Both the pope and the king, as may be imagined, turned a deaf ear to these
remonstrances. In the mean while the Inquisition commenced operations, and
autos da fe were celebrated at Saragossa, with all their usual horrors, in
the months of May and June, in 1485. The discontented Aragonese,
despairing of redress in any regular way, resolved to intimidate their
oppressors by some appalling act of violence. They formed a conspiracy for
the assassination of Arbues, the most odious of the inquisitors
established over the diocese of Saragossa. The conspiracy, set on foot by
some of the principal nobility, was entered into by most of the new
Christians, or persons of Jewish extraction in the district. A sum of ten
thousand reals was subscribed to defray the necessary expenses for the
execution of their project. This was not easy, however, since Arbues,
conscious of the popular odium that he had incurred, protected his person
by wearing under his monastic robes a suit of mail, complete even to the
helmet beneath his hood. With similar vigilance, he defended, also, every
avenue to his sleeping apartment. [7]

At length, however, the conspirators found an opportunity of surprising
him while at his devotions. Arbues was on his knees before the great altar
of the cathedral, near midnight, when his enemies, who had entered the
church in two separate bodies, suddenly surrounded him, and one of them
wounded him in the arm with a dagger, while another dealt him a fatal blow
in the back of his neck. The priests, who were preparing to celebrate
matins in the choir of the church, hastened to the spot; but not before
the assassins had effected their escape. They transported the bleeding
body of the inquisitor to his apartment, where he survived only two days,
blessing the Lord that he had been permitted to seal so good a cause with
his blood. The whole scene will readily remind the English reader of the
assassination of Thomas a Becket. [8]