PROTESTANTISM - The Library of Iberian Resources Online

order and authorized the relaxation of penitents who begged for mercy, when it was believed that their
conversion was not sincere. In both these directions, as was customary with the Inquisition, the
limitation was disregarded and the grant of power was freely exercised. (50)
[437] Having obtained authority to set aside the law, the Inquisition was prepared to impress the people
with a sense of the danger of wandering from the faith. Nothing was spared to enhance the effect of the
auto de fe of Trinity Sunday, May 21, 1559, in which the first portion of the Valladolid prisoners were
to suffer. It was solemnly proclaimed fifteen days in advance, during which the buildings of the
Inquisition were incessantly patrolled, day and night, by a hundred armed men, and guards were
stationed at the stagings in the Plaza Mayor, for there were rumors that the prison was to be blown up
and that the stagings were to be fired. Along the line of the procession, palings were set in the middle of
the street, forming an unobstructed path for three to march abreast, intrusion on which was forbidden
under heavy penalties, but this and the numerous guards were powerless to keep it clear. Every housefront
along the line and around the plaza had its stagings; people flocked in from thirty and forty
leagues around and encamped in the fields; except the familiars, no one was allowed to ride on
horseback or to bear arms, under pain of death and confiscation.
The procession was headed by the effigy of Leonor de Vivero, who had died during trial, clad in
widow's weeds and bearing a mitre with flames and appropriate inscription, and followed by a coffin
containing her remains to be duly burnt. Those who were to be relaxed in person numbered fourteen, of
whom one, Gonzalo Baez, was a Portuguese convicted of Judaism. Those admitted to reconciliation,
with penance more or less severe, were sixteen in number, including an Englishman variously styled
Anthony Graso or Bagor--probably Baker--punished for Protestantism, [438] like all the rest, excepting
Baez. When the procession reached the plaza, Agustín Cazalla was placed in the highest seat, as the
conspicuous chief of the heresy, and next to him his brother, Francisco de Vivero. Melchor Cano at
once commenced the sermon, which occupied an hour, and then Valdés and the bishops approached the
Princess Juana and Prince Carlos, who were present, and administered to them the oath to protect and
aid the Inquisition, to which the multitude responded in a mighty roar, "To the death!" Cazalla, his
brother and Alonso Pérez, who were in orders, were duly degraded from the priesthood, the sentences
were read, those admitted to reconciliation made the necessary abjurations and those condemned to
relaxation were handed over to the secular arm. Mounted on asses, they were carried to the Plaza de la
Puerta del Campo, where the requisite stakes had been erected, and there they met their end. (51) With
one exception they were not martyrs in any true sense of the word, for all but one had recanted, had
professed repentance, had begged for mercy, and had given full information as to their friends and
associates. Under the law, with perhaps two or three exceptions, who might be regarded as
dogmatizers, they would have been entitled to reconciliation, but the brief of January 4th had placed
them at the mercy of the Inquisition and an example was desired.
Of these there were only two or three who merit special consideration. Cazalla, on his trial, had at first
equivocated and denied that he had dogmatized, asserting that he had only spoken of these matters to
those already converted. As a rule, all the prisoners eagerly denounced their associates; he may have
been more reticent at first, for he was sentenced to torture in caput alienum, but when stripped he
promised to inform against them fully, which he did, including Carranza among those who had misled
him as to purgatory. (52) He recanted, professed conversion and eagerly sought reconciliation. The
tribunal insisted on regarding him as chief of the conventicle and, on the afternoon preceding the auto,
it sent to his cell the prior of the Geronimite convent of Nuestra Señora de Prado, with one of his
monks, Fray Antonio [439] de la Carrera, to endeavor to extract further information. As officially
reported by Fray Antonio, they found him in a dark cell, loaded with chains and with a pié de amigo