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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
known to the w 6 rld , exhibit the usual harrowing features which attend the march of religfous persecution . From these tragedies it is difficult to select one deeper in atrocity than another ; but perhaps that of Herezuelo , an advocate of Toro , is most hideously marked . " Herezuelo ' conducted himself with surpassing intrepidity . From the
moment of his apprehension to that of his death , he never exhibited the least symptom of a wish to save his life , or to mitigate bis suffering ' s , by compromising his principles . His courage remained unshaken amidst the horrors of the torture , the ignominy of the public spectacle , and the terrors of the stake . The only thing that moved him , on the day of the auto-de-fe , was the sight of his wife in the garb of a penitent ; and the look which he gave , ( for he could not speak ) as he passed her to the place of execution , seemed to say , ' This is hard to bear I * He listened without emotion to the friars who teazed him
with their importunate exhortations to repent , as they conducted him to the stake ; but when , at their instigation , bis former associate and instructor , Doctor Cazalla , began to address him in tbe same strain , be threw upon him a glance of disdain , which froze the words on bis recreant lips . * The bachelor Herezuelo ( says the popish author of the Pontifical History ) suffered himself to be burnt alive with unparalleled hardihood . I stood so near him that I had a complete view of bis person , and observed all his motions and gestures . He could not speak , for his mouth was gagged on account of the blasphemies which be had uttered ; but his whole behaviour shewed him to
be a most resolute and hardened person , who , rather than yield to believe with his companions , was determined to die in the flames . Though I marked him narrowly , I could not observe the least symptom of fear , or expression of pain ; only , there was a sadness in his countenance beyond any thing I haa ever seen . It was frightful to look in bis face , when one considered that in a moment he would be in hell with his associate and master , Lutlier . ' Enraged to see such courage in a heretic , one of the guards plunged his lance into the body of Herezuelo , whose blood was licked up by tbe flames with which he was already enveloped .
" Herezuelo and bis wife , Leanor de Cisneros , were divided in their death , but it was in the time of it only , not the kind or manner ; and their memory must not be divided in our pages . Leanor was only twenty-two years of age when she was thrown into the Inquisition ; and when we consider that , during her imprisonment , she was precluded from all intercourse with her husband , kept in ignorance of bis resolutions , and perhaps deceived into the belief thaX she would find him among the class of penitents in the auto , we need
not wonder that one of her tender sex and age should have fainted in the day of trial , suffered herself to be overcome by the persuasions of tbe monks , or , yielding to tbe feelings of nature , consented to renounce with the hand that truth which she continued to believe with tbe heart . Such assaults have shaken , and threatened to throw to the ground , pillars in the church- But Leanor was not long in recovering from the shock . The parting look of her husband never departed from her eyes ; the reflection that she bad inflicted a
pang on bis heart , during tbe arduous conflict which be had to maintain , fanned the flame of attachment to the reformed religion which secretly burned in her breast ; and having resolved , in dependence on that strength which is made perfect in weakness , to emulate tbe example of constancy set by one in every respect so dear to her , she resolutely broke off the course of penance oo which she bad entered . Tbe consequence of this was , that she was again thrown into tbe secret prisons . During eight years that she was kept in confinement , every effort was made in vain to induce her to renew her
recantation . At last she was brought out in a public auto-de-fe celebrated at Valladolid ; and we have the account of her behaviour from the same pen which so graphically described that of her husband . * In the year 1568 , on tbe 26 th
Untitled Article
114 Rtformalwn ' in Spain .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1830, page 114, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2581/page/42/
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