The Founding of the Honorable Spanish Community in Vienna

This happened in the city of Madrid late at night, at the hour when nobody was in the streets, when all people were in bed resting from the exhaustion of the previous day. Suddenly, there was a knock on the gate of the palace occupied by the chief inquisitor, Diego de Aguilar. A woman standing at the gate begged the gatekeeper to let her see his master because she urgently needed to talk to him. The gatekeeper refused to let her enter, saying, “How can you ask me, sinyora, to disturb and wake up my master at this hour when everybody is already resting in bed? No, you cannot come in!”

But the woman again begged the gatekeeper, saying that seeing the priest was vital not only for her but also for him, and that it was so urgent and important because the matter was very serious and of great interest for him, and she wanted to let him know about it right then. Realizing that it was necessary to make this known to him, one of his servants woke the priest and explained to him what was going on. He immediately got up, threw a purple cloak over his shoulders, and gave the order that the unknown woman be brought to him.

The woman was led to his room, where there was a small dim lamp. She stood in front of the Inquisitor, her face pale, as if she were dead, and like a mute person, her mouth seemed unable to open, to speak, and her eyes were trembling and cast down.

The priest asked the stranger, “Why did you come here at this time? What do you want from me? And who are you?”

The stranger wanted to answer, but she was so frightened that her lips moved without making any sound. Seeing that she was afraid to speak to him, the priest addressed her again, “Good woman, don’t be afraid, be brave and tell me why you came to see me at this hour.”

Hearing these words, the woman pulled herself together, overcame her fear, and said to the priest, “Sinior, did you condemn a girl to death today?”

“This is true,” he answered.

“And why?” asked the woman.

He responded, “Because she was baptized and converted to Christianity, but her conversion was not sincere, and it became known that she secretly observed the Law of Moses.”

The woman asked again, “And there is no way to save her now? You must know, sinior, that this was not her fault but entirely mine, because I am her mother, and I raised her in this religion. How could the poor girl be at fault?”

The priest did not pay attention to her words and said, “She is condemned to be burned at the stake in the middle of the square tomorrow morning. But because of what you said in this house in the dark and because you acknowledged that it was your fault, I do not want to give up on your soul as well. So, I am telling you: try hard to save your soul and flee.”

The woman thought a moment and, instead of turning to leave, studied the four walls of the room and glanced through the door to make sure no strangers were there. Seeing that there were only the two of them in the room, she turned to the priest, approached him, and holding the folds of his cloak, said, “Know that the girl whom you condemned to be burnt is your sister, your father’s daughter.” And as she was speaking she tore her dress to reveal her breasts and said, “I swear by the Holy God, that the breasts you see nursed you and your sister whom today you sentenced to be burned at the stake tomorrow.”

When she saw that the priest thought she was out of her mind, she said, “Do not betray your mother, my son; do not treat her as if she were out of her mind, your mother who gave you birth, who nursed you and suffered many dreadful hardships in order to raise you. The bitter tears that you see your mother shed in front of you are not the first or the second; my bed gets wet every night from the tears I shed, my eyes turn into seas of bloody tears every time I think that my seed has turned into nothing and vanity.¹

“Know, my son, that I was forcibly baptized, and you are also one of those Jews who were converted by force against their wishes . . .”