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viii How to Prepare for the Exam

On the Web

Base SAS Glossary support.sas.com/baseglossary

Bookstore www.sas.com/books

Certification www.sas.com/certify

Communities communities.sas.com

Knowledge Base support.sas.com/notes

Learning Center www.sas.com and click Learn. Then select

Get Started with SAS.

SAS Documentation support.sas.com/documentation

documentation.sas.com

SAS Global Academic Program www.sas.com and click Learn. Then select
For Students and Educators.

SAS OnDemand support.sas.com/ondemand/

Syntax Quick Reference Guide support.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/

books/data/base-syntax-ref.pdf

Training www.sas.com/training

Technical Support support.sas.com. Then select Technical

Support.

Syntax Conventions

In this book, SAS syntax looks like this example:

DATA output-SAS-data-set
(DROP=variables(s) | KEEP=variables(s));
SET SAS-data-set <options>;
BY variable(s);
RUN;
Here are the conventions that are used in the example:
• DATA, DROP=, KEEP=, SET, BY, and RUN are in uppercase bold because they
must be spelled as shown.
• output-SAS-data-set, variable(s), SAS-data-set, and options are in italics because
each represents a value that you supply.
• <options> is enclosed in angle brackets because it is optional syntax.
 Syntax Conventions ix

• DROP= and KEEP= are separated by a vertical bar ( | ) to indicate that they are
mutually exclusive.
The example syntax that is shown in this book includes only what you need to know in
order to prepare for the certification exam. For complete syntax, see the appropriate SAS
reference guide.
x How to Prepare for the Exam
 xi

Accessibility Features of the

Prep Guide

Overview
The SAS Certified Specialist Prep Guide: Base Programming Using SAS 9.4 is a test
preparation document that uses the following environments and products:
• SAS windowing environment
• SAS Enterprise Guide
• SAS Studio or SAS University Edition

Accessibility Documentation Help

The following table contains accessibility information for the listed products:

Accessibility Documentation Links

Where to Find Accessibility

Product or Environment Documentation

Base SAS (Microsoft Windows, UNIX, and support.sas.com/baseaccess

z/OS)

SAS Enterprise Guide support.sas.com/documentation/onlinedoc/

guide/index.html

SAS Studio support.sas.com/studioaccess

Documentation Format
Contact [email protected] if you need this document in an alternative digital
format.
xii Accessibility Features of the Prep Guide
 1

Part 1

SAS Certified Specialist Prep

Guide

Chapter 1
Setting Up Practice Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2
Basic Concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Chapter 3
Accessing Your Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Chapter 4
Creating SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Chapter 5
Identifying and Correcting SAS Language Errors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

Chapter 6
Creating Reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Chapter 7
Understanding DATA Step Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Chapter 8
BY-Group Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Chapter 9
Creating and Managing Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Chapter 10
Combining SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Chapter 11
Processing Data with DO Loops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

Chapter 12
SAS Formats and Informats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
2

Chapter 13
SAS Date, Time, and Datetime Values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241

Chapter 14
Using Functions to Manipulate Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253

Chapter 15
Producing Descriptive Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 307

Chapter 16
Creating Output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 335
 3

Chapter 1

Setting Up Practice Data

Accessing Your Practice Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Practice Data ZIP File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Accessing Your Practice Data

Requirements
To complete examples in this book, you must have access to SAS Studio, SAS
Enterprise Guide, or the SAS windowing environment.

Practice Data ZIP File

The ZIP file includes SAS data sets, Microsoft Excel workbooks (.xlsx), CSV files
(.csv), and TXT files (.txt) that are used in examples in this book. To access these files
and create your practice data, follow the instructions below.

Instructions
1. Navigate to support.sas.com/content/dam/SAS/support/en/books/data/base-guide-
practice-data.zip, download and save the practice data ZIP file.
2. Unzip the file and save it to a location that is accessible to SAS.
3. Open the cre8data.sas program in the SAS environment of your choice.
• SAS Studio: In the Navigation pane, expand Files and Folders and then navigate
to the Cert folder within the practice-data folder.
• SAS Enterprise Guide: In the Servers list, expand Servers ð Local ð Files, and
then navigate to the Cert folder in the practice-data folder.
• SAS windowing environment: Click File ð Open Program, and then navigate
to the Cert folder in the practice-data folder.
4. In the Path macro variable, replace /folders/myfolders with the path to the
Cert folder and run the program.
%let path=/folders/myfolders/cert;
4 Chapter 1 • Setting Up Practice Data

Important: The location that you specify for the Path macro variable and the
location of your downloaded SAS programs should be the same location.
Otherwise, the cre8data.sas program cannot create the practice data.

Your practice data is now created and ready for you to use.
TIP When you end your SAS session, the Path macro variable in the
cre8data.sas program is reset. To avoid having to rerun cre8data.sas every
time, run the libname.sas program from the Cert folder to restore the libraries.
 5

Chapter 2

Basic Concepts

Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Basics of the SAS Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
SAS Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Global Statements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
DATA Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
PROC Step . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
SAS Program Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Processing SAS Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Log Messages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Results of Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
SAS Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Predefined SAS Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Defining Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
How SAS Files Are Stored . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Storing Files Temporarily or Permanently . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Referencing SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Referencing Permanent SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Referencing Temporary SAS Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Rules for SAS Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
VALIDVARNAME=System Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
VALIDMEMNAME=System Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
When to Use VALIDMEMNAME=System Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
SAS Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Overview of Data Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Descriptor Portion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
SAS Variable Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Data Portion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
SAS Indexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Extended Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Chapter Quiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
6 Chapter 2 • Basic Concepts

Getting Started
In the SAS 9.4 Base Programming – Performance-Based exam, you are not tested on the
details of running SAS software in the various environments. However, you might find
such information useful when working with the practice data.
You can access a brief overview of the windows and menus in the SAS windowing
environment, SAS Enterprise Guide, and SAS Studio at http://video.sas.com/. From
Categories select How To Tutorials ð Programming. Select the video for your SAS
environment. Other tutorials are available from the SAS website.

The Basics of the SAS Language

SAS Statements
A SAS statement is a type of SAS language element that is used to perform a particular
operation in a SAS program or to provide information to a SAS program. SAS
statements are free-format. This means that they can begin and end anywhere on a line,
that one statement can continue over several lines, and that several statements can be on
the same line. Blank or special characters separate words in a SAS statement.
TIP You can specify SAS statements in uppercase or lowercase. In most situations,
text that is enclosed in quotation marks is case sensitive.
Here are two important rules for writing SAS programs:
• A SAS statement ends with a semicolon.
• A statement usually begins with a SAS keyword.
There are two types of SAS statements:
• statements that are used in DATA and PROC steps
• statements that are global in scope and can be used anywhere in a SAS program

Global Statements
Global statements are used anywhere in a SAS program and stay in effect until changed
or canceled, or until the SAS session ends. Here are some common global statements:
TITLE, LIBNAME, OPTIONS, and FOOTNOTE.

DATA Step
The DATA step creates or modifies data. Input for a DATA can include raw data or a
SAS data set. Output from a DATA step can include a SAS data set or a report. A SAS
data set is a data file that is formatted in a way that SAS can understand.
For example, you can use DATA steps to do the following:
• put your data into a SAS data set
• compute values
 The Basics of the SAS Language 7

• check for and correct errors in your data

• produce new SAS data sets by subsetting, supersetting, merging, and updating
existing data sets

PROC Step
The PROC step analyzes data, produces output, or manages SAS files. The input for a
PROC (procedure) step is usually a SAS data set. Output from a PROC step can include
a report or an updated SAS data set.
For example, you can use PROC steps to do the following:
• create a report that lists the data
• analyze data
• create a summary report
• produce plots and charts

SAS Program Structure

A SAS program consists of a sequence of steps. A program can be any combination of
DATA or PROC steps. A step is a sequence of SAS statements.
Here is an example of a simple SAS program.
Example Code 1 A Simple SAS Program

title1 'June Billing'; /* #1 */

data work.junefee; /* #2 */
set cert.admitjune;
where age>39;
run; /* #3 */
proc print data=work.junefee; /* #4 */
run;

1 The TITLE statement is a global statement. Global statements are typically outside
steps and do not require a RUN statement.
2 The DATA step creates a new SAS data set named Work.JuneFee. The SET
statement reads in the data from Cert.AdmitJune. The new data set contains only
those observations whose value for Age is greater than 39.
3 If a RUN or QUIT statement is not used at the end of a step, SAS assumes that the
beginning of a new step implies the end of the previous step. If a RUN or QUIT
statement is not used at the end of the last step in a program, SAS Studio and SAS
Enterprise Guide automatically submit a RUN and QUIT statement after the
submitted code.
4 The PROC PRINT step prints a listing of the new SAS data set. A PROC step begins
with a PROC statement, which begins with the keyword PROC.
8 Chapter 2 • Basic Concepts

Output 2.1 PRINT Procedure Output

Processing SAS Programs

When a SAS program is submitted for execution, SAS first validates the syntax and then
compiles the statements. DATA and PROC statements signal the beginning of a new
step. The beginning of a new step also implies the end of the previous step. At a step
boundary, SAS executes any statement that has not been previously executed and ends
the step.
Example Code 2 Processing SAS Programs

data work.admit2; /* #1 */
set cert.admit;
where age>39;
proc print data=work.admit2; /* #2 */
run; /* #3 */

1 The DATA step creates a new SAS data set named Work.Admit2 by reading
Cert.Admit. The DATA statement is the beginning of the new step. The SET
statement is used to read data. The WHERE statement conditionally reads only the
observations where the value of the variable Age is greater than 39.
2 The PROC PRINT step prints the new SAS data set named Work.Admit2. The
PROC PRINT statement serves as a step boundary in this example because a RUN
statement was not used at the end of the DATA step. The PROC step also implies the
end of the DATA step.
3 The RUN statement ends the PROC step.

TIP The RUN statement is not required between steps in a SAS program. However, it
is a best practice to use a RUN statement because it can make the SAS program
easier to read and the SAS log easier to understand when debugging.
 The Basics of the SAS Language 9

Log Messages
The SAS log collects messages about the processing of SAS programs and about any
errors that occur. Each time a step is executed, SAS generates a log of the processing
activities and the results of the processing.
When SAS processes the sample program, it produces the log messages shown below.
Notice that you get separate sets of messages for each step in the program.

Log 2.1 SAS Log Messages for Each Program Step

5 data work.admit2;
6 set cert.admit;
7 where age>39;
8 run;

NOTE: There were 10 observations read from the data set CERT.ADMIT.
WHERE age>39;
NOTE: The data set WORK.ADMIT2 has 10 observations and 9 variables.
NOTE: DATA statement used (Total process time):
real time 0.00 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

9 proc print data=work.admit2;

NOTE: Writing HTML Body file: sashtml.htm
10 run;

NOTE: There were 10 observations read from the data set WORK.ADMIT2.
NOTE: PROCEDURE PRINT used (Total process time):
real time 0.35 seconds
cpu time 0.24 seconds

Results of Processing

The DATA Step

Suppose you submit the sample program below:
data work.admit2;
set cert.admit;
where age>39;
run;

When the program is processed, it creates a new SAS data set, Work.Admit2, containing
only those observations with age values greater than 39. The DATA step creates a new
data set and produces messages in the SAS log, but it does not create a report or other
output.

The PROC Step

If you add a PROC PRINT step to this same example, the program produces the same
new data set as before, but it also creates the following report:
data work.admit2;
set cert.admit;
where age>39;
run;
10 Chapter 2 • Basic Concepts

proc print data=work.admit2;

run;

Figure 2.1 PRINT Procedure Output

Other Procedures
SAS programs often invoke procedures that create output in the form of a report, as is
the case with the FREQ procedure:
proc freq data=sashelp.cars;
table origin*DriveTrain;
run;

Figure 2.2 FREQ Procedure Output

Other SAS programs perform tasks such as sorting and managing data, which have no
visible results except for messages in the log. (All SAS programs produce log messages,
but some SAS programs produce only log messages.)
proc sort data=cert.admit;
by sex;
run;
 SAS Libraries 11

Log 2.2 SAS Log: COPY Procedure Output

11 proc sort data=cert.admit;

12 by sex;
13 run;

NOTE: There were 21 observations read from the data set

CERT.ADMIT.
NOTE: The data set CERT.ADMIT has 21 observations and 9
variables.
NOTE: PROCEDURE SORT used (Total process time):
real time 0.01 seconds
cpu time 0.00 seconds

SAS Libraries

Definition
A SAS library contains one or more files that are defined, recognized, and accessible by
SAS, and that are referenced and stored as a unit. One special type of file is called a
catalog. In SAS libraries, catalogs function much like subfolders for grouping other
members.

Predefined SAS Libraries

By default, SAS defines several libraries for you:
Sashelp
a permanent library that contains sample data and other files that control how SAS
works at your site. This is a Read-Only library.
Sasuser
a permanent library that contains SAS files in the Profile catalog and that stores your
personal settings. This is also a convenient place to store your own files.
Work
a temporary library for files that do not need to be saved from session to session.
You can also define additional libraries. When you define a library, you indicate the
location of your SAS files to SAS. After you define a library, you can manage SAS files
within it.
Note: If you are using SAS Studio, you might encounter the Webwork library. Webwork
is the default output library in interactive mode. For more information about the
Webwork library, see SAS Studio: User’s Guide.

Defining Libraries
To define a library, you assign a library name to it and specify the location of the files,
such as a directory path.
You can also specify an engine, which is a set of internal instructions that SAS uses for
writing to and reading from files in a library.
12 Chapter 2 • Basic Concepts

You can define SAS libraries using programming statements. For information about how
to write LIBNAME statements to define SAS libraries, see Assigning Librefs on page
25.
TIP Depending on your operating environment and the SAS/ACCESS products that
you license, you can create libraries with various engines. Each engine enables you
to read a different file format, including file formats from other software vendors.
When you delete a SAS library, the pointer to the library is deleted, and SAS no longer
has access to the library. However, the contents of the library still exist in your operating
environment.

How SAS Files Are Stored

A SAS library is the highest level of organization for information within SAS.
For example, in the Windows and UNIX environments, a library is typically a group of
SAS files in the same folder or directory.
The table below summarizes the implementation of SAS libraries in various operating
environments.

Table 2.1 Environments and SAS Libraries

Environment Library Definition

Windows, UNIX a group of SAS files that are stored in the

same directory. Other files can be stored in the
directory, but only the files that have SAS file
extensions are recognized as part of the SAS
library.

z/OS a specially formatted host data set in which

only SAS files are stored.

Storing Files Temporarily or Permanently

Depending on the library name that you use when you create a file, you can store SAS
files temporarily or permanently.

Table 2.2 Temporary and Permanent SAS Libraries

Temporary SAS libraries last only for the If you do not specify a library name when you
current SAS session. create a file, the file is stored in the temporary
SAS library, Work. If you specify the library
name Work, then the file is stored in the
temporary SAS library. When you end the
session, the temporary library and all of its
files are deleted.
 Referencing SAS Files 13

Permanent SAS libraries are available to you To store files permanently in a SAS library,
during subsequent SAS sessions. specify a library name other than the default
library name Work.
In the example, when you specify the library
name Cert when you create a file, you are
specifying that the file is to be stored in a
permanent SAS library.

Referencing SAS Files

Referencing Permanent SAS Data Sets

To reference a permanent SAS data set in your SAS programs, use a two-level name
consisting of the library name and the data set name:
libref.dataset
In the two-level name, libref is the name of the SAS library that contains the data set,
and data set is the name of the SAS data set. A period separates the libref and data
set name.

Figure 2.3 Two-Level Permanent SAS Name

Referencing Temporary SAS Files

To reference temporary SAS files, you can specify the default libref Work, a period, and
the data set name. For example, the two-level name, Work.Test, references the SAS data
set named Test that is stored in the temporary SAS library Work.
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As the preacher ceased, the notaries of the Holy Office of Toledo

proceeded to the business of reading out the crime of each accused,
dwelling in detail upon the particular form which his Judaizing was
known to have taken. As the name of each was called, he was
brought forward, and placed upon a stool,141 whilst the reading of
the lengthy sentence took place.

It requires no great imaginative effort to form a mental picture of

these proceedings, and of the poor livid wretch, horror-stricken and
bathed in the sweat of abject terror which that long-drawn agony
must have extorted from the stoutest, sitting there, perhaps half-
dazed already by the merciful hand of Nature, in the glaring August
sun, under the stare of a thousand eyes, some pitiful, some hateful,
some greedy of the offered spectacle. Or it might be some poor half-
swooning woman, steadied by the attendant Dominicans, who seek
to support her fainting courage, to mitigate her unutterable anguish
with comfortless words that hold out the promise of pitiless mercy.

And all this, Christi nomine invocato!

The reading of the sentence is at an end. It concludes with the

formula that the Church, being unable to do more for the offender,
casts him out and abandons him to the secular arm. Lastly comes
the mockery of that intercession, efficaciter—to preserve the
inquisitors from irregularity—that the secular justice shall so deal
with him that his blood may not be shed, and that he may suffer no
hurt in life or limb.
Thereupon the doomed wretch is removed from the scaffold; the
alguaziles of the secular justiciary seize him; the Regidor mutters a
few brief words of sentence, and he is thrust upon an ass and
hurried away, out of the city to the burning-place of La Dehesa.

A white cross has been raised in this field, where twenty-five stakes
are planted with the faggots piled under each, and a mob of morbid
sightseers surges, impatient to have the spectacle begin.

The condemned is bound to the stake, and the Dominicans still

continue their exhortations. They flaunt a crucifix before his dazed,
staring eyes, and they call upon him to repent, confess, and save his
soul from Eternal Hell. They do not leave him until the fire is
crackling and the first cruel little tongues of bluish flame dart up
through the faggots to lick the soles of his naked feet.

If he has confessed, wrought upon by spiritual or physical terror, the

Dominican makes a sign, and the executioner steps behind the stake
and rapidly strangles the doomed man. If his physical fears have not
sufficed to conquer his religious convictions, if he remains firm in his
purpose to die lingeringly, horribly, a martyr for the faith that he
believes to be the only true one, the Dominican withdraws at last,
baffled by this “wicked stubbornness,” and the wretch is left to
endure the terrible agony of death by slow fire.

Meanwhile, under that limpid sky—Christi nomine invocato—the

ferocious work of the Faith goes on; accused succeeds accused to
hear his or her sentence read, until the last of the twenty-five
victims has been surrendered to the tireless arm of the secular
justice. In the meadows of La Dehesa there is such a blaze of the
fires of the Faith, that it might almost seem that the Christians have
been avenging upon their enemies those human torches which an
enemy of Christianity is alleged to have lighted once in Rome.

Six mortal hours, Orozco informs us, were consumed in that ghastly
business,142 for the Court of the Holy Office must in all things
proceed with stately and pompous leisureliness, with that calm
equanimity enjoined by the “Directorium”—simpliciter et de plano—
lest by haste it should fall into the unpardonable offence of
irregularity.

Not until noon did the proceedings conclude with the hurrying away
to La Dehesa of the last of those twenty-five.

The inquisitors and their followers descended at length from their

scaffold, and withdrew to the Casa Santa to rest them from these
arduous labours of propagating Christianity.

There was more to be done upon the morrow—very important

business, demanding an entirely different ceremonial, wherefore it
had been set apart and allotted a day to itself.

The accused on this occasion were only two, but they were two
clerics. One was the parish priest of Talavera; the other occupied the
distinguished position of a royal chaplain. Both had been found guilty
of Judaizing. They were conducted to the Auto in full canonicals, as
if about to celebrate Mass, each carrying his veiled chalice. Led to
the scaffold of the condemned, they found themselves confronted
from the other scaffold not only by the inquisitors and their
attendants and familiars, but further by the Bishop, who was
attended by two Jeronymites—the Abbot of the Convent of St.
Bernard and the Prior of the Convent of Sisla.

The notary of the Holy Office read out the crimes of the accused,
and pronounced them cast out from the Church. Thereupon each
was brought in turn before the Bishop, who proceeded to degrade
him, since the law could not without sacrilege lay violent hands upon
an ecclesiastic.

Beginning by depriving each of his chalice, the Bishop passed on to

divest the priestly offender of his chasuble; stole, maniple, and alb
were removed in succession, the Bishop pronouncing the prescribed
formula for each stage of the degradation, and defacing the tonsure
by clipping away a portion of the surrounding fringe of hair.

At last the doomed clerics stood stripped of all insignia of their

office. And now the sanbenito—that chasuble of infamy—was flung
upon the shoulders of each; their heads were crowned with the
tragically grotesque coroza, a rope was put about each neck, and
their hands were pinioned. The sentence was fulfilled at last by their
being abandoned to the secular authorities, who seized them and
bore them away to the stake.

On Sunday, October 16, a proclamation was read in the Cathedral,

pronouncing several deceased persons to have been heretics, and
setting forth that, although dead themselves, their reputations lived
as those of Christians. Therefore it became necessary to publish
their heresy, and their heirs were summoned to appear within
twenty days and render to the inquisitors an account of their
inheritances, from the enjoyment of which they were disqualified,
since all property that had belonged to the deceased was, by virtue
of Torquemada’s decree, confiscate to the royal treasury.

On December 10 900 persons were admitted to public reconciliation.

They were self-delators from remote country districts who had
responded to a recent edict of grace published in those districts.

The notary announced the forms of Judaizing of which each had

been guilty and proclaimed it as their intention henceforth to live
and die in the faith of Christ. He then read out the Articles of Faith,
and they were required to say “I believe” after each, and lastly to
make oath upon the Gospels and the crucifix never again to fall into
the error of Judaism, to denounce any whom they knew to be
Judaizers, and ever to favour and uphold the Holy Inquisition and
the Holy Catholic faith.

The penance imposed was that they should be scourged in

procession for seven Fridays, and thereafter on the first Friday of
every month for a year. This in their own districts. In addition, they
were required to come to Toledo and be scourged in procession on
the Feast of St. Mary of August and on the Thursday of Holy Week.
Two hundred of them were further ordered to wear a sanbenito over
their ordinary garments for a year from that date, and never to
appear in public without it under pain of being deemed impenitent
and punished as relapsed.

Another 700 came to be reconciled on January 15, 1487, and yet

another 1,200 on March 10. These last, Orozco says, were from the
districts of Talavera, Madrid, and Guadalajara; and he adds that
some amongst them were penanced to the extent of being
condemned to wear the sanbenito for the remainder of their lives.

In the Auto of May 7 fourteen men and nine women were burnt.
Amongst the former was a Canon of Toledo who was accused of
horrible heresies, and who, writes Orozco, had confessed under
torture to abominable subversions of the words of the Mass. Instead
of the prescribed formula of the consecration, he had stated that he
was in the habit of uttering the absurd and almost meaningless
gibberish—“Sus Periquete, que mira la gente.”

On the following day there was held a supplementary Auto,

especially for the purpose of dealing with deceased and fugitive
heretics, conducted with a ceremony of an unusual and singularly
theatrical order, which is not so much typical—as are the other Autos
described—of what was taking place throughout Spain, as indicative
of a morbid inventiveness on the part of the Toledan inquisitors.

On the scaffold usually occupied by the accused a sepulchral

monument of wood had been erected and draped in black. As each
accused was cited by the notary, the familiars opened the monument
and drew out the effigy of the dead man dressed in the grave-
clothes peculiar to the Jews.

To this dummy of straw the detailed account of his crimes and the
sentence of the court whereby he was condemned as a heretic were
solemnly read out. When all the condemnations had thus been
proclaimed, the effigies were flung into a bonfire that had been
kindled in the square; and together with the effigies went the bones
of the deceased, which had been exhumed to that end.

After that the next Auto of importance was held on July 25, 1488,
when twenty men and seventeen women were sent to the stake,
with a supplementary Auto upon the morrow in which they burnt the
effigies of over a hundred dead and fugitive heretics.

And so it goes on, as recorded by the licentiate Sebastian Orozco,

and cited by Llorente143 and Fidel Fita.144 From now onwards the
burnings increase in number. Indeed, all edicts of grace having
expired, and no new ones being permissible, sentencing to the
flames—through the medium of the secular arm—and to perpetual
imprisonment becomes the chief business of the Inquisition in
Toledo and elsewhere.

The sanbenitos of the burnt were preserved in the churches of the

parishes where they had lived. They were hung in these churches as
banners won in battle are hung—trophies of victory over heresy.
 CHAPTER XVIII
TORQUEMADA AND THE JEWS

During that first year of the Inquisition’s establishment in Toledo,

twenty-seven persons there convicted of Judaizing were burnt and
3,300 were penanced. And what was taking place in Toledo was
taking place in every other important city in Spain.

Numerous now and vehement were the protests against the terrible
and excessive rigour of Torquemada. Already, upon the death of
Pope Sixtus IV, a vigorous attempt had been made by some
Spaniards of eminence to procure the deposition of the Prior of Holy
Cross from the office of Grand Inquisitor. It was argued that as his
appointment had been made by Sixtus, so it was automatically
determined by that Pope’s decease. But whatever hopes may have
been founded upon such an argument were very quickly overthrown.
Innocent VIII, as we have already seen, not only confirmed
Torquemada in his office, but considerably increased his powers and
the scope of his jurisdiction.

Indeed, not only was he given jurisdiction over all the Spains, but
Innocent’s bull of April 3, 1487, motu proprio, commanded all
Catholic princes that, upon being requested by the Grand Inquisitor
so to do, they should arrest any fugitives he might indicate and send
them captive to the Inquisition under pain of excommunication.145

Notwithstanding the threat by which it was backed, this command

from the Vatican appears to have been generally disregarded by the
Governments of Europe.146

That such a bull should have been solicited gives us yet another
glimpse of the terrible rancour against the Jews which fanaticism
had kindled in the soul of Torquemada. Had his aim been merely, as
expressed, to weed the tares of heresy from the Catholic soil of
Spain, the self-imposed exile of those wretched fugitives would fully
have satisfied him, and he would not have thought it necessary to
hound them out of such shelter as they had found abroad that he
might have the satisfaction of hurling them into the bonfire he had
kindled.

His position being so greatly strengthened by the wider and ampler

powers accorded to him by the new Pontiff, Torquemada gave a still
freer rein to the terrible severity of his nature, and thus occasioned
those frequent and very urgent appeals to the Vatican.

Many New-Christians who secretly practised Jewish rites, being

repelled from taking advantage of the edict of grace by the necessity
it imposed of undergoing the horrible verguenza already described,
applied now to the Pontiff for secret absolution. This required special
briefs. Special briefs brought money into the papal coffers, and
procured converts to the Faith. Two better reasons for granting these
requests it would have been impossible to have urged, and so the
Curia acceded.

But the result of this curial interference with the autonomous

jurisdiction of the Holy Office in Spain was to provoke the
resentment of Torquemada. Wrangles ensued between the Grand
Inquisitor and the Pontifical Court—wrangles which may be likened
to those of two lawyers over a wealthy client.

Torquemada arrogantly demanded that this Roman protection of

heretics should not only cease in future but be withdrawn where
already it had been granted in the past, and his demand had the full
support of Catholic Ferdinand, who did not at all relish the spectacle
of the gold of his subjects being poured into any treasury other than
his own. Rome, having meanwhile pocketed the fees, was disposed
to be amenable to the representations of the Catholic Sovereigns
and their Grand Inquisitor; and the Pope proceeded flagrantly to
cancel the briefs of dispensation that had been granted.

There was an outcry from the swindled victims. They protested

appealingly to the Pope that they had confessed their sins against
the Faith, and that absolution had been granted them. Very rightly
they urged that this absolution could not now be rescinded—for not
even the Pope had power to do so much—and they argued that,
being in a state of grace, they could not now be prosecuted for
heresy.

But they overlooked the retrospective power which—however

unjustifiable by canon or any other law—the Inquisition had
arrogated to itself. By virtue of this, as we have seen, the inquisitors
could take proceedings even against one who had died in a state of
grace, at peace with Holy Mother Church, if it were shown that an
offence of heresy committed at some stage of his life had not been
expiated in a manner that the Holy Office accounted condign.

These protests of the unfortunate Judaizers, who by their own action

had achieved—as they now realized—no more than self-betrayal,
were met by the priestly answer that their sins had been absolved in
the tribunal of conscience only, and that it still remained for them to
seek temporal absolution in the tribunal of the Holy Office. This
temporal absolution would accord them, as we know—and as they
knew—the right to live in perpetual imprisonment after the
confiscation of their property and the destitution and infamy of their
children.

The answer, crafty and sophistical as it was, did not suffice to silence
the protests. Clamorously these continued, and the Pope, unable to
turn a deaf ear upon them, fearful lest a scandal should ensue,
effected a sort of compromise. With the royal concurrence, Innocent
VIII issued several bulls, each commanding the Catholic Sovereigns
to admit fifty persons to secret absolution with immunity from
punishment. These secret absolutions were purchased at a high
price, and they were granted upon the condition that in the event of
the re-Judaizing of a person so absolved, he would be treated as
relapsed, the secret absolution being then published.

These absolutions were particularly useful in the case of persons

deceased, several of whom, at the petition of the heirs, were
included among the secretly reconciled—the inheritance being
thereby secured from confiscation.

Altogether Pope Innocent granted four of these bulls in 1486.147 In

the last one issued he left it at the discretion of the Sovereigns to
indicate those who should be admitted to this grace, and they were
permitted to include the names even of persons against whom
proceedings had already been initiated.

With what degree of equanimity Torquemada viewed these bulls of

absolution we do not know. But very soon we shall see him vexed by
papal interference of a fresh character.

Simoniacal practices were never more rampant in Rome than under

the rule of Innocent VIII. His greed was notorious and scandalous,
and a number of alert baptized Jews bethought them that this might
be turned to account. They slyly submitted to the Holy Father that
although they were good Catholics, such was the harshness of the
Grand Inquisitor towards men of their blood that they lived in
constant dread and anxiety lest the mere circumstance of their
having originally been Jews should be accounted a sufficient reason
to bring them under suspicion or should lay them open to the
machinations of malevolent enemies. Hence they implored his
Holiness to grant them the privilege of exclusion from inquisitorial
jurisdiction.

At a price this immunity was to be obtained; and soon others, seeing

the success that had attended the efforts of the originators of this
crafty idea, were following their example and setting a drag upon
the swift wheels of Torquemada’s justice.
That it stirred him to righteous anger is not to be doubted, however
subservient and injured the tone in which he addressed his protest
to the Pontiff.

Innocent replied by a brief of November 27, 1487, that whenever the

Grand Inquisitor found occasion to proceed against one so
privileged, he should inform the Apostolic Court of all that might
exist against the accused, so that his Holiness should determine
whether the privilege was to be respected.148

It follows inevitably that if there was heresy, or the suspicion of it,

the Pope must allow the justice of the Holy Office to run its course.
So that the Jews who had purchased immunity must have realized
that they were dealing with one who understood the science of
economics (and the guile to be practised in it) even better than did
they, famous as they have always been for clear-sightedness in such
matters.

Meanwhile, with the power that was vested in him, Torquemada was
amassing great wealth from the proportion of the confiscations that
fell to his share. But whatever his faults may have been, he was
perfectly consistent in them, just as he was perfectly, terribly
sincere.

Into the sin of pride he may have fallen. We see signs of it. And,
indeed, it is difficult to conceive of a man climbing from the
obscurity of the monastic cell to the fierce glare of his despotic
eminence and remaining humble at heart. Humble he did remain;
but with that aggressive humility which is one of pride’s worst forms
and akin to self-righteousness—the sin most dreaded by those who
strive after sanctity.

We know that he unswervingly followed the stern path of asceticism

prescribed by the founder of his order. He never ate meat; his bed
was a plank; his flesh never knew the contact of linen; his garments
were the white woollen habit and the black mantle of the Dominican.
Dignities he might have had, but he disdained them. Paramo says149
that Isabella sought to force them upon him, and that, in particular,
she would have procured his appointment to the Archbishopric of
Seville when this was vacated by the Cardinal of Spain. But he was
content to remain the Prior of Holy Cross of Segovia, as he had been
when he was haled from his convent to direct the affairs of the Holy
Office in Spain. The only outward pomp he permitted himself was
that whenever now he went abroad he was attended by an escort of
fifty mounted familiars and two hundred men on foot. This escort
Llorente admits150 was imposed by the Sovereigns. It is possible, as
is suggested, that it was to defend him from his enemies, since the
death of Arbués had shown to what lengths the New-Christians were
prepared to go. But it is more probable that this escort was accepted
as an outward sign of the dignity of his office, and perhaps also to
serve the terrorizing purpose which Torquemada considered so very
salutary.

That he practised the contempt for worldly riches which he preached

is beyond all doubt. We cannot discover that any of the wealth that
accrued to him was put to any worldly uses or went in any way to
benefit any member of his family. Indeed, we have already seen him
refusing suitably to dower his sister, allowing her no more than the
pittance necessary to enable her to enter a convent of the Tertiary
Order of St. Dominic.151

He employed the riches which his office brought him entirely to the
greater honour and glory of the religion which he served with such
terrible zeal. He spent it lavishly upon such works as the rebuilding
of the Dominican Convent of Segovia, together with the contiguous
church and offices. He built the principal church of his family’s native
town of Torquemada and half of the great bridge over the River
Pisuerga.152
Fidel Fita quotes an interesting letter of Torquemada’s, dated August
17, 1490, in which he thanks the gentry of Torquemada for having
sent him a sumpter-mule, but rather seems to rebuke the gift.

“To me,” he writes, “it was not, nor is necessary to send such things;
and it is certain that I should have sent back the gift but that it
might have offended you; for I, praised be our Lord, possess nine
sumpter-mules, which suffice me.”153

In sending the gift they had asked him for assistance towards the
work being carried out in the church of Santa Ollala, the contribution
he had already made not having proved sufficient. He replies
regretting that he can do nothing at the moment, as he is not with
the Court, but promises that upon his return thither he will do the
necessary with the Sovereigns so as to be able to send them the
further funds they require.154

As early as 1482 he began to build at Avila the church and

monastery of St. Thomas. This pleasant little country town, packed
within its narrow red walls and flanked with towers so that it
presents the appearance of a formidable castle, stands upon rising
ground in the fertile plain that is watered by the River Adaja.
Torquemada built his magnificent monastery beyond the walls, upon
the site of a humbler edifice that had been erected by the pious D.
Maria de Avila. It was completed by the year 1493, and what
moneys came to him thereafter appear to have gone to the
endowment of this vast convent—a place of handsome, spacious,
cloistered courts and splendid galleries—which became at once his
chief residence, tribunal, and prison.155

Again his fanatical hatred of the Israelites displays itself in the

condition he laid down—and whose endorsement he obtained from
Pope Alexander VI—that no descendant of Jew or Moor should ever
be admitted to these walls, upon which he engraved the legend:

PESTEM FUGAT HÆRETICAM.156

In this monastery the amplest provisions were made, not only for
the tribunal of the Inquisition, but also for the incarceration of its
prisoners.

Garcia Rodrigo, anxious to refute the widespread belief that the

prisons of the Inquisition were unhealthy subterranean dungeons,
draws attention to the airy, sunny chambers here set apart for
prisoners.157 It is true enough in this instance, as transpires from
certain records that are presently to be considered.158 But it is not
true in general, and it almost seems a little disingenuous of Garcia
Rodrigo to put forward a striking exception as an instance of the rule
that obtained.

Whatever the simplicity of Torquemada’s life, and whatever his

personal humility, it would be idle to pretend that he was not imbued
with the pride and arrogance of his office, swollen by the increase of
power accorded him, until in matters of the Faith he did not hesitate
to dictate to the Sovereigns themselves, and to reproach them
almost to the point of menace when they were slow to act as he
dictated, whilst it was dangerous for any under Sovereign rank to
come into conflict with the Grand Inquisitor.

As an instance of this, the case of the Captain-General of Valencia

may be cited. The Inquisition of Valencia had arrested, upon a
charge of hindering the Holy Office, one Domingo de Santa Cruz,
whose particular offence, in the Captain-General’s view, came rather
within the jurisdiction of the military courts. Acting upon this opinion,
he ordered his troops to take the accused from the prison of the
Holy Office, employing force to that end if necessary.

The inquisitors of Valencia complained of this action to the Suprema,

whereupon Torquemada imperiously ordered the Captain-General to
appear before that council and render an account of what he had
done. He was supported in this by the King, who wrote commanding
the offender and all who had aided him in procuring the release of
Santa Cruz to submit themselves to arrest by the officers of the
Inquisition.

Not daring to resist, that high dignitary was compelled humbly to

sue for absolution of the ecclesiastical censure incurred, and he must
have counted himself fortunate that Torquemada did not subject him
to a public humiliation akin to that undergone by the Infante of
Navarre.

The brilliant and illustrious young Italian, Giovanni Pico, Count of

Mirandola, had a near escape of falling into the hands of the dread
inquisitor. When Pico fled from Italy before the blaze of ecclesiastical
wrath which his writings had kindled, Pope Innocent issued a bull,
December 16, 1487, to Ferdinand and Isabella, setting forth that he
believed the Count of Mirandola had gone to Spain with the intention
of teaching in the universities of that country the evil doctrines
which he had already published in Rome, notwithstanding that,
having been convinced of their error, he had abjured them. (Another
case of the “e pur si muove” of Galileo.) And since Pico was noble,
gentle, and handsome, amiable and eloquent of speech
(Pseudopropheta est; dulcia loquitur et ad modicum placet), there
was great danger that an ear might be lent to his teachings.
Wherefore his Holiness begged the Sovereigns that in the event of
his suspicions concerning Pico’s intentions being verified, their
highnesses should arrest the Count, to the end that the fear of
corporal pains might deter him where the fear of spiritual ones had
proved insufficient.

The Sovereigns delivered this bull to Torquemada that he might act

upon it. But Pico, getting wind of the reception that awaited him,
and having sufficient knowledge of the Grand Inquisitor’s
uncompromising methods to be alarmed at the prospect, took refuge
in France, where he wrote the apologia of his Catholicism, which he
dedicated to Lorenzo de’ Medici.159
We have said, on the subject of the Inquisition’s introduction into
Spain, that to an extent and after a manner this must be considered
the most justifiable—by which we are to be taken to mean the least
unjustifiable—of religious persecutions, inasmuch as it had no
concern save with deserters from the fold of the Roman Church.
Liberty was accorded to all religions that were not looked upon as
heretical—i.e. that were not in themselves secessions from Roman
Catholicism—and Jew and Moslem had nothing to fear from the Holy
Office. It was only when, after having received baptism, they
reverted to their original cults, that they rendered themselves liable
to prosecution, being then looked upon as heretics, or, more
properly speaking, as apostates.

But this point of view, which satisfied the Roman See, did not at all
satisfy the Prior of Holy Cross. His bitter, fanatical hatred of the
Israelites—almost rivalling that of the Dean of Ecija in the fourteenth
century—urged him to violate this poor remnant of equity, drove him
to overstep the last boundary of apparent justice, and carry the
religious war into the region of complete and terrible intolerance.

The reason he advanced was that as long as the Jews remained

undisturbed in the Peninsula, so long would a united Christian Spain
be impossible. Despite penances, imprisonments, and burnings, the
Judaizing movement went on. New-Christians were seduced back
into the error of the Mosaic Law, whilst conversion amongst the
Jews was checked by respect for the feelings of those who remained
true to their ancient faith. Nor did the Hebrew offences against
Christianity end there. There were the indignities to which holy
things were subjected at their hands. There were criminal sacrileges
in which—according to Torquemada—they vented their hatred of the
Holy Christian Faith.

Such, for instance, was the outrage upon the crucifix at Casar de
Palomero in 1488.
On Holy Thursday of that year, in this village of the diocese of Coria,
several Jews, instead of being at home with closed doors at such a
season, as the Christian law demanded, were making merry in an
orchard, to the great scandal of a man named Juan Caletrido, who
there detected them.

The spy, moved to horror at the mere thought of these descendants

of the crucifiers daring to be at play upon such a day as that, went
to inform several others of what he had witnessed. A party of young
Spaniards, but too ready to combine the performance of a
meritorious act with the time-honoured sport of Jew-baiting, invaded
the privacy of the orchard, set upon the Jews, and compelled them
to withdraw into their houses.

Smarting under this indignity—for, when all is said, they had been
more or less private in their orchard, and they had intended no
offence by their slight evasion of the strict letter of the law—they
related the event to other members of the synagogue, including the
Rabbi.

From what ensued it seems plain that they must there and then
have determined to avenge the honour of their race, which they
conceived had been affronted.

Llorente, basing himself upon the chronicler Velasquez and the

scurrilous anti-Jewish writings of Torrejoncillo, supposes that their
aim was to repeat as nearly as possible the Passion of the Nazarene
upon one of His Images. That, indeed, may have been the
prejudiced view of the Grand Inquisitor.

But it is far more likely that, to spite these Christians who had added
this insult to the constant humiliations they were putting upon the
Israelites, the latter should simply have resolved to smash one of the
public symbols of Christianity. The details of what took place do not
justify the supposition that their intentions went any deeper.
On the morrow, which was Good Friday, the circumstance of the day
contributing perhaps to the more popular version of the story, whilst
the Christians were in church for the service of the Passion, a party
of Jews repaired to an open space known as Puerto del Gamo,
where stood a large wooden crucifix. This image they shattered and
overthrew.

It is alleged that before finally breaking it they had indulged in

elaborate insult, “doing and saying all that their rage dictated
against the Nazarene.”

An Old-Christian, named Hernan Bravo, having watched them, ran to

bear the tale of their sacrilegious deed. The Christians poured
tumultuously out of church, and fell upon the Jews. Three of the
latter were stoned to death on the spot; two others, one of whom
was a lad of thirteen, suffered each the loss of his right hand; whilst
the Rabbi Juan, being taken as an inciter, was put to the question
with a view to inducing him to confess. But he denied so stoutly the
things he was required to admit, and the inquisitors tortured so
determinedly, that he died upon the rack—an irregularity this for
which each inquisitor responsible would have to seek absolution at
the hands of the other.

All those who took part in the sacrilege suffered confiscation of their
property, whilst the pieces of the crucifix, which had become
peculiarly sanctified by the affair, were gathered up and conveyed to
the Church of Casar, where, upon being repaired, the image was
given the place of honour.160

It is extremely likely that the story of this outrage, exaggerated as

we have seen, would be one of the arguments employed by
Torquemada when first he began to urge upon the attention of the
Sovereigns the desirability of the expulsion of the Jews. He would
cite it as a flagrant instance of the Jewish hatred of Christianity,
which gave rise to his complaint and which he contended rendered a
united Spain impossible as long as this accursed race continued to
defile the land. Further, there can be very little doubt that it would
serve to revive and to lend colour to the old stories of ritual murder
practised by the Jews and provided for by one of the enactments in
the “Partidas” code of Alfonso XI.

The reluctance of the Sovereigns to lend an ear to any such

arguments is abundantly apparent. Not Ferdinand in all his bigotry
could be blind to the fact that the chief trades of the country were in
the hands of the Israelites, and to the inevitable loss to Spanish
commerce, then so flourishing, which must ensue on their
banishment. Of their ability in matters of finance he had practical
and beneficial experience, and the admirable equipment of his army
in the present campaign against the Moors of Granada was entirely
due to the arrangements he had made with Jewish contractors.
Moreover, there was this war itself to engage the attention of the
Sovereigns, and so it was not possible to lend at the moment more
than an indifferent attention to the fierce pleadings of the Grand
Inquisitor.

Suddenly, however, in 1490 an event came to light, to throw into

extraordinary prominence the practice of ritual murder of which the
Jews were suspected, and to confirm and intensify the general belief
in the stories that were current upon that subject. This was the
crucifixion at La Guardia, in the province of La Mancha, of a boy of
four years of age, known to history as “the Holy Child of La Guardia.”

A stronger argument than this afforded him for the furtherance of

his aims Torquemada could not have desired. And it is probably this
circumstance that has led so many writers to advance the opinion
that he fabricated the whole story and engineered the substantiation
of a charge that so very opportunely placed an added weapon in his
hands.

Until some thirty years ago all our knowledge of the affair was
derived from the rather vague “Testimonio” preserved in the
sanctuary of the martyred child, and a little history of the “Santo
Niño,” by Martinez Moreno, published in Madrid in 1786. This last—
like Lope da Vega’s drama upon the same subject—was based upon
a “Memoria” prepared by Damiano de Vegas of La Guardia in 1544,
at a time when people were still living who remembered the
incident, including the brother of a sacristan who was implicated in
the affair.161

Martinez Moreno’s narrative is a queer jumble of possible fact and

obvious fiction, which in itself may be responsible for the opinion
that the whole story was an invention of Torquemada’s to forward
his own designs.

But in 1887 the distinguished and painstaking M. Fidel Fita published

in the “Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia” the full record,
which he had unearthed, of the proceedings against Yucé (or José)
Franco, one of the incriminated Jews.

A good deal still remains unexplained, and must so remain until the
records of the trials of the other accused are brought to light. It may
perhaps be well to suspend a final judgment until then. Meanwhile,
however, a survey of the discovered record should incline us to the
opinion that, if the story is an invention, it is one for which those
who were accused of the crime are responsible—an unlikely
contingency, as we shall hope to show—and in no case can the
inventor have been Frey Tomás de Torquemada.
 CHAPTER XIX
THE LEGEND OF THE SANTO NIÑO

The extravagant story related by Martinez Moreno, the parish priest

of La Guardia, in his little book on the Santo Niño, is derived, as we
have said, partly from the “Testimonio” and partly from the
“Memoria” by de Vegas; further, it embodies all those legendary,
supernatural details with which the popular imagination had
embellished the theme.

Either it is one of those deliberate frauds known as “pious,” or else it

is the production of an intensely foolish mind. When we consider
that the author was a doctor of divinity and an inquisitor himself, we
prefer to incline to the former alternative.

This mixture of fact and fiction sets forth how a party of Jews from
the townships of Quintana, Tenbleque, and La Guardia, having
witnessed an Auto de Fé in Toledo, were so filled with rage and fury,
not only against the Holy Tribunal, but against all Christians in
general, that they conspired together to encompass a complete
annihilation of the Faithful.

Amongst them was one Benito Garcia, a wool-comber of Las

Mesuras, who was something of a traveller, and who had learnt upon
his travels of a piece of sorcery attempted in France for the
destruction of the Christians, which had miscarried owing to a
deception practised upon the sorcerers.

The story is worth repeating for the sake of the light it throws upon
the credulity of the simple folk of Spain in such matters, a credulity
which in remote districts of the peninsula is almost as vigorous to-
day as it was in Moreno’s century.
The warlocks, in that earlier instance of which Benito had
knowledge, were alleged to be a party of Jews who had fled from
Spain on the first institution of the Inquisition in Seville in 1482.
They had repaired to France bent upon the destruction of all
Christians, to the end that the Children of Israel might become lords
of the land, and that the Law of Moses might prevail. For the sorcery
to which they proposed to resort they required a consecrated wafer
and the heart of a Christian child. These were to be reduced to
ashes to the accompaniment of certain incantations, and scattered in
the rivers of the country, with the result that all Christians who drank
the waters must go mad and die.

Having obtained the wafer, they now approached an impoverished

Christian with a large family, and tempted him with money to sell
them the heart of one of his numerous children. The Christian, of
course, repudiated the monstrous proposal. But his wife, who
combined cunning with cupidity, drove with the Jews the bargain to
which her husband refused to be a party, and having killed a pig she
sold them the heart of the animal under obviously false pretences.

As a consequence, the enchantment which the deluded Jews

proceeded to carry out had no such effect as was desired and
expected.

Armed with his full knowledge of what had happened, Benito now
proposed to his friends that they should have recourse to the same
enchantment in Spain, making sure, however, that the heart
employed was that of a Christian boy. He promised them that by this
means, not only the inquisitors, but all the Christians would be
destroyed, and the Israelites would remain undisputed lords of
Spain.
 + EXURGE DOMINE ET JUDICA CAUSAM TUAM. PSALM
73.

Photo by Donald Macbeth.

BANNER OF THE INQUISITION.
From Limborch’s “Historia Inquisitionis.”

Amongst those who joined him in the plot was a man named Juan
Franco, of a family of carriers of La Guardia. This man went with
Benito to Toledo on the Feast of the Assumption, intent upon finding
a child for their purpose. They drove there in a cart, which they left
outside the city while they went separately about their quest.
Franco found what he sought in one of the doorways of the
Cathedral, known as the Puerta del Perdon—the door, adds Moreno,
through which the Virgin entered the church when she came from
heaven to honour with the chasuble her votary St. Ildefonso. The
Jew beheld in this doorway a very beautiful child of three or four
years of age, the son of Alonso de Pasamontes. His mother was near
at hand, but she was conveniently blind—i.e. conveniently for the
development of Moreno’s story, this blindness serving not only the
purpose of rendering the child’s undetected abduction easily
possible, but also that of affording the martyred infant scope for the
first miraculous manifestation of his sanctity.

Juan Franco lured the boy away with the offer of sweetmeats. He
regained his cart with his victim, concealed the latter therein, and so
returned to La Guardia. There he kept the child closely and safely
until Passion Week of the following year, or, rather, until the season
of the Passover, when the eleven Jews—six of whom had received
Christian baptism—assembled in La Guardia. They took the child by
night to a cave in the hills above the river, and there they compelled
him to play the protagonist part in a detailed parody of the Passion,
scourging him, crowning him with thorns, and finally nailing him to a
cross.

On the subject of the scourging, Moreno tells us that the Jews

carefully counted the number of lashes, aiming in this, as in all other
details, at the greatest historical fidelity. But when the child had
borne without murmuring upwards of five thousand strokes, he
suddenly began to cry. One of the Jews—finding, we are to suppose,
that this weeping required explanation—asked him: “Boy, why are
you crying?”

To this the boy replied that he was crying because he had received
five lashes more than his Divine Master.

“So that,” says this doctor of divinity quite soberly, “if the lashes
received by Christ numbered 5,495, as computed by Lodulfo
Cartujano in his ‘In Vita Christi,’ those received by the Holy Child
Christoval were 5,500.”162

He mentions here the child’s name as “Christoval,” to which he

informs us that it was changed from “Juan,” to the end that the
former might more aptly express the manner of his death. There is
no doubt that some such consideration weighed when the child was
given that suggestive name; but the real reason for it was that no
name was known (for the identity of the boy did not transpire), and
it was necessary to supply him with one by which he might be
worshipped.

When he was crucified, his side was opened by one of the Jews,
who began to rummage163 for the child’s heart. He failed to find it,
and he was suddenly checked by the child’s question—“What do you
seek, Jew? If you seek my heart, you are in error to seek it on that
side; seek on the other, and you will find it.”

In the very moment of his death, Moreno tells us, the Santo Niño
performed his first miracle. His mother, who had been blind from
birth, received the gift of sight in the instant that her child
expired.164

This interpolation appears to be entirely Moreno’s own, and it is one

of the justifications of our assumption that the work is to be placed
in the category of pious frauds. But he is, of course, mistaken, by his
own narrative, in announcing this as the first of the child’s miracles.
He overlooks the miracle entailed in the capacity to count displayed
by a boy of four years of age, and the further miracle of the speech
addressed by the crucified infant to the Jew who had opened his
side.

Benito Garcia was given the heart, together with a consecrated

wafer which had been stolen by the sacristan of the Church of Sta.
Maria de La Guardia, and with these he departed to seek out the
mage who was to perform the enchantment. It happened, however,
that in passing through Astorga, Benito—who was himself a
converso—pretending that he was a faithful Catholic, repaired to
church, and, kneeling there, the more thoroughly to perform this
comedy of devoutness, he pulled out a Prayer Book, between the
leaves of which the consecrated wafer had been secreted.

A good Christian kneeling some little way behind him was startled to
see a resplendent effluence of light from the book. Naturally he
concluded that he was in the presence of a miracle, and that this
stranger was some very holy man. Filled with reverent interest, he
followed the Jew to the inn where he was lodged, and then went
straight to the father inquisitors to inform them of the portent he
had witnessed, that they might investigate it.

The inquisitors sent their familiars to find the man, and at sight of
them Benito fell into terror, “so that his very face manifested how
great was his crime.” He was at once arrested, and taken before the
inquisitors for examination. There he immediately confessed the
whole affair.

Upon being desired to surrender the heart, he produced the box in

which it had been placed, but upon opening the cloth that had been
wrapped round it, the heart was discovered to have miraculously
vanished.

Yet another miracle mentioned by Moreno is that when the

inquisitors opened the grave where it was said that the infant had
been buried, they found the place empty, and the Doctor considers
that since the child had suffered all the bitterness of the Saviour’s
Passion, it was God’s will that he should also know the glories of the
Resurrection, and that his body had been assoomed into heaven.

The “Testimonio” from the archives of the parochial church of La

Guardia, printed on tablets preserved in the Sanctuary of the Santo
Niño, is quoted by Moreno,165 and runs as follows:

“We, Pedro de Tapia, Alonso Doriga and Matheo Vazquez, secretaries

of the Council of the Holy and General Inquisition, witness to all who
may see this that by certain proceedings taken by the Holy Office in
the year 1491, the Most Reverend Frey Tomás de Torquemada being
Inquisitor-General in the Kingdoms of Spain, and the inquisitors and
judges by him deputed in the City of Avila being the Very Reverend
Dr. D. Pedro de Villada, Abbot of San Marcial and San Millan in the
Churches of Leon and Burgos, the Licentiate Juan Lopez de Cigales,
Canon of the Church of Cuenca, and Frey Fernando de Santo
Domingo of the Order of Preachers, inquisitors as is said against
heretical pravity, and with power and special commission from the
Very Reverend D. Pedro Gonzalez de Mendoza, Cardinal of Santa
Cruz, Archbishop of Toledo, Primate of Spain, Grand Chancellor of
Castile, and Bishop of Siguenza.

“It transpires that the said inquisitors proceeding against certain

Jews and some New-Christians converted from Jews, of the
neighbourhood of La Guardia, Quintanar, and Tenbleque, ascertained
that amongst other crimes by these committed was that: one of the
said Jews and one of the newly-converted being in Toledo and
witnessing a burning that was being done by the Holy Office in that
city, they were cast down by this execution of justice. The Jew said
to the convert that he feared the great harm that might come and
did come to them from the Holy Inquisition, and having treated of
various matters germane to this subject, the Jew said that if they
could obtain the heart of a Christian boy all could be remedied. And
so, after his wide practice in this matter, the Jew from the
neighbourhood of Quintanar undertook to procure a Christian boy for
the said purpose.

“And it was agreed that the said New-Christian should go to

Quintanar as soon as bidden by the Jew; and upon this
understanding each of the aforesaid left the City of Toledo and
returned to his own district.
“A few days later the said Jew summoned the New-Christian to come
to him in the village of Tenbleque, where he awaited him in his
father’s house. There they foregathered, and agreed upon a day
when they should meet at Quintanar, whither the New-Christian now
returned, and informed, as he had agreed, a brother of his own,
who like himself was also a New-Christian, and he related fully all
that had been arranged, his brother being of the same mind.

“The better to execute their accursed project, they arranged a place

to which the child should be brought, and what was to be done—
that this should be in a cave near La Guardia, on the road to Ocaña,
on the right-hand side. And thus to execute the matter, the said
New-Christian went to Quintanar on the day arranged together with
the said Jew.

“The better to dissemble, he went to a tavern, where presently he

was able to communicate with the Jew, and as a result of what
passed between them, the New-Christian went out to await him on
the road to Villa Palomas in a ravine, where presently he was joined
by the said Jew on an ass with the child before him—of the age of
three or four years.

“They went on together, and arrived after nightfall at the said cave,
whither came, as was arranged, the brother of the New-Christian,
and with him other newly-converted Jews, with whom it appears
that the aforesaid matter had been treated.

“Being all assembled in the cave, they lighted a candle of yellow

wax, and so that the light should not be seen they hung a cloak over
the mouth of the cave. They seized the boy, whom the said Jew had
taken from the Puerta del Perdon in Toledo—which boy was named
Juan, son of Alonso Pasamontes and of Juana La Guindera. The said
New-Christians now made a cross out of the timbers of a ladder
which had been brought from a mill. They threw a rope round the
boy’s neck and they set him on the cross, and with another rope
they tied his legs and arms, and they nailed his feet and hands to
the cross with nails.

“Being thus placed (puesto), one of the New-Christians from the

neighbourhood of La Guardia bled the child, opening the veins of his
arms with a knife, and he caught the blood that flowed in a
cauldron; and with a rope in which they had tied knots some
whipped him, whilst others set a crown of thorns upon his head.
They struck him, spat upon him, and used opprobrious words to
him, pretending that what they were saying to the said child was
addressed to the Person of Christ. And whilst they whipped him,
they said: ‘Betrayer, trickster, who, when you preached, preached
falsehood against the Law of God and Moses; now you shall pay
here for what you said then. You thought to destroy us and to exalt
yourself. But we shall destroy you.’ And further: ‘Crucify this betrayer
who once announced himself King, who was to destroy our
temple....’ etc. etc.166

“After the ill-treatment and vituperation, one of the New-Christians

from La Guardia opened the left side of the child with a knife and
drew out his heart, upon which he threw some salt; and so the child
expired upon the cross. All of which was done in mockery of the
Passion of Christ; and some of the New-Christians took the body of
the child and buried it in a vineyard near Sta. Maria de Pera.

“A few days later the said Jew and New-Christians met again in the
cave and attempted certain enchantments and conjurations with the
heart of the child and a consecrated Host obtained through a
sacristan who was a New-Christian. This conjuration and experiment
they performed with the intention that the inquisitors of heretical
pravity and all other Christians should enrage and die raging
(rabiendo), and the Law of Jesus Christ our Redeemer should be
entirely destroyed and superseded by the Law of Moses.

“When they saw that the said experiment did not operate nor had
the result they hoped, they assembled again elsewhere, and having
treated of all that they desired to effect, by common consent one of
them was sent with the heart of the said child and the consecrated
Host to the Aljama of Zamora, which they accounted the principal
Aljama in Castile, to the end that certain Jews there, known to be
wise men, should with the said heart and Host perform the said
experiment and sorcery that the Christians might enrage and die,
and thus accomplish what they so ardently desired.

“And for the greater ascertaining of the crime and demonstration of

the truth, the said inquisitors having arrested some of the said
offenders, New-Christians and Jews, they set the accused face to
face, so that in the confession of their crimes there was conformity,
and these confessions consisted of what has been here set down. In
addition other further steps were taken to verify the places where
the crimes were committed and the place where the child was
buried; and they took one of the principal accused to the place
where the child was buried, and there they found signs and
demonstration of the truth of all.167 Some of the said accused, and
some already deceased, being prosecuted, they were sentenced and
abandoned to the secular arm, all that we have set down being in
accordance with the records of the proceedings to which we refer.

“The said ‘Testimonio’ written upon three sheets bearing our rubrics,
we the said secretaries deliver by request of the Procurator-General
of the village of La Guardia, by order of the Very Illustrious Señores
of His Majesty’s Council of the Holy Inquisition in the City of Madrid
in the Diocese of Toledo, on the 19th day of September of the year
of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1569.

“Alonso de Doriga = Nec auro frangenda fides.

Matheo Vazquez = In cujus fide fœdera consistunt.
Pedro de Tapia.”
This “Testimonio” does not afford us the name of any one of the
offenders—presumably that the holy place in which the tablets were
exposed should not be desecrated. When it is compared with the
account left by Moreno and the discrepancies between the two
become apparent, when, further, the extravagances of Moreno’s
story are considered, it is not surprising that the conclusion should
have been reached that the whole affair was trumped up to forward
that campaign against the Jews to which Torquemada was
employing his enormous energies.

But the records of the trial of Yucé Franco discovered by Fidel Fita
throw a very different light upon the matter. And whilst we know
that Torquemada did avail himself to the utmost of this affair of the
Santo Niño to encompass the banishment of the Jews from Spain,
we must consider all notion that he himself simply invented the story
to that end as completely dispelled by the evidence that is now to be
examined.

From the records of the trial of Yucé Franco we are to-day not only
able very largely to reconstruct the event, but also to present a
complete instance of the application of the jurisprudence of the
Inquisition. Indeed, had the archives of the Holy Office been
ransacked for an entirely typical prosecution, embodying all the
features peculiar to that terrible court, no better instance than this
could have been forthcoming.
 CHAPTER XX
THE ARREST OF YUCÉ FRANCO

In May or June of 1490—the time of year being approximately

determined by the events that follow—a baptized Jew of Las
Mesuras named Benito Garcia put up at an inn in the northern
village of Astorga. He was an elderly man of some sixty years of age,
a wool-comber by trade and a considerable traveller in the course of
his trading.

In the common-room of the tavern where he sat at table were

several men of Astorga, who, either in a drunken frolic or because
they were thieves, went through the contents of his knapsack, and
discovered in it some herbs and a communion wafer, which they at
once assumed to be consecrated (and which it was grossest
sacrilege for a layman so much as to touch).

Uproar followed the announcement of the discovery. With cries of

“Sacrilege!” these thieving drunkards fell upon the Jew. They beat
him. They flung a rope about his neck, dragged him from the inn
and haled him into the presence of the Provisor of Astorga, Dr. Pedro
de Villada. The reverend doctor discharged there the functions of an
agent of the Holy Office. He was fully experienced in inquisitorial
affairs, and he was upon the eve of being promoted to the dignity of
inquisitor in the court of Avila.

Villada received the wafer, heard the accusation, and took a short
way with Benito when the latter refused to explain himself. He
ordered him two hundred lashes, and finding the man still obdurate
after this punishment, he submitted him to the water-torture. Under
this the wretched fellow at last betrayed himself. Of precisely what
he said we have no record taken at the time; but we have his own
word for it—as reported afterwards by Yucé Franco to whom he
uttered it—that “he had said more than he knew, and enough to
burn him.”168

Having, as is clear, obtained from him an admission of his own guilt,

Villada now proceeded, as prescribed by the “Directorium,” to induce
him to incriminate others. We know the methods usually employed;
from these and from what follows it is quite reasonable to assume
that recourse was had to them now.

Following Eymeric’s instructions, Villada would, no doubt, admonish

him with extreme kindness, professing to cast no blame upon Benito
himself but rather upon those evil ones who had seduced him into
error, and he would exhort the prisoner to save himself by showing a
true penitence, pointing out that the only proof of his penitence he
could advance would be a frank and free delation of those who had
led him so grievously astray.

From the occasional glimpses of this Benito Garcia vouchsafed us in

the records of the trial of Yucé Franco, we perceive a rather reckless
personality, of a certain grim, sardonic humour, gleams of which
actually pierce through the dehumanization of the legal documents
to ensnare our sympathy.

He is imbued with contempt for these Christians whose religion he

embraced forty years ago, in what he accounts a weak moment of
his youth, and from which he secretly seceded again some five years
before his arrest. He is weighed down by remorse for having been
false to the Jewish faith in which he was born; he believes himself
overtaken by the curse which his father launched upon him when he
took that apostatizing step; he is out of all conceit with Christianity;
since seeing the bonfires of the Faith he has come to the conclusion
that as a religion it is an utter failure; it has been his habit to sneer
at Jews who were inclining to Christianity.
“Get yourselves baptized,” was the gibe he flung at them, “and go
and see how they burn the New-Christians.”169

In the prison of Avila—when he gets there—his one professed aim is

to die in the faith of his fathers.

But it would seem that when first taken in the toils of the Inquisition,
and having experienced in his own person the horrors of its
methods, he realizes the sweetness of life, and eagerly avails himself
of the false loophole so alluringly exposed by the reverend doctor.

In his examination of June 6 he betrays to Villada the course of his

re-Judaizing. He relates that five years ago, whilst in talk with one
Juan de Ocaña, a converso whom he believes to be a Jew at heart
under an exterior of Christianity, the latter had urged him to return
to the Jewish faith, saying that Christ and the Virgin were myths,
and that there is no true law but that of Moses. Lending an ear to
these persuasions, Benito had done many Jewish things, such as not
going to church (although he whipped his children when they stayed
away, lest their absence should betray his own apostasy) nor
observing holy-days, eating meat on Fridays and fast-days at the
house of Mosé Franco and Yucé Franco—Jews of the neighbourhood
of Tenbleque—and wherever else he could eat it without being
detected. Indeed, for the past five years, he admits, he has been a
Jew at heart, and if during that time he did not more completely
observe Jewish rites and practices, it was because he dared not for
fear of being discovered; whilst all the Christian acts he had
performed had been merely a simulation, that he might appear to be
a Christian still. The confessions he had made to the priest of La
Guardia had been false ones, and he had never gone to Communion
—“believing that the Corpus Christi was all a farce (creyendo que
todo era burla el Corpus Christi).” He even added that whenever he
saw the Viaticum carried through the streets, it was his habit to spit
and to make higas (a gesture of contempt).170
In these last particulars his confession is of an extreme frankness,
and we can only suppose that he is merely repeating what the
torture had already extracted from him. Completely to elucidate the
matter as it concerns Benito Garcia, we should require to be in
possession of the full records of his own trial (which have not yet
been discovered), whereas at present we have to depend upon odd
documents from that dossier which are introduced in Yucé Franco’s
as relating to the latter.

Questioned more closely concerning these Jews he has mentioned—

Mosé and Yucé Franco—Benito states that they lived with their
father, Ça Franco, at Tenbleque, that he was in the habit of visiting
them upon matters of business, and that he had frequently eaten
meat at their house on Fridays and Saturdays and other forbidden
days, and had often given them money to purchase oil for the
synagogue lamps.

We know that, as a consequence of these confessions, Ça Franco, an

old man of eighty years of age, and his son Yucé, a lad of twenty
who was a cobbler by trade, were arrested on July 1, 1489, for
proselytizing practices—i.e. for having induced Benito Garcia to
abandon the Christian faith to which he had been converted.

Ça’s other son, Mosé, was either dead at the time or else he died
very shortly after arrest and before being brought to trial.

Juan de Ocaña, too, was arrested upon the same grounds.

They were taken to Segovia, and thrown into the prison of the Holy
Office in that city. In this prison Yucé Franco fell so seriously ill that
he believed himself at the point of death.

A physician named Antonio de Avila, who spoke either Hebrew or the

jargon of Hebrew and Romance that was current among the Jews of
the Peninsula, went to attend to the sick youth. Yucé implored this
doctor to beseech the inquisitors to send a Jew to pray with him and