The first seat of the Holy Office was in the convent of San Pablo, where the friars, however, resented the orders, on the pretext that they were not delegates of the inquisitor-general.
At Saragossa Peter Arbue, a canon and an ardent inquisitor, was slain in 1485 whilst praying in a church; and the threats against the hated Torquemada made him go in fear of his life, and he never went abroad without an escort of forty familiars of the Holy Office on horseback and two hundred more on foot.
In 1704 John Gordon, formerly Anglican bishop of Galloway, gave to the Holy Office an account of the manner in which he had been consecrated.
The Holy Office continues, however, to deal with mixed marriages and marriages with infidels.
The pope continues to be its prefect, and the cardinal secretary of the Holy Office and the secretary of state are ex officio members of it; the cardinal who occupies the highest rank in it, with the title of secretary, is chosen by the pope; he is assisted by a prelate with the title of assessor, who is ex officio secretary of the Sacred College.
