298 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



brain and played havoc with the anthropomorphic conceptions of 

 orthodox theology, including the humanity of Christ. This had 

 been going on for several years, when early in 1640 the attention 

 of the archiepiscopal visitor, Bernardo Garcia de San Pedro, was 

 called to it on his reaching Cobena. He promptly threw Benito 

 into the village jail, where many priests and friars visited him 

 and labored fruitlessly to convince him of his error. Then, in 

 July, Dr. Buendia, the physician of Cobena, denounced him to 

 the nearest commissioner of the Inquisition, Juan Burgalez Diaz, 

 at Fuente el Saz. The affair was now fully in train. Diaz has- 

 tened to Cobena, took testimony of some of the chief inhabitants, 

 and forwarded the papers to the tribunal of Toledo. The inquis- 

 itors submitted to calificadores the propositions contained in the 

 reports of Benito's talk, and they were duly condemned as heret- 

 ical and Manichsean. The Inquisition, however, appears to have 

 thought little of the matter, and it would probably have gone no 

 further, had not a zealous cleric of Cobena, toward the end of the 

 year, written that the people were scandalized at the delay in act- 

 ing in an affair so notorious. Thus stimulated, on January 25, 

 1641, the inquisitors issued an order to bring Benito to Toledo, 

 and to sequestrate his property — the latter being the customary 

 precaution for the event of a sentence of confiscation. 



It was the invariable practice of the Inquisition, whenever 

 possible, to make the accused, whether innocent or guilty, pay all 

 the expenses attending his trial. The familiar to whom the order 

 was sent was therefore required, in sequestrating Benito's prop- 

 erty and placing it in the hands of a receiver, to keep thirty ducats 

 for expenses ; if there was no money or grain, then he was to sell 

 at auction enough to realize this amount, and he was also to 

 reserve a bed and bring it with him for Benito's use in prison. 

 These customary instructions were rigidly carried out as far as 

 practicable. A reversionary interest in some money left by a dead 

 brother was garnisheed, and security taken to await the result of 

 the trial. The only ready money in Benito's possession amounted 

 to nineteen copper coins or cuartos, worth in all about two reales 

 and a half ; so on Sunday, February 10th, his pitiful store of furni- 

 ture, tools, and clothing was sold by auction in the public square 

 after high mass, reserving only the garments on his back and one 

 of two old shirts for him to wear ; even the rosary in his hands 



he must pray to the Virgin for her child. He also said that God was the heifer Io, who 

 converted Jews ; that wherever God trod he left his footprints, which are his works ; ask- 

 ing who made these admirable works of the sun, the moon, etc., the answer, Yo Yo, gave 

 the name, which is God — the name impressed by the steps of the heifer. It is therefore 

 by no means improbable that Benito Penas may have heard a sermon which conveyed to 

 him the impression he described and led to his misfortunes. 



