PROSECUTIONS OF SORCERERS, MAGICIANS, ENCHANTERS, NECROMANCERS, AND
OTHERS.
Under the administration of the inquisitor-general, Manrique, the
Inquisition was particularly occupied by the sect of sorcerers.
Pope Adrian VI. (who had been inquisitor-general in Spain), published a
bull on the 20th July, 1523, in which he says, that in the time of his
predecessor Julius II. a numerous sect had been discovered in Lombardy,
which abjured the Christian faith, and abused the ceremonies of religion
and the eucharist. These sectarians acknowledged the devil as their
patron, and promised obedience to him.
They sent maladies to animals and destroyed the fruits of the earth by
their enchantments. An inquisitor having attempted to arrest and bring
them to punishment, the ecclesiastical and secular judges opposed him,
which led Julius II. to declare that these crimes were within the
jurisdiction of the Inquisition, as well as all other heresies. In
consequence Adrian VI. reminded the different Inquisitions of their duty
in this respect.
This bull was not necessary in Spain, as the Inquisition of Aragon had
taken cognizance of magic and sorcery, since the pontificate of John
XXII.
It appears that the Inquisition of Calahorra, burnt more than thirty
women as sorceresses and magicians in the year 1507. In 1527, a great
number of women who practised magic were discovered in Navarre.
These crimes increased so much in the province of Biscay, that Charles
V. found it necessary to notice it. Persuaded that the ignorance in
which the people were left by the priests was the cause of these
superstitions, he wrote in December, 1527, to the Bishop of Calahorra,
and to the provincials of the Dominicans and Franciscans, to select a
number of able preachers from their communities, to teach the doctrine
of the Christian religion on this point. But these ministers of the
gospel, even those who had acquired a reputation for learning, believed
as well as the enchanters in these illusions.
Nevertheless, Father Martin de Castanaga, a Franciscan monk, composed in
that time, a book in Spanish, entitled, _A Treatise on Superstitions
and Enchantments_. I have read this work, and I acknowledge (with the
exception of a few articles, in which the author appears too credulous,)
that it would be difficult even in the present time to write with more
moderation or discernment. The Bishop of Calahorra, Don Alphonso de
Castilla, having read this treatise, had it printed in quarto, and sent
it to the priests in his diocese, with a pastoral letter, in 1529.
The Inquisition of Saragossa condemned several sorceresses who had
formed part of the association in Navarre, or had been sent into Aragon
to gain disciples. The inquisitors, the ordinary, and the consulters,
were not of the same opinion; the greatest number voted for the
execution of the sorceresses, the others for reconciliation and
perpetual imprisonment. The minority gave up their opinion in deference
to the greater number, and thus relaxation was pronounced unanimously,
without any of the formalities prescribed, and the unfortunate women
perished in the flames. The _Supreme_ Council which was informed of this
event by one of its members, who had learnt it from an inquisitor of
Saragossa, addressed a circular on the 23rd of March, 1536, to all the
tribunals, stating the Inquisition of Saragossa had failed in its duty,
in not having consulted the council, after having found that the
opinions of its members were different.
The inquisitor-general Manrique, being informed that the sect of
sorcerers made great progress in different parts of the Peninsula, added
several articles to the edict of denunciation: the substance of them
was, that all Christians were obliged to declare to the Inquisition:
First, If they had heard that any person had familiar spirits, and that
he invoked demons in circles, questioning them and expecting their
answer, as a magician, or in virtue of an express or tacit compact; that
he had mingled holy things with profane objects, and worshipped in the
creature that which belongs only to the Creator.
Secondly, If he had studied judicial astrology to discover the future,
by observing the conjunction of the stars at the birth of persons.
Thirdly, If any person in order to discover the future, had employed
_geomancy_, _hydromancy_, _aeromancy_, _piromancy_, _onomancy_,
_necromancy_, or sorceries by beans, dice, or wheat.
Fourthly, If a Christian had made an express compact with the devil,
practised enchantments by magic, with instruments, circles, characters,
or diabolical signs; by invoking and consulting demons, with the hope of
a reply, and placing confidence in them; by offering them incense, or
the _smoke_ of good or bad substances; by offering sacrifices to them;
in abusing sacraments or holy things; by promising obedience to them,
and adoring or worshipping them in any manner.
Fifthly, If any one constructed, or procured mirrors, rings, phials, or
other vessels, for the purpose of attracting, enclosing, and preserving
a demon, who replies to his questions, and assists him in obtaining his
wishes; or who had endeavoured to discover the future, by interrogating
the demons in possessed people; or tried to produce the same effect by
invoking the devil under the name of _holy angel_ or _white angel_, and
by asking things of him with prayers and humility; by practising other
superstitious ceremonies with vases, phials of water, or consecrated
tapers; by the inspection of the nails, and of the palm of the hand
rubbed with vinegar; or by endeavouring to obtain representations of
objects by means of phantoms, in order to learn secret things, or which
had not then happened.
Sixthly, If any one had read or possessed, or read or possessed at
present, any manuscript or book on these matters, or concerning all
other species of divination, which is not performed by natural and
physical effects.
Although the edicts and punishments for sorcery were extremely severe,
they have appeared from time to time in different parts of Spain. The
history of the sorceresses of the valley of Bastan, in Navarre, has been
particularly celebrated. These women were taken before the Inquisition
of Logrono, and confessed the greatest extravagancies. They were
condemned to an _auto-da-fe_, in 1610; their history was published at
Madrid, in 1810, with very pleasant remarks by the Moliere of Spain, Don
Leandro de Moratin, who deserves a better fate than he experiences.
_History of a famous Magician._
The history of Doctor Eugene Torralba, a physician of Cuenca, ought not
to be passed over, as it offers several remarkable events, and is
mentioned in the _History of the famous knight, Don Quixote de la
Mancha_. This person is also introduced in different parts of a poem,
entitled, _Carlos Famoso_[10], composed by Louis Zapata, dedicated to
Philip II., and printed at Valencia, in 1556.
The author of _Don Quixote_, in the adventure of the Countess Trifaldi,
represents that famous knight, as mounted upon _Clavileno_, with Sancho
Panza behind him, having their eyes covered; the squire wishes to
uncover his eyes to see if they had arrived at the region of fire. Don
Quixote says, "Take care not to do it, and remember the true history of
the licentiate Torralba, who being mounted on a cane, with his eyes
covered, was conveyed through the air by devils, and arrived at Rome in
twelve hours, and descended on the tower of Nona, which is in a street
of that city, where he saw the tumult, assault, and death of the
Constable de Bourbon, and returned to Madrid before morning, where he
gave an account of what he had seen. He also related that while he was
in the air, the devil told him to open his eyes, and that he saw himself
so near the moon that he might have touched it with his hand, and that
he did not dare to look towards the earth for fear of fainting."
The Doctor Eugene Torralba was born in the town of Cuenca. In an
examination he stated, that at the age of fifteen he went to Rome, where
he was made a page of Don Francis Soderini, Bishop of Volterra, who was
made a cardinal in 1503. He studied medicine under several masters, who
in their disputes attacked the immortality of the soul, and though they
did not succeed in convincing him, caused him to incline to pyrrhonism.
Torralba was a physician in 1501, at which period he became intimately
acquainted with Master Alphonso of Rome, who had renounced the law of
Moses for that of Mahomet, which he quitted for the Christian doctrine,
and finished by preferring natural religion. Alphonso told him that
Jesus Christ was only a man, and supported his opinion with several
arguments: this doctrine did not entirely eradicate the faith of
Torralba, but he no longer knew on which side the truth lay.
Among the friends he acquired at Rome, was a monk of St. Dominic, called
Brother Peter. This man told him one day that he had in his service one
of the good angels, whose name was _Zequiel_, so powerful in the
knowledge of the future, that no other could equal him; but that he
abhorred the practice of obliging men to make a compact with him; that
he was always free, and only served the person who placed confidence in
him through friendship, and that he allowed him to reveal the secrets he
communicated, but that any constraint employed to force him to answer
questions made him for ever abandon the society of the man to whom he
had attached himself. Brother Peter asked him if he would not like to
have _Zequiel_ for his friend, adding that he could obtain that favour
on account of the friendship which subsisted between them; Torralba
expressed the greatest desire to become acquainted with the spirit of
Brother Peter.
_Zequiel_ soon appeared in the shape of a young man, fair, with flaxen
hair, dressed in flesh colour, with a black surtout; he said to
Torralba, _I will belong to thee as long as thou livest, and will follow
thee wherever thou goest_. After this promise _Zequiel_ appeared to
Torralba at the different quarters of the moon, and whenever he wished
to go from one place to another, sometimes in the figure of a traveller,
sometimes like a hermit. _Zequiel_ never spoke against the Christian
religion, or advised him to commit any bad action; on the contrary, he
reproached him when he committed a fault, and attended the church
service with him: he always spoke in Latin or Italian, although he was
with Torralba in Spain, France, and Turkey: he continued to visit him
during his imprisonment but seldom, and did not reveal any secrets to
him, and Torralba desired the spirit to leave him, because he caused
agitation and prevented him from sleeping; but this did not prevent him
from returning and relating things which wearied him.
Torralba went to Spain in 1502. Some time after he travelled over all
Italy, and settled at Rome under the protection of Cardinal Volterra; he
there acquired the reputation of a good physician, and engaged the
favour of several cardinals. He studied chiromancy, and acquired some
knowledge of the art. _Zequiel_ revealed to Torralba the secret virtues
of several plants in curing certain maladies; having made use of this
information to procure money, _Zequiel_ reproached him for it, saying,
that as these remedies had cost him no labour, he ought to bestow them
gratuitously.
Torralba having appeared sad sometimes because he was in want of money,
the angel said to him, _Why are you sad for want of money?_ Some time
after, Torralba found six ducats in his chamber, and the same thing was
repeated several times, which made him suppose that _Zequiel_ had placed
them there, although he would not acknowledge it when questioned.
The greatest part of the information which _Zequiel_ communicated to
Torralba related to political occurrences. Thus, when Torralba returned
to Spain in 1510, being at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic,
_Zequiel_ told him that this prince would soon receive disagreeable
news. Torralba hastened to inform the Archbishop of Toledo, Ximenez de
Cisneros, and the great captain Gonzales Fernandez de Cordova; and the
same day a courier brought letters from Africa, which announced the
failure of the expedition against the Moors, and the death of Don Garcia
de Toledo, son of the Duke of Alva, who commanded it.
Ximenez de Cisneros having learnt that the Cardinal de Volterra had seen
_Zequiel_, expressed a wish to see him also, and to become acquainted
with the nature and qualities of this spirit. Torralba, to gratify the
archbishop, entreated the angel to appear to him under any human form:
_Zequiel_ did not think proper to do so; but to soften the severity of
his refusal, he commissioned Torralba to inform Ximenez de Cisneros that
he would be a king, which was in a manner verified, as he became
absolute governor of the Spains and the Indies.
Another time when he was at Rome, the angel told him that Peter Margano
would lose his life if he went out of the city. Torralba had not time to
inform his friend; he went out, and was assassinated.
_Zequiel_ told him that Cardinal Sienna would come to a tragical end,
which was verified in 1517, after the sentence which Leo X. pronounced
against him.
When he returned to Rome in 1513, Torralba had a great desire to see his
intimate friend Thomas de Becara, who was then at Venice. _Zequiel_, who
knew his wish, took him to that city, and brought him back to Rome in so
short a time, that the person with whom he was in the habit of
associating did not perceive his absence.
The Cardinal de Santa Cruz, in 1516, commissioned Torralba to pass a
night with his physician, Doctor Morales, in the house of a Spanish lady
named _Rosales_, to ascertain if what this woman related of a phantom
which she saw every night in the form of a murdered man, was to be
believed; Doctor Morales had remained a whole night in the house, and
had not seen anything when the Spanish lady announced the presence of
the ghost, and the Cardinal hoped to discover something by means of
Torralba. At the hour of one the woman uttered her cry of alarm; Morales
saw nothing, but Torralba perceived the figure, which was that of a dead
man; behind him appeared another phantom with the features of a woman.
Torralba said to him with a loud voice, _What dost thou seek here?_ The
phantom replied, _A treasure_, and disappeared. _Zequiel_, on being
questioned, replied that under the house there was the body of a man who
had been assassinated with a poignard.
In 1519, Torralba returned to Spain, accompanied by Don Diego de Zuniga,
a relation of the Duke de Bejar, and brother to Don Antonio, grand prior
of Castile, who was his intimate friend. At Barcelonetta, near Turin,
while they were walking with the secretary Acebedo (who had been marshal
of the camp in Italy and Savoy), Acebedo and Zuniga thought they saw
something pass by Torralba which they could not define; he informed them
that it was his angel _Zequiel_, who had approached to speak to him.
Zuniga wished much to see him, but _Zequiel_ would not appear.
At Barcelona, Torralba saw, in the house of the Canon Juan Garcia, a
book on chiromancy, and in some notes a process for winning money at
play. Zuniga wished to learn it, and Torralba copied the characters, and
told his friend to write them himself on paper with the blood of a bat,
and keep them about his person while he played.
Being at Valladolid in 1520, Torralba told Don Diego that he would
return to Rome, because he had the means of getting there in a short
time, by being mounted on a stick and guided through the air by a cloud
of fire. Torralba really went to that city, where Cardinal Volterra and
the grand prior requested him to give up his _familiar spirit_ to them.
Torralba proposed it to _Zequiel_, and even entreated him to consent,
but without success.
In 1525 the angel told him that he would do well if he returned to
Spain, because he would obtain the place of physician to the infanta
Eleonora, queen dowager of Portugal, and afterwards married to Francis
I., King of France. The doctor communicated this affair to the Duke de
Bejar, and to Don Stephen-Manuel Merino, Archbishop of Bari; they
solicited and obtained for him the place which he aspired to.
Lastly, on the 5th of May in the same year, _Zequiel_ told the doctor
that Rome would be taken by the imperial troops the next day. Torralba
entreated his angel to take him to Rome to witness this important event;
he complied, and they left Valladolid at the hour of eleven at night:
when they were at a short distance from the city, the angel gave
Torralba a knotted stick, and said to him, _Shut your eyes, do not fear,
take this in your hands, and no evil will befal you_. When the moment to
open his eyes arrived, he found himself so near the sea, that he might
have touched it with his hand; the black cloud which surrounded them was
succeeded by a brilliant light, which made Torralba fear that he should
be consumed. _Zequiel_ perceiving his fear, said, _Reassure yourself,
fool!_ Torralba again closed his eyes, and when _Zequiel_ told him to
open them, he found himself in the tower of Nona in Rome. They then
heard the clock of the Castle St. Angelo sound the fifth hour of the
night, which is midnight according to the manner of computing time in
Spain, so that they had been travelling one hour. Torralba went all over
Rome with _Zequiel_, and afterwards witnessed the pillage of the city:
he entered the house of the Bishop Copis, a German, who lived in the
tower of St. Ginia; he saw the Constable de Bourbon expire, the Pope
shut himself up in the Castle of St. Angelo, and all the other events of
that terrible day. In an hour and a half they had returned to
Valladolid, where _Zequiel_ quitted him, saying, _Another time you will
believe what I tell you_. Torralba published all that he had seen; and
as the court soon received the same news, Torralba (who was then
physician to the Admiral of Castile) was spoken of as a great magician.
These rumours were the cause of his denunciation; he was arrested at
Cuenca by the Inquisition in the beginning of the year 1508. He was
denounced by his intimate friend Diego de Zuniga, who, after having been
as foolishly captivated as Torralba, with the miracles of the good
angel, became fanatical and superstitious. Torralba at first confessed
all that has been related of _Zequiel_, supposing that he should not be
tried for the doubts he had expressed of the immortality of the soul and
the divinity of our Saviour. When the judges had collected sufficient
evidence, they assembled to give their _votes_, but as they did not
accord, they applied to the council, which decreed that Torralba should
be tortured, _as much as his age and rank permitted_, to discover his
motives in receiving and keeping near him the spirit _Zequiel_; and if
he believed him to be a bad angel, as a witness declared that he had
said so; if he had made a compact with him; what had passed at the first
interview; if at that time or afterwards he had employed conjurations to
invoke him; immediately after this the tribunal was to pronounce the
definitive sentence.
Torralba had never varied, until that time, in his account of his
familiar spirit, whom he always affirmed to be of the order of good
angels, but the torture made him say, that he now perceived him to be a
bad angel, since he was the cause of his misfortune. He was asked if
_Zequiel_ had told him that he would be arrested by the Inquisition; he
replied that he had told him of it several times, desiring him not to
go to Cuenca, because he would meet with a misfortune there, but that he
thought he might disregard this advice. He also declared that there was
no compact between them, and that every circumstance had passed as he
had related it.
The inquisitors considered all these details to be true; and after
taking a new declaration from Torralba, they suspended his trial for the
space of one year, from motives of compassion, and with the hope of
seeing if this famous necromancer would be converted, and confess the
compact and sorcery which he had constantly denied.
A new witness recalled the memory of his dispute, and his doubts of the
immortality of the soul, and the divinity of Jesus Christ, which caused
another declaration of the Doctor in January, 1530. The council being
informed of it, commanded the Inquisition to commission some pious and
learned persons to endeavour to convert the accused. Francisco Antonio
Barragan, prior of the Dominican Convent at Cuenca, and Diego Manrique,
a canon of the cathedral, undertook this task, and exhorted him
vehemently. The prisoner replied that he sincerely repented of his
faults, but that it was impossible for him to confess what he had not
done, and that he could not follow the advice given him, to renounce all
communication with _Zequiel_ because the spirit was more powerful than
he was; but he promised that he would not desire his presence, or
consent to any of his propositions.
On the 6th of March, 1531, Torralba was condemned to the usual
abjuration of all heresies, and to suffer the punishment of imprisonment
and the _San-benito_ during the pleasure of the inquisitor-general; to
hold no further communion with the spirit _Zequiel_, and never to attend
to any of his propositions: these conditions were imposed on him for the
safety of his conscience and the good of his soul.
The inquisitor soon put an end to the punishment of Torralba, in
consideration, as he said, of all that he had suffered during an
imprisonment of four years: but the true motive of the pardon granted to
Torralba was the interest which the Admiral of Castile took in his fate;
he retained him as his physician for several years after his judgment.
The truth of the marvellous facts related by Torralba rests solely upon
his confession, and the report of the witnesses whom he had induced to
believe all that he had told them. Torralba cited none but deceased
persons in eight declarations which he made, except Don Diego de Zuniga.
It was necessary to remark this to show the degree of confidence to be
placed in some parts of his narration. It may be supposed that a great
number of different accounts of this affair were spread, to which I
attribute the additions and alterations in some circumstances which
Louis Zapata introduced into his poem of _Carlos Famoso_, thirty years
after the sentence passed on Torralba, and of those details which
Cervantes eighty years later thought proper to put in the mouth of Don
Quixote.
I terminate, by this account of Doctor Torralba, the history of the
administration of Cardinal Don Alphonso Manrique, Archbishop of Seville,
who died in that city on the 28th of September, 1538, with the
reputation of being a friend and benefactor to the poor. His charity and
some other qualities worthy of his birth have gained him a place among
the illustrious men of his age. He had several natural children before
he entered into orders: Don Jerome Manrique is cited as having been most
worthy of his father; he successively attained the dignities of
Provincial Inquisitor, Counsellor of the _Supreme_, Bishop of Carthagena
and Avila, president of the Chancery of Valladolid, and, lastly,
Inquisitor-general.
At the death of Don Alphonso Manrique, there were nineteen provincial
tribunals; they were established at Seville, Cordova, Toledo,
Valladolid, Murcia, Calahorra, Estremadura, Saragossa, Valencia,
Barcelona, Majorca, in the Canaries, at Cuenca, in Navarre, Grenada,
Sicily, Sardinia, in Tierra Firma, and the isles of the American Ocean.
The Inquisition of Jaen had been united to that of Grenada.
The Inquisition had afterwards three tribunals in America, at Mexico,
Lima, and Carthagena. In the Indies they had been decreed but not
organized.
By omitting the tribunals of America, Sardinia, and Sicily, we shall
find that there were fifteen in Spain, which respectively burnt,
annually, about ten individuals in person, five in effigy, and subjected
fifty to different penances: so that in all Spain one hundred and fifty
persons were burnt every year; sixty-five in effigy, and seven hundred
and fifty suffered different canonical penances, which, multiplied by
the fifteen years of the administration of Manrique, shows that two
thousand two hundred and fifty individuals were burnt, one thousand one
hundred and twenty-five in effigy, and eleven thousand two hundred and
fifty condemned to penances; in all, fourteen thousand, six hundred and
twenty-five condemnations. This number scarcely deserves to be mentioned
in comparison with those of preceding times; but still it appears
enormous, particularly if the excessive abuse of the secret proceedings
is considered.