AUTO DE FÉ AT VALLADOLID.

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course of the people, who were estimated, on this particular occasion, to have amounted to 200,000.

"The inquisitors took their places, the condemned were conducted to the scaffold, and the royal gallery was occupied by the king, surrounded by the brilliant circle of which we have already spoken. A sermon On the Faith' was preached by the bishop of Zamora; and when he had concluded, the grand inquisitor administered an oath to all present, to defend the Holy Inquisition, to maintain the purity of the faith, and to give information against any one who should depart from it. As Philip took the oath, he rose from his seat, and drew his sword from the scabbard, as if to announce himself the personal champion of the Holy Office.

"The secretary of the Inquisition then read aloud a schedule, containing the names of the prisoners, the crimes charged against them, and the punishments which had been decreed. Those who were admitted to penitence knelt down, abjured their errors, and received absolution. Some of these were condemned to imprisonment, some to lighter punishments; but all suffered the loss of their whole property-a point never lost sight of by the Holy Inquisition. Thus stripped of everything, and branded with perpetual infamy, these poor sufferers were said, in the silky language of the Inquisition, to have been reconciled.' When these subdued victims had been remanded to their prisons, all eyes were turned to the remaining sufferers, who now stood, with cords round their neck, expecting their coming doom. Their haggard looks, their emaciated forms, and often their distorted limbs, told the story of their past sufferings; many of them having been immured in the dungeons of the Inquisition for more than a year, during which time they had felt what the Holy Office could do in the infliction of bodily torture. The process against them was read, and the grand inquisitor consigned them to the corregidor, beseeching him to treat them with all kindness and mercy'—the meaning of which was, that he was immediately to burn them alive at the stake.”

In the present auto de fé the number of convicts amounted to thirty, of whom sixteen were "reconciled," and the remainder handed over to the secular authorities. One of these was Don Carlos de Seso, a noble Florentine, who had stood high in the favour of Charles V. Marrying a Castilian lady of rank, he took up his abode in Valladolid, and while there resident he became a convert to Protestantism. During the fifteen months which he spent in the cells of the Inquisition, no sufferings shook De Seso's constancy. As he passed before the royal gallery, he said to Philip, whom he well knew, “Is it thus you allow your innocent subjects to be treated?" To which Philip replied, "If it were my own son, I would fetch the wood to burn him, were he such a wretch as thou art.”* The ceremony lasted from six in the morn

ing until two in the afternoon.

*Cabrera Filippe II., lib. v., C. 3.

The autos de fé which were celebrated at Seville were even more memorable than those at Valladolid. The first of these was solemnized on the 24th of September, 1559. It was attended by four bishops, the members of the royal court of justice, the chapter of the cathedral, and a great assemblage of nobles and gentry. Twenty-one persons here suffered death, and eighty were condemned to lighter punishments. Among those who died was Don Juan Ponce de Leon, son of the Count de Baylen, and a near relative of the Duchess de Begar, who was herself present at the spectacle. Another sufferer was Don Juan Gonzalez, one of the most celebrated preachers in Andalusia. He had left his mother and his brethren behind him in prison, and was accompanied by two sisters, who, like himself, were doomed to the flames. Four monks of the convent of San Isidoro also laid down their lives for the truth. Four ladies of the highest families were also among the victimsDoña Isabel de Baena, Maria de Virves, Maria de Cornel, and Maria de Bohorques, daughter of a grandee of the first class.

A second auto de fé at Seville took place in December, 1560, when fourteen persons suffered death, and thirty-four received inferior punishments. Julian Hernandez here died, fearless and triumphant; and eight women, some of them distinguished by their rank and education, met death without shrinking. Maria Gomez suffered, along with three daughters and a sister.

One lady of rank, Doña Juana de Bohorques, had previously passed to her rest. She had been apprehended on suspicion of heresy; her sister Maria having suffered in the auto of September. This young lady was put into the rack, which was applied with such violence that the cords cut to the bones of her arms and legs. In the agony an internal blood-vessel burst, and she was carried back to her cell insensible, where she shortly afterwards expired. Even the fiends in human shape who had thus handled her were appalled at their own deed, the character of which could not be concealed.

Of two of the most eminent men in Spain who were despatched without either the rack or the stake, we must speak with more particularity. The first of these was Constantine Ponce de la Fuente, already spoken of. He was, beyond all doubt, the most distinguished scholar in Spain. When information was conveyed to Charles V. that his favourite chaplain was thrown into prison, he exclaimed, "If Constantine be a heretic, he is a great one." Constantine was kept in prison for nearly two years. Either respect for the emperor, whose favourite he had been, or a consciousness of his place in the public esteem, seems to have deterred the inquisitors from subjecting this eminent man to the torture. "He was thrust into a low, damp, and noisome vault, where he endured more than his brethren had done from the

Here putrid air and unwholesome diet soon brought on a dysentery, which quickly ended his days. The inquisitors at the auto de fé of December, 1560, presented his effigy as that of a deceased heretic.