“Did many cases of sorcery occur within your own sphere of knowledge?”

“One or two, Don Jorge; they were by no means frequent.  The last that I remember was a case which occurred in a convent at Seville:  a certain nun was in the habit of flying through the windows and about the garden over the tops of the orange trees; declarations of various witnesses were taken, and the process was arranged with much formality; the fact, I believe, was satisfactorily proved:  of one thing I am certain, that the nun was punished.”

“Were you troubled with much Judaism in these parts?”

“Wooh!  Nothing gave so much trouble to the Santa Casa as this same Judaism.  Its shoots and ramifications are numerous, not only in these parts, but in all Spain; and it is singular enough, that even among the priesthood, instances of Judaism of both kinds were continually coming to our knowledge, which it was of course our duty to punish.”

“Is there more than one species of Judaism?” I demanded.

“I have always arranged Judaism under two heads,” said the old man, “the black and the white:  by the black, I mean the observance of the law of Moses in preference to the precepts of the church; then there is the white Judaism, which includes all kinds of heresy, such as Lutheranism, freemasonry, and the like.”

“I can easily conceive,” said I, “that many of the priesthood favoured the principles of the reformation, and that the minds of not a few had been led astray by the deceitful lights of modern philosophy, but it is almost inconceivable to me that there should be Jews amongst the priesthood who follow in secret the rites and observances of the old law, though I confess that I have been assured of the fact ere now.”

“Plenty of Judaism amongst the priesthood, whether of the black or white species; no lack of it, I assure you, Don Jorge; I remember once searching the house of an ecclesiastic who was accused of the black Judaism, and after much investigation, we discovered beneath the floor a wooden chest, in which was a small shrine of silver, inclosing three books in black hogskin, which, on being opened, were found to be books of Jewish devotion, written in Hebrew characters, and of great antiquity; and on being questioned, the culprit made no secret of his guilt, but rather gloried in it, saying that there was no God but one, and denouncing the adoration of Maria Santissima as rank idolatry.”

“And between ourselves, what is your own opinion of the adoration of this same Maria Santissima?”

“What is my opinion!  Que se io?” said the old man, shrugging up his shoulders still higher than on the former occasion; “but I will tell you; I think, on consideration, that it is quite right and proper; why not?  Let any one pay a visit to my church, and look at her as she stands there, tan bonita, tan guapita—­so well dressed and so genteel—­with such pretty colours, such red and white, and he would scarcely ask me why Maria Santissima should not be adored.  Moreover, Don Jorgito mio, this is a church matter and forms an important part of the church system.”