Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/700

680 Lobo Guerrero, an archbishop elect, and Alonso de Peralta, subsequently bishop of Charcas, awaited them. Sixty-seven penitents were then led forth from the dungeons, and the procession marched to the plaza. A great concourse of people, from far and near, followed the procession and occupied windows and squares to the very gate and houses of the holy office.

The prisoners appeared, wearing ropes round their necks, and conical hats on which were painted hellish flames, and with green candles in their hands, each with a priest at his side exhorting him to Christian fortitude. They were marched under a guard of the holy office. Among those doomed to suffer were persons convicted of the following offences: Those who had become reconciled with the church and afterward relapsed into Judaism, in sambenitos, and with familiars of the inquisition at their side; bigamists, with similar hats descriptive of their crime; sorceresses with white hats of the same kind, candles and ropes; blasphemers with gags to their tongues, marching together, one after the other, with heads uncovered and candles in their hands. First among them came those convicted of petty offences, followed in regular order of criminality by the rest, the last being the relapsed, the dogmatists, and teachers of the Mosaic law, who wore the tails of their sambenitos rolled up and wrapped round their caps to signify the falsity of their doctrine. On arriving at their platform the prisoners were made to sit down, the relapsed, the readers of Mosaic law, and dogmatists occupying the higher seats; the others according to their offences, last being the statues of the dead and absent relapsed ones. The reconciled and other penitents occupied benches in the plaza. On the right side of the holy office was a pulpit from which preached the Franciscan friar Ignacio de Santibañez, archbishop of the