Defense Document Offered In Inquisition Case: February 19, 1512

Inquisitors in the Holy Office of Inquisition called one Maria Gonzalez to confess to knowledge of other people.

"...When Maria Gonzalez was present, their reverences said that it was already known that she had confessed the heretical crimes of which the prosecutor accused her, and that she had been required and admonished many times to confess the truth about the other people who had committed the crimes with or without her; and she had always refused to do so. Now they once more required and admonished her to tell the truth about these other people, because information existed that she had committed her crimes with others, and had seen people commit other heresies. And by telling the truth, she would do what she ought, and would unburden her conscience. Otherwise, the Inquisition would proceed against her according to what it discovers by law.

Maria Gonzalez said she had confessed everything she knew about the charges, about herself as well as others, and had no more to say.

Then their reverences told her that since she persisted in her denial, and they had information to the contrary, that if she thought that some people wished her ill she might think about whether she wanted to object to them, or to defend her case in other ways."

They said they were ready to hear her if she would be their informant even if it were people she thought wished her ill but she still had nothing more to say about herself or anybody else and begged them to treat her mercifully. She was convicted as a converso - privately following Jewish practices - later that year and spent the rest of her days in prison undergoing further interrogation, torture and by the end of September the following year, was hung. But we'll follow her case as it shows an all too typical advancement of charges and techniques used in Toledo in the early 16th century.

quote from pp.50-1, from The Spanish Inquisition 1478-1614: An Anthology of Sources, edited and translated by Lu Ann Homza, Indianapolis, Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 2006

__________________________________________________________________