FERDINAND VISITS NAPLES. 249 fluence over his counsels claimed for the prelate bj chapter his adulatory biographers.^ — '-^ — All this could not fail to excite distrust and dis- Troi;i.;es '-' iiom the In- quietude throughout the nation. The most alarm- i'"«=^'"- ing symptoms of insubordination began to appear in different parts of the kingdom. In Andalusia, in particular, a confederation of the nobles was organ- ized, with the avowed purpose of rescuing the queen from the duress, in which it was said she was held by her husband. At the same time the most tu- multuous scenes were exhibited in Cordova, in con- sequence of the high hand with which the Inquisi- tion was carrying matters there. Members of many of the principal families, including persons of both sexes, had been arrested on the charge of heresy. This sweeping proscription provoked an insurrec- tion, countenanced by the marquis of Priego, in which the prisons were broken open, and Lucero, an inquisitor who had made himself deservedly odious by his cruelties, narrowly escaped falling into the hands of the infuriated populace.^ The grand 4 Robles, Vida de Ximenez, cap. Ximenes at its head. Sentence 17. — Gomez, De Rebus Gestis, was pronounced against him. The fol. 65. — Abarca, Reyes de Ara- prisons he had filled were emptied, gon, rey 30, cap. 16. — Qjinta- His judgments were reversed, as nilla, Archetypo, lib. 3, cap. 14. founded on insufficient and frivo- 5 Lucero (whom honest Martyr, lous grounds. But alas ! what with a sort of backhanded pun, was this to the hundreds he had usually nicknames Tenebrero) re- consigned to the stake, and the sumed his inquisitorial functions on thousands he had plunged in mise- Philip's death. Among his subse- ry.' He was in the end sentenced, quent victims was the good arch- — not to be roasted alive, — but to bishop Talavera, whose last days retire to his own benefice, and con- were embittered by his persecu- fine himself to the duties of a Chris- tion. His insane violence at length tian minister! Gomez, De Rebus provoked again the interference of Gestis, fol. 77. — Peter Martyr, government. His case was refer- Opus Epist., epist. 333, 334, et al. red to a special commission, with — Llorente, Hist, de I'lnquisition, VOL. III. 32
