Diego Deza - Downfall

Downfall

Deza himself was later accused of secretly practicing Judaism, a charge mainly based on the fact that he himself had Jewish blood on his mother's side. The accusation was probably political, but nevertheless damaged his standing somewhat. His position was further undermined by several open insurrections against the Inquisition, particularly against his chief lieutenant Diego Rodriguez Lucero. Lucero intensely disliked the "false converted", and in 1500 handled papers sent to Pope Julius II on the Archbishop of Granada's (Hernando de Talavera) Jewish ancestry.

Diego Rodriguez Lucero, the Inquisitor of Córdoba, was even more hated than Deza, and in late 1506, had narrowly escaped with his life when an angry mob stormed the Inquisition's base in Cordoba and freed all its prisoners. Pope Julius II seems to have brought some common sense to Deza and Lucero's researches choosing to ignore them.

After King Ferdinand II of Aragon remarried, he decided that Deza had become a liability, and Deza was forced to resign in 1507. Hernando de Talavera would die also in 1507 without knowing the whereabouts of his "process" in Rome.

In 1517 Diego de Deza founded in Seville the "Colegio de Santo Tomás", 15 years after Rodrigo Fernández de Santaella, who had founded the Colegio de Santa María de Jesus, initial nucleus of the actual University of Seville.