Chapter 94
Section No. 94 of A History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 4. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Lynda Marie Nielsen, Vancouver, B.C. A History of the Inquisition of Spain, Volume 4, by Henry Charles Lee. Book 9 Chapter 2 Part 10 Conclusion
Retrospect The only contemporary who gives us figures for the whole of Spain is Hernando de Pulgar, Secretary of Queen Isabella. His official position gave him facilities for obtaining information, and he scarcely veiled dislike for the Inquisition was not likely to lead to underrating its activity.
He states at 15,000 those who had come in under edicts of grace, and at 2,000 those who were burnt, besides the dead whose bones were exhumed in great quantities. The number of penitents he does not estimate. Unluckily, he gives no date, but as his chronicle ends in 1490, we may assume that to be the term comprised. With some variations, his figures were adapted from subsequent writers. Bernaldez
only makes the general statement that throughout Spain, indefinite number were burnt, and condemned, and reconciled and imprisoned, and of those reconciled many relapsed and were burnt. Imperfect as are the records, we may endeavor to test these various estimates by such evidence as is at hand respecting a few of the tribunals. In this we may commence with Seville, which was unquestionably the most active the inquisition had started there as the center of
crypto judaism as it was the most populous city of castile with nearly half a million inhabitants and its unrivaled commercial activity rendered it peculiarly attractive to the conversos while Isabella's Andalusian degree of expulsion must have largely increased the number of pseudo-proselites. In 1524 there was placed over the gateway of the castle of Trinian occupied by the tribunal, an inscription of which the purpose is not entirely clear, but significantly that up to that time it
had caused the abjuration of more than 20,000 heretics, and had burnt nearly 1,000 obstinate ones this is probably an understatement if we are to believe bernandez who asserts that in eight years from the founding of the seville tribunal up to 1488 it had burnt in person more than 700 heretics besides many effigies of fugitives and an infinite number of bones those reconciled during the same period he estimates at five thousand still its activity must soon have greatly
diminished for in 1502 antoine de la langue visiting the castle of triana describes it as containing more than twenty heretic prisoners which he evidently regards as a large number but which would argue a very moderate amount of persecution in view of the leisurely procedure that was becoming usual. There is therefore an apparent tendency to exaggerate the achievements of the Holy Office in the statement of its secretary, Zurita, some half-century or more
later that in seville alone up to the year 1520 there were more than 4 000 culprits burned and more than 30 000 reconciled and penanced besides the numerous fugitives and he adds that an author very diligent in the matter affirms these figures to be exceedingly defective and that in the archbishopry of seville alone there were condemned as judicizing heretics more than a hundred thousand persons including those reconciled cardinal contrarine when venetian envoy in 1525 was
evidently misled by this tendency to amplification when he describes the inquisition as having made a slaughter of the new Christians impossible to exaggerate. Unfortunately, no authentic records have seen the light by which to test the accuracy of these varying estimates of the activity of the most destructive tribunal during the early period. It is otherwise with several of those that rank next to it in importance. For the province of Toledo, as we have seen, the first tribunal was
established at citadel real where its two years of existence it relaxed in person 47 and effigy 98 transferred to toledo in 1485 its operations at first were energetic but they diminished greatly towards the end of the century until in 1501 it had a spasmodic period of activity through the discovery of la mocha de herrera volume 1 page 186 a young jewish prophetess to whose numerous believers no mercy was shown for those who had been reconciled thus incurred the penalty of relapse
The total operations of the Toledo Tribunal, from its origin in 1485 until 1501, amount to 250 relaxed in person, over 500 in effigy, about 200 imprisoned, and 5200 reconciled under ethics of grace. Of the personally relaxed, nearly half, or 117, were followers of the prophetess, leaving only 139 ordinary judasers, and of those imprisoned, about 140 may be accounted for in the same way. saragossa was reckoned as one of the most deadly tribunals in spain indeed lorrente remarks that if he had taken it and toledo as the basis of his calculations he would have tripled the number of victims for this we have the details of the 65 autos held from 1485 to 1502 furnished by the
record printed in the appendix to volume one. Summarized, this gives the totals of 119 burnt alive, five quartered, beheaded, or strangled prior to burning, three bodies burnt, 29 effigies burnt and 458 penanced or an aggregate of 614 the libro verde de aragon moreover gives us an official list of the residents of saragossa burnt from 1483 to 1574 in summarizing which it appears that during these 92 years the total of relaxations in person was a hundred and
twenty-five and an effigy seventy-seven including seven witches three sorcerers and four Protestants tabulation by years emphasizes the demutation of activity after the close of the 15th century Barcelona is another important tribunal of which we have accurate statistics during its yearly years, furnished by the royal archivist Pierre Miguel Carbonell. From its foundation to the end of Torquemada's career in 1496,
there were 31 autos celebrated in Barcelona, Tarragona, Leridia, Girona, Perpigan, Vich, Elm, and Balaguer. In these, the totals are only 10 strangled and burnt, 13 burnt alive, 15 dead and 430 burnt in effigy one reconciled in effigy 116 penanced with prison and 304 reconciled for spontaneous confession valencia of all the tribunals was the one which best maintained its activity throughout the 16th century owing to the dense morisco population
We have a list of all persons imprisoned for hearsay from the beginning in 1485 up to 1592 inclusive, amounting in all to 3,104, of whom 530 were contributed by the last four years, 1589 to 92, when the persecution of the Moriscos was particularly active. There is also an alphabetical list of persons relaxed from the beginning until 1593, unfortunately imperfect and ending with the letter N, but by adding 25%, we can obtain a reasonably close approximation to the total. The list as we have it gives 515 relaxations in person and 383 in effigy or with the addition of 25%, 643 of the former and 479 of the latter, being nearly an average of 6 per annum of the former and 4.5 of the latter.
Valadoid had the most extensive territory of all the tribunals, but it comprised the northern provinces where the new Christians were comparatively viewed. It was not organized for work until 1488, making its first arrest on September 29th of that year, and holding its first auto on June 19, 1489, when, after nine months' work on new ground, there were but 18 relaxations in person and four in effigy. The next auto recorded did not occur until January 5,
1492, when the relaxations in person numbered 32 and in effigy, 2. This, while sufficiently cruel, indicates that the victims in the northern provinces bore but a small proportion to those in the southern. At the other extremity of Spain was the little tribunal of Majora, which acquired a sudden and sinister reputation by the occurrences of 1678 and 1691. It started in 1488 and for some years was fairly active, lapsing in time into virtual topor as far as
persecution was concerned, so that, including its autos of 1678 and 1691, the whole aggregate of its work for over two centuries amounted to 139 relaxations in person, 482 in effigy, and 637 reconciliations, in addition to 338 reconciled under ethics of grace in 1488 and 1491. In the latter periods, there are records which enable us to reach a fairly accurate computation of the activity of some, at least of the tribunals. A few of these I have had the
opportunity of consulting and the researches of future students will doubtless in time compile tolerably complete statistics for the second and third centuries of the Inquisition after the Suprema had compelled the tribunals to render periodical reports. We have those of Toledo from 1575 to 1610, not wholly complete for the auto of 1595 is omitted, and the MS breaks off at the commencement of that of 1610. Toledo at the time was the most important tribunal in Spain,
for it included Madrid. Yet during these 35 years the relaxations amount to only 11 in person and 15 in effigy so that allowing for the admissions there may have been one in person every three years and one in effigy every two years while the various penances number in all 904 small as are these results they continued to diminish for the same tribunal we have a record extending from 1648 to 1794, and during this century and a half, there were only eight relaxations in person
and 63 in effigy, the latest execution occurring in 1738. This gives us an average of one of the former every 18 years, and one of the latter every two years and a quarter. In addition, there were a thousand and ninety four penanced in various ways it is true that about 1650 a separate tribunal was erected in madrid but a list of relaxations there from its foundation up to 1754 when relaxation had virtually become obsolete gives us only an aggregate of 19 in person and 16
in effigy, or one in every five years of the former and in six years of the latter. During the height of the renewed persecution of Judaizers in the 18th century, in the whole of the 64 autos celebrated throughout Spain from 1721 to 1727, the total number of relaxations was 77 in person and 74 in effigy, making an average of about 11 a year of each class. A grim record enough, but vastly less than has been popularly accepted. Nor must it be forgotten
that, in the vast majority of cases, the victim was mercifully strangled before the fire was set. We have seen how very small was the proportion of impediments who preserved to the last and refused to earn the garrot by professing conversion. End of section 94. Recording by Lynda Marie Nielsen, Vancouver, B.C.
