eserve the Catholic {76} faith in all its
purity. He renewed the edict or "placard" against heresy which had
been first issued in 1550. This provided for the punishment of anyone
who should "print, write, copy, keep, conceal, sell, buy, or give in
churches, streets, or other places" any book of the Reformers, anyone
who should hold conventicles, or anyone who should converse or dispute
concerning the Holy Scriptures, to say nothing of those venturing to
entertain the opinions of heretics. The men were to be executed with
the sword and the women buried alive, if they should persist in their
errors. If they were firm in holding to their beliefs, such deaths
were held too merciful. Execution by fire was a punishment that was
universal in the days of the Spanish Inquisition.

[Illustration: Philip II present at an Auto-da-Fe. (D. Valdivieso)]

Philip watched the burning of his heretic subjects with apparent
satisfaction. The first ceremony that greeted him on his return to
Spain was an _Auto da fe_, or Act of Faith, in which many victims were
led to the stake. The scene was the great square of Valladolid in
front of the Church of Saint Francis, and the hour of six was the
signal for the bells to toll which brought forth that dismal train from
the fortress of the Inquisition. Troops marched before the hapless men
and women, who were clad in the hideous garb known as the San Benito--a
loose sack of yellow cloth which was embroidered with figures of flames
and devils feeding on them, in token of the destiny that would attend
the heretics, soul and body. A pasteboard cap bore similar devices,
and added grotesque pathos to the suffering faces of the martyrs.
Judges and magistrates followed them, and nobles of the land were there
on horseback, while members of the dread tribunal came after these,
bearing aloft the arms of the Inquisition.

Philip occupied a seat upon the platform erected {77} opposite to the
scaffold. It was his duty to draw his sword from the scabbard and to
repeat an oath that he would maintain the purity of the Catholic faith
before he witnessed the execution of "the enemies of God," as he
thought all those who laid down their lives for the sake of heretical
scruples.

A few who recanted were pardoned, but for the majority recantation only
meant long imprisonment in cells where many hearts broke after years of
solitude. The property of the accused was confiscated in any case; and
this rule was