Part 19 (1/2)

Fray Juan quickly muttered a prayer and crossed himself.

”What I'm saying, Chico b.a.s.t.a.r.do, is that what Osorio found and reported as Satan's sign, a witch's teat, is G.o.d-given, something every woman possesses.”

”It must have been terrible for the poor woman,” I said.

”It was worse than terrible,” Fray Antonio said. ”When she did not confess, Osorio tortured her to death.”

”Por Dios!” I said. ”What was his punishment?”

”Punishment? There is none. G.o.d knows His own, they say. The woman is officially absolved, and she goes to heaven.”

We walked in silence.

”Antonio,” Fray Juan finally said, shaking his head, ”your heretical opinions will one day bring the Inquisition down on the boy as well as yourself.”

Fray Antonio shrugged. ”All right, explain it to him in your own way.”

Fray Juan said, ”When our glorious monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabella, a.s.sumed the United Crown of Spain and captured the last Moorish strongholds on the peninsula, the land was heavily populated by Jews and Infidels. They threatened the foundation of our society. Our Most Catholic Monarchs created the Holy Office of the Inquisition to counter their demonic influence. Ultimately, it was decreed that Jews had to convert to the Christian faith or leave the country. At almost the same time that Cristobal Colon-the great discoverer of the New World-was sailing from Spain to discover the New World, tens of thousands of Jews were forced out of the country and into the Islamic lands of North Africa.”

”Torquemada, our Inquisitor General, introduced torture and confiscation of the victim's wealth as the means of conversion,” Fray Antonio pointed out. ”In other words, tens of thousands of Jews lost everything to Church and Crown, whether they converted or not.”

Fray Juan shot Antonio a dark look and continued. ”Muhammad's followers were also forced to convert or leave Spain.”

”Violating the terms of their surrender,” Fray Antonio said. ”In any event, their property was likewise confiscated.”

”From this time on,” Juan persisted, ”a new threat arose, the problem of false conversos-Jews who falsely subscribed to Christian beliefs, the ones we call marranos, and Moors who swear false allegiance to Christ, people we call moriscos.”

I recognized the word as meaning ”little Moors.”

”To stop these false conversos from spreading their evil ideas and Satanic rites, the the Church ordered the Holy Office to find the wrongdoers-”

”-through torture-”

”-and punish them.”

”Burning them at the stake in front of the entire city,” Fray Antonio said.

”Cristo, my son,” Fray Juan said with weary patience, ”auto-da-fe means 'act of faith,' and that is what it is. For those who repent and confess their guilt, the punishment is almost painless.”

Fray Antonio snorted. ”The victims are tied to the stake and wood piled around them. If they repent, they are garroted before they are burned.”

I, too, had never understood the auto-da-fe. I had read the Gospels many times in the hospice and never saw suggestions that we burn people alive.

”The Inquisition, which is run entirely by men who have never slept with a woman, or who at least are forbidden to, is conducting a holy war against women,” Fray Antonio said. He waved away the objections of Juan. ”They accomplish this through what they call controlling devil wors.h.i.+p among witches. Dominican monks have made pa.s.sionate sermons in villages and towns, describing the demonic practices of witches, sowing a belief in the black arts. Because of these sermons, ignorant people see Satan's hand in everything. They report their neighbors, sometimes their own family members, to the Inquisition for the most trivial reasons.

”Once a woman is arrested, the inquisitors take as their Bible a book called The Hammer of Witches, which professes to teach one to recognize witches. They take the women to their dungeons, strip and search them for Satanic signs, even to the point of cutting off their hair.

”The inquisitors begin with simple questions from The Hammer of Witches. However, there are no correct answers, so the prisoners can never talk their way out of an accusation, even with the truth. A woman might be asked, ”Do you believe in witches?” If she says yes, she has knowledge of witchcraft and is thus a witch herself. And if she says no, she is lying for the devil and is also tortured.