Holy Child of La Guardia - Judicial Process

Judicial Process

Until 1887 the story was only known through the legend, but in that year, the Spanish historian, Fidel Fita, published an account of the trial of Yucef Franco, one of the accused, in the Boletin de la Real Academia de la Historia, from the trial papers he had discovered in the Spanish National Archive. It is one of the most complete accounts of a Spanish Inquisition trial extant.

In June 1490, a roving carder, a converso named Benito Garcia, aged 60, a native of the town of La Guardia, was stopped in Astorga in the province of León. A consecrated Host was discovered in his knapsack. He was taken for interrogation before the Vicar-general (Judicial Judge) of the Bishopric of Astorga, Pedro de Villada. The confession of Benito Garcia, dated June 6, 1490 has survived and indicates that he was only accused of Judaizing. The defendant explained that five years earlier (1485) he had secretly returned to the Jewish faith, encouraged by another converso, Juan de Ocaña, who was also from La Guardia and a Jew from the nearby locality of Tembleque, named Franco.

Yucef Franco, aged 20, a cobbler, the Tembleque Jew mentioned by Benito Garcia, was arrested by the Inquisition on July 1, 1490 along with his father Ça Franco,aged 80. He was in prison in Segovia on July 19, 1490, when he fell ill. He was visited by a doctor, Antonio de Ávila. Yucef asked the doctor if he could see a Rabbi. In place of a Rabbi, on his second visit the doctor was accompanied by a converso Friar, Alonso Enriquez, disguised as a Rabbi and calling himself Abrahán. When asked why he thought he had been arrested, Yucef replied that he was accused of the ritual murder of a Christian boy. The second time he was visited by the two men, Yucef made no further mention of this issue.

Yucef's subsequent statements implicated other Jews and conversos. On August 27, 1490, the Grand Inquisitor, Tomas de Torquemada issued an indictment ordering the transfer of the prisoners from Segovia to Ávila to await trial. The indictment lists all the prisoners held in Segovia who were related to this case. They were: conversos; Alonso Franco, Franco Lope, Garcia Franco, Juan Franco, Juan de Ocaña, and Garcia Benito, residents of La Guardia, and Jews; Yucef Franco of Tembleque, and Moses Abenamías of Zamora. The indictment contained charges of heresy, apostasy, as well as crimes against the Catholic faith. Curiously the indictment does not mention Ça Franco.

The inquisitors in charge of preparing the trial were Pedro de Villado (the same man who had previously interrogated Benito Garcia in June, 1490), Juan López de Cigales, Inquisitor of Valencia since 1487, and Friar Fenando de Santo Domingo. All were men who enjoyed the confidence of Torquemada . Santo Domingo had also written the foreword to a published anti-Semitic pamphlet.

The trial against Yucef Franco began on December 17, 1490 and lasted several months. He was accused of trying to attract conversos to Judaism as well as having participated in the ritual crucifixion of a Christian child on Good Friday. It seems that before the trial, Benito Garcia and Yucef Franco, at least, had already partially confessed and given evidence against the others on the promise of obtaining their freedom, but this was a trap laid by the inquisition.

When the indictment was read out, Yucef Franco shouted out that it was the biggest falsehood in the world. He was appointed Counsel for his defence who petitioned the court that the charges were too vague, no dates of the crime were given, there was no body, and that the alleged victim had not even been named. As a Jew, Yusef could not be guilty of heresy or apostasy. The defense asked for complete acquittal. The petition was overruled by the court and the trial proceeded. The preserved confessions of this defendant, extracted under torture, refer at first, only to conversations with Benito Garcia in gaol, and incriminate them only as Judaizers, but later it starts to refer to a piece of witchcraft performed about four years earlier (perhaps 1487), which involved the use of a consecrated host, stolen from a church in La Guardia, and the heart of a Christian boy. Yucef's subsequent statements give more details of this topic and are particularly incriminating of Benito Garcia. Garcia's statements have also been preserved, and taken “whilst he had been put to the torture” are inconsistent with those of Yucef, and above all serve mainly to incriminate the latter. The inquisitors even arranged a face to face confrontation between the two accused, on October 12, 1491, and the judicial records of this meeting state that their depositions were in agreement, which is surprising, as previously they had contradicted each other.

In October, one of the inquisitors, Friar Fernando de San Esteban, travelled to the convent of San Esteban in Salamanca to consult with several legal experts and theologians, who pronounced on the guilt of the accused. In the final phase of the trial the evidence was made public and Yucef tried unsuccessfully to refute it. The last depositions of Yucef, obtained under torture in November added more details to the facts; many of them clearly had their origins in anti-Semitic literature.

On the 16th November in the Brasero de la Dehesa (lit: meadow of execution) in Ávila, all the accused were handed over to the secular authorities and burned at the stake. Nine people were executed; three Jews, Yusef Franco, Ça Franco and Moses Abenamías; and six conversos, Alonso, Lope, García and Juan Franco, Juan de Ocaña and Benito García. As was customary, the sentences were read out at the Auto de Fe, and those of Yucef Franco and Benito Garcia have been preserved.

Property confiscated from the prisoners was used to finance the construction of the monastery of Santo Tomás de Ávila, which was completed on August 3, 1493.