In the mid-16th century, the Reformation took
root in Spain for a short time. The
flame burned hot and many came to faith.
Among the converted were a young couple: Leonor de Cisneros and her lawyer
husband Antonio Herrezuelo. They became
members of a secret underground congregation in their home city of Toro.
In 1559, the entire congregation of 70 worshipers was arrested and interrogated as part of the Spanish Inquisition. Congregants were separated, including Leonor from her husband. Torture and intense pressure to return to Roman Catholicism enticed many in the congregation to recant their ‘Lutheran’ beliefs and take steps to return to Roman Catholicism. Leonor was told that her husband recanted and was waiting for her. Under this pressure, she did and was sentenced to three years of reeducation in a convent.
The burnings of heretics during this dreadful time were public and well-choreographed. Those who had refused to recant were dressed a certain way to indicate their intractability. Those who had recanted were dressed another way. Those condemned to die were given a final opportunity to recant their beliefs and receive the benefit of being strangled prior to being burned alive. On October 8th, 1559, Leonor was ushered outside her prison cell and, watching the parade of those who had refused to recant, was horrified to discover her captors had lied to her about her husband. She saw him in the clothing of one about to be burnt. Having a metal gag in his mouth he could not speak but she recalled the look he gave her to be worse than any rebuke.
Leonor witnessed her husband’s faithfulness through the flames and immediately repented. Returning to confinement, she openly witnessed to the other prisoners and unashamedly spoke against the teachings the Roman Catholics continued to try to indoctrinate her with. After nearly nine years, she was finally judged a ‘relapsed incorrigible heretic’ and was sentenced to death by the flame. On that day, she walked calmly to the pyre, thankful to God that she had another opportunity to bear witness to the faith she had once denied.
https://leben.us/leonor-de-cisneros-profile-faith/
https://www.executedtoday.com/2016/09/26/1568-leonor-de-cisneros-chastised-wife/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonor_de_Cisneros
