.
October, 1731.
On the first of this month, the answer of your Highness was received,
ordering that the prisoner should hear his condemnation, and undergo the
first part of his sentence in the hall of the tribunal, then to be
banished as above specified, for the period of five years. This order
was executed on the fifth, when the prisoner was sworn to secrecy
respecting the prisons, and forthwith despatched.