1632 During an auto-da-fe held in Madrid, Spain, in the presence of King Philip IV, his wife, Isabella de Bourbon, and many foreign ambassadors, 7 Judaizers, descendants of Jews forcibly baptized some centuries ago who still practice the Jewish religion in secret, are burned alive, after being arrested for holding a Jewish service; 4 others are burned in effigy.
1720 An auto-da-fe is held in Madrid, Spain, shortly after a secret synagogue has been discovered in which twenty families have held Jewish services for some years. On this day, 5 Jews are burned at the stake.
Official publications of the individual Holy Offices located throughout Spain recorded the Inquisition's day-to-day operations. The 200 plus publications found in the Porrua collection include papal bulls and royal proclamations relating to the Inquisition. These works notified the populace about banned books, heretical behavior, defending racial purity, demanding obedience to the king, etc. One 18th-century document is an unfilled form that authorizes an official to visit bookstores in order to monitor their holdings for banned and expurgated books. Two separate publications here demand a halt to the mistreatment of Holy Office officials in Brazil and Mexico.
The collection contains 25 certificates conferring the title of "familiar of the Inquisition" to individual Spaniards. These certificates, largely manuscripts from the 16th and 17th centuries, conferred all privileges and responsibilities unto Spaniards found to be racially and religiously pure according to the precepts of the Inquisition. Familiars, who would be referred to as Friends of the Inquisition today, were known for their racial purity, their support of the Church and their advocacy of the Inquisition. Of interest here are genealogical trees ensuring the familiar was an old Christian (meaning no ancestors were Jews who had been forced to convert to Catholicism) and the signatures of inquisitors and their administrators.
The public reading of sentences to the accused, auto de fe, was a periodic spectacle of the Inquisition. Many, if not all, of these ceremonies were recorded by the local Holy Office. The Porrua collection contains over 30 autos held between 1559 to 1779 with the majority of them occurring in Madrid. The 1559 Auto Público de Fe que se Celebró en la Villa de Valladolid... is of particular importance as one of the first judgements against Spanish Protestants. All members of the small group, numbering no more than 55, were arrested and punished. Included among those sentenced was Dr. Agustn Cazalla, the former chaplain to Charles V. Porrua notes in the collection catalog that a copy of this auto cannot be found in the Inquisition archives at Valladolid. Also included is the first auto published in Portugal, 1612, and the first auto published in Mallorca, 1691.
1632 During an auto-da-fe held in Madrid, Spain, in the presence of King Philip IV, his wife, Isabella de Bourbon, and many foreign ambassadors, 7 Judaizers, descendants of Jews forcibly baptized some centuries ago who still practice the Jewish religion in secret, are burned alive, after being arrested for holding a Jewish service; 4 others are burned in effigy.