When Lerma fell from power in 1618, his status as cardinal (which he had acquired for exactly this purpose 6 months earlier) gave him immunity from prosecution by his numerous enemies, who instead turned on Lerma's trusted and unscrupulous secretary, Rodrigo Calderón (d. 1621), who as Lerma's agent was made a scapegoat. Calderón was tortured and executed on trumped up charges of witchcraft and other crimes, which demonstrated what would likely have been Lerma's fate, if a cardinal's hat hadn't protected his head.