ubt existed of his
sincerity; thus placing the life as well as fortune of the unhappy
prisoner entirely at the mercy of judges who had an obvious interest in
finding him guilty. In this way the pope and the king continued to play
into each other's hands, and while his holiness artfully spread the
toils, the king devised the means for driving the quarry into them.[436]

Fortunately for these plans, the Inquisition was at this time under the
direction of a man peculiarly fitted to execute them. This was Fernando
Valdes, cardinal-archbishop of Seville, a person of a hard, inexorable
nature, and possessed of as large a measure of fanaticism as ever fell
to a grand-inquisitor since the days of Torquemada. Valdes readily
availed himself of the terrible machinery placed under his control.
Careful not to alarm the suspected parties, his approaches were slow and
stealthy. He was the chief of a tribunal which sat in darkness, and
which dealt by invisible agents. He worked long and silently under
ground before firing the mine which was to bury his enemies in a general
ruin.

[Sidenote: SUPPRESSION OF THE REFORM.]

His spies were everywhere abroad, mingling with the suspected, and
insinuating themselves into their confidence. At length, by the
treachery of some, and by working on the nervous apprehensions or the
religions scruples of others, he succeeded in detecting the
lurking-places of the new heresy, and the extent of ground which it
covered. This was much larger than had been imagined, although the
Reformation in Spain seemed less formidable from the number of its
proselytes than from their character and position. Many of them were
ecclesiastics, especially intrusted with maintaining the purity of the
faith. The quarters in which the heretical doctrines most prevailed were
Aragon, which held an easy communication with the Huguenots of France,
and the ancient cities of Seville and Valladolid, indebted less to any
local advantages than to the influence of a few eminent men, who had
early embraced the faith of the Reformers.

At length, the preliminary information having been obtained, the
proscribed having been marked out, the plan of attack settled, an order
was given for the simultaneous arrest of all persons suspected of
heresy, throughout the kingdom. It fell like a thunderbolt on the
unhappy victims, who had gone on with their secret associations, little
suspecting the ruin that hung over them. No resistance was attempt