341
THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
was
preferred as more in keeping with John xv. 6, a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Simanoas and Roias were even of opinion that the culprits ought to be burned alive the only precaution necessary being that their tongues be bound, or their mouths stuffed, in order that they do not scandalize the audience. The custom seems to have been that the penitent were first strangled and then burned, while the impenitent were cast into the flames alive. It was also held that the secular arm should not delay too long in carrying out sentences of the Inquisition. Innocent IV., in his bull "ad extirpanda," fixes five days as the longest period of delay. In Spain it was customary to carry out the sentence immediately after its proclamation, which was so timed as to occur upon some feast-day, when the populace would be at liberty to witness the burning. The same pomp which marked the public reading of the sentence was observed at its execution; the imposing procession wending its way from the Inquisition dungeons to the " quemaExecution dero," the place where the scaffolds " If
The
dignitaries of both were present; and at the auto of June 30, 1680, in Madrid, which Charles II. held injioncx of his newly married bride, the king himself lighted the first brand which set fire to the piles. During the night preceding the carrying out of the sentence a commission sat continuously to hear the recantations of the prisoners, whenever they were minded to make them. The victims were carried on asses with escorts of soldiers, and accompanied by
of Sentence.
were erected.
Church and
state
priests who exhorted
them
becoming reconciled
to the Church. " Relacion, " in Por-
to take the last chance of
A full report— called in Spain
—
tugal " Relacao " of the auto was drawn up and often printed for the double purpose of inciting the faithful to greater zeal and of bringing order into the process of the ecclesiastical court (E. N. Adler, These in "Jewish Quarterly Review," xiii. 395). reports were sent not only to the central organization of the Inquisition, but to other tribunals as well.
The earliest record of the execution of Jews at an Auto da fe relates to that held in Troyes (L'Aube) Jewish accounts of on Saturday, April 24, 1288. this event are given in the Hebrew selihot (penitential poems) of Jacob ben Judah, Meier ben Eliab, and Solomon Simha, as well as in an old Provencal account in verse by the aforementioned Jacob. This execution called forth strenuous protests from Philip le
Bel (May
17, 1288),
who saw
that in Venice during the sixteenth century there were 43 persons before the Holy Office for the crime of " Judaismo," and in the seventeenth, 34. Many Jews may even be comprised under those who were charged with "Maomedanismo." The Inquisition worked its greatest havoc in Spain Spain and and Portugal, in the Balearic Islands, Portugal, in Spanish America (Mexico, Brazil, Peru), in Guadelupe, and in Goa In Spain autos were held from the time (India). that Sixtus IV. (1480) issued a bull empowering Catholic kings to appoint inquisitors over all heretics, and in Portugal since 1531, when Clement VII. issued the bull "cum ad nihil magis," which formally established the Inquisition in Portugal (Herculano, "Estab. da Inquisicao," i. 255). The Holy Office was established in America by letters patent The Inquisition in of Philip II. on Feb. 7, 1569. Venice was abolished in 1794; at Goa, in 1812. The last auto held in Portugal was at Lisbon, Oct. 19, 1739; but as late as Aug. 1, 1826, in a short period of reaction, an auto was celebrated at Valencia, in
which one Jew was burned
alive ("
Revue Etudes
The Inquisition was finally abolJuives," v. 155). In Peru the Holy ished in Spain July 15, 1834. Office had already been abolished on March 9, 1820, at the earliest moment after the cessation of the connection with Spain. It is impossible to tell the exact number of Jews who met their' death at the many autos da fe in Spain and Portugal. They were usually charged with Judaizing a charge which might have been made against Moriscos, or even against Christians who were suspected of heresy. This was especially the case with the Maranos or Neo-Christians and yet, from the documents already published, and from the lists which are now accessible (see below), it is known that many thousands must have met their death in this way. Albert Cansino, ambassador of Perrara, writes on July 19, 1501 " I passed several " days at Seville, and I saw fifty-four persons burned According (" Revue Etudes Juives," xxxvii. 269). to Llorente, the Inquisition in Spain dealt with 341,-
—
021 cases and over 30,000 people were burned (see Kohut, in "Proceedings Am. Jew. Hist. Soc." According to another authority, during iv. 109). the two hundred and fifty years that the Inquisition also
existed in America, 129 autos da fe were held. From the details given by Adler the following numbers can be given of the Jews condemned, not always to death, so far as known. But in many instances, especially during the sixteenth century,
no
details are given 3,881
Fifteenth century, 1481-1500
" Sixteenth Seventeenth " " Eighteenth
in the actions of the
an infringement of his own rights (compare A. Darmesteter, in " Romania, " iii. 443 et seq. idem, in "Revue Etudes Juives," ii. 199; Salfeld, " Martyrologium des Nurnberger Memorbuches," p. We have, however, little documentary evi162). dence about the Jews of the Inquisition in countries outside of the Spanish Peninsula. Most of the information relating to the Inquisition in its relation to the Jews refers to Spain and Portugal and their That Jews suffered, however, colonies (see below). from the tribunal in Italy may be seen from the fact
Holy
Auto da Fe
Office
(number
of
"reos") ,
868 821 8<8
whom
the names and fates can be ascertained from the "relaciones" of 115 out of 464 autos da fe which are known to have taken place
Or
in all 6,448 of
from 1481 to
1826.
of autos da f e in which it is posiJews were concerned has been selected from those held by the Inquisition; the thousands of volumes of Inquisition reports in the
The following list
tively
known
that
archives at Madrid, Seville, Simancas, Lisbon, etc.,
