Confession

Prosecutor’s evidence: In Herrera on the twenty-first of May in the year 1500, before the lord inquisitors in the general inquisition.

Witness: Inés, daughter of Juan Esteban, residing in the town of Herrera, a sworn witness etc., said that last year, three days after All Saints’ Day, this witness dreamed of her mother, who is deceased, and it seemed to her that she had truly seen her visibly and it seemed to her in the dream that she told her, “Daughter, say that they did well, for my soul, and that they should give alms and other things, which were not put here because of their prolixity.”

In addition, the witness said that starting at a certain time around this past Christmas, a radiance appeared to her that, she said, had come to her before on other occasions, and this witness asked it why it had come, for it had appeared so many times, and it replied and said it came to tell her that Elijah would come in the year 1500 and that in order to bring this about they should fast and give alms and do as much good as they could. And this witness asked it who this Elijah was and why he was coming, and it said he would come by God’s command to preach in the world and that the conversos would go forth and go to certain lands. And she, the confessant, asked it what was in these lands, and it said there were communities and abundant bread and fruit and other things to meet their needs and then it vanished, but before going it told her to tell others what it had said.

And after this, the confessant told these things to Gonzalo Bichancho and to many other conversos residing in that town. And in the opinion of this witness, they listened to her, and in the opinion of this witness, they believed it, because they listened gladly and willingly. And she said that this witness had asked the radiance to tell what form the fasting and alms should take, and it told her the fasting should last until nightfall. And this radiance also said they should keep the Sabbath on Saturdays and wear clean clothing on that day and should do this in love of God and to attain the good they hoped would come. And that this is what this witness told to the aforementioned Gonzalo Bichancho and to any conversos who went to see her in her home. Additionally, she said it was known in her home that from then on this witness fasted one and two days a week, or as much as she could, which was Mondays and Thursdays, not eating all day until the star appeared at night, and at night she ate a supper of fish, and she kept the Sabbath on Saturdays from that time until her imprisonment, and until now made a deliberate point to dress and adorn herself for that day. When she was asked with what intention and belief she fasted those fasts and kept the Sabbath on Saturdays, she said it was to achieve that good she had been told of. And that this is exactly what she had been told to believe when that radiance appeared to her. And that this witness also told all this, and all the rest, to the aforementioned Gonzalo Bichancho and to all the other conversos of that town who asked her about it. And she said that one of the people to whom she told the above and with whom she shared and communicated it and told to believe in the Law of Moses and give alms and that Elijah was coming to take them to lands of plenty and all the things above was Pero Ferrandes of Chillon, a weaver, and based on what she knew and had heard from him, God gave her to understand that the man believed what this witness told him.