AUTOS DE FÉ
The Inquisition of Toledo had now to deal with heretics who must
be considered impenitent, since they had not availed themselves
of the benign leniency of the Church and spontaneously sought the
reconciliation offered. From this moment the proceedings assume a far
more sinister character.
The first Auto under these altered conditions was held on August 16,
1486. Among the accused brought up for sentence were twenty men and
five women, whose offences doomed them to be abandoned to the secular
arm, and one of these was no less a personage than the Regidor--or
Governor--of Toledo, a Knight-Commander of the Order of Santiago.
They were brought forth from the prison of the Inquisition at a
little before six o’clock on that summer morning, arrayed in the
yellow _sanbenito_ and _coroza_. Each _sanbenito_ bore an inscription
announcing the name of the wearer and the nature of his offences
against the Faith, and they were smeared in addition with grotesque
red images of dragons and devils. A rope was round the neck of each
prisoner, and his hands were pinioned with the other end of it. In his
hands, thus bound, he carried the unlighted candle of green wax.
Thus they were led in procession through the streets, the procession
being headed as usual by a posse of familiars of the Confraternity of
St. Peter the Martyr--the Soldiers of the Faith--and preceded now by
the green cross of the Inquisition, which was shrouded in a mourning
veil of black crape.
The green cross did not merely symbolize, by its colour, constancy
and eternity, but it was fashioned as if of freshly-cut boughs,
to represent living wood, the emblem of the true faith in
contradistinction to the withered branches that are to be flung into
the fire.[140]
Following the Soldiers of the Faith, under a canopy of scarlet and
gold, borne by four acolytes and preceded by a bell-ringer, came
the priest who was to celebrate the Mass, in the crimson chasuble
prescribed by the liturgy for these dread solemnities. He bore the
Host, and as he advanced the multitude sank down upon their knees,
beating their breasts to the clang of the bell.
Behind the canopy walked another posse of familiars, and after these
again followed the doomed prisoners, each attended by two Dominican
brothers in their white cassocks and black cloaks, fervently exhorting
those who had not yet confessed to do so even at this late hour.
The constables of the Holy Office and the men-at-arms of the secular
authorities flanked this section of the procession, shouldering their
glittering halberts.
They were closely followed by a group of men who bore aloft, swinging
from long green poles, the effigies of those who were to be sentenced
as contumaciously absent--horribly grotesque mannequins of straw with
painted faces and bituminous eyes, tricked out in the _sanbenitos_ and
_corozas_ that should have adorned the originals had not these remained
fortunately at large.
Next, mounted upon mules in trailing funereal trappings, rode the
reverend inquisitors, attended by a group of mounted gentlemen in
black, the white cross upon their breasts announcing them as familiars
of the Holy Office, the officers of the tribunal.
They were immediately preceded by the banner of the Inquisition,
displaying in an oval medallion upon a sable ground the green cross
between an olive-branch (dexter) and a naked sword (sinister). The
olive-branch, emblem of peace, symbolized the readiness of the
Inquisition to deal mercifully with those who by true repentance and
confession were disposed to reconcile themselves with Holy Mother
Church. The mercy of which so much parade was made might consist, as
we know, of strangulation before burning, or, at best, of perpetual
imprisonment, the confiscation of property, and infamy extending to the
children and grandchildren of the condemned.
The sword, on the other hand, announced the alternative. Garcia Rodrigo
says that it proclaimed the Inquisition’s tardiness to smite. If so, it
is a curious symbol to have chosen for such a purpose; but in any case
the tardiness is hardly perceptible to the lay vision.
The procession was closed by the secular justiciary and his
_alguaziles_.
In this order that grim cortège advanced to the Cathedral
Square. Here two great scaffolds were draped in black for the
ceremony--blasphemously called an Act of Faith.
The prisoners were conducted to one of these scaffolds and accommodated
upon the benches that rose from it in tiers, the highest being always
reserved for those who were to be abandoned to the secular arm--to the
end, we suppose, that they should be fully in the view of the multitude
below. Each of the accused sat between two Dominican friars. The poles
bearing the effigies were placed so that they flanked the benches.
On the other scaffold, on which an altar had been raised and chairs set
for the inquisitors, these now made their appearance, accompanied by
the notaries and fiscal and attended by their familiars.
The shrouded green cross was placed upon the altar, the tapers were
lighted, the thurible kindled, and as a cloud of incense ascended and
spread its sweetly pungent odour the Mass began.
At the conclusion a sermon of the Faith was preached, wherein the
sins of the accused were denounced, and those who had incurred the
penalty of being abandoned to the secular arm were exhorted fervently
to repent and make their peace with Holy Mother Church that they might
save their souls from the damnation into which, otherwise, it was the
Inquisition’s business to hurry them.
As the preacher ceased, the notaries of the Holy Office of Toledo
proceeded to the business of reading out the crime of each accused,
dwelling in detail upon the particular form which his Judaizing was
known to have taken. As the name of each was called, he was brought
forward, and placed upon a stool,[141] whilst the reading of the
lengthy sentence took place.
It requires no great imaginative effort to form a mental picture of
these proceedings, and of the poor livid wretch, horror-stricken and
bathed in the sweat of abject terror which that long-drawn agony must
have extorted from the stoutest, sitting there, perhaps half-dazed
already by the merciful hand of Nature, in the glaring August sun,
under the stare of a thousand eyes, some pitiful, some hateful, some
greedy of the offered spectacle. Or it might be some poor half-swooning
woman, steadied by the attendant Dominicans, who seek to support her
fainting courage, to mitigate her unutterable anguish with comfortless
words that hold out the promise of pitiless mercy.
And all this, _Christi nomine invocato!_
The reading of the sentence is at an end. It concludes with the formula
that the Church, being unable to do more for the offender, casts him
out and abandons him to the secular arm. Lastly comes the mockery of
that intercession, _efficaciter_--to preserve the inquisitors from
irregularity--that the secular justice shall so deal with him that his
blood may not be shed, and that he may suffer no hurt in life or limb.
Thereupon the doomed wretch is removed from the scaffold; the
_alguaziles_ of the secular justiciary seize him; the Regidor mutters a
few brief words of sentence, and he is thrust upon an ass and hurried
away, out of the city to the burning-place of La Dehesa.
A white cross has been raised in this field, where twenty-five stakes
are planted with the faggots piled under each, and a mob of morbid
sightseers surges, impatient to have the spectacle begin.
The condemned is bound to the stake, and the Dominicans still continue
their exhortations. They flaunt a crucifix before his dazed, staring
eyes, and they call upon him to repent, confess, and save his soul from
Eternal Hell. They do not leave him until the fire is crackling and the
first cruel little tongues of bluish flame dart up through the faggots
to lick the soles of his naked feet.
If he has confessed, wrought upon by spiritual or physical terror, the
Dominican makes a sign, and the executioner steps behind the stake
and rapidly strangles the doomed man. If his physical fears have not
sufficed to conquer his religious convictions, if he remains firm in
his purpose to die lingeringly, horribly, a martyr for the faith that
he believes to be the only true one, the Dominican withdraws at last,
baffled by this “wicked stubbornness,” and the wretch is left to endure
the terrible agony of death by slow fire.
Meanwhile, under that limpid sky--_Christi nomine invocato_--the
ferocious work of the Faith goes on; accused succeeds accused to hear
his or her sentence read, until the last of the twenty-five victims has
been surrendered to the tireless arm of the secular justice. In the
meadows of La Dehesa there is such a blaze of the fires of the Faith,
that it might almost seem that the Christians have been avenging upon
their enemies those human torches which an enemy of Christianity is
alleged to have lighted once in Rome.
Six mortal hours, Orozco informs us, were consumed in that ghastly
business,[142] for the Court of the Holy Office must in all things
proceed with stately and pompous leisureliness, with that calm
equanimity enjoined by the “Directorium”--_simpliciter et de
plano_--lest by haste it should fall into the unpardonable offence of
irregularity.
Not until noon did the proceedings conclude with the hurrying away to
La Dehesa of the last of those twenty-five.
The inquisitors and their followers descended at length from their
scaffold, and withdrew to the Casa Santa to rest them from these
arduous labours of propagating Christianity.
There was more to be done upon the morrow--very important business,
demanding an entirely different ceremonial, wherefore it had been set
apart and allotted a day to itself.
The accused on this occasion were only two, but they were two clerics.
One was the parish priest of Talavera; the other occupied the
distinguished position of a royal chaplain. Both had been found guilty
of Judaizing. They were conducted to the Auto in full canonicals, as
if about to celebrate Mass, each carrying his veiled chalice. Led to
the scaffold of the condemned, they found themselves confronted from
the other scaffold not only by the inquisitors and their attendants
and familiars, but further by the Bishop, who was attended by two
Jeronymites--the Abbot of the Convent of St. Bernard and the Prior of
the Convent of Sisla.
The notary of the Holy Office read out the crimes of the accused, and
pronounced them cast out from the Church. Thereupon each was brought
in turn before the Bishop, who proceeded to degrade him, since the law
could not without sacrilege lay violent hands upon an ecclesiastic.
Beginning by depriving each of his chalice, the Bishop passed on to
divest the priestly offender of his chasuble; stole, maniple, and alb
were removed in succession, the Bishop pronouncing the prescribed
formula for each stage of the degradation, and defacing the tonsure by
clipping away a portion of the surrounding fringe of hair.
At last the doomed clerics stood stripped of all insignia of their
office. And now the _sanbenito_--that chasuble of infamy--was flung
upon the shoulders of each; their heads were crowned with the
tragically grotesque _coroza_, a rope was put about each neck, and
their hands were pinioned. The sentence was fulfilled at last by their
being abandoned to the secular authorities, who seized them and bore
them away to the stake.
* * * * *
On Sunday, October 16, a proclamation was read in the Cathedral,
pronouncing several deceased persons to have been heretics, and setting
forth that, although dead themselves, their reputations lived as those
of Christians. Therefore it became necessary to publish their heresy,
and their heirs were summoned to appear within twenty days and render
to the inquisitors an account of their inheritances, from the enjoyment
of which they were disqualified, since all property that had belonged
to the deceased was, by virtue of Torquemada’s decree, confiscate to
the royal treasury.
* * * * *
On December 10 900 persons were admitted to public reconciliation. They
were self-delators from remote country districts who had responded to a
recent edict of grace published in those districts.
The notary announced the forms of Judaizing of which each had been
guilty and proclaimed it as their intention henceforth to live and die
in the faith of Christ. He then read out the Articles of Faith, and
they were required to say “I believe” after each, and lastly to make
oath upon the Gospels and the crucifix never again to fall into the
error of Judaism, to denounce any whom they knew to be Judaizers, and
ever to favour and uphold the Holy Inquisition and the Holy Catholic
faith.
The penance imposed was that they should be scourged in procession for
seven Fridays, and thereafter on the first Friday of every month for a
year. This in their own districts. In addition, they were required to
come to Toledo and be scourged in procession on the Feast of St. Mary
of August and on the Thursday of Holy Week. Two hundred of them were
further ordered to wear a _sanbenito_ over their ordinary garments for
a year from that date, and never to appear in public without it under
pain of being deemed impenitent and punished as relapsed.
Another 700 came to be reconciled on January 15, 1487, and yet another
1,200 on March 10. These last, Orozco says, were from the districts of
Talavera, Madrid, and Guadalajara; and he adds that some amongst them
were penanced to the extent of being condemned to wear the _sanbenito_
for the remainder of their lives.
In the Auto of May 7 fourteen men and nine women were burnt. Amongst
the former was a Canon of Toledo who was accused of horrible heresies,
and who, writes Orozco, had confessed under torture to abominable
subversions of the words of the Mass. Instead of the prescribed formula
of the consecration, he had stated that he was in the habit of uttering
the absurd and almost meaningless gibberish--“Sus Periquete, que mira
la gente.”
On the following day there was held a supplementary Auto, especially
for the purpose of dealing with deceased and fugitive heretics,
conducted with a ceremony of an unusual and singularly theatrical
order, which is not so much typical--as are the other Autos
described--of what was taking place throughout Spain, as indicative of
a morbid inventiveness on the part of the Toledan inquisitors.
On the scaffold usually occupied by the accused a sepulchral monument
of wood had been erected and draped in black. As each accused was cited
by the notary, the familiars opened the monument and drew out the
effigy of the dead man dressed in the grave-clothes peculiar to the
Jews.
To this dummy of straw the detailed account of his crimes and the
sentence of the court whereby he was condemned as a heretic were
solemnly read out. When all the condemnations had thus been proclaimed,
the effigies were flung into a bonfire that had been kindled in the
square; and together with the effigies went the bones of the deceased,
which had been exhumed to that end.
After that the next Auto of importance was held on July 25, 1488,
when twenty men and seventeen women were sent to the stake, with a
supplementary Auto upon the morrow in which they burnt the effigies of
over a hundred dead and fugitive heretics.
And so it goes on, as recorded by the licentiate Sebastian Orozco,
and cited by Llorente[143] and Fidel Fita.[144] From now onwards
the burnings increase in number. Indeed, all edicts of grace having
expired, and no new ones being permissible, sentencing to the
flames--through the medium of the secular arm--and to perpetual
imprisonment becomes the chief business of the Inquisition in Toledo
and elsewhere.
The _sanbenitos_ of the burnt were preserved in the churches of the
parishes where they had lived. They were hung in these churches as
banners won in battle are hung--trophies of victory over heresy.