necessary every where to use additional means to check the alarming
spread of Lutheran opinions, had written to the Pope for authority to
increase, if that were possible, the stringency of the Spanish
inquisition. The pontiff, nothing loath, had accordingly issued a bull
directed to the inquisitor general, Valdez, by which he was instructed
to consign to the flames all prisoners whatever, even those who were not
accused of having "relapsed." Great preparations had been made to strike
terror into the hearts of heretics by a series of horrible exhibitions,
in the course of which the numerous victims, many of them persons of high
rank, distinguished learning, and exemplary lives, who had long been
languishing in the dungeons of the holy office, were to be consigned to
the flames. The first auto-da fe had been consummated at Valladolid on
the 21st May (1559), in the absence of the King, of course, but in the
presence of the royal family and the principal notabilities, civil,
ecclesiastical, and military. The Princess Regent, seated on her throne,
close to the scaffold, had held on high the holy sword. The Archbishop
of Seville, followed by the ministers of the inquisition and by the
victims, had arrived in solemn procession at the "cadahalso," where,
after the usual sermon in praise of the holy office and in denunciation
of heresy, he had administered the oath to the Intante, who had duly
sworn upon the crucifix to maintain forever the sacred inquisition and
the apostolic decrees. The Archbishop had then cried aloud, "So may God
prosper your Highnesses and your estates;" after which the men and women
who formed the object of the show had been cast into the flames.--
[Cabrera]. It being afterwards ascertained that the King himself would
soon be enabled to return to Spain, the next festival was reserved as a
fitting celebration for his arrival. Upon the 8th October, accordingly,
another auto-da fe took place at Valladolid. The King, with his sister
and his son, the high officers of state, the foreign ministers, and all
the nobility of the kingdom, were present, together with an immense
concourse of soldiery, clergy, and populace. The sermon was preached by
the Bishop of Cuenga. When it was finished, Inquisitor General Valdez
cried with a loud voice, "Oh God, make speed to help us!" The King then
drew his sword. Valdez, advancing to the platform upon which Philip was
seated, proceeded to read the protestation: "Your Majesty swears by the
cross of the sword, whereon your royal hand reposes, that you will give
all necessary favor to the holy office of the inquisition against
heretics, apostates, and those who favor them, and will denounce and
inform against all those who, to your royal knowledge, shall act or speak
against the faith." The King answered aloud, "I swear it," and signed
the paper. The oath was read to the whole assembly by an officer of the
inquisition. Thirteen distinguished victims were then burned before the
monarch's eyes, besides one body which a friendly death had snatched from
the hands of the holy office, and the effigy of another person who had
been condemned, although not yet tried or even apprehended. Among the
sufferers was Carlos de Sessa, a young noble of distinguished character
and abilities, who said to the King as he passed by the throne to the
stake, "How can you thus look on and permit me to be burned?" Philip
then made the memorable reply, carefully recorded by his historiographer
and panegyrist; "I would carry the wood to burn my own son withal, were
he as wicked as you."
In Seville, immediately afterwards, another auto-da fe was held,
in which fifty living heretics were burned, besides the bones of Doctor
Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, once the friend, chaplain, and almoner of
Philip's father. This learned and distinguished ecclesiastic had been
released from a dreadful dungeon by a fortunate fever. The holy office,
however, not content with punishing his corpse, wreaked also an impotent
and ludicrous malice upon his effigy. A stuffed figure, attired in his
robes and with its arms extended in the attitude which was habitual with
him in prayer, was placed upon the scaffold among the living victims, and
then cast into the flames, that bigotry might enjoy a fantastic triumph
over the grave.
Such were the religious ceremonies with which Philip celebrated his
escape from shipwreck, and his marriage with Isabella of France,
immediately afterwards solemnized. These human victims, chained and
burning at the stake, were the blazing torches which lighted the monarch
to his nuptial couch.
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