Letter from Manuel Sarmiento de Mendoza, canon, to Ponciano Basurto, friar.
The author advises Ponciano Basurto to be prudent about what he says in his sermons.
The accused in this process was Ponciano Basurto, friar of the Trinitarian Order and minister of the Holy Trinity convent in Toledo. In 1610 he was accused by the Inquisition Tribunal of Toledo of the crime of outrageous statements, because the «calificadores» (theologicians) of the Inquisition Tribunal considered some of the statements contained in his sermons as wrong or even on the edge of heresy. To defend himself, Ponciano Basurto handed over six letters, written by men of religion to whom he had sent his sermons, as a proof of the fact that these men had not found any doctrinal errors in his words. Eventually, he was condemned to abjure «de levi» (without punishment) and to retract, from the pulpit, the statements considered more controversial.
