THE TRIAL OF YUCÉ FRANCO
The Fiscal, D. Alonso de Guevára, announces to their Reverend
Paternities that his denunciation of Yucé Franco is prepared, and
he solicits them to order the prisoner to be brought into the
audience-chamber that he may hear it read.
The apparitor of the court introduces the accused into the presence of
the inquisitors and their notary, to whom Guevára now hands his formal
accusation. This the notary proceeds to read. Thus:
“Most Reverend and Virtuous Sirs,--I, Alonso de Guevára, Bachelor of
Law, Fiscal Prosecutor of the Holy Inquisition in this City and Diocese
of Avila, appear before your Reverend Paternities in the manner by
law prescribed, to denounce Yucé Franco, Jew, of the neighbourhood of
Tenbleque, who is present.
“Not content that, in common with all other Jews, he is humanely
permitted to abide and converse with the faithful and Catholic
Christians, he did induce and attract some Christians to his accursed
Law with false and deceptive doctrines and suggestions, telling them
that the Law of Moses is the true one, in which there is salvation,
and that the Law of Jesus Christ is a false and fictitious Law never
imposed or decreed by God.
“And with infidel and depraved soul he went with some others to crucify
a Christian boy, one Good Friday, almost in the manner and with that
hatred and cruelty with which the Jews, his ancestors, crucified
our Redeemer Jesus Christ, mocking and spitting upon him, striking
and wounding him with the aim of vituperating and deriding our Holy
Catholic Faith and the Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
“Item, he contrived, as principal, together with others, to obtain
a consecrated Host to be outraged and mocked in vituperation and
contempt of our Holy Catholic Faith, and because amongst the other
Jews--accomplices in the said crime--there were certain sorcerers
who on the day of their Passover of unleavened bread were to commit
enchantments with the said Host and the heart of a Christian boy. And
if this were done, as said, all Christians were to enrage and die. The
intention moving them was that the Law of Moses should be more widely
kept and honoured, its rites and precepts and ceremonies more freely
solemnized, that the Christian Religion should perish and be subverted,
and that they, themselves, should become possessed of all the property
of the Catholic and Faithful Christians, and there should be none to
interfere with their perverse errors, and their generation should grow
and multiply upon the earth, that of the Faithful Christians being
entirely extirpated.
“Item, he committed other crimes concerning the Holy Office of the
Holy Inquisition, as I shall state and allege in the course of these
proceedings as far as I may consider necessary.
“Wherefore I beg you, Reverend Sirs, that you pronounce the said Yucé
Franco, for the said crimes, to be a malefactor, abettor of heretics,
and a subverter and destroyer of the Catholic and Christian Law; and
that he shall be deemed to have fallen into and incurred all the
penalties and censures prescribed by canon and civil law for those
who commit these crimes, and the confiscation and loss of all his
property, which shall be applied to the royal treasury, and that he may
be abandoned to the secular arm and justice that it may do with him
as by law befits with a malefactor, an abettor of heretics, and an
extirpator of the Catholic Faith....
“Wherefore I petition your Reverences to proceed against the said Yucé
Franco _simpliciter et de plano et sine estrepitu judicii_, as runs the
formula prescribed by law in such cases,[177] to the end that justice
may be fulfilled.
“And I swear to God on this Cross on which I set my hand, that this
petition and denunciation which I bring against Yucé Franco I do not
bring maliciously, but because I believe him to have committed all that
I have stated, and to the end that justice may be done and the wicked
and the abettors of heretics be punished, that the good men may be
known and that our Holy Catholic Faith may be exalted.”[178]
* * * * *
It will be seen presently that at this stage of the proceedings Yucé
had not the slightest suspicion that the pretended Rabbi Abraham who
had visited him in his prison of Segovia when he lay sick was other
than he had announced himself. Nor did the accusation afford him the
least hint that any of his associates had been taken, or that Benito
Garcia had been examined under torture. So carefully had they managed
things that he was not even aware of the arrest of his old father.
Therefore it must have come as something of a shock to him to hear this
matter of the crucifixion of the child at La Guardia included in the
indictment. Nevertheless he unhesitatingly pronounced the denunciation
to be the “greatest falsehood in the world.”
Guevára answered this denial by petitioning the court to receive the
proofs which he was prepared to present.
Being asked whether in the preparation of his defence he would require
the services of counsel, Yucé replied in the affirmative, and the
tribunal appointed as his attorney the Bachelor Sanç,[179] and as
his advocate Juan de Pantigoso. The usual form of oath was imposed
upon these lawyers, and Yucé empowered them to act for him within the
narrow limitations imposed by the Holy Office, which afforded them no
opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses for the prosecution or even
to be present at their examination.
The notary of the court was ordered to supply the defendant with a copy
of the indictment, and Yucé was allowed a term of nine days within
which to prepare his answer.
Five days later the accused successfully petitions the court that to
the advocate appointed him be added one Martin Vazquez, to whom he
gives the necessary powers. And it is this same Martin Vazquez who on
that very day--December 22, 1490--presents to the court the written
repudiation of the indictment, prepared by the Bachelor Sanç, in his
client’s name.
* * * * *
The advocate begins by respectfully submitting that this court has no
jurisdiction over his client on the score of the crimes alleged against
him, since their Paternities are inquisitors appointed--_Auctoritate
Apostolica_--for the Diocese of Avila only, and only over persons
of that diocese. Yucé is of the Diocese of Toledo, where there are
inquisitors of heretical pravity, before whom he is ready to appear to
answer any charges. Therefore his case should have been referred to
that court of Toledo, and their Paternities should never have received
Guevára’s denunciation.
He proceeds to reprove their Paternities for having done so upon
sounder grounds, when he protests that the accusation is too vague and
general and obscure. It does not state place or year or month or day
or hour in which, or persons with whom, it is alleged that his client
committed the crimes set forth.
Further, he objects that since his client is a Jew, he cannot with
justice be accused of having fallen into the crime of heresy or
apostasy; and therefore it is not right that--as may be done in the
case of a heretic--the full expression and elucidation of what is
charged against him should be withheld, since thus it is impossible
for his client to defend himself, not knowing what precisely are the
charges made.
The advocate very rightly denounces it as against all equity that
the Fiscal should thus prejudice Yucé without particularizing his
accusation, and he warns their Paternities that it may prove hurtful to
their consciences if, as a result of Guevára’s generalizations, Yucé
should come to suffer and die undefended.
* * * * *
It is very unsatisfactory equity which says to a man, “You are accused
of such-and-such crimes. Prove your innocence of them, or we punish
you.” But it is not equity at all that can say, “You are accused of
something; no matter what. Prove to us that you are innocent of all the
offences for which this tribunal may proceed against you, or we find
you guilty and send you to death.”
This, however, was precisely the method of the Holy Office, and being
aware of it, the advocate is forced to confess that in a case of heresy
secretly committed the Inquisition may admit an accusation that does
not specify time or place of the alleged offence.
But this, he insists, does not apply to his client, who, being a
Jew and not having a baptized soul, may not truly be denounced as a
heretic. He appeals to the consciences of the inquisitors not to admit
the accusation, and finally he threatens that if they do so, he will
lodge a complaint where by right he may.
From all this it appears that so completely--as completely as his
client--is the advocate in ignorance of the mainsprings of the
prosecution that he does not even know that the trial has been ordered
by Torquemada, himself, to take place in Avila. That warrant-letter of
the Grand Inquisitor’s has not been divulged to the defendant, lest in
learning the names of his fellow-accused he should learn too much, be
put upon his guard, and equipped to set up a tenable defence.
But in any case, and to be on the safe side, the advocate offers
a categorical and eloquent denial of every count in the Fiscal’s
indictment.
He scoffs at the absurdity of accusing Yucé Franco of seeking to seduce
Christians into embracing the Law of Moses. He urges the lad’s youth,
his station in life, his general ignorance (even of that same Law of
Moses by which he lives), and the fact that he has to work hard to
make a living by his cobbler’s trade; and he adduces that his client
has neither the time nor the knowledge necessary to attempt any such
proselytizing as that with which he is charged.
He declares that if at any time Yucé did expound any part of the Mosaic
Law in answer to questions addressed to him (this being obviously
inspired by Yucé’s recollection of the statements he has made under
examination concerning Alonso Franco) he did so simply and frankly,
with no thought of proselytizing, nor could it so be construed. In
fact, save for the answers returned by him to questions asked by Alonso
Franco, the lad does not remember ever to have done even so much, which
would have been no real offence in any case.
Full and formal, too, is the denial of Yucé’s participation in the
crucifixion of any boy, and of having procured or attempted to procure
a Host. The advocate ridicules the notion of this cobbler-lad being a
sorcerer, or having knowledge of, or interest in, sorcery.
Finally--burrowing ever in the dark, and seeking to undermine
possibilities, since he is given no facts that he may demolish--he
suggests that the depositions received against Yucé are perhaps
susceptible of being interpreted in different ways, and may refer
equally to good or evil, and that since he is accused and arrested the
things he has, himself, deponed (_i.e._ concerning Alonso Franco’s
Judaizing tendencies) should be interpreted in his favour, and not
against him.
Therefore he petitions their Reverend Paternities to order the
witnesses to declare with whom, where, when, and how Yucé committed
these things which are deponed against him. Failing that, he begs them
to declare his client acquitted, to release him, restoring him his good
fame and all property that may have been confiscated by order of their
Paternities or any other judges of the Inquisition.[180]
* * * * *
The court commanded the notary to prepare a copy of this plea, and to
deliver it to the Fiscal, who was instructed to reply to it within
three days. And they further commanded that at the time of the delivery
of the said reply, Yucé Franco should again be brought before them that
he might learn what was determined concerning him.
* * * * *
The only matter of interest in the next sitting[181]--and this from the
point of view of the illustration which these proceedings afford us of
inquisitorial methods--is the Fiscal’s repudiation of any obligation
on his part to precise the time or place of the crimes with which Yucé
Franco is accused, and his insistence that, in spite of all that has
been advanced by the defendant, the case must be considered one of
heresy.
The court evidently takes the same view, for it commands both parties
to the action to proceed to advance proof of their respective
contentions within thirty days. Meanwhile, to clear up the matter of
the venue, the court communicates with the Cardinal of Spain. The
Primate very promptly grants the requisite permission to transfer
the action to Avila from his own Archbishopric of Toledo within
whose jurisdiction it had lain. This was the merest formality; for
considering the explicit commands in the matter left by the supreme
arbiter, Torquemada, the Cardinal could hardly have proceeded otherwise.
* * * * *
The methods now adopted by the Fiscal to obtain the proofs which
he requires, or at least to build a more complete and overwhelming
case--for we cannot but suppose that already he had sufficient material
upon which to have obtained a conviction--are eminently typical.
We know that Ça Franco, Benito Garcia, Juan de Ocaña, and the
four Francos of La Guardia were all at this time in the hands of
the inquisitors; and it is not to be doubted that these men would
be undergoing constant examination. But it is obvious, from the
absence in the _dossier_ with which we are concerned of any document
relating to this particular period, that no avowals were made by his
fellow-prisoners to increase the incrimination of Yucé.
Without wishing to set up too many hypotheses to bridge the _lacunæ_
that result from the absence of the records of the proceedings against
the other accused, we would tentatively suggest that in preparing
that portion of his denunciation relating to the crucifixion of the
child, Guevára had simply adapted details extracted from Benito to
Yucé’s vague admission in the prison of Segovia. This conclusion
is eminently justifiable. It is based upon the fact that Guevára
altogether overstepped the limits of any evidence brought to light in
the whole course of the proceedings when he said that Yucé “contrived
_as principal_ ... to obtain a consecrated Host.” Further it is based
upon the circumstance already mentioned that if in any deposition of
Benito or of any other of the accused, Yucé’s slightest participation
in the affair of La Guardia had been mentioned, such a deposition--or
at least the respective extract from it--must have found a place in the
_dossier_ of his trial. And we know that no such document is present.
Still further, we have the fact that the month prescribed by the
court for the submission of proof was allowed to expire and another
month after that, and still Guevára had no proofs to lay before their
Reverend Paternities, beyond the depositions we have already seen.
Meanwhile, Yucé continued to languish in prison.
And here the following question suggests itself: In view of the
admission made by Yucé to the false Rabbi in Segovia, why was he not
closely and directly questioned upon that matter? and in the event
of his withholding details, why was he not put to torture as by law
prescribed?
Instead of that direct method of procedure, he was left in complete
ignorance of his self-betrayal and of the source whence the inquisitors
had derived their knowledge of his association with the affair of La
Guardia.
The only answer that suggests itself is that Torquemada desired the
matter to be very fully elucidated, that the net should be very fully
and carefully spread--as we shall see--so that nothing and no one
should escape. And yet this answer is hardly entirely satisfactory.
* * * * *
If Guevára allowed months to pass without being able to lay the
required proofs of Yucé’s guilt before the court, on the other hand
Yucé himself had been similarly unable to supply his counsel with any
proof of his innocence--as indeed was impossible in the absence of all
particulars of the charges against him.
Thus for a season the case remains in suspense.
Attempts to extract incriminating evidence from the other prisoners
having meanwhile failed by ordinary judicial methods, the tribunal now
has recourse to other means. Having failed to compel or induce the
prisoners into betraying one another, the inquisitors now seek to lure
them into self-betrayal.
A well-known scheme is employed.
Benito is moved into a chamber immediately under Yucé’s. To while away
the tedium of his imprisonment, and with a light-heartedness that is
a little startling in a man in his desperate position, Yucé sits by
his window thrumming a viol or guitar one day towards the end of March
or in early April. The instrument may have been left with him by the
gaoler who was in the plot.
What was no doubt expected comes to pass. Yucé’s music is abruptly
interrupted by a voice from below, which asks:
“Can you give me a needle, Jew?”
Yucé replies that he has no needle other than a cobbler’s.[182]
The speaker is Benito Garcia, and it is certain that spies have been
set to overhear what passes. We know that their conversation took place
through a hole in the floor contrived by the gaoler, who was acting
upon the instructions of the inquisitors.[183]
Yucé is very circumspect in all that he says; but Benito is entirely
reckless during those first days of their intercourse. And yet, whilst
he admits that he considers himself lost already through what “that dog
of a doctor” (by which he means the Reverend Inquisitor, Dr. Villada)
extracted from him under torture in Astorga, he shows himself at other
times not without hope of regaining his freedom.
He mentions a man named Peña, who is the Alcalde of La Guardia.
This man, he says, is interested in him, and has--or so Benito
fancies--influence at Court which he would exert on Benito’s behalf did
he but know of the latter’s position.
At another time he vows that, if ever he gets out of prison, he will
quit Spain and take himself off to Judea. He is convinced that all this
trouble has come upon him as a punishment for having abandoned the
Law of Moses and denied the true God to embrace the religion of the
Begotten God (_Dios Parido_).
But apart from these, there are no lamentations from him; more usually
he is sardonic in his grievances, as when he complains that all he
got in return for the money he gave for the souls in purgatory were
the fleas and lice that all but devoured him alive in the prison of
Astorga; or that all the recompense he enjoyed for having presented the
Church with a holy-water font was to be subjected to the water-torture
by “that dog of a doctor in Astorga.”
He vows that he will die a Jew, though he should be burnt alive. He
inveighs bitterly against the inquisitors, dubbing them Antichrists,
and Torquemada the greatest Antichrist of all; and he alludes
derisively to what he terms the frauds and buffooneries of the Church.
It was from Benito that Yucé, to his surprise, received news of his
father’s arrest and of the fact that Ça Franco lies in that same prison
of Avila. He was informed of this during their first talk, when Benito
reproved his music.
“Don’t thrum that guitar,” Benito had said, “but take pity on your
father who is here and whom the inquisitors have promised to burn.”[184]
In the course of another later conversation between the prisoners Yucé
asks Benito what has brought about the latter’s arrest. And when Benito
has related the happening in the inn at Astorga, Yucé questions him
on the subject of the consecrated wafer--and his questions certainly
betray the fact that the young Jew had previous knowledge of it and
generally of the affair that was afoot. He becomes so importunate in
his questions that Benito--perhaps finding them awkward to answer
without betraying the extent to which he has incriminated his
associates--sharply bids Yucé to leave the matter alone, assuring him
at the same time that he has never mentioned Yucé’s name to the
inquisitors.
[Illustration:
_Photo by Donald Macbeth._
SANBENITO OF PENITENT ADMITTED TO RECONCILIATION.
From Limborch’s “Historia Inquisitionis.”]
At first glance this statement appears untrue. But it is obvious that
Benito means that he has never mentioned Yucé’s name in connection with
the Host or in any other way that could incriminate him. And in this he
is truthful enough as far as he knows, for he could not suppose that
what he had said about his own offences against the Faith committed in
Yucé’s house at Tenbleque could in any way be construed against the lad
or his father.
Passing on to other matters, they refer to a certain widow of La
Guardia, of whom Benito says that he knows her to be a Judaizer,
because she never ate anything containing lard or ham, and he has
frequently seen her eat _adafinas_ (the Jewish food prepared on the
Friday for the Sabbath) and drink _Caser_ wine.[185]
In the _dossier_ of Yucé Franco there are no depositions of the spy
set to overhear his conversations with Benito. But it is probable
that some such depositions will be found in the record of the trial
of the latter, where they must belong, since from the frankness which
he used he incriminated himself to an extraordinary degree and Yucé
not at all. And it is not to be doubted that the inquisitors made use
of information thus obtained when they came to examine Yucé Franco on
April 9 and 10[186] and in a subsequent examination of August 1,[187]
when they drew from him a deposition which embodies all the foregoing.
On the margin of the last of these depositions there is a note drawing
attention to what was said by Benito concerning the widow of La
Guardia, which shows that the inquisitors do not intend that this piece
of chance information shall be wasted.
Acting no doubt upon the report of the spy, and having at last obtained
information upon which they could go to work, the inquisitors, Villada
and Lopes, accompanied by their notary, pay Yucé Franco a surprise
visit in his cell on the morning of Saturday, April 9. Having obtained
his ratification of what he has already deponed at Segovia and in this
prison of Avila, they draw from him by vague and subtle questionings
the following additions to those admissions:
About three years ago he was told by a Hebrew physician, named Yucé
Tazarte, since deceased, that the latter had begged Benito Garcia to
obtain him a consecrated wafer, and that Benito had stolen the keys
of the church of La Guardia and so contrived to obtain a Host; that
in consequence of that theft, Benito was arrested--upon suspicion, we
suppose--two years ago last Christmas (_i.e._ 1488), and detained in
prison for two days.
Tazarte told Yucé that the wafer was required “to make a cord with
certain knots,” which cord, together with a letter, Tazarte gave the
witness for delivery to the Rabbi Peres of Toledo, with which request
Yucé had complied.
But beyond this, he adds, he has no knowledge of what became of the
Host, nor did Tazarte tell him; and that not only Tazarte, but also
Benito Garcia, Mosé Franco--his own brother, since deceased--and Alonso
Franco of La Guardia, were mixed up in the affair, according to what
had been related by Mosé to his wife Jamila. In this last particular he
presently corrected himself: it was not, he says upon reflection, to
Jamila that Mosé had related this, but to Yucé himself.
It is a curious statement, and would no doubt be made in answer to
the trend of the questions set him as to what he knew of a certain
Host that had been used for purposes of magic. And there is reason to
believe that--as we shall see presently--Yucé was deliberately lying,
in the hope of putting the inquisitors off the scent of the real affair.
But it is noteworthy that in this, as in other depositions, he is
careful to betray no Jews whom his evidence can hurt. His brother and
Tazarte are dead; Alonso and Benito Garcia are already under arrest,
and the latter has admitted to Yucé that he has already said enough to
burn him. Moreover, they are Christians--having received baptism--and
their betrayal cannot be to Yucé as serious a matter as would that of
a faithful Jew. Particularly is this emphasized by his retraction of
what he had said concerning the slight connection of his sister-in-law
Jamila with the affair, having perhaps bethought him that even so
little might incriminate her--as undoubtedly it would have done.
The inquisitors withdraw, obviously dissatisfied, and later on
that same day they order Yucé to be brought before them in the
audience-chamber. There they recommence their questions, and they
succeed in extracting from him a considerable portion of what passed
between him and Benito in prison--matters of which, beyond all doubt,
they would be already fully informed.
Twice on the following day, which was Sunday, was he haled before their
Reverend Paternities. At the first audience his statement of yesterday
is read over to him, and when he has ratified it he is again pressed
with stealthy questions to add a little more of what passed in those
conversations with Benito. But in the course of the second examination
on that Sunday, Yucé is at last induced or betrayed into supplying the
inquisitors with information nearer their requirements.
He says that four years ago he was told by his brother Mosé that the
latter, with Tazarte, Alonso Franco, Juan Franco, Garcia Franco, and
Benito Garcia had obtained a consecrated wafer, and that by certain
incantations they were to contrive that the justice of the Christians
and the inquisitors should not have power to touch them. Mosé invited
him to join in the affair, but he refused to do so, having no
inclination, and being, moreover, on his way to Murcia at the time.
And he knows, from what Mosé told him, that about two years ago the
same men repeated the same enchantment with the same Host.[188]
We do not know whether Yucé is now left in peace for a whole month, but
we cannot suppose it. And we have to explain the absence of any report
of an examination during that period by the assumption that whatever
examinations did take place were entirely fruitless and brought no
fresh particulars to light. As the _dossier_ does not anywhere contain
a single record of a fruitless examination, this assumption--although
we admit its negative character--does not seem unreasonable.
Anyway, on May 7 it is Yucé himself who begs to be taken before the
inquisitors to tell them that he remembers having asked Mosé where he
and his associates assembled to do what they did, so that the wives
of the latter--who were Christian women--should have no knowledge of
the affair, and Mosé had answered him that they assembled in the caves
between Dosbarrios and La Guardia, on the road to Ocaña.[189]
It is difficult to suppose such a statement to be entirely spontaneous
as following upon depositions made a month earlier. Much rather does
it appear to be the result of some fruitless questionings such as we
suggest may have taken place in the interval. Similarly we assume that
the examinations steadily continue, but another month passes before we
get the next recorded one, and this--on June 9[190]--contains a really
important admission.
He says that _he doesn’t remember whether_ he has mentioned that some
four years ago, being ill at Tenbleque and the physician Tazarte having
come to bleed him, he overheard a conversation between his brother
and Tazarte, from which he learnt that the latter, together with the
Francos of La Guardia, had performed an enchantment with a Host and the
heart of a Christian boy, by virtue of which the inquisitors could
take no proceedings against them in any way, or, if they did, the
inquisitors themselves would die.
His statement that he doesn’t remember whether he had mentioned a
matter of so grave a character is either a foolish attempt to simulate
guilelessness, or else, in itself, it suggests a bewildered state of
mind resulting from the multiplication of examinations in which this
matter of the heart of a Christian boy--contained, as we know, in
Guevára’s indictment--has been persistently thrust forward.
[Illustration: THE DISTRICT OF LA GUARDIA.]
He is asked whether he heard tell whence they procured the Host, and
where they killed the boy to obtain the heart. But he denies having
overheard anything, or having otherwise obtained any knowledge of these
particulars.
* * * * *
We have seen Eymeric’s prescription for visiting a prisoner and
assuring him that the inquisitors will pardon him if he makes a frank
and full confession of his crime and of all that is known to him of
the crimes of others. Although it is not positively indicated, there
is reason to suppose from what follows that this course was now being
pursued in the case of Yucé Franco. To play the part of the necessary
mediator, the inquisitors have at hand the gaoler who must have been on
friendly terms with the prisoner, having contrived for him a means of
communication with Benito at the time when the latter had occupied the
cell immediately beneath Yucé’s. That Benito no longer occupies this
cell may safely be assumed; for having served his turn, he would of
course be removed again.
Whatever the steps that were taken to bring it about, on July 19--a
little over a year after his arrest--Yucé is brought before Villada
and Lopes,[191] at his own request, for the purpose of making certain
additions to _what he has already deponed_.
He begins by begging their Paternities to forgive him for not having
earlier confessed all that he knew, protesting that such is now his
intention, provided that they will pass him their word assuring him
of pardon and immunity for himself and his father for all errors
committed.[192]
It certainly seems that without previous assurance that some such
consideration was intended towards him, he would never have ventured
to prefer a request of this nature, at once incriminating--since it
admitted his possession of knowledge hitherto withheld--and impudent in
its assumption that such information would be purchased at the price he
named.
The inquisitors benignly answered him that they agreed to do so upon
the understanding that in all he should tell them the entire truth, and
they warned him that they would soon be able more or less to perceive
whether he was telling the truth.[193]
(This pretence of being already fully informed is the ruse counselled
by Eymeric to persuade the person under examination of the futility of
resorting to subterfuge.)
Reassured by this answer, and deluded no doubt by the apparent promise
of pardon conditional upon a full confession, Yucé begins by offering,
as an apology for his past silence upon the matters he is about to
relate, the statement that this has been due to an oath which he swore
not to divulge anything until he should have been in prison for a year.
Thereupon he is sworn in the Jewish manner to speak the entire truth
without fraud or evasions or concealment of anything known by him to
concern the Holy Office of the Inquisition, and he addresses himself to
the task of amplifying and rectifying what he has previously said.
His confession is that once some three years ago he had been in a cave
situated a little way back from the road that runs from La Guardia to
Dosbarrios, on the right-hand side as you go towards the latter place,
and midway between the two villages. There were present, in addition
to himself, his father, Ça Franco, his brother Mosé, since deceased,
the physician Yucé Tazarte and one David Perejon--both deceased--Benito
Garcia, Juan de Ocaña, and the four Francos of La Guardia--Juan,
Alonso, Lope, and Garcia.
Alonso Franco had shown him a heart, which he said had been cut out
of a Christian boy, and from its condition Yucé judged that this had
been lately done. Further, Alonso had shown him a wafer, which he said
was consecrated. This wafer and the heart Alonso enclosed together in
a wooden box which he delivered to Tazarte, and the latter took these
things apart, saying that he went to perform an enchantment so that the
inquisitors could not hurt any of them, or, if they attempted to do so,
they must themselves go mad and die within a year.
At this point the inquisitors interpolate two questions:
“Does he know whence the Host was obtained?”
“Does he know whether they sacrificed any boy to procure the heart?”
His answer to the first is in the negative--he has no knowledge.
To the second question he replies that he remembers hearing Alonso
Franco state that he and some of his brothers crucified a Christian boy
whose heart this was.
Resuming his statement, he says that some two years ago all the
above-mentioned assembled again between La Guardia and Tenbleque, and
that on this occasion it was agreed to send a consecrated wafer to
Mosé Abenamias of Zamora, and that such a Host was delivered to Benito
Garcia enclosed in parchment tied with red silk. This, Benito was to
take to Abenamias, together with a letter which had first been written
in Hebrew, but which--lest this should excite suspicion in the event of
the letter’s being discovered--was replaced by another one written in
Romance.
* * * * *
The interpretation to place upon this seems to be that, doubts having
arisen as to the efficacy of the enchantments performed by Tazarte, it
was deemed expedient to have recourse to a magician of greater repute,
and to send a consecrated wafer to Abenamias in Zamora, that he might
accomplish with it the desired sorcery.
* * * * *
The inquisitors press Yucé to say whether he knows if Benito did
actually deliver the wafer to Abenamias. He replies that he doesn’t
know what Benito did with it; but that he has been told by Benito [in
the course of their conversations in the prison of Avila] that he went
upon a journey to Santiago, and that in passing through Astorga he was
arrested by order of Dr. Villada, who was the provisor there at the
time.
As for the heart, he doesn’t know what happened to it; but he believes
that it remained in the possession of Tazarte, who performed his
enchantments with it.
Questioned as to who was the leading spirit in the affair, he replies
that Tazarte invited him together with his father and his brother Mosé,
and that they all went together to the cave, whilst he believes that
the Christians (_i.e._ Ocaña, the Francos, and Benito Garcia) and David
Perejon from La Guardia were also summoned by Tazarte.
Finally he is asked whether Tazarte received any money for his
sorceries, and whether Benito Garcia was paid to convey the Host
to Zamora; and he answers that money was given by Alonso Franco to
Tazarte, and that Benito too would be paid for his trouble.
* * * * *
From a ratification on the next day (July 20) of a confession made by
the octogenarian Ça Franco, it becomes clear that immediately upon
dismissing Yucé, his father was introduced into the audience-chamber
for examination.
The inquisitors are now possessed of the information that Ça was
present in the cave when Alonso Franco produced the heart of a
Christian child. Working upon this and upon the other details obtained
from Yucé, they would now be able, by a clever parade of these--and a
seemingly intentional reticence as to the rest--convincingly to feign
the fullest and completest knowledge of the affair. Thus does the
“Directorium” enjoin the inquisitor to conduct his examination.
Believing that all is betrayed, and that further concealment will,
therefore, be worse than useless, Ça at last speaks out. He not only
confirms all that his son has already admitted, but he adds a great
deal more. He confesses that he himself, his two sons and the other
Jews and Christians mentioned, assembled in a cave on the right-hand
side of the road that runs from La Guardia to Dosbarrios, and he
says that some of them brought thither a Christian boy who was there
crucified upon two timbers rectangularly crossed, to which they
bound him. Before proceeding to do this, the boy was stripped by the
Christians, who whipped and otherwise vituperated him.
He protests that he, himself, took no part in this beyond being present
and witnessing all that was done. Pressed as to what part was taken by
his son Yucé, he admits that he saw the latter give the boy a light
push or blow.
It is to this mention of Yucé that we owe the inclusion in the present
_dossier_ of this extract from Ça’s ratification of his confession,
which reveals to us so clearly the method pursued by the tribunal.
Ça is removed, and Yucé is forthwith brought back again. Questions
recommence, shaped now upon the further information gained, and
betraying enough of the extent of that information to compel Yucé to
amplify his admissions.
No doubt they would question him directly upon the matter of the
crucifixion of the boy, insisting upon this--now the main charge--and
depending upon Yucé’s replies to supply them with further details than
they already possess, so as to enable them to probe still deeper.
Unable to persist in denial in the face of so much obvious knowledge on
the part of his questioners, Yucé admits having witnessed the actual
crucifixion in the cave some three or four years ago. He says (as his
father had said) that it was the Christians who crucified the child,
and that they whipped him, struck him, spat upon him, and crowned him
with thorns.
So far he merely confirms what is already known. But now he adds to
the sum of that knowledge. He states that Alonso Franco opened the
veins of the boy’s arms and left him to bleed for over half an hour,
gathering the blood in a cauldron and a jar; that Juan Franco drew a
Bohemian knife (_i.e._ a curved knife) and thrust it into the boy’s
side, and that Garcia Franco took out the heart and sprinkled it with
salt.
He admits that all who were present took part in what was done, and
he is able to indicate the precise part played by each, with the
exception of his father: he doesn’t remember having seen his father do
anything beyond just standing there while all this was going on; and
Yucé reminds the inquisitors that his father is a very old man of over
eighty years of age, whose sight is so feeble that he couldn’t so much
as see clearly what was being done.
When the child was dead, he continues, they took him down from the
cross. (They untied him, he says.) Juan Franco seized his arms, and
Garcia Franco his legs, and thus they bore him out of the cave. Yucé
didn’t see where they took him, but he heard Juan Franco and Garcia
Franco informing Tazarte that they had buried him in a ravine by the
river Escorchon.
The heart remained in the possession of Alonso until their next meeting
in the cave, when he gave it, together with the consecrated wafer, to
Tazarte.
“Did this,” they ask him, “take place by day or by night?”
“By night,” he answers, “by the light of candles of white wax; and a
cloak was hung over the mouth of the cave that the light might not be
seen outside.”
He is desired to say when precisely was this; but all that he can
answer is that he thinks it was in Lent, just before Easter, three or
four years ago.
They ask whether he had heard any rumours of the loss of a child at
about that time in that district, and he says that he heard rumours of
a child lost in Lillo and another in La Guardia; the latter had gone to
a vineyard with his uncle, and had never been seen again. But he adds
that, in any case, the Francos came and went between La Guardia and
Murcia, and that on one of their journeys they might easily have found
a child and carried it off, because they had sardine barrels in their
carts, and some of those would be empty--by which he means that they
could have concealed the child in one of these barrels.
Urged to give still further details, he protests that he can remember
no more at present, but promises to inform the court if he does succeed
in recalling anything else.
He is dismissed upon that with an injunction from Dr. Villada--which
may have been backed by a promise or a threat--to reflect and to
confess all that he knows to be the business of the Holy Office
concerning himself or any others.