Letter from Francisco Cantos, a student, to Bartolomé de las Peñas, a beneficiary priest.
The author apologises with Bartolomé de las Peña for his delay, and informs him about the problems he has had because of a warrant he received.
The second of May, 1628, Francisco de Cantos, a graduate student enrolled in the University of Alcalá de Henares, asked not to be judged by the ordinary mayor of Santo Domingo de Silos (Burgos) in a matrimonial cause brought against him by the family of María de Castrillo, claiming that, due to his position, he had the right to be judged by tribunal of the University. Francisco de Cantos was accused of rape by Alonso de Castrillo, father of María de Castrillo, who declared that his daughter, of whom he praised the virtue, had been seduced by Francisco de Cantos, who had promised to marry her. Because of their relationship, she was pregnant. Francisco, however, had committed himself to look after the mother and the child, bay means of a document which he had signed three times.
Moreover, he had written two letters to ask Bartolomé de las Peñas, a deputy parish priest, to watch over María de Castrillo. The document and the two letters were presented to the tribunal. Francisco de Cantos confirmed that he had written the letters, but refused to recognise the signatures on the document. He also presented witnesses to try to corroborate the doubts on the virtue of María de Castrillo and to demonstrate that she had already tried to marry other single men. The proceedings are not complete, so we cannot know the sentence.
