Note 480 — Chapter IX · WITCHCRAFT.

Archivo de Simancas, Inq., Lib. 76, fol. 51, 53.

There seems to have been a somewhat earlier persecution of the witches of Biscay by Fray Juan de Zumarraga, a native of Durango. At the suggestion of Charles V, who greatly admired him, he was sent there for that purpose as commissioner of the Inquisition, being specially qualified by his knowledge of the language. After discharging this duty with much ability, Charles, in 1528, sent him to Mexico as its first bishop. He took with him Fray Andrés de Olmos, who had been his assistant in Biscay. In 1548, at the age of 80 he died in the odor of sanctity and his death was miraculously known the same day over all Mexico.—Mendieta, Hist. ecles. Indiana, pp. 629, 636, 644 (Mexico, 1870)