Torquemada was the genius of evil who created and presided over this foul instrument of human crime and folly.  During his eighteen years of administration, reckoning from 1480 to 1498, he sacrificed, according to Llorente’s calculation, above 114,000 victims, of whom 10,220 were burned alive, 6,860 burned in effigy, and 97,000 condemned to perpetual imprisonment or public penitence.[88] He, too, it was who in 1492 compelled Ferdinand to drive the Jews from his dominions.  They offered 30,000 ducats for the war against Granada, and promised to abide in Spain under heavy social disabilities, if only they might be spared this act of national extermination.  Then Torquemada appeared before the king, and, raising his crucifix on high, cried:  ’Judas sold Christ for thirty pieces of silver.  Look ye to it, if ye do the like!’ The edict of expulsion was issued on the last of March.  Before the last of July all Jews were sentenced to depart, carrying no gold or silver with them.  They disposed of their lands, houses, and goods for next to nothing, and went forth to die by thousands on the shores of Africa and Italy.  Twelve who were found concealed at Malaga in August were condemned to be pricked to death by pointed reeds.[89]

The exodus of the Jews was followed in 1502 by a similar exodus of Moors from Castile, and in 1524 by an exodus of Mauresques from Aragon.  To compute the loss of wealth and population inflicted upon Spain by these mad edicts, would be impossible.  We may wonder whether the followers of Cortez, when they trod the teocallis of Mexico and gazed with loathing on the gory elf-locks of the Aztec priests, were not reminded of the Torquemada they had left at home.  His cruelty became so intolerable that even Alexander VI. was moved to horror.  In 1494 the Borgia appointed four assessors, with equal powers, to restrain the blood-thirst of the fanatic.

[Footnote 88:  Llorente, vol. i. p. 229.  The basis for these and following calculations is explained ib. pp. 272-281.]

[Footnote 89:  Ibid. vol. i. p. 263.]

After Torquemada, Diego Deza reigned as second Inquisitor General from 1498 to 1507.  In these years, according to the same calculation, 2,592 were burned alive, 896 burned in effigy, 34,952 condemned to prison or public penitence.[90] Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros followed between 1507 and 1517.  The victims of this decade were 3,564 burned alive, 1,232 burned in effigy, 48,059 condemned to prison or public penitence.[91] Adrian, Bishop of Tortosa, tutor to Charles V., and afterwards Pope, was Inquisitor General between 1516 and 1525.  Castile, Aragon, and Catalonia, at this epoch, simultaneously demanded a reform of the Holy Office from their youthful sovereign.  But Charles refused, and the tale of Adrian’s administration was 1,620 burned alive, 560 burned in effigy, 21,845 condemned to prison or public penitence.[92] The total, during forty-three years, between 1481 and 1525, amounted to 234,526, including all descriptions of condemned heretics.[93] These figures are of necessity vague, for the Holy Office left but meager records of its proceedings.  The vast numbers of cases brought before the Inquisitors rendered their method of procedure almost as summary as that of Fouquier Thinville, while policy induced them to bury the memory of their victims in oblivion.[94]