DR MARCIAL LLISTORELLA, _Presbyter Notary_.
In the city of Gerona, on the second day of July, one thousand seven
hundred and ninetyone, before us, Juan Salgueda, Presbyter, Vicar of the
Mercadal of Gerona, and Commissary of the Holy Office, and Dr Marcial
Llistorella, Presbyter Notary, sworn to preserve secrecy and perform
faithfully our duties, appeared, according to summons, and made oath to
declare the truth and preserve secrecy, Narcisa Catala y Pinsach, wife
of Joseph Fabrega, commonly called Catala, stocking weaver, a native and
inhabitant of Gerona, of age, as she stated, twentyeight years.
Questioned, if she knew the cause of her being summoned to appear.
Answered, No.
Questioned, if she knew that any person had said or done anything which
was, or appeared to be contrary to our Holy Catholic Faith, and
Evangelical Law.
Answered, that she had been told that Francisco Brich, _alias_ Lo Avi
Brich, and Francisco Blaqueire, stocking weavers, in the Hospicio of
this city, were Protestants; and that the said Blaqueire had been
baptized since his residence in Spain, but she knew not in what Parish.
Also, that he could not live with his parents because they were
Protestants. His parents live in France.
Questioned, if she knew whether the said Blaqueire had embraced any
heresy.
Answered, that she only knew he was a Protestant, according as she was
informed by her mother, now dead, who asserted that she was unwilling
to let her other daughter marry the said Blaqueire because he was a
Protestant. The same assertion she has heard from many other persons;
she could not remember whom, but believed they were people of the vulgar
sort.
Questioned, if she had told this to any other person.
Answered, that what had been told her, she had told to others, but to
whom she could not say.
Here closed the deposition of the second of July, and on the fourth of
the same month, the said Narcisa Fabra Catala y Pinsach appeared again.
Questioned, if she had anything to add to the declaration which she had
made against Francisco Blaqueire.
Answered, No.
Questioned, what was the personal appearance of this man.
Answered, that he was about thirty years of age, of a moderate stature,
and corpulent; that she did not know his birthplace, only that he was a
Frenchman; that he was desirous of marrying, and that he was a stocking
weaver, but in what factory he worked she did not know.
Questioned, why she supposed the abovenamed Brich to be a Protestant.
Answered, that she did not know it for certain, but had heard of it in
the same manner in which she learned the history of Francisco Blaqueire,
and that perhaps she had told it to others.
She was then informed that information had been received and sworn to in
the Holy Office, that in a certain conversation a certain person
observed that Avi Brich appeared to be an honest man, to which she
replied, ‘He is not an honest man, but a Jew.’ And it being remarked
that in Spain they must confess and partake of the communion once in
each year, she replied, that in order to deceive the spies, they did
this not merely once, but two or three times a year.
Therefore, in the name of God Our Lord and his Glorious and Blessed
Mother Our Lady the Virgin, she was exhorted to bethink herself and
declare the whole truth.
Answered, that she did not remember to have said so, but had heard say
that if he had died in the Hospital, where he lay very sick about two
years, he would not have been buried in consecrated grounds. At present
she could not recollect who made this assertion, but she believed they
were Frenchmen.
Questioned, what was his age and personal appearance.
Answered, she had known him about six years; that he was of a middling
stature, corpulent, of a pacific temper, and above fifty years old; that
she knew not his birthplace, but only that he was a Frenchman, and
resided in the parish of the Mercadal of Gerona.
Questioned, if she knew anything of any other person which was contrary
to our Faith.
Answered, that she had been told by Dona Manuela de Rodil, that Monsieur
Daniel, a Frenchman, living in the parish of the Mercadal, possessed a
mirror, which, on looking into it, exhibited the figures of devils.
Also, she had heard, from the vulgar, that he and his wife were not
Christians. Furthermore, she had been told by a certain Mallensa, a
French woman, that a certain Luis in her house was a Protestant, but she
believed this was said from hatred, and in order to get him out of the
house. Finally, she remembered to have heard that one of the sons,
Francisco Brich, now in France, was a Protestant. Who made this
assertion she could not tell.
The above is the truth according to the oath of the deponent, who has
not uttered it out of malice or ill will, but solely to discharge her
conscience; and having been read, she declared that it was correctly
recorded.
Done at Gerona on the fourth day of July, one thousand seven hundred and
ninetytwo.
The said Narcisa Catala Fabre y Pinsach not being able to write, I sign
the above.