1798. Carta apócrifa de Miguel de Terán fingiendo ser Miguel Ceballos Medinaceli para Joseph Artoy, mayordomo.

Apocryphal letter written by Miguel de Terán who pretends to be Miguel Ceballos Medinaceli to Joseph Artoy, a major-domo.

Miguel de Terán, pretending to be Miguel de Ceballos Medinaceli, writes to the major-domo of the duke of Medinaceli to give him instructions and to recommend him to treat well the bearers of the letter, Francisco Cauhape and Joseph Latour.

In 1804, Miguel de Terán was accused by the Inquisition of being a falsifier, because of what had happened six years before, when he had allegedly gone as far as Saint Gaudens (France) pretending to be a bishop and the brother of the duke of Medinaceli. There he asked to be hosted by Francisco de Cauhape, who hosted him for a year, not daring to refuse hospitality to such a distinguished person. During that year, by night, Miguel de Terán celebrated Mass, administered sacraments and prayed the rosary in the house of Francisco, who paid for everything. As a reward and a repayment, the accused had given Francisco a letter who allowed him to be payed 15.000 pesetas by the duke of Medinaceli. He also made a recommendation letter for a friend of Francisco, named de Latour. When Francisco and his friend arrived at the court in Madrid and presented these letters to the duke of Medinaceli, this explained them that they had been cheated, and that he was already looking for the swindler, who had done the same in various places. However, it is not completely clear who was the actual swindler, because also a Juan Tera was accused, even though many clues indicated Miguel de Terán as the actual swindler. These two letters were joined to the proceedings as part of the swindle. In the proceedings, there is also a letter written in French by a nun and sent to a French priest named Francisco Vidal. This had confirmed that Miguel de Terán was used to doing such swindles and was considered a real knave. We do not know the final sentence of the process.