The most serious business of the tribunal, in the line of its proper functions, was
with the apostasy of the Jewish New Christians. From the very foundation of the colonies .
. . restrictions were laid on the emigration of Conversos and a law of 1543, preserved in
the Recopilacion, orders that search be made for all descendants of Jews who were to be
rigorously expelled. In spite, however, of the jealous care observed to preserve the
colonies from all danger of Jewish infection, the commercial attractions were so powerful
that the New Christians eluded all precautions. At first, however, they occupied but a
small portion of the energies of the tribunal. . . . The first appearance of Jews is in
the auto of October 29, 1581, when Manuel Upez, a Portuguese, was reconciled with
confiscation and perpetual prison, and Diego de la Rosa, described as a native of Quito,
was required to abjure de levi and was exiled - showing that the evidence against
him was very dubious. . . .
The conquest of Portugal, in 1580, had led to a large emigration to Castile, where
Portuguese soon became synonymous with Judaizer, and this was beginning to make itself
manifest in the colonies. The auto of December 17, 1595, gave impressive evidence of this.
Five Portuguese - Juan Méndez, Antonio Núñez, Juan López, Francisco Báez and Manuel
Rodriguez - were reconciled. Another, Herman Jorje, had died during trial and his memory
was not prosecuted. There were also four martyrs. Jorje Núñez, denied until he was tied
upon the rack; he then confessed and refused to be converted, but after his sentence of
relaxation was read he weakened and was strangled before burning. Francisco Rodríguez
endured torture without confessing; when threatened with repetition he endeavored
unsuccessfully to commit suicide; he was voted to relaxation with torture in caput
alienum, and under it he accused several persons but revoked at ratification. He was
pertinacious to the last and was burnt alive. Juan Fernández was relaxed, although
insane; the Suprema expressed doubts whether he had intelligence enough to render him
responsible. Pedro de Contreras had been tortured for confession and again in caput
alienum; he denied Judaism throughout and was relaxed as a negativo; at the
auto he manifested great devotion to a crucifix and presumably was strangled; in all
probability he was really a Christian. . . .
In 1626 there commenced a trial which illustrates forcibly the inexorable discipline of
the Church, rendering it the supreme duty of the Christian to persecute and destroy all
heresy. Francisco Maldonado de Silva was a surgeon of high repute in Concepcion de Chile.
He was of Portuguese descent. His father had suffered in the Inquisition, had been
reconciled and brought up his children, two girls and a boy, as Christians. Francisco was
a good Catholic until at the age of 18, he chanced to read the Scrutinium Scripturarum of Pablo de Santa Maria, Bishop of Búrgos - a controversial work written for the
conversion of Jews. So far from confirming him in the faith it raised doubts leading him
to consult his father, who told him to study the Bible and instructed him in the Law of
Moses. He became an ardent convert to Judaism, but kept his secret from his mother and two
sisters and from his wife, for he was married and had a child, and his wife was pregnant
when he was arrested. During her absence, a year or two before, he bad circumcised
himself. At the age of 35, considering that his sister Isabel who was about 33, was mature
enough for religious independence, he revealed his secret to her and endeavored to convert
her, but in vain, and he was impervious to her entreaties to abandon his faith. They seem
to have been tenderly attached to each other; he was her sole support as well as that of
her mother and sister, but she could not escape the necessity of communicating the facts
in confession to her confessor. The prescriptions of the Church were absolute; no family
ties relieved one from the obligation of denouncing heresy, and she could not hope for
sacramental absolution without discharging the duty. We can picture to ourselves the
torment of that agonized soul as she nerved herself to the awful duty which could cost her
a lifetime of remorse and misery when she obeyed her confessor's commands and denounced
her brother to the Inquisition.
The warrant for his arrest was issued December 12, 1626, and executed at Concepcion
April 29, 1627. His friend, the Dominican Fray Diego de Ureña, visited him in his place
of confinement, May 2, and sought to convert him, but he was resolved to die in the faith
in which his father had died. So when transferred to Santiago, the Augustinian Fray Alonso
de Almeida made similar efforts with like ill-success; he knew that he should die for the
faith, he had never spoken to any one but his sister and she had betrayed him. He was
received in Lima July 23d and was admitted to an audience the same day. When required to
swear on the cross he refused, saying that he was a Jew and would live and die as such; if
he had to swear it would be by the living God, the God of Israel. His trial went on
through all the customary formalities, protracted by the repeated conferences held with
theologians who endeavored to convince him of his errors. Eleven of these were held
without weakening his pertinacity until, on January 26, 1633, the consulta de fe
unanimously condemned him to relaxation.
A long sickness followed, caused by a fast of eighty days which had reduced him almost
to a skeleton covered with sores. On convalescing, he asked for another conference, to
solve the doubts which he had drawn up in writing. It was held June 26, 1634, and left him
as pertinacious as ever. Meanwhile the prison was filling with Judaizers, of whom a number
had been discovered in Lima. He asked for maize husks in place of his ration of bread, and
with them made a rope by which he escaped through a window and visited two neighboring
cells, urging the prisoners to be steadfast in their law; they denounced him and he made
no secret of it, confessing freely what he had done. It was a mercy of God, we are told,
that his prolonged fast had rendered him deaf, or he would have learned much from them of
what had been going on.
The tribunal was so preoccupied, with the numerous trials on foot at the time, that
Maldonado was left undisturbed, awaiting the general auto that was to follow. We hear
nothing more until, after an interval of four years, a thirteenth conference was held at
his request, November 12, 1638. It was as fruitless as its predecessors and, at its
conclusion, he produced two books (each of them of more than a hundred leaves), made with
marvellous ingenuity out of scraps of paper and written with ink made of charcoal and pens
cut out of egg-shells with a knife fashioned from a nail, which he said he delivered up
for the discharge of his conscience. Then on December 9th and 10th were held two more
conferences in which his pertinacity remained unshaken. The long tragedy was now drawing
to an end after an imprisonment which had lasted for nearly thirteen years. He was brought
out in the great auto of January 23, 1639, where, when the sentences of relaxation were
read, a sudden whirlwind tore away the awning and, looking up, he exclaimed "The God
of Israel does this to look upon me face to face!" He was unshrinking to the last and
was burnt alive a true martyr to his faith. His two paper books were hung around his neck
to burn with him and assist in burning him.
This auto of 1639, the greatest that had as yet been held in the New World, was the
culmination of the "complicidad grande" - the name given by the inquisitors to a
number of Judaizers whom they had discovered. As they described the situation, in a report
of 1636, large numbers of Portuguese had entered the kingdom by way of Buenos Ayres,
Brazil, Mexico, Granada and Puerto Bello, thus increasing the already numerous bands of
their compatriots. They became masters of the commerce of the kingdom; from brocade to
sack-cloth, from diamonds to cumin seed, everything passed through their hands; the
Castilian who had not a Portuguese partner could look for no success in trade. They would
buy the cargoes of whole fleets with the fictitious credits which they exchanged, thus
rendering capital unnecessary, and would distribute the merchandise throughout the land by
their agents, who were likewise Portuguese, and their capacity developed until, in 1634,
they negotiated for the farming of the royal customs.
In August, 1634, Joan de Salazar, a merchant, denounced to the Inquisition Antonio
Cordero, clerk of a trader from Seville, because he refused to make a sale on a Saturday.
On another occasion, going to his store on a Friday morning, he found Cordero breakfasting
on a piece of bread and an apple and, on asking him whether he had not better take a
rasher of bacon, Cordero replied "Must I eat what my father and grandfather never
ate?" The evidence was weak and no immediate action was taken, but, in October, the
commissioners were instructed secretly to ascertain and report the number of Portuguese in
their several districts. The matter rested and, as nothing new was developed, in March,
1635, the evidence against Cordero was laid before a consulta de fe and it was resolved to
arrest him secretly, without sequestration, so that the hand of the Inquisition might not
be apparent. Bartolomé de Larrea, a familiar, called on him, April 2d, under pretence of
settling an account, and locked him in a room; a sedan chair was brought, and he was
conveyed to the secret prison. His disappearance excited much talk and he was supposed to
have fled, for the supposition of arrest by the Inquisition was scouted, seeing that there
had not been sequestration, Cordero confessed at once that he was a Jew and, under
torture, implicated his employer and two others. These were arrested on May 11th and the
free employment of torture obtained the names of numerous accomplices. The prisons were
full and to empty them an auto in the chapel was hurriedly arranged and preparations were
made for the hasty construction of additional cells. On August llth, between 12:30 and 2
o'clock, seventeen arrests were made, so quietly and simultaneously that it was all
effected before the people were conscious of it. These were among the most prominent
citizens and greatest merchants of Lima, and we are told that the impression produced on
the community was like the Day of Judgement. Torture and inquisitorial methods elicited
further information resulting in additional arrests; the affrighted Portuguese began to
scatter and, at the request of the tribunal, the Viceroy Chinchon prohibited for a year
any one to leave Peru without its license. . . .
One matter which vexed the souls of the inquisitors was the effort made by the
threatened Portuguese to hide their property from sequestration. A proclamation was
issued, ordering all who knew of such matters to reveal them within nine days under pain
of excommunication and other penalties. This was successful to some extent, but the
difficulties in the way were illustrated in the case of Enrique de Paz, for whom Melchor
de los Reies secreted much silver, jewels and merchandise. Among other things he deposited
with his friend Don Dionisio Manrique, Knight of Santiago, senior alcalde de corte and a
consultor of the tribunal, a quantity of silver and some fifty or sixty pieces of rich
silks. Manrique did not deny receiving them, but said that the same night Melchor ordered
them taken away by a young man who was a stranger to him. The inquisitors evidently
disbelieved the story; they reported that they had unsuccessfully tried friendly methods
with Manrique and asked the Suprema for instructions.
The sequestration of so much property brought all trade to a stand-still and produced
indescribable confusion, aggravated, in 1635, by the consequent failure of the bank. The
men arrested had nearly all the trade of the colony in their hands; they were involved in
an infinity of complicated transactions and suits sprang up on all sides. Creditors and
suitors pressed their claims desperately, fearing that with delay witnesses might
disappear, in the widening circle of arrests. There were many suits pending already in the
Audiencia which were claimed by the tribunal and surrendered to it. It was puzzled by the
new business thus thrown upon it; to a suit there had to be two parties, but the prisoners
could not plead, so it appointed Manuel de Monte Alegre as their "defensor" to
appear for them, and it went on hearing and deciding complicated civil suits while
conducting the prosecutions for heresy. Mondays and Thursdays were assigned for civil
business, and every afternoon, from 3 P.m. until dark, was devoted to examination of the
documents. The inquisitors claimed that they pushed forward strenuously in settling
accounts and paying debts, for otherwise all commerce would be destroyed to the
irreparable damage of the Republic, which was already exhausted in so many ways. This did
not suit the Suprema, which, by letters of October 22d and November 9, 1635, forbade the
surrender of any sequestrated or confiscated property, no matter what evidence was
produced of ownership or claims, without first consulting it. This exacting payment of all
debts and postponing payment of claims threatened general bankruptcy when the rich
merchants were arrested, for their aggregate liabilities amounted to eight hundred
thousand pesos ' which was estimated as equal to the whole capital of Lima. To avert this,
some payments were made but only on the strength of competent security being furnished. .
. .
Meanwhile the trials of the accused were pushed forward as rapidly as the perplexities
of the situation admitted. Torture was not spared. Murcia de Luna, a woman of 27, died
under it. Antonio de Acuiia was subjected to it for three hours and when he was carried
out, Alcaide Pradeda described his arms as being torn to pieces. Progress was impeded,
however, by the devices of the prisoners, who were in hopes that influences at work in
Spain would secure a general pardon like that of 1604. With this object they revoked their
confessions and their accusations of each other, giving rise to endless complications.
Some of the latter revocations, however, were genuine and were adhered to, even through
the torture which was freely used in these cases. Besides this, to cast doubt on the whole
affair, they accused the innocent and even Old Christians. . . . The inquisitors add that
they abstained in many cases from making arrests, when the testimony was insufficient and
the parties were not Portuguese.
The tribunal was manned with four inquisitors, who struggled resolutely through this
complicated mass of business, and at length were ready to make public the results of their
labors in the auto of January 23, 1639. This was celebrated with unexampled pomp and
ostentation, for now money was abundant and the opportunity of making an impression on the
popular mind was not to be lost, During the previous night, when their sentences were made
known to those who were to be relaxed, two of them, Enrique de Paz and Manuel de Espinosa,
professed conversion; the inquisitors came and examined them, a consulta was assembled and
they were admitted to reconciliation. There was great rivalry among men of position for
the honor of accompanying the penitents and Don Salvadoro Veldzquez, one of the principal
Indians, sargento mayor of the Indian militia, begged to be allowed to carry one of
the effigies, which he did in resplendent uniform. Conspicuous in a place of honor in the
procession were the seven who had been acquitted, richly dressed, mounted on white horses
and carrying palms of victory,
Besides the Judaizers there was a bigamist and five women penanced for sorcery. There
was also the alcalde's assistant Valcdzar, who was deprived of his familiarship and was
exiled for four years. Juan de Canelas Albarran, the occupant of a house adjoining the
prison, who had permitted an opening through the walls for communications, received a
hundred lashes and five years of exile, and Ana Maria González, who was concerned in the
matter, had also a hundred lashes and four years of exile.
Of the Judaizers there were seven who escaped with abjuration de vehementi, various
penalties and fines aggregating eight hundred pesos. There were forty-four reconciled with
punishments varied according to their deserts. Those who had confessed readily as to
themselves and others were let off with confiscation and deportation to Spain. Those who
prevaricated or gave trouble had, in addition, lashes or galleys or both. Of these there
were twenty-one, the aggregate lashes amounting to four thousand and the years of galleys
to a hundred and six, besides two condemnations for life. In addition to these were the
mother of the Murcia de Luna who died under torture, Doha Mayor de Luna, a woman of high
social position, and her daughter Doha Isabel de Luna, a girl of 18, who, for endeavoring
to communicate with each other in prison, were sentenced to a hundred lashes through the
streets, naked from the waist up. There was also one reconciliation in effigy of a culprit
who had died in prison.
There were eleven relaxations in person and the effigy of one who had committed suicide
during trial. Of the eleven, seven are said to have died pertinacious and impenitent and
therefore presumably were burnt alive, true martyrs to their belief. Of these there were
two especially notable - Maldonado whose case has been mentioned above, and Manuel
Bautista Pérez. The latter was the leader and chief among the Portuguese, who styled him
the capitan grande. He was the greatest merchant in Lima and his fortune was
popularly estimated at half a million pesos. It was in his house that were held the secret
meetings in which he joined in the learned theological discussions, but outwardly he was a
zealous Christian and had priests to educate his children; he was greatly esteemed by the
clergy who dedicated to him their literary effusions in terms of the warmest adulation. He
owned rich silver mines in Huarochiri and two extensive plantations; his confiscated house
has since been known as the casas de Pilatos, and his ostentatious mode of life may
be judged by the fact that when his carriage was sold by the tribunal it fetched
thirty-four hundred pesos. He had endeavored to commit suicide by stabbing himself, but he
never faltered at the end. He listened proudly to his sentence and died impenitent,
telling the executioner to do his duty. There was one other prisoner who did not appear.
Enrique Jorje Tavares, a youth of 18, was among those arrested in August, 1635. He denied
under torture and after various alternations became permanently insane, for which reason
his case was suspended in 1639.
The next day the mob of Lima enjoyed the further sensation of the scourging through the
streets. These exhibitions always attracted a large crowd, in which there were many
horsemen who thus had a better view, while boys commonly pelted the bigamists and
sorceresses who were the usual patients. On this occasion the tribunal issued a
proclamation forbidding horses or carriages in the streets through which the procession
passed, and any pelting of the penitents under pain, for Spaniards, of banishment to
Chile, and for Indians and Negroes, of a hundred lashes. There were twenty-nine sufferers
in all; they were marched in squads of ten, guarded by soldiers and familiars, while the
executioners plied the scourges, and the brutalizing spectacle passed off without
disturbance, and with the pious wish of the tribunal that it would please God to make it
serve as a warning.
