TOBTUKES OF THE FULLER AND THE FIRE.
TOKTURES OF THE HORSE AND SUFFOCATION.
THE
ITS ORIGIN,
POLICY, CRUELTIES, AND HISTORY,
of ft* Victi
IN FRANCE, SPAIN, PORTUGAL, ITALY, ENGLAND,
INDIA, AND OTHER COUNTRIES.
DEDICATED TO CARDINAL WISEMAN.
J*.
o$ BY
REV. THOMAS TIMPSON,
AUTHOR OF THE "COMPANION TO THE BIBLE," &C. &C.
" Drunken with the blood of the Saints, and with the blood of the Martyrs
of Jesus." REV. xvii. 6.
"THEY SHED INNOCENT BLOOD. This single circumstance shall, God
willing, ever separate me from the Papacy. For this crime of cruelty I
would fly from her communion as from a den of thieves and murderers !"
LUTHEK.
LONDON :
AYLOTT AND JONES, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLI.
LONDON
J. UNWIN, GBESHAJI STKA.M PRESS.
BUCKLKttSBURY.
DEDICATION.
TO
HIS EMINENCE, CAEDINAL WISEMAN.
MY LOBD CAEDINAL,
Roman Catholics and Protestants are alike inte-
rested in this volume : designed, as it is, to advance
pure Christianity. They have an equal right to pro-
fess their own peculiar faith, and to propagate their
religious opinions. But, in the free exercise of that
right, they are equally bound, by every principle of
justice and charity, to cherish towards each other
mutual esteem and benevolence.
Romanists, however, do not admit the Holy
Scriptures as the sole authority in religion ; and
their principles will not allow them, therefore, to
grant toleration to those who dissent from them.
Their intolerance arises from the policy of the
Hierarchy and the reception of unscriptural tradi-
tions. Hence their illiberality in Italy, Sardinia,
2116394
VI DEDICATION.
Spain, Portugal, the Brazils, and other countries,
where the priesthood is dominant. Hence the in-
veterate hostility of the Romish priests against the
popular reading of the Bible. Their people are
kept thus in ignorance, deluded by false doctrines ;
and theirs being not exclusively the principles of
the Holy Scriptures, cannot be the religion of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
My Lord Cardinal Every Briton should under-
stand the character and claims of the Papacy. For,
as predicted in "the oracles of God," Protestants
hold that Popery is the " man of sin," the " mys-
tery of iniquity," the " MOTHEB or HABLOTS
AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EAETH," "drunken
with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus." 2 Thess. ii. 3 7 ; Eev.
xvii. 5, 6.
Every British Christian is deeply interested in
studying the doctrines of Popery ; its Priestly power
Absolution Transulstantiation Tradition
and Purgatory ; and in considering its evil doings
in Auricular confession Penance Mariolatry
Priestly celibacy Spiritual domination and the
INQUISITION. The history of these is the condem-
nation of Popery.
This volume contains the substance of the valuable
DEDICATION. Vll
works of Limborch, Llorente, Dellon, Gavin, Bu-
chanan, Bower, Newton, Gibbon, Watson, Ranke,
Sismondi, Jones, Puigblanch, Edgar, Elliott, Mend-
ham, Giesler, Bowling, D'Aubigne, De Castro,
Achilli, and many others, regarding the Inquisition.
This volume is designed as an Antidote to
Popery ; especially as a present to young persons ;
and it is believed, by judicious friends, to be most
seasonable, to instruct inquirers, and to advance
the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Having these objects in view, this work is dedi-
cated, with due respect, to
YOIJE EMINENCE,
BY THE AUTHOK.
CONTENTS.
Chapter Page
1. Popery as predicted in Scripture 9
2. Progress of Antichrist 20
3. Origin of the Romish Inquisition 41
4. The Inquisition in several Countries 57
5. The Wycliffites and Hussites 66
6. The Inquisition in Spain 77
7. The Inquisition in Portugal and the Netherlands. ... 91
8. The Inquisition in France 100
9. The Inquisition in England 118
10. Crimes alleged by the Inquisition 142
11. Ministers of the Inquisition 148
12. Trial in the Inquisition 156
13. Tortures in the Inquisition 162
14. Victims of the Inquisition 168
15. Acts of Faith of the Inquisition 183
16. Modern Victims of the Inquisition ....'. 201
17. British Victims of the Inquisition 224
18. The Inquisition in Goa 254
19. Licentiousness of the Inquisitors 273
20. Abolition of the Inquisition in Spain 294
21. The Inquisition at Rome and Dr. Achilli 319
22. Female Inquisitions in Rome 345
23. " The Kiss of the Virgin Mary" 373
ENGRAVINGS.
1. Tortures of the Pulley and Fire 2
2. Tortures of the Horse and Suffocation 2
3. Front view of the Iron Virgin 372
4 . Profile view of the Iron Virgin 372
5. Machine of the Iron Virgin opened 372
THE INQUISITION KEVEALED.
CHAPTEE I.
POPEBY AS PREDICTED 1ST SCBIPTUBE.
The Court of Inquisition cruel and execrable Christianity
benevolent The Inquisition predicted, 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4 ;
1 Tim. iv. 1-3; Rev. xvii. 1-18 Comments by Elliott,
Bp. Newton, and Scott.
RELIGION, as taught by the Bomish priesthood,
has been enforced and guarded by pains and penal-
ties during many ages. For the last six centuries,
this has been done chiefly by a court, denominated,
in all countries where it lias been established,
"TnE HOLY INQUISITION." But this court has
been execrated, in every country in which it has
existed, as the most dreadful, cruel, and sanguinary
of all tribunals, even by professors of the faith of
Rome. Still it is supported by the papal hie-
rarchy, as the agents of tlie Pope may be able to
obtain permission of the governments who observe
the Romish religion.
Christianity has thus been dishonoured in the
assumption of its sacred name by Roman Ga-
B
10 THE INQUISITION REYEALED.
tholics, while they have practised these cruelties,
so contrary to the letter and to the spirit of the
religion of Jesus Christ; for all His principles
and precepts manifest Divine benevolence, as
chanted at the birth of the Redeemer, by a mul-
titude of the heavenly host, praising God, and
saying, " Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace, good- will towards men."
Christianity is the religion of love, and like its
ever blessed Author, the Son of God. " God is
love ; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in
God, and God in him." It enjoins upon all its
professors the practice of benevolence. It requires
them to possess and exemplify that spirit. Its
moral code is comprehended in that summary of the
Divine law, as given by our Saviour, " Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with
all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And thou
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Its chief
practical maxim is, " Whatsoever ye would that
men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for
this is the law and the prophets." These precepts
were followed by the early believers of the Gospel,
constraining the heathen to admire their benevo-
lence, exclaiming, " See how these Christians love
one another !"
False teachers, however, having corrupted the
doctrines and ordinances of Christ, were influenced
by another spirit ; and, in the course of a few
ages, the professed ministers [of the loving Re-
deemer exhibited intolerance, malevolence, and
cruelty, exceeding what had ever been witnessed
POPEEY AS PEEDICTED IN SCEIPTUEE. 11
under any form of religion. These enormities have
been seen chiefly in the operations of the Roman
Catholics, and especially by their execrable " Court
of INQUISITION," as this has been established in
Spain, France, Portugal, India, and Rome. This
court, though denominated "Holy," has been the
most arbitrary, inhuman, and sanguinary that ever
existed among men ; and because of its enormities,
by its various machinery, and by its savage armies,
it is symbolised in the Holy Scriptures under the
emblem of a harlot, deluding the nations with her
intoxicating draughts, and herself " drunken with
the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the
martyrs of Jesus." (Rev. xvii. 6.)
Before we enter upon the direct history of the
Inquisition, therefore, it will be necessary to notice
the inspired prophecies relating to this apostate
and cruel hierarchy of popery ; and to take a brief
review of the rise and progress of that terrible and
hated system of Antichrist.
" Known unto Grod are all his works from the
beginning of the world." And equally foreseen
were all the forms of falsehood, cruelty, and evil
upon the earth. Hence the inspired predictions
concerning the hateful enemy of Christ.
Our blessed Lord repeatedly admonished his
disciples concerning false teachers, who would be
distinguished by their inhumanity ; and the apostle
Paul, in correctiug the mistakes of some, regarding
the day of judgment as being near, says, " Let no
man deceive you by any means : for that day shall
not come, except there come a falling away first,
B 2
12 THE INQUISITION EEYEALED.
and that man of sin be revealed, the son of per-
dition ; who opposeth and exalteth himself above
all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so
that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God,
showing himself that he is God." (2 Thess. ii.
3, 4.) Again, he represents the character of
Romish teachers, and says, " Now the Spirit
speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some
shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits, and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in
hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with a
hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to
abstain from meats, which God hath created to be
received with thanksgiving of them who believe
and know the truth." (1 Tim. iv. 13.)
Still more remarkable is the prediction described
by the apostle John : " And there came one of the
seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked
with me, saying unto me, Come hither ; I will
show unto thee the judgment of th"e great whore
that sitteth upon many waters : with whom the
kings of the earth have committed fornication, and
the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk
with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me
away in the spirit into the wilderness : and I saw a
woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of
names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten
horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and
scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand
full of abominations and filthiness of her fornica-
tion : and upon her forehead was a name written,
POPERY AS PREDICTED IN SCRIPTURE. 13
MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER
or HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of
the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of
Jesus ; and when I saw her, I wondered with great
admiration. And the angel said unto me, Where-
fore dost thou marvel ? I will tell thee the mystery
of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her,
which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The
beast that thou sawest was, and is not ; and shall
ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into per-
dition. The seven heads are seven mountains, on
which the woman sitteth. And there are seven
kings. And the ten horns which thou sawest are
ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet ;
but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.
These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb
shall overcome them : for he is Lord of lords, and
King of kings: and they that are with him are
called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto
me, The waters which thou sawest, where the
whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and
nations, and tongues. And the woman whom thou
sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the
kings of the earth." (Rev. xvii. 1 18.)
All these several predictions have been fulfilled
with the most striking completeness ; and we may
have to refer to them in the course of this work ;
but the descriptions in those from the Revelation
require our very special notice, as they lead us
more particularly to the Romish hierarchy, and to
the terrible court of inquisition. The Rev. Mr.
14 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
Elliott, in his " Commentary" on this chapter,
says :
"This vision represented pictorially a gaudily
dressed drunken harlot, seated on a beast of mon-
strous form, with seven heads, and on the seventh
ten horns. The beast, in respect of its body, de-
picted the papal empire of the ten western European
kingdoms ; and in respect of the seventh, or rather,
eighth head, the succession of Roman popes,
constituting, from after the sixth century, that
empire's spiritual rulers. So the woman represented
Home in its character of the papal see, and mother-
church of Western Christendom ; including, doubt-
less, as part and parcel of herself, the ecclesiastical
state, or Peter's patrimony, in Italy, and vast
dominions, convents, churches, and other property
appertaining to the papal church elsewhere, both in
Europe and over the world.
" 1. As the beast's body both upheld and was sub-
ject to the woman,the rider, so the empire, as a whole,
with the power of its secular kingdoms and many
peoples, upheld, and was also at the same time ruled
by papal Rome, the mother-church of Christendom.
" 2. As the woman was here depicted before St.
John under a double character, viz., as a harlot to
the ten kings, and a vintner or tavern-hostess
vending wines to the common people, just according
to the custom of earlier times, in which the harlot
and the hostess of a tavern were characters fre-
quently united ; so the church of Rome answered
to the symbol in either point of view; interchanging
mutual favours, such as might suit their respective
POPEKY AS PEEDICTED I>" SCEIPTTTRE. 15
characters, with the kings of Anti- Christendom ;
and to the common people dealing out for sale the
wine of the poison of her fornication, her indul-
gences, relics, trausubstantiation-cup, as if the cup
of salvation, &c. (see the Pope's own medal, holding
out the cup of her apostacy, struck at Borne on
occasion of the Jubilee in 1825), therewith drugging
and making them besotted and drunk.
" 3. With regard to the portraiture of the woman,
robed iu purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold,
and precious stones and pearls, it is, as applied to
the Romish church, a picture, characteristic and from
life ; the dress specified being distinctively that of
the Romish ecclesiastical dignitaries, and the orna-
ments those with which it has been bedecked beyond
any church called Christian ; nay, beyond any
religion, probably, that has ever existed in the
world ; not to add that even the very name on the
harlot's forehead, Mystery, (a name allusive, evi-
dently, to St. Paul's predicted mystery of iniquity,)
was one, if we may repose credit on no vulgar
authority, once written on the Pope's tiara ; and
the apocalyptic title, ' Mother of harlots and of the
abominations of the earth,' the very parody, if I
may so say, of the title Home arrogates to herself,
' Rome, mother and mistress.'
" 4. As to the harlot's being depicted ' drunken
with the blood of the saints,' its applicability to the
Eomish church, throughout the latter half, at least,
portion of the beast's 1260 predicted years of
prospering, is written in deep-dyed characters on
the page of history."
16 THE INQTTISTTIO>r REVEALED.
Nothing can be more evident than that "Babylon
the Great " designs the mystical city of the papal
commonwealth, a regnant system of spiritual wick-
edness an idolatrous church. This was the
judgment of all the chief reformers in. Germany,
Switzerland, France, England, and Scotland. Some
even, of the Roman Catholics had the same con-
viction ; and Petrarch, the celebrated Italian poet,
calls the papal court "The Babylonian harlot,
mother of all idolatries."
Bishop Newton, having reviewed the prophecy,
says, " Moreover, the woman, like other harlots
who give philters and love-potions to inflame their
lovers, hath ' a golden cup in her hand, full of
abominations, and filthiness of her fornication,' to
signify the specious and alluring arts wherewith
she bewitcheth and iuciteth men to idolatry, which
is ' abomination and spiritual fornication.' It is an
image copied from Jeremiah li. 7, ' Babylon hath
been a golden cup in the LOED'S hand, that made
all the earth drunken.' And is not this a much
more proper emblem of pontifical than of imperial
Borne?
" Yet farther to distinguish the woman, she has
her name inscribed upon her forehead (verse 5), in
allusion to the practice of some notorious prostitutes,
who had their names written in a label upon their
foreheads. The inscription is so very particular,
that we cannot easily mistake the person; ''Mystery,
Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, or rather,
of fornications and abominations of the earth.'
Her name, Mystery, can imply no less than that
POPERY AS PREDICTED IK SCRIPTURE. 17
she dealeth in mysteries ; her religion is a mystery,
a mystery of iniquity; and she herself is mystically
and spiritually ' Babylon the great.' But the title
of mystery is in no respect proper to ancient Rome,
more than any other city ; and neither is there any
mystery in substituting one heathen, idolatrous,
and persecuting city for another ; but it is indeed a
mystery, that a Christian city, professing and
boasting herself to be the city of God, should prove
another Babylon in idolatry and cruelty to the
people of God. She glories in the name of Roman
Catholic, and well, therefore, may she be called
' Babylon the great.'
" Infamous as the woman is for her idolatry, she
is no less detestable for her cruelty, which are the
two principal characteristics of the antichristian
empire. ' She is drunken with the blood of the
saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,'
(ver. 6) which may indeed be applied both to pagan
and to Christian Eome, for both have in their turns
cruelly persecuted ' the saints and the martyrs of
Jesus ; ' but the latter is more deserving of the
character, as she hath far exceeded the former, both
in the degree and duration of her persecutions. It
is very true, that if Home pagan hath slain her
thousands of innocent Christians, Home Christian
hath slain her ten thousands ; for, not to mention
other outrageous slaughters and barbarities, the
crusades against the Waldenses and Albigenses ;
the murders committed by the Duke of Alva in the
Netherlands ; the massacres in France and Ireland,
will probably amount to above ten times the number
18 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
of all the Christians slain in all the ten persecutions
of the Roman emperors put together. St. John's
admiration also plainly evinces that Christian
Rome was intended, for it could be no matter of
surprise to him that a heathen city should persecute
the Christians ; but that a city professedly Christian
should wanton and riot in the blood of Christians,
was a subject of astonishment indeed ; and well
might he, as it is emphatically expressed, ' wonder
with great wonder. ' '
Mr. Scott, in his commentary on 2 Thessalonians
ii. 3, 4, remarks, " No apostacy of equal magnitude
and duration, no delusions equally pernicious and
abominable, have taken place since the apostle's
days, as those of Rome. The imposture of Mo-
hammed alone can be compared with it, and this
could not be intended ; for that impostor and his
successors were not placed in the temple of God,
the visible church (Rev. xi. 1, 2), but without it, and
in direct opposition to the very name of Chris-
tianity ; they propagated their delusions mainly
by the sword, and not lying miracles ; and, indeed,
the impieties of Mohammed never equalled the blas-
phemies here predicted. This ' man of sin ' would be
the ' son of perdition ' (John xvii. 12) ; a genuine
descendant of Judas, the apostle and traitor, who
sold his Lord for money, and destroyed him with a
kiss ; a peculiar factor and agent of Satan, in
destroying the souls of men, and finally sinking into
perdition as his inheritance. It is manifest, that no
succession of men have yet appeared on earth to
whom this description fully accords, except that of
POPERY AS PREDICTED ITS SCRIPTURE. 19
the Roman pontiffs. This deceiver would oppose
and exalt himself above all that is called God, or is
* worshipped,' either by Christians or pagans ;
thus the Roman pontiffs have opposed the truths,
commandments, and disciples of Christ, in every
age; the prophetical office of Christ, by teaching
human inventions his priestly office, by the doc-
trine of human merits and created intercessors
and his kingly office, by changing and dispensing
with his laws. They have exalted themselves 'above
all that is called God,' and is 'worshipped,' by
claiming authority to forgive sins ; by granting
indulgences to men to break the commandments of
God ; by dispensing with his laws, and presuming
to give meaning and authority to the Scriptures
themselves. Moreover, this 'man of sin ' ' sits as
God' in the temple of God ; and we must, therefore,
look for him within the visible church ; there he
blasphemously usurps the throne of God, ' show-
ing himself to be God.' Many Roman emperors
affected divine honours, and demanded adoration ;
but there was no antecedent apostacy from Chris-
tianity or the worship of JEHOVAH ; and they might
rather be said to sit in the temple of Jupiter or
Mars, than in that of God, whose temple must be
considered to be among his professed worshippers,
and not among avowed heathen. But the Roman
pontiff claiming to be the universal head of the
whole church of God, called by his flatterers ' Yice-
God,' a ' God upon earth,' arrogating the title of
* His Holiness,' boasting of ' infallibility,' claiming a
right to depose kings and bestow kingdoms on
20 THE INQUISITION EEYEALED.
whom he pleases answers exactly to the descrip-
tion here given. While the Roman pontiff opposes
the worship of God, by enjoining the worship of
images, of saints, and angels, and the authority of
his laws, to enforce subjection to his own edicts,
he himself may be called the great idol, as well as
the great tyrant, of the Romish church! "
Human sagacity could by no means have con-
jectured such a character rising up among the
people of God, and such deeds perpetrated in the
name and form of religion. This required the pre-
science of the Infinite Mind. But we shall see them
all in their dreadful enormity, as we pursue the
history of the Romish Inquisition.
CHAPTER II.
PEOGBESS OF ANTICHEIST.
Spirit of Antichrist Priests, Clergy, and Laity Ceremonies
Mosheim " Pious Frauds " Splendour of Prelates
Constantino the Hierarchy Titles Creeds Arian-
ism Persecution Rome and Constantinople Pope
John Pope Gregory Mohammed Claims of the
Pope Henry IV. Corrupt principles.
DIVINE Wisdom having foreseen, and thus foretold,,
all the dreadful corruptions of the Christian church,
we are interested in marking the steps by which
the progress was made. The spirit of popery we
behold in the conduct of the judaising teachers of
PBOGBESS OF ANTICHRIST. 21
the early Christians, as censured by Paul, and as
seen in the proceedings of Diotrephes, who is
believed to have been a pastor. John complained
of his refusing to "receive the brethren," the mes-
sengers of the apostle, and of Ills' " malicious words,"
persecuting some, and casting others out of the
church. (2 John 9, 10.)
This ambitious spirit led the pastors in some of
the larger churches, early in the second century, to
assume the character and title of priests, as peculiar
to their order. They claimed the privilege of being
the Lord's "heritage," or clergy, which belonged
to the faithful, as distinct from their ministers.
(1 Pet. v. 31.) But they persuaded the people
that they had succeeded to the rights of the Jewish
priesthood, as God's clergy ; and hence the dis-
' tinctiou of clergy and laity, which has no foundation
in Christianity. This distinction being established,
gave immense force to the spirit of popery, which
advanced rapidly among the ignorant people. Dr.
Mosheim states, "The Christian doctors had the
good fortune to persuade the people, that the
ministers of the Christian church succeeded to the
character, rights, and privileges of the Jewish
priesthood ; and this persuasion was a new source
of honour and profit to the sacerdotal order. This
notion was propagated with industry, some time
after the second destruction of Jerusalem [A.D. 135]
had extinguished all hopes of seeing their govern-
ment restored to its former lustre, and their coun-
try arising from its ruins. And, accordingly, the
bishops considered themselves invested with a rank
22 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
and character similar to those of the Tiigli priests
among the Jews, while the presbyters represented
the priests, and the deacons the Levites"
Christianity having no splendid ceremonial to
recommend the preaching of the Gospel, priests
devised various forms to be added to the Lord's
supper, which was administered every Sabbath, and
ceremonies were invented, partly derived from the
Jews and 'some from the idolaters, to attract the
minds of the people, and with a view to gratify the
converts from heathenism. The performance of
these, especially in the Lord's supper, served also
as the means of employing the priests in their
newly created offices ; and they were called mys-
teries, as having a hidden meaning and a pecu-
liar virtue, after the manner of the rites of the
Pagan priests. Hence originated the term sacra-
ments, the Latin word for mysteries, applied to
various rites, especially baptism and the Lord's
supper.
Dr. Mosheim, therefore, remarks, " The bishops,
by an innocent allusion to the Jewish manner of
speaking, had been called ' chief priests ; ' the elders
or presbyters had received the title of 'priests,'
and the deacons that of ' Levites.' But in a little
time these titles were abused by an aspiring clergy,
who thought proper to claim the same rank and
station, the same rights and privileges, that were
conferred with those titles upon the ministers of
religion under the Mosaic dispensation. Hence
the rise of tithes, first-fruits, splendid garments,
and many other circumstances of external grandeur,
PEOGEESS OF ANTICHEIST. 23
by which ecclesiastics were eminently distin-
guished."
Priestly power was greatly augmented at this
time by the meetings of the bishops, as delegates
from the churches, to consult respecting their
mutual defence and security against their persecut-
ing enemies. In these synods or councils, as they
were called, various decisions were formed un-
friendly to the interests of the people; for the
bishops soon asserted authority to prescribe laws,
and to impose creeds, which led to the most
grievous persecution in the following ages. Supe-
riority was claimed in these assemblies by the
bishops of the chief cities, especially by the bishop
of Rome, as the imperial metropolis. Dr. Mosheim,
therefore, states, " Toward the conclusion of this
century, Victor, bishop of Eome, took it into his
head to force the Asiatic Christians, by the pre-
tended authority of his laws and decrees, to observe
the Roman custom of keeping Easter." They
refused compliance ; and, as Milner says, " Victor,
with much arrogance, as if he had felt the very soul
of the future papacy formed in himself, inveighed
against the Asiatic churches, and pronounced their
excommunication.' '
In the second century, popery was further ad-
vanced by the peculiar practices of the Egyptian
monks being cherished among the Christians.
They magnified the virtues of fasting, celibacy, and
a solitary life, as the perfection of excellence ; and
hence the origin of the Romish monks, nuns, and
celibacy of the clergy.
24 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
Christianity, in the third century, was still more
corrupted by the priesthood; for "pious frauds,"
or false miracles, were commonly practised. Several
of the teachers were guilty of these in the second
century ; but, to the dishonour of religion, they
were now publicly defended, even by some good
men, provided they were employed with a design
to convert men and advance the cause of Chris-
tianity !
Popery continued to advance in this century by
rapid strides ; for the clergy maintained their
various dignities with determined zeal. The simple
ordinances of Christ in the ministry of the Gospel
were laid aside for the performance of priestly rites.
Ecclesiastical government degenerated towards the
form of a religious monarchy; while the people
were, in most cases, excluded from all share in the
management of their own affairs in the churches.
Dr. Mosheim, therefore, testifies " The bishops
assumed, in many places, a princely authority,
particularly those who presided over the most
opulent assemblies. They appropriated to their
evangelical function the splendid ensigns of tem-
poral majesty. A throne, surrounded with minis-
ters, exalted above his equals the servant of the
meek and humble Jesus, and sumptuous garments
dazzled the eye and the mind of the multitude into
an ignorant veneration for their arrogated autho-
rity. The example of the bishops was ambitiously
imitated by the presbyters, who, neglecting the
sacred duties of their station, abandoned themselves
to the indolence and delicacy of an effeminate and
PBOGBESS OF AKTICHRIST. 25
luxurious life. When the honours arid privileges
of the bishops and presbyters were augmented, the
deacons also began to extend their ambitious views,
and to despise those lower functions and employ-
ments which they had hitherto exercised with
such humility and zeal ; and the effects of a corrupt
ambition were spread through every rank of the
sacred order."
Ecclesiastical ambition was not satisfied with the
creation of a hierarchy of bishops, priests, and
deacons ; but various lesser orders of ministers
were now instituted, on account of the increasing
ceremonies which had been adopted in imitation of
the heathen mysteries. Various forms of prayer
and consecration were prepared for these cere-
monies ; the table of the Lord was converted into
an altar ; wax tapers were burnt upon it ; the bread
and wine were regarded as possessing a kind of
saving virtue ; and much solemn pomp was observed
in celebrating the Lord's supper. Baptism was
preceded by a terrifying process exorcism, to expel
the evil spirit, and the newly baptised persons were
required to taste milk and honey, as indicating
spiritual food, and the converts from heathenism
were sent home from the ceremony adorned with
crowns and white garments.
Popery received a -vast accession of power, in the
beginning of the fourth century, by the conversion
of the Emperor Constantino. He became a most
munificent patron of Christianity, as by its profes-
sion he succeeded to the throne of the Csesars.
The extravagant claims of the ambitious prelates
o
26 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
were now confirmed, and the spiritual institution of
Jesus Christ was transformed into a worldly
system, framed to resemble the civil government of
the empire. The bishops of Rome, Antioch, and
Alexandria were already regarded as superior to
the other prelates as archbishops, with the title of
patriarch ; and to these was added a fourth, for
the new imperial city of .Constantinople. Under
this first Christian emperor, as Dr. Haweis remarks,
" the prelatical government became modelled, after
the imperial, into great prefectures, of which Home,
Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople, claimed
superiority ; whilst a sort of feudality was esta-
blished, descending from patriarchs to metropo-
litans, archbishops, bishops, some with greater, and
others with less extensive spheres of dominion.
Instead of the people choosing their own bishops
and presbyters, they were no more consulted. The
presbyters wholly depended on the bishops and
patrons; the bishops were the creatures of pa-
triarchs and metropolitans ; or, if the see was
important, appointed by the emperor. So ' church
and state' formed the first inauspicious alliance;
and the corruption, which had been plentifully sown
before, now ripened by court intrigues for political
bishops of imperial appointment, or at the sugges-
tion of the prime minister."
"This pernicious example," says Dr. Mosheim,
"was soon followed by the several ecclesiastical
orders. The presbyters, in many places, assumed
an equality with the bishops, in point of rank and
authority. Those more particularly of the presby-
PEOGBESS OF ANTICHBIST. 27
ters and deacons, who filled the first stations of
these orders, carried their pretensions to an extra-
vagant length, and were offended at the notion of
being placed upon an equal footing with their
colleagues. For this reason, they assumed the titles
of archpresbyters and archdeacons."
These newly created dignities required a corres-
ponding style of address, which was soon contrived.
It may be remarked, that all these things are
contrary to the New Testament; for though all
Christians are there described as saints, or holy
persons ; they are never addressed with pompous
titles. Even the apostles are never called Saint John
and Saint Peter ; these titles are the inventions of
popery. Lord Chancellor King remarks, therefore,
" It is very seldom, if ever, that the ancients give the
title of saints to those holy persons, but singly style
them Peter, Paul, John, &c. ; not Saint Peter, Saint
Paul, Saint John.' ' Priestly dignities originated the
addresses of " reverend," " very reverend," "right
reverend," " most reverend," "your grace," "your
holiness."
Constantine having arranged the offices of his
government in church and state, soon found it
necessary to attempt to produce uniformity of faith,
especially as Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, had
declared his belief that the Son of Grod is inferior
to the Father, of another nature, and only the first
of all created beings. Finding this heresy prevail,
he called the bishops of all the provinces to an
assembly, A.D. 325, at Nice, in Bithynia. This
assembly, famous, as the first general council, con-
c2
sisted of about two thousand and fifty persons, of
whom three hundred and eighteen were bishops.
These prelates delivered to the emperor letters of
grievous accusation against each other, but the
prudent sovereign threw the whole into the fire,
arid referred them to the day of judgment for a
settlement. After two months' deliberation, they
agreed on that form denominated " The Nicene
Greed" which required to be believed by all Chris-
tians. But, by this celebrated act, the foundation
was laid for the pernicious influence of a political
priesthood, and for the authority of councils in
ecclesiastical matters, above even the Holy Scrip-
tures ; and this authority, claimed and acted upon,
produced all the superstition, intolerance, and
cruelty, which characterise the terrible Inquisition.
Constantino having established the "creed,"
required its universal reception. But the Arians
refused ; and the bishops prevailed on him to issue
edicts against them, as enemies of truth, forbidding
their public meetings, and giving their places of
worship to the orthodox. He banished Arius, and
decreed that his books should be burnt ; and that
whosoever should dare to keep any of them, as soon
as this was proved, should suffer death ! In two or
three years after, the emperor recalled Arius, and
repealed his severe laws against his heresy, which
prevailed under his son and successor, Constantiua.
Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, became the
champion of orthodoxy ; and thus two parties arose
among the clergy.
^ Decrees and state power authorised inquisition
PKOGEESS OF ANTICHBIST. 29
and persecution ; and "Hence," says Dr. Mosheim,
" arose endless animosities and seditions, treacher-
ous plots, and open acts of injustice and violence,
between the two contending parties. Council was
assembled against council, and their jarring and
contradictory decrees spread perplexity and con-
fusion throughout the Christian world." One fact
will illustrate the spirit of party in this age : eighty
orthodox bishops having waited on the Emperor
Valerius, to complain of his appointing an Arian
bishop of Constantinople, they were murdered by
his order, on shipboard, at sea, A.D. 370.
Popery prevailed amid all the contentions ; and,
A.D. 410, four bishops, deputed from Carthage,
obtained an edict from the Emperor Honoring,
which doomed to death every one who differed from
the Catholic faith. From this edict serious perse-
cutions arose. But, A.D. 451, the council of Chal-
cedon resolved, " that the same rights and honours
conferred on the bishop of Rome, were due to the
bishop of Constantinople," confirming his jurisdic-
tion, which he had before claimed, over all the
provinces of Asia.
Imperial dominion, however, was now declining,
under a succession of feeble princes. At the open-
ing of the fifth century, Constantinople was the
eastern capital, in which Arcadius presided as
emperor, while Rome continued the western metro-
polis ; though Honorius kept his court at Ravenna.
Swarms of savage hordes, from the northern regions
of Europe, under the names of Goths, Visigoths,
Vandals, Franks, Burgundians, overran the richest
30 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
provinces, sacking cities, and committing every
species of barbarity and cruelty. Some of these
barbarians had embraced the name of Christ from
Arian teachers ; and many of those bishops who
held the true divinity of Christ were tortured,
banished, or massacred with their people.
Religion became still more corrupted ; and public
worship consisted chiefly in the performance of cere-
monies, differing but little from those of the pagan
Greeks and Romans. Both of them had a splendid
ritual, gorgeous robes, tiaras, mitres, wax tapers,
crosiers, processions, lustrations, images, and many
such circumstances of pageantry, were to be seen
equally in the heathen temples and in Christian
churches. To engage the admiration of the igno-
rant population, pictures and statues of Christ, of
the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus in her arms,
and of numerous saints, were set up in the
churches, to be admired and worshipped. An
invincible efficacy, in expelling evil spirits and
healing diseases, was attributed to the presence of
the bones of martyrs. The riches and magnificence
of the churches exceeded all bounds; and the
altars and the chests for the relics of saints were
made of the richest materials, some of solid silver.
Everything in the forms of the Catholic religion
appeared to produce false ideas, or to excite the
worst passions of the human heart. Hence super-
stition and intolerance, and dreadful persecution
among the different parties. Mr. Gibbon states, of
the party called Donatists, that three hundred
bishops, with many thousands of the inferior clergy,
PEOGEESS OF AlfTICHEIST. 31
were torn from their churches, stripped of their
ecclesiastical possessions, banished to the islands,
and proscribed by the laws, if they presumed to
conceal themselves in the provinces of Africa."
" Religion in the sixth century became still
more corrupt; it lay expiring," as Dr. Mosheim
remarks, " under an enormous heap of superstitious
inventions. The worship of Christians was now
paid to the remains of the true cross, to the images
of the saints, and to bones, whose real owners were
extremely dubious. The progress of vice among
the clergy was truly shocking. In those very
places which were consecrated to the advancement
of piety, and the service of God, there was little
else to be seen but ghostly ambition, insatiable
avarice, pious frauds, intolerable pride, and a super-
stitious contempt of the natural rights of the people,
with many other evils still more enormous."
Episcopal claims continued to be the subjects of
constant disputes, especially between the patriarchs
of Rome and Constantinople. John of Rome visited
the eastern capital, A.D. 525, to serve his own
purpose, but charged by Theodore, the Gothic king
of Italy, to engage the emperor Justin to cease from
persecuting the Arians. With a crowd of the
nobility and clergy, the emperor met him, and bowed
down to the very ground before the vicar of the
blessed Peter, and coveting the honour of being
crowned by him, received at his hands the imperial
diadem ! The patriarch invited the Pope to per-
form Divine service in the great church together
with him ; but he would neither accept the invita-
32 THE INQUISITION BEVEA.LED.
tion, nor even see the patriarch, till he agreed not
only to yield him the first place, but to seat him on
a kind of throne above himself, alleging no other
reason than because lie was the Roman High Priest !
The patriarch indulged him in every thinghe required,
and they celebrated Easter together, with extra-
ordinary pomp and solemnity. The Pope officiated
in the Latin tongue, according to the rites of the
Latin church.
Pre-eminence being thus acknowledged by the
patriarch of Constantinople to the pontiff of Rome,
it cannot be matter of wonder that Justinian, the
nephew and successor of the emperor Justin, in his
epistle to the new Pope, John II., writes, A.D.
533, " We hasten to SUBJECT and to unite to your
holiness all the priests of the whole East. Nor do
we suffer anything which belongs to the state of
the church, however manifest and undoubted, that
is agitated, to pass without the knowledge of your
holiness, the head of all the holy churches ! "
This pre-eminence was given more fully, two years
after, in a memorial to the pontiff, by " the bishops
and clergy of Constantinople." It was addressed
" To our most holy lord, and most blessed father of
fathers, Agapetus, archbishop of the Romans and
patriarch, the bishops of the oriental diocese, and
those who dwell in the holy places of Christ our
Lord, with the residents and other classes assem-
bled in this royal city.' ' Plain Christians may wonder
at all this sacerdotal blasphemy, so utterly at variance
with all that they read in the New Testament,
except of the predicted Antichrist !
PBOGEESS OF ANTICHEIST. 33
But the dignity of " universal patriarch " being
assumed by the bishop of Constantinople, " Gregory
the Great " denounced it as a "profane" "proud,"
" antichristian" title; as "impious," "execrable,"
"blasphemous," "infernal," "diabolical." On this
occasion, Gregory assumed the title of affected
humility, ever since retained by the Popes, " SEK-
TAXT or THE SEBYAXTS or GOD ! " Still that
lofty title, which he condemned in his ambitious
brother John, he sought for himself, as is evident
from his adulatory letter to those monsters of
wickedness, Phocas and his wife Leontia.
Phocas had opened a passage to the imperial
throne, by the murder of Mauricius and his six
sons ; and afterwards, most barbarously, of the
empress Constantia, and her three daughters,
dragging them from their refuge in one of the
churches of Constantinople. Mauricius is com-
mended as a prince of many virtues, and of but few
vices ; and Gregory, in his letters to him, hypocri-
tically declares, that " his tongue could not express
the good he had received of the Almighty, and his
lord the emperor ; and that he thought himself
bound, in gratitude, to pray incessantly for the life
of his most pious and most Christian lord ; and
that, in return for the goodness of his most religious
lord to him, he could do no less than love the very
ground on which he trod."
Mauricius, however, favouring the title assumed
by the patriarch John, Gregory was offended ; and,
like many a courtier, congratulated the murderer,
Phocas, on his being proclaimed emperor ; saying,
34 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
with the most consummate hypocrisy, " Let the
heavens rejoice ! let the earth leap for joy ! let the
whole people return thanks for so happy a change!"
In the same strain he wrote, in reply to the first
letter of Phocas, and to the Empress Leontia he
says, " What tongue can utter, what mind can
conceive, the thanks we owe to God, who has placed
you on the throne, to ease us of the yoke with
which we have hitherto been so cruelly galled ?
Let the angels give glory to God in heaven ! let
men return thanks to God upon earth ! for the
republic is relieved, and our sorrows are banished!"
Mr. Bower, in his " Life of Gregory," asks,
" Who would have expected such letters from a
Christian bishop to a usurper ! a tyrant ! a mur-
derer ! a regicide ? Who would not have thought
Gregory, of all men, the least capable of becoming
his panegyrist, of applauding him in his usurpation,
murder, and tyranny? Gregory, I say, whose
manners and whole conduct have hitherto appeared
irreproachable ! But what virtue can be proof in a
Pope against the jealousy of a rival ? "
"Gregory the Great" died A.D. 604, without attain-
ing his object ; but he has been highly extolled by
the Pvomish church, by whom he has been canonised
as a saint. He was a man of profound talents, and
of equal priestcraft, as the venerable martyrologist,
John Fox, says of this Pope, " Of the number of all
the first bishops before him in the primitive time,
he was the basest ; of all them that came after him
he was the best."
Sabinian succeeded to the popedom, A.D. 605;
PEOGEESS OF ANTICHEIST. 35
and Boniface, A.D. 607. This latter priest, formerly
nuncio of Gregory, by flattering the emperor, as
his master had done, prevailed on Phocas to " revoke
the decree of Constantinople in 588, entailing the
title of universal bishop on the bishop of Con-
stantinople, and to transfer it to Boniface and his
successors, declaring the bishop of Rome the head
of the universal church!"
Pope Boniface, therefore, on receiving this impe-
rial edict, assembled a council in the church of St.
Peter at Eome, consisting of seventy-two bishops,
and thirty-four presbyters, and all the deacons and
inferior clergy of the city, and issued a decree as
absolute monarch of the church ! His successors
pursued his policy ; " nor did their boundless ambi-
tion allow them or the world," as Mr. Bower states,
" to enjoy any rest, till -they got themselves acknow-
leged for UNIYEESAL AIONABCHS, as well as TJNI-
VEESAL BISHOPS!"
Throughout the seventh century, popery ad-
vanced, while the name of Christianity was dreaded,
and by many abhorred, on account of the wicked
lives of its professed ministers. It was dishonoured
by various heresies and idolatries. Some of their
leaders filled the eastern empire with carnage and
assassinations, of which, indeed, the Catholics were
scarcely less guilty ; so that the vengeance of the
Christians was regarded with the deepest horror.
This shocking exhibition was observed with asto-
nishment by reflecting Jews and pagans ; when
Mohammed, an Arab travelling merchant, a young
man of singular talents, ambition, and enthusiasm,
36 THE INQUISITION BE YEA LED.
having witnessed these abominations, formed a
design of a new system of religion, which should
destroy the popular idolatries. Aided, and perhaps
prompted by a learned Jew, and an 'apostate from
Christianity, he succeeded. His system rejected
the idolatry of the Arabs, and the worship of saints
and relics by professed Christians, while it in-
cluded the chief facts of patriarchal history in
the Scriptures, mingled with many Arabian and
Jewish fables. This he pretended was the pure
religion taught by Moses, by the prophets, and
by Jesus Christ. By this artful device, and as
a military chief, he engaged multitudes of fol-
lowers ; and thus, by rapine and war, he soon
obtained the sovereignty of Arabia and several
adjoining countries. In this century, therefore,
"the mystery of iniquity" prevailed, fulfilling the
Divine prophecies regarding Antichrist in the west,
as monarch in the church at Borne, but in the
language of Scripture, a " BEAST ;" and, in the east,
by the imposture of Mohammed, as the predicted
"FALSE PEOPHET." (Eev. xvi. 13 xvii.)
Mohammedanism reigned, in all its savage bigotry,
in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, under
the Saracen and Turkish military leaders, over the
finest parts of Asia and Africa, and in several king-
doms of Europe; and as image-worship prevailed
among professing Christians, with endless priestly
abuses and pious frauds, the Scriptures being almost
unknown to the people, many families, nominally
Christian, relinquished the name of Christ, assum-
ing that of the false prophet, Mohammed.
PBOGEESS OF ANTICHEIST. 37
Popery still advanced in the west ; and the bar-
barous nations proselyted from paganism, being
kept in ignorance of the Holy Scriptures, were
unable to detect the gross impositions of the priests,
who pretended to possess the power of forgiving
the sins of men. Hence, many of the princes and
nobles, having acquired wealth by rapine and mur-
der, gave large donations to their religious instruc-
tors, to save them from the torments in the future
world due to their crimes. These gifts were com-
monly called " The price of transgression for the
redemption of souls!" Pepin, king of France,
transferred to Pope Stephen III., A.D. 756, the
Italian provinces, which he had conquered from the
Lombards ; and this was enlarged by the addition
of Home itself, by Charlemagne, a few years after.
From that time to the present, that territory has
been regarded as " the temporal patrimony of St.
Peter."
Immense riches were by this means soon pos-
sessed by the priesthood. Emperors, kings, and
princes invested bishops with the possession of whole
provinces, cities, castles, and fortresses, with the
rights of sovereignty ! But, among all these, the
Pope maintained his pre-eminence ; and this was
willingly conceded, as essential to the usurped domi-
nations of the inferior prelates. The western bar-
barians who received the name of Christ, looked
upon the bishop of Borne as they had regarded
their arch-druid ; and the ignorant people yielded
to the bishops a boundless authority, which they
had given to their priests in paganism. The con-
38 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
sequences of this superstition were most pernicious ;
for it gave to the Roman pontiff a despotic power
in civil affairs ; and hence arose the horrible notion,
that all those who were excommunicated by the Pope
forfeited thereby all their rights as citizens, and the
common claims of humanity.
Twenty-eight popes, amid five dreadful schisms,
are enumerated in the tenth century ; several were
sons of the infamous prostitutes Theodora and her
daughters, Theodora and Merozia influencing the
chief ecclesiastics. Their premature deaths or depo-
sition were the fruits of their flagitious lives, details
of which cannot stain these pages. Dr. Mosheim
truly states, " the history of the Roman pontiffs that
lived in this century, is a history of so many mon-
sters, and not of men, and exhibits a horrible series
of the most flagitious, tremendous, and complicated
crimes." Cardinal Baronius describes them as
" monstrous and infamous in their lives, dissolute in
their manners, and villanous in all things."
Popery attained its highest elevation in the
eleventh century ; and this will be seen in its genuine
form, as the " man of sin," " exalting himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped,"
in the extravagant titles now assumed by the popes.
They were called " universal fathers," and " masters
of the world." Notwithstanding vigorous opposition
from several sovereigns, they carried their insolent
pretensions so far as to proclaim themselves, " lords
of the universe," "arbiters of the fate of nations,"
and " supreme rulers of the kings and princes of the
earth !" One instance of this abominable assump-
PBOGEESS OF ANTICHRIST. 39
tion will best illustrate the hateful spirit of popery,
while the reading of it will not fail to shock the
feelings of every Christian.
Henry IV., emperor of Germany, opposed the
arrogant claims of Gregory VII. The haughty
pontiff at once excommunicated him, and excited
the princes of the empire to make war upon him.
Being ignorant of the Holy Scriptures, and bowed
down by superstition, he was terrified by the ana-
themas of the Pope, as if he had command over the
destinies of men, as the pretended vicar of Christ ;
he was, therefore, persuaded to throw himself into
the hands of the pontiff, to yield to his clemency,
and to await his dread decision. Filled with appre-
hension of eternal consequences if he refused,
Henry consented ; and submitted to the degrading
penance which had been prescribed ; so as to stand,
with his empress and family, at the gates of the
fortress of Canusium, during three days, in the
open air, in a severe February, A.D. 1077, having
his feet bare, his head uncovered, and with no other
raiment than a piece of coarse woollen cloth thrown
over his body, to cover his nakedness. On the
fourth day he was with difficulty admitted to the
presence of that lordly priest, who, with the utmost
hypocrisy, as a minister of religion, and with much
ceremony, granted him absolution ! But he forbade
him ever after to assume the title or the ensigns of
sovereignty ! Such a daring outrage upon human-
ity, as well as royalty, excited universal abhorrence ;
but not one of the greatest princes in Europe had
the courage to utter a word of reproof to the terrible
40 THE INQUISITION EEVEALE1).
ANTICHBIST ! ! Such was the spirit and the power
that originated and carried on the execrable COUET
OF HOLT INQUISITION ! !
With these advances of the papal power there
was a corresponding corruption in the doctrines and
ceremonies of religion. While Romanist* pretend
that theirs is the only pure form of Christianity,
we know that all their peculiarities are novelties,
the contrivances of priests, to serve their own pur-
poses. Their doctrines were never formed into a
system or settled until the council of Trent, at the
close of which, A.D. 1564, they were first published
in the creed of Pope Pius IV. And one of the
greatest points, relating to the Virgin Mary,
whether she were conceived in sin, fiercely con-
tested between monkish sects in the Romish
Church, was determined in the affirmative, first by
Pope Pius IX., in 1849.
Many of the practices had previously been incul-
cated by individuals, before their establishment as
follows:
A.D.
The celibacy of the clergy first ordained 305
The invocation of Saints and Angels 350
The Virgin called Mother of God 431
The Virgin invoked in litanies 620
The worship of images 787
Transubstantiation originated 831
Transubstantiation established 1215
Auricular confession, and priestly pardon 1215
Purgatory affirmed, A.D. 1140 : Decreed 1563
ITS OBIGIIT AND PEOGRESS. 41
CHAPTEK III.
OEIGIN OF THE EOMISH INQUISITION.
Persecution of the Paulicians Albigenses Their sufferings in
Languedoc In England, Spain, France Counts Ray-
mond and Roger Massacre of their People Dominic,
founder of the Inquisition.
INTOLEEANCE seems essential to the office of a
priest ; as no sooner was this character assumed by
Christian pastors, than they commenced persecution
against those who disputed their claims. ' Hence
originated the Inquisition. Its operations have ever
been directed against all who differed from the
ruling prelates, even when making their appeal to
the Holy Scriptures. And such there were from
the time of the apostles. Among the earliest of
those who were put to death by professing Chris-
tians were the Paulicians.
These people are thought to have been so called
from Paul, a preacher, of the Armenian church, in
the seventh century ; but some consider Constan-
tine of Samosata their founder, about A.D. 660.
He received from a pious deacon, who had escaped
from captivity among the Mohammedans, a copy of
the New Testament. This he esteemed as a pre-
cious gift ; and, finding the instruction of the
Scriptures different from the prevailing super-
42 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
stitions, he formed a system of theology for himself
from the sacred oracles. Constantino devoted
himself to the work of the ministry, assuming the
name of Sylvanus, a companion of the apostle Paul.
His colleagues in preaching were called Timothy,
Titus, and Tychicus ; and six of their churches
were named after those to whom Paul had addressed
his Epistles. They rejected human traditions in
religion, the worship of the Virgin Mary, of images,
and of the cross. They abolished the lofty titles
of the priesthood, and instituted pastors, with
perfect equality, and without robes to distinguish
them from the people. In Asia Minor they in-
creased greatly, and the Greek emperors persecuted
them grievously. An officer named Simeon was
sent, as an inquisitor, to seek Sylvanus, and he
was apprehended, with some of his followers, at
Colonia. As the price of liberty, they were re-
quired to stone their pastor ! One only among
them, Justus, was found sufficiently base ; and he
murdered thus his faithful teacher, who fell a martyr
for Christ, after having laboured for twenty- seven
years, diffusing the doctrine of the Gospel. Justus
aggravated his guilt by betraying his brethren;
while Simeon, observing the grace of God in the
joyful sufferers, embraced the Gospel, forsook the
world, preached the faith, and died also a martyr
for Jesus.
From the Paulicians arose, as it is believed, a
branch of the celebrated Christian confessors, the
Valdenses, or "Waldenses. Dr. Haweis, therefore,
says of them, " At the close of the seventh century
ITS OETGIN AND PEOGEESS. 43
we see the first traces of a small but precious body,
afterwards named Valdenses, which some suppose a
branch of the Paulicians. Retiring from the inso-
lence and oppressions of the Komish clergy, and
disgusted with their vices, they sought a hiding-
place in the secluded valleys of the Pais de Vaud,
embosomed by the Alps, and removed from the
observation of their persecutors, where they might
enjoy purer worship and communion with God."
These Paulicians increased, and scriptural know-
ledge was eagerly sought by several persons, who
became eminent preachers in the southern parts of
Prance, in Savoy, - in Piedmont, and in the con-
tiguous districts of Germany. Their followers were
called after their teachers, or by various contemp-
tuous appellations, taken from, their peculiar
customs or principles. Some were Petrobrusians,
from Peter de Bruys, who, after twenty years'
labour, became a martyr for Christ ; Henricians,
from Henry, a disciple and colleague of Peter;
Albigenses, from the city of Albi, where they were
condemned in a council ; Cathari, or Puritans, from
their seeking the purity of Christian doctrine ; and
Waldenses, from Peter "Waldo, a merchant of Lyons,
in France. This great man procured translations
of several parts of the Scriptures, and commenced
his ministry, having relinquished his trade, about
A.D. 1180, especially in France and Lombardy.
The converts of these zealous men became very
numerous ; and they soon attracted the notice
of the papal court in this century.
Egbert, a German abbot, saya of them, " They
3)2
44 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
are increased to great multitudes throughout all
countries. In Germany, we call them Cathari;
in Inlanders, they call them Pipples ; in France,
Tisserands (weavers), because many of them are of
that occupation."
Among these people many churches were formed,
with intelligent and devout pastors of their own
choosing. The Cathari, especially in Piedmont,
formed separate societies, which were screened, in
a great measure, from the popish prelates, by the
retired seclusion of their habitations in the valleys,
from which they were called Valdenses.
These people were regarded with jealousy by the
prelates, and their enemies commonly accused
them of grievous errors ; but it is well known that
they were slandered, and that, while they rejected
the claims and idolatries of the Eomish priesthood,
they generally held the essentials of the Gospel, as
they derived their principles from the Scriptures.
Egbert, the abbot, says of them, " They are armed
with all those passages of Holy Scripture, which, in
any degree, seem to favour their views : with these
they know how to defend themselves, and to oppose
the Catholic truth, though they mistake entirely
the true sense of Scripture, which cannot be dis-
covered without great judgment."
Evervinus, an abbot in Cologne, in a letter to
Bernard, the most famous priest of the church of
Home of his time, called St. Bernard, says, A.D.
1140, " There have been lately some heretics dis-
covered among us, near Cologne, though some of
them have, with satisfaction, returned again to the
ITS ORIGIN AND PROGRESS. 45
church. One of their bishops and his companions
openly opposed us in the assembly of the clergy
and laity, in the presence of the archbishop of
Cologne and of many of the nobility, defending
their heresy by the words of Christ and his apostles.
Finding that they made no impression, they desired
that a day might be appointed for them, on which
they might bring their teachers to a conference,
promising to return to the church, provided they
found their masters unable to answer the argu-
ments of their opponents, but that otherwise they
would rather die than depart from their judgment.
Upon this declaration, having been admonished to
repent for three days, they were seized by the
people in the excess of zeal, and /burnt to death;
and what is very amazing, they came to the stake,
and bore the pain, not only with patience, but even
with joy ! Were I with you. father, I should be
glad to ask you, how these members of Satan could
persist in their heresy with such courage and
constancy as is scarcely to be found in the most
religious believers in Christianity."
St. Bernard himself was a violent persecutor,
yet he says of them, " If you ask them of their
faith, nothing can be more Christian ; if you observe
their conversation, nothing can be more blameless ;
and what they speak they prove by deeds." Clau-
dius, archbishop of Turin, writes, " Their heresy
excepted, they generally live a purer life than other
Christians." Cassini, a Franciscan friar, says,
" That ALL THE EBBOBS of these Waldenses con-
sisted in this, that they denied the church of Rome
46 THE INQUISITION REYEALED.
to be the HOLT MOTHEE-CHUECH, AND WOULD NOT
OBEY HEB TRADITIONS!" Thuanus, a Catholic
historian, says they are charged with holding,
" That the church of Rome, because it renounced
the true faith of Christ, WAS THE WHOEE or
BABYLON, and the barren tree which Christ him-
self cursed and commanded to be plucked up ; that,
consequently, NO OBEDIENCE WAS TO BE PAID TO
THE POPE, or to the bishops who maintain her
errors; that a monastic life was the sink and
dungeon of the church ; that the orders of the
priesthood were marks of the great beast men-
tioned in the Revelation ; that the fire of purga-
tory, the solemn mass, the consecration days of
churches, the worship of saints, and propitiation
for the dead, were devices of Satan."
Exemplary as were their morals, and scriptural
as were their principles, thus testified by their
enemies, cruel persecution was carried on against
these dissenters ; and the inquisitors, sent by the
Pope to search for and to destroy them, brought
multitudes to suffer as martyrs for Christ. Some,
we have seen, fell victims at Cologne, while others
escaped from the power of their enemies. They
found, however, the intolerance of popery where-
ever they went. This will be illustrated by one
fact in English history of that period. Thirty of
these persecuted Germans sought an asylum in
England, and settled as a church near Oxford, A.D.
1159, but they were apprehended by order of the
clergy. Their pastor, Gerard, was a man of learn-
ing; and he professed that they believed the
ITS OBIGEN* AND PROGRESS. 47
doctrines of the apostles, though they disbelieved in
purgatory, prayers for the dead, and the invocation
of saints. But they \vere condemned in an eccle-
siastical council, and delivered to the magistrates
to be punished. The king, Henry II., at the
instigation of the ruling clergy, ordered them to be
branded on the forehead with a red-hot iron ; to
be whipped through the streets of Oxford ; and,
having their clothes cut short at their girdles, to be
turned into the open country. None being allowed
to afford them shelter, they perished with cold and
hunger !
Dr. Milner, in his valuable " Church History," in
recording this fact concerning these earliest dis-
senters from popery, who were put to death in
England, makes this natural reflection : " What
darkness must at that time have filled this island !
A wise and sagacious king, a renowned university,
the whole body of the clergy and laity, all united
in expelling Christ from their coasts ! Driven,
most probably, from home by the rage of persecu-
tion, they had brought the light and power of the
Gospel with them into England. Brief as is the
account of them, it is evident they were the mar-
tyrs of Christ."
Papal vengeance was threatened against all
whom the prelates regarded as heretics ; and, A.D.
1163, in the synod of Tours, it was commanded to
all bishops and priests in Languedoc, whose capital
was Thoulouse, " to take care, and to forbid, under
pain of excommunication, every person from pre-
suming to give reception, or the least assistance to
48 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
the followers of this heresy, tvhich first legan in the
country of Thoulouse, whenever they shall be dis-
covered. As many of them as can be found, let
them be imprisoned by the Catholic princes, and
punished with the forfeiture of all their substance."
In like manner, Pope Alexander III., A.D. 1179,
issued an edict, which expuesses his mind thus :
" Because in Gascony, Albi, in the parts of Thou-
louse, and other regions, the accursed perverseness
of the heretics, Cathari, or Patrenas, or Publicans, or
distinguished by sundry names, has so prevailed:
"We therefore SUBJECT TO A CTJKSE, both them-
selves and their defenders and harbourers; and,
under a curse, we prohibit all persons from admit-
ting them into their houses, or receiving them upon
their lands, or cherishing them, or exercising any
trade with them. But if any die in their sin, let
them not receive Christian burial, under pretence
of any privilege granted by us, or any other pretext
whatever ! "
Some of the Waldenses having escaped to Arra-
gon, in Spain, King Ildefonsus, A.D. 1194, issued
an edict, by which he banished them from his
kingdom, and all his dominions, as enemies of the
cross of Christ, profaners of the Christian religion,
and public enemies, adding, " If any, from this day,
shall presume to receive into their houses the afore-
said Waldenses, or other heretics, or to hear their
abominable preachings, or to give them food, let
him know that he shall incur the indignation of
Almighty God and ours, and without appeal be
punished as though guilty of high treason. How-
ITS OBI GIN A!N*D PfiOGEESS. 49
ever, we give these wicked wretches liberty till the
day after All Saints (though it may seem contrary
to justice and reason), by which they must be gone
from our dominions ; but afterwards they shall be
plundered, whipped, and beaten, and treated with
all manner of disgrace and severity."
Pope Innocent III., about A.D. 1198, having just
ascended the pontifical throne, deputed two monks
of Citeaux, Gruido and Regnier, to proceed to
Narbonne, as inquisitors, to search after and punish
heretics ; and in the following year, Peter of
Castelnau was added to that mission, with in-
creased authority. They promised indulgences to
all who afforded them aid against the heretics ; and
they succeeded in this office, but rendered them-
selves hated for their bigotry and cruelty, wherever
they carried on their antichristian work. They
were assisted greatly by the services of a body of
preaching friars, under their leader, Dominic.
Francis, another zealous monk, with a numerous
company of disciples, ^vas deputed by the Pope to
contend against the heretics in Italy ; and these
two leaders became the founders, about A.D. 1200,
of the famous, but opposed orders of friars, called,
after them, Dominicans and Franciscans.
Castelnau projected the extension of his mission
into the territories of Thoulouse, A.D. 1207 ; but
the prince refused his sanction to this invasion, for
such a purpose, and the haughty priest excommu-
nicated Raymond. This audacious act received the
express sanction of the Pope, but it led to contests ;
and one of the friends of Raymond, provoked by
50 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
the insulting denunciations of the agent of the
pontiff, struck him with his poniard, and killed him.
Innocent, incensed to fury by the murder of
Castelnau, seized the occasion to prosecute the
designs of his cruel bigotry, and summoned the
counts, barons, and knights of the four provinces
of the southern parts of France, to invade the ter-
ritories of Count Raymond, authorising them to
seize the property of the heretics. As the same
indulgences were promised to those engaging in
this war, as had been assured to the crusaders
against the Saracens in the Holy Land, an army of
fifty thousand cross-bearers was soon assembled,
and placed for service, during the period of forty
days, under the direction of Arnald Almeric, abbot
of Citeaux. The Pope gave directions regarding
this crusade : " We counsel you, with the apostle
Paul, to employ guile with regard to the count ;
for in this case it ought to be called prudence. We
must attack separately, those who are separated
from unity. Leave, for a time, the count of Thou-
louse, employing towards him a wise dissimulation,
that the other heretics may the more easily be
defeated, and that afterwards we may crush him,
when he shall be left alone."
Raymond and his nephew, Roger, count of Be-
ziers, waited upon Arnald, to avert the impending
storm ; but to no purpose. Raymond submitted to
the terrible power, and joined the army that was
marching against his own subjects and those of his
nephew ; but he first performed the dreadful
penance appointed for him on account of the
ITS OEIGIN AST) PEOGEESS. 51.
murder of Castelnau. He was made to swear upon
the host, as the body of Christ, and upon the
relics of the saints, that he would obey the Pope,
and the holy Roman church, and pursue the Albi-
genses, ivith fire and sword, till they were extir-
pated. Having taken this oath, he was ordered to
strip himself naked, from head to foot, with only a
linen cloth around his waist ; the legate threw a
priest's stole round his neck, and leading him by it
into the church, nine times round the pretended
martyr's grave, he inflicted the discipline of the
church upon the naked shoulders of the humbled
prince. He then granted him absolution, on his
taking another oath, inviolably to maintain all the
rights, privileges, immunities, and liberties of the
church and the clergy !
Count Eoger offered terms of reconciliation ; but
the legate rejected his proposals, and intimated
that no mercy would be shown to him. The city
of Beziers was taken; and the inhabitants, who
had crowded into the churches, were barbarously
massacred ; so that seven thousand corpses were
said to have been found in the church of St. Mag-
dalen. Some were desirous of sparing the Catho-
lics who might be among the heretics, and they
applied to the legate for that purpose ; but, in a
rage, he replied, " Kill them all ; the Lord knowefh
them that are Sis /"
Beziers contained a population of about fifteen
thousand ; and Arnald, in his report to the Pope,
acknowledged that so many were massacred ! But
as multitudes, especially women and children, from
52 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
the surrounding country, had sought a refuge
there, in hope of security against the invading
army, and none were spared, historians of fidelity
reckon that sixty thousand were then murdered by
the agents of the Pope, and the city was then
burnt to ashes !
Count Roger had escaped to Carcassonne, which
was next besieged, as he had shut himself up with
the inhabitants in that city ; but he offered to capi-
tulate. Dissimulation was practised, as enjoined
by the Pope ; so that the prince, with three hun-
dred knights, were admitted to confer with Arnald,
who, with the leaders of the army, had given a
solemn oath for their safety ; but having them now
in his power, he perfidiously arrested them, deli-
vering them over to the general of the army, Simon
de Montfort. The citizens, however, made their
escape, during the night, and fled to other pro-
vinces ; but a few of them being captured, four
hundred of the captives were burned alive, andjlfty
more were hanged, by Simon de Montfort, under
the direction of Arnald, as legate of the Pope.
The noble Count Eoger was thrown into prison,
and soon died by violence, as acknowledged by the
Pope.
It would be impossible to detail the sufferings of
the poor Albigenses, under Simon de Montfort.
With an army of cross-bearers, A.D. 1210, he took
several strong castles, and hanged the inhabitants
and refugees on gibbets. He selected more than a
hundred of the people of Brom, tore out their eyes,
and cut off their noses, and sent them, under the
ITS OEIQIN AIO) PBOGBESS. 53
guidance of a one-eyed man, to Cabaret, to terrify
the inhabitants by their example. In the following
year, he stormed La Vaur, and destroyed the inha-
bitants by fire and sword. He hanged Almeric,
the governor, lord of Montreal, and then massacred
eighty of the chief citizens. His sister, Girarda,
the lady of the castle, by order of the count, was
thrown into a pit, and covered with stones. He
afterwards collected all the heretics in the castle,
and burned them, with rejoicing. He took pos-
session of the castle of Cassero, which surrendered ;
but "the pilgrims, seizing nearly sixty heretics,
burned them ivith infinite joy" as testified by the
Catholic historian, Petrus Pallensis. At Castris de
Termis they put Raymond, the governor, into
prison, where he died shortly ; and, in one large
fire, they burned his wife, his sister, and his
daughter, with some other noble ladies, whom they
could not prevail upon to return to the profession
of the church of Rome. Thus they were sacrificed
to papal bigotry, as faithful martyrs for Christ !
What adds to the revolting character of these
murders was, as usual, the bishops and priests
present in the army, in their pontifical habits, who
expressed their satisfaction in witnessing the
carnage, by singing Veni Creator !
Historians scarcely know how to speak of these
enormities. Sismondi states, that "hundreds of
villages had seen all their inhabitants massacred
with a blind fury, and without the crusaders giving
themselves the trouble to examine whether they
contained a single heretic. "We cannot tell what
54 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
credit to give to the numbers assigned for the
armies of the cross, nor whether we may believe
that, in the course of a single year, five hundred
thousand men were poured into Languedoc." But
this we certainly know, that armies, much superior
in numbers, and much inferior in discipline, to those
which were employed in other wars, had arrived for
seven or eight successive years ; that they entered
this country without pay, and without magazines ;
that they provided for all their necessities with the
sword; that they considered it as their right to
live at the expense of the country ; and that all the
harvests of the peasants, all the provisions and
merchandise of the citizens, were on every occasion
seized with a rapacious hand, and divided among
the crusaders. No calculation can ascertain, with
any degree of precision, the dissipation of wealth,
or the destruction of human life, which were the
. consequences of the crusade against the Albigenses.
" There was scarcely a peasant who did not reckon
in his family some unhappy one cut off by the
sword of Montfort's soldiers. More than three
quarters of the knights and landed proprietors had
been spoiled of their castles and fiefs, to gratify
some of the French soldiers some of Simon
de Montfort's creatures. Thus spoiled, they were
named Faidits, and had the favour granted them of
remaining in the country, provided they were
neither heretics nor excommunicated, nor suspected
of having given an asylum to those who were so ;
but they were never to be permitted to enter a
walled city, nor to enjoy the honour of mounting a
1ST OBI6IN AND PBOGBESS. 55
war-horse. Every species of injustice, all kinds of
affronts, persecutions of every name, had been
heaped on the heads of the unhappy Languedocians,
under the general name of Albigenses."
So truly horrible was this bloody work, that a
native of Thoulouse, a, poet and a Catholic, who wit-
nessed this crusade against the Albigenses, after-
wards delivered the following denunciation against
Antichrist : " I know I shall be censured if I write
against Rome, that sink of all evil ; but I cannot
hold my peace. It is no wonder that the world lies
in wickedness. It is you, treacherous Rome, who
have sown confusion and war. By the baits of thy
delusive pardons, thou deliverest up the French
nobility to persecution, and dost establish thy
throne in the bottomless pit. Heaven will remember
thy pilgrimage to Avignon, and the murders thou
committest there. In what book hast thou read
that it was thy duty to exterminate Christians?
Like an enraged beast, thou devourest both great
and small. Rome, your head and whole body is
arraigned for having committed that horrible murder
at Beziers. Under the appearance of a lamb, with
an air of modesty and simplicity, you are inwardly
a wily serpent and a ravenous wolf. Rome, I
comfort myself in the assurance that thy power
will decay, and thou wilt soon be no more. If thy
dominion is not destroyed, the world will be over-
thrown!"
Dominic witnessed many of these sad outrages
and dreadful slaughters ; and he proceeded, as the
chief inquisitor, to search out the number and
56 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
quality of the alleged heretics, to excite the princes
and prelates to extirpate them, and so to fulfil his
commission from the Pope. His success he fully
reported to Rome ; and formed a plan of a regular
Court of Inquisition. In this he was aided by a
nobleman, with whom he had resided at Thoulouse;
for having been seduced by that zealous monk to
the Catholic faith, he devoted his mansion and his
other property to the service of that father.
Dominic submitted his scheme to the papal
legate, Arnald, by whom it was highly approved ;
and that abbot appointed him inquisitor-general in
Grallia Narboneusis, about A.D. 1208 ; and he was
confirmed in that office, in the fourth Laterau
Council, A.D. 1215, at which Dominic was present,
and greatly honoured by^the Pope on account of
his exploits against the Albigenses.
Dominic was a native of Spain, of the noble
family of Gusman. His mother dreamed, before
his birth, that she was delivered of a whelp carrying
a lighted torch in his mouth ; that he alarmed the
world by his barking, and set it on fire by his torch.
These were interpreted of his preaching, by which
he terrified the people, and of his dreadful Inquisi-
tion. His promotion was the consequence of his
fiery zeal and activity ; and his priestly domination
will appear from a few passages in his imposition of
penance on a reclaimed heretic, as follow :
" Brother Dominic, the least of preachers, to all
Christ's faithful people, to whom these presents
shall come, greeting in the Lord :
" By the authority of the Cistertiau abbot, who
IN SEYEEAL COUNTRIES. 57
hath appointed us to this office, we have reconciled
the bearer of these presents, P. Rogerius, converted
by Grod's blessing from the heretical sect, charging
and requiring him, by the oath which he hath
taken, that three Sundays, or three festival days,
he be led by a priest, naked from his shoulders
down to his drawers, from the coining into the
town unto the church doors, being whipped all the
way!" Most rigorous rules for the whole of his
life, and total separation from his wife, were also
imposed on him, on pain of excommunication !
Dominic founded sixty monasteries, in different
provinces, forming the centres of so many courts
of inquisition ; and he died, A.D. 1221, esteemed
as an extraordinary character ; so that he was
canonised, A.D. 1234, by Pope Gregory IX. The
Dominicans were called Jacobins in France, and
Slack Friars in England.
CHAPTEE IV.
THE INQUISITION IN SEVERAL COUNTBIES.
Inquisition in France Pontifical decrees Used by Princes
Arragon, Castile, Navarre and Portugal Various coun-
tries Sicily, Rome, Venice Apostolics Knights Tem-
plars Beghards Beguins Lombardy Milan.
PAPAL policy, by courts of inquisition, continued
to prevail in many countries where they had been
established. Raymond the younger recovered the
58 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
dominions of his father, and banished the inqui-
sitors from Thoulouse. But his chief city was
besieged and taken by Arnalric, son of Simon de
Montfort. In the presence of two cardinals,
therefore, he was led up before the high altar in
the church, covered with only a linen garment, and
there absolved ; but it was on the hard condition
of resigning the greater part of his dominions.
The Inquisition was then restored, and laws still
more severe than before were passed against
heretics.
Louis, the French king, to oblige and gratify
the Pope, made laws against the heretics, con-
stituting every bishop in France a kind of inqui-
sitor, with power to punish those whom he judged
enemies of the Pope. Provincial councils were
held at Thoulouse, A.D. 1229, and, A.D. 1230, at
Home, where several persons were burnt alive the
following year; and at Narbonne, A.D. 1235, in
which the prelates made severe laws against the
heretics. These laws were collected by order of
Pope Gregory IX. ; and, with other decretals of
Pope Boniface VIII., they formed the laws for the
" Court of Holy Inquisition."
Frederick II., emperor of Germany, issued
severe edicts, ordaining that those who should be
adjudged as heretics by the prelates of the church,
should be put to death without mercy ; and that
his imperial protection should be enjoyed by the
Predicant friars.
Louis, to ingratiate himself with Pope Alex-
ander, as Innocent IV. had appointed the provincial
IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES. 59
of the Predicant friars inquisitor to extirpate
heretics in Thoulouse, requested that pontiff to
constitute the prior of the Predicant order at Paris
inquisitor over the whole kingdom. The proposal
was too pleasing to be refused by him ; and he
nominated him, therefore, to that office, with ample
power. Besides, as many, who had excited the
fury of the inquisitors, fled to the churches for the
benefit of ecclesiastical immunity, the Pope abo-
lished that privilege. With this he republished
seven terrible laws, empowering magistrates to aid
the inquisitors in punishing heretics, as ordained
by the Emperor Frederick. These pontifical de-
crees, authorising inquisitors in their proceedings
generally, exhibit the will of the Pope regarding
those who rejected his religion for the doctrine of
Christ in the Scriptures :
" We being willing to prevent the danger of so
many souls, entreat, admonish, and beseech your
wisdom, and strictly command you, by these apos-
tolical writings, as you have any regard for the
Divine judgment, that you appoint some of the
brethren committed to your care, men learned in
the law of the Lord, and such as you know to be
fit for this purpose, to be preachers generally to the
clergy and people ; and, in order the more effec-
tually to execute their office, let them take into
their assistance some discreet persons, and care-
fully inquire out heretics. And if they find out
any, either really culpable, or such who are de-
famed, let them proceed against them according to
our statutes. And that they may more freely and
E2
60 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
i
effectually execute the office committed to them,
we, confiding in the mercy of God Almighty, and the
authority of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul,
remit, for three years, the penance enjoined them,
to all who shall attend their preaching for twenty
days. And as for those who shall be happy to die
in the prosecution of this affair, we grant a plenary
pardon of all their sins, for which they are contrite
in their hearts, and which they confess with their
mouths."
This dreadful tribunal was found, by the sove-
reign princes, to be a convenient engine for
revenging supposed or real injuries received by
them ; since it was necessary, for their purpose,
only to bring against their victims the charge of
heresy. By this means, a great number of indi-
viduals, known to be devoted Catholics, were pro-
secuted to death by the Emperor Frederick. Yet
both he and Louis, as it suited their interests,
made vigorous opposition to the proceedings of the
Inquisition ; for which, however, they paid dearly,
as they were threatened and humbled by the
haughty Antichrist. Hence arose a series of
ruinous contests between the intolerant pontiff
and the mightiest sovereign princes.
Spain, at this period, comprehended the four
Christian kingdoms of Arragon, under James I. ;
Castile, under Ferdinand III. ; Navarre, under
Sancho VIII. ; and Portugal, under Sancho II.
Arragon was found, A.D. 1232, to contain some of
the Waldenses; and the Pope commanded King
James to proceed in the work of extirpating them
IN SEVERAL COUNTEIES. 61
as heretics. A synod was held against them, A.D.
1240, at Tarracon, when the archbishop, with his
suffragans, and Peter Cadente, were appointed
inquisitors for the province.
Castile and Leon also received this court, A.D.
1290, as it had been established in Arragon. And
during the thirteenth century the Inquisition was
set up in various other countries, where the Pope
possessed influence, especially in Austria, Hungary,
Poland, Dalinatia, Bagusia, Bosnia, Croatia, Istria,
and several provinces of Germany. It was ex-
tended, also, to Syria and Palestine, for the purpose
of proceeding against Jews as well as heretics.
The policy of the inquisitors, however, differed in
different places ; but the Austrian Inquisition
appears to have been, conducted with extreme
cruelty; as Catholic historians testify, that many
thousands of those deemed heretics were appre-
hended, and being condemned, were burnt, by the
order of the sacred judges, in the city of Crema.
Sicily received the Inquisition about A.D. 1224.
It was at first opposed, both in the town of St.
Mark, and at Palermo ; but the Emperor Frederick
is said to have ordained, as a regulation of the
profits arising from its proceedings, that " one-
third part of the confiscated goods should be appro-
priated to the common treasury, another third be
reserved for the Pope, and the remainder to be
shared by the inquisitors ; that the spiritual hus-
bandmen should not be defrauded of their reward."
This privilege seemed to satisfy the ruling powers ;
it was renewed, A.D. 1452, by King Alphonsus, and
62 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
confirmed, A.D. 1477, by Ferdinand and Elizabeth ;
and various other privileges were accorded to the
inquisitors by the Emperor Charles V.
Borne had become the court of appeal for the
bishops from an early period . This was a most politic
arrangement of the Pope. But, to prevent incon-
venience to himself, Urban IV. created Ursarius
inquisitor-general, A.D. 1265. This office was
continued, with some intermissions, until the Refor-
mation under Luther. The doctrines of that great
man were disseminated so extensively in Italy, as
well as Germany, that the Romish court became
alarmed. Pope Clement VII., therefore, ordered
that the utmost rigour should be used against all
who professed the doctrines of the reformer ; and,
as their number appeared to increase, exhibiting the
utmost boldness, patience, and zeal, Paul III., A.D.
1543, constituted the "Holy Office" with more
extended powers, appointing six cardinals as "in-
quisitors-general." To these cardinals were added
a " commissary-general," always to be a Dominican;
an "assessor-general," and the "master of the
sacred palace." This court was carried on with
magnificence and ceremony suited to the grandees
who composed it ; and on certain occasions the
Pope presided in person. By its dreadful operations
the doctrines of the reformers were suppressed, and
its professors exterminated from Italy.
Venice received the Inquisition about A.D. 1249,
while the contests were being carried on between
the Pope and the Emperor. Many persons of
different opinions, and, perhaps, under several
IK BEVEBAL COUNTBIES. 63
denominations, fled to Venice, to live in the greater
security and quiet of that famous city ; but the
magistrates, being excited to prevent their city
from being polluted by foreign doctrines, chose
certain grave persons, zealous for the Catholic faith,
to inquire after heretics. Full power was given to
the patriarch of Grado, and other Venetian bishops,
to judge of those opinions ; and it was decreed that
whosoever was pronounced an heretic by any bishop
should be condemned to the fire. In this process,
secular judges made inquisition against heretics,
and the duke and senators pronounced the fatal
sentence.
Father Paul states, " Notwithstanding the in-
stant requests of Pope Innocent, Alexander, Urban,
Clement, and seven other Popes, their successors,
the most renewed commonwealth could never be
persuaded to receive the office of ihe friar inquisitors,
instituted^' by the Pope. The secular sufficed it,
instituted by itself, and brought forth good fruit for
God's service."
Nicholas IV., a minor friar, being exalted to the
pontifical throne, got the Inquisition to be received
by a public decree at Venice, A.D. 1289. Still,
this court was established on different principles
from those which govern it in other countries ; for
while the judgment concerning the doctrine for
which a person may be pronounced an heretic, is
determined by ecclesiastics, the judgment of the fact,
or who maintains that doctrine, and the pronouncing
of the sentence, are held to belong to the secular
judges in Venice. So that they determine what books
64 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
shall be prohibited, as well as who are heretics, and
their court is far milder, and less under the influence
of the Pope, than the other inquisitions in Italy.
Among the heretics accused by the inquisitors,
there were some forming a sect called apostolics,
from their professing to imitate the zeal of the
apostles of Christ. They attracted the notice of
Pope Honorius, A.D. 1290. Sagarelli, their leader,
was condemned by the Inquisition and burned.
Dulcinus, another of their teachers, withdrew, with
about six thousand adherents, to the valleys of the
Alps ; but Pope Clement V. sent inquisitors to seek
them with an army of crusaders, by which many
were driven among the mountains, and perished
with cold and hunger. Some of them, were captured,
including Dulcinus and his wife, who were sacrificed
at the stake, as victims to the cruelty of their anti-
christian persecutors.
Clement V., jealous of the Knights Templars, who
possessed large property in France, gladly listened
to the accusations against them by the king. Their
grand-master, De Molai, and many others, there-
fore, were arrested, A.D. 1307. The order was
abolished in the council held at Vienne, A.D. 1311,
and nearly sixty of the prisoners were condemned
and burnt. Several others were brought to the
stake in Paris, where they protested their innocence;
but their property was shared by Pope Clement
and Philip, king of France.
Others of the reputed heretics were Beghards, so
called from their ardour in prayer ; Beguins, pious
females of that society; and Lollards, so named
IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES. 65
from their singing psalms in social worship. These
were hunted in several provinces, and punished in
the usual manner by the officers of the Inquisition
as enemies of the Pope. Some of the Beguins were
patronised by persons of distinction ; and a famous
controversy arose respecting their opinions re-
garding the possession of property. Four of their
leading men were burnt at Marseilles, A.D. 1318 ;
and they were condemned as heretics and arch-
heretics by the Pope, A.D. 1329.
Lombardy received the Inquisition before A.D.
1233, when Pope Gregory IX. appointed, as chief-
inquisitor, Pietro da Yerona, a Dominican. He
was the first that put heretics to death at Milan.
In the course of his ministry he burnt many, but
he was assassinated, A.D. 1252 ; and another fell a
sacrifice to his own cruelty, Pagaiio da Lecco, A.D.
1277.
About A.D. 1320, the Pope excommunicated
Matthew Graleacius, viscount of Milan, his sons,
and followers. The city was deprived of its charter,
and all its municipal privileges ; the citizens, who
might favour the viscount, were given up to be
seized by the faithful as slaves, in full right, and
their property was granted to any who might lay
hold of it. All who sliould supply the city with
provisions were in like manner denounced ; and
this state of things continued during three years,
in which the viscount set at nought the papal
censures. With a view to humble him, the Pope,
John XXII., prosecuted the viscount for heresy ;
and, after several citations, pronounced the definite
66 THE INQUISITION KEVEA.LED.
sentence against him. The Pope also commanded
Ay card, the archbishop of Milan, and the inquisitors
in Lombardy, to proceed against him and his ad-
herents ; and the bishop of Padua and two abbots
published these sentences.
Raymond Cardonus was ordered to collect an
army to invade his dominions. Several cities were
taken, and the viscount routed ; when the senate
of Milan sent a deputation of twelve of their elders
to implore peace and absolution. Matthew re-
signed his principality to his son Graleacius, and
nimself repairing to the cathedral, protested, with a
solemn oath, against the Pope's legate as having
treated him unjustly. He left the city, and made
the same oath next day in the church of Monza,
where he died of fever, through grief. His sons
buried him, but his body was sought for to be
burned, by order of the cardinal-legate and the
inquisitors.
CHAPTER V.
THE WYCLIFFITES AND HUSSITES.
Wycliffe's ministry The Lollards Sawtree Other Martyrs
Wycliffe's bones burnt His writings Martyrdom of
Huss and Jerome Persecution of the Hussites The
Waldenses.
DIYINE prophecy dooms a perpetual overthrow to
popery ; and it declares also that this is to be
THE WYCLIFFITES AND HUSSITES. 67
accomplished by the light of the Gospel of Christ.
Instruments and agents, therefore, are needed for
this important work ; and these began to increase
in the fourteenth century. But the Inquisition was
fearfully employed in various forms to destroy
them.
Among the most distinguished opponents of the
papacy, we must number John Wyclifle, justly
called "The Morning Star of the Eeformation ! "
He was born A.D. 1324 ; and being enlightened by
the Holy Scriptures, his ministry, under the Spirit
of God, and his numerous writings, especially his
translation of the Bible, contributed very much to
prepare the way for the Protestant Reformation.
This great man was impelled, not only by love to
the truth of Christ, but by an extensive knowledge
of the enormous . evils manifestly arising from the
Romish priestcraft. The papal exactions in Eng-
land were grievous, estimated at five times the
amount of the royal revenue ; and the parliament
determined, therefore, A.D. 1374, to seek redress
by a remonstrance, sent by delegates, who should
present it to the Pope. Wycliffe was one of them ;
and during two years, near the seat of "his
holiness," he had an opportunity of observing the
intrigues and iniquities of the court of Rome.
"Wycliffe became the more determined in his
opposition to the friars, who, as agents of the Pope
and the Inquisition, were enemies to the welfare of
the country. Their false doctrines, avarice, and
wickedness were exposed by the reformer, with the
light of Divine truth ; and he possessed the best
68 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
opportunities of doing good service to the cause of
Christ, as professor of divinity in the university of
Oxford. But his boldness in the Gospel provoked
the papal court ; and the Pope addressed letters to
the heads of the colleges, requiring them, by inqui-
sitors and punishment, to suppress his doctrine, and
to deliver him in custody to the archbishop of Can-
terbury or the bishop of London. He then
appealed to those prelates, requiring them to appre-
hend the daring reformer, and to keep him in irons
till they should receive his further orders from
Home. The king'also was required by the Pope to
aid those prelates in proceeding against Wycliffe.
He was cited before, the prelates, at the palace of
the archbishop of Canterbury ; but he was secure
under the protection of John of Gaunt, the great
duke of Lancaster.
Divine Providence favoured this zealous servant
of Christ, so that he escaped the prison, and died
in peace, A,D. 1384. Multitudes were enlightened
by his controversial and evangelical writings, and
by his translation of the Scriptures. Many from
the Continent sought his instruction and copies of
his works ; by which he contributed to produce a
revolution in religion, not only in England, but in
several other kingdoms in Europe.
"Wycliffe's enemies were indefatigable during his
life; and after his death they persecuted his dis-
ciples. Oxford was regarded as infected with his
heresies ; and those who followed his scriptural
doctrines were distinguished as "Lollards." The
heads of the university were, therefore, required,
THE WTCLIFFITES AND HUSSITES. 69
on pain of excommunication, to inquire, every
month, whether any scholar held doctrines contrary
to the decisions of the church. " Twelve inquisitors
of heresy for this dreadful name," as Dr. Southey
remarks, "had been introduced among us were
appointed at Oxford, to search out heresy and
heretical books."
King Richard II. being deposed, was succeeded,
A.D. 1392, by Henry II., a dupe of the prelates ;
and under him they procured the sanguinary statute,
ex offtcio, which authorised the bishops, as inqui-
sitors, to proceed against all persons suspected of
heresy. This was the first law in England for the
burning of men on account of religion.
William Sawtrce, parish priest of St. Osith's,
London, was the first that was condemned to the
stake in England, A.D. 1400 ; and the forms of
degradation and execution were carefully observed,
that it might be an. exact precedent for future occa-
sions. These forms, Dr. Southey states, "were
probably derived from the practice of the accursed
Inquisition in Languedoc ; and they were weR
devised for prolonging the impression on the spec-
tators." After the ceremonies of degradation,
" the cap of a layman was placed upon his head,
and Archbishop Arundel then delivered him, as a
lay person, to the secular court of the high consta-
ble and marshal of England there present ; beseech-
ing the court to receive favourably the said "William
Sawtree, unto them thus recommitted. For with
this hypocritical recommendation to mercy the
Romish church always delivered over its victims to
70 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
be burnt alive ! Sawtree accordingly suffered mar-
tyrdom at the stake in Smithfield, leaving a name
slandered by the Romanists, but held in deserved
respect for the sake of the Gospel by British
Christians."
Wycliffe's disciples continued to be sought after
by the inquisitors, and many suffered at the stake
for Christ. But volumes are required to detail
their sufferings and triumphs.
Archbishop Arundel procured "a law for ever,"
A.D. 1410, " that whosoever they were that should
read the Scriptures in the mother tongue," which
was then denounced as "Wycliffe's learning,"
should " forfeit lands, cattle, body, life, and goods,
from their heirs for ever, and so be condemned for
heretics to God, enemies to the crown, and most
arrant traitors to the land."
Bale says, " Anon after, that Act was proclaimed
throughout the realm, and then the bishops, the
priests, and the monks, had a world somewhat to
their minds. For then were many taken in divers
quarters, and suffered most cruel deaths. And
many fled out of the land into Germany, Bohemia,
France, Spain, Portugal, and into Scotland, Wales,
and Ireland, working there many marvels against
the false kingdom, too long to write. In the
Christmas following was Sir Roger Acton, knight,
Master John Browne, and Sir John Beverly, a
learned preacher, and divers others, imprisoned for
quarrelling with certain priests. In January follow-
ing, A.D. 1413, was the before-named Sir Eoger
Acton, Master John Browne, Sir John Beverly,
THE WTCLIFFITES AND HUSSITES. 71
and thirty-six more, of whom the more part were
gentlemen of birth, convicted of heresy by the
bishops, and condemned of treason by the tempo-
rality, and, according to the Act, were first hanged
and then burned in the Giles-field. In the same
year, also, one John Clay don, a skinner, and one
Richard Turning, a baker, were both hanged and
burned in Smithfield by that Act, besides what was
done in all other quarters of England ; which was
no small number, if it were thoroughly known."
Fox calls Sir Roger Acton " this worthy, noble,
virtuous knight," in giving an account of the dread-
ful persecutions of these faithful martyrs of Christ.
"Wycliffe's ashes were not allowed to rest in
quiet : for, A.D. 1415, by the council of Constance,
forty-four conclusions, drawn from his writings,
were declared to be heretical, and their author con-
demned as an obstinate heretic. Inquisitors sought
his bones, which were ordered to be dug up and
cast upon a dunghill; but the sentence was not
executed till A.D. 1428, when Pope Martin V. sent
order to Fleming, bishop of Lincoln, once a pro-
fessed favourer of the reformed doctrine. The
inquisitors obeyed the order of the bishop the
bones were burnt, and the ashes were cast into the
adjoining rivulet, Swift. From Lutterworth, as
Dr. Fuller beautifully remarks, "this brook con-
veyed his ashes into the Avon ; Avon into Severn ;
Severn into the narrow seas ; they into the ocean.
And thus the ashes of "Wycliffe are emblems of his
doctrine, which is now dispersed all over the world !"
Wycliffe's writings were copied and circulated
72 THE INQTTISITIOK BEYEALED.
among studious inquirers after the Gospel in
several nations ; and, as the sister of "Wenceslaus,
king of Bohemia, had become the queen of Eichard
II., learned Bohemians frequented England. One
of these, Jerome of Prague, on his return from
study at Oxford, A.D. 1400, carried with him some
of Wycliffe's books, which became the means of
enlightening John Huss, a famous divine of Prague
university. He laboured to promote a reformation,
opposing the false miracles, and impostures, and
evil lives of the priests. But the archbishop being
incensed against him, accused him before the Inqui-
sition, from which he appealed by proctors to
Cardinal Colonna, who declared him contumacious,
and excommunicated him. He then appealed to
the Pope, who confirmed the sentence, and excom-
municated his followers. But he continued his
labours in teaching and writing, until lie was sum-
moned before the council of Constance. The
Emperor Sigismund pledged his honour for his
protection, and John, Count of Chlum, interposed
on his behalf; but that holy synod violated the
solemn engagement of the emperor, seizing his
person, and requiring him to plead guilty of heresy
in thirty propositions extracted from his writings.
With this requisition of the inquisitors Huss could
not comply ; yet he protested his readiness to yield
to the testimony of Holy Scripture. Being then
presented before the council, in the presence of
the emperor, the princes of the empire, and an
immense assemblage of prelates, he was condemned
to the stake, and his writings to be burned.
THE WYCLIFFITES A3fD HTTSSITES. 73
Dignified priests endeavoured in vain to induce
him to recant. The bishops stripped him of his
priestly robes, and put on his head a mitre of paper,
on which devils were painted, with the inscription,
"Ringleader of Heretics." They then delivered
him to the unworthy emperor, and he to the duke
of Bavaria. His books were burnt at the church
gate, and he was led to the stake at the suburbs of
the city. He manifested the true spirit of a martyr
for Christ. Multitudes attended his execution,
and were astonished at his piety, saying, " What
this man has done before, we know not ; but we
hear him now offer up most excellent prayers to
God."
Huss wished to address the people ; but the
elector palatine prevented him, ordering that he
should immediately be burnt. The martyr then
cried with a loud voice, " Lord Jesus, I humbly
suffer this cruel death for thy sake ; I pray thee
forgive all my enemies." Thus suffered Dr. John
Huss, as a faithful martyr of Jesus, A.D. 1415 ;
leaving a most instructive example to the church of
God, and the fame, as Luther testifies, of being " a
most rational expounder of Scripture."
Jerome also was sacrificed to papal bigotry. For,
having translated the works of AVycliffe into his
native language, and professed himself a reformer
of Christian doctrine and worship in connexion
with Dr. Huss, when he heard of his friend's
danger at Constance, he repaired thither in hope
of rendering him some assistance. Jerome found
that the inquisitors had caused him also to be cited
r
74 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
before the council, and that his own destruction
had been determined. He returned, therefore, to
Bohemia, after writing to the emperor in favour of
his friend ; but he was arrested, and imprisoned for
nearly a year. By the tortures and entreaties of
the inquisitors he was induced to sign a recantation.
His conscience, however, would not allow him to
suffer this to stand ; and he was brought again
before the inquisitors. He defended the principles
of his martyred friend, and made a solemn appeal
to his persecutors : " How unjust is it, that ye
will not hear me ! Te confined me three hundred
and forty days in several prisons, where I have
been cramped with irons, almost poisoned with filth
and stench, and pinched with the want of all neces-
saries. During this time, ye always gave to my
enemies a hearing, but refused to hear me so much
as a single hour. I came to Constance to defend
John Huss, because I advised him to go thither,
and had promised to come to his assistance, in case
he should be oppressed. Nor am I ashamed to
make here a public confession of my own cowardice.
I confess, and tremble while I think of it, that,
through fear of punishment by fire, I basely con-
sented against my conscience to the condemnation
of "Wydiffe and Huss. I appeal to the Sovereign
Judge of all the earth, in whose presence ye must
shortly answer me ! "
Jerome's judges were implacable, and he was
murdered at the stake, singing a hymn in the
flames, while he yielded up his spirit to his Divine
Bedeemer, A.D. 1416.
THE WYCLIFFITES AND HUSSITES. 75
Many of the nobles of Bohemia regarded the
murder of these two excellent men as an outrage
against their nation, and they meditated revenge.
This passion was inflamed by the policy of Pope
Martin, who promoted the organisation of the In-
quisition in their country, and excited the Catholics
in Moravia to unite in the destruction of the
Hussites. King Wenceslaus inclined to support
the Pope, but through terror of being opposed in
the bloody work, he died, A.D. 1419, when the crown
of Bohemia falling to the emperor, Sigismund sent
an army on a crusade against the heretics. Mul-
titudes fell victims to their cruel bigotry, and
perished in the mines of Kuttenburgh, and by
drowning, as well as at the stake. It is said there
were thrown into one mine 1,701 persons ; into
another, 1,038 ; and into a third, 1,334, A.D. 1420.
The chief magistrate of Litomerici, a cruel'bigot,
to gratify the inquisitors, caused twenty-four of the
principal citizens to be arrested and accused of
heresy. One of these was the husband of his own
daughter. They were imprisoned in a lofty tower ;
and, when perishing with hunger and cold, they
were brought out and sentenced to immediate
death by drowning in the river Albis. The magis-
trate himself had to pronounce the sentence upon
them, which he performed, regardless of the tears
and entreaties of his daughter ; and the whole were
conveyed in carts, bound hand and foot, to the
river, into which they were plunged, while officers
were employed, armed with iron forks and poles, to
watch that none might escape, and to stab . those
F2
76 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
who should make the attempt. The young lady,
being unable to move her cruel father to pity,
plunged into the river, in hope of aiding her hus-
band to escape but she failed ; and the next day
the bodies of both were found in the water, her
arms clasped around the body of her husband !
Other instances of murderous cruelty, equally shock-
ing, are recorded of the bloody operations of the
Inquisition.
Many of the Hussites now withdrew to a high
mountain, which they fortified ; and there they held
their religious meetings, administering the Lord's
supper, not only in bread, but Avith wine, which
had been forbidden by the Catholics. Their forti-
fication they called Tabor, and the people were
hence called Taborites. They chose leaders, and
defeated the troops of the emperor in eleven en-
gagements ; so that they gained the use of the cup
in the Lord's 'supper, by the consent of the council
of Basil, A.D. 1431.
Part of the Hussites sought more than the cup ;
they insisted on having a reformation according to
the Scriptures. They were still persecuted by the
Catholics, and obliged to conceal themselves in
thickets and caves, kindling fire only at night, when
they read the Scriptures and united in the social
worship of God. Stephen, their last bishop, having
been burnt alive for his profession of Christ, the
Bohemian brethren united with the Waldeixses, A.D.
1480.
IN" SPAIN. 77
CHAPTER VI.
THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN.
Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella Holy Office Torque-
mada, inquisitor His victims and policy Persecution
of Jews Diego Deza Cisneros Charles V. Philip II.
Acts of faith Victims under Philip II. Murder of
his son, Don Carlos.
SPAIN, above every other country, has been
afflicted and degraded by the court of inquisition.
"We have seen that it was introduced into its pro-
vinces at an early period, and several persons were
publicly burnt, A.D. 1302, in Arragon, by Father
Bernard ; and one of the spectacles of burning
heretics, A.D. 1325, was sanctioned by the presence
of King James and his two sons. About A.D. 135&,
Nicholas Eymerick, inquisitor-general of Arragon,
wrote a book of rules, as " The Guide of Inquisi-
tors; 1 ' and this was the chief directory, though
the Inquisition greatly declined, until the union of
the crowns of Arragou, Castile and Leon, Asturias
and Granada, by the marriage of Ferdinand V. of
Arragon, with Isabella, queen of Castile, A.D. 1474.
Spain being thus united under one government,
the "Modern Inquisition" was established, in a new
form, for the discovery of Moors and heretics, but
especially Jews. This people, by diligence in trade,
had acquired great wealth ; they were celebrated
78 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
for their learning, and some of them had risen to
the highest offices in the state. Tet, even from
the first, they were subjected to insult, on account
of their religion, by the professors of Christianity.
Many of the Jews, however, professed to be con-
verted to the faith of Christ, and intermarried with
the Spanish nobility ; but no sooner had Ferdinand
and Isabella ascended the throne, than the Romish
prelates appealed to them, as Catholic princes, to
give their sanction to an increased activity and
power of the Inquisition.
Isabella was unwilling to become thus guilty of
the blood of her subjects ; but Ferdinand was led
by the priests, and the queen at length yielded to
their bigoted counsels. Pope Sixtus IV., there-
fore, A.D. 1471, at her request, granted a bull,
enjoining the arrest and punishment of heretics
and apostates. Gentle means were employed for
two years, as was desired by Isabella ; but it was
then reported by the priests, that these were
insufficient ; and, A.D. 1480, Michael Morillo and
John de San Martin, both Dominicans, were
constituted inquisitors, with various subordinate
officers.
Seville was the seat of their first operations. In
their progress, they were furnished by the gover-
nors of provinces, according to royal orders, with
whatever they required ; and the citizens, though
opposed to the institution, yielded to the royal
commission. They issued their first edict, January
2nd, 1481 ; and many, dreading the vengeance of the
Inquisition, fled from the city. The Spanish nobles
IN SPAIN. 79
were commanded by the inquisitors to seize the
emigrants as heretics ; their property was confis-
cated, and such numbers were arrested that they
were obliged to provide a larger prison. On a
tablet of this building was engraved the following,
in barbarous Latin :
" The Holy Office of the Inquisition, established
against the wickedness of heretics, commenced at
Seville in the year 1481, under the pontificate of
Siitus IV., who granted, and in the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella, who had asked for it. The
first inquisitor-general was friar Thomas de Tor-
quemada, prior of the convent of Santa Cruz, of
Segovia, of the order of the Preaching Brotherhood.
God grant that, for the propagation and mainte-
nance of the faith, it may last until the end of the
ages. 'Arise, Lord, be judge in thy cause
catch the foxes.' "
Terror might reasonably seize the minds of the
people ; for, January 6th, only four days after the
first edict, six persons were publicly burnt to death
by the inquisitors ; and, about a month after, a
much larger number. On account of the nume-
rous victims, the prefect of Seville erected a stone
scaffold. Upon this were placed four large hollow
statues of plaster, called " the four prophets," and
within, or chained to these, the condemned wretches
were burnt. Innocence was by no means a gua-
rantee against imprisonment, confiscation of pro-
perty, or even death; for the inquisitors invited
accusations, and the accusers were secure, as their
depositions were kept secret, and the parties
80 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
accused knew nothing of their being suspected
until they had been arrested and chained in the
dungeons of the Inquisition.
These inquisitors travelled, and held their courts
in different cities, where their agents had filled the
prisons. Though the records of the tribunals were
not accurately kept, the numbers convicted and
punished were most frightful. Llorente estimates
the numbers at Seville, A.D. 1481, at 2,000 burnt ;
2,000 burnt in effigy ; and 17,000] punished by
penances; total, 21,000. In 1482, there were
eighty-eight burnt ; forty -four burnt in effigy ; and
625 subjected to penances ; total, 757 !
Torquemada prosecuted his duties with such
vigour and zeal that, A.D. 1483, Pope Sixtus ap-
pointed him inquisitor-general of Castile and Leon,
and of Arragon. These powers being 'confirmed
by Pope Innocent VIII., A.D. 1485, distinct tri-
bunals were established at Seville, Cordova, Jaen,
Villa-Eeal, and Toledo. King Ferdinand appointed
a royal council of the Inquisition, and Torquemada
as its president ; and this council published, A.D.
1486, a code of laws for the tribunal. These were
revised by the president, with additions, A.D. 1488,
and again, A.D. 1498. These laws and rules for
the Inquisition were worthy of the spirit of their
authors, and the genius of the institution, indicating
the cunning and malignity of a fiend, rather than
the mind of a Christian. Their enforcement,
therefore, threw all classes of society in Spain into
the deepest misery, such multitudes being con-
demned and executed. Upwards of one hundred
IN SPAIN. 81
thousand families -were repiited to have emigrated
from the country. Absolution or redress might,
indeed, be obtained at the court of Borne for
money, and immense sums were expended, until
it was found that it affected the salaries of the
Inquisition ; when the practice of such appeals was
abolished, as being a violation of the agreement of
the Pope with Ferdinand and Isabella.
Another expedient was adopted to enrich the
Inquisition. The inquisitors charged the Jews
with persuading their brethren who had professed
Christianity to return to the faith of Israel ; with
crucifying children on Good Friday, in contempt
of our Saviour ; and with the fact of the Jewish
physicians and surgeons, who were esteemed the
most skilful of the medical practitioners, having
caused the death of Henry III. In their alarm,
they offered Ferdinand and Isabella thirty thousand
pieces of silver, in aid of the war against Granada ;
and to refrain from all trades and professions that
might be filled with Christians. Those sovereigns
being about to accept the proposal, Torquemada
rushed into their presence, holding a crucifix, and
appealing to the king and queen " Behold Him,
whom Judas sold for thirty pieces of silver ; do
you sell Him for a greater sum ?" Casting down the
crucifix, the haughty priest left the royal apart-
ment ; but he gained his object, for the king
and queen published a decree, March 31st, 1492,
commanding all the Jews to leave the kingdom
within three months, under the penalty of death
and confiscation of their property. Christians were
82 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
forbidden to afford them the least assistance.
They were allowed to sell their stock, and take
their furniture, but not any gold or silver with
them. Some of them emigrated to the states of
Barbary, where they were cruelly treated by the
Moors; so that they returned to Spain and pro-
fessed Christianity. Others retired to Portugal,
where they were permitted to live for a time, and
then they were sold as slaves.
How many Jews were thus expelled from Spain,
through the Inquisition, cannot be correctly ascer-
tained ; some reckon 160,000, and others as many
as 800,000. Mariana states that the number was
estimated at 170,000 families, or 800,000 souls!
But if we suppose only the smaller number, as the
Jews were the most intelligent and wealthy part
of the community, the expulsion of them was a
serious national loss to Spain.
Torquemada having so far prevailed, exhibited
his intolerant haughtiness in such a manner that
he was dreaded by all. He was not satisfied with
the condemnation of thousands of the rich among
the laity, but he laboured to subject the bishops to
his hated court. Pope Alexander YI. received
continual complaints against him ; but he feared to
suspend him. However, he constituted four others
as joint inquisitors-general, A.D. 1494; and Tor-
quemada died in November, A.D. 1498, execrated by
the whole community. Aware of the public hatred,
he always kept a horn of a unicorn on his table, as
the supposed means of discovering poisou*in his
food ; and in public he was guarded by a troop of
IN SPAIN. 83
fifty familiars of the Inquisition on horseback, and
two hundred on foot, for which he obtained the
licence of Ferdinand and Isabella.
During the period that Torquemada held the
office of inquisitor-general, the total number of his
victims was more than 10,000, committed to the
flames : nearly 7,000 burnt in effigy ; and upwards
of 97,000 sentenced to confiscation, perpetual im-
prisonment, or infamy !
That terrible inquisitor was succeeded by Don
Diego Deza, a Dominican, archbishop of Seville.
He was confirmed in his office by the Pope's bull,
December 1, 1498 ; and proved himself worthy to
follow the sanguinary Torquemada. He laboured
to re-establish the Inquisition in Sicily and in
Naples ; and in Granada against the Moors, many
of whom, as well as Jews, were cruelly harassed in
Spain. Deza prosecuted some of the prelates and
the nobility ; and the number of his victims, during
eight years, were reckoned at 38,440 persons ;
2,592 burnt ; 896 burnt in effigy ; and 34,952
punished by penances.
Ximenes de Cisneros succeeded Deza. He is
reported to have been far milder in his temper
and administration than his predecessors; yet he
re-organised or established the Inquisition in
Seville, Cordova, Jaen, Toledo, Estremadura,
Murcia, Valladolid, Calahorra, Barcelona, Sara-
gossa, Pampeluna, Cuenca in Valencia, Majorca,
Sardinia, the Canary Islands, Oran in Algiers, and
America. Yet, with all his moderation, Llorente
reckons his victims, during eleven years, as 3,564
84 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
burnt ; 1232 burnt in effigy ; and 48,059 punished
by penances ; total, 52,855 !
Charles V. succeeded his father, Ferdinand, on
the throne of Spain, in January, 1517 ; and during
his reign the Cortes made various attempts to
reform the Inquisition, that its dreadful proceedings
might be conducted publicly, and according to the
rules of the common law ; but by means of immense
presents to the chancellor, and by the representa-
tions of Cardinal Adrian, the inquisitor- general,
Charles was induced to support the existing enor-
mities of the terrible court. Adrian was elected
Pope, in January, 1522 ; and during the five years
of his office, his victims were 28,220 ; of whom,
1,344 were burnt ; 672 burnt in effigy ; and
26,214 were punished by penance.
Charles V. was elected emperor of Germany,
A.D. 1520, and he became, during nearly forty years,
the greatest sovereign in Europe. He sanctioned
the Inquisition in persecuting the Lutherans, and
all reformers of religion ; and how he regarded
that pernicious court will appear from his will, in
which he commends it to his son Philip thus :
"Out of regard to my duty to Almighty God,
and from my great affection to the most serene
prince, Philip II., my dearest son, and from the
strong and earnest desire I have, that he may be
safe under the protection of virtue, rather than the
greatness of his riches, I charge him, with the
greatest affection of soul, that he take special care
of all things relating to the honour and glory of
God, as becomes the most Catholic king, and a
IX SPAIN. 85
prince zealous for the Divine commands, and that
he be always obedient to the commands of the
church. And, amongst other things, this I prin-
cipally and most ardently recommend to him, highly
to honour and constantly support the office of the
Holy Inquisition, as constituted by Grod against
heretical pravity, with its ministers and officials ;
because by this single remedy the most grievous
offences against Gk>d can be remedied. Also I
command him, that he would be careful to preserve
to all churches and ecclesiastical persons their
immunities." In a codicil to his will, also, h thus
enjoins his son : " I ardently desire, and with the
greatest possible earnestness beseech him, and
command him by his regards to me, his most affec-
tionate father, that in this matter, in which the
welfare of all Spain is concerned, he be most
zealously careful to punish all infected with heresy,
with the severity due to their crimes ; and that to
this intent he confer the greatest honour on the
office of the Holy Inquisition, by the care of which
the Catholic faith w !be increased in his kingdoms,
and the Christian religion be preserved."
King Philip was obedient to these commands of
his father, as the proceedings of the inquisitors in
his several provinces proved, as well as his sanc-
tion to the horrid course of persecutions and
martyrdoms under his queen, in England. See
Chapter IX.
On Trinity Sunday, May 21, 1559, there was a
most solemn auto da fe against the Spanish Lu-
therans, in the Great Square of Yalladolid. The
86 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
Princess Donna Juana (governess of the kingdom,
in the absence of her brother, Philip II.), the Prince
Don Carlos, and many grandees of Spain, as well
as prelates and nobles of Castile, and a multitude
of ladies and gentlemen, all assisted on that occa-
sion. Sixteen persons were brought out in that
auto, to be reconciled by penance ; also, the remains
and effigy of a lady, already dead, and fourteen
living persons, to be consumed by the devouring
element ! The lady was Donna Eleonora de Vibero,
proprietress of a convent in the city. Her daughter,
Beatrice, and her two sons, Francis and Dr.
Augustin Cazalla, were sacrificed at the stake
in this dread auto, all being convicted of Lu-
theranism.
At Seville, the same year, another auto was cele-
brated, in which John Pontius, son of Roderic,
earl of Yillalon, was publicly burnt as a Lutheran.
With him were executed, John Gronsalvus, a
preacher, with four ladies of note ; Bohorques,
scarcely twenty years of age ; Maria Yiroesia,
Cornelia, and Voenia, in whose house assem-
blies were held for prayer. Besides these, were
seven others, and among them, a student, a phy-
sician, and a nun. The sacrifice of this com-
pany of thirteen persons, besides several eifigies,
was attended with great pomp, yet it excited the
indignation of not a few of the citizens. Two
others escaped the fire, dying previously in prison ;
Dr. John Egidius, nominated by the emperor as
bishop of Drossen, and Dr. Constantine Pontius,
the confessor of Charles V. They were victims of
IN SPAIN. 87
the Inquisition, suspected of holding the doctrines
of Luther.
Philip being alienated from his queen, Mary, left
England in 1557, and proceeded to his army in
Picardy ; and after his arrival in Spain he demanded
an auto da fe, which was celebrated with extra-
ordinary magnificence. De Castro, in his very
interesting volume, " Spanish Protestants and their
Persecutions by Philip II.," says:
"Although so many were burnt or oppressed
with ignominious penances at the before-mentioned
auto da fe, the inquisitors reserved the greatest
number, and most noted of the prisoners for Pro-
testantism, in order to bring them to condign
punishment on the arrival of Philip II. ; a festival
very appropriate to this monarch, whose reign in
England, with the barbarous Mary Tudor, had ter-
minated after broiling in the flames there a multi-
tude of Protestants.
" This auto was celebrated on the 8th of October,
1559. In order to greater decorum and solemnity,
this most pious monarch thought it opportune to
assist, with all his court, in those horrors, and
recreate himself in the frightful destruction of many
of his subjects, illustrious for their birth, their
virtue, and their learning.
" Don Diego de Simancas, then secretary of the
holy office, says, ' The auto of those heretics was
most solemnly celebrated in the Great Square, upon
a stage made upon a new plan, so contrived, that
from all parts the culprits might be seen. Upon
other stages were assembled the council and prin-
88 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
cipal persons ; and so great was the concourse of
people, who came from all the country round, that
it was believed the number of persons assembled,
including those of the city, could not be less than
200,000 ! In this fashion the most pious king, the
clergy, the nobility, and the people, with tumul-
tuous haste, had recourse to a method of amusement
worthy of cannibals, or the ancient Mexicans.' "
In the month of October, 1560, twenty-eight
persons, many of them members of the noblest
families in Spain, were tied to the stakes and pub-
licly burnt, as Lutheran heretics, in the presence
of the king at Valladolid.
Philip was not satisfied, however, with the sacri-
fice of his citizens ; he extended the Inquisition to
the navy, appointing an inquisitor to his fleet in the
year 1571 ; so that, among the seamen of Spain,
many were sacrificed in a public act of faith, in
the city of Messina. He established this court at
Lima, in 1571, and in Mexico ; and in the year
1574, a public act of faith was held in the market-
place of that city. In this, there were eighty peni-
tents ; two of them, an Englishman and a French-
man, were released ; some others, for judaising
and sorcery, were reconciled ; but many of them
were burnt to death, in the presence of the viceroy,
the senate, the priests, and a large concourse of
the Mexicans.
Philip II. died in September, 1598, after having
reigned forty-two years. His name was abhorred
in his own dominions on account of his sanguinary
bigotry, and his pernicious policy in government.
IN SPAIN. 89
Historians represent him as worthy to be classed
with those monsters of cruelty, Nero and Domitian,
deserving the execration of mankind.
The number of the victims of the Inquisition
during the reign of Philip II. was estimated at not
less than 40,664 ; of whom, 6,300 were burnt ; 3,124
were burnt in effigy ; and 31,240 were subjected
to various humiliating penances. This was, there-
fore, the reign of terror in Spain.
Philip's cruelty may be further illustrated by
one act of his domestic administration ; for he
added his own son, and heir to his throne, to the
number of his victims. Don Carlos being shocked
at the cruelties exercised by the duke of Alva
against the Protestants in the Netherlands, [see
Chapter VII.] at the entreaty of several nobles,
desired a commission to govern that country, as
viceroy, that he might give toleration to those who
rejected the domination of the Pope. But his
father, attended by several of his privy counsellors
and twelve guards, entered his chamber in the
middle of the night, seized him, and threw him into
prison. The nation was astonished at this outrage
against the prince ; and the Emperor Maximilian
besought Philip to set him at liberty ; but in vain.
A junta, of whom the inquisitor-general was pre-
sident, was appointed to try Don Carlos ; and he
was kept in close confinement. None were allowed
to visit him, not even the queen, or the princess,
Donna Juana, lest the complaints of the prince
should become public ; those officials only, with one
physician, were permitted to see him, who were
G
90 THE IKQTJISITIOK BEYEALED.
appointed by the king. Philip himself dared not
see him, fearing the reproaches of the injured
prince; and he appears to have been secretly
murdered, the prevailing opinion is, by poison,
July 24, 1568, at the age of twenty -three years !
Philip would never satisfy the public regarding
the particulars of the prince's death. Do Castro
says, " Don Carlos fell a victim to his desires to
banish from Flanders the horrors of the Inquisition,
and set all men's consciences free in matters of
religion. The greatest crime of which Carlos was
held by his father, the palace favourites, and the
inquisitors, to be guilty, was that of entertaining
Protestant doctrines. This was the report in and
out of Spain. There is one circumstance which
confirms the opinion that Don Carlos was murdered,
viz., that the Marquis de Bergnes died in the court
under the suspicion of having been poisoned;
the Baron de Montigny was secretly beheaded in
the palace of Segovia, and the Counts of Egmont
and Horn perished on a scaffold, before the popu-
lace of Brussels, all of them for their secret cor-
respondence with Don Carlos ! "
Spain greatly declined under this inhuman policy
of Philip II., who was succeeded by his son,
Philip III., who reigned twenty-three years, dying
March 31st, 1621. The number of his victims in
the Inquisition in that period was 15,824- ; of whom
1,840 were burnt ; 736 were burnt in effigy ; and
13,248 were subjected to penances. Philip IV.
succeeded his father, and died in 1665, having
reigned forty-four years ; in which period the
IN PORTUGAL, ETC. 91
victims of the Inquisition were 18,304 ; of whom,
2,816 were burnt ; 1,408 were burnt in effigy ;
and 14,080 suffered severe penances. Philip IV.
was succeeded by his son, Charles II., only four
years old ; and at his marriage, in 1680, he was
honoured with the celebration of an auto da fe,
on a scale of great magnificence, at Madrid ! A
description of this will be found in Chapter XV.
CHAPTER VII.
THE INQUISITION IN PORTUGAL AND THE
NETHERLANDS.
Jews in Portugal Popular hatred against them The Inquisi-
tion against them In several cities Established in Goa
Decree against the Jews Even after they professed
Christianity Luther's followers in the Netherlands In-
quisitors seek them Alarm in the cities Edicts of
Charles V. Philip succeeds him Duke of Alva's mur-
ders " United Provinces."
PORTUGAL, as we have seen, received some of the.
Jews, who had been persecuted and driven from Spain,
under the inquisitor- general Torquemada. Every
possible effort, by persecution and cruelty, was em-
ployedto convert them toaprofession of Christianity.
Their children were taken from them, all under the
age of fourteen, and educated in the Catholic belief.
Sismondi states, " On the occasion of a newly-con-
verted Jew, in 1506, who had appeared to disbelieve,
in some miracle, the people of Lisbon rose, and"
G 2
92 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
having assassinated him, burnt his dead body in the
public square. A monk, in the midst of the tumult,
addressed the populace, exhorting them not to rest
satisfied with so slight a vengeance, in return for
such an insult offered to our Lord. Two other
monks, raising the crucifix, then placed themselves
at the head of the seditious mob, crying aloud only
these words, ' Heresy ! heresy ! Exterminate ! ex-
terminate !' And during the three following days,
two thousand of the newly converted, men, women,
and children, were put to the sword, and their reek-
ing limbs, yet warm and palpitating, burnt in the
public places of the city. The same fanaticism ex-
tending to the armies, converted Portuguese soldiers
into the executioners of infidels and the tyrants of
the east. At length, in the year 1540, John III.
succeeded in establishing the Inquisition, which the
progress of superstition had been long preparing."
King John established the " Holy Office" in
Portugal, on the model of that in Spain. " How
great his zeal was to maintain the faith in its
ancient splendour," says a Catholic historian, " his
introducing the sacred tribunal of the inquisitors of
heresy into Portugal, is an abundant proof, bravely
overcoming those difficulties and obstructions which
the devil had cunningly raised in the city, to pre-
vent or retard his majesty's endeavours. For he
learned experience from others, and grew wise by
the misfortunes of many kingdoms, which, from the
most flourishing state, were brought to ruin and des-
truction, by monstrous and deadly heresies. And it
is very worthy of observation, that the year in which
IN POBTUGAL, ETC. 93
the tribunal of the Holy Inquisition against heretical
pravity was brought into Portugal, the kingdom
laboured under the most dreadful barrenness and
famine. But when the tribunal was once erected,
the following year was remarkable for an incredible
plenty, commonly called ' the year of St. Blaze ' be-
cause before his festival the seed could not be
sown in the ground for want of rain, whereas, after-
wards, provision was so cheap, that a bushel of corn
was sold for two-pence."
Didacus de Silva was the first inquisitor-general
in Portugal, and he erected tribunals in several
cities, the first at Evora, A.D. 1537, appointing
John de Mello the first inquisitor in that city.
The tribunal at Lisbon was erected in 1539, by
Cardinal Henry, the second inquisitor-general ; and
another court at Coimbra, in 1541.
Portugal possessed several foreign provinces,
among which was Goa, on the Malabar coast of
India. Francis Xavier, A.D. 1545, signified to King
John III., '''that the Jewish wickedness spread
every day more and more, in the parts of the East
Indies subject to the kingdom of Portugal ; and
therefore he earnestly besought the king, that to
cure so great an evil he would take care to send the
office of the Inquisition into those countries." Upon
this, Cardinal Henry, then inquisitor-general in the
kingdom of Portugal, erected the tribunal of the
Holy Inquisition in the city of Goa, the metropolis,
and sent into those parts inquisitors, and other ne-
cessary officials, who should take diligent care of the
affairs of the faith. Alexius Diaz Falcano entered
J94 THE INQUISITION EEYEALED
upon his office, as inquisitor at Goa, A.D. 1541. And
from that period this tribunal has continued, so
ihat by its intolerance, victims, and cruelties, it has
brought the province to the lowest stage of de-
gradation, _and a burden as well as a disgrace to
Portugal.
On several occasions, general indulgences were
.granted to the Hebrew converts in Portugal, in
.hope of reconciling them fully to the papacy. The
first was by Pope Clement ^11., A.D. 1535; and
'this was confirmed by Pope Paul III., A.D. 1536.
The second was issued by the same pontiff, A.D.
1547 ; at the same time the inquisitors were required
to proceed with greater vigour against judaisers in
that kingdom. Still he granted a general pardon
to the new converts and their children.
Sebastian, king of Portugal, on the occasion of
his preparation for his unfortunate expedition into
Africa, in which he fell, granted to the descendants
of the Jews, A.D. 1577, for a large sum of money,
that their effects should not be confiscated for ten
years. This pretended liberality, though sanctioned
by Pope Gregory XIII., was contrary to the advice
of Philip II., his uncle, the king of Spain ; but upon
the defeat of the king's army by the Saracens, the
same year, Cardinal Henry, the king's great uncle,
succeeding him on the throne, immediately recalled
the said grant, with consent of the Pope, declaring,
as the reason of this revocation, " that after the
most mature consultation of learned men, they all
agreed that he was bound to make such revocation,
because the good of the faith required it."
IK PORTUGAL, ETC. 95
Cardinal Henry dying in the year 1580, the
crown of Portugal fell to Philip, king of Spain;
and the new Christians, as the conforming Jews
were called, offered him a large sum of money, on
condition of his obtaining for them a general indul-
gence from the Pope ; but his divines declared,
" that God was greatly offended with such money ;
and that he could not reasonably expect any pros-
perous success from it." So Philip disregarded
their offers of money, though he was engaged in an
expensive war with England and France.
These Jewish Christians in Portugal continued
for many years to endeavour, by repeated entreaties,
to procure the abolition of the Inquisition, or at
least the mitigation of its laws and policy. But
they were only deluded by empty words and flatter-
ing promises : for they have remained liable to the
penalties ordained against heretics, and to the
terrors of the Inquisition, on. being .accused, as
being in every way opposed to the principles and
doctrines of Eome.
Charles V., the famous emperor of Germany and
king of Spain, was the great supporter of the
Inquisition in the Netherlands. These provinces,
comprehending Belgium, Holland, and several
adjacent countries, he inherited from his father.
At an early period, many of their divines procured
the writings and embraced the doctrines of Luther ;
and, therefore, the Inquisition was introduced there,
A.D. 1521, by Francis Yander Hulst, chancellor of
the emperor in Brabant, and Nicolas Van Egmont,
a Carmelite friar. These were appointed inquisitors-
96 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
general ; and their characters and policy we learn
from the celebrated Erasmus. He says, in a letter
to the archbishop of Palermo, A.D. 1524, " Now
the sword is given to two violent haters of good
learning, Hulst and Egmont. If they have a spite
against any man, they throw him into prison ; here
the matter is transacted among a few, and the
innocent suffers barbarous usage, that they may
not lose anything of their authority; and when
they find they have done entirely wrong, they cry
out, < We must take care of the faith.' " In
another letter to a friend, he says, " There reigns
Egmont, a furious person, armed with the sword,
who hates me twice more than he doth Luther.
His colleague is Francis Hulst, a great enemy of
learning. They first throw men into prison, and
then seek out for crimes for which to accuse
them. These things the emperor is ignorant
of, though it would be worth his while to know
them."
Many followers of Christ, therefore, suffered
under these cruel inquisitors by various torments,
and the Emperor Charles endeavoured to establish
the Inquisition in the Netherlands, after the manner
of its operations in Spain. For this purpose he
published an edict against heretics ; commanding
all magistrates, when required by the inquisitors,
and at the request of the bishops, to proceed
against any in the affair of heresy, and to afford
their utmost countenance and assistance in the
execution of their office, discovering and appre-
hending those who might be infected with heretical
IN POBTUGAL, ETC. 97
pravity. This decree authorised them to proceed
against transgressors by execution, whatever their
dignity or privileges.
Terror filled the minds of the people on learning
the character of this edict, and the most gloomy
apprehensions excited many to prepare to emigrate
from Antwerp. The magistrates, therefore, assem-
bled the chief merchants and traders, to ascertain
from them what losses had been sustained by the
city, and what further damage was expected from
the establishment of the Inquisition. They declared
their minds ; and a memorial was prepared and
laid before Queen Mary, sister of Charles V., and
at that time governess of the Netherlands, showing
largely, from the edict of the emperor, from the
instructions of the inquisitors, and from the privi-
leges of Brabant, how many evils appeared to
threaten the city and the whole country. They
besought her to intercede with the emperor, that
so rich and flourish a city might not be ruined by
the operations of the Inquisition. The several
orders of Brabant united with those of Antwerp ;
and the queen was prevailed on to undertake their
cause. She at once proceeded to Augsburg, where
she obtained another edict, allowing the ecclesias-
tical judges to demand some persons from the
imperial courts to join with them in proceeding
against any one accused of heresy. This did by no
means meet the case ; it was, therefore, received at
Antwerp under protestation, that this edict should
not derogate anything from the statutes and privi-
leges of the citizens. Still they were ill at ease,
98 THE INQUISITION REYEALED.
such was the dread of the cruelty which had been
known of the inquisitors ; especially as they saw
that those who were privately commissioned by the
pope and the emperor to the office of inquisitors,
acted-as such by themselves, and by their commis-
saries. Eor several were shortly condemned as
heretics, in many cities ; of whom some were be-
headed, others hanged, or burned, and some tied
up in sacks and drowned !
King Philip succeeding his father, was appealed
to against these enormities, and petitioned to -grant
religious toleration in the Netherlands. But
superstition held the mind of the royal fanatic ;
and he prostrated himself before a crucifix, solemnly
imploring " I beseech the Divine Majesty, that 1
may never suffer myself to be, or to be called, the
lord of those who deny Thee, the Lord !"
fiesolved to annihilate the reformation in the
Netherlands, Philip converted the three bishoprics
into archbishoprics, and established seventeen
bishoprics, with a court of inquisition, under the
direction of Cardinal Granvile. The Prince of
Orange, Count Egmont, and Count Horn remon-
strated with the Duchess of Parma, against the
Inquisition and Cardinal Granvile. This was in
vain. The executions of the Inquisition became
more frequent and more rigorous than before ; and
a general combination was resolved on, to procure
a redress of the common grievances. The Duchess
of Parma remonstrated with Philip ; but the infa-
tuated monarch was deaf to every argument ; and
the only concession which he made was, that, for
IX POETTJGAL, ETC. 99
the future, heretics, instead of being burnt, should
be hanged.
Philip, influenced by superstition, and governed
by the priests, supported the policy of the inqui-
sitors in the Netherlands. Their cruelties, there-
fore, increased, until the people broke out into
open revolt. The populace made disturbances,
throwing down the images in the churches, and
committing other acts of violence. The king
threatened vengeance upon the transgressors ; and
submitted the case to the supreme court of inquisi-
tion in Spain, to know its judgment concerning the
revolters information and depositions being given
by the inferior inquisitors among the disaffected,
that court determined that the inhabitants of the
Netherlands were guilty of treason.
Philip now indulged his bigotry to the utmost,
regardless of the welfare of his subjects. He sent
"the Duke of Alva, of infamous memory," into the
Netherlands, with a powerful army to destroy the
heretics. That monster, whose bigotry, pride, and
stubbornness corresponded with those of his royal
master, is said to have " poured out the Protestant
blood as water on every side ; while one hundred
and twenty thousand fled from the persecution."
Throughout all their cities, old and young, men and
women, without any distinction of dignity, age, or
sex, might be seen suffering by the sword, the
gibbet, the fire, and other torments, until the
wretched people, roused with indignation, arose as
one man, and totally overthrew the horrid Inquisi-
tion. William, prince of Orange, undertook the
100 THE INQUISITION BETEALED.
deliverance of his native country, which he accom-
plished with troops levied among the refugees and
the German Protestants. The mortified King of
Spain recalled the Duke of Alva ; but that " monster
boasted that he had delivered into the hands of
the executioners above eighteen thousand heretics
and rebels, besides those who died in the war ! "
Father Paul reckons the Belgic martyrs at
50,000 ; but Hugo Grrotius estimates the numbers
who suffered by the hands of the executioner at no
less than 100,000. Popery, however, with the
accursed Inquisition, was thus driven from the
country, and the civil war terminated only with a
new form of government, which formed a new
Protestant state in Europe, under the title of " THE
SEVEN UNITED PROVINCES."
CHAPTEE VIII.
THE INQUISITION IN FBANCE.
Martyrs in France Francis I., a persecutor His mother,
Louisa, establishes the Inquisition Early victims Francis
pursues her policy His processions and victims His
horrid death Increase of Protestants Charles IX.
Massacre Edict of Nantes Its revocation Barbarities
of dragoons.
FBANCE supplied a large number of victims to
the cruel bigotry of the Inquisition, at the period
of the reformation, especially in the reign of
Francis I. This great monarch was nephew to
IN FBANCE. 101
Louis XII., whom he succeeded on the throne at
his death, January 21, 1515. Francis was then
twenty-one years of age ; and no sooner was he
seated on the throne than he resolved on an expe-
dition into Italy, in which he was successful. After
the battle of Marignan, in which he was victorious,
Francis entered Milan, October 23, 1515 ; and
shortly after concluded a peace with Pope Leo X.,
by which he was confirmed in many privileges, he
and the Pope making various concessions. Leo and
Francis met at Bologna, where they drew up a
treaty, known as the " Tlie Concordat" in virtue
of which they agreed to sacrifice what were under-
stood as the rights of the church, mutually sharing
the spoils. The king conceded to the Pope his supre-
macy, independent of all councils of the church,
while Leo despoiled the ecclesiastical c'orporations
of France of the power to nominate to the bishop-
rics, bestowing this patronage upon the monarch.
This treaty was ratified by the Pope making a
public procession to the cathedral at Bologna, the
king bearing the train of His Holiness ! Francis
felt conscious of the iniquitous character of the
Concordat ; and, turning to Duprat, his chancellor,
whispered, " there is enough in it to damn us
both!"
Francis and Leo having thus linked their inte-
rests together, separated, each to pursue his own
course : but the king having afterwards been irri-
tated by some delays of the Pope, complained to
the papal legate of the conduct of Leo; adding,
that if he were not speedily satisfied, he would
102 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
countenance the Lutherans in his kingdom. The
priestly ambassador replied in a manner that silenced
the high-spirited monarch. " Sire," said he, " you
would be the first and greatest loser by such a step
a new religion demands a new prince!" By this
means Francis was prepared, under the influence
of superstition and fear for his crown, to show the
most ardent zeal for the cause of the Pope and his
Inquisition.
Two ladies, at this period, exercised extraordinary
influence in religion in France. Margaret, the
duchess of Alencon, sister of Francis, entertained
opinions far different from those of the king ; and
she afforded her powerful protection to the reformers,
who increased in several parts of France, especially
at Meaux and Lyons. Louisa of Savoy, mother of
Francis, professedly a Roman. Catholic, but in
reality a woman of no religious principle, was made
regent of the kingdom, while he carried his arms
into Italy, in 1524. He was, at first, successful ;
but, being eager to take Pavia, he was defeated near
that city by the imperial forces, and taken prisoner
by Lannoy, vice-king of Naples.
Francis I. became a captive in the power of the
Emperor Charles V., and was carried a prisoner
into Spain. During his absence the terrors of the
Inquisition were felt in France. For, 110 sooner
had Louisa obtained possession of the reins of
government, by the captivity of the king, her son,
than she wrote to the Pope, as the means of con-
ciliating his favour, asking his advice as to the best
mode of dealing with the heretics that infested
103
France. Clement VII., exasperated by the failure
of every attempt to arrest the progress of the
reformation in Germany and Switzerland, was
delighted with the message which laid the heretics
throughoutthe "Most Christian kingdom of France"
at the mercy of the sovereign pontiff. He re-
sponded with practical effect ; and, by a papal bull,
established the Inquisition in France.
For the purpose of carrying out his policy, the
Pope appointed Chancellor Duprat to be arch-
bishop of Sens, and created him a cardinal. Thus
the Inquisition was, at once, constituted in France,
as all the influential powers, the regent, the
chancellor, and the parliament, were leagued
with the Pope and the Sorbonne, to exterminate
heresy with fire and sword. A commission was
appointed, consisting of four priests, to whom was
entrusted absolute power to proceed against all
persons suspected of being tainted with Lutheran
doctrines. The highest dignitaries were held re-
sponsible to this dread tribunal; and the first
victim of the inqxiisitors was Briconnet, count of
Montbruu, bishop of Meaux. He was compelled
to answer, like the humblest priest, before two of
the inquisitors, and every appeal that he attempted
to make to the parliament, or to the regent, was
rejected. He recanted the evangelical doctrines
that he had preached ; and Lefevre, an aged pro-
fessor in the university, "the forerunner of the
reformation," fled to Strasburgh. But neither the
fall of the bishop, nor the flight of the doctor,
could satisfy the inquisitors of Paris. Jean
104 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
Pavanne was burned at the stake in the Place de
Greve, rejoicing that he was counted worthy to
suffer death for Christ. Their next victim was " the
good hermit of Livry." As he had evangelised the
villagers around his dwelling, about nine miles from
Paris, it was resolved to make him a public example.
A vast pile was raised in the open area in front of
the cathedral of Notre Dame, in which this servant
of Christ was sacrificed, in the presence of the
whole of the clergy, and a multitude of the people,
who had been called together by the great bell of
the cathedral. To sxich humble victims others were
added of higher rank, and by other means than the
prison and the stake. Michael D'Arande, chaplain
to the Princess Margaret, was threatened with
death, and Anthony Papillon, chief master of
requests to the Dauphin, was carried off by
poison. The inquisitors, in a few months, had
committed to the flames, or driven from Prance,
nearly every individual who had been the object of
their envy or suspicion. At length, after a year's
captivity in Spain, Francis obtained his freedom, on
most humiliating conditions, to the performance of
which he was bound^by a solemn oath. Prom this
oath to the emperor the Pope gave him absolution,
and thereby bound him more closely to himself by
such faithless bonds of perjury and deceit. But this
favour rendered it the more difficult for him to
change the policy^which, under the regency of his
mother, had delivered up the heretics of Prance
to the inquisitors of Rome.
Prancis returned to Paris in the character of a
IN TBANCE. 105
doubly perjured vassal of the Pope, bound to assume
the office of the persecutor, and take the lead in
devoting to tortures and to death the most virtuous,
enlightened and faithful of his subjects. The great
change which had taken place in the temper of
Francis on his return from Spain, became remarkably
manifest on his delivering up Louis Berquin, called
" the most learned of the nobility," to the vengeance
of the inquisitors. His books were seized, and, in
order to strike at the root of the heresy, Luther's
writings were publicly burnt before the cathedral
of Notre Dame. Berquin remained faithful ; he
refused to purchase life by the sacrifice of his faith ;
and Francis ceased to be protector and king. When
the parliament interfered with his early schemes of
policy, his haughty reply had been, " There is a
king in France ; " and when the court, responding
to the proud spirit of the sovereign, interfered on.
the former arrest of Berquin, the king exclaimed,
" Of what is he accused ? Of challenging the
custom of invoking the Virgin in place of the Holy
Ghost ! Is it for such trifles that they imprison a
Icing's officer ? It is an attack, aimed at literature,
true religion, the nobility, nay, the crown itself."
But Francis had descended from this kingly stand-
ing to become the wretched tool of a bigoted
priesthood. Berquin, the "king's officer," was
abandoned to his enemies. He was condemned to
have his tongue pierced and to be burnt alive ; and
the sentence was executed with the most merciless
severity. Berquin held fast his faith ; and his exe-
cution was followed by that of fourteen other
106 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
reformers, who were burnt at the stake, maintain-
ing, to their latest breath, the true faith of Christ.
Francis not only allowed a free course to the
inquisitors, and abandoned the nobles of France to
their fury, he was drawn to be their humble agent
among the executioners of their cruelties. At the
beginning of 1535, Jean Morin, the surintendant-
criminel, flung into prison immense numbers of
men, women, and children, who attended the religious
meetings of the evangelicals. They were betrayed
by a man named Guainier, who had been employed
to keep watch at their secret religious assemblies.
These furnished victims for a solemn procession,
which the king ordered at Paris, January 21, 1535,
in expiation of the offence pretended to have been
committed in certain placards, which denied the
Romish doctrine of transubstantiation.
Laval, in his " History of the Protestant Beforrn-
ation in France," describes this procession, thus
expressed by a modern writer: "Between the
hours of eight and nine in the morning the pro-
cession began to issue from the church of Saint
Genevieve. There was a long line of priests, dressed
in their gorgeous garments ; the streets were
strewed with flowers, and the windows were crowded
with spectators. First were borne the bodies and
relics of all the martyrs preserved in the different
churches of Paris, St. Germain, St. Merry, St.
Marceau, St. Genevieve, St. Opportune, St. Landre,
St. Honore ; and all those relics of the Holy Chapel
which had never been exposed to the public gaze
since the grand and mournful day of the funeral of
* IN FEAKCE. 107
Saint Louis. Then followed a great number of
cardinals in their scarlet robes ; of bishops, abbes,
and other prelates, and all the members of the
University of Paris, marching in regular order.
Then came Du Bellay, bishop of Paris, carrying in
his hands the holy sacrament. Then the king, with
his head bare, and bearing a large waxen taper in
his hand ; then the queen ; the princes of the
blood ; two hundred gentlemen; the king's guard ;
the court of parliament ; the master of requests, and
all the officers of justice. The ambassadors of
the emperor, of England, of Venice, &c., were
present. The procession, in grave order, proceeded
through all the larger streets of Paris; and at six
principal places there were erected at each a
reposoir, or temporary altar, adorned with flowers,
crucifixes, candlesticks, &c., &c. Little children,
dressed as angels, or holding the lamb of peace, are
usually to be seen at these reposoirs ; but here was
now a terrible spectacle prepared. At each altar a
scaffold and a pile had been arranged, where were
very cruelly burned six people, amid the marvellous
shouts and rejoicings of the populace, so highly
excited, that it was with difficulty they were pre-
vented from snatching the victims out of the hands
of the executioners and tearing them in pieces.
But if the fury of these was great, the constancy of
the martyrs was greater still. The cruelty of the
people, in tearing these sufferers to atoms, would
have been mercy, compared to the barbarity of the
king. He had commanded that these victims should
be fastened to a very lofty machine, the beam of
H 2
108 THE INQUISITION BEVELED.
which projecting, was, by means of pulleys, raised
and lowered alternately ; and as it rose and fell it
plunged the martyr into a blazing pile below, and
raised him up again in order ta prolong his suf-
ferings. This continued till the flames had destroyed
the cords which bound him, and the body sank into
the fire. This horrible machine was not set in
motion till the king, queen, and all present might
enjoy the satisfaction of seeing the heretic tormented
with the flames ; during which time the king,
handing his torch to the Cardinal de Loraine,
joined his hands, and prostrating himself humbly,
called down the blessing of heaven upon his people;
and in this attitude remained until the agonies of
the victim had terminated.
" The procession ended where it began, at the
church of St. Genevieve. The holy sacrament was
replaced in the tabernacle, and the mass was sung
by the archbishop of Paris. After this there was
a splendid dinner, at which the archbishop received
the king, the peers, the ambassadors, the courts of
parliament, &c., &c. At the conclusion of which
entertainment, the king, addressing the numerous
guests, after expressing his grief at the execrable
opinions that were disseminated in his dominions,
said ' that he had determined and commanded that
the most rigorous punishment should be inflicted
upon the delinquents ; and he required all his subjects
to denounce every one whom they should know to be
adherents unto, or accomplices in such blasphemies,
without regard to alliance, lineage, or friendship.
As for himself, if his very arm were thus corrupted,
IN FBANCE. 109
Tie would tear it from his body ; and if his own
children were found guilty of falling into such
enormities, he would at once yield them up as a first
sacrifice to God ! ' To give force to his words, the
king ordered the executions of the sacramentaries
to continue ; and from that time the numbers who
perished by the balancoire (or swing) is appalling."
Europe was filled with the reports of these
cruelties on the French reformers, and the Pro-
testant princes remonstrated with the king. But
Francis had become the slave of superstition and
priestly intolerance, and governed by the inquisitors
of Eome. He continued his cruel and impolitic
course, under the counsel of the inquisitors ; and
issued a terrible edict, in 1540, against the Vaudois,
requiring " that the villages of Mirandol, Cabrieres,
Les Aignes, and other places shall all be destroyed,
the houses razed to the ground; their caverns
and other subterranean retreats demolished ; their
forests cut down ; their fruit trees torn up by the
roots; the principal chiefs executed; and the women
and children exiled for perpetuity."
These people were reported as exemplary in their
industry ; that " they never say mass for the dead ;
they have prayer in the vulgar tongue ; they have
no bishops, nor priests, but men whom they elect as
simple ministers." The Papists, therefore, hated
their religion, and envied their prosperity, resulting
from industry ; so that they prevailed on the king
to abandon his deserving subjects to the extermi-
nating sword and fire of the inquisitors. Men,
women, and children were massacred with fiendish
110 THE INQUISITION KEYEALED.
cruelty. Towns, villages, and hainlets were devoted
to the flames. Death was threatened to all who
should offer food or shelter to the fugitives, so that
those who escaped the sword of the persecutors,
perished in the mountains.
Francis is said to have been stung with remorse
on reflecting upon this infamous massacre, especially
on his death-bed. He died in 1547, as the perse-
cutor dies, despairing, dishonoured, and unde-
plored. His eldest son, the dauphin, died of poison,
administered by his cup-bearer ; and his own death
is believed to have been caused by the same instru-
ment of revenge, administered by the husband of a
lady whom he had dishonoured. His character,
therefore, was Avorthy of " the mystery of iniquity,"
the Komish Antichrist.
France exhibited a long series of the most bloody
scenes, after the decease of Francis I., the horrid fruit
of the Inquisition, the detail of which would require
a volume. Notwithstanding persecution, the Pro-
testants increased greatly ; so that, in 1570, it is
recorded, there were two thousand one hundred and
fifty congregations of Protestants in France, some
of them containing two thousand members ! Papal
intrigues were long employed, under the direction
of the inquisitors, for their extirpation ; and the
pages of history do not contain such another record
of monstrous treachery and malignant barbarity, as
that of St. Bartholomew, in 1572. It is to be
remembered that the deed was perpetrated in the
name of the religion of Jesus Christ, the Prince of
Peace !
IN FBANCE. Ill
Charles IX., king of France, guided by his wicked
mother, the infamous Catherine de Medicis, was
induced, by the agents of the Pope, to resolve upon
exterminating, by one decisive effort, all the dis-
senters from the llomish church. For this purpose,
many of the principal Protestants were invited to
Paris, under a solemn oath of safety, to celebrate
the marriage of the king of Navarre with the French
king's sister. The queen dowager of Navarre, a
zealous Protestant, was destroyed before the
marriage was solemnised, by means of poison, con-
cealed in a pair of gloves. The inhuman butchery
commenced at the tolling of the bell of the Palais
de Justice, at two o'clock in the morning of the
24th of August (the Sabbath), by the murder of the
Admiral Coligny, who had been shot at and wounded
two days previously. The hypocritical king of
France visited him, and declared the admiral's
wound was his own. But the shocking work was
conducted by the Duke of Cruise, urged on by the
king himself in person !
Most dreadful was the scene. The shrieks of
women and children rent the air, mingled with the
shouts aoid blasphemous execrations of their mur-
derers. "Imagine," says a French author, "sixty
thousand assassins, armed with pistols, stakes, cut-
lasses, poniards, knives, and other deadly weapons,
rushing along the streets, blaspheming and abusing
the sacred name of God, and murdering and
mutilating the innocent and defenceless, amid a
horrible tempest of yells and savage cries, and
the piteous shrieks of those whom they dragged
112 THE INQUISITION KEYEALED.
through the mire, or flung headlong iuto the bloody
Seine ! " Five hundred gentlemen, and ten thousand
of the common people are believed to have been
sacrificed in this horrid massacre, in three days,
within the walls of Paris alone. But the bloody
work extended to all places where these evangelical
dissenters were known; and it is calculated that
not less than a hundred thousand Protestants were
at this time destroyed in France !
On the third day of the massacre, the priests led
the king in royal state to the cathedral of Notre
Dame, when high mass was performed ; and then
solemn thanksgivings to God were rendered, as for
the victory which he had thus granted over the
enemies of the church ! This melancholy tragedy
was known to have been contrived by the Romish
inquisitors. The announcement of it was received
by the clergy, at Rome and in Spain, with expres-
sions of unbounded exultation. The messenger
who brought the news to Rome was rewarded with
a thousand crowns ; and when the letters from the
papal legate residing at the French court were read
in the assembly of cardinals, it was decreed, that the
Pope should march with his cardinals to the church
of St. Mark, to offer solemn thanks to God for so
signal a blessing conferred upon the see of Rome !
Medals to commemorate this horrid deed were struck
in Paris and in Rome, by order of the Governments ;
and that of Pope Gregory XIII., though proclaiming
the everlasting dishonour of the papacy and the In-
quisition, may still be obtained at the mint of Rome!
Charles IX. raged in savage cruelty against the
IH PRINCE. 113
Protestants. Even the king of Navarre and the
prince of Conde were devoted to the same destruc-
tion ; but their lives were spared on their professing
to be reconciled to the Romish church ; the king
of France, with a terrible oath, proposing to them,
" mass, death, or the Bastile for life ! " This royal
bigot, however, fell a victim to guilt and remorse ;
for he died, May 30th, 1574, in the twenty-fifth
year of his age, after suffering dreadful bodily and
mental anguish, poisoned, as many believed, by the
hand of his own mother !
As to the sacrifices of the Protestants in France,
it is collected from authentic records that during
forty years, in the middle of this century, not less
than a million were the victims of the unrelenting
bigotry of the Eomish inquisitors !
Protestantism still survived in France ; and many
again took up arms in their own defence, until 1598,
when Henry IV., of Navarre, succeeded to the
throne. He granted the famous " Edict of Nantes,"
which was called " Irrevocable ! " and by which the
Protestants were allowed liberty of conscience, the
free exercise of their religion, and access to all places
of public trust and dignity. But the Papists con-
tinued by all kinds of intrigues to annoy them.
One shameful invasion of their rights succeeded
another, by the enactment of inhuman laws, until
the reign of Louis XIV., who was prevailed on, in
1685, by the Popish bishops and the Jesuits, con-
trary to the most solemn obligations which human
or divine laws can frame, to revoke the " Irrevocable
Edict of Xantes."
114 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
By tliis means it was intended, in one grand
effort, to extirpate the very remembrance of the
Protestant profession in France. Reconciliation
with Rome was required, or banishment from the
kingdom . Fifteen days were allowed to the preachers
and professors, and many of them fled. About
eight hundred thousand, chiefly artisans, escaped
from the dragoons, who were commissioned to
destroy those who Avould not conform. Many of
the exiles, being weavers, were well received in
England, where they contributed greatly to the
wealth and prosperity of the nation, by their woollen
factories in Yorkshire and the Avest, and by their
silk works in Spitalfields, London.
Those who could not escape were treated with
every species of brutality. " The troopers, soldiers
and dragoons," says a French Protestant author,
in 1686, " went into the Protestants' houses, where
they marred and defaced their household stuff,
broke their looking-glasses, and other utensils and
ornaments. Those things which they could not
destroy in this manner such as furniture of beds,
linens, wearing apparel, plate, &c., they carried to
the market-place, and sold them to the Jesuits and
other Roman Catholics. They turned the dining-
rooms of gentlemen into stables for their horses ;
and treated the owners of the houses where they were
quartered with the highest indignity and cruelty,
lashing them about from one to another, day and
night, without intermission, not suffering them to
eat or drink. In several places the soldiers applied
ret-hot irons to the hands and feet of men and
IN FBAKCE. 115
breasts of women. At Nantes they hung up
several women and maids by their feet, and others
by their arm-pits, and thus exposed them to public
view, stark naked. They bound to posts mothers
that gave suck, and let their sucking infants lie
languishing in their sight for several days and
nights, crying, mourning, and gasping for life.
Some they bound before a great fire, and, being
half-roasted, let them go a punishment worse than
death. Amidst a thousand hideous cries and blas-
phemies, they hung up men and women by the
hair, and some by their feet, on hooks in chimneys,
and smoked them with wisps of wet hay till they
were suffocated. They tied some under the arms
with ropes, and plunged them again and again into
wells ; they bound others like criminals, put them
to the tortures, and, with a funnel, filled them with
wine, till the fumes of it took away their reason,
when they made them say they consented to be
Catholics. They stripped them naked, and, after a
thousand indignities, stuck them with pins and
needles from head to foot. They cut and slashed
them with knives ; and sometimes with red-hot
pincers took hold of them by the nose and other
parts of the body, and dragged them about the
rooms till they promised to be Catholics. They
beat them with staves, and thus bruised, and with
broken bones, dragged them to the church, where
their forced presence was taken for abjuration. In
some places they tied fathers and husbands to their
bed-posts, and, before their eyes, ravished their
wives and daughters with impunity. With these
116 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
scenes of desolation and horror the popish clergy
feasted their eyes, and made them only a matter of
laughter and sport. Though my heart aches, I beg
the reader's patience to lay before him two other
instances, which, if he hath a heart like mine, he
will not be able to read without watering these
sheets with tears. The first is of a young woman,
who being brought before the council, upon refusing
to abjure her religion, was ordered to prison. There
they shaved her head, singed off the hair from other
parts of her body ; and having stripped her stark
naked, led her through the streets of the city, where
many a blow was given her, and stones flung at her ;
then they set her up to the neck in a tub of water for
awhile ; they took her out, and put on her a shift dip-
ped in wine, which, as it dried and stuck to her sore
and bruised body, they snatched off again, and then
had another ready dipped in wine to clap on her.
This they repeated six times, thereby making her
body exceeding raw and sore. When all these
cruelties could not shake her constancy, they
fastened her by the feet in a kind of gibbet, and
let her hang in that posture, with her head down-
ward, till she expired !
" The other is of a man in whose house were
quartered some of these missionary dragoons. One
day, having drunk plentifully of his wine, and
broken their glasses at every health, they filled the
floor with fragments, and by often walking over
them reduced them to very small pieces. This
done, in the insolence of their mirth they resolved
on a dance, and told their Protestant host that he
nr TRANCE. 117
must be one of their company ; but as he would
not be of their religion, he must dance quite bare-
foot ; and thus bare-foot they drove him about the
room, treading on the sharp points of the broken
glasses. "When he was no longer able to stand,
they laid him on a bed, and, in a short time, stripped
him stark naked, and rolled him from one end of
the room to the other, till every part of his body
was full of the fragments of glass. After this they
dragged him to his bed ; and, having sent for a
surgeon, obliged him to cut out the pieces of glass
with his instruments, thereby putting him to the
most exquisite and horrible pains that can be pos-
sibly conceived !
"These, fellow Protestants, were the methods
used by the ' Most Christian King's' apostolic dra-
goons to convert his heretical subjects to the Roman
Catholic faith ! These, and many other of the like
nature, were the torments to which Louis XIV.
delivered them over to bring them to his own
church ; and as popery is unchangeably the same,
these are the tortures prepared for you, if ever that
religion should be permitted to become settled
amongst you ; the consideration of which made
Luther say of it, what every man that knows any-
thing of Christianity must agree with him in : ' If
you have no other reason to go out of the Roman
church, this alone would suffice, that you see and
hear how, contrary to the law of Grod, THEY SHED
INNOCENT BLOOD. This single circumstance shall,
God willing, ever separate me from the papacy.
And if I was now subject to it, and could blame
118 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
nothing in any of their doctrines ; yet, for this
crime of cruelty, I would fly from her communion,
as from a den of thieves and murderers ! ' "
CHAPTER IX.
THE INQUISITION IN ENGLAND.
Spiritual Courts Henry VIII. His zeal for Popery Mar-
tyrdom of Anne Askew Queen Mary marries Philip of
Spain The Inquisition and Martyrs High Commission
Martyrs under Elizabeth Archbp. Whitgift's cruelty
Udall Archbishop Laud Sufferings of Dr. Leighton
Abolition of Spiritual Courts under William III.
ENGLAND also received the horrid Romish Inqui-
sition. For though the " Holy Office " was never
constituted here, on precisely the same plan as it
was established in the despotic countries of Spain,
Portugal, and Rome, nor completely set up till the
gloomy reign of Queen Mary, the victims of papal
bigotry were numerous, as sacrificed on its cruel
altars. Pontifical decrees and statutes were brought
into England, and carried into effect by the pre-
lates, acting under the authority of the popes.
Spiritual courts were organised in many dioceses,
where holy men of Grod were sought after and
punished as heretics, by the bishops and arch-
bishops, as inquisitors of heresy. Their antichris-
tian spirit may be learned from the cruel proceed-
IN ENGLAND. 119
ings of the ecclesiastics against the thirty Germans
at Oxford, under Henry II., and against the
Wycliffites, as noticed in Chapter Y.
Volumes are required to record the sufferings of
the "Lollards," and " Gospellers," in England, as
they were called, who read the Scriptures, or the
books of Wycliffe. Many of them hecame faithful
martyrs of Christ ; and though such severity was
used, the cause of God continued and gained
strength, especially after Luther arose as the great
reformer, in 1517. The translation of the ]S~ew
Testament by William Tindal, in 1526, and his
labours in completing the entire Bible, aided by
John Frith, William Roye, John Rogers, and
Miles Coverdale, greatly provoked the prelates,
and all these, except Coverdale, fell sacrifices to
papal enmity, as martyrs for Christ.
Popery found a worthy supporter in Henry VIII.,
who, " through the various stages of his reign, out-
stripped his predecessors in almost every act of
arrogance and barbarity, making himself inquisitor-
general and grand judge of heretics. When they
were condemned to die, he descended to the office
of sitting in judgment upon them." He even
published a book against Luther, in " defence of
the seven sacraments of the Catholic church ;" for
which he was rewarded by the Pope with the title
of "Defender of the Faith," A.D. 1521.
Henry's vanity being gratified by this favour of
the Pope, he entered more zealously into the designs
of the Inquisition, and issued a royal proclamation,
in which he commands that all persons defamed or
120 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
suspected of preaching or writing contrary to the
Catholic church should, by the bishops, be arrested
and cast into prison. He then adds, " If any per-
son, by the law of holy church, be convicted before
the bishop or his commissary, that the said bishop
may keep in prison the said person so convicted, so
long as it shall seem best to his discretion ; and may
set a fine to be paid to the king, by the person
convicted, as it shall be thought convenient to the
said bishop, the said fine to be levied for the king's
use. And if any person within the realm of
England be convicted of the aforesaid errors and
heresies, he shall be committed to the secular
jurisdiction, and shall suffer execution according
to the laws of this realm."
Sanctioned thus by the king, the bishops, who
appear to have been the authors of this proclama-
tion, proceeded, by vile inquisitors, to search for
victims, whom they imprisoned and grievously
fined. Their scandalous exactions enriched them,
as their inquisitorial power rendered them superior
to any law, or screened them from accountability.
The temporal lords, and the commons' house of
parliament, therefore, presented a petition to the
king for relief, declaring the prelates had " gotten
into their hands more than a third part of all his
majesty's realm!" They add, in their appeal to
the king against these dreaded inquisitors,
" And what do all these greedy, idle, holy thieves
do with these yearly exactions which they take of
the people? Truly nothing, but exempt them-
selves from the obedience of your grace. Nothing
IN ENGLA.ND. 121
but translate all rule, power, lordship, authority,
obedience, and dignity, from your grace to them-
selves. Nothing but that all your subjects should
fall into disobedience and rebellion against your
grace, and be under them, as they did to your
noble predecessor, King John ; who, because he
would have punished certain traitors that conspired
with the Trench king, to have deposed him from
his crown and dignity, interdicted his land. For
which matter your most noble realm hath wrong-
fully, alas ! stood tributary, not to any temporal
prince, but to a cruel, devilish bloodsucker, drunken
ever since with tlie blood of tlie saints and martyrs
of Christ I
" "What remedy is there ? "Will you make laws
against them ? It is doubtful whether you are able.
Are they not stronger in your own parliament-
house than yourself? What a number of bishops,
abbots, and priors, are lords of your parliament !
Are not all the learned men in your realm in fee
with them, to speak in your parliament for them,
against your crown, dignity, and realm ; a few of
your own learned council only excepted ? What law
can be made against them that will be available ?
"Who is he, though he be sorely grieved, that, for
murder, ravishment, robbery, debt, or any other
offence, dare lay it to their charge by way of action ?
If any one do, he is by-and-by accused of heresy ;
yea, they will so handle him, that except he bear a
faggot for their pleasure, he must be excommuni-
cated, and then all his actions will be quashed"
Henry became alarmed by this bold exposure of
i
THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
the wicked deeds of the prelates, and lie appointed
a hearing with all the judges and his temporal
council, which resulted in a bill, that soon passed
into a law, altering the statute of Henry IV.
against heretics. Though this did not remove their
liability to burning, it disabled the prelates from
being the sole judges in the cause of heresy.
Still the bishops, as inquisitors, continued their
proceedings, as they were able to secure the sanction
of the king. But we cannot here trace their
operations in destroying the faithful followers of
Christ ; yet we must notice their laying a plan to
accomplish the destruction of Archbishop Cranmer,
and Katherine Parr, the queen of Henry VIII.,
who favoured the reformation. They proceeded
first against Anne Askew, a celebrated lady of the
court, in hope of inducing her, by torture on the
rack, to accuse the queen of heresy. She was
imprisoned and examined by Bonner, bishop of
London, antl Gardiner, bishop of "Winchester;
and, as she denied transubstantiation, they con-
demned her to the flames as a heretic.
Dr. Southey relates her martyrdom as follows,
referring to her examination on the rack by the
inquisitors: "Henry's heart was naturally hard,
and the age and circumstances in which he was
placed had steeled it against all compassion. Some
displeasure, indeed, he manifested shortly after-
wards, when the lieutenant of the Tower, Sir
Anthony Knevet, came to solicit pardon for having
disobeyed the chancellor, by refusing to let the
gaoler stretch the lady on the rack a second time,
IN ENGLAND. 123
after she had endured it once without accusing any
person of partaking her opinions. It was concern-
ing the ladies of the court that she was put to the
torture, in the hope of implicating the queen ; and
when Knevet would do no more, the Chancellor
"Wriothesley, and Eich, who was a creature of
Bonner, racked her with their own hands, throwing
off" their gowns that they might perform their
devilish office the better. She bore it without
uttering cry or groan, though, immediately upon
being loosed, she fainted. Henry readily forgave
the lieutenant, and appeared ill pleased with his
chancellor ; but he suffered his wicked ministers
to consummate their crime. A scaffold was erected
in front of St. Bartholomew's church, where
"Wriothesley, the duke of Norfolk, and others of
the king's council, sat with the lord mayor, to
witness the execution. Three others were to suffer
for the same imaginary offence ; one was a tailor,
another a priest, and the third a Nottinghamshire
gentleman, of the Lascelles family, and of the
king's household. The execution was delayed till
darkness closed, that it might appear more dreadful.
Anne Askew was brought in a chair, for they had
racked her until she was unable to stand, and she
was held up against the stake by the chain which
fastened her; but her constancy, and cheerful
language of encouragement, brought her com-
panions in martyrdom to the same invincible forti-
tude and triumphant hope. After a sermon had
been preached, the king's pardon was offered
to her, if she would recant : refusing even to look
i2
THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
upon it, she made answer, that she came not there
to deny her Lord ! The others, in like manner,
refused to purchase their lives at such a price.
The reeds were then set on fire it was in the
month of June and, at that moment, a few drops
of rain fell, and a thunder-clap was heard, which
those in the crowd, who sympathised with the
martyrs, felt as if it were God's own voice, accept-
ing their sacrifice, and receiving their spirits into
everlasting rest." June, 1546.
Henry VIII. dying January 28, 1547, was suc-
ceeded by his son, Edward VI., who laboured to
forward the reformation. Those who formed the
regency, his protectors, were Protestants, and the
persecuting laws were soon repealed, with other
measures for the advancement of the religion of
the Scriptures. But this pious yourig king died,
July 6, 1553, and was succeeded on the throne by
his sister Mary. She was a consistent Papist,
directed entirely by the Eomish prelates. They
revived all the powers of the Inquisition, and soon
imprisoned Craumer, archbishop of Canterbury,
and the other leaders in the reformation, accusing
them of heresy.
Queen Mary accepted the proposal to marry
Philip, son of the Emperor Charles V., though ten
years her junior, and a widower. As a bigot Papist,
" all who had espoused the cause of the reformation
in England," as Bishop Bonner states, " anticipated
not only a change of religion, but the erection of a
Spanish government and Inquisition. Those who
valued the civil liberty of their country, without
IN ENGLAND.
125
any concern for religion, concluded that England
would become a province of Spain ; and they beheld
how the Spaniards ruled in the Netherlands, in
Milan, Naples, and Sicily; but, above all, they
heard of their unexampled inhumanities in the
"West Indies."
Philip was a man of great talents ; but, as it is
said of him, " his religion was of the most corrupt
kind; it served only to increase the natural depravity
of his disposition, and prompted him to commit the
most odious and shocking crimes. Of the triumph
of honour and humanity over the dictates of super-
stition, there occurs not a single instance in the
whole reign of Philip ; who violated the most
sacred obligations as often as religion afforded him
a pretence, and exercised, for many years, the most
unrelenting cruelty, without reluctance or remorse.
Few princes have been more dreaded, more abhorred,
or have caused more blood to flow, than Philip II.
of Spain."
Mary, on the 23rd of October, before the altar
in her private chapel, solemnly plighted her troth
to Philip ; and Bishop Gardiner was despatched
to arrange the marriage settlement with the
Emperor Charles V., who borrowed one million two
hundred thousand crowns, a prodigious sum at that
time, to enable that prelate to secure an obse-
quious parliament.
Philip landed at Southampton, July 20, 1554 >
and, on the 25th, he was married to Mary, by
Gardiner, in his cathedral at "Winchester. On
the 29th of November, the formal reconciliation to
THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
Home was solemnised, with great pomp, in the
hall of the palace at Whitehall. The Queen and
the King sat in regal state, with the Pope's legate,
Cardinal Pole, a prince of the blood. A large
number of both houses of the new parliament
being introduced, they presented, on their knees,
a humble supplication on behalf of the whole
nation, beseeching their majesties to intercede with
the lord cardinal for their admission within the sacred
pale of the church, and for absolution from their
offences of heresy and schism, on condition of
repealing all laws against the Catholic religion,
passed in the season of their delusion. Mary and
Philip having made the intercession, the legate,
after a long speech, declaring the paternal solicitude
of his holiness for the welfare of England, in the
name of the Pope granted a full absolution, which
the members of parliament received on their knees ;
after which, the king, queen, and legate, together
with the whole body of the senators of the nation,
chanted Te Deum in the chapel of the palace,
expressive of their joy ! The Pope solemnly rati-
fied the act of his legate, and the news of the
whole transaction was quickly published throughout
Europe !
Preparatory for this absolution, an act was passed
for the revival of the statutes of Richard II., Henry
II., and Henry V., against heretics. They were to
.come into force on the 20th of January, 1555 ; so
that the year opened with a portentous gloom.
Cardinal Pole, on the 23rd of January, received all
the bishops at Lambeth Palace, to give them his
IN ENGLAND. 127
blessing, and directions how to govern the church ;
and on the 25th, there was a solemn procession
through London, consisting of eiglit bishops, and
one hundred and sixty priests, all in their robes ;
with Bonner, the bishop, carrying the host, to
return thanks to God for their reconciliation.
After this solemnity, the first measure of the
restored church was for the prelates, as inquisitors,
to proceed against the reformers, many of whom
were imprisoned, under the direction of Bishop
Bonner and Bishop Gardiner, who was lord chan-
cellor.
Bishop Burnet remarks, on this cruel policy of
the prelates, " Pope Paul was in the right in one
thing, to press the setting up of courts of inquisi-
tion everywhere, as the only sure method to extir-
pate heresy. And it is highly probable that the
king, or his Spanish ministers, made the court of
England apprehend, that torture and inquisition
were the only sure courses to root out heresy."
John Rogers, a prebendary of St. Paul's, London,
and a famous preacher, who had aided Tindal in the
translation of the Bible, was the first victim. He
was burnt to ashes in Smithfield, February 4, 1555,
triumphing in Christ.
Laurence Saunders was burnt to death on the
8th of February, where he had been minister, and
highly esteemed, at Coventry.
Dr. Hooper, bishop of Gloucester, was carried to
suffer at the stake in that city, on the 9th of
February.
Dr. Taylor was sent to suffer in like manner, in
128 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
liis own parish, at Hadleigh, in Suffolk, on the 9th
of February.
Dr. Farrar, bishop of St. David's, was carried to
seal the truth of the Gospel with his blood, and he
triumphed in martyrdom, March 30th, at Car-
marthen.
Terrible as were these enormities, they did not
satisfy the sanguinary queen nor her bigoted
chancellor, Bishop Gardiner. They determined to
extirpate heresy, and therefore employed local
inquisitors. Bishop Burnet states, therefore, " In-
structions were given, in March, 1555, to the
justices of peace, to have one or more honest men
in every parish, secretly instructed on oath to give
information of the behaviour of the inhabitants
among them. Here was a great step made towards
an Inquisition ; this being the settled method of
that court, to have sworn spies and informers every
where, upon whose secret advertisements persons
are taken up ; and the first step in their examina-
tion is to know of them, for what reason they are
brought before them ; upon which they are tor-
tured till they tell, as much as the inquisitors desire
to know, either against themselves or others. But
they are not suffered to know, neither what is
informed against them, nor who are the informers.
Arbitrary torture, and now secret informers, seem
to be two great steps made to prepare the nation
for an Inquisition."
John Bradford, a prebendary of St. Paul's,
London, a powerful and popular preacher, was
burnt in Smithfield, July 15th; Bishops Latiiner
ITS ENGLAND. 129
and Ridley were sacrificed in the flames at Oxford,
on the 16th of October ; and Archbishop Cranmer
was executed at the stake, in the same place,
March 24, 1556.
Particulars of the sufferings and triumphs of
these and the other martyrs for Christ, during the
short reign of Mary, cannot here be detailed.
Four, five, six, seven, and on one occasion, thirteen
persons, were seen murdered in one fire ! Neither
sex nor age, the lame nor blind, being spared, if
they refused conformity to the imposition of the
Eomish prelates. Barbarities so shocking terrified
the whole nation. Petitions to the Queen against
them were transmitted from the Protestant exiles
abroad ; so that even King Philip was so ashamed,
that he caused a Spanish divine, of high celebrity,
to preach against the cruelties, though the same
things were transacted under his direct sanction,
in his own dominions in the Netherlands and Spain.
Mary had no child, and Philip spent most of his
time in the Netherlands, being apparently alienated
from his queen. She became dejected, through' a
sense of his unkindness, and chagrined at the loss
of Calais, so that her health declined ; while she
was the victim of superstition, and a prey to remorse
for her dreadful cruelties, and ' she finished her
wretched life, November 7, 1558.
Of the martyrs for Christ in the reign of Mary,
victims of the Inquisition, there were reckoned, one
archbishop, four bishops, twenty-one clergymen,
eight gentlemen, eighty-four tradesmen, a hundred
husbandmen, labourers and servants, fifty-five
130 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
women, and four children ! Cooper estimates the
number of those who suffered for the Gospel, from
February, 1555, to September, 1558, at about 290 !
According to Bishop Burnet, there were 284. The
most accurate account is, probably, that of Lord
Burleigh, who, in his treatise called " The Execu-
tion of Justice in England," reckons the number of
those who died in the reign of Mary by imprison-
ment, torments, famine, and fire, to be nearly 400 ;
of whom those who were burnt alive amounted to
290!
Queen* Elizabeth succeeded to the throne on the
deatli of her sister Mary. She was a Protestant
inf profession, and she restored the reformation in
England; but her prelates were persecutors, and
they were allowed to retain the spirit and power of
the Inquisition, but under another name, "The
Court of High Commission."
This Court of High Commission was created in
the name of the queen, for the express purpose of
searching out and punishing the nonconformists.
These commissioners were principally bishops, and
they assumed the power of administering an oath,
ex officio, by which the prisoner was obliged to
answer all questions put to him, and even to accuse
himself or his dearest friend. Many refused to
take the oath, choosing rather to suffer imprison-
ment, which was determined, not according to any
law, but the will of the commissioners. A detail of
the miseries endured by conscientious clergymen,
under the High Commission Court, would re-
quire volumes ; their principles, and many of their
IN ENGLAND. 131
practices, being precisely those of the execrable
EOMISH INQUISITION.
Archbishop Parker continued a cruel persecutor
of the nonconformists : and others of the prelates
employed the most dishonourable methods to hunt
out and imprison them, hiring unprincipled charac-
ters as inquisitors and informers, and making new
articles, contrary to the laws of England, for the
more certain conviction of those brought before the
ecclesiastical courts.
Persecution and cruelty, in character only in
accordance with the popish Inquisition, continued
even in London. The year 1575 is distinguished
by a transaction, which reflects imperishable dis-
honour on the prelates and the queen. A congre-
gation of Dutch Baptists being discovered on
Easter-day, near Aldgate, their house was entered
by the bishop's officers, and twenty-seven of the
worshippers were seized and committed to prison.
Four recanted ; and, according to the popish cus-
tom, they were required to bear faggots during ser-
mon at Paul's Cross, as a token of their deserving the
flames .' Ten of the men and one woman were con-
demned to the stake by the ecclesiastical consistory :
but the woman was induced to recant ; while eight
of those who could not be convinced of error were
banished, and two were sacrificed in the flames as
heretics.
On this occasion, the Dutch residents in Lon-
don, who were allowed to hold their meetings for
religious worship, interceded with the queen for
their mistaken countrymen ; but she gave them a
132 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
positive refusal to their request. John Eox, who
was in favour with her majesty, on account of his
"Acts and Monuments of the Church," made an
application to her on their behalf, in an elegant
Latin letter ; but though his arguments appear suf-
ficient to convince the most perverted judgment,
and his appeals to her compassion, as a woman,
calculated to melt the hardest heart, they availed
nothing with the virgin queen ! A clergyman of
our time asks, " What are we to think of those
evangelical prelates, who sat in the High Commis-
sion Court, and at the council-table, a part of whose
office it was to advise the queen ? Alas ! that
none could be found, who, on such an emergency,
would give her correct information respecting the
will of Christ, and assure her, ' He, the Son of Man,
was not come to destroy men's lives, but to save
them !' A death-like silence reigned, and the law
took its course."
Queen Elizabeth's intolerance, in the spirit of
an inquisitor-general, extended even to Dr. Grindal,
archbishop of Canterbury. Having enjoyed that
high dignity two years, he was suspended by the
queen, for refusing to suppress the " prophesyings,"
which were meetings of the evangelical clergy to
promote scriptural knowledge by preaching. He
appeals to the queen, " Alas ! madam, is the Scrip-
ture more plain in anything, than that the Gospel
of Christ should be plentifully preached? If the
Holy Ghost prescribeth, especially, that preachers
should be placed in every town, how can it well be
that three or four preachers may suffice for a shire ?
IN ENGLAND. 133
[This was the declared opinion of the queen.]
Public and continual preaching of God's Word is
the ordinary means of salvation to mankind.
'' Concerning the learned exercises and confer-
ences amongst the ministers of the church the
time appointed for this exercise is once a month ;
the time of this exercise is two hours some text
of Scripture, before appointed to be spoken, is
interpreted in this order prayer, and a psalm fol-
low. I am enforced with all humility, and yet
plainly, to profess that I cannot, with safe con-
science, and without the offence of the majesty of
God, give mine assent to the suppressing of the
said exercises ; much less can I send out any in-
struction for the utter and universal subversion
of the same. If it be your majesty's pleasure
for this, or any other cause, to remove me out of
this place, I will, with all humility, yield there-
unto. Eemember, that in God's cause, the will of
God, and not the will of any earthly creature, is
to take place ; it is the antichristian voice of the
Pope, ' Tims I will thus I order my icill is reason
sufficient ! ' '
Grindal's mode of arguing was precisely that of
the Protestants against the Papists, and of the apos-
tles against the rulers of the Jews. But this appeal
to the Scriptures availed nothing with the royal in-
quisitor; the prelate continued in disgrace with,
his sovereign, though he was permitted till his
death, in 1583, to retain his dignity as archbishop
of Canterbury.
Dr. Whitgift succeeded as archbishop of Canter
134 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
bury, and he was a severe inquisitor and persecutor.
He published three articles for every clergyman to
subscribe, declaring from his heart, his approbation
of the whole Common Prayer ; besides which, he
drew up twenty-four articles to be used in examin-
ing those who were brought before the bishops.
Through these impositions, great numbers of pious
clergymen were deprived ; among whom were sixty-
four in Norfolk, sixty in Suffolk, and thirty-eight
in Essex ; besides those in other counties.
These inquisitorial proceedings 'induced Lord
Burleigh, the earls of Leicester, Shrewsbury, and
"Warwick, Lord Charles Howard, Sir James Crofts,
Sir Christopher Hatton, and Sir Francis Walsing-
ham, secretary of state, to sign a letter, September
20, 1584, to the archbishop, and the bishop of Lon-
don, complaining of such intolerant inquisition.
But "Whitgift disregarded their appeal, sustained in
his pernicious course by the queen.
Among the numerous cases of oppression by the
prelates, that of Giles "Wigginton, the vicar of
Sedburgh, Yorkshire, will serve as an example.
After having suffered many hardships in prison for
his nonconformity, his health being impaired, he
was deprived of his living. But, with liberty, his
improved health enabled him to visit his beloved
flock, to whom he preached, from house to house,
the Gospel of Christ. For this he was again im-
prisoned in Lancaster Castle ; from which he wrote
to his patron, Sir "Walter Mildmay, one of the
privy council, to procure his release. He says,
" I was arrested at Burroughbridge by a, pursuivant.
IX ENGLAND. 135
and brought to this place, a distance of fifty miles,
in this cold winter. I am here within an iron gate,
in a cold room, among felons and condemned
prisoners, and, in various ways, worse used than
they, or recusant Papists."
Several efforts were made in parliament to impose
a check on these oppressions, which were yet
illegal ; but the bishops prevailed, especially in the
House of Lords.
John Udall, in 1591, was tried for publishing a
book " A Demonstration of the Discipline which
Christ hath prescribed in his Word" and con-
demned. The judge offered him his life, if he
would recant ; adding, that he was now ready to
pronounce sentence of death. " And I am ready
to receive it," cried the magnanimous confessor ;
"for, I protest before God, not knowing that I
shall live another hour, that the cause is good, and
I am contented to receive sentence, so that I may
leave it_to posterity how I have suffered for His
cause."
Udall was condemned, as he would not sign a
recantation of his doctrine ; nor could any of the
doctors move him in conference from appealing in
its proof to the Scriptures. His fame was great ;
so that several lords of the council, and even
James VI.., afterwards king of England, interceded
for his life. Archbishop Whitgift became afraid of
his being put to death in public, and the Turkey
merchants offered to employ him as one of their
chaplains, and at length "Whitgift consented to
pardon him on his leaving the country ; but while
136 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
the hard terms were being arranged with the arch-
bishop, Udall died in prison, from his long confine-
ment and ill treatment. Dr. Fuller remarks of
him, that " his wisest foes were well contented with
his death, lest it should be ^charged as an act of
cruelty on them who procured it." He calls him
" a person of worth, a learned man, blameless for
his life, powerful in his praying, and no less pro-
fitable than painful in his preaching."
Fifty-nine, in different prisons of London, in
1592, petitioned Lord Treasurer Burleigh to be
brought to trial ; complaining that " many had
died in the prisons, that they had been imprisoned
contrary to all law and equity, many of them for
the space of two years and a half, upon the bishop's
sole commandment." Among these was Henry
Barrowe, a barrister of Gray's Inn, who was appre-
hended when visiting his relative, Greenwood,
a nonconforming clergyman, who had been in
prison a long time. They were tried on a charge
of " writing and publishing sundry books, tending
to the slander of the queen and government."
Mr. Neal remarks, " They had written only against
the church ; but this was the archbishop's artful
contrivance, to throw off the odium of their death
from himself to the civil magistrate. Being con-
demned, endeavours were made, but in vain, to
induce them to recant. They were exposed under
the famous gallows, at Tyburn, March the 31st;
but this produced no effect on their pious minds,
and they were executed, April 6, 1592. John
Penry, a clergyman, and several others, were
IN ENGLAND. 137
hanged for dispersing the writings of the noncon-
formists.
Dr. Reynolds, the queen's professor of divinity
at Oxford, attended some of these martyrs for the
Scriptures ; and he reported to her Majesty the
calm piety which they displayed, and how they had
blessed and prayed for her, as their sovereign, and
for their enemies ; and Elizabeth's heart melted ;
but she was urged forward by the chief-inquisitor,
Whitgift, and she consented to sanction him in his
bigotry, by a severer law against the noncon-
formists. To this was added a form of recantation ;
which, if the offenders refused to subscribe, it was
further enacted, " that within three months they
shall abjure the realm, and go into perpetual banish-
ment ; and if they do not depart within the time
appointed, or if they ever return- without the
queen's licence, they shall suffer death without
benefit of clergy I /"
Severities towards the nonconformists increased
as the queen and the archbishop advanced in years.
Dr. Aylmer, the persecuting and profane bishop of
London, died in June, 1594. Dr. Fletcher suc-
ceeded him, and was banished by the queen. In
1596, Dr. Bancroft, a haughty, unfeeling perse-
cutor, was made bishop of London. Elizabeth died,
March 24, 1602, and Archbishop Whitgift, in
1604, when they were called to render up their
awful account to God.
Queen Elizabeth was a great monarch, and she
was favoured with statesmen of extraordinary
abilities ; but, as Dr. Warner remarks, " the severity
138 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
with which she treated her Protestant subjects by
her High Commission Court, was against law,
against liberty, and against the rights of human
nature. She understood nothing of the rights of
conscience in matters of religion; and, like the
absurd king, her father, she would have no opinion
in religion, acknowledged at least, but her own.
She differed from her sister ; and as she had much
greater abilities for governing, so she applied her-
self more to promote the strength and glory of her
dominion, than Mary did ; but she had as much of
the bigot and tyrant in her as her sister."
Dr. Bancroft was translated from London to
Canterbury, on the death of "Whitgift, in 1604;
and his severities were sanctioned by the new
sovereign, James I., who became a cruel bigot.
Under their government the nonconformists suf-
fered grievously. The inquisitors prosecuted their
shocking employment, and two men were executed
at the stake on the charge of heresy. One of these,
Bartholomew Legate, of Essex, was condemned
as a heretic, and publicly burnt in Smithfield,
March 18, 1612; the other was Edward Wightman,
of Burton-upon- Trent ; he was condemned by Dr.
Neile, bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, and burnt
as a heretic in Lichfield, April 11, 1612. They
were said to be Arians and Baptists, and charged
with many absurd opinions ; but it is admitted that
they were exemplary in their morals. They refused
to recant, even at the stake ; and popular sympathy
being called forth in favour of these victims of the
prelates, they were the last that publicly suffered
IX ENGLAIO). 139
death for their religious opinions in. England.
There were others in prison under sentence, but
they were continued to linger out a miserable
existence in Newgate.
Dr. Abbot succeeded Bancroft, in 1611, as arch-
bishop of Canterbury ; but, being unfitted for
political intrigue, he was suspended in 1620, and
Laud, bishop of London, exercised almost unlimited
authority in ecclesiastical aifairs. His bigotry
would have qualified him for inquisitor-general in
Home or Spain, and his evil counsels involved both
England and Scotland in most grievous troubles,
until his intolerance became the chief cause of
his own execution, and that of his misguided
master, Charles I., to the astonishment of all
Europe.
Dr. Williams, bishop of Lincoln, to whom Laud
was under the greatest obligations as his patron,
disapproving of his severities by the High Commis-
sion Court, incurred his displeasure, when "the
warmest professions of friendship were succeeded
by the most deadly hatred." Laud became his
persecutor, and succeeded, in the second attempt,
in obtaining his conviction, on a charge of tamper-
ing with the king's witnesses. Williams was fined
10,000 to the king, 1,000 to Sir J. Mounson,
and imprisonment in the Tower during the king's
pleasure. All his property being seized, his private
papers were presumed to contain some reflections
on Laud, and he again persecuted him. He was
sentenced to pay 5,000 to the king, and 3,000
to the archbishop. " Laud's tlnrst of revenge
140 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
weighed his fear of reproach," as remarked by
Dr. Vaughan.
Laud's spirit may be learned more fully from his
persecution of Dr. Leighton, who had written " An
Appeal to Parliament; or, Zion's Plea against
Prelacy." For this he was condemned in the "Star
Chamber," which was a political Inquisition; and
the archbishop being present, as one of the judges,
while,-the sentence was being pronounced, removed
his ca*p from his head, and, with an audible voice,
rendered solemn thanks to God for this decision of
the court. The illegal sentence was executed upon
Dr. Leighton; and the archbishop was found to
have made a record in his diary, thus : " Nov. 6th.
1. He was whipped before he was put in the
pillory. 2. Being set in the pillory, he had one
of his ears cut off. 3. One side of his nose slit.
4. Branded on the cheek with a red-hot iron, with
the letters S.S. On that day seven-night, his sores
upon his back, ear, nose, and face, being not yet
cured, he was whipped again at the pillory in
Cheapside, and had the remainder of his sentence
executed upon him, by cutting off the other ear,
slitting the other side of the nose, and branding
the other cheek !"
Probably, the diary of no other man, in any age
or nation, ever contained such a record in his
private diary, with his approbation. He must have
been a monster ; and no language can sufficiently
reprobate such cruelties, illegally exercised, and
that in the abused name of the Prince of Peace !
Leighton bore his sufferings with the meekness
LST ENGLAND. 141
and courage of an apostle. " But the fortitude of
the sufferer marred the policy of his oppressors.
It brought upon them the execrations of the people,
and vested him with the honours of martyrdom."
Prelatical tyranny at length wearied out the
nation, and the people arose, demanding redress
of their grievances. " The Long Parliament" was
called in 1640, and they decreed the abolition of
the civil and ecclesiastical Inquisitions, the High
Commission Court and the Star Chamber. Dr.
Leighton, on petitioning Parliament, was set at
liberty : as the reading of his petition, describing
a series of his sufferings, during eleven years, un-
paralleled, perhaps, in English history, affected many
of the senators to tears ; and, when released from
prison, the venerable man could hardly walk, or
see, or hear ! Parliament allowed this injured
servant of God a pension till his death, in 1644,
aged seventy-six. All who were imprisoned by
those courts on account of religion were liberated.
Dr. Burton, Dr. Bastwick, and Mr. Prynne, a
barrister, were met by an immense multitude, and
conducted in triumph to London.
Persecution ceased ; religious liberty prevailed,
in a great degree, under the Long .Parliament, and
during the Commonwealth. But, after the restora-
tion of Charles II., the principles of the Inquisition,
for some years, enabled the prelates to harass
the nonconformists, by the " Act of Uniformity,"
the " Conventicle Act," and the Five Mile Act."
Tyranny triumphed, by these and other shocking
statutes, until they were abolished by the "Act
142 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
of Toleration," as a shield sgainst priestly op-
pression, by the "GLORIOUS REVOLUTION" under
William III. -
CHAPTER X.
CRIMES ALLEGED BY THE INQUISITION.
Heretics Open and secret Schismatics Favourers of
Heretics Hinderers of the Inquisition Suspected per-
sons relapsed Readers of forbidden books Priests
soliciting confessors Blasphemers Diviners Witches
Polygamists Jews.
ROMAN Catholics denominate the tribunal of the
Inquisition Sanctum Officium, or Holy Office ; pre-
tending that it is engaged in the sacred service of God,
for the seeking out and extirpation of evil persons
from the church of Christ. The inquisitors, there-
fore, proceed against alleged heretics, blasphemers,
apostates, relapsed Jews, Mohammedans, witches,
wizards, and all others charged with having violated
the canons of the holy Roman Catholic church.
These classes of alleged offenders require to be
mentioned, as illustrating the intolerant and san-
guinary character of the Romish Inquisition.
1. HERETICS. These, in general, are persons
who, having been baptised, or professed the Romish
faith, hold doctrines condemned by the Pope ; as
the denial of the sacrifice of the mass, priestly
absolution, the worship of the Virgin Mary, tran-
ALLEGED CRIMES. 143
substantiation, or purgatory. Some are reckoned
manifest, and others, concealed heretics. All who hold
the doctrines of Luther, or of the other reformers,
and all Protestants rejecting the pretended eccle-
siastical traditions, and taking the Holy Scriptures
as the only rule of faith and duty, are thus declared
heretics by the Papists. Such are punished vari-
ously, some being burnt alive.
2. OPE>~ A>*D SECRET HERETICS. These are
described thus, by the Romanists : " An open
heretic is one who publicly -avows something con-
trary to the Catholic faith, or who is condemned for it
by the judges of the faith. A secret or concealed
heretic is one who errs in his mind concerning the
faith, and purposes to be obstinate in his will, but
hath not shown it by word or deed. Although an
heretic be thus concealed, yet, if he infects others,
he is immediately to be discovered by his judges."
These are also called affirmative and negative
heretics. The latter are those, who, according to
the law of the Inquisition, are rightly and justly
convicted of some heresy before a judge, but yet
profess the Catholic faith. Such were many of
those converted from amongst the Jews and Moors
in Spain. Obstinate heretics are to be doomed to
be burnt alive, delivered over to the fire with their
mouths gagged, and their tongues tied, lest, by
their speaking, they should induce others to embrace
their principles. Some are denominated arcli-
heretics, as the inventors or chief teachers of
doctrines contrary to those established by the
Pope. Among the most distinguished of these,
144 THE INQUISITION BEYEALE1).
the Papists reckon Peter Waldo, John "WyclifFe,
Luther, Calvin, Zuingle, Cranrner, Knox, and others,
the leaders of the Protestant reformation. Multi-
tudes of these have been burnt alive, especially in
France, Spain, and England.
3. SCHISMATICS. These are described by the
Papists as those who depart from the unity of the
church, and believe that there may be salvation
and true sacraments without the Catholic church,
and differ little from heretics ; but others are with-
out blame, and err through probable or insuperable
ignorance. The punishments of schismatics are
privation of ecclesiastical power, if priests, excom-
munication, and, finally, death.
4. RECEIVERS on FAYOUEEBS OF HEEETICS.
These are such as, knowing them to be heretics,
defend them when persecuted by the church, afford
them lodging or shelter, or allow them to read or
preach in their houses. Others are favourers of
heretics, who omit to discover them to the bishops
and inquisitors. Their punishment is excommuni-
cation, and banishment for ever, with confiscation
of goods.
5. HlNDEBEBS OF THE OFFICE OF THE INQUI-
SITION. In various ways the Inquisition may be
hindered, directly or indirectly ; and those who do
not aid the inquisitors are held guilty as hinderers.
Thus, in a bull of Pope Alexander IV., he requires
of the prelates, " Since, therefore, there are certain
predicant friars appointed by the apostolic see,
inquisitors against heretics, that they may carry on
the business of the faith with a fervent mind and
ALLEGED CRIMES. 145
constant heart, through many tribulations and per-
secutions, we admonish and exhort all of you in
our Lord Jesus Christ, strictly commanding you
by these apostolical writings, in virtue of your
obedience, and enjoining you, that you favourably
assist these inquisitors in carrying on this affair ;
and that, laying aside the fear of man, you effectually
give them your counsel and help. But, as for those
whom we shall know to be conteniners, besides
the Divine judgment that hangs over them, they
shall not escape the ecclesiastical vengeance."
6. SUSPECTED HEBETICS. Suspicion may be
light, vehement, or violent, as the Papists declare,
and great numbers are accused and imprisoned by the
Inquisition only on the suspicion of holding opinions
contrary to the Romish church. Those who are
lightly suspected are enjoined ceremonial purgation ;
those vehemently suspected are required solemnly
to abjure every heresy; and he who is violently
suspected is commonly condemned.
7. PEESONS DEFAMED FOB HEBEST. Common
report, especially if certified before a bishop, renders
a person suspected, and liable to a process by the
Inquisition ; and the punishment is canonical purga-
tion, with some other penalty.
8. RELAPSED PEBSONS. Persons relapsed are
those who, after having publicly abjured heresy,
are convicted of falling into it again. The punish-
ment of such persons is extreme ; they are given over
to the secular power to be burnt without mercy.
9. READEBS OF PEOHIBITED BOOKS. Nothing
can exceed the intolerance of the Papists in relation
146 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
to the writings of the reformers ; and the books of
the "Waldenses, of Wycliffe, of Luther, and of the
other reformers, were sought for with the utmost
zeal. Multitudes suffered death, therefore, for
reading their writings, especially their translations
and commentaries on the Holy Scriptures.
10. THOSE NOT PEIESTS ADMINISTEEING THE
LOED'S STTPPEE. Such persons are declared to
approach idolatry, because they teach the faithful
to adore the bread and wine, as though it were the
body and blood of Jesus Christ. In like manner,
he who is not a priest, and yet hears confessions
and gives absolution, is said to abuse the sacrament.
Such persons are to abjure, as vehemently sus-
pected, and then be delivered over to the secular
power to be punished with death.
11. PEIESTS SOLICITING IN CONFESSION. In-
continent priests, in the sacramental confession, are
known, as a common practice, to solicit and provoke
women to commit dishonourable actions. Cases of
this kind are very common ; but it is dangerous to
accuse a confessor of such a crime, as the proof is
so very difficult, while he possesses the means of
immediate revenge by the Inquisition. But the
crime itself is seldom punished, even where many
nuns, and even abbesses, have had children by their
father confessors.
12. BLASPHEMEES. Blasphemers are of various
kinds some saying, " I deny Grod ; I do not believe
in God ;" or, "I deny the faith on the cross, or
chrism, which I received in my forehead ; or I deny
the virginity of our Lady." Heretical blasphemers
ALLEGED CEIMES. 147
are punished by their tongues being tied and
pinched with an iron or wooden gag ; and being
exposed in public, wearing each an infamous mitre,
they were whipped and banished ; but if the offender
were a person of rank, his punishment is lighter,
though he was required to abjure heresy.
13. DlYrNEBS AKD FOETUKE-TELLEES. Those
guilty of divination are supposed to use or to
imitate the sacraments, or things sacramental, in
the practice of their mysteries ; they are, therefore,
punished with suspension of dignities, whipping;
excommunication, or banishment. And those who
practise astrology are punished in the same manner,
as offenders against the church.
14. WITCHES AKD WIZAEDS. These were re-
gardedas a sect supposed to hold intercourse with the
devil, especially on the eve of Friday, when he was
said to appear in a human shape. They are said to
deny their holy faith and baptism, the Lord God,
and the blessed Virgin Mary. For these imaginary
crimes, it is computed that 30,000 persons were
burnt to death, in about a century and a half, by the
cruelty of the Inquisition, chiefly in Spain and Sicily.
15. POLYGAJIISTS. Those who marry two or
more wives are suspected of heresy, and of disre-
garding the- sacrament of matrimony. Such are
punished with penances, fastings, and slavery in the
galleys, for five, seven, or ten years. This crime 13
but lightly considered in Spain, though it is looked
upon as more serious by the" inquisitors in Rome.
16. JEWS A>~D JEWISH PEOSELYTES. Divine
prophecy declares that the Jews shall continue a
148 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
distinct people, scattered among the Gentiles, until
the conversion of Israel to the Messiah, while they
yet shall endure persecution. The Roman Catholics,
ignorant of- the nature of the Gospel, have en-
deavoured wholly to destroy this people, or to compel
them to profess the Christian faith. Edicts, the
most severe and cruel, have been published against
them, from time to time, by different Popes, iu
France and Spain. They have been oppressed,
fined, and banished, unless they would turn Chris-
tians. Thousands of them, in Spain and Portugal,
professed the name of Christ to escape punishment,
yet, in heart, remaining Jews, abhorring the idolatry
of the Papists. The inquisitors proceeded against
them, therefore, as heretics and apostates. They
are condemned by the inquisitors to endure various
punishments, according to the nature or degree of
the alleged crimes as, privation of all intercourse
with Jews, penalties, public whipping, and burning
at the stake.
CHAPTEE XI.
MINISTERS OF THE INQUISITION.
Inquisi tion in Spain Inquisitors Vicars Counsellors Pro-
moters-Fiscal Notaries Treasurer Executor Fami-
liars Cross-Bearers Visitors Privileges Jurisdiction,
Prohibition of books Prison-keepers.
SPAIN, Portugal, and Rome have been most noto-
rious for cruelty, by means of the dreaded court of
ITS MINISTERS. 149
inquisition. The " Holy Office," in those countries,
has been the most extended, and the most complete
in its arrangements ; its ministers, therefore, have
been most numerous. The number of officers in
the Spanish Inquisition has been reckoned at about
three thousand, and its expense to the country about
one million of pounds sterling per annum !
District courts were formed in many places, of
which it is said, " In every province of Spain there
ought to be two or three inquisitors, one judge of
theTorfeited effects, one executor, three notaries, one
keeper of the prison, one messenger, one door-
keeper, and one physician. Besides these, assessors,
skilful counsellors, familiars and others," were ap-
pointed for the service of this court. These require
some notice, the better to understand the character
of the Inquisition.
1. IXQUISITOES APOSTOLIC. These are the
chief officers, delegates from the Pope, for the
special service of judging heretics. Their rank is
exalted in the papacy, as each has the title of
" lord," and every inquisitor is styled " most
reverend." One among those in Spain was presi-
dent of the Inquisition, and was called " inquisitor-
major," or "inquisitor-general." The Eomish car-
dinals, also, were inquisitors-general.
2. YICAES. These are appointed by the inquisi-
tors, to serve as their substitutes in case of absence
or sickness, and these exercise all the power of their
principals, in receiving accusations, and arresting
those who may^fe^ceused.
3. COUNSELLORS? These were skilful lawyers,
150 THE IKQUISITION REYEALED.
appointed to advise and assist the inquisitors, who
were generally ignorant of legal forms. They were
sworn to secrecy.
4. PROMOTER-FISCAL. This officer also is a
lawyer, whose business is to examine the deposi-
tions of witnesses, to give information against
criminals, to demand their imprisonment, and
to frame their indictment against them. He was a
kind of counsellor for the Holy Office.
5. NOTARIES. These officers were short-hand
writers, whose duty was to attend the examinations
of the prisoners, to note down everything they said,
their behaviour, and even change of countenance,
while questioned by the inquisitors. They are re-
quired to be skilful in different languages ; as the
prisoners may be French, German, or Italian,
before a Spanish Inquisition.
6. TREASURER. This officer is called, in Spain,
the receiver-general of the effects and property of
the prisoners : in Rome he is called, treasurer of the
Holy Office. He takes charge of all the effects of the
prisoners, letting or selling their lands and houses ;
so that immense property falls into his hands.
7. EXECUTOR. This officer is the head of the
police attached to the Inquisition ; and he directs
the mode of the apprehension of accused persons.
8. OFFICIALS. These are assistants to the exe-
cutor, or police officers, who pursue and apprehend
the persons accused before the inquisitors.
9. FAMILIARS. These are armed police officers,
or soldiers of the Inquisition. They are called
familiars, or belonging to the inquisitor's family.
ITS MINISTERS. 151
10. CROSS-BEARERS. These also are soldiers, a
kind of militia, trained and armed for tlie defence
of the Inquisition, and for the vigorous pursuit of
offenders. They are favoured with many privileges,
including a "plenary remission of all their sins,"
to encourage them in the service of the Inquisition.
Soldiers having, however, become less needful, these
officers have generally been transformed into" an
order of monks of St. Dominic, with constitutions
confirmed by the Pope.
11. VISITORS. These were magistrates appointed
to inspect all the provinces of the inquisitors, and
to report the state of the institutions to the inqui-
sitor-general. They are commonly commissioned
as occasions seem to require investigation.
12. PRIVILEGES OP INQUISITORS. Extraordi-
nary are the privileges granted to inquisitors ; so
that "no delegate of the apostolic see, or sub-delegate
under him, no conservator, or executor, deputed by
the Pope, shall be able to publish the sentence of
excommunication, suspension, or interdict against
them, or their notaries, whilst they are engaged in
the prosecution of their duty, without the special
command of the holy see." The inquisitors only,
and not the. bishops, can publish edicts against
heretics. In like manner, the inquisitors, and no
others, can absolve from excommunication for
heresy ; and persons under the interdict by the in-
quisitor, cannot be absolved by the ordinary, or any
other person, without the command of the Pope,
except in the article of death.
13. JURISDICTION OF THE INQUISITION. This is
152 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
so ample, that few persons are excepted from it ; be-
cause the inquisitors being judges delegated by the
Pope in the cause of the faith, that all heresy may
be extirpated, power is given to them against all
sorts of persons, except bishops and legates of the
Pope. They may proceed against priests and clergy
generally; and laymen without distinction, infected,
suspected, or defamed of heresy, not excepting
princes and kings . Even treaties with, or the power
of, sovereigns, the inquisitors have set at nought,
if they would yield to the assumed authority. Of
this we have a remarkable instance in the king of
Portugal, where Thomas Maynard was English con-
sul. He was arrested and imprisoned at Lisbon, as
having spoken against the Romish religion. When
Oliver Cromwell was advised of the fact, the
protector sent an express to the deputy, Mr. Mea-
dows, to go to the king and demand his immediate
release ; but the sovereign professed that he had
no power to grant the favour, as he had no autho-
rity over the Inquisition. But Cromwell sent new
instructions, requiring from the king his instant libe-
ration, or he declared war against the Inquisition.
The terrified inquisitors offered the consul his liberty,
which he accepted only on being brought forth
honourably and in public by the Inquisition. This
was at once granted, and Mr. Maynard continued
unmolested, during the reigns of Charles II. and
James II., well-known at Lisbon.
14. PROHIBITION OF BOOKS. From time to
time lists of books have been published by the
Popes, as forbidden to be read, and these have
ITS MINISTEBS. 153
especially included the Holy Scriptures, as fatal to
the pretensions of the papal hierarchy and the
Inquisition. One of the rules of the "Index" of
prohibited books, regarding the Bible, says, " Since
it is plain by experience, that if the Sacred Writings
are permitted everywhere, and without difference,
to be read in the vulgar tongue, men, through their
harshness, will receive more harm than good. Let
the bishop or inquisitor determine, with the parish
priest or confessor, to whom to permit the reading
of the Bible, translated by Catholic authors in the
vulgar tongue." This rule against the Bible is
observed in all Catholic countries, especially in
Spain, where the inquisitors published their pro-
hibition, with a particular stress upon the Scriptures,
"with all parts of them, either printed or manuscript,
with all summaries and abridgments, although his-
torical, of the said Bible in the vulgar tongue."
15. KEEPEES OF THE PRISONS OF THE INQTTISI-
TIOK. Some bishops in the Romish church have
prisons for the custody of offenders of their laws.
But such places were usually placed under the care
of inquisitors as their keepers. Every person im-
prisoned is first accused by some one, generally by
two persons, who has heard him utter or suspects
him of holding opinions that are deemed heretical.
This accusation being received, the promoter-fiscal
demands before the inquisitors that such person
may be imprisoned and brought to trial. A war-
rant is then issued, subscribed by the inquisitors,
and given to the officer, who proceeds to arrest the
person and lodge him in gaol. This gaol, though a
L
154 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
horrid place, is called, in Spain and Portugal, Santa-
casa, or Holy-house.
In Portugal, all the prisoners, men and women,
without any regard to birth or rank, are shaved,
the first or second day of imprisonment. Every
prisoner has two pots of water daily, one to wash and
the other to drink, and a besom to cleanse his cell ;
a mat of rushes to lie on ; and a larger vessel for
other uses, with a cover to put over it, which
is changed every four days.
How intolerant and cruel the inquisitors and
keepers were, in the sixteenth century, may be
learned from two cases : the first was relating to
some English persons who put into the port of
Cadiz. The familiars of the Inquisition searched
the vessel on account of religion. They seized
several on board, as they manifested evangelical
piety, and they were thrown into gaol. Among
these was a child, about ten or twelve years of age,
son of a rich gentleman, owner of the ship and part
of the cargo. The pretence was, that he had in his
hands the Book of Psalms in English. The ship
and cargo were confiscated, and the child was im-
prisoned at Seville, where he lay six or eight months,
and became very ill through cruel treatment. The
lords inquisitors being informed of his illness,
and hoping to profit by his father's reputed wealth,
removed him to the Cardinal Hospital. But he lost
the use of his legs. The gaoler often observed him
lifting up his eyes to heaven and praying for help ;
so that he reported him as " already grown a great
little heretic ! " Through the cruel treatment
ITS MINISTERS. 155
in the prison, lie died in the hospital of the In-
quisition !
Another case, about the same period, will illustrate
the cruelties of the Inquisition. Peter ab Herera,
keeper of the tower of Triada, the prison of the
Inquisition, had in charge a good matron, and y
with her, two daughters, but kept in different
cells. They bemoaned their separation, and en-
treated the keeper to suifer them to be together for
a quarter of an hour, that they might have the
satisfaction of embracing each other. Moved with
compassion for them he grunted their request ; and
after they had indulged their mutual affection for
half an hour, he locked them up again in their
solitary cells. A few days after, they were examined
by torture, and the keeper, fearing that through
the severity of their torments they might discover
his lenity to the lords inquisitors, went to the holy
tribunal and declared what he had done ; but they r
instead of commending his humanity, regarded him
as guilty of a crime, and immediately ordered him
into gaol, and to torture. After a year of suffering-
he was brought out of prison, with a halter rountl
his neck, and led in a public procession, punished
with a hundred lashes, and condemned to the galleys
as a slave, for six years. He became insane through
ill treatment, and attempting the life of the alguazil
he was sentenced to four years additional slavery ia
the galleys ! Dreadful as these are, they are far
from being the most affecting examples of cruelty
in the Inquisition.
16. TEEEORS OF THE INQUISITION. No words-
156 THE INQUISITION REYEALED.
can express the dread of the people regarding the
tribunal of the inquisitors. They regard the pri-
soners as lost. So little hope have they of the
release of those arrested, that as soon as they are
imprisoned, their friends put on mourning, and
speak of them as dead, not daring to petition for
their pardon, lest they also should be brought in as
accomplices, and become themselves victims of the
Inquisition !
CHAPTER XII.
TBIAL IN THE INQUISITION.
Edict of Faith Process at Tribunal Arrest Examination
Bill of accusation Prisoner's counsel Escaped persons
Process terminated Abjuration of a penitent Penance.
ECCLESIASTICAL processes are entered upon with
remarkable solemnity, particularly in the court of
the inquisition. The court having been set up
under the authority of the sovereign, and with full
protection to its officers, a commissary is appointed,
for the purpose of receiving information or accusa-
tions from any persons against others, under the
authority of the chief inquisitor. Public prepara-
tions are made, therefore, for the commencement of
proceedings against them on account of alleged
crimes.
1. THE EDICT or EAITH. Some Sunday is ap-
FOBMS OP TRIAI/. 157
pointed by the chief inquisitor, for a sermon on the
solemn publication of the object of the court, and
this is called the "Edict of Faith." After the
sermon by the inquisitor, on the duty of extirpating
heresy, a monitory letter is read, requiring all
persons, on pain of excommunication, to discover
to the inquisitor, within six or twelve days, any
heretics known to them, or persons suspected of
heresy. Magistrates are made to promise the same
upon oath. This edict of faith is repeated every
year in the chief city ; and from its obligations no
one is freed : so that Joan, the daughter of the
Emperor Charles V., was counselled by her father
to make the required deposition, even if it were
against himself, and she immediately deposed against
a certain person before the inquisitor-general, the
archbishop of Seville.
2. PBOCESS BEFOBE THE TEIBTTITAL. There are
three ways of proceeding -Jirst, by accusation;
secondly, by denunciation; thirdly, by inquisition,
or seeking out heretics. Witnesses are summoned,
and the testimony of a wife, of sons, of daughters,
and of domestics, is received against, but not in
favour of, persons accused of heresy. The tes-
timony of persons guilty of perjury, and of women
known to public infamy, and even of outlaws, is
allowed. Their depositions are taken in writing
concerning the characters and opinions of pri-
soners.
3. ABBEST or THE ACCUSED. Persons accused
of heresy, living in cities, are usually arrested in
the dead of night, by familiars of the Inquisition.
158 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
They proceed to the dwelling of the accused, who
Is required immediately to rise and follow them to
a carriage in waiting. Resistance is useless ; and
people stand so much in awe of the hated court,
that parents deliver up their children, husbands
their wives, and masters their servants, to its
officers, without daring to murmur in the least
degree ; the prisoners are kept in solitary confine-
ment, generally for a long time, till they are con-
Ticted of any crime of which they may have been
guilty.
4. EXAMINATION or PRISONERS. After solemn
prayer to the Holy Spirit has been read, the pri-
soner is brought before the inquisitor in the cham-
fcer of audience. He beholds at a table on his
right hand the judge-inquisitor, at the farther end
sits the notary, and the unhappy victim, with his
arms and feet naked, and his head shaved and
uncovered, is allowed to sit on a form at the lower
end of the table. Opposite to him, against the
wall, is fixed a large crucifix, reaching nearly to the
ceiling. He is then interrogated by the inquisitor,
who employs every possible artifice to induce him
to make confession of every thing that he may have
said or done against the Catholic faith. In Spain
and Portugal, the inquisitor sometimes sends a
person to visit him, exhorting him, as a friend, to
make confession, that he may obtain the favour of
his judge, and not be separated for ever from his
wife and children. Many are thereby induced to
oonfess fictitious crimes, in the vain hope of ob-
t/vining liberty.
FOBMS OF TEIAL. 159
5. BILL OF ACCTTSA.TIOK. The promoter-fiscal
exhibits the bill of accusation against the prisoner,
thus, " I, .A"., fiscal of the office of the Holy Inqui-
sition, do, before you, the reverend inquisitor,
delegated judge in causes of the faith against here-
tical pravity, criminally accuse J/., who being bap-
tised a Christian, and accounted such among all
persons, hath departed from the Catholic faith."
Their various crimes are specified in grievous terms.
The witnesses are examined in private, and only
their testimony exhibited against the prisoner.
This iniquitous course is uniformly pursued. So
that the Xevr Christians, as the conforming Jews
in Spain were called, in vain offered Charles V. the
sum of 80,000 pieces of gold, if he would order the
witnesses against some of them to be made known,
at the tribunal of the Inquisition. In some cases,
prisoners are allowed to appeal from the inquisitor,
before the trial has proceeded to the definitive
sentence.
6. COURSE FOB THE PRISON ER. If the prisoner
deny his guilt, he is allowed to select an advocate
from a list provided by the inquisitors, but paid
from the effects of the accused. If under twenty-
five years, he is allowed a curator or guardian.
7. ACCUSED PERSONS ESCAPED. If an accused
person flee from the court, or escape from prison,
he is publicly cited in the cathedral, in the parish
church, and in his own house, and the temporal
lord is required to arrest him : if this fail, he is
excommunicated ; and, if taken, he is whipped and
proceeded against with increased severity.
I
160 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
8. THE PROCESS TERMINATED. Sentences are
pronounced according to the decisions of the inqui-
sitors. Those declared innocent are absolved ; and
those suspected are subjected to abjuration, purga-
tion, fines, or banishment. When the prisoner is
defamed for heresy, but not found guilty by legal
evidence or his own confession, he is required to
submit to canonical purgation, in severe penances
imposed by the bishop. Those of high reputation
among the people as bishops, priests, and preachers
are mostly enjoined some purgation : and those
who are condemned, are declared to have been
heretics or apostates, and to have incurred the
penalties according to law ; his effects are confis-
cated; his opinions and writings are condemned;
and he is deprived of all ecclesiastical or public
oflices and honours, while he is delivered over
to the secular power to be punished. If he persist
in his opinions, sentence is immediately pro-
nounced, and he is committed to officers to be
burnt. The greatest severity is exercised against
the Lutherans, as they are regarded as the most
decided enemies of the papacy.
9. ABJTJEATION OF A PENITENT. A heretic,
against whom an information has been laid, con-
fessing his heresy to the bishop or inquisitor, pro-
mising to return to the bosom of the church,
abjuring all heresy, is not delivered to the secular
power, but punished by the inquisitors. He is
compelled to abjure publicly, before all the people
in the church ; where he is required to place his
hands on the book of the Grospels, with his head
TOEMS OF TKIAL. 161
uncovered, and, fulling on his knees, to read a form
of solemn abjuration, or to repeat it while it is read
by the notary. When this is done, he is absolved
from excommunication, on condition of his re turning,
with a true heart and sincere faith, to observe all
the commands of the Catholic church ; but if he do
not observe them, he forfeits the benefits of his
absolution. In this manner abjuration is enjoined
upon all who return from heresy, even boys of
fourteen and girls of twelve years of age are not
excused, especially persons of dignity and rank as
priests ; and doctors, whom they call dogmatists,
dogmatisers, and arch-heretics.
10. PEXANCES or THOSE WHO ABJUEE. Though
abjuration reconciles to the church, still penance is
required as a wholesome punishment. In some
cases a penitent is required to make a pilgrimage,
with a black habit, carrying the inquisitor's letters,
which must be brought back with letters testimonial
from the predicant friars, or other official per-
sonages, as certifying the truth of such visit. In
other cases, a penitent is required to walk in a
procession, destitute of all clothes, except a shirt
and breeches ; and in this condition to receive public
discipline by the bishop or priest, to be expelled
the church, and to stand with a lighted candle in
hand, bare feet, and a halter about his neck, at its
principal gate, during the time of solemn mass, on
some holy day, or as the bell was ringing for Divine
service. Others are punished by public whipping
with rods, and if ecclesiastics by their own frater-
nity, in the presence of the notary of the Holy
162 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
Office. But the most common punishment is wear-
ing crosses upon their penitential garments, by
which they become exposed to the scoffs and insults
of the people. He that throws off this garment
is more severely punished, some for the whole of
life; from which it is difficult to procure release
without money, on the application of friends to the
chief inquisitors.
CHAPTEE XIII.
TOBTUEES IN THE INQUISITION.
Torture to force confession Hall of Torture Stripping
Binding Squassation Fire-pan Rack Horse Dice
Wet cloth Various devices.
PRISONERS in the Inquisition are of different
characters ; and many of them naturally deny
their guilt. Others would only in part confess
their faults and crimes, employing different terms
in successive examinations. Others again, being
innocent of the criminality with which they were
charged, could not confess or acknowledge that they
were guilty. While others, holding fast the doc-
trine of Christ, were willing rather to suffer death
than deny the Gospel of their Lord and Saviour.
If the prisoner do not confess according to the
deposition of the witnesses against him, or do not
satisfy the inquisitors, torture is employed, chiefly
ITS TOKTUBES. 163
to induce the accused to confess regarding friends
or associates, who may hold opinions deemed here-
tical. Determined to humble their victims, they
employ extensively a most cruel system of torture,
the records of which have justly procured for the
Inquisition the character of sanguinary and diabolical.
Surely, none but the evil spirit, "the devil, who
was a murderer from the beginning," could have
devised such revolting methods of cruelty, and
prompted men, with the most ingenious devices, so
to outrage all the dictates of humanity, as to act on
the system which was the practice of the Uomish
inquisitors. They yet attempt its justification on
the plea that " Paul delivered the Corinthian to
Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the
spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
(1 Cor. v. 5.) Paul inflicted no bodily tortures,
but such is the Eomish perversion of the Scrip-
tures.
These tortures of the Inquisition it will be
necessary here briefly to describe, that the character
of the atrocious system may be the more clearly
understood by the reader.
1. THE HALL or TOBTTTBE. This, in Spain, is a
subterraneous chamber, in the centre of the prison,
so that the cries of the sufferer may not be heard
by any one outside. It is entered by a passage
through several doors ; at one end of it a tribunal
is erected, on which the inquisitors, the inspector,
and the notary are seated. The lamps being lighted
in this dark room, the prisoner is brought in and
delivered to the executioner, who makes a dreadful
THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
appearance ; as he is covered all over with a black
linen garment down to his feet, and tied close to
his body, while his head and face are all hidden with
a hood, having in it only two small holes, through
which he may see. All this is intended to strike
terror into the miserable wretch, when he sees him-
self in the power of one who has the appearance of
an infernal spirit.
Those who are employed as torturers are required
to be such as are born of "ancient Christians,"
undoubted Catholics ; and they are sworn to secresy
as to what is said and done in this terrible place of
punishment.
2. STRIPPING. All who are tortured are stripped
naked, both men and women, without regard to
decency or honour ; and the prisoner has no cloth-
ing except a pair of linen drawers. This process,
to some, is an inexpressible torment. "While he is
being stripped, he is exhorted to confess and declare
all the truth, being admonished that if he should
die under the torture, the judges would be clear
from blame, which would rest alone with himself, as
a criminal. The notary present writes down every-
thing that is said or done in the act of torture. If
the inquisitors are not satisfied with the confession,
the prisoner is threatened with various punishments,
the instruments of which he is shown in the hall.
3. BINDING. This is done by cords, fastening
the hands behind the back, the wrists bound
together, with weights tied to the feet ; so that it
is impossible for the prisoner to extricate himself
from the power of the executioner.
ITS TOBTTTBES. 165
4. THE PULLEY. By this instrument, the hook
being passed under the rope at the wrists, the
victim is drawn up till his head reaches near the
pulley, fixed to the roof of the hall. Thus he is
suspended; so that by the weight of the body,
with what is hung at the feet, all the joints of the
emaciated frame are dreadfully stretched, and the
bones dislocated.
5. SQUASSA.TIOK. This is performed by a jerk of
the rope, but without allowing the body being
suspended from touching the ground. By this a
terrible shake is given to the whole frame, and the
arms and logs disjointed, by which the sufferer is
put to the most exquisite pain. The shock which
is thus received oftentimes occasions death. Romish
authors observe on this mode, " When the senate
orders, ' Let him be interrogated by torture,' the
person is lifted or hoisted up, but not put to the
squassation. If the senate orders, ' Let him be
tortured,' he must then undergo the squassation at
once, being first interrogated as he is hanging upon
the rope and engine. If it orders, ' Let him be
well tortured,' it is understood that he must suffer
two squassations. If it orders, ' Let him be severely
tortured,' it is understood of three squassations, at
three different times within an hour. If it says,
* Very severely,' it is understood that it must be
done with twisting, and weights at the feet. When
it says, ' Very severely, even unto death,' then the
criminal's life is in immediate danger."
6. THE FiBE-PAJf. This was applied to the pri-
soner while he was fastened in the stocks, when a
166 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
fire-pan, full of burning charcoal, was brought near
to the soles of his feet. These were rendered
increasingly susceptible of pain, by being rubbed
with grease ; so that they would literally be fried,
and the suffering be most excruciating. During
the process, the prisoner was exhorted to confess ;
and if he promised this, a board was put between
his feet and the fire ; but if he did not satisfy
them, the board was removed, and the torture re-
newed. The Rev. Archibald Bower, once an inqui-
sitor, but afterwards a clergyman in the church of
England, states, that frequently the inquisitors and
other officers, regardless of the groans and tears of
the unhappy sufferer, converse before him on city
news, or add insult to his misery while entreating
by all that is sacred for a moment's relief from the
dreadful torment.
7. THE RACK. Several instruments were so
called : one was a plank with a windlass attached,
having two pulleys. The prisoner, nearly naked,
placed with his back on the board, was drawn by a
rope tied to the iron ring on each wrist ; so that his
arms were drawn until they were dislocated, pro-
ducing extreme agony to the victim.
8. THE HOESE. This was a frame of wood a
sort of trough, across which was a round bar, like
the. step of a ladder. On this bar the prisoner was
laid, with his feet elevated higher than his head.
He was then bound to the horse by a cord drawn
thrice round each arm, and the same round each
leg. By means of sticks, after the manner of
screws, the cord being twisted, it was thus tight-
ITS TO11TUBES. 167
ened, and, cutting into the flesh, much bloodshed
was caused. The rope was then removed to the
sounder parts, and the torture repeated, producing
excruciating agony.
9. THE DICE. Sometimes iron dice were fast-
ened to the heels of the feet, when screws were
forced through the flesh till they reached the bones,
producing indescribable suffering.
10. THE WET CLOTH. The prisoner, while bound
to the horse, in some cases, had thrown over his
face a thin cloth, forming a bag to pass into his
mouth, so that he was scarcely able to breathe;
and, at the same time, a very small stream of water
was directed to fall into the mouth, sinking the
bag down his throat. Six or seven English pints
of water have been thus poured into one person,
and the convulsive agonies produced were like a
sense of suffocation. Sometimes the cloth was
removed from the face, to allow the wretched victim
to answer the questions proposed by the inquisitors ;
when the pain occasioned by the pulling up of the
bag from the throat was as if the bowels were being
drawn through the mouth, and it was found to be
soaked with blood as well as with water. In his
struggling efforts to breathe, the sufferer would
rupture a blood-vessel, and, in not a few instances,
die under the horrid torture.
Various other modes of cruelty were employed
in some courts, according to the will of the inquisi-
tors. Some used canes put between the fingers,
which were then pressed together, so as to dislocate
the joints, and occasion exquisite pain. Others
168 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
tied small cords round the thumbs, so tightly as to
force blood from under the nails. Red-hot irons
were pressed upon the naked breasts, and iron
slippers heated were put on the feet, so as to burn
the flesh to the bone. And in perpetrating these
enormities, especially on the persons of women, the
inquisitors behaved in the most inhuman and re-
volting manner, indicating the execrable character
of the Romish " mystery of iniquity."
CHAPTER XIV.
VICTIMS OF THE INQUISITION.
Victims 1. Juan de Salas 2. Donna Johanna Bohorques
3. Donna Maria Bohorques 4. Melchior Hernandez
5. Lewis Pezoa.
" Justice and Mercy" are the Avords chosen by
the Romish Inquisition, as forming the maxims of
that court, in proceeding against heretics. But the
tortures inflicted falsify the profession. No court
of judgment,in any age or nation, was ever found so
utterly at variance with these principles, or con-
ducted in a manner so manifestly opposed to equity
and humanity. A few selected cases of their tor-
tured victims will still further illustrate the diabo-
lical savageness of the inquisitors : these cases are
given from the most undoubted authorities.
ITS TOBTURES. 169
1. JUAN DE SALAS. This victim was a young;
man, and it appears an officer of the Inquisition in
Spain. He had been charged with employing the
language of heresy, and therefore immured in the
dungeon. The Inquisition transgressed their own
rules in relation to him, refusing to hear the wit-
nesses whom he wished to be examined in his
favour. He positively denied having used the
words attributed to him ; on which account he was
subjected to the torture, to compel his confession.
The particulars of his sufferings under the inquisi-
tors, Moriz and Dr. Alvarado, are contained in the-
following record, drawn up by the notary of the
Inquisition :
" At Valladolid, on the 21st of June, 1527, the
licentiate Moriz, inquisitor, caused the licentiate
Juan de Salas to appear before him. After the
reading, the said licentiate Salas declared that he
had not said that of whicli lie was accused ; and the
said licentiate Moriz immediately caused him to be*
conducted to the chamber of torture, where, being
stripped to his shirt, Salas was put by the shoulders
into the chevalet, where the executioner, Pedro
Porras, fastened him by the arms and legs with
cords of hemp, of which he made eleven turns
round each limb. Salas, daring the time that the
said Pedro was tying him thus, was several times
warned to speak the truth ; to which he always
replied that he liad never said what lie was accused
of. He recited the creed 'Quicumque vult,' and
several times gave thanks to God and our Lady ;
and, the said Salas being still tied as before men-
M
170 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
tioned, a fine wet cloth was put over his face, and
about a pint of water was poured into his mouth
and nostrils from an earthen vessel, with a hole at
the bottom, and containing about two quarts ;
nevertheless, Salas persisted in denying the accu-
sation. Then Pedro Porras tightened the cord
on the right leg, and poured a second measure of
water on the face ; the cords were tightened a
second time on the same leg, but Juan de Salas
still persisted in denying that he had ever said any
thing of the kind ; and, although pressed to tell the
truth several times, he still denied the accusation.
Then the said licentiate Moriz having declared
that ike torture was begun, but not finished, com-
manded that it should cease. The accused was
withdrawn from the clievalet, or racTc, at which I,
Henry Paz, was present from the beginning to the
end. Henry Paz, Notary."
Juan de Salas was condemned, notwithstanding
his denial ; and Llorente makes the following re-
marks on the whole case of shocking injustice and
cruelty :
" We may form an idea of the humanity of the
Inquisition at Valladolid from the definitive sentence
pronounced by the licentiate Moriz and his colleague,
Dr. Alvarado, without any other formality, after
they had taken (if we may believe them) the advice
of persons noted for their learning and virtue, but
without the adjournment which ought to have
preceded it, and without the concurrence of the
diocesan in ordinary. They declared that the fiscal
had not entirely approved the accusation, and that
ITS TOETUEES. 171
the prisoner had succeeded in destroying some of
the charges ; but that, on account of the suspicion
arising from the trial, Juan de Salas was condemned
to the punishment of the public auto da fe, in his
shirt, without a cloak, his head uncovered, and with
a torch in his hand ; that he should abjure heresj
publicly ; and that he should pay ten ducats of gold
to the Inquisition, and fulfil his penance in the
church assigned. It is seen, by a certificate after-
wards given in, that Juan de Salas performed his
auto da fe on the 24th of June, 1528, and that
his father paid the fine. The trial offers no other
peculiarity. This affair, and several others of a
similar nature, caused the supreme council to pub-
lish a decree, in 1558, commanding that the torture
should not be administered without an order from
the council."
2. DONNA JOHANNA BOHORQTTES. Limborch,
from Gonsalvius, gives the following account of this
noble young lady, who was really murdered by the in-
quisitors in their tortures of her, about A.D. 1569.
"At the same time almost, they apprehended, in
the Inquisition at Seville, a noble lady, Johanna Bo-
horques, the wife of Don Francis de Vargos, a very
eminent man, and Lord of Heguera, and daughter of
Peter Garsia Xeresius, a wealthy citizen of Seville.
The occasion of her imprisonment was, her sister,
Maria Bohorques, a young lady of eminent piety, who
was afterwards burnt for her pious confession, had
declared, in her torture, that she had several times
conversed with her sister concerning her doctrine.
When she was first imprisoned she was about six
M 2
172 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
months gone with child, upon which account she
was not so straitly confined, nor used with that
cruelty which the other prisoners were treated with,
out of regard to the infant she carried. Eight days
after her delivery they took the child from her, and
on the fifteenth shut her up close, and made her
undergo the fate of the other prisoners, and began
to manage her cause with their usual arts and
rigour. In so dreadful a calamity she had only this
comfort, that a certain pious young woman, who
was afterwards burnt for her religion by the in-
quisitors, was allowed her for her companion. This
young creature was, on a certain day, carried out to
her torture ; and beiug returned from it into her
gaol, she was so shaken, and had her limbs so
miserably disjointed, that when she was laid upon
her bed of rushes, it rather increased her misery
than gave her rest, so that she could not turn
herself without the most excessive pain. In this
condition, as Bohorques had it not in her power to
show her any, or but very little outward kindness,
she endeavoured to comfort her mind with great
tenderness. The girl had scarcely begun to recover
from her torture, when Bohorques was carried out
to the same exercise, and was tortured with such
diabolical cruelty upon the rack, that the rope
pierced and cut into the very bones in several
places ; and in this manner she was brought back
to prison, just ready to expire, the blood running
out of her mouth in great plenty. Undoubtedly
they had burst her bowels, insomuch that the
eighth day after her torture she died. And when,
ITS TOETUBES. 173
after all, they could not procwe sufficient evidence
to condemn her, though sought after and procured
by all their inquisitorial arts yet as the accused
person was born in that place, where they were
obliged to give some account of the affair to the
people, and, indeed, could not, by any means, dis-
semble it in the first act of triumph appointed
after her death, they commanded her sentence to
be pronounced in these words : ' Because this lady
died in prison (without doubt suppressing the cause
of it), and was found to be innocent upon inspecting
and diligently examining her cause, therefore the
holy tribunal pronounces her free from all charges
brought against her by the fiscal, and absolving her
from any further process, doth restore her, both as
to her innocence and reputation, and commands all
her effects, which had been confiscated, to be re-
stored to those to whom they of right belonged.'
And thus, after they* had murdered her, by torture,
with savage cruelty, they pronounced her inno-
cent! "
Llorente adds, " Under what an overwhelming
responsibility will these monsters appear before the
tribunal of the Almighty !"
This instance of refined barbarity in the inquisi-
tors strikingly displays their hypocrisy as professors
of the benevolent religion of Christ, and their ma-
lignity against those who dared to listen to the
doctrines of the Scriptures, then condemned under
the name of LL'THEBASISM.
3. DONNA MAEIA BOHOKQVES. This lady was
sister of Johanna, who had been murdered in the
174 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
Inquisition. She perished in the flames at Seville.
The account of her states, " She had completed her
twenty-first year when she was arrested on sus-
picion of being a Lutheran. Under the instruction
of D. Juan Gil, bishop of Tortosa, she was per-
fectly acquainted with the Latin language, and
had made considerable progress in Greek. She
knew the Gospel by heart, and was deeply read in
those commentaries which explain, in a Lutheran
sense, the text referring to justification by faith,
good works, the sacraments, and the characteristics
of the true church.
" Donna Maria was confined in the secret prisons
of the Inquisition, where she avowed the doctrines
imputed to her, defended them against the argu-
ments of the priests who visited her, and boldly
told the inquisitors, that instead of punishment for
the creed which she held, they would do much better
to imitate her example. "With regard to the deposi-
tions of her accusers, though she allowed the prin-
cipal points, she persisted in denying some things
which related to the opinions of other individuals ;
and this denial gave the inquisitors an opportunity
of putting her to the rack. By this torture they
only procured a confession that her sister, Johanna
Bohorques, knew her sentiments, and had not dis-
approved of them ; and, as she persisted in her
confession of faith, sentence was passed upon her
as an obstinate heretic. In the interval between
her condemnation and the auto dafe, at which she
was to suifer, the inquisitors made every exertion
to bring her back to the Eomish faith. They sent
ITS TOBTUBES. 175
to her, successively, two Jesuits and two Dominican
priests, who laboured with great zeal for her con-
version ; but they returned without having effected
their object, full of admiration of the talents she
displayed, and regretting the obstinacy with which
she persisted in what they supposed a damnable
heresy. The evening before the auto da fe, two
Dominicans joined in the attempt, and were fol-
lowed by several theologians of other orders.
Donna Maria received them with civility, but
dissuaded them from attempting the hopeless task.
To the professions which they made of being inte-
rested in the welfare of her soul, she answered,
that she believed them to be sincere, but that they
must not suppose that she, being the party chiefly
concerned, felt a less interest in the matter than
they did. She told them, that she came to prison
fully satisfied of the orthodoxy of the creed which
she held, and that she had been confirmed in her
belief by the evident futility of the arguments
brought against it.
" At the stake, Don Juan Ponce de Leon, who
had abjured the Lutheran doctrines, exhorted
Donna Maria to follow his example. The weakness
of this apostate for a moment overcame her, and
she silenced him by language rather of contempt
than of pity. Recollecting herself, however, she
told him that the time for controversy was past,
and that their wisest plan would be, to occupy the
few minutes which remained to them, in medi-
tating on the death of their Redeemer, in order to
confirm that faith by which alone they could be
176 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
justified. All that poor Juan Ponce de Leon
gained by his apostacy was, that he was not burnt
alive, but first strangled, and then burnt. On this
occasion, the attendant priest, moved by the youth
and talents of Donna Maria, offered her this milder
death, if she would merely repeat the Creed. With
this offer she readily complied ; but having finished
it, she began immediately to explain its articles,
according to the sense of the reformers. This
confession of faith was immediately interrupted.
Donna Maria was. strangled by the executioner,
and her body was afterwards reduced to ashes !"
4. MELCHIOB HEKNANDEZ. This victim was a
merchant of Toledo, whence he removed to settle,
A.D. 1564, in Murcia, where he was arrested by the
officers of the Inquisition, charged with Judaism.
Witnesses, known to be his enemies, appeared
against him, but their evidence was contradictory ;
yet he was detained in prison. Being dangerously
ill, he demanded an audience of the inquisitors, to
whom he said that he had been present at a
meeting, a year before, where the subject of con-
versation was the law of Moses. Some days after,
:at his re-examination, he declared that what was
said at the meeting was in jest, and he did not
recollect the particulars of the conversation.
Having said to the visitor of the tribunal that the
things which he had declared, he had been induced
to utter before his judges by the fear of death, he
was put to the torture, to compel him to confess
what he knew respecting certain persons ; but he
&ore the cruel infliction without uttering a word.
ITS TOTiTUBES. 177'
On the ISth of October, 1565, lie was declared, as
a Jewish heretic, to be guilty of concealment in his
confession, and condemned to be burnt. His
execution was fixed for the 9th of December ; and
on the 7th he was exhorted to a full confession.
He replied, that he had confessed all he knew ; and
the next day, being desired to prepare for death,
he declared that he had seen the persons whom he
had mentioned, and some others at the meeting ;
tlftit they conversed respecting the law of Moses,
but that he regarded their communications as mere
pastime. Between this and the commencement of
the auto dafe, next day, he made several commu-
nications, in hope of escaping death, giving the
names of various parties as his accomplices. This
disclosui'e being unavailing to induce the inquisitor
to suspend his execution, Melchior stated that he
had really believed, for a year, what had been
preached in the synagogue, though he had not con-
fessed the fact, because he thought there was no
proof of heresy in the depositions of the witnesses.
His execution was suspended, and he was subjected
to new examinations, at which he made extra-
ordinary and contradictory statements, perplexing
to his judges ; three of whom voted for his punish-
ment and two for his reconciliation. The council
decreed that Melchior should be burnt on the 8th
of June, 15G7 ; and on each of the three preceding
days he was called up, and exhorted to declare his
accomplices. The habit of a prisoner to be burnt
was put upon him, when he declared that he could
name other accomplices, and an inquisitor went to
178 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
receive his confession. He gave another syna-
gogue, and seven other places, with the names of
fourteen persons who frequented them. This not
being deemed satisfactory, he was led, with others,
to the place of execution, where he mentioned two
more houses, and twelve heretics ; in a second
audience, he gave seven more persons ; and in a
third audience, two more houses, and six persons.
He was again remanded, as he hoped ; but on the
23rd of June, despairing of success, he appealed
to his judges, " "What more could I do than accuse
myself falsely? Know that I have never been
summoned to any assembly ; that I never attended
any but for the purposes of commerce." After
many audiences, he was for the third time sen-
tenced for execution, and he again succeeded in
escaping the fire. In five subsequent audiences he
denounced various persons ; but he was declared
" still guilty of concealment, in not mentioning several
persons not less distinguished and well known than
those already denounced, and that he could not fie
supposed to have forgotten them."
Overcome by this malignant suggestion, Melchior
delivered an indignant invective against the inqui-
sitors, and all who appeared on the trial, and then
said, " What can you do to me ? burn me ?
Well, then, be it so. I cannot confess what I do
not know. All that I have said of myself is true,
but what I have declared of others is entirely
false. I invented it, because I perceived that you
wished me to denounce innocent persons ; and being
unacquainted ivith the names and quality of these
ITS TOBTUBES. 179
unfortunate people, I named all whom I could think
of, in the hope of finding an end to my misery. I
now perceive that my situation admits of no relief,
and I therefore retract all my depositions ; and
now, having fulfilled this duty, proceed to burn me
as soon as you please." The papers relating to the
trial were sent to the supreme council, which con-
firmed the sentence of burning, and reprimanded
the inquisitors for the delay. Instead of submitting
to this decision, the inquisitors called Melchior
again before them, representing to him that his
declarations contained many contradictions, and
that, for the good of his soul, it was necessary that
he should finally make a confession, respecting
himself and all his guilty acquaintances. This
artful appeal did not shake his constancy. Melchior
affirmed that they would find all the truth in the
declaration that he had made before the visitor,
Senor Ayora. It was found in this that Melchior
had stated, that " he knew nothing of the subject on
which he was examined." The inquisitor then said,
" How can this declaration be true, when you have
several times declared that you have attended the
Jewish assemblies, believed in their doctrines, and
persevered in the belief for the space of one year,
until you were undeceived by a priest ?" Melchior
replied, " I spoke falsely when I made a declara-
tion against myself." " But how is it," said the in-
quisitor, " that what you have confessed of yourself,
and many other things, which you now deny, are
the result of the depositions of a great many wit-
nesses?" "I 'do not know," replied Melchior,
180 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
" if that is true or false, for I have not seen the
writings of the trial ; but if the witnesses have
said that which is imputed to them, it was because
they were placed in the same situation as I am.
They do not love me better than I love myself; and
I have certainly declared against myself both truth
and falsehood." " What motive had you, then,"
as.ked the inquisitor, " in declaring things injurious
to yourself, if they were false ?" Melchior de-
clared, " I expected to derive great advantage from
them, because I saw that if I did not confess
anything, I should be considered as impenitent,
and the truth would lead me to the scaffold. I
thought that falsehood would be most useful to
me, and I found it so in two autos dafe."
Nothing was now to be expected but death, and
he was desired, on the 6th of June, 1568, to pre-
pare for it by the next day. At two o'clock in the
morning he desired an audience with the inqui-
sitor, who, with his notary, went to his cell.
Melchior then said to him, " That at the point of
appearing before the tribunal of the Almighty,
and without any hope of escaping from death by
new delays, he thought himself bound to declare
that he had never conversed with any person on
the Mosaic law ; that all he had said on this subject
was founded on the wish to preserve life, and the
belief that his confessions were pleasing to the
inquisitors; that he asked pardon of the persons
implicated, that God might pardon him, and that
BO injury might be done to their honour and
reputation."
ITS TOBTURES. 181
Melcliior Hernauclez was, therefore, sacrificed to
the bigotry of the inquisitors, first being strangled
and then burnt. As to his inventions and false accu-
sations of others, nothing can justify him ; but
such endeavours to escape from the dreadful tri-
bunal appear to be common among the unhappy
prisoners of that horrid court which knows no
mercy.
5. LEWIS PEZOA. About the year 1650, Lewis
Pezoa, a new Christian, his wife, and two sons, and
one daughter, besides some relations living with
him, were all thrown into the gaol of the Inquisition
in Portugal. They were accused by some of their
enemies of being Jews. Pezoa denied the charge,
and refuted it, but in vain ; he demanded that his
accusers might be discovered to him, that he might
convict them of falsehood. He was condemned, as
a negative heretic, to be delivered over to the
secular court to be burnt. This was made known
to him fifteen days before the sentence was pro-
nounced by the court.
Pezoa being a man of wealth, the Duke de
Cadaval knew him, and desired to know, from his
intimate friend, the Duke d'Aviera, inquisitor-
general, how he would be treated ; and understand-
ing that unless he confessed before his going out of
prison, he would not escape the fire, because he
had been convicted according to the laws of the
Inquisition, he entreated, and obtained from the
inquisitor-general a promise, that if he could per-
suade Pezoa to confess, even after sentence was
pronounced, and his procession in the act of faith,
182 THE IKQUISITION BEVEALED.
he should not die, though it was contrary to the
laws. Upon that solemn day, therefore, on which
the act of faith was held, he went with some of his
own friends, and some of Pezoa's, to the Inquisi-
tion, to prevail on him, if possible, to confess. He
was led forth in the procession, wearing the in-
famous attire and the mitre, indicating the sacrifice
of his life. His friends, with many tears, besought
him, in the name of the Duke of Cadaval, and by all
that was dear to him, that he would preserve his
life, and intimated to him, that if he would confess
and repent, the duke would give him more than he
had lost, as he obtained his life on that condition
from the inquisitor-general. But all in vain ; Pezoa
continually protesting himself innocent, and that
the accusation was the contrivance of his enemies,
who sought his destruction, as guilty of crimes.
When the procession was ended, and the act of
faith almost finished, the sentences of those who
were condemned to certain penances having been
read, and, on the approach of evening, the sentences
of those who were to be delivered over to the
secular court being begun to be read, his friends
repeated their entreaties, by which they overcame
his constancy at last ; so that, desiring an audience,
and rising up, that he might be heard, he said,
" Come, then, let us go and confess the crimes I am
falsely accused of, and thereby gratify the desires
of my friends."
Having made confession, he was remanded to
gaol. But, two years after, he was sent to Evora,
and walked in procession in another act of faith,
ITS ACTS OF FAITH. 183
wearing the infamous garment, on which was
painted the fire inverted, according to the usual
custom of the Portuguese Inquisition ; and after
five years more, in which he was detained in. the
gaol pf the Inquisition, he was condemned to the
galleys, as a slave, for five years.
CHAPTER XV.
ACTS OF FAITH OF THE INQUISITION.
. The Auto da FeAct of Faith at Madrid Act of Faith at
Lisbon Testimony of Rev. Mr. Wilcox.
THE auto da fe, or act of faith, in the Romish
church, is a grand ceremony performed by the
Inquisition, for the punishment of heretics, and the
absolution of those who have been declared innocent.
It is usually contrived to fall on great festivals of the
church, that the whole procedure may strike the
spectators with the utmost awe. The auto da fe
may be called the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy.
It is a kind of gaol deli very, as often as a competent
number of prisoners in the Inquisition are convicted
of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted
confession, or on the testimony of certain witnesses.
The process is generally as follows :
In the morning, the prisoners are brought into
a great hall, where they put on certain habits, which
184 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
are to be worn in the procession, and from which
they know their doom. The procession is led forth
by Dominican friars, after whom come the penitents,
being all in black coats without sleeves, and bare-
footed, with wax candles in their hands. These are
followed by those penitents who have narrowly
escaped being burnt, and who, over their black
coats, have flames painted, with their points turned
downwards. Next come the negative and relapsed,
who are doomed to be burnt, having flames on their
habits pointing upwards. After these come such
as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Home,
who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their
pictures painted on their breasts, with dogs, ser-
pents, and devils, as in a fury. Each prisoner is
attended by a familiar of the Inquisition ; and those
to be burnt, have also a Jesuit on each hand urging
them to abjure. After the prisoners, there follow
a troop of familiars on horseback, and then the
inquisitors and other officers of the court, on mules :
last of all, the inquisitor-general on a white horse,
led by two men with black hats and green hat-
bands.
On the occasion, a scaftbld is erected large enough
for two or three thousand persons ; at one end of
which are the prisoners, at the other the inquisitors.
After a sermon, made of encomiums on the Inquisi-
tion, and invectives against heretics, a priest ascends
a desk near the scaffold, and having taken the abju-
ration of the penitents, he recites the final sentence
of those who are to be put to death, and delivers
them to the secular arm, earnestly beseeching the
ITS ACTS OF FAITH. 185
authorities not to touch their blood, nor to put
their lives in danger ! The prisoners, being thus
in the hands of the civil magistrate, are presently
loaded with chains, and carried first to the secular
gaol, and thence, in an hour or two, brought before
the civil judge ; who, after asking in what religion
they intend to die, pronounces sentence on such as
declare they die in the communion of the church of
Rome, that they shall be first strangled, and then
burnt to ashes ! or such as die in any other faith,
that they be burnt alive ! Both are immediately
carried to a place of execution, where there are as
many stakes set up as there are prisoners to be
burnt, with fuel of dried furze. The stakes for the
professed, or such as reject the Eomish faith, are
about four yards high, having a small board near
the top for the prisoner to be seated on. The
negative and relapsed being first strangled and
burnt, the professed mount their stakes by a ladder,
and the Jesuits, after several repeated exhortations
to be reconciled to the church, retire, telling them.
that they leave them to the devil, who is standing
at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry them
to the flames of hell. On this, a great shout is
raised, the cry being " Let the dogs' beards be
made ; " that is done by thrusting flaming furzes,
fastened on long poles, against their faces, till they
are scorched, and every feature destroyed; and
this is accompanied with the loudest exclamations
of savage joy. At last, fire is set to the furze at
the bottom of the stake, over which the victim is,
chained so high that the flame can scarcely reach
N
186 THE INQUISITION KEYEA1ED.
the seat, and the sufferer is thus made to endure a
roasting. There cannot be a more lamentable
spectacle ; the sufferers cry out, as long as they are
able, " Pity, for the love of God ! " or such-like
appeals for mercy and sympathy ; yet it is beheld,
by both sexes of the superstitious populace, with
transports of joy and satisfaction, illustrating the
genuine spirit of Popery.
ACT OF FAITH AT MADBID, A.D. 1680.
Spain and Portugal, more than any other coun-
tries, have been governed on the principles of
Popery. To learn its true genius, we must look at
the horrid ceremony of burning dissenters, under the
designation of heretics. The following account
relates to the act of faith celebrated in honour of
Charles II., on the occasion of his public entry into
Madrid, after his marriage, A.D. 1680.
Charles II., of Spain, was born A.D. 1662, and
ascended the throne at nearly the age of four years,
October 7, 1665. In February, 1680, he married
Maria Louise of Orleans. This was publicly cele-
brated under the direction of the priesthood, with
all possible magnificence at Madrid, and an act of
faith by the Inquisition, May 3, 1680.
A month before the general execution, the officers
of the Inquisition, preceded by their standard, rode
with great solemnity from the palace of the Holy
Office to the open square, where, in the presence of
crowds of people, they proclaimed, by sound of
trumpet and kettle-drums, that on that day month,
ITS ACTS OF PAITH. 187
an act of faith, or general execution of the heretics,
would be exhibited. The proclamation being over,
extensive preparations were made for the dreadful
solemnities, under pretence that the horrid sacrifice
was in honour of the blessed Jesus and his religion,
the Gospel of peace. Previous to this bloody
solemnity, a scaffold, fifty feet long, was erected in
the great square, and raised to the same height,
with a balcony upon it with seats for the king and
queen and royal family. At the end, and along the
sides, seats were placed, as an amphitheatre, in view
of the king, for the council of the Inquisition. On
one side, under a splendid canopy, a rostrum was
elevated for the grand-inquisitor; and at the
opposite side was an elevated platform, on which
the prisoners were required to stand. In the
centre of the scaffold were erected two enclosures,
or cages, open at the top, enclosing the prisoners
while sentence of death was pronounced on them.
Three pulpits also were erected, two of which were
for the use of those who read the sentence, and the
third for the preacher ; and, lastly, an altar was
erected near the rostrum, where the several coun-
sellors sat. The seats, on which their Catholic
majesties sat, were ranged so that the queen was
at the king's left hand, and on the right the queen-
mother. The rest of the whole scaffold was filled
with the ladies of honour of both queens ; balconies
were likewise erected for the foreign ambassadors,
and for the lords and ladies of the court, and
scaffolds also for the people.
On the solemn day, a month after the proclaina-
> 2
188 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
tion, the ceremony opened in the following order.
The march was preceded by a hundred coal-mer-
chants, armed with pikes and muskets, indicating
their being under obligation to furnish fuel for, the
burning of the criminals. These were followed by
Dominican friars, before whom a white cross was
carried. Behind them came the Duke of Mendini
Celi, carrying the standard of the Inquisition, *a
privilege hereditary in his family. The standard
was of red damask, on one side of which was rep^e-
sented a drawn sword in a crown of laurels, and
the arms of Spain on the other. Then was brought*
forward a green cross, covered with black crape,
which was followed by several grandees and other
persons of quality, familiars of the Inquisition,
wearing black cloaks, marked with black and white
crosses, edged with gold wire. The march was
closed by fifty halbardiers or guards, belonging to
the Inquisition, clothed with black and white
garments, and commanded by the Marquis of
Ponar, hereditary protector of the Inquisition in
the province of Toledo.
The procession having marched in this order
before the palace, proceeded to the square, when
the standard and the green cross were placed on
the scaffold, where none but the Dominicans
remained, the rest having retired. These Domi-
nican friars had spent the night in chanting psalms,
and several masses were celebrated on the altar
from day -break until six in the morning. About
an hour after, the king, the queen, and the queen-
mother, with all the royal family, the lords, ladies
ITS ACTS OF FAITH. 189
and officers of the court, made their appearance,
and at eight o'clock ascended the scaffold. The
coal-merchants placed themselves on the left of the
king's balcony, and his guards stood on the right.
Afterwards came thirty men carrying images of
pastebeard, as large as life, some representing those
who had died in prison, and whose bones were
brought in chests, with flames painted on them, and
*he rest those who had escaped and were outlawed.
These figures were placed at one end of the
amphitheatre, and then came twelve men and
women with ropes about their necks, torches in
their hands, and pasteboard caps on their heads,
three feet high, on which were written their crimes.
These were followed by fifty others, having also
torches in their hands, and clothed with yellow
great coats, on which were crosses of St. Andrew X.,
behind and before. These were Jews, who had
repented of their crimes, and desired to be admitted
into the church as believers in Jesus Christ.
Next came twenty Jews of both sexes, who had
relapsed thrice into their former errors, and were
condemned to the flames. Those who had given
some tokens of repentance were to be strangled
before they were burnt ; but the rest, for having
persisted in their errors, were to be burnt alive.
These last wore linen garments, with devils and
flames painted on them, and caps after the same
manner. Five or six among them, who were more
obstinate than the rest, were gagged, to prevent
their uttering what the Koman Catholics call
blasphemous tenets.
190 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
Such as were condemned to die, were surrounded
each by four Dominicans and two familiars of the
Inquisition. These unhappy creatures passed, in
the manner above related, under the lung of Spain's
balcony, and after having walked round the scaffold,
were placed in the amphitheatre that stood on the
left, and each of them surrounded by the monks
and familiars who had attended them. Some of the
grandees of Spain were among these familiars, and
they, consistently with their usual national pride,
seated themselves on high benches erected for the
purpose. The clergy of St. Martin's parish, coming
forward, placed themselves near the altar ; the
officers of the supreme council of the Inquisition,
the inquisitor, and several other persons of distinc-
tion, both regulars and seculars, all on horseback,
with great solemnity, arrived afterwards, and placed
themselves on the right hand of the amphitheatre,
and on both sides of the rostrum in which the
grand-inquisitor was to seat himself. The grand-
inquisitor came last, dressed in a purple habit,
accompanied by the president of the council of
Castile, and several other officers, who, on this
occasion, would have been reckoned among the
number of heretics, had they not become the more
than obsequious slaves of the priests.
Then they began to celebrate mass ; in the midst
of which, the priest who officiated went down from
the altar and seated himself in a chair, which had
been placed for him. The grand-inquisitor came
down from his seat, and having saluted the altar,
and put the mitre on his head, he advanced towards
ITS ACTS OF FAITH. 191
the king's balcony. Then he went up the stepa
that stood at the end of the balcony, with several
officers, who carried the cross and Gospels, and a
book containing the oath by which the kings of
Spain obliged themselves to protect the Catholic
faith, to extirpate heretics, and to support the holy
Inquisition to the utmost of their power.
The king, standing up bareheaded, having on one
side of him a grandee of Spain, holding the royal
sword with the point upward, swore to observe the
oatli which a counsellor of the Inquisition had just
read to him. The king continued in this postur
till such time as the grand-inquisitor was returned
back to his seat, where he took off his pontifical
vestments. Then one of the secretaries of the
Inquisition ascended a pulpit appointed for that
purpose, and read an oath to the same purport,
which he administered to all the grandees who were
then present ; and this part of the ceremony was
followed by that of a Dominican going up into the
pulpit, and delivering a sermon full of flattery in
praise of the Inquisition.
About two o'clock in the afternoon they began
to read the sentences of the condemned criminals ;
and they began with those who had died in prison-,
or who had been outlawed. Their figures in paste-
board were carried up to the little scaffold, and put
into the cages, and then they read the sentences to
each of the criminals who were alive, and they
were, one by one, put into the cages, in order that
every person present might know them. There
were, in all, twenty persons, of botli sexes, con-
192 THE INQUISITION KEVEALED.
demned to the flames ; and of these, six men and
two women could not be prevailed on either to
confess or repent of their errors. A young woman
was remanded to prison because she had always
made the strongest protestations of her innocence,
and therefore they thought it would be proper to
re-examine the evidence that had been produced
against her. Lastly, they read the sentences of
those who had been found guilty of bigamy, or
witchcraft, with several other crimes, and this
lasted till about nine in the evening, when mass
was finished.
Mass being finished, the grand-inquisitor, clothed
in his pontifical vestments, pronounced a solemn
absolution on all those who would repent ; and
then, the king being withdrawn, the criminals who
had been condemned to be burnt, were delivered
over to the civil power, and, being mounted upon
asses, were carried in this manner through the gate
called Eoncural. About three hundred paces from
it they were chained to stakes, and executed a little
after midnight. Those who persisted in their errors
were burnt alive ; but such as repented, were first
strangled before the fire was lighted. Those con-
demned to lesser punishments were remanded to
prison, and the inquisitors returned home to their
palace !
To us, in our enlightened times, it must appear
very astonishing, that proceedings so inhuman and
shocking could be witnessed and sanctioned by a
great monarch and his mighty nobles. Yet these
outrages continued, but not without complaints
ITS ACTS OF FAITH. 193
against the Inquisition from some of the nobility
and statesmen, so that no less than 9,216 victims of
that court are reckoned in the reign of Charles II.,
from A.D. 1666 to A.D. 1700 : of these, 1,728 were
burnt to death ; 576 were burnt in effigy ; and
6,912 were subjected to severe penances, in Spain.
ACT OF FAITH AT LISBON, A.D. 1682.
Dr. Michael Geddes, an eminent English divine,
and chaplain to the factory at Lisbon for several
years, until he was apprehended by the Inquisition
in 1686, when he was interdicted from officiating
in his ministerial capacity, and returned to Eng-
land, witnessed an auto da fe, in 1682, and he
describes it as follows :
" In the morning of the day, the prisoners are
all brought into a great hall, where they have the
habits put on they are to wear in the procession,
which begins to come out of the Inquisition about
nine of the clock in the morning. The first in the
procession are the Dominican friars, who carry the
standard of the Inquisition, which on the one side
hath their founder Dominic's picture, and on the
other side, a cross between an olive leaf and a sword,
with this motto, Jiistitia et Misericordia, Next after
the Dominicans come the penitents, some with
benitos, some without, according to the nature of
their crimes; they are all in black coats without
sleeves, and bare-footed, with a wax candle in their
hand. Next come the penitents who have nar-
rowly escaped being burnt, who, over their black
194 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
coat, have flames painted, with their points turned
downwards, to signify their having been saved, but
so as by fire : this habit is called by the Portu-
guese fueyo revolto, or flames turned upside down.
jSText come the negative and relapsed, that are to
be burnt, with flames upon their habit, pointing
upward ; and next come those who profess doctrines
contrary to the faith of the Roman church, and
who, besides flames on their habit, pointing upward,
have their picture, which is drawn two or three
days before, upon their breasts, with dogs, serpents,
and devils, all with open mouths, painted upon it.
Pequa, a famous Spanish inquisitor, calls this pro-
cession, Horrendum ac tremcndum spectaculem ;
and so it is in truth, there being some things in the
looks of all the prisoners, besides those that are to
be burnt, that is ghastly and disconsolate, beyond
what can be imagined ; and in the eyes and coun-
tenance of those that are to be burnt, there is some-
thing that looks fierce and eager.
" The prisoners that are to be burnt alive
besides a familiar, which all the rest have, have a
Jesuit on each hand of them, who are continually
preaching to them to abjure their heresies ; but if
they offer to speak anything in defence of the
doctrine, for professing which they are going to
suffer death, they are immediately gagged, and not
suffered to speak a word more. This I saw done
to a prisoner presently after he came out of the
gates of the Inquisition, upon his having looked up
to the sun, which he had not seen before for several
years, and cried out in rapture, ' How is it possible
ITS ACTS OF FAITH. 195
for people to behold that glorious body, to worship
any being but Him that created it ? ' After the
prisoners corue a troop of familiars on horseback,
and after them the inquisitors, and other officers of
the court, upon mules, and last of all comes the
inquisitor-general, upon a white horse, led by two
men, with a black hat and a green hatband, and
attended by all the nobles that are employed as
familiars in the procession.
" In the Terceiro de Paco, which may be as far
from the Inquisition as "Whitehall is from Temple
Bar, there is a scaffold erected, which may hold
two or three thousand people ; at the one end sit
the inquisitors, and at the other end the prisoners,
and in the same order as they walked in the
procession, those that are to be burnt being seated
on the highest benches behind the rest, and which
may be ten feet above the floor of the scaffold.
After some prayers, and a sermon, which is made/
up of encomiums on the Inquisition, and invectives
against heretics, a secular priest ascends a desk,
which stands near the middle of the scaffold, and
who, having first taken all the abjurations of the
penitents, who kneel before him, one by one, in the
same order as they walked in the procession, at
last he recites the final sentence of the Inquisition
upon those who are to be put to death, in the
words following :
" 'We, the inquisitors of heretical pravity,
having, with the concurrence of the most illustrious
IT., lord archbishop of Lisbon, or of his deputy, J,
called on the name of his Lord Jesus Christ, and
196 THE INQUISITION BEYElLED.
of His glorious mother, the Virgin Mary, and
sitting on our tribunal, and judging with the holy
Gospels lying before us, that so our judgment
might be in the sight of God, and our eyes might
behold what is just in all matters between the
magnific Doctor JV., advocate-fiscal, on the one
part, and you, JV., now before us, on the other ; we
have ordained that in this place, and on this day,
you should receive your definitive sentence. We
do, therefore, by this our sentence, put in writing,
define, pronounce, declare, and sentence thee, JV.,
of the city of Lisbon, to be a convicted, confessing,
affirmative, and professed heretic, and to be deli-
vered by us as such to the secular arm ; and we, by
this sentence, do cast thee out of the ecclesiastical
court, as a convicted, confessing, affirmative, and
professed heretic, and we do leave and deliver thee
to the secular arm, and to the power of the secular
court, but at the same time do most earnestly beseech
that court so to moderate its sentence as not to toucJi
thy blood, or to put thy life in any danger?
"Is there in all history," asks Dr. Geddes, "an
instance of so gross and confident a mockery of
God and the world as this of the inquisitors, ear-
nestly beseeching the civil magistrates not to put the
heretic they have condemned and delivered to them
to death ? For were they in earnest when they make
their solemn petition to the secular magistrates,
why do they bring their prisoners out of the
Inquisition, and deliver them, to those magistrates,
in coats painted over with flames ? Why do they
teach that all heretics, above all other malefactors,
ITS ACTS OF TAITH. 197
ought to be punished with death ? And why do
they never resent the secular magistrates having
so little regard to their earnest and joint petition
as never to fail to burn all the heretics which are
delivered to them by the Inquisition, within an
hour or two after they have them in their hands ?
And why, in Rome, where the supreme civil and
ecclesiastical authority are lodged in the same per-
son, is this petition of the Inquisition, which is made
there as well as in other places, never granted?
Certainly, not to take any notice of the old canon,
which forbids the clergy to have any hand in the
blood of any person whatsoever, would be a much
less dishonour to the Inquisition, than to pretend to
go on observing that canon, by making a petition
which is known to be so contrary to their principles
and desires.
" The prisoners are no sooner in the hands of
the civil magistrate than they are loaded with
chains, and before the eyes of the inquisitors ; and,
being first carried to the secular gaols, are within
an hour or two brought thence before the lord
chief-justice, who, without knowing any thing of
their particular crimes, or of the evidence that'was
against them, asks them, one by one, in wliat reli-
gion do they intend to die ? If they answer that they
will die in the communion of the Roman church,
they are condemned by him to be carried forth to
the place of execution, and there to le first strangled,
and then burnt to ashes. But if they say that they
will die in the Protestant or any other faith that
is contrary to the Roman, they are sentenced by
198 THE INQUISITION BETEALED.
him to be carried to tJie place of execution, and there
to be burnt alive. At the place of execution, which,
at Lisbon, is in the Kibera, there are so many stakes
set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with a
good quantity of dry furze about them. The stakes
of the professed, as the inquisitors call them, may
be about four yards high, and have a small board
whereon the prisoner is to be seated, within half
a yard of their top. The negative and relapsed
being first strangled and burnt, the professed go
up a ladder between the two Jesuits, who have
attended them all day, and when they are come
even with the fore-mentioned board, they turn
about to the people, and the Jesuits do spend near
a quarter of an hour in exhorting the professed to
be reconciled to the church of Eome ; which, if the
professed refuse to be, the Jesuits come down, and
the executioner ascends, and, having turned the
professed off the ladder upon the seat, and chained
their bodies close to the stake, he leaves them, and
the Jesuits go up to them a second time, to renew
their exhortation to them, and at parting tell them
that they leave them to the devil, who is standing
at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry
them with him into the flames of hell-fire, so soon
as they are out of their bodies. Upon this a great
shout is raised, and as soon as the Jesuits are off'
the ladder, the cry is, 'Let the dogs' beards be wade !
Let the dogs' beards be made I ' which is done by
thrusting of flaming furzes, fastened to a long pole,
against their faces ; and this inhumanity is com-
monly continued until their faces are burned to a
ITS ACT3 OF FAITH. 199
coal, and is always accompanied with such acclama-
tions of joy as are not to be heard on any other
occasion; a bull fight or a farce being but dull
entertainments to the using of a professed heretic
thus inhumanly.
" The beards of the professed having -been thus
made, as they call it in jollity, fire is set to the
furze which is at the bottom of the stake, and above
which the professed are chained so high that the
top of the flame seldom reacheth higher than the
seat they sit upon ; and if there happen to be a wind,
and to which that place is much exposed, it seldom
reacheth so high as their knees ; so that though
there be a calm, the professed are commonly dead
in half an hour after the furze is set on fire ; yet, if
it prove windy, they are not after that dead in an
hour and a half, or two hours, and so are really
roasted, and not burnt to death. But though out of
hell there cannot be a more lamentable spectacle
than this, being joined with the sufferers, so long as
they are able to speak, crying out, ' Misericordia,
por amos de Dios,' (Mercy, for the love of God,) yet
it is beheld by people of both sexes and of all ages
with such transports of joy and satisfaction, as are
not on any other occasion to be met with. And
that the reader may not think that this inhuman
joy may be the effect of a natural cruelty that is in
those people's disposition, and not of the spirit of
their religion, he may rest assured that all public
malefactors, besides heretics, have their violent
deaths nowhere more tenderly lamented than
among the same people, and even when there is
THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
nothing in the manner of their deaths that appears
inhuman or cruel.
""Within a few days after the execution, the
pictures of all that have been burnt, and which
were taken off their breasts when they were brought
to the stake, are hung up in St. Domingo's church,
whose west end, though very high, is all covered
over with such trophies of the Inquisition, hung up
there in honour to Dominic, who, to fulfil his
mother's dream, was the first inventor of that
court. Dominic's mother, when she was about to
be delivered, having dreamed that she was delivered,
not of a human creature, but of a fierce dog, with a
burning torch in his mouth !"
Enormities of cruel bigotry so truly shocking
might well require to be authenticated by the most
unquestionable testimony. This has been given.
That of the Rev. Mr. Wilcox, chaplain to the
English factory of Lisbon in the reign of Queen
Anne, and afterwards Bishop of Rochester, wrote in
reply to the inquiry of Bishop Burnet, confirming
the statements of Dr. Geddes, June 15, 1706.
Part of his letter is as follows :
" My Lord, In obedience to your lordship's
commands of the 10th ultimo, I have here sent all
that was printed concerning the last auto da fe.
I saw the whole process, which is agreeable to what
is published by Limborch and others upon that
subject. Of the five persons condemned, there
were but four burnt; Antonio Tavances, by an
unusual reprieve, being saved after the procession.
Heytor Dias and Maria Pinteyra were burnt alive,
ITS MODEBN VICTIMS. 201
and the other two first strangled. The execution
was very cruel. The woman was alive in the
flames half an hour, and the man above an hour.
The present king and his brothers were seated at a
window so near as to be addressed, for a consi-
derable time, in very moving terms, by the man as
he was burning. But though the favour he begged
was only a few more faggots, yet he was not able to
obtain it. Those who are burnt alive here are
seated on a bench twelve feet high, fastened to a
pole, and above six feet higher than the faggots.
The wind being a little fresh, the man's hinder
parts were perfectly wasted ; and as he turned
himself, his ribs opened before lie left speaking, the
fire being recruited as it wasted, to keep him just
in the same degree of heat. But all entreaties
could not procure him a larger allowance of wood to
shorten his misery and dispatch him! "
CHAPTEE XVI.
MODEBX VICTIMS OF THE IXQTJISITIOX.
Galileo Dr. Orobio de CastroCount of Olavides A Beata
Joseph da Costa.
" POPERY is unchangeable." Such is the profession
of its greatest advocates. They declare that "the
Holy Koman Catholic Apostolic Church" is ever
o
202 THE INQUISITION SEVEALED.
the same in its divine foundation, its principles of
faith, and its ecclesiastical order. But history, as
we have seen, records a long series of changes in its
doctrines and institutions, adapted to the varying
policy of its hierarchy, which is antichristian ; and
the advancement of society in knowledge and re-
ligion has compelled the observance of far more
respect than formerly to the dictates of humanity.
Hence the abolition of the horrid custom of publicly
burning men for their religious opinions. The
spirit of intolerance and bigotry, however, is essen-
tial to Romanism, as a system of priestly claims;
but even this spirit has been restrained, as will
appear from the following examples of its modern
victims.
1. GrALILEO TOKTTJRED IN THE INQUISITION.
Gralileo Galilei, son of a Florentine nobleman, was
born A.D. 1564. He became a famous mathematician
and astronomer at Pisa and Padua, and by his
newly invented telescope he made valuable dis-
coveries, so that, A.D. 1615, he taught that the sun,
not the earth, is the centre of our system. This
was considered by the Pope and cardinals a heresy,
and he was seized by the Inquisition, and condemned
as a heretic. He recanted, and was released under
promise not to offend again ; but being confident
in the correctness of his science, he published, A.D.
1632, his " Dialogues on the Ptolemaic and Coper-
nican System of the "World," when he was again
arrested and condemned by that court to imprison-
ment for life, while his books were burnt, as if
science could injure religon. Torture in the prison
ITS MODEBN VICTIMS.
compelled him to sign the folio wing abjuration; and,
lest his death should endanger the Inquisition, he
was banished to Florence. " I, Galileus, son of the
late Yincentius Galileus, a Florentine, aged seventy,
being here personally upon my trial, and on my
knees before you, the most eminent and reverend
the lord cardinals, inquisitors-general of the universal
Christian commonwealth against heretical pravity,
having before my eyes the mo^t Holy Gospels, which
I touch with my proper hands, do swear that I always
have believed, and do now believe, and by the help
of God hereafter will believe all that which the
holy Catholic and apostolic Roman church doth
hold, preach, and teach. But because, after I had
been juridically enjoined and commanded by this
Holy Office, that I should wholly forsake that false
opinion, which holds that the sun is the centre, and
immoveable ; and that I should not hold, defend, nor
by any manner, neither by word or writing, teach
the aforesaid false doctrine ; and after it was notified
to me that the aforesaid doctrine was contrary to
the Holy Scripture, I have written and printed a
book, in which I treat of the said doctrine already
condemned, and produce reasons of great force in
favour of it, without giving any answer to them, I
am, therefore, judged by the Holy Office as vehe-
mently suspected of heresy, viz., that I have held
and believed that the sun is the centre of the world,
and immoveable, and that the earth is not the
centre, but moves.
" Being, therefore, willing to remove from the
minds of your eminences, and of every Catholic
o 2
204 THE INQUISITION EEYEALED.
Christian, this vehement suspicion legally conceived
against me, I do, with a sincere heart and faith
impressed, abjure, curse, and detest the abovesaid
errors and heresies, and, in general, every other
error and sect contrary to the aforesaid holy church;
.and I swear, that for the future I will never more
say or assert, either by word or writing, anything
to give occasion for the like suspicion ; but that if
I know any heretic, or person suspected of heresy,
I will inform against him to this Holy Office, or to
the inquisitor or ordinary of the place in which I
shall be. Moreover, I swear and promise that I
v,ill fulfil and wholly observe all the penances which
are, or shall be, enjoined me by this Holy Office.
But if, what God forbid, it shall happen that I
should act contrary, by any words of mine, to my
promises, protestations, and oaths, I do subject my-
self to all the penalties and punishments which have
been ordained and published against such offenders
by the sacred canons and other constitutions general
and particular. So lielp me God and His Holy
Gospels, which I touch with my own proper hands.
" I, the abovesaid Galileus Galilei, have abjured,
sworn, promised, and obliged myself as above ; and
in testimony of these things have subscribed, with
my own proper hand, this present writing of my
abjuration, and have repeated it word for word at
Home, in the convent of Minerva.
" I, Galileus Galilei, have abjured as above, with
any own proper hand." July 22nd, 1633.
Galileo, indignant against his oppressors for com-
pelling him to swear to an error, as he rose from
ITS MODERN VICTIMS. 205
his knees, said, " It still moves !" His tortures left
him afflicted, but he lived seven years, and died in
January, A.D. 1G42.
2. DB. BALTHASAB OBOBIO DE CASTBO. Lim-
borch gives the following account " of the method of
torturing, and the degree of tortures now used in
the Spanish Inquisition," as he received it from Dr.
Orobio de Castro, a Jew, about A.D. 1680. This
eminent man was born at Seville, and became pro-
fessor of metaphysics at Salamanca and at Seville-,,
where he was accused to the Inquisition, as of the
Jewish religion. This accusation was made by his
servant, a Moor, who had before been convictedj
and whipped by his order, for thieving ; and after-
wards, he was again accused before that tribunal by
a certain enemy for another fact, which would have
proved him to be a Jew. But Orobio obstinately
denied his Jewish opinions, and he was, therefore:,,
immured in the gaol of the Inquisition.
"I will here give the account of his torture,"
says Limborch, " as I had it from his own mouth/
After three whole years which he had been in gaol,
and several examinations, and the discovery of his
crimes to him of which he was accused, in order to-
his confession, and his constant denial of them, he-
was at length carried out of his gaol, and through
several turnings brought to the place of torture,,
towards the evening. This was a large under-
ground room, arched roof, and the walls covered
with black hangings. The candlesticks were fas-
tened to the wall, and the whole room enlightened
with candles placed in them. At one end of it
206 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
there was an enclosed place like a closet, where the
inquisitor and notary sat at a table, so that the place
seemed to him as the very mansion of death, every
thing appearing so terrible and awful. Here the in-
quisitor again admonished him to confess the truth,
before his torments began. "When he answered he
had told the truth, the inquisitor gravely protested,
that since he was so obstinate as to suffer the tor-
ture, the Holy Office would be innocent, if he should
shed his blood, or even expire in his torments.
When he had said this, they put a linen garment
over his body, and drew it so very close on each
side, as almost squeezed him to death. "When he
was almost dying, they slackened the sides of the
garment, and after he began to breathe again, the
sudden alteration put him to the most grievous
anguish and pain. When he had overcome this
torture, the same admonition was repeated, that he
would confess the truth in order to prevent further
torment. And as he persisted in his denial, they
tied his thumbs so very tight with small cords, as
made the extremities of them to swell, and caused
the blood to spurt out from under his nails. After
this, he was placed with his back against a wall, and
fixed upon a bench. Into the wall were fastened
little iron pulleys, through which there were ropes
drawn, and tied round his body, in several places,
and especially his arms and legs. The executioners,
drawing these ropes with great violence, fastened
his body with them to the wall, so that his hands
and feet, and especially his fingers and toes, being
bound so straitly with them, put him to the most
ITS MODEEN VICTIMS. 207
exquisite pain, and seemed to him just as though
he had been dissolving in flames. In the midst of
these torments the torturer, on a sudden, drew the
bench from under him, so that the miserable wretch
hung by the cords without anything to support him,
and by the weight of his body drew the knots yet
much closer. After this, a new kind of torture
succeeded. There was one instrument like a small
ladder, made of two upright pieces of wood, and
five cross ones sharpened before. This the torturer
placed over against him, and by a certain proper
motion struck it with great violence against both his
shins, so that he received upon each of them at once
five violent strokes, Avhich put him to such intolera-
ble anguish that he fainted away. After he came
to himself, they inflicted upon him the last torture.
The torturer tied ropes about the wrists of Orobio,
and then put the ropes about his own back, which
was covered with leather to prevent his hurting
himself. Then falling backwards, and putting his
feet up against the wall, he drew them with all his
might, till they cut through Orobio's flesh, even to
the very bones ; and this torture was repeated
thrice, the ropes being tied about the distance of
two fingers' breadth from the former wound, and
drawn with the same violence. But it happened,
that as the ropes were drawing the second time,
they slid into the first wound, which caused so great
an effusion of blood that he seemed to be dying.
Upon this the physician and surgeon, who are always
ready, were sent for out of a neighbouring apart-
ment, to ask their advice, if the torture coidd be con-
208 THE INQUISITION KEVEALED.
tinued without danger of death, lest the ecclesias-
tical judges should be guilty of an irregularity
if the criminal should die in his torments. They,
who were far from being enemies to Orobio,
answered, that he had strength enough to en-
dure the rest of the torture ; and hereby preserved
him from having the tortures that he had already
endtired, repeated on him ; because his sentence
was, that he should suffer them all at one time, one
after another, so that, if at any time they are
forced to leave off through fear of death, all the tor-
tures that have already been suffered must be suc-
cessively inflicted, to satisfy the sentence of the
inquisitors. Upon this decision of the physician,
the torture was repeated the third time, and then
ended. After this he was bound up in his own
clothes, and carried back to his prison ; and he was
scarcely healed of his wounds in seventy days.
And inasmuch as he made no confession under his
torture, he was condemned, not as one convicted,
but suspected of Judaism, to wear, for two whole
years, the infamous habit called San-benito, and after
that term to perpetual banishment from the kingdom
of Seville. On regaining his liberty he settled at Am-
sterdam, professed himself a Jew, and was circum-
cised, taking the name of Isaac, and died A.D. 1687."
3. COUNT D'OLAVIDES. Don Paul, Count
d'Olavides, was an extraordinary person. He un-
dertook the fertilising Sierra Morena, or the Black
Mountain, on which he planted colonies of Ger-
mans. These being Protestants, he was appre-
hended as a heretic, A.D. 1776. Limborch says,
ITS MODERN VICTIMS. 209
" The victim which marks this period was the cele-
brated Olavides, whose arrest suspended the pro-
gress of colonisation in the Sierra Morena. This in-
cident was derived from the same causes which con-
tributed to the removal of his protector (d' Aranda) .
With a similar spirit of free-thinking, which he
imbibed from the fashionable philosophers of the
day, he was equally offended by the obstacles which
he experienced in his beneficial designs, from the
prejudices and institutions of Spain. As most of
the colonists were Protestants, he resisted all endea-
vours for their conversion, and opposed the attempt
to enforce their attendance on the rites of the
Catholic worship. Having established a law to
permit no monks in the vicinity of the settlement,
he obtained an order for the removal of a convent,
and built his own house on the site. He frequently
indulged himself in expressions of ridicule against the
idleness and licentiousness of the monks, and spoke
with too great freedom of the depopulation and other
mischiefs occasioned by the celibacy of the clergy.
" Olavides' imprudence awakened the jealousy of
the Spanish church. His conduct was closely scru-
tinised : his works and actions were noted and ex-
aggerated ; and a formal accusation was preferred
against him for heresy, before that tribunal which is
considered as the bulwark of religion. The removal
of his protector gave full scope to the machinations
of his enemies. He was summoned to Madrid,
under the pretence of rendering an account of the
establishment under his care. Apprised of his dan-
ger, he made some ineffectual attempts to obtain the
210 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
royal protection, and to soothe the guardians of the
faith; but after a residence of a twelvemonth in
the capital, he was suddenly arrested, and conveyed
to the prisons of the Inquisition ; his papers were
seized, and his effects sequestrated." After two
years of impenetrable seclusion, his process, was
closed, and his sentence was publicly announced.
We give an account of this ceremony in the words
of an eye-witness :
"The autos da fe are still celebrated at the
tribunal of the Inquisition, with more or less pub-
licity, according to the impressions intended to be
made. A great number of persons, of all ranks,
civil, military, and ecclesiastical, were invited, I
should rather say summoned, to attend at the Holy
Office, at eight o'clock in the morning, on the 24th
of the last month. They were all totally ignorant
of the reason of their being called on. After wait-
ing some time, in an apartment destined for their
reception, they were admitted to the tribunal a
long, darkish room, with the windows near the
ceiling, and furnished with a crucifix, under a black
canopy ; a table, with two chairs for the inquisitors ;
a stool for the prisoner ; two chairs for his guards ;
and benches for the spectators. The familiars of
the Inquisition, Abrantes, Mora, and others,
grandees of Spain, attended as servants, without
hats or swords.
" Olavides soon appeared, attended by his
brothers in black, his looks quite cast down, his
hands closed together, and holding a green taper.
His dress was an olive-coloured coat, white canvas
ITS MODEEN VICTIMS. 211
breeches, and thread stockings, and his hair was
combed back into a bag. He was seated on the
stool prepared for him. The secretaries then read,
during three hours, the accustomed accusations and
proceedings against him. They consisted of above
one hundred articles, such as his possession of free
books, loose pictures, letters of recommendation
from Voltaire, his having neglected some external
duties of devotion, uttering hasty expressions, his
inattention to images, together with every parti-
cular of his life, birth, and education, were all
noted. It concluded with declaring him guilty of
heresy. At that moment he fainted away, but was
brought to the recovery of his senses, that he
might hear the sentence pronounced against him.
It was no less than this : Deprivation of all his
offices, incapacity of holding any hereafter, or
of receiving any royal favour, confiscation of his
property, banishment to thirty leagues from Madrid,
from all places of royal residence, from Seville, the
new colony, and Lima, the place of his birth ; pro-
hibition from riding on horseback, or wearing gold,
silver, or silk ; and eight years' confinement and
monastic discipline in a convent. From respect to
St. Jago, his wearing the cross of that order was
not mentioned, and he was excused from putting
on the San-benito.
" The sentence being read, he was led to the
table, where, on his knees, he recanted his errors,
and acknowledged his implicit belief in the articles
of the Eoman Catholic faith. Four priests in
surplices, and with wands in their hands, then
212 THE INQUISITION EEYEALED.
came in. They repeatedly laid their wands across
his shoulders while a Miserere was sung. He then
withdrew from the inquisition.
" However rigorous this punishment may appear,
yet it is mild when compared with the severity -with
which the Inquisition formerly visited similar
offences. Nothing less than the personal inter-
ference of the monarch himself, and the clemency
of the grand-iuquisjtor, could prohably have pre-
vented a repetition of those dreadful scenes which
have rendered this formidable tribunal an object
of universal horror ; for the confessor, and many of
the subordinate members, insisted on the necessity
of an auto da fe, in which Olavides would have
been infallibly committed to the flames."
Olavides made his escape from the convent in
which he had been confined, and retired to France.
There he wrote a book, entitled, " The Gospel
Triumphant; or, the Converted Philosopher," for
which he obtained pardon and permission to return
to Spain.
4. SUFFERINGS OF A BEATA. Beatas, or Messed
females, are devotees in the Romish church. One
of this class, a lady of extraordinary piety and
courage, perished at the stake of the Inquisition in
Seville, about the year 1780. She had adopted the
principles of Michael do Molinos, a Romish priest,
of a noble family in Spain, founder of the Quietists.
They placed religion in spiritual feeling, in opposi-
tion to ceremonies, deducing his principles from
the Scriptures. Molinos having published a book,
entitled "Spiritual Guide," at Rome, A.D. 1675, he
ITS MODEBN VICTIMS. 213
was imprisoned in the Inquisition, condemned -as a
heretic, and died under torture.
In a " Letter to the Spanish Inquisition," about
1810, the writer says of this lady : " The confine-
ment of the Beata lasted three or four years, during
which time there was scarcely a graduate of any
order, who did not, in turn, undertake the conver-
sion of the heretic. The assessors to the inquisitors
exhausted the syllogistic art, but hardened as she
was, she would not yield to their powerful argu-
ments and authorities. The poor wretch was not
aware of her danger in not being convinced, and
the cause was drawing towards a conclusion. This
arrived, and she insisted in arguing. The tribunal
declared her an obstinate heretic, and appointed a
time for the auto da fe. Scarce an inhabitant of
Seville but went to see this solemn act. It lasted
from the early part of the morning until night.
The criminal was conducted, gagged, and mounted
on an ass, in the midst of divines, who endeavoured
to subdue her obstinacy by new arguments, and vie
with the multitude in stunning her with repeated
shouts of Viva lafe (long live the faith). Her cause
was read from the pulpit, in the principal church of
the Dominicans, intermixed with obscenities ex-
pressed in the grossest terms. Nothing now
remained but to deliver her up to the secular judge,
that she might be punished with death. A retrac-
tion, previous to this act, might have saved her life,
but the unfortunate fanatic persisted in not making
it, and was delivered up. The approaching punish-
ment, and depression of spirits, occasioned by the
214i THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
fatigues of the day, made her desist from her obsti-
nacy when it was too late. She was converted, to
the satisfaction of the monks who were present ;
but the punishment could not even be deferred.
She alone obtained as a favour to be burnt after
death ; and was strangled in the evening, amidst the
tears of all devout souls, who admired the pious
artifice by which this opportunity was taken of
sending her to heaven, to prevent her falling again
into heresy."
" Tou will have no difficulty," says the writer,
" in persuading yourself, that this happened only
thirty years ago. But remember, that the same
laws now exist in all their force, and that it is scarce
a year since the famous Quemadero, [the pile on
which criminals are burnt,] where this scene was
represented, was destroyed at Seville, because it
stood in the way of the fortifications which were
erecting against the French. A Quemadero, on
which many thousands have perished, and which,
doubtless owing to the frequent call for it, was con-
structed of solid materials, unlike other scaffolds,
which are erected merely as occasion requires.
Imagine to yourself that the greater part of the
people are still disposed to look quietly on the
repetition of such scenes ; and tell me then, whether
the Inquisition can be viewed in the light in which
you place it ?
" The time has gone by, it is true, when these
scenes were exhibited daily ; when the victims
groaned in subterraneous dungeons, and made the
hall of the tribunal resound at night with the cries
ITS MODEBN VICTIMS. 215
which torture wrung from them ; the time has
passed, though not long since. It has passed,
though it depends on the will of three men to
restore it. It has passed: then why all this
declamation ? Leave this question to those, who,
forced by the circumstances of the times to conceal
their inclinations and their opinions, clothe them-
selves in sheep-skins, anxiously awaiting the day
when they may wreak their vengeance on those
who have constrained them to show a mildness
and forbearance. You strangers, who have lately
visited Spain, have no means of forming a correct
idea of the slow and endless oppression which this tri-
bunal occasions, even in its actual state of slumber."
5. JOSEPH DA COSTA, PEREIBA FTTBTADO DE
MENDONIA. Da Costa was a native of Colonia da
Sacramenta, on the river La Plata ; but he suffered
from the Inquisition in Portugal. In his "Narrative, 5 '
he says, " Three or four days had elapsed, after my
arrival at Lisbon from England, in July, 1802,
when a magistrate abruptly entered my apartments,
and telling me who he was, informed me that he
had orders to seize all my papers, and to conduct
me to prison, where I was to be rigorously kept
aloof from all communication. I doubted whether
he were the person he represented himself to be,
not only on account of his unpolished manners, but
also because he had neither his official staif, nor
any other sign of power ; and though I knew that
this was an error of essential consequence in a
magistrate, that it justified me in impugning his
authority, and considering him as a mere intruder
216 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
upon the sacred asylum of my abode, I invited him
civilly to sit down, and entreated that he would
show me the order he pretended to possess, or tell
me by whose authority it had been issued. He
then showed me a letter from the intendant-general
of police, which directed my imprisonment, the
seizure of my papers, and that endeavours should
be made to find, upon or about me, some masonical
decorations. The motive of this proceeding, as
stated in the order, was, that I had been to Eng-
land without a previous passport.
" When I had read this fatal note, all the sor-
rowful consequences of an imprisonment rushed
upon my mind, sensible that the fury of my perse-
cutor would know no limits. I had sufficient
coolness, however, to represent to this myrmidon of
justice, that the harsh treatment of the intendant-
general, without having any previous information
of my case, was not a little surprising, since, so far
from having gone to England without a passport, I
had previously procured one from his Royal High-
ness the Prince Regard, which leave I had solicited,
in consequence of being employed in the royal ser-
vice as one of the literary directors of the royal print-
ing-office, and my not deeming it proper to leave
the kingdom without my sovereign's permission;
that I had not only obtained leave of absence, in
writing, from the secretary of state's office, and pro-
cured a formal passport from the minister of foreign
aifairs, but that the minister of finance had charged
me, by- the sovereign's command, to transact some
business relative to the royal service in London ;
ITS MODEElf VICTIMS. 217
and that, in proof of this, I could show him the
official letters, some of which were directed to me
in Lisbon, before my departure, and others were
forwarded to London after my arrival in that city.
I pleaded, therefore, my right to expect that the
intendant-general of police should have been in-
formed of all this, before he proceeded against me
with such severity, or alleged, as a cause of his
proceedings against me, that I had gone to England
without a passport.
" The corregidor, willing to show me that there
had been no precipitation in his way of proceeding,
accused me of rashness for thinking that so excel-
lent a magistrate as the intendant-general, whose
probity was equal to his knowledge and learning,
would have proceeded in a case of such importance
without mature deliberation ; and he showed me
another letter. In this he was ordered by the
intendant of police to take care of every thing that
I might have brought from England belonging to
the royal service, such as a collection of books I
had purchased for the public library of Lisbon,
some instruments directed to be made in England,
and some books and other things belonging to the
royal printing-office.
" The reading of this second letter produced in
me sentiments at variance with those which I had
entertained of the first ; for, if the idea of the mis-
fortunes I was about to suffer had impressed my
mind with a natural dejection, I now reflected on
the meanness of the souls that could prescribe
orders so manifestly contradictory. This reflection
218 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
inspired me with such a contempt for the orders, and
for those who had sanctioned and were to carry them
into execution, that the recollection of it proved no
small consolation to me during my troubles.
" Enclosed, then, in a solitary cell, in the prison
called Limoeiro, without any other company than
that of sorrowful thoughts, labouring under uncer-
tainty as to my fate, and sustaining every possible
inconvenience attendant on such prisons, I re-
mained for eight days ; until one night the gaoler
came to my dungeon, and told me that he had
orders to take me before the corregidor, my judge,
who wished to proceed in the necessary interroga-
tories, preparatory to my trial. I appeared before
the judge, in a small room of the gaol ; when I
requested him to order that I should be released
from my solitary confinement. He stated, that the
intendant-general of police was in the habit of
detaining his prisoners in solitary confinement for
days, months, and years indeed, so long as he
thought convenient ; and that the magistrates were
left to their own discretion, with unlimited powers
to investigate crimes, and to bring the culprits to
punishment.
" Six months had I passed in solitary confine-
ment, when one night the gaoler came to the cell,
accompanied by four or six men. This mysterious
and absurd way of proceeding rendered it apparent
to me that I was going to the prison of the Inqui-
sition ; an event which I had long anticipated. I
was taken in chains to a carriage, where I found a
silent companion ; and being surrounded by con-
ITS MODEEIf TTCTIMS. 219
stables, officers of the Inquisition, who walked by
the side of the carriage, I was conveyed to St.
Ajiton Grate. There, to prevent any person from
guessing my destination, I was ordered to alight,
and led through an alley, to the gate of the palace
of the Inquisition, which communicates with the
prison. I was then conveyed to a room, where
they entered my name in the books, made an
inventory of the few clothes I had, and asked me
if I had any knife, razor, or scissors, or any other
instrument ; also, if I had any gold, silver, or
jewels ; and, on their saying that they would rely
on my word in this respect, I produced some pieces
of gold coin, most stupidly relying on their asser-
tion ; but as soon as they obtained this, and found
that I had nothing else to produce, they began
the most scrupulous search over every part of my
body.
" The gaoler, who for greater dignity has the
name of alcaide, that is, keeper of the castle,
addressed to me almost a little sermon, recom-
mending me to behave in this respectable house
with great propriety ; stating also, that I must not
make any noise in my room, nor speak loud, lest
the other prisoners might happen to be in the
neighbouring cells and hear me, with other similar
instructions. He then took me to my cell, a small
room, 12 feet by 8, with a door to the passage : in
this door were two iron grates, far from each other,
and occupying the thickness of the wall, which was
three feet, and outside of these grates there was-,
besides, a wooden door ; in the upper part of this
p2
220 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
was an aperture that let into the cell a borrowed
light from the passage, which passage received its
light from the windows fronting a narrow yard, but
having opposite, at a very short distance, very high
walls. In this small room were a kind of wood
frame without feet, whereon lay a straw mattress,
which was to be my bed ; a small water-pot ; and
another utensil for various purposes, which was
emptied only once every eight days, when I went to
mass in the prisoners' private chapel. This was
the only opportunity I had of taking fresh air
during such a period; and they contrived seven
divisions in the chapel in such a manner that the
prisoners could never see each other, or know how
many were granted the favour of going to mass.
The cell was arched above, and the floor was brick,
the wall being formed of stone, and very thick.
The place was consequently very cold in winter,
and so damp, that very frequently the grates were
covered with drops of water like dew ; and my
clothes, during the winter, were in a state of per-
petual moisture. Such was my abode for the period
of nearly three years !
" The day following my entrance into these
prisons, the gaoler came at nine o'clock, with
another turnkey, and said that I must accompany
him to the hearing of my case by the lord-inquisitor,
appointed by the holy tribunal to be my judge, and
what they call reporter of the cause, who happened
to be the first inquisitor and president of the small
board, Manoel Stanislao Fragoso. The affability
with which this priest treated me, when I first
ITS MODEBN VICTIMS. 221
spoke to him, knew no abatement during the time
of my imprisonment, except in one or two instances,
when his temper was ruffled.
" I must acknowledge, as a warning to others,
that my childish credulity, in entertaining the hope
of finding in the Holy Office meekness, clemency,
or despatch in my trial, had no other ground, except
the popular rumour in every corner of Portugal,
that the Holy Office is very much altered, and does
not now practise those cruelties which it before
committed. The inquisitor was in the audience
room, with another priest, who acted as clerk, or,
as they call it, notary, and he commenced the
interrogatories, first, by inquiring my name, parent-
age, and place of birth ; next, if the familiar, who
brought me to the prisons of the Holy Office, had
done me any violence ; or if I knew the cause that
had subjected me to the notice of the Inquisition.
He then observed to me, that I was before the
most just and merciful tribunal on earth ; but to
obtain its mercy and pardon for my crimes, it was
necessary that I should, of my own free will and
accord, confess all crimes of which I had been
guilty, without concealing my accomplices, frauds,
or any other circumstances, and that this confes-
sion must be immediate ; because the present time
was the most favourable moment a prisoner in the
Inquisition could have for, should I confess after-
wards what I might deny in the beginning, the
lenity of the tribunal would be very different.
" I replied to the inquisitor, that having been
first imprisoned by the police, on the ground of
222 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
having gone to England without passports, although
I was not interrogated about this subject, but only
with respect to my having entered into the order of
freemasonry, I was led to conjecture that niy being
a, freemason was the cause of my trial by the Inqui-
sition. If, indeed, this was the crime of which I
was accused, I was disposed to confess it, not only
because it was true that I was a freemason, but
with a view that I might obtain the mercy he, the
inquisitor, had promised me ; but if I Avas mistaken
in my conjecture, and the crime I was accused of
was different, I begged that its nature might be
disclosed to me, and I would reply to the accusa-
tion as should be necessary. The inquisitor replied,
that he could do no otherwise than praise my laud-
able resolution to confess my crimes; but it was
lus duty again to admonish me (and he said this
with a great deal of apparent charity), that I ought
to examine my conscience thoroughly, and not leave
anything untold of all that I had done in any
period of my life ; thab I had committed crimes
v/hose cognisance belonged to that holy tribunal,
and that I was accused of them, and informed
against on that account ; that I should remember
his recommendation, that to confess my crimes was
highly important to the clearing of my conscience;
to the salvation of my soul, and to the ( successful
issue of my cause ; and that he, to do me a favour,
would send me back to my solitary prison, that I
might have time to examine my conscience. I told
him, that the greatest possible favour he could con-
fer upon me was that of accelerating my cause ; for
ITS MODES** VICTIMS. 223
having been more than six months in prison without
being allowed to communicate with any one, my
health was so seriously injured, that all I wished
was to have a sentence, in order to get free from
my painful situation and suspense ; and, however
rigorous that sentence might be, it would always
be preferable, in my estimation, to being in a -soli-
tary prison, under circumstances that could only
lead to an inevitable ruin, which was the more to
be feared, as I was literally dying by inches in slow
torments.
" I was then immediately remanded to my prison ;
and the gaoler came to inform me that the goodness
of the lords inquisitors extended so far as to order
that I should have, besides the ordinary allowance,
some coffee for breakfast, and, in consideration of
the state of my health, a daily allowance of wine.
The ordinary allowance he spake of was half a pound
of boiled meat the bones enter into the weight of
this half pound, and, on some days, this allowance
is very scanty a few spoonfuls of rice, a cup of
gravy, and some bread. The only persons who are
allowed to have any access to the prisoner, or who
can see and speak to him, are the gaoler, and four
guards, called the ' faithful of the prisoner,' who
convey the prisoner backwards and forwards to the
audiences, and are at the same time the execu-
tioners who administer the tortures. These guards
also wait upon the prisoners, and bring them what
they want, such as food, water, &c. But it is
necessary to observe here, that these guards are,
properly speaking, spies set upon the prisoner, to
224 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
observe everything in the prisons, and to relate it
to the inquisitors, not only what they can gain by
listening to the conversation of the prisoners, but
also what they can see through small holes they
make in the ceiling, just at the corners of the
cells."
Da Costa was kept thus in prison for three years,
during which period he was tormented by repeated
examinations, without sentence being passed upon
him. Finding his health decline, he formed the
desperate resolution of attempting his escape from
prison ; and, happily, he succeeded, and at length
reached England. The relation of his sufferings in
the Inquisition occasioned his friends to request
his giving an account of them to the public ; and,
therefore, he published in London the " Narrative
of his Persecutions," in 1811.
CHAPTEE XVII.
BEITISH VICTIMS OP THE INQUISITION.
William Litbgow Elizabeth Vasconellos John Coustos
Mr. Bower.
SPANISH and Portuguese bigotry could not be
satisfied with the sacrifice of native subjects. The
vengeance of the Inquisition had been wreaked on
the helpless of other nations, whom Providence,
ITS BEITISH VICTIMS. 225
from time to time, brought within its grasp.
To 'prevent their sufferings had not always been
in the power of foreign governments ; and even
British subjects have been sufferers by this horrid
court. The terror of the name of Oliver Cromwell,
the Lord Protector of England, compelled the
inquisitors to liberate and to honour the English
consul, Thomas Maynard. (See Chapter XI.) But
how many have been tortured and murdered in the
concealment of the Inquisition cannot be ascertained
by us before the day of judgment. A few cases of
such sufferers may, however, be given, still further to
illustrate the intolerance and cruelty of the papacy.
1. WILLIAM LITHGOW. William Lithgow was
a gentleman of Scotland, and while travelling on
foot over Europe he came to Malaga, in Spain, in the
year 1620, when he was apprehended as a spy con-
nected with the English fleet then in that port. His
cruel treatment by the governor and his sufferings
in the Inquisition will best appear from his own
words, as follows :
" Upon the knowledge that I was secretly to be
incarcerate in the governor's palace, entered the
Mr. Sergeant and begged my money, and license to
search it ; and liberty granted, he found in my
pockets eleven phillipoes or ducatoons ; and then
unclothing me before their eyes, even to my shirt,
and searching my breeches, he found in my doublet-
neck, fast shut between two canvasses, a hundred
and thirty-seven double pieces of gold. Whereat
the corregidor arose, and counting my gold, being
five hundred and forty-eight ducats, he said to the
226 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
sergeant, ' Clotlie him again, and enclose liiin there
in the cabinet till after supper.' Meanwhile, the
sergeant got the eleven ducatoons of silver; and
my gold, which was to take me to Ethiopia, the
governor seized upon ; giving afterwards two hun-
dred crowns of it to supply the new foundation of a
Capuchin monastery there, reserving the rest, being
three hundred and forty-eight ducats, for his own
avaricious ends.
" This done, and midnight come, the sergeant
and two Turkish slaves, releasing me from the
inferior room, brought me through certain ascending
passages to a chamber right above his summer
kitchen ; where, and then, the sergeants and the
two slaves thrust on every ancle a heavy bolt, my
legs being put to a full stride, by a strong gad of
iron, far above a yard long ; upon the ends of which
the two bolts depended that were fastened about
my legs ; insomuch that I could never sit up, nor
vralk, nor stand, nor turn me, but lay continually
on my back, the two irons being thrice heavier than
my body. They left me with solacious words, and
straight returned with victuals, being a pound of
boiled mutton, a wheat bread, and a small pint of
wine, which was the first, the best, and the last of
this kind that ever I got in that woeful mansion.
The sergeant leaving me, never seeing him more till
a more unwelcome sight, he directed the slaves that
after I had contented my discontented appetite,
they should lock the door and carry the keys to
Areta, a Spaniard, and keeper of tho silver plate.
The day following, the governor entered my prison
ITS BBITISH VICTIMS. 227
alone, entreating me to confess that I was a spy,
and he would be my friend, and procure my pardon;
neither in the meantime should I lack any needful
thing. But I still attesting my innocence, he wrath-
fully swore that I should see his face 110 more till
grievous torments shotdd make me do it ; and leaving
me in a rage he observed too well his condition.
" But withal, in my hearing, he commanded
Areta that none should come near me, except the
slave, nor any food be given me but three ounces of
nmsted brown bread every second day, and a fuleto,
or English pint of water, neither any bed, pillow, or
coverlet to be allowed me. ' And close up,' said he,
' this window in his room, with lime and stone ;
stop the holes of the doors with double mats,
hanging another lock on it ; and to withdraw visible
and sensible comfort from him, let no tongue nor
feet be heard near him till I have my designs
accomplished. And thou, Hazier, I charge thee, at
thy incomings to have no conference with him, nor at
thy outgoings abroad to discover him to the English
factors, as thou wilt answer upon thy life, and the
highest tortures that can be devised.' These direc-
tions delivered, and, alas ! too accessory to me in
the performance, my room was made a dark drawn
dxmgeon, my body the anatomy of merciless hunger,
my comfortless hearing the receptacle of sounding
bells, my eye wanting light, a loathsome languishing
in despair, and my ground-lying body the woeful
mirror of misfortunes, every hour wishing another's
coming, every day the night, and every night the
morning. My body grew weak and infirm, insomuch
228 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
that the governor, after his answers received from
Madrid, made haste to put in execution his bloody
and merciless purpose before Christmas holyday;
lest, ere the expiring of the twelfth day, I should
be utterly famished, and unable to undergo my
trial without present perishing. By God's per-
mission, the forty-seventh day after my first im-
prisonment, and five days before Christinas, about
two o'clock in the morning, I heard the noise of a
coach in the street ; within a while I heard the locks
of my prison door opening; whereupon, bequeathing
my soul to God, I humbly implored his gracious mercy
and pardon for my sins ; for neither in the former
night, nor in this, could I get any sleep, such was
the force of my gnawing hunger, and the portending
heaviness of my presaging soul.
" Meanwhile, nine sergeants, accompanied with
the scrivan, entered the room without speaking, and
carrying me thence, they laid me on my back in the
coach, where two of them sat beside me. Baptista,
the coachman, an Indian negro, arriving, I was
brought westward, almost a league from the town,
to a vine-press house, standing alone, where they
enclosed me in the room till daylight ; for hither the
rack had been brought the night before. All this
secrecy was used, that neither English, French, or
Flemings, should see or get any knowledge of my
trial, my grievous tortures, and dreadful despatch.
At the break of day the governor, Don Francisco,
and the alcaide came, and I, invited to their presence,
pleaded for an interpreter, the which they absolutely
refused ; neither would they suffer or grant me an
ITS BRITISH VICTIMS. 229
appellation to Madrid. After new examinations
from morning till dark night, finding my first and
second confessions run into one, the governor swore,
' Is it possible he can, in such distress, and so long
a time, observe, so strictly, in every manner, the
points of his first confession,? '
" The governor's interrogation and my confession
being mutually subscribed, he and Don Francisco
besought me earnestly to confess my guiltiness in
time, saying, ' Thou art as yet in my power, and I
may spare or pardon thee, providing thou wilt
confess thyself a spy, and a traitor against our
nation.' But finding me stand fast to the mark of
my spotless inuocency, he, invective and malicious
he, after many tremendous threatenings, com-
manded the scrivan to draw up a warrant for the
chief-justice ; which being done, he set his hand
to it, and, taking me by the hand, delivered me
and the warrant into the alcaide-major's hands, to
be tortured, broken, and cruelly tormented. Whence
being carried along to the end of a stone gallery,
where the rack was placed, the encarnador, or tor-
mentor, began to disburden me of my irons, which
he could not unloose for a long time, whereat the
chief-justice being oifended, the malicious villain
struck away above an inch of my heel with the
bolt ; whereupon I grievously groaning, being ex-
ceeding faint, and without my three ounces of
bread and a little water for three days together, the
alcaide said, ' 0, traitor, all this is nothing, but the
earnest of a greater bargain you have in hand !'
" After this, the alcaide and scrivan, being both
230 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
chair-set, the one to examine, the other to write
down my confession and tortures, I was stripped
to the skin, brought to the rack, and mounted to
the top of it ; where, soon after, I was hung by
the bare shoulders, with two small cords, which
went under my arms, running on two rings of iron
that were fixed to the wall above my head. Then
being hoisted to the appointed height, the tormentor
descended below, and, drawing my legs through
the two sides of the three-planked rack, he tied a
cord about each of my ancles ; and then ascending
upon the rack, he drew the cord upward, and
bending forward with main force my two knees
against the two planks, the sinews of my two hams
burst asunder, and the lids of my knees being
crushed, and the cords made fast, I hung so for a
large hour. At last, the encarnador informing the
governor that I had the mark of Jerusalem on my
right arm, joined with the name and crown of King
James, and done upon the holy grave, the corre-
gidor gave direction to tear asunder the name and
crown, as he said, of that heretic king, and arch
enemy of the holy Catholic church. Then the tor-
mentor, laying the right arm above the left, and
the crown upmost, did cast a cord over both arms,
seven distinct times ; and then lying down upon his
back, and setting both his feet upon my hollow
pinched belly, he charged and drew violently with
his hands, making my womb support the force of
his feet, till the several cords combined in one place
of my arm ; and cutting the crown, sinews, and
flesh to the bare bones, did pull in my fingers close
ITS BBITISH TICTIMS. 231
to the palm of my hands ; the left hand of which is
lame so still, and will be for ever.
" Now mine eyes began to startle, my mouth to
foam and froth, and my teeth to chatter like to the
doubling of drumsticks. O strange inhumanity
of monster men-manglers ! surpassing the limits of
their national law; threescore tortures being the
trial of treason, which I had, and was to endure ;
yet thus to inflict a sevenfold surplusage of more
intolerable cruelties ; and, notwithstanding of my
shivering lips in this fiery passion, my vehement
groaning, and blood springing forth from my arms,
broke sinews, hams, and knees, yea, and my depend-
ing weight on flesh-cutting cords, yet they struck
me on the face with cudgels, to abate and cease the
thundering noise of my wrestling voice. At last,
being loosed from these pinnacles of pain, I was,
handfast, set on the floor, with this their implora-
tion, ' Confess, confess, confess In time, for thine
inevitable ensue ;' when, finding nothing from me
but still innocent, ' O, I am innocent ; O Jesus !
the Lamb of Grod, have mercy upon me, and
strengthen me with patience to undergo this bar-
barous murder.'
" Then, by command of the justice, was my
trembling body laid above and long, upon the face
of the rack, with my head downward, inclosed
within a circled hole, my belly upward toward the
top of the rack ; my legs and arms being drawn
asunder, were fastened with pins and cords to both
sides of the outward planks, for now was I to
receive my greatest torments.
232 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
" Now, the alcaide giving commission., the execu-
tioner laid fast a cord over the calf of my leg, then
another in the middle of my thigh ; and the third cord
over the great part of my arm, which was severally
done on both sides of my body, receiving the ends
of the cords from the six several places, through
the holes made in the outward planks, which were
fastened to pins, and the pins made fast with a
device : for he was to charge on the outside of the
planks with as many pins as there were holes and
cords, the cords being first laid next to my skin ; and
on every one of these six parts of my body I was
to receive seven several tortures, each torture con-
sisting of three winding throws of every pin, which
amounted to twenty-one throws in every one "of
those six parts. Then the tormentor, carrying a
pot full of water, in the bottom whereof was a
hole, stopped by his thumb till it came to my mouth,
he did pour it into my belly ; the measure being an
English pottle. The first and second services I
gladly received, such was the scorching drought of
my tormenting pain, and I had drunk none for
three days before. But at the third charge, per-
ceiving these measures of water to be inflicted
upon me as tortures, I closed my mouth ; whereat,
the alcaide, enraged, set my teeth asunder with a
pair of iron cadges, whereupon my hunger-charged
belly waxing great, grew drum-like ; for it being a
suffocating pain, in regard of my head hanging
downward, and the water re-ingorging itself in my
throat with a struggling force, it strangled and
swallowed up my breath from yowling and groaning.
ITS BEITISH VICTIMS. 233
"Between each one of these seven circular
charges I was always re-examined half an hour ;
each half hour a hell of infernal pain ; and between
each torment a long distance of life-quelling time.
Thus lay I six hours upon the rack, between four
o'clock in the afternoon and ten o'clock at night,
having had inflicted upon me threescore and seven
torments. Nevertheless, they continued me a
large half hour, after all my torture, at the full
bending, my body being all begored with blood,
and cut through, in every part, to the crushed and
bruised bones ; I pitifully roaring, howling, foaming,
and gnashing my teeth, with insupportable cries,
before the pains were undone and my body loosed.
True it is, it passeth the capacity of man either
sensibly to conceive, or I patiently to express, the
intolerable anxiety of mind and affliction of body,
in that dreadful time I sustained. At last, my
head being by their arms advanced, and my body
taken from the rack, the water regushed abundantly
from my mouth ; then they, reclothing my broken,
bloody, cold, and trembling body, being all this
time stark naked, I fell twice in a sounding trance ;
which they again refreshed with a little wine, and
two warm eggs not done out of charity, but that
I should be reserved for further punishment ; and
if it were not well known that these sufferings are
true, it would almost seem incredible to many, that
a man, being brought so low with starving hunger
and extreme cmelties, could have subsisted any
longer, reserving life.
" And now, at last, they charged my broken legs
Q
234 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
with my former eye-frighting irons, and carried me
to the coach, being after brought secretly to my
former dungeon, without any knowledge of the
town, save to my lawless and merciless tormentors.
I was laid, with my head and heels alike high, on
my former stones. The latter end of this woeful
night, poor mourning Hazier, the Turk, was sent to
keep me ; and on the morrow the governor entered
my room, threatening me with still more tortures,
to confess; and so he caused every morning, to
make me believe I was going to be racked again,
to make me confess an untruth ; and thus they
continued every day of five days to Christmas.
" Upon Christmas-day, Marina, the ladies' gen-
tlewoman, got permission to visit me, and with
her licence she brought abundance of tears, pre-
senting me also with a dish of honey, sugar, some
confections, and raisins in great plenty, to my no
small comfort, besides using many sweet speeches,
for consolation's sake. The twelfth day of Christ-
mas expired, they began to threaten me on still
with more tortures, even till Candlemas. In all
which comfortless time I was miserably afflicted
with the beastly plague of gnawing vermin, which
lay crawling in lumps, within, without, and about
my body ; yea, hanging in clusters about my beard,
my lips, my nostrils, and my eye-brows, almost
inclosing my sight. And for my greater satisfac-
tion to their merciless minds, the governor called
Areta, his silver-plate keeper, to gather and sweep
the vermin upon me twice in eight days, which
tormented me almost to death, being a perpetual
ITS BEITISH VICTIMS. 235
punishment ; yet the poor infidel, some few times,
and when opportunity served, would steal the keys
from Areta, and about midnight would enter my
room, with sticks and burning oil, and sweeping
them together in heaps, would burn the greatest
part, to my great release ; or, doubtless, I had
been miserably eaten up and devoured by them."
Cruelty more diabolical it appears difficult to
imagine, than that exercised upon this unhappy
Scotchman. Tet he was preserved for still greater
suffering. For being now in the power of the
inquisitors, they pretended to be anxious for his
soul's salvation ; and therefore they implored him
to be converted to the Roman Catholic faith, that
he might escape condemnation to the flames as a
heretic. When the inquisitor interrogated him as
to his difficulties, errors, and misbelief, Lithgow
replied, like a North Briton taught by the Bible,
that "he was confident in the promises of our
Saviour, believing the revealed doctrines of the
Gospel, professed by the reformed Catholic church ;
that these being confirmed by grace, he possessed
an infallible assurance in his own soul of the true
word of Christ." " To these words," as Lithgow
observes, " he answered, ' Thou art no Christian,
but an absurd heretic, and, without conversion, a
member of perdition.' Whereupon I replied,
' Eeverend Sir, the nature of charity and religion
does not consist in opprobrious speeches : wherefore,
if you would convert me, as you say, convince me
by argument ; if not, all your threatenings of fire,
death, or torments, shall not make me shrink from
Q 2
236 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
the truth of God's word in Sacred Scriptures/
Whereupon the mad inquisitor clapt me on the
face with his foot, abusing me with many railings ;
and if the Jesuits had not intercepted him, he had
stabbed me with a knife ; where, when dismissed, I
never saw him more."
Lithgow was as little affected by another inter-
view with an inquisitor ; he made no confession,
and he was sentenced to be again tortured. He says,
therefore, " I was condemned to receive that night
eleven strangling torments in my dungeon; and
then, after Easter holidays, I should be transported
privately to Granada, and there, about midnight, to
be burnt, body and bones, into ashes, and my ashes
to be flung into the air. "Well, that same night,
the scrivan, sergeants, and the young English
priest entered my melancholy prison, where the
priest, in the English tongue, urging me all he
could, though little it was he could do, and not
prevailing, I was disburdened of mine irons, un-
clothed to my skin, set on my knees, and held up
fast with their hands ; where, instantly setting my
teeth asunder with iron cadges, they filled my belly
full of water, even gorging to my throat ; then with
a garter they bound fast my throat, till the white of
mine eye turned upward ; and being laid on my side,
I was tumbled by two sergeants to and fro seven
times through the room, till I was almost strangled.
This done, they fastened a small cord about each of
my great toes, and hoisting me therewith to the
TOO!' of a high loft (for the cords ran in two rings
fastened above), they cut the garter, and there I
ITS BRITISH VICTIMS. 237
hung, with my head downward, in my tormented
weight, till all the gushing water dissolved. This
done, I was let down from the loft, quite senseless,
lying a long time cold dead among their hands ;
whereof the governor being informed, came running
up stairs, crying, ' Is he dead ? O fie, villains, go
fetch me wine ! ' which they poured in my mouth,
regaining thereby a slender spark of breath.
"These strangling torments closed, and I re-
clothed and fast bolted again, they left me lying
on the cold floor, praising my God, and singing of
a psalm. The next morning, the pitiful Turk
visiting me with bread and water, brought me also
secretly, in his shirt sleeve, two handfuls of raisins
and figs, laying them on the floor, amongst the
crawling vermin ; for having no use of arms, I was
constrained by hunger and impotency of time to
lick one up with another with my tongue. This
charity of figs the slave did once every week or
fortnight, or else I had long or then famished."
Mr. Lithgow's case became known, by some
means, to the English factors at Malaga ; and they,
therefore, at once united with the consul in an
application to the king and council of Spain. Their
petition was granted, and the release of the
wretched prisoner-was ordered, in a warrant to tho
governor. His generous friends received the
injured confessor, treated him with kindness, and
procured for him a passage to England in a ship-of-
war, in 1621. His case being made known at
court, he was visited by many of the nobility, and
by King James I., who commanded him to be sent
238 THE INQUISITION EEYEALED.
to the Spanish ambassador, then in London. That
grandee promised that restitution should be made
to him of the money and valuables that had been
taken from him at Malaga, and compensation for
the injuries that he had sustained in prison. These
assurances were not, however, honoured ; and Mr.
Lithgow, reproaching the ambassador with having
deceived him, and, as some say, striking him, under
the provocation, he was imprisoned for some
months in the Marshalsea, London.
2. ELIZABETH VASCOKELLOS. This lady, having
been released from the Inquisition at Lisbon, made
the following deposition, in December, 1706 :
" Elizabeth Vasconellos, now in the city of Lis-
bon, doth on the 10th day of December, Anno
1706, in the presence of John Milner Esq., her
majesty's consul-general of Portugal, and Joseph
Willcocks, minister of the English factory at Lis-
bon, declare and testify,
" That she was born at Arlington, in the county
of Devon, and a daughter of John Chester, Esq.,
bred up in the church of England ; and in the
eleventh year of her age, her uncle, David Morgan,
of Cork, intending to go and settle in Jamaica, a8
a physician, by her father's consent, he having
several children, took her with him to provide for
her.
" In 1685, they went in an English ship, and
near the island they were attacked by two Turkish
ships ; in the fight her uncle was killed, but the
ship got clear into Madeira, and she, though left
destitute, was entertained by Mr. Bedford, a mer-
ITS BEITISH VICTIMS. 239
chant, with -whom, and other English, she lived as a
servant till 1696. In that year she was married, by
the chaplain of an English man-of-war, to Cordoza
Vasconellos, a physician of that island, and lived
with him eight years, and never in the least con-
formed to the Homish church.
" In 1704, her husband being gone on a voyage
to Brazil, she fell dangerously ill, and, being light-
headed, a priest gave her the sacrament, as she was
told afterwards, for she remembered nothing of it.
It pleased God she recovered, and then they told
her she had changed her religion, and must conform
to the Bomish church, which she denied, and refused
to conform ; and thereupon, by the bishop of that
island, she was imprisoned nine months, and then
sent prisoner to the Inquisition at Lisbon, where
she arrived the 19th of December, 1705. The
secretary of the house took her effects, in all above
500 sterling ; she was then sworn that that was all
she was worth, and then put into a strait dark
room, about five feet square, and there kept nine
months and fifteen days.
" That the first nine days she had only bread and
water, and a wet straw bed to lie on. On the ninth
day, being examined, she owned herself a Protes-
tant, and would so continue ; she was told she had
conformed to the Romish church, and must persist
in it or burn ; she was then remanded tocher room,
and after a month's time brought out again, and
persisting in her answer as to her religion, they
bound her hands behind her, stripped her back
naked, and lashed her with a whip of knotted cords
240 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
.a considerable time, and tojd her afterwards that
she must kneel down to the court, and give thanks
for their merciful usage of her, which she positively
refused to do.
" After fifteen clays she was again brought forth
and examined, and a crucifix being set before her,
she was commanded to bow down to it and worship
it, which she refusing to do, they told her that she
must expect to be condemned to the flames and
to be burnt with the Jews, at the next auto
da fe, which was nigh at hand; upon this she
was remanded to her prison again for thirty days,
and being brought out, a red-hot iron was got ready,
and brought to her in a chafing-dish of burning
coals, and her breast being laid open, the execu-
tioner, witli one end of the red-hot iron, which was
about the bigness of a large seal, burnt her to the
bone in three several places on the right side, one
hard by the other, and then sent her to her prison,
without any plaister, or other application, to heal
the sores, which were very painful to her.
"A month after this, she had another severe
whipping as before ; and, in the beginning of
August, she was brought before the table, a great
number of inquisitors being present, and was ques-
tioned, whether she would profess the Romish reli-
gion or burn. She replied, she had always been a
Protestant, and was a subject of the queen [Anne]
of England, who was able to protect her, and she
doubted not would do it, were her condition known
to the English residing in Lisbon ; but as she knew
nothing of that, her resolution was to continue a
ITS BBITISH TICTIMS. 241
Protestant, though she were burnt for it. To this
they answered, that her being the queen of Eng-
land's subject signified nothing in the dominions of
the king of Portugal ; that the English residing in
Lisbon were heretics, and would certainly be
damned ; and that it was the mercy of that tri-
bunal to endeavour to rescue her out of the flames
of hell ; but if her resolution were to burn, rather
than profess the Romish religion, they would give
her a trial of it beforehand. Accordingly, the offi-
cers were ordered to seat her in a fixed chair, and
to bind her arms and her legs, that she could make
no resistance nor motion ; and the physician being
placed by her, to direct the court how far they
might torture her without hazard of life, her left foot
was made bare, and an iron slipper red-hot being
immediately brought in, her foot was fastened into
it, which continued on burning her to the bone, till
such time as, by extremity of pain, she fainted
away, and the physician declaring her life was in
danger, they took it off, and ordered her again to
her prison.
" On the 19th of August she was again brought
out, and whipped after a cruel manner, and
her back was all over torn ; and being threatened
with more and greater tortures, and on the other
hand being promised to be set at liberty, if she
would subscribe such a paper as they should give
her, though she could have vmdergone death, yet not
being able to endure a life of so much misery, she con-
sented to subscribe as they would have her, and
accordingly, as she was directed, wrote at the bottom:
242 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
of a large paper, which contained she knew not
what; after which they advised her to avoid the com-
pany of all English heretics, and not restoring to
her anything of all the plate, goods, or money, she
brought in with her, and engaging her by oath to
keep secret all that had been done to her, turned
her out of doors, destitute of all relief, but what
she received from the help and compassion of chari-
table Christians.
" The abovesaid Elizabeth Vasconellos did so-
lemnly affirm and declare the above-written deposi-
tion to be true, the day and year above written.
" JOHN MILNEB,
" JOSEPH WILLCOCKS.
"Lisbon, January 8, 1707, N. S."
3. JOHN COTJSTOS. Mr. Coustos having escaped
from the Inquisition, published the narrative of
his sufferings, shortly after his return to Eng-
land in 1744. Prom his account the following is
abridged:
" I am a native of Berne in Switzerland, and a
lapidary. In 1716, my father came and settled
in London ; and after living twenty-two years in
that city, I went to Paris, to work in the galleries
of the Louvre. Five years after I removed to
Lisbon, in hopes of going to Brazil, to make my
fortune ; but the king of Portugal being informed
of the skill I might have in diamonds, refused my
petition, as improper for a foreign lapidary to be
allowed in a country abounding with immense
treasures.
ITS BEITISH VICTIMS. 243
" I got acquainted with several jewellers and
other persons of credit in Lisbon, whose generous
offers I accepted, having a prospect of supporting
my family and of a competency, could I but have
escaped the cruel inquisitors. They have assumed
so formidable a power in Spain and Portugal, as to
encroach on the privilege of kings, and stop, at the
post-office, the letters of all whom they suspect.
In this manner I was served a year before the
inquisitors ordered me to be seized, in order to
discover the secrets of freemasonry. They did not
find that it struck at the Eomish religion, or tended
to disturb the government still they concluded to
seize one of the chief freemasons of Lisbon ; and I
was pitched upon as master of a lodge, and Mr. A.
J. Mouton, a diamond cutter, born at Paris, and a
Eomanist. He had been six years at Lisbon, a
housekeeper in the city, where his integrity gained
him the approbation of all.
" We did not know that our art was forbidden in
Portugal, and we were discovered by the barbarous
zeal of a lady at confession. The officers of the
Inquisition engaged a jeweller, a familiar of the
Holy Office, to send for Mr. Mouton on pretence
of mending a diamond weighing four carats. This
was a mere pretence to know the person of Mouton.
I happened to be with him, which gave the jeweller
the highest joy. He made his report to the in-
quisitors ; and, two days after, Mr. Mouton went
alone to fetch the diamond, computed to be worth
a hundred moidores. This familiar had five sub-
alterns of the Inquisition with him ; and having led
244 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
him into the back shop, they seized him as a prisoner
in the king's name.
" Being sensible that he had not committed any
crime, so as to incur his Portuguese majesty's
displeasure, he gave up his sword, when several
familiars fell upon him, and declared that they
arrested him in the name of the Inquisition. For-
bidding him to murmur, they dragged him to a small
chaise at the back-door, and conveyed him to prison
in the Inquisition, and spread a report that he was
gone off with the diamond. His friends, shocked
at the slander, went and offered full payment to the
jeweller, who declined the amount, pretending that
the owner was very wealthy.
" Four days after, I was betrayed by a Portuguese
friend, and nine officers of the Inquisition seized
me, March 5, 1743, pretending I had passed my
word for the diamond which Mr. Mouton had taken.
In vain was my attempt at justification : the
wretches took away my sword, handcuffed me, and
forced me into a chaise. They commanded me not
to open my lips ; but I called aloud to a friend.
They forced me into the prison, and delivered me to
one of the officers of the pretended holy place.
This officer bid the guards to search me, and take
away all the gold, silver, papers, knives, scissors,
buckles, &c., about me. They then led me into a
lonely dungeon, expressly forbidding me to speak
loud. It was then that, struck with all the horrors
of the place, I plunged into the blackest melancholy.
I passed a whole day and two nights in these
.terrors, heightened at every interval by the com-
ITS BEITTSH VICTIMS. 245
plaints, the dismal cries, and hollow groans, echoing
through these dreadful mansions, of several other
prisoners, my neighbours, and which the silence of
the night made infinitely more shocking. These
threescore hours appeared to me like so many years.
However, I endeavoured to arm my soul with
patience. I considered that, being a Protestant, I
should inevitably feel all that rage and barbarous
zeal could infuse into the breast of monks, who
cruelly gloried in committing to the flames great
numbers of ill-fated victims, whose only crime was
differing from them in religious opinions.
" In a few days, after having been shaved, and had
my hair cut by their order, I was led, bareheaded,
to the president and four inquisitors, who bid me
kneel and swear to speak truly to all questions they
should ask. They informed me that the diamond
was only a pretence to get an opportunity of seizing
me. I now besought them to let me know the true
cause of my imprisonment ; that having been born
and educated in the Protestant religion, I had been
taught to confess myself to God and not to man.
They declared that a confession would be forced
from me. They gave orders for my being conveyed
into another deep dungeon ; I was overwhelmed
with grief, and gave myself up entirely for lost.
" During my stay in this dungeon I was taken
three times before the Inquisition, and I fell sick.
A physician visited me, and another prisoner was
sent to attend me in another dungeon, into which
some glimmerings of daylight were admitted. Hav-
ing recovered, I was sentenced to suffer the tortures
246 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
employed by the Holy Office. I was conveyed to
the torture room, where no light appeared but what
two candles gave ; and, to prevent the dreadful
cries and shocking groans of the unhappy victims
from reaching the ears of the other prisoners, the
doors are lined with a sort of quilt.
" I was seized with horror, when, at my entering
this infernal place, I saw myself surrounded by
six wretches, who stripped me naked all to my
drawers, and laid me on my back. First, they put
round my neck an iron collar, which was fastened
to the scaffold ; they then fixed a ring to each foot ;
and this being done, they wound two ropes, the
thickness of one's little finger, round each arm,
and two round each thigh, passing under the
scaffold, through holes, and drawn tight by four
men. My pains were intolerable ; the ropes pierced
through my flesh quite to the bone, making the
blood gush out of eight different places. I per-
sisted in refusing to discover any more ; the ropes
were drawn together four times ; but suspended at
intervals, by order of the physician and surgeon in
attendance.
"While thus suffering, they barbarously de-
clared that, if I died under torture, I should be
guilty of self-murder. And the last time of suffer-
ing I fainted, and was carried to my dungeon
unperceiving it. Finding that the more they made
me suffer, the more I supplicated patience from
heaven, these barbarians exposed me to another
kind of torture. They made me stretch my arms
so that the palms of my hands were turned out-
ITS BEITISH VICTIMS. 247
wards ; when, by a rope that fastened them together
at the -wrist, and which they turned by an engine,
they drew them in such a manner that the back of
each hand touched ; both my shoulders were dislo*
cated, and a considerable quantity of blood issued
from my mouth. This torture was repeated
thrice, after which, the physician and surgeons,
in setting my bones, put me to exquisite pain in my
dungeon.
" Two months after, being a little recovered, I
was again conveyed to the torture room, where they
turned round my body a thick iron chain, which,
crossing my stomach, terminated at my wrists.
They next set my back against a thick board, at
each extremity of which was a pulley, through
which there was a rope run, that caught the ends
of the chains at my wrists. These ropes, by means
of a roller, pressed or bruised my stomach, so that
my wrists and shoulders were put out of joint.
The surgeons set my bones presently, and the bar-
barians made me undergo this torture a second
time, which I bore with equal constancy. I was
remanded to my dungeon, attended by the sur-
geons, who dressed my bruises ; and here I con-
tinued till their auto dafe.
" Nine different times they put me to the tor-
ture, when most of my limbs were put out of joint,
and bruised in such a manner that I was unable,
during some weeks, to lift my hand to my mouth.
I fear that I shall feel the effect of this cruelty so
long as I live ; being seized from time to time with
thrilling pains, with which I never was afflicted till
248 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
I fell into the merciless and bloody hands of the
inquisitors.
'' The day of the auto da fe being come, I was
made to walk in the procession with the other
victims of this tribunal. At St. Dominic's church
my sentence was read, of being condemned to the
galleys during four years. Four days after I was
conveyed to the galleys ; and joined, the next day,
in the occupation of my fellow-slaves. However,
the liberty I had of speaking to my friends, after
having been deprived of the sight of them during
my wretched abode in the prison of the Inquisition,
the open air, and being freed from the appre-
hensions which always overspread my mind, made
me find the toil of the galley more supportable.
" By the tortures inflicted on me in the Inqui-
sition, I was unfit for the painful labour allotted
me, viz., the carrying water to the prisons of the
city ; but fear of the inhumanity of the overseers
caused me to exert myself, and I fell sick. I was
. then sent to the infirmary for two months ; when I
was visited by the first friars of the convent of
Corpo Santo, who offered to get my release, pro-
vided I would turn Roman Catholic. I assured
them that I expected my enlargement from the
Almighty ; and having leisure, I desired a friend
to write to my brother-in-law, Mr. Barber, inform-
ing him of my deplorable state, and entreating him
to address the Earl of Harrington in my favour,
he having the honour to live in his lordship's
family. This nobleman spoke to his grace the
Duke of Newcastle, secretary of state, supplicating
ITS BRITISH VICTIMS. 249
leave from our sovereign that his minister at
Lisbon might demand me, as a subject of Great
Britain.
" His majesty was so gracious as to interpose in
my favour. Mr. Compton, the British minister
at Lisbon, demanded my liberty of the king of
Portugal, in the name of his Britannic majesty;
and I obtained it in the latter end of October, 1744.
The officer took me from the galley by order of
the inquisitors, and brought me before them, when
the president told me that Cardinal de Cunha had
ordered my release, but I must return in three
days.
" I could perceive that the spies of the Inqui-
sition followed me. I waited upon our envoy, and
our consul ; and five days after I returned to the
inquisitors, when the president declared that the
tribunal would not permit me to continue any
longer in Portugal, and that I must name the city
and kingdom whither I intended to retire. I re-
plied that, ' as my family is in London, I design to
go thither ;' and they bid me embark in the first
ship that should sail for England."
Mr. Coustos was kindly received by the Dutch
admiral on board his ship, then in the port of
Lisbon, and he permitted him to send for his
friend, Mr. Mouton, being affected with the re-
lation of their sufferings. They arrived in London,
December 15th, 1744. He adds,
" I here return thanks, with all the power of my
soul, to the Almighty, for his having so visibly
protected me from that infernal band of friars,
250 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
who employed their various tortures to force me
to apostatise from my holy religion. I return our
sovereign, George II., the most dutiful and respect-
ful thanks for his so graciously interposing in
favour of an ill-fated galley-slave. I shall retain,
so long as I have breath, the deepest sensation of
affection and loyalty for his sacred person, and will
ever be ready to expose my life for his majesty and
his august family."
ME. BOWEE. Mr. Archibald Bower was not so
much a victim as to be subjected to the torture, as
he was enabled to escape from the power of the
inquisitors ; but his biography illustrates the cha-
racter of the Inquisition. He was born in 1686,
near Dundee, in Scotland. His parents being He-
man Catholics, sent him, at the age of five years,
to an uncle in Italy, for education. First at Douay,
and then at Rome, his progress was uncommon.
He became a Jesuit, and was appointed professor of
rhetoric and logic, in the college of Macerata, in
Italy. In this city he became intimate with the
inquisitor-general of the Holy Office, from whom. '
he received preferment as a counsellor to the In-
quisition. There were twelve counsellors, each of
whom had a residence, with about 200 per annum,
besides extensive privileges.
On being installed into office, he received a manu-
script book of directions for inquisitors, for his
private guidance. These rules required the ex-
tremes of inhumanity ; and his attendance on the
trials of the Holy Office he found most agonising, so
that he frequently uttered exclamations of horror.
ITS BBITISH VICTIMS. 251
Thougli not suspected, the inquisitor-general, on,
one occasion, in great warmth, striking the table,
remarked, " Mr. Bower, you always object to the
evidence." At another time, looking on the face
of a wretched victim undergoing the torture, he
perceived symptoms of death, and fainted, when he
was carried out of the hall ; and on his return he was
reproved by the chief-inquisitor, alleging that " what
is done to the body is for the good of the soul."
Mr. Bower excused himself, urging " the weakness
of his nature, which he could not help." "Nature !'*
exclaimed the inquisitor, "you must overcome nature
by grace !" But the colloquy ceased, as the mise-
rable victim died at that moment under the tor-
ment!
While considering how he might escape from this;
horrid office, Mr. Bower was required to " conquer
nature," by the arrest of a nobleman, who was a
personal friend. His alleged crime was some trifling
expression regarding the particular garb of two
friars, one of whom denounced him to the Inquisi-
tion. Being ordered to arrest his best friend in
Macerata, he remonstrated with the inquisitor-
general, urging, " My lord, you know the con-
nexion ;" when the inquisitor, with all the stern-
ness of his official character, interrupted him,
" Connexion ! what, talk of connexion when the
holy faith is concerned ?" And, as he withdrew,,
he ordered, " See that it be done ; the guards shall
wait without ;" adding, " this is the way to conquer
nature, Mr. Bower." Unable to save or to warn
his friend, he proceeded with the guards, obtained
E 2
252 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
admittance to his residence and to his bed-room,
and found both the nobleman and his lady asleep.
The lady awaking, shrieked on seeing the strangers,
when one of the ruffian officers gave her a blow on
the head, which was followed by blood. The noble-
man was astonished at being thus arrested by his
friend, but dared not to reproach him ; while Bower
could not look him in the face, in performing so
shameful an act.
Mr. Bower announced the arrest, next morning,
as he delivered the key to the chief-inquisitor,
who commended him, " This is done like one who
is desirous of conquering the weakness of nature."
The nobleman was soon subjected to torture by the
pulley, and died in three days after its infliction.
His estates were then confiscated to the Inquisition,
a small pension only being allowed to his widow, to
whom the inquisitor wrote, desiring her to pray
for the soul of her deceased husband, at the same
time warning her against complaining of injustice
or cruelty against the Holy Office.
Mr. Bower could endure his situation no longer,
and he resolved on attempting his escape from
Italy. He, therefore, solicited permission to make
a pilgrimage to the house of the Virgin Mary, at
Loretto ; and this being granted by the inquisitor-
general, he proceeded with his portmanteau, on
horseback, concealing his valuable papers. He
took his course through the Adriatic States for
Switzerland ; but the papers that he had taken with
him were soon missed by the inquisitor-general, who
offered a reward for his head of about 600 in
ITS BEITISH TICTIMS. 253
Englisli money, or 800, if brought alive to the
Inquisition. His danger became imminent through
this proclamation ; as he found in a post-house a
copy of it, and two of his countrymen, to one of
whom he was known. He challenged the man, and
threatened him ; and mounting his horse, escaped,
so that after many difficulties he reached Calais.
At the hotel he found two Jesuits, who wore the red
cross of the Inquisition ; when he hastily left the
room, and found that the packet would be three days
before it sailed for England. He applied to a fisher-
man, who dared not venture to cross the Channel ;
and he was in agony, especially when on his return
he was told by his hostess, in reply to his inquiry
for the Jesuits, " Oh, Sir, I am sorry to inform you
that they are upstairs, searching your portmanteau."
At that moment he heard voices talking loudly in
another room, and, supposing them to be English,
he entered, and recognised in one Lord Baltimore,
whom he had seen at Home. He entreated his pro-
tection, but that nobleman exclaimed, " Mr. Bower,
you are undone ; I cannot protect you : they are
searching your apartment." However, he and his
friends guarded him to their boat ; and, with four
pairs of oars, soon reached a yacht that was taking
a short cruise ; and the wind being fair, they con-
veyed him safely to Dover
Mr. Bower now relinquished his former religion,
conformed to the church of England, and married.
He became tutor in the family of Lord Aylmer,
and found a generous patron in Lord Lyttleton.
Numerous enemies from among the Catholics
254 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
brought grievous accusations against him ; but he
vindicated himself from their slanders, and gained
himself a high reputation by several literary works,
especially his " Lives of the Popes," in seven
volumes quarto. He died in England, in the year
1766, as is believed, a sincere Protestant.
CHAPTEE XVIII.
THE INQUISITION IN GOA.
State of the Inquisition of Goa Dr. Dellon's sufferings in the
Inquisition Dr. Buchanan's visit to Goa.
PORTUGUESE bigotry completely triumphed in
Goa. In its prosperity, nothing in India could be
compared with it in grandeur. The capital was a
<dty of churches : one of which was erected with
extraordinary magnificence, in honour of Francis
Xavier, "the Apostle of the Indies," as he is called
by the Romanists, as he died there, A.D. 1552.
This once celebrated city is now nearly deserted
by all except the priests; and the country, once
populous, is reduced to a few thinly inhabited
villages. Their inhabitants are mostly baptised
into the Romish faith : and a pagan native, or
Mohammedan, is not suffered to live in the city ;
but the wretched people, sunk in superstition, are
deplorably ignorant of Christianity.
Already we have seen (Chap. VIII.) how the
IN GOA. 25o
Inquisition was established at Goa, by Cardinal
Henry, at the request of Francis Xavier, under
John III., king of Portugal. Its operations, in
cruelty and terror, were like those of kindred esta-
blishments in Europe, sacrificing multitudes of its
victims in prison, and many in public, by the auto
da fe. But these will appear best in their true
character, from the account given by Dellon.
Dr. Dellon was a French physician, who travelled
in India. For some time, in the year 1(573, he
resided at Damuan, a city of Goa, belonging to
the Portuguese. From his conversation, he was
found to be not a strict Catholic; and he was,
therefore, accused to the inquisitors. Apprehend-
ing that a process would be issued against him, he
waited on the commissary, accused himself, and
professed his desire to conform to the wishes of the
holy court. He was known to that officer, and
treated by him with courtesy ; so that he was led
to suppose that he was in no danger ; but the
priests contrived his ruin, through jealousy of him,
in visiting a lady of that place, a favourite of the
governor of Damuan, and also of the black priest,
the secretary to the Inquisition.
Dellon was arrested by the inquisitors, and
thrown into prison. In vain he made application to
be informed of the cause of his arrest, or to obtain
release, or a trial. N"o attention would be paid to
his case until after the auto da fe, then about to
be celebrated. He was designed for the next
horrid festival, in about three months ; and accord-
ingly he was kept in the damp and loathsome
256 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
prison, which was destitute of conveniences, and
swarmed with vermin. From this place he was
taken on board of a galley, loaded with irons, and
conveyed to Groa, where he was secured in the
prison of the Inquisition, which is thus described
by Dellon :
" The Palace of the Inquisition, called by the
Portuguese, ' Santa Casa,' or ' The Holy House,'
is situated on one side of the great square, opposite
to the cathedral dedicated to St. Catherine. It is
extensive and magnificent ; in the front are three
entrances, of which the centre is the largest, and
opens upon the grand staircase ascending to the
hall. The two other portals severally lead to the
apartments of the inquisitors, which are sufficiently
commodious for considerable establishments.
Within are various apartments for the officers of
the house, and passing through the interior there
is a vast edifice, divided into distinct masses, or
squares of buildings, of two stories each, separated
by small courts. In each story is a gallery, resem-
bling a dormitory, containing seven or eight small
chambers, ten feet square ; the whole number of
which is about two hundred. In one of these
dormitories the cells are dark, being without win-
dows,, and smaller and lower than the rest ; as I had
occasion to know, from the circumstance of having
been taken to see them, on complaining that I was
too rigorously treated, in order to satisfy nie that I
might fare worse. The rest of the cells are square,
vaulted, whitewashed, clean, and lighted by a small
grated window, placed at a height above the reach
IN GOA. 257
of the tallest man. All the walls are five feet thick.
Every chamber is secured by two doors, one opening
inwards, and the other without ; the inner door is
made in two divisions, is strong, well-fitted, and
opened by the lower half, in the manner of a grate ;
in the upper part there is a little window, through
which the prisoners receive their food, linen, and
other things. There is a door to this opening,
guarded by strong bolts. The outer door is neither
so thick nor so strong as the other, but it is entire,
and without any aperture. It is usually left open
from six o'clock in the morning till eleven, in order
to ventilate the chamber through the crevices of the
inner doors."
Dellon, on entering the Inquisition, had his irons
taken off; and shortly after he was called before the
inquisitor, seated at a table with his secretary, in
the audience chamber ; at the end of which was a
large crucifix, reaching to the ceiling. Dellon cast
himself at the feet of the dread officer, to move
his pity, but in vain. He bid him rise, and take
his seat ; and then inquired his name and pro-
fession, and whether he knew the cause of his im-
prisonment ? Dellon stated that he supposed he
knew the cause, and would acknowledge it ; but the
inquisitor put him off for a more leisure season, as
matters of greater consequence claimed his present
regard. He was led to his cell ; and his chest
being brought, an inventory was made of the
several articles of his property. Everything was
taken from him, except his clothes, and a few pieces
of gold, which he had sewed up in his garters ; but
258 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
he was assured that all would be restored on his
release. In his cell he was not allowed the use of
any book, or any means of amusement ; though he
was supplied with sufficient food, and the guards,
who watched by day and night, sleeping in the
galleries, were ready to attend at his calls.
After a considerable time, he was brought up
again to the audience chamber, having his head,
feet, and legs naked. Being sworn to declare the
truth, and urged to confess all his errors, he made
confession of all that he had spoken against the
Catholic forms of religion. He signed this con-
fession, as it had been written down, and then was
led back to his cell. Twice more was he brought
before the tribunal, but without any advantage to
him ; and he attempted suicide, by abstinence from
food. Recollecting some other expressions that he
had used respecting the Holy Office, he obtained
permission to declare them ; but this not satisfying
the inquisitors; he was remanded again to his
dungeon. He sunk into despair, and again
attempted suicide by various means. Having
feigned illness, he was bled by a native doctor ;
but the black physician having left him, he tore
off the bandages for the blood to escape, and sunk
almost to death. Of this he repented, and made
confession ; but he then broke one of his pieces of
gold, and, having sharpened it, he opened an artery
with it, that he might bleed fatally. This failed ;
when they put a collar on his neck, and heavily
ironed his arms and legs, to prevent such attempts
in future. In despair, he dashed his head against
IN GOA. 259
the ground ; but his guards kept watch over him,
and soothed him with kind expressions and the
hope of speedy release.
Dellon waited in hope of the next auto da fe; and,
after a length of time, he was roused one night by
the gaolers, bearing lights. Having dressed him-
self, and put on a black garment striped with white
lines, and a pair of drawers, which they had brought
for him, he was led into the galleries, where he
joined about two hundred other prisoners, all ranged
against the walls. They were mostly coloured
men, there being only about twelve white persons
among them. There were female prisoners in
another gallery ; and several men in a cell, with
their confessors exhorting them to return to the
true faith, as they were to be burnt as heretics.
The San-benitoes and pasteboard hats were then
brought for the several prisoners, each carrying
a yellow wax-light. Some bread and figs being
supplied to the prisoners while they sat waiting
for the procession, but Dellon refusing them, as
not being hungry, he was urged by the officer to
put them in his pocket, as he would need them
before he returned to his cell. By this he was
somewhat comforted ; as he inferred that he was
not doomed to suffer in the fire.
At day-break, the citizens of Goa were summoned
to assist in the auto da fe, by the tolling of the
great bell in the cathedral ; and these being assem-
bled, the prisoners were irfarched singly through
the hah 1 , where each was given in charge to an
inhabitant, who was responsible for his safety, as his
260 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
"godfather." The procession, headed by the Domi-
nicans, was led through the principal streets of the
city ; and the ceremonies of this shocking exhibi-
tion were similar to those which were used in
Portugal and Spain.
Dellon being pronounced guilty of having denied
the efficacy of baptism, and of asserting that images
ought not to be worshipped, he was sentenced to
excommunication, to forfeiture of his goods, to
banishment from the Indies, and to slavery in the
Portuguese galleys for five years, besides penances
at the pleasure of the Inquisition.
Two persons, a black man and woman, native
Christians, but accused of sorcery, were burnt on
this occasion, besides effigies and the bones offour
others; of whom, one had died in the Inquisition,
and another had closed his life in his own house,
but having left large property, the inquisitors had
his bones disinterred for a trial, when he was
brought in guilty of Judaism ; so that his property
was confiscated. The victims were burnt on the
banks of the river, and the rest were conducted
back again to prison, to be disposed of in various
punishments, by those pretended ministers of the
merciful [Redeemer.
Dellon, being sentenced, was sent the next day
to a religious house for instruction. Penances
were prescribed for him by the inquisitors, and he
was sent to Portugal, where he was made a galley-
slave ; but having met with a French gentleman of
consequence, he obtained his services in seeking
his liberty, which was procured by the govern-
IN GOA. 261
ment, and lie succeeded in escaping back to
France.
Dellon's testimony regarding himself indicates
nothing of his being tortured in the prison at Goa ;
but he states that he could frequently hear the
cries of those who were made so to suffer in that
horrid Inquisition.
DB. C. BUCHANAN AT THE INQUISITION Or GOA.
Dr. Claudius Buchanan, chaplain to the East
India Company, and vice-provost of the college of
Port "William, in Bengal, visited Goa in 1808.
His objects were, " 1. To ascertain whether the
Inquisition actually refused to recognise the Bible
among the Romish churches in British India.
2. To inquire into the state and jurisdiction of the
Inquisition, particularly as it affected British
subjects" On account of his high character, and
as a friend of Colonel Adams, the British resident,
he was received politely by the Portuguese vice-
roy, Count de Cabral, and by the Archbishop of
Goa. Colonel Adams thought he exposed himself
to danger ; since everything relating to that court
was kept so secretly, that the most respectable of
the Portuguese 'laity were held in ignorance of its
proceedings ; while the viceroy had no authority
over its officers.
Dr. Buchanan proceeded to fulfil his intention ;
and he was received, January 19, 1808, very cour-
teously, at the convent of the Augustinians, by
Josepha Doloribus, the second in dignity of the
262 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
inquisitors. "Apartments were assigned tome,"
he remarks, " in the college adjoining the convent,
next to the rooms of the Inquisition. Next day
after my arrival I was introduced to the Archbishop
of Goa. "We found him reading the Latin letters
of St. Francis Xavier. On my adverting to the
long duration of the city of Goa, while other cities
of Europeans in India had suffered from war or
revolution, the archbishop observed, that the pre-
servation of Goa was owing to the prayers of St.
Francis Xavier.
" On the same day I received an invitation to
dine with the chief-inquisitor, at his house in the
country. The second inquisitor accompanied me,,
and we found a respectable company of priests and
a sumptuous entertainment. In the library of the
chief-inquisitor I saw a register, containing the
present establishment of the Inquisition at Goa,
and the names of all the officers. On my asking
the chief-inquisitor whether the establishment was
as extensive as formerly, he said it was nearly the
same. I had hitherto said little to any person con-
cerning the Inquisition, but I had indirectly gleaned
much information concerning it, not only from
the inquisitors themselves, but from certain priests,
whom I had visited at their respective convents ;
particularly from a father in the Franciscan convent,
who had himself witnessed an auto dafe.
" January 27th, 1808. On the second morning
after my arrival, I was surprised by my host, the
inquisitor, coming into my apartment clothed in
Hack robes from head to foot, for the usual dress
iy GOA. 263
of his order is white. He said he was going to
sit on the tribunal of the Holy Office. 'I pre-
sume, father, your august office does not occupy
much of your time ? ' ' Yes,' answered he, ' very
much. I sit on the tribunal three or four days
every week.'
" In the evening he came in as usual, to pass an
hour in my apartment. After some conversation,
I took the pen in my hand to write a note in my
journal; and, as if to amuse him, while I was
writing, I took Dellon's book, which was lying with
some others on the table, and, handing it across to
him, asked him whether he had ever seen it. It
was in the French language, which he understood
well. 'KELATION DE i/IxQuisiTioir DE GOA,'
pronounced he, with a slow and articulate voice.
He had never seen it before, and he began to read
it with eagerness. He had not proceeded far, before
he betrayed evident symptoms of uneasiness. He
turned hastily to the middle of the book, and then
to the end, and then ran over the table of contents
at the beginning, as if to ascertain the full extent
of the evil.
" It was on this night that a circumstance hap-
pened which caused my first alarm at Groa. My
servants slept every night at my chamber door, in
the long gallery which is common to all the apart-
ments, and not far distant from the servants of the
convent. About midnight I was awaked by loud
shrieks and expressions of terror, from some person
in the gallery. In the first moment of surprise, I
concluded it must be the alguazih of the Holy
264 THE INQUISITION EEYEALED.
Office, seizing my servants to carry them to the
Inquisition. But, on going out, I saw my own
servants standing at the door, and the person who
had caused the alarm (a boy of about fourteen), at
a little distance, surrounded by some of the priests,
who had come out of their cells on hearing the
noise. The boy said he had seen a spectre ; and it
was a considerable time before the agitation of his
body and voice subsided. Next morning, at break-
fast, the inquisitor apologised for the disturbance,
and said the boy's alarm proceeded from a ' phan-
tasma animi,' a phantasm of the imagination.
" After breakfast we resumed the subject of the
Inquisition. The inquisitor admitted that Dellou's
descriptions of the dungeons, of the torture, of the
mode of trial, and of the auto dafe, were, in general,
just ; but he said the writer judged untruly of the
motives of the inquisitors, and very uncharitably of
the character of the holy church ; and I admitted
that, under the pressure of his peculiar sufferings,
this might possibly be the case. The inquisitor was
now anxious to know to what extent Dellon's book
had been circulated in Europe. I told him that
Picart had published to the world extracts from it,
in his celebrated work called 'Eeligious Ceremonies,'
together with plates of the system of torture and
burnings at the auto da fe. I added, that it was
now generally believed in Europe that these enor-
mities no longer existed, and that the Inquisition
itself had been totally suppressed ; but that I was
concerned to find that this was not the case. He
now began a grave narration, to show that the
IN GOA. 265
Inquisition had undergone a change in some respects,
and that its terrors were mitigated.
" I had already discovered, from written or printed
documents, that the Inquisition of Goa was sup-
pressed by royal edict in the year 1775, and esta-
blished again in 1 779. The Franciscan father before
mentioned witnessed the annual auto da fe, from
1770 to 1775. ' It was the humanity and tender
mercy of a good king,' said the old father, ' which
abolished the Inquisition.' But, immediately on his
death, the power of the priests acquired the ascen-
dant under the queen dowager, and the tribunal
was re-established, after a bloodless interval of five
years. It has continued in operation ever since.
It was restored in 1779, subject to certain restric-
tions, the chief of which are the two following :
" ' That a greater number of witnesses should be
required to convict a criminal than icere before
necessary; and,
" ' That the auto da fe should not be held publicly
as before; but that the sentences of the tribunal
/ * */
should be executed privately, within the walls of the
Inquisition S
" In this particular, the constitution of the new
Inquisition is more reprehensible than that of the
old one ; for, as the old father expressed it, ' Nunc
sigillum non revelat Inqruisitio.' Formerly, the
friends of those unfortunate persons who were
thrown into its prison, had the melancholy satis-
faction of seeing them once a year walking in the
procession of the auto da fe ; or, if they were con-
demned to die, they witnessed their death, and
s
THE INQUISITION REYEALED.
mourned for the dead. But now they have no
means of learning, for years, whether they be dead
or alive. The policy of this new mode of conceal-
ment appears to be this, to preserve the power of
the Inquisition, and at the same time to lessen the
public odium of its proceedings, in the presence of
British dominion and civilisation. I asked the
father his opinion concerning the nature and fre-
quency of the punishments within the walls. He
said he possessed no certain means of giving a
satisfactory answer ; that everything transacted
there was declared to be sacrum et secretum. But
this he knew to be true, that there were constantly
captives in the dungeons ; that some of them are
liberated after long confinement; but that they
never speak afterwards of what passed within the
place. He added, that of all the persons he had
known, who had been liberated, he never knew one
who did not carry about with him what might be
called ' The mark of the Inquisition ; ' that is to
say, who did not show, in the solemnity of his coun-
tenance, or in his peculiar demeanour, or his terror
of the priests, that he had been in that dreadful
place.
" The chief argument of the inquisitor to prove
the melioration of the Inquisition was the superior
"humanity of the inquisitors. I remarked, that I did
not doubt the humanity of the existing officers ;
but what availed humanity in an inquisitor ? He
must pronounce sentence according to the laws of
the tribunal, which are notorious enough ; and a
relapsed heretic must be 'burnt in the flames, or
IN GOA. 267
confined for life in a dungeon, whether the inqui-
sitor be humane or not. ' But if,* said I, ' you would
satisfy my mind completely on this subject, show
me the Inquisition.' He said, it was not permitted
to any person to see the Inquisition. I observed,
that mine might be considered as a peculiar case ;
that the character of the Inquisition, and the expe-
diency of its longer continuance, had been called in
question ; that I had myself written on the civilisa-
tion of India, and might possibly publish something
more upon that subject ; and that it could not be
expected that I should pass over the Inquisition
without notice, knowing what I did of its proceed-
ings ; at the same time, I should not wish to state
a single fact without his authority, or at least his
admission of its truth. I added, that he himself
had been pleased to communicate with me very
fully on the subject, and that in all our discussions
we had both been actuated, I hoped, by a good
purpose. The countenance of the inquisitor evi-
dently altered on receiving this intimation, nor did
it ever after wholly regain its wonted frankness and
placidity. After some hesitation, however, he said
he would take me with him to the Inquisition, the
next day. I was a good deal surprised at this
acquiescence of the inquisitor, but I did not know
what was in his mind.
" When I left the forts, to come up to the Inqui-
sition, Colonel Adams desired me to write to him ;
and he added, halfway between jest and earnest, ' If
I do not hear from you in three days, I shall march
down the 78th and storm the Inquisition.' This I
82
268 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
promised to do. But having been so well enter-
tained by the inquisitors I forgot my promise.
Accordingly, on the 26th of January, I was surprised
by a visit from Major Broomcamp, aide-de-camp to
his excellency the viceroy, proposing that I should
return every evening and sleep at the forts, on
account of the unliealtliiness of Goa.
" This morning, the 28th, after breakfast, my host
went to dress for the Holy Office, and soon returned
in his inquisitorial robes. He said he would go
half an hour before the usual time, for the purpose
of showing me the Inquisition. I fancied that his
countenance was more severe than usual ; and that
his attendants were not so civil as before. The
truth was, the midnight scene was still on my mind.
The Inquisition is about a quarter of a mile distant
from the convent, and on our arrival at the place
the inquisitor said to me, as we were ascending the
steps of the outer stair, that he hoped I should be
satisfied with a transient view of the Inquisition,
and that I would retire whenever he should desire
it. I took this as a good omen, and followed my
conductor with tolerable confidence.
" He led me first to the great hall of the Inquisi-
tion. We were met at the door by a number of
well-dressed persons, who, I afterwards understood,
were the familiars and attendants of the Holy Office.
They bowed very low to the inquisitor, and looked
with surprise at me. The great hall is the place in
which the prisoners are marshalled for the procession
of the auto dafe. At the procession described by
Dcllon, in which he himself walked barefoot, clothed
IN GOA. 269
with the painted garment, there were upwards of
one hundred and fifty prisoners. I traversed this
hall for some time with a slow step, reflecting on its
former scenes ; the inquisitor walked by my side in
silence. I thought of the fate of the multitude of
my fellow-creatures who had passed through this
place, condemned by a tribunal of their fellow-
sinners their bodies devoted to the flames, and
their souls to perdition ; and I could not help
saying to him, ' Would not the holy church wish,
in her mercy, to have those souls back again, that
she might allow them a little further probation P
The inquisitor answered nothing, but beckoned me
to go with him to a door at one end of the hall.
By this door he conducted me to some small rooms,
and thence to the spacious apartments of the chief-
inquisitor. Having surveyed these, he brought me
back again to the great hall, and I thought he
seemed now desirous that I should depart. ' Xow,
father,' said I, ' lead me to the dungeons below ; I
want to see the captives.' ' No,' said he, ' that
cannot be.' I now began to suspect that it had
been in the mind of the inquisitor, from the begin-
ning, to show me only a certain part of the Inquisi-
tion, in the hope of satisfying my inquiries in a
general way. I urged him with earnestness, but
he steadily resisted, and seemed to be offended, or
rather agitated, by my importunity. I intimated
to him plainly, that the only way to do justice to
his own assertions and arguments, regarding the
present state of the Inquisition, was to show me
the prisons and the captives. I should then des-
270 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
cribe only what I saw ; but now the subject was
left in awful obscurity. ' Lead me down,' said I, ' to
the inner building, and let me pass through the two
hundred dungeons, ten feet square, described by
your former captives. Let me count the number of
your present captives, and converse with them. I
want to see if there be any subjects of the British
government to whom we owe protection. I want
to ask how long they have been here how long it
is since they beheld the light of the sun, and whe-
ther they ever expect to see it again. Show me
the chamber of torture; and declare what modes
of execution or of punishment are now practised
within the walls of the Inquisition, in lieu of the
public auto da fe. If, after all that has passed,
father, you resist this reasonable request, I shall be
justified in believing that you are afraid of exposing
the real state of the Inquisition in India'. To these
observations the inquisitor made no reply, but
seemed impatient that I should withdraw. 'My
good father,' said I, ' I am about to take my leave
of you, and to thank you for your hospitable
atteutions, (it had been before understood that I
should take my final leave at the door of the
Inquisition,) and I wish always to preserve on my
mind a favourable sentiment of your kindness and
candour. You cannot, you say, show me the cap-
tives and the dungeons ; be pleased, then, merely
to answer this question, for I shall believe your
word : ' How many prisoners are there now below,
in the cells of the Inquisition ? ' The inquisitor re-
plied, ' That is a question which I cannot answer.'
i>- GOA. 271
On his pronouncing these words I retired hastily
towards the door, and wished him farewell. "We
shook hands with as much cordiality as we could at
the moment assume ; and both of us, I believe,
were sorry that our parting took place with a
clouded countenance.
" Prom the Inquisition I went to the place of
burning, in the Campo Santo Lazaro, on the river-
side, where the victims were brought to the stake
at the auto da fe. It is close to the palace,
that the viceroy and his court may witness the
execution ; for it has ever been the policy of the
Inquisition to make these spiritual executions the
executions of the state. An old priest accom-
panied me, who pointed out the place, and described
the scenes. As I passed over this melancholy plain,
I thought of the difference between the pure and
benign doctrine, which was first preached to India
in the apostolic age, and that bloody code which,
after a long night of darkness, was announced to it
under the same name. And I pondered on the
mysterious dispensation, which permitted the minis-
ters of the Inquisition, with their racks and names,
to visit these lands before the heralds of the Gospel
of peace. But the most painful reflection was,
that this tribunal should yet exist, uuawed by the
vicinity of British humanity and dominion.
" I was not satisfied with what I had seen or
said at the Inquisition, and I determined to go
back again. The inquisitors were now sitting on
the tribunal ; and I had some excuse for returning,
for I was to receive from the chief-inquisitor a
272 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
letter, which he said he would give me, before I
left the place, for the British resident in Tra-
vancore, being an answer to a letter from that
officer.
" When I arrived at the Inquisition, and had as-
cended the outer stairs, the door-keepers surveyed
me doubtingly, but suffered me to pass, supposing
that I had returned by permission and appoint-
ment of the inquisitor. I entered the great hall,
and went up directly towards the tribunal of the
Inquisition, described by Dellon, in which is the
lofty crucifix. I sat down on a form, and then
desired one of the attendants to carry in my name
to the inquisitor. As I walked up the hall, I saw
a poor woman sitting by herself, on a bench by the
wall, apparently in a disconsolate state of mind.
She clasped her hands as I passed, and gave me a
look expressive of her distress. This sight chilled
my spirits. The familiars told me she was waiting
there to be called up before the tribunal of the
Inquisition. "While I was asking questions con-
cerning her crime, the second inquisitor came out
in evident trepidation, and was about to complain
of the intrusion, when I informed him I had come
back for the letter from the chief-inquisitor. He
said it should be sent after me to Groa; and he
conducted me with a quick step towards the door.
As we passed the poor woman, I pointed to her,
and said, with some emphasis, ' Behold, father,
another victim of the holy Inquisition!' He
answered nothing. When we arrived at the head
of the great stair, he bowed, and I took my last
IN GOA. 273
leave of Joseph a Doloribus, without uttering a
word!"
Dr. Buchanan makes various reflections on his
detail of the visit \vhich he paid to this dreadful
institution. He states, "The foregoing particulars
concerning the Inquisition at Goa, are detailed
chiefly with this view that the English nation
may consider, whether there be sufficient ground
for presenting a remonstrance to the Portuguese
government, on the longer continuance of that
tribunal in India ; it being notorious, that a great
part of the Romish Christians are now under
British protection. ' The Romans,' says Monte-
squieu, ' deserved well of human nature, for making
it an article in their treaty with the Carthaginians,
that THEY SHOULD ABSTAIN FROM SACRIFICING
THEIR CHILDREN TO THEIR GODS!' It IS SUrely
our duty to declare our wishes, at least, for the
abolition^ of these inhuman tribunals (since we take
an active part in promoting the welfare of other
nations), and to deliver our testimony against them
in the presence of Europe !"
CHAPTER XIX.
LICENTIOUSNESS OF THE INQUISITORS.
Corruptions predicted Licentiousness of celibate Priests
Splendour of the Chief-inquisitor at Madrid Inquisitors'
seraglios at Saragossa Case of a Victim Number of the
Ladies of three Inquisitors.
DITINE Inspiration, describing the papal apos-
tacy, gives various striking particulars, illustrations
274 THE INQUISITION BE YE A1ED.
of which are given variously in the foregoing
history. Among those shocking practices, the
Holy Spirit declares that its ministers " speak lies
in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with
a hot iron ; forbidding to marry." 1 Tim. iv. 2, 3.
Every one acquainted with the manners of the
people in popish countries is aware of the prevalence
of impurity, even among the priests. It is too
notorious to be denied. All classes, from the popes
downward, are known to be guilty. Many papal
bulls have condemned unchastity, with chai'acteristic
hypocrisy, which may be illustrated by a single
fact. Pope Pius IV., A.D. 1561, issued a bull,
directed to the Inquisition, the commencement of
which is as follows: "Whereas certain eccle-
siastics in the kingdom of Spain, and in the cities
and dioceses thereof, having the cure of souls, or
exercising such cure for others, or otherwise deputed
to hear the confessions of penitents, have broken
out into such heinous acts of iniquity as to abuse
the sacrament of penance in the very act of hearing
the confessions, nor fearing to injure the same
sacrament, and Him who instituted it, our Lord
G-od and Saviour Jesus Christ, by enticing and pro-
voicing, or trying to entice and provoke females to
lewd actions, at the very time when they were making
their confessions" &c., &c.
Upon the publication of this bull in Spain, the
Inquisition issued an edict requiring all females,
who had been thus abused by the priests at the
confessional, and all who were privy to such acts,
to give information, within thirty days, to the holy
LICEJmOUSJTESS OF ITS OITICEES. 275
tribunal; and very heavy censures were attached
to those who should neglect or despise this injunc-
tion. When this edict was first published, as
Catholic authors of credit state, such a considerable
number of females went to the palace of the Inqui-
sition, in the single city of Seville, to reveal the
conduct of their base confessors, that twenty
notaries, and as many inquisitors, were appointed
to minute down their several informations against
them ; but these being found insufficient to receive
the depositions of so many witnesses, and the
inquisitors being thus overwhelmed, as it were, with
the pressure of such affairs, thirty days more were
allowed for taking the accusations ; and this lapse of
time also proving inadequate for the intended
purpose, a similar period was granted for a third
and a fourth time. Maids and matrons of every
rank and station, dreading the excommunication,
crowded to the Inquisition. Modesty, shame, and
the desire of concealing the facts from their
husbands, induced many to go veiled. But the
multitudes of depositions, and the odium which the
discovery drew on auricular confession and on the
priesthood, caused the Inquisition to quash the
prosecutions, and to consign the depositions to
oblivion !
From the enormous hypocrisy and unparalleled
cruelty that we have seen recorded of the inqui-
sitors, every one will be prepared to believe that
they must have been guilty of the most atrocious
personal immoralities. Many of them were priests ;
and the celibacy of the clergy, as enjoined by the
276 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
Romish religion, was the occasion of the most
shocking violations of the laws of God. These
crimes are testified by papal historians of the
highest character, and proved by laws of the popes
made against them ; but the records of the lives of
the priests exhibit the most disgusting and dreadful
crimes.
Elevation in office generally rendered the inqui-
sitors above all law ; and the peculiarity of their
stations shielded them from accusation, rendering
it dangerous in the extreme for any one to breathe
a whisper against them. They, therefore, com-
monly rolled in luxury, and indulged in licentious-
ness that would appear incredible, were it not for
their other enormities and abominations recorded
on the faithful pages of history.
The translator of Limborch's history remarks,
therefore : " The licentious character so largely
applied to the Romish clergy has not been wanting
in those deputed to the office of inquisitors.
"Whilst by the very constitution of their authority
they are placed in a great degree above the laws,
they possess, in addition to their ecclesiastical
revenues, opportunities of amassing enormous
wealth from the wreck of those whom they con-
demn ; and, besides, such unbounded power as to
command any object of desire, or to gratify any
purpose of revenge. With such temptations,
therefore, it is no wonder if the inquisitor should
become voluptuous, and that, possessing the autho-
rity, he should assume the vices of the oriental
monarchs." M. Lavallee, in his "Histoire des
LICENTIOUSNESS OF ITS OFPIOEES. 277
Inquisitions Religieuses," relates the following
circumstance :
" A gentleman, who was then (1809) residing at
Paris, having business in Lisbon some years before
the French revolution, and being about to go
thither, took with him, from a nobleman at Ver-
sailles, a letter to the chief-inquisitor at Madrid,
through which he passed. On his arrival in that
city, being fatigued, and at the same time unwilling
to impede his journey, he fulfilled the ceremony of
delivering the letter to the inquisitor by the hands
of his servant, excusing himself, on those grounds,
from doing himself the honour of a personal attend-
ance. The grand-inquisitor, however, came himself
to his hotel, and, with great politeness, prevailed on
him to spend the evening at his residence. The
gentleman repaired to his apartment, and was lost
in astonishment at the splendour of the saloons,
furniture, and attendants. After some noblemen
who were present had withdrawn, the inquisitor
offered his guest a sight of his bed-chamber ; this
surpassed anything that he had ever seen for
sumptuous elegance. The walls were hung with
most exquisite paintings, from the heathen mytho-
logy ; the floor of the finest marble, and so con-
structed as to admit the growth of orange trees,
and a crystal stream, which, imparting a delicious
coolness, rolled oft' through basons of porphyry, in
subterranean channels, whilst the bed was adorned
with such tasteful drapery as to give to the whole
the air of royalty. As soon as the visitor had
inspected with admiration the various embellish-
278 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
ments of this splendid retreat, which he was the
more surprised to find where he had rather ex-
pected to have seen the rigid tokens of inquisitorial
devotion, he prepared to withdraw. But the inqui-
sitor prevented him, expressing surprise that he
should so soon appear fatigued ; then making a
signal, a Dominican appeared (his confidential
minister), who conducted the traveller into a
splendid saloon, lighted by a profusion of wax
candles ; here a magnificent supper was prepared,
to which sat down the grand-inquisitor, his visitor,
six ladies of great beauty and accomplishments, and
some monks, who were peculiar favourites. The
evening was spent with the greatest gaiety, whilst
music, poetry, singing, and agreeable conversation
protracted the stay of the company until sunrise.
At length the traveller took his leave, greatly
pleased with the courtesy of his highness, and
admiring the method of relaxation he had chosen,
after the studies and fatigue devolving on him from
the Holy Office!"
Rev. D A. Gavin, a Spanish priest, but, since
1715, a clergyman in the Church of England, in
his "Master-Key to Popery," vol. i., p. 192-205,
gives the following account by a lady, daughter of
Counsellor Balabriga, of Saragossa. She had been
seized by the familiars of the Holy Office, and
confined there, with others, as a victim of the
abominable licentiousness of the inquisitors; but
delivered from her degradation by the Erench army,
when part of the troops were quartered at Saragossa,
after the great battle of Ahnanza, in 1706. M. de
LICENTIOUSNESS OP ITS OFFICEES. 279
Legal, the lieutenant-general, having been excom-
municated by the inquisitors, on account of his
making an assessment upon them for the support
of his troops, sent four regiments of soldiers to
eject the inquisitors, and release the prisoners.
Among these, amounting to about four hundred,
he found sixty young women, who had formed the
seraglios of the three inquisitors. On learning
this event, the Archbishop of Saragossa, fearing the
disgrace that would arise from the discovery of
such atrocious wickedness, desired the general to
send the young women to his palace, that he might
take care of them. But M. de Legal replied, that
he would gladly oblige his grace, but that it was
not in his power, for the ladies were taken care of
by the French officers. One of these ladies, whose
family was known to Gravin, being married by a
French officer, her deliverer, gave her history to
her friend, some time after, when he met her in his
travels in France.
"I went one day," said this lady, "with my
mother, to visit the Countess of Attaress, and I met
there Don Francisco Torrejon, her confessor, and
second inquisitor of the Holy Office. After we had
drunk chocolate he asked me my age, and my
confessor's name, and so many intricate questions
about religion that I could not answer him. His
serious countenance did frighten me; and, as he
perceived my fear, he desired the countess to tell
me that he was not so severe as I took him to be ;
after which he caressed me in the most obliging
manner in the world, gave me his hand, which I
280 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
kissed with great respect and modesty ; and when
he went away, he told me, ' My dear child, I shall
remember you till the next time.' I did not mind
the sense of the words, for I was inexperienced in
matters of gallantry, being only fifteen years old at
that time. Indeed, he did remember me ; for the
very night following, when we were in bed, hearing
a hard knocking at the door, the maid that lay in
the same room where my bed was, went to the
window, and asking, ' Who is there ? ' I heard
say, ' The Holy Inquisition ! '
" I could not forbear crying out, ' Father !
father ! I am ruined for ever ! ' My dear father
got up, and inquiring what the matter was, I
answered him, with tears, ' The Inquisition ! ' and
he, for fear that the maid should not open the door
so quick as such a case required, went himself, as
another Abraham, to open the door, and to offer
his dear daughter to the fire of the inquisitors; and
as I did not cease to cry out, as if I was a mad girl,
my dear father, all in tears, did put in my mouth a
bridle, to show his obedience to the Holy Office,
and his zeal for the Catholic faith ; for he thought
I had committed some crime against religion. So
the officers, giving me but time to put on my
petticoat and a mantle, took me down into a coach,
and, without giving me the satisfaction of embracing
my dear father and mother, they carried me into
the Inquisition. I did expect to die that very
night ; but when they carried me into a noble
room, well furnished, and an excellent bed in it, I
was quite surprised. The officers left ine there,
LICENTIOUSNESS OF ITS OFFICERS. 281
and immediately a maid came with a silver salver of
sweetmeats and cinnamon-water, desiring me to
take some refreshment before I went to bed. I
told her I could not, but that I should be obliged
to her if she would tell me whether I was to die
that night or not ? ' Die ! ' said she, ' you did not
come here to die, but to live like a princess ; and
you shall want nothing in the world but the liberty
of going out. And now, pray mind nothing, but go
to bed and sleep easy, for to-morrow you shall see
wonders in this house ; and, as I am chosen to be
your waiting-maid, I hope you will be very kind to
me. I have not leave to tell you anything else
till to-morrow, only that nobody shall come to
disturb you, for my bed is in the closet near your
bed.'
" The great amazement that I was in took away
all my senses, or the free exercise of them ; for I
had not liberty to think of my parents, nor of my
grief, nor of the danger that was so near me. So,
in this suspension of thought, the waiting-maid
came, and locked the chamber-door after her, and
told me, ' Madam, let us go to bed, and only tell
me at what time in the morning will you have the
chocolate ready ? ' ' Mary! for heaven's sake,' said
I, as she had told me her name, c tell me whether I
am to die or not.' ' I told you, madam, that you
come,' said she, ' to live as one of the happiest
creatures in the world.' And as I observed her
reservedness, I did not ask her any more questions;
so recommending myself to God Almighty, and to
our Lady of the Pillar, and preparing myself to die,
T
282 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
I went to bed, but could not sleep. I was up with
the day, but Mary slept till six of the clock. She
left me half an hour alone, and came back with a
silver plate, with two cups of chocolate and some
biscuits. I drank one cup and desired her to drink
the other. ' "Well, Mary,' said I, ' can you give me
any account of the reason of my being here ? '
* Not yet, madam,' said she, ' but only have patience
for a little while.' With this answer she left me,
and an hour after came again with two baskets,
with a fine Holland shift, a Holland under-petticoat,
with fine lace round about it ; two silk petticoats,
and a little Spanish waistcoat with a gold fringe all
over it ; with combs and ribbons, and everything
suitable to a lady of higher quality than I. But
my greatest surprise was to see a gold snuff-box,
with the picture of Don Francisco Torrejon ' on it.
Then I soon understood the meaning of my con-
finement. So I considered with myself that to
refuse the present would be the occasion of my
immediate death, and to accept of it was to give
him, even on the first day, too great encouragement
against my honour. But I found, as I thought
then, a medium in the case ; so I said, ' Mary, pray
give my service to Don Francisco Torrejon, and tell
him that, as I could not bring my clothes with me
last night, honesty permits me to accept of these
clothes, which are necessary to keep me decent ;
but, since I take no snuff, I beg his lordship to
excuse me if I do not accept this box.' Mary went
to him with this answer, and came again with a
picture nicely set in gold, with four diamonds at
LICENTIOUSNESS OF ITS OFFICEES. 283
the four corners of it, and told me that his lordship
was mistaken, and that he desired me to accept
that picture, which would be a great favour to him ;
and while I was thinking with myself what to do,
Mary said to me, ' Pray, madam, take my poor
advice ; accept the picture, and everything that he
sends to you; for consider, that if you do not
consent and comply with everything he has a mind
for, you will soon be put to death, and nobody will
defend you ; but if you are obliging and kind to him,
he is a very complaisant and agreeable gentleman,
and will be a charming lover ; and you will be here
like a queen, and he will give you another apart-
ment Avith a fine garden, and many young ladies
shall come to visit you. So I advise you to send a
civil answer to him, and desire a visit from him, or
else you will soon begin to repent yourself.' ' O
dear me ! ' said I, ' must I abandon my honour
without any remedy ? If I oppose his desire, he
will obtain it by force ; ' and, full of confusion, I
bid Mary to give him what answer she thought fit^
She was very glad of my humble submission, and
went to give Don Francisco my answer. She came
back, in a few minutes after, all overjoyed to tell-
me that his lordship would honour me with his
company at supper, and that he could not come
sooner on account of business that called him
abroad; but, in the meantime, he desired me to
divert myself, and to give Mary my measure for a
suit of new clothes, and order her to bring me
everything that I could wish for. Mary added to*
this, ' Madam, I may now call you my mistress ; ane?
284 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
must tell you, that I have been iu the Holy Office
these fourteen years, and I know the customs of it
very well ; but because silence is imposed upon me
under pain of death, I cannot tell you anything but
what concerns your person. So, in the first place,
do not oppose the holy father's will and pleasure ;
secondly, if you see some young ladies here, never
ask them the occasion of their being here, nor
anything of their business ; neither will they ask
you anything of this nature ; and take care not to
tell them anything of your being here. You may
come and divert yourself with them, at such hours
as are appointed ; you shall have music and all sorts
of recreations. Three days hence you shall dine
with them; they are all ladies of quality, young
and merry, and this is the best of lives. Tou will
not long for going abroad, you will be so well
diverted at home ; and when your time is expired,
then the holy fathers will marry you to some
nobleman. Never mention the name of Don
Francisco, nor your name, to any one. If you see
here some young ladies of your acquaintance in the
city, they will never take notice of your formerly
knowing each other, though they will talk with you
of indifferent matters ; so take care not to speak
anything of your family.'
" All these things together stupified me, and the
whole~seemed to me a piece of enchantment ; so
that I could not imagine what to think of it. With
this lesson she left me, telling me she was going to
order my dinner ; and every time she went out she
locked the door after her. There were but two
LICENTIOUSNESS OF ITS OFFICERS. 285
high windows in my chamber, and I could see
nothing through them ; but, examining the room
all over, I found a closet with all sorts of historical
and profane books. So I spent my time till the
dinner came in, reading some diverting amorous
stories, which was a great satisfaction to me. Mary
came with the things for the table, but I was in-
clined to sleep ; so she asked me when she should
wake me, and I proposed two hours. My sleep
was a great refreshment to me ; and at the time
fixed she waked me to dinner, which consisted of
every thing that could satisfy the nicest appe-
tite. After dinner she left me alone, directing me
to ring the bell to call her, if I needed anything ;
so I went again to my closet, and spent three hours
in reading. I really think I was under some en-
chantment ; for I was in a perfect suspension of
thought, so as to remember neither father nor
mother ; and what was most in my mind I do not
know. Mary, at length, came and told me that
Don Francisco was come home, and she thought
he would come to see me very soon ; and begged of
me to prepare myself to receive him with all manner
of kindness. At seven in the evening Don Fran-
cisco came in his night-gown and night-cap, not
with the gravity of an inquisitor, but with the gaiety
of an officer. He saluted me with great respect and
civility, and told me he had designed to keep me
company at supper, but could not that night,
having some business of consequence to finish in
his closet ; aud that his coming to see me was only
out of the respect he had for my family, and to tell
286 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
me, at the same time, that some of my lovers had pro-
cured my ruin for me, accusing me in matters of
religion ; that the informations were taken, and the
sentence pronounced against me was, to be burnt
alive in the dry-pan with a gradual fire ; but that
he, out of pity and love to my family, had stopped
the execution of it. Each of these words was a
mortal stroke on my heart, and knowing not what
I was doing, I threw myself at his feet, and said,
' Seignior, have you stopped the execution for
ever ?' ' That belongs only to you to stop it or
not,' said he ; and with this he wished me a good
night. As soon as he went away, I fell a crying ;
but Mary came and asked me what could oblige me
to cry so bitterly. 'Ah! good Mary,' said I,
' pray tell me what is the meaning of the dry-pan,
and gradual fire ? for I am in expectation of nothing
but death, and that by it.' ' ! madam, never
fear, you will see the dry-pan and gradual fire
another day; but they are made for those that
oppose the holy fathers' will, but not for you that are
so ready to obey them. But pray, was Don Fran-
cisco very civil and obliging ?' ' I do not know,' said
I, ' for his discourse has put me out of my wits ;
this I know, that he saluted me with respect and
-civility, but he left me very abruptly.' ' Well,' said
Mary, ' you do not know his temper ; he is the most
obliging man in the world, if people are civil with
him ; and if not, he is as unmerciful as Nero. And
so, for your preservation, take care to oblige him
in all respects. Now pray go to supper, and be easy.'
" I was so much troubled in mind with the
LICENTIOUSNESS OF ITS OFriCEBS. 287
thoughts of the dry-pan and gradual fire, that I
could neither eat nor sleep that night. Early in.
the morning, Mary got up, and told me that no-
body was yet up in the house, and that she would
show me the dry-pan and gradual fire, on condition
that I should keep it a secret for her sake, and my
own too, which I having promised her, she took me
along with her, and showed mo a dark room with a
thick iron door, and within it an oven and a large
brass pan upon it, with a cover of the same, and a
lock on it the oven was burning at that time, and I
asked Mary for what use that pan was there ? And
she, without giving me any answer, took me by the
hand out of that place, and carried me into a large
room, where she showed me a thick wheel, covered
on both sides with thick boards, and opening a little
window in the centre of it, desired me to look with
a candle on the inside of it, where I aaw an" the cir-
cumference of the wheel set with sharp razors.
After that, she showed me a pit full of serpents and
toads. Then she said to me, ' Xow, my good mis-
tress, I will tell you the use of these three things.
The dry-pan and gradual fire are for heretics, and
those that oppose the holy fathers' will and plea-
sure ; for they are put all naked and alive into the
pan, and the cover of it being locked up, the exe-
cutioner begins to put in the oven a small fire, and
by degrees he augments it, till the body is reduced
to ashes ! The second is designed for those who
speak against the pope and the holy fathers ; for
they are put within the wheel, and the little door
being locked, the executioner turns the wheel till
THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
the person is dead. And the third is for those who
condemn the images, and refuse to give the due
respect and veneration to ecclesiastical persons ; for
they are thrown into the pit, and they at once be-
come the food of serpents and toads !'
" Then Mary said to me that another day she
would show me the torments for public sinners
and transgressors of the five commandments of our
holy mother the church ; so I, in deep amazement,
desired her to show me no more places ; for the
very thoughts of those three which I had seen
were enough to terrify me to the heart. So we
went to my room, and she charged me again to
be very obedient to all the commands Don Fran-
cisco should give me, or to be assured, if I did not,
that I was to undergo the torment of the dry-pan.
Indeed, I conceived such a horror of the gradual
fire, that I was not mistress of my senses, nay, nor
of my thoughts. So I told Mary that I would fol-
low her advice, and grant Don Francisco everything
he would desire of me. ' If you are in that dispo-
sition,' said she, ' leave off all your fears and appre-
hensions, and expect nothing but pleasure and
satisfaction, and all manner of recreation ; and you
shall begin to experience some of these things this
very day. Now let me dress you, for you must go
and wish a good-morrow to Don Francisco, and
breakfast with him.' I really thought this was a
great honour to me, and some comfort to my trou-
bled mind ; so I made all the haste I could, and
Mary conveyed me through a gallery into Don
Francisco's apartment. He was still in bed, how-
LICENTIOUSNESS OF ITS OFFICEES. 289
ever, and desiring me to sit down by him, told
Mary to bring the chocolate two hours after ; and
with this she left me alone with Don Francisco,
who immediately ardently declaring his inclinations,
I had not the liberty to make any excuse, and so,
by extinguishing the fire of his passion. I was freed
from the gradual fire and dry -pan, which was all
that then troubled my mind. When Mary came
with the chocolate, kneeling by the bed, she paid
me homage as if I had been a queen, and served me
first with a cup of chocolate, still on her knees, and
bade me to give another cup to Don Francisco my-
self, which he received mighty graciously. Having
drunk up the chocolate, she went out, and we dis-
coursed for a while of various things, but I never
spoke a word except when he desired me to answer
him. So, at ten of the clock, Mary came again, and
dressing me, she desired ine to go along with her ;
and leaving Don Francisco in bed, she carried me
into another chamber, very delightful, and better
furnished than the first, for the windows of it were
lower, and I had the pleasure of seeing the river
and gardens on the other side out of it. Then
Mary told me, ' Madam, the young ladies of this
house will come before dinner to welcome you, and
make themselves happy in the honour of your com-
pany, and will take you to dine with them. Pray
remember the advice I have given you already, and
do not make yourself unhappy by asking useless
questions.' She had not finished these words, when
I saw entering my apartments which consisted of a
large anti-chamber, and a bed-chamber with two
290 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
large closets a troop of young, beautiful ladies,
finely dressed, who all, one after another, came to
embrace me, and to wish me joy. My senses were
in a perfect suspension, and I could not speak a
word, nor answer to their kind compliments. But
-one of them, seeing me so silent, said to me,
* Madam, the solitude of this place will affect you
in the beginning ; but when you are sometime in
our company, and feel the pleasures of our amuse-
ments and recreations, you will quit your pensive
thoughts. Now we beg of you the honour to come
and dine with us to-day, and henceforth three days
in a week.' I thanked them, and we went to din-
ner. That day we had all sorts of exquisite meats,
and were served with delicate fruits and sweet-
meats. The room was very long, with two tables
on each side, and another at the front of it, and I
reckoned in it, on that day, Jifty-tivo young ladies,
the oldest of them not exceeding twenty-four years
of age. Six maids did serve the whole number of
us ; but my Mary waited on me alone that day.
After dinner, we went up stairs into a long gallery,
all round about with lattice windows, where some
of us playing on instruments of music, others play-
ing at cards, and some walking about, we spent
three hours together. At last, Mary came up ring-
ing a small bell, which was the signal to retire into
our rooms, as they told me : but Mary said to the
whole company, ' Ladies, this is a day of recrea-
tion ; so you may go into what room you please till
eight of the dockland then you are to go into your
own chambers.' So they all desired leave to go
L1CEXTIOUSXESS OF ITS OrFICEBS. 291
vdth me to my apartment to spend the time there ;
and I was very glad that they preferred my cham-
ber to another. All going down together, we met iii
my anti-chamber, where we found a large table with
all sorts of sweetmeats upon it, iced cinnamon-water,
almond-milk, and the like. Every one did eat and
drink, but nobody spoke a word touching the
sumptuousness of the table, nor mentioned anything
concerning the inquisition of the holy fathers. So
we spent our time in merry, indifferent conversation
till eight of the clock. Then every one retired to
her own room, and Mary told me that Don Fran-
cisco did wait for me ; so we went to his apartment,
and supper being ready, we both alone sat to table,
attended by my maid only.
" After supper Mary went away, and we to bed ;
and next morning she did serve us with chocolate,
which we drank in bed, and then slept till ten of
the clock. Then we got up, and my waiting-maid
carried me into my chamber, where I found ready
two suits of clothes of a rich brocade, and every
thing else suitable to a lady of the first rank. I
put on one, and when I was quite dressed, the
young ladies came to wish me a good-morrow, all
dressed in different clothes, and better than the
day before ; and we spent the second and third days
in the same recreation, Don Francisco continuing
also with me in the same manner. But the fourth
morning, after drinking chocolate in bed, as the
custom was for Don Francisco and me, Mary told
me that a lady was waiting for me, in her own
room, and desired me to get up, with an air of com-
292 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
mand ; and Don Francisco saying nothing against
it, I got up and left him in bed. I thought really
that this was to give me some new comfort and
diversion ; but I was very much mistaken ; for
Mary conveyed me into a young lady's room, not
eight feet long, which was a perfect prison, and
there, before the lady, told me, ' Madam, this is
your room, and this young lady your bed-fellow and
comrade ;' and left me there with this unkind com-
mand.
" I was in a most desperate condition ; but my
new sister, Leonora, this was her name, pre-
vailed so much upon me, that I overcame my vexa-
tion before Mary came again to bring our dinner.
Then she began to say, ' My dear sister, you think
it a hard case that has happened to you ; I assure
you, all the ladies here in this house have already
gone through the same, and in time you shall know
all their stories, as they hope to know yours. I
suppose that Mary has been the chief instrument
of your fright, as she has been of ours ; and I war-
rant she has shown to you some horrible places,
though not all, and that, at the very thought of
them, you were so much troubled in your mind,
that you have chosen the same way that we did, to
get some ease in our hearts. By what has hap-
pened to us, we know that Don Francisco has been
your Nero ; for the three colours of our clothes are
the distinguishing tokens of the three holy fathers :
the red silk belongs to Don Francisco, the blue to
Guerrero, and the green to Aliaga. For they give,
for the first three days, these colours to those ladies
LICENTIOUSNESS OF ITS OFFICERS. 293
that they bring for their use. We are strictly
commanded to make all demonstrations of joy, and
to be very merry three days, when a young lady
comes here, as we did with you, and you must do
with others. But, after it, we live like prisoners,
without seeing any living soul but the six maids
and Mary, who is the housekeeper. We dine all
of us in the hall three days a week, and three days
in our rooms. When any of the holy fathers has a
mind for one of his slaves, Mary comes for her at
nine of the clock, and conveys her to his apartment.
If one of us happens to be with child, she is re-
moved into a better chamber, and she sees nobody
but the maid, till she is delivered. The child is
taken away, and we do not know where it is car-
ried. We are at present fifty-two young ladies,
and we lose every year six or eight ; but we do not
know where they are sent. At the same time we get
new ones ; and I have sometimes seen here seventy-
three ladies. All our continual torment is to think,
and with great reason, that when the holy fathers
are tired of one, they put her to death ; for they
never will run the hazard of being discovered in
these misdemeanours, by sending out of the house
any of our companions.'
" We lived together eighteen months, in which
time we lost eleven ladies, and got nineteen new
ones. After the eighteen months, one night Mary
came and ordered us to follow her. On our going
down stairs, she bade us go into a coach, and this
we thought the last day of our lives. We went
out of the house, but where we did not know, till
294 THE INQUISITION KEYEALED.
we were put in another house and room, worse than
the first, where we were confined above two months,
without seeing any of the holy fathers, or Mary, or
any of our companions. And in the same manner
we were removed from that house to another,
where we continued till we were miraculously de-
livered by the French officers. Mr. Faulcaut,
happily for me, did open the door of my room ;
and, as soon as he saw me, he began to show me
very much civility, and took me and Leonora along
with him into his lodgings ; and after he heard my
whole story, and fearing that things would turn to
our disadvantage, he ordered the next day to send
us to his father. We were dressed in men's clothes,
to go the more safely ; and so we came to this
house, where I was kept for two years as the
daughter of the old man, till Mr. Faulcaut's regi-
ment being broken, he came home, and in two
months after married me. Another officer married
Leonora."
CHAPTEE XX.
ABOLITION OF THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN.
Modern operations of the Inquisition in Spain Effects of the
French revolution The Chevalier de St. Gervais
Napoleon decrees the abolition of the Inquisition Its
demolition by Colonel Lehmanowsky Its revival by
Ferdinand VII. Its final overthrow by the Cortes Its
victims.
LIGHT and knowledge continued to advance in
Europe during the eighteenth century. Every
ITS ABOLITION IN SPAIN. 295
intelligent mind perceived by this means the enojv
mous superstitions and cruelty of the papacy ; but
these advantages, without the blessed principles of
the Scriptures, leaving men ignorant of true Chris-
tianity, generated infidelity. The papal priesthood,
therefore, by whom the sacred books had been
taken from the people, suffered a fearful retribution
from the infidels in France, in the revolution at
the close of the century. The whole Continent
was scourged by this event, in the order of Divine
Providence. Still the Inquisition carried on its
pernicious operations in several countries, parti-
cularly in Spain, though its doom was sealed and
its overthrow determined. Its deeds, however,
were less shocking ; but its modern character may
be learned from a few facts.
Concerning the Drama in Spain, Sismondi re-
marks, that "the Lives of the Saints were repre-
sented publicly, with the approbation and applause
of the Inquisition, in the eighteenth century. But
whilst the taste of the people was so eager for this
kind of spectacle, and whilst it was encouraged by
the clergy, and supported by the Inquisition, the
Court, enlightened by criticism and by a better
taste, was desirous of rescuing Spain from the scan-
dalous reproach which these pretended pious repre-
sentations excited among strangers. Charles III.,
in 1765, prohibited the further performance of
religious plays and autos sacramentales ; and the
house of Bourbon had already deprived the people
of another recreation, not less dear to them the
autos dafe. After the extinction of the Spanish
296 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
branch of the house of Austria, the Inquisition was
no longer allowed to destroy its victims in public ;
but it has continued, even to our days, to exercise
the most outrageous cruelties on them in its dun-
geons."
While many wretched beings were sacrificed in
private, perishing in the horrid prisons, those who
were liberated carried marks of their fearful treat-
ment all through life. Every prisoner, before
being dismissed, was bound, under a dreadful curse,
to observe the most profound silence as. to all that
he had seen, and heard, and uttered in the Inqui-
sition. Mr. Townsend relates, that the Dutch
consul, with whom he became acquainted during
his travels in Spain, in 1787, could never be pre-
vailed on to give an account of his imprisonment in
the Inquisition at Barcelona, which happened
thirty-five years before, and betrayed the greatest
agitation when pressed to say anything about the
treatment he had received. His fellow-prisoner,
Mr. Falconet, who was but a boy, turned grey-
headed during his short confinement ; and to the
day of his death, though retired to Montpelier,
observed the most tenacious silence on the subject.
Inquisitorial domination, however, was at length
overthrown by the French Catholic soldiers under
Buonaparte. While the troops of Prance made
progress in Spain, in 1807, the Chevalier de St.
Orervais, a French officer, was seized and impri-
soned by the inquisitors of Barcelona. One day,
" after dinner," he says, " I went to take a walk on
that] beautiful terrace, which extends along the
ITS ABOLITION IK SPAIN.
port in that part called Barcelonette. The sides
of this walk, which is named the Longa, are
adorned witli fine buildings. I was tranquilly en-
joying this delightful place, and the serene evening
of the fine day, when, suddenly, six men surrounded
and commanded me to follow them. I replied by
a firm refusal ; whereupon one of them seized me
by the collar. I instantly assailed him with a
violent blow on the face, which caused him to
bellow with pain ; but in an instant the whole band
pressed on me so closely, that I was obliged to
draw my sword. I fought as long as I was able ;
but not being possessed of the strength of Antaeus
or Hercules, I was at last compelled to yield. The
ruffians endeavoured to inspire me with respect
and dread, by saying that they were familiars of the
Holy Office. I submitted to force, and was taken
to the prisons of the Inquisition.
" As soon as I found myself within the talons of
these vultures, I began to ask myself what was my
crime, and what I had done to incur the censure of
this hateful tribunal. ' Hare these Jacobin monks/
said I, ' succeeded to the Druids, who called them-
selves the agents of the Deity, and arrogated to
themselves the right of exco nmunicating and
putting to death their fellow-citizens ? ' My com-
plaints were lost in empty air.
'' On the following day, a Dominican, shrouded
in hypocrisy, and with a tongue of deceit, came to
conjure me, by the bowels of Jesus Christ, to con-
fess my faults, in order to the attainment of my
liberty . ' Confess your own faults first,' said I to
u
298 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
him ; ' ask pardon of God for your hypocrisy and
injustice. By what right do you arrest a gentle-
man, a native of France, who is exempted from the
jurisdiction of your infernal tribunal, and who has
done nothing in violation of the laws of this coun-
try ?' ' Oh ! holy Virgin ! ' said he, ' you make
me tremble ! I will go and pray to God in your
behalf, and I hope he will open your eyes and turn
your heart ! ' ' Go, pray to the devil,' said I to
myself; 'he is your only divinity.' However, on
that same day, M. Aubert, having in vain waited
for me at the dinner-hour, sent to my hotel to
inquire about me. The landlord informed him that
I had disappeared on the preceding evening ; that
my luggage still remained in his custody, but that
he was entirely ignorant of what had become of me.
This obliging gentlemen, uneasy for my fate, made
inquiries concerning me over the whole city, but
without being able to gain the smallest intelligence.
Astonished at this circumstance, he began to sus-
pect that some indiscretion on my part had drawn
down upon me the vengeance of the Holy Office.
He begged of the captain-general to demand my
enlargement. The inquisitors denied the fact of my
detention with the utmost effrontery of falsehood ;
but M. Aubert, not being able to discover any
other probable cause for my disappearance, persisted
in believing me to be a prisoner in the Holy Office.
" Next day, the familiars came to conduct me
before the three inquisitors ; they presented me
with a yellow mantle to put on, but I disdainfully
rejected this Satanic livery. However, they per-
ITS ABOLITION IN SPAIN. 299
suaded me that submission was the only means by
which I could hope to recover my liberty. I
appeared, therefore, clad in yellow, with a wax-
taper in my hand, before these three priests of
Pluto. In the chamber was displayed the banner
of the Holy Office, on which were represented a
gridiron, a pair of pincers, and a pile of wood, with
these words 'JUSTICE, CHAEITT, MEECT.' "What
an atrocious piece of irony ! I was tempted more
than once to singe, with my blazing taper, the
hideous visage of one of these Jacobins, but my
good genius prevented me. One of them advised
me, with an air of mildness, to confess my sius.
' My great sin,' replied I, ' is to have entered a
country where the priests trample humanity under
foot, and assume the cloak of religion to persecute
virtue and innocence.' ' Is that all you have to
say ?' ' Yes, my conscience is free from alarm, and
from remorse. Tremble ! if the regiment to which
I belong should hear of my imprisonment, they
would trample over ten regiments of Spaniards to
rescue me from your barbarity.' ' God alone is
master; our duty is to watch over his flock, as
faithful shepherds; our hearts are afflicted at it,
but you must return to your prison till you think
proper to make a confession of your fault.' I then
retired, casting upon my judges a look of contempt
and indignation.
" As soon as I returned to my prison, I most
anxiously considered what could be the cause of
this severe treatment. I was far from suspecting
that it could be owing to my answer to the mendi-
300 THE INQUISITION BETE ALE D.
cant friar, concerning the Virgin and her lights."
[One of these having come to his chamber, pre-
senting a purse, and begging a contribution for the
tapers to be lighted in honour of the Virgin ; he
replied, " My good father, the Virgin has no need
of lights ; she needs only to go to bed at an early
hour."] "However, M. Aubert, being persuaded
that the Inquisition alone had been the cause of
my disappearance, placed spies upon all their steps.
One of these informed him that three monks of the
Dominican order were about to set out for Rome,
being deputed to the conventual assembly, which
was to be held there. He immediately wrote to
M. de Colet, commandant at Perpignan, to inform
him how I had disappeared, of his suspicions as to
the cause, and of the passage of the three Jacobins
through Perpignan, desiring him to arrest them,
and not set them at liberty, till I should be released.
" M. de Colet embraced with alacrity this oppor-
tunity of vengeance, and issued orders at the gates
of the town to seize the three reverend personages.
They arrived about noon, with high spirits and keen
appetites, and demanded of the sentinel which was
the best hotel. The officer of the guard presented
himself, and informed them that he was commis-
sioned to conduct them to the commandant of the
place, who would provide for them lodging and
entertainment. The monks, rejoiced at this lucky
windfall, overflowed with acknowledgments, and
declared they could not think of incommoding the
commandant. ' Come, good fathers, M. de Colet is
determined to do YOU the honours of the citv.' Tu
ITS ABOLITION IN SPAIN. 301
the meantime he provided them an escort of four
soldiers and a sergeant. The fathers marched
along with joy, congratulating one another, and
delighted with the politeness of the French. ' Good
fathers,' said M. de Colet, ' I am delighted to have
you in this city. I expected you impatiently, and
have provided you a lodging.' 'Ah, Monsieur
Commandant, you are too good ; we are un-
deserving.' ' Pardon me ; have you not, in your
prison at Barcelona, a French officer, the Chevalier
de St. Gervais ? ' ' No, M. Commandant, we have
never heard of any such person.' ' I am sorry for that,
for you are to be imprisoned, and to live upon bread
and water, until this officer be forthcoming.' The
reverend fathers, exceedingly irritated, exclaimed
against this violation of the law of nations, and
then said they resigned themselves to the will
of heaven, and that the commandant should answer,
before God and the Pope, for the persecution which
he was about to exercise against members of the
church. ' Yes,' said the commandant, ' I take the
responsibility upon myself; meanwhile, you will
repair to the citadel.'
" Now, behold the three hypocrites, in a narrow
prison, condemned to the regimen of the Pauls and
the Hilaries, uttering the loudest exclamations
against the system of fasting and the commandant.
Every clay the purveyor, when he brought them
their pitcher of water and portion of bread, demanded
whether they had anything to declare relative to
the French officer. For three days they persisted
in replying in the negative ; -but, at length, tho
302 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
cries, not of their consciences, but of their stomachs,
and their weariness of this mode of life, overcame
their obstinacy. They begged an interview with
M. de Colet, who instantly waited on them. They
confessed that a young French officer was confined
in the prisons of the Holy Office, on account of the
impious language he had held respecting the Virgin.
* Undoubtedly he has acted improperly,' said M. de
Colet ; ' but allow the Virgin to avenge herself.
"Write to Barcelona, to set this gentleman at liberty;
in the interim I will keep you as hostages, but I
will mitigate your sufferings, and your table shall
be less frugally supplied.' The monks immediately
wrote to give liberty to the accursed Frenchman.
" During this interval, vexations, impatience, and
weariness took possession of my soul, and made me
weary of life. At length, the Inquisition, reading
their brethren's letter, perceived themselves under
the necessity of releasing their prey. One of
them came to inform me that, in consideration of
my youth, and of my being a native of France, the
Holy Office had come to the determination to set
me free ; but that they required me for the future
to have more respect for La Madonna, the mother
of Jesus Christ. 'Most reverend father,' replied
I, ' the French have always the highest respect for
the ladies.' Uttering these words, I rushed towards
the door, and when I got into the street, I felt as if
I were raised from the tomb once more to life ! "
Charles IV. abdicated the throne of Spain, and
was succeeded by his son, Ferdinand VII., in 1808;
but Napoleon Buonaparte soon compelled him to
ITS ABOLITION IJT SPAIN. 303
resign his throne, appointing his own brother
Joseph to the throne, while he marched to the
capital, and took Madrid on the 4th of December.
Knowing the horrid character of the Holy Office,
the same day he decreed the suppression of the
Inquisition, that its revenues might be applied to
the purposes of the government.
Pursuant to this decree, the palace of the Inqui-
sition was demolished, some months after, in
revenge for an outrage upon Colonel Lehmanowsky,
an officer of the French army. Hia report of it
confirms many of the foregoing details of that
dreadful place. He states,
" In the year 1S09, I was attached to that part
of Napoleon's army which was stationed at Madrid.
Soult was commauder-in-chief and governor of the
city. My regiment was the 9th Polish Lancers.
" One night, about ten or eleven o'clock, as 1
was walking alone in one of the streets of Madrid,
two armed men sprang upon me from a doorway ;
I instantly drew my sword, and defended myself as
best I could from their furious attack. While
struggling with them, I saw at a distance, crossing
the top of the street, the lights of the mounted
patrols. French soldiers on guard, with lanterns,
rode through the streets of the city at all hours of
the night to preserve order. I called to them in
French, and as they hastened to my help, my
assailants took to their heels ; not, however, before
I saw by [their dress that they belonged to the
guards of the Inquisition. Having been in the
habit of speaking freely among the people what 1
304 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
thought of the priests and Jesuits, and the Inqui-
sition, I have no doubt that these men were set to
watch for me, and to assassinate me. It had been
decreed by Napoleon that the Inquisition and the
monasteries should be suppressed. Months, how-
ever, had passed away, without the decree being
executed.
" I went that night directly to Marshal Soult,
told him what had taken place, and reminded him
of the emperor's decree. He said, I might go the
next morning, and destroy the Inquisition ; giving
me charge, at the same time, to take care of the
pictures, library, and other things of value. I
replied, that my regiment was not sufficient for
such a service, but if he would give me the 117th
of the line, and another regiment, which I named,
I would undertake the work. The colonel of the
117th, Colonel De Lile, was an intimate friend of
my own, and is now the pastor of an evangelical
church in France. Marshal Soult gave roe the
troops required. That night the expedition was
arranged, and next morning we proceeded at break
of day to the Inquisition, which was about five
miles distant from the city.
" A wall of great strength surrounded the build-
ings. I went forward with a company of soldiers,
and addressing one of the sentinels on the wall,
summoned those within to surrender, and to open
the gates to the imperial army. The man with-
drew, and after conversation apparently with some-
one within, he re-appeared, presented his musket,
and shot one of my men. This was a signal of attack,
ITS ABOLITION IN SPAIN. 305
and returning to my troops, who had halted at a
distance out of sight, I ordered them to advance,
and to fire upon those who appeared on the
walls.
" It was soon obvious that it was an unequal
warfare. The garrison was numerous, and on the
walls there was a strong breastwork, from behind
which they kept up a destructive fire upon our men
on the open plain. We had no cannon ; our scaling
ladders were insufficient, the walls being higher
than we expected; and the gates resisted all
attempts at forcing them. "Wishing to get through
the work as quietly, as well as quickly, as possible,
I directed some trees to be cut down and trimmed,
to be used as battering rams. Selecting a place
where the ground sloped a little toward the wall,
and so gave advantage to my men to cover with
their fire those engaged in the assault, two of these
battering ranis were brought to bear upon the
walls. Presently the walls began to tremble; a
breach was made, and the imperial troops rushed
into the Inquisition.
" Here we met with a scene, for which nothing
but Jesuitical effrontery is equal. The inquisitor-
general, followed by the fathers in their robes, all
presented themselves, as we were making our way
into the interior of the place, with their arms
crossed on their breasts, their fingers resting on
their shoulders, as though they had been deaf to
all the noise of the attack and defence, and had
just learned what was going on. They addressed
themselves in the language of rebuke to their own
306 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
soldiers, saying, ' "Why do you figlit our friends the
French ? '
"Their intention, no doubt, was to make us
think that the defence was wholly unauthorised by
them, hoping, if they could make us believe that they
were friendly, they should have a better oppor-
tunity of escaping. Their shallow artifice did not
succeed. I ordered them to be placed under guard,
and all the soldiers of the Inquisition, who had not
escaped in the confusion, to be secured as prisoners.
" We then proceeded to explore the rooms of the
stately edifice. "We passed through hall after hall,
richly furnished; we found splendid paintings; a
rich and extensive library ; and everywhere beauty,
splendour, and order, such as I had never seen in
any palace. The architecture, the furniture, the
ornaments, were such as pleased the eye and grati-
fied the taste. But where were the gloomy cells
and horrid instruments of torture, which one had
been taught to expect to find in an Inquisition ?
We looked for them in vain. The holy fathers
seemed surprised at our expecting to find any such
things ; assured us that they had been belied ; and
that the holy Catholic church, in this as in other
things, was grossly misrepresented.
" Although I saw through the cunning villany of
the fathers in these remarks, and knew how the
Romish church always affects to deny its crimes
and cruelties when it carries them into execution^
I was ready to believe, after our careful search,
that this Inquisition was different from others of
which I had heard. My friend, De Lile, was not,
ITS ABOLITION IN SPAIN. 307
however, so easily convinced. ' Colonel,' said he to
me, ' you are commander to-day, and as you say, so
it must be ; but if you will be advised by me, let
us have another search ; I do not believe we have
seen everything yet. "We accordingly again began
to explore, especially in the parts under ground.
By marking well what portion of the buildings we
were beneath, we found that we had been under
every part, except the great chapel of the Inquisi-
tion, and the buildings adjoining. The floor of
this chapel was formed of vast slabs of rich marble.
The floors of the other parts of the Inquisition
were either of marble or of highly polished wood.
We could find no entrance to vaults, or other
indication of anything being below the chapel.
Being now ready to give up the search, a thought
struck Colonel De Lile, who was still sanguine of
discovery. ' Let us get water,' he said, ' and pour
it over this floor, and see if there is any place
where it passes through more freely than others.
Water was immediately brought, and a careful
examination made of every seam, none of the slabs
being cemented, to see if the water passed through.
Presently one of the soldiers cried out that he had
found it ! By the side of [one of the marble slabs
the water was passing through fast, as though
there were an opening beneath. All hands were
now set at work for further discovery. The officers
with their swords, and the men with their bayonets,
were trying to clear out the seam and to raise the
slab. Others began to strike the slab, with all
their might, with the butts of their muskets, in
THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
order to break it. The fathers, who had been look-
ing on with the greatest dismay, now broke out in
loud remonstrance against our desecration of their
holy and beautiful house. As they were thus en-
gaged, one of the soldiers, who was busy with the
butt of his musket, struck a part of the marble
under which was a spring, and the slab partly flew
up; then the faces of the inquisitors grew pale,
and they trembled, as Belshazzar, when the hand-
writing appeared on the wall. The marble slab
being raised, the top of a staircase appeared. I
stepped to the altar, and took one of the long
candles which was burning, some of my men doing
the same, that we might see to explore what was
below. One of the inquisitors here came up to me,
and laying his hand gently on my arm, said, with a
demure and holy look, ' My son, you must not take
those lights with your bloody hands ; they are holy.'
' Well,' said I, pushing him back, ' I will take a
holy thing to shed light on iniquity ; I will bear
the responsibility.' We proceeded down the stair-
case.
" On reaching the floor, the first room we entered
was a large square hall, on one side of which was a
raised platform with seats, the centre one being
raised considerably, being the throne of the inqui-
sitor-general. In the centre of the hall was a large
block, with a chain fastened to it, where the accused
were chained during their examinations.
" On leaving the hall of judgment, we proceeded
along a passage with numerous doors. These were
the cells of solitary imprisonment, from which the
ITS ABOLITION IN SPAIN. 309
miserable victims were never brought out, except
it were for torture. Within some of these cells we
heard sounds as we advanced. On opening the
doors we witnessed such sights as I wish never to
see again, the details of which are too horrible to
relate. In some cells we found bodies apparently
but a short time dead. Others were in various
stages of decay ; and ive saw some, ofivhich little but
the bones remained, still fixed by chains to the floor
of the dungeon. To prevent this corruption being
offensive to the occupants of the Inquisition, there
were flues extending along the roofs of the cells
and carrying the odour off to the open air. Among
the living prisoners we found aged men and women
of threescore years and ten, youths and girls of
fourteen or fifteen, and others in the prime of life.
Some had been there for many years, and had lost
count of the time since they entered. The soldiers
went to work to release them from their chains,
and took from their knapsacks their over-coats and
other clothing to cover their nakedness. They
were eager to be taken to the light of day, but
having heard of the danger of this, I caused food
to be given to them, and then directed them gradu-
ally to be brought out to the light as they were
able to bear it. ,
"We then proceeded to explore another room
where there were instruments of torture. One of
these was a machine, on which the victim was
stretched, and every joint of the body, beginning
with the fingers, was racked, until the sufferer
swooned away or died. Another engine consisted of
a box, in which the head and neck were immoveably
confined by a screw, and over this box was a vessel,
from which, drop by drop, water fell every second
upon the head. This perpetual drop, falling on the
same spot, caused most excruciating agony agony,
ending, ere long, in raving madness. Another in-
fernal machine lay along horizontally, to which the
sufferer was bound, and then was placed between
two beams, on which scores of knives were fixed,
so that by turning the machine with a crank, the
flesh was torn from the limbs in small pieces. A
fourth machine surpassed the others in fiendish
ingenuity. Its exterior was a beautiful woman,
richly dressed, with arms extended to embrace the
victim; around her feet a semicircle was drawn.
Whoever stepped over this line touched a spring,
which caused the diabolical engine to open, and a
thousand knives pierced him with deadly force.
*' The sight of these engines of infernal cruelty
kindled the fury of the soldiers, already enraged
with the resistance they met with, and the death of
their comrades in assaulting the walls. They de-
clared that they would put their prisoners to the
torture. I could not stem their fury. They began
with the holy fathers. They put one on the ma-
chine for racking the joints. Another was put
Tinder the dropping water, and terrible was the
agony he seemed to suffer. The inquisitor-general
was brought before the machine called 'The Virgin,'
and commanded to kiss it. ' You have caused others
to kiss it,' said the soldiers, ' now you must do it.'
They pointed their bayonets, and pushed him over
ITS ABOLITION IN SPAIN. 311
the fatal circle. The beautiful image instantly pre-
pared for the embrace, clasped him in its arms, and
he was cut to pieces. My heart sickened at this
awful scene, and I saw no more.
" In the meantime, the report had reached Ma-
drid, that the prisons of the Inquisition were open !
Multitudes already were hastening to the place.
Fathers there were who found long-lost daughters ;
mothers their sons ; wives were restored to their
husbands ; sisters and brothers met once more.
Some were friendless and unrecognised. The scene
of mingled joy, surprise, and anguish, no tongue
could describe.
"While this was going on," said Colonel Leh-
manowsky, " I gave orders for the library, paint-
ings, and furniture to be carefully removed, and
sent to the city for a large quantity of gunpow-
der. Placing this in the vaults and subterra-
nean places of the buildings, and a slow match
being set, we all withdrew to a distance, and awaited
the result in silence. Presently, loud cheers rent
the air ; the walls and turrets of the massive struc-
ture rose majestically towards the heavens, impelled
by the tremendous explosion, and fell back to the
earth a vast heap of ruins. The Inquisition was
no more !"
Terrible as was this overthrow of the Inquisition
at Madrid, it still existed in other cities of Spain ;
and Mr. Jacobs, travelling in that country, was
permitted, in 1809, to view some of the buildings
312 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
of the Holy Office at Seville. But he was allowed
to see only the light, clean, and cheerful apartments,
being unable to obtain any reply to his inquiries,
whether there were any prisoners in dungeons, or
any instruments of torture !
Intelligence continued to advance in Spain, and
a reformation seemed determined on ; so that, in
1813, the Cortes decreed the abolition of the In-
quisition in every part of the country, as pernicious
to the interests of the community, and incom-
patible with the constitution. But Ferdinand
being restored to the throne, he entered Madrid,
May 14, 1814 ; and, influenced by the priesthood,
issued his proclamation, on the 21st of July, for
the re-establishment of the Holy Office. He
gave intimation of some alteration in its mode
of administration; and Don Francisco Xavier,
" the most excellent lord-inquisitor-general," pub-
lished his first edict, April 5, 1815. Little im-
provement was effected in the court; yet it was
restrained by being partially under secular authority.
In 1820, however, the Cortes finally abolished the
Inquisition, and it has never since been restored in
Spain.
Blaquire, the historian of the Spanish devolution,
states, in writing from Madrid, in October, 1820,
" If reports which I have heard both here and at
Saragossa be true, the torture must have been
resorted to in several instances. Amongst the
memoranda found on the walls of the Inquisition
here, one, after declaring the innocence of the
writer, points out Ins mother as his accuser ; another
ITS ABOLITION IN SPAI3T.
scorns to have been traced by a victim upon whom
the torture of la pendola had been exercised. This
was performed by placing the sufferer in a chair
sunk into the earth, and letting water fall on the
crown of his head, from a certain height, in single
drops. Though far from appearing so, the pendola
is .supposed to have been the most painful operation
practised by the defenders of the faith. In a third
inscription, dated on the llth of ]S"ovember, 1818,
the writer complains of having been shut up for a
political offence, and in consequence of a false
denunciation."
When the Inquisition was thrown open, in 1820, by
order of the Cortes, twenty-one prisoners were found
in it, not one of whom knew the name of the city in
which he was ; some had been confined three years,
some a longer period, and not one knew perfectly
the nature of the crime of which he was accused.
One of these prisoners had been condemned, and was
to have suffered on the following day. His punish-
ment was to be death by the pendulum. The
method of thus destroying the victim was as fol-
lows : The condemned was fastened in a groove
upon a table, on his back ; suspended above him
was a pendulum, the edge of which was sharp ;
and it was so constructed as to become longer with
every movement. The wretch saw this implement
of destruction swinging to and fro above him, and
every moment the keen edge approaching nearer
and nearer; at length it rut the i-kin of his nose,
and gradually cut on until life was extinct. This,
it appears, was one of the substitutes for the
x
314 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
more barbarous exhibitions in public, when the
inquisitors did not dare to perform an auto da fe.
And this, let it be remembered, was one of the
modes of punishing those accused of heresy, by
the secret tribunal of the Homish Inquisition,
A.D. 1820 !
Spain still groans under the dreadful domina-
tion of popery. Christian liberty is unknown to
her people. They are kept by the Romish priest-
hood in a state of the most debasing ignorance,
bound with the chains of a deplorable superstition.
They are still held by the gloomy spirit of the In-
quisition, though its courts are not in operation ;
but the more intelligent and the number of this
class, even in Spain, is believed to be increasing
enumerate, with horror, its past victims. The most
complete estimate of the wretched sufferers by the
"Holy Office" has been made by Jean Antoine
Llorente, Secretary of the Inquisition at Madrid,
in 17891790. In the " Preface" to his valuable
"History" of that court, he says, " My persever-
ance lias been crowned with success far beyond
my hopes; for, in addition to an abundance of
materials, obtained with labour and expense, con-
sisting of unpublished manuscripts and papers
mentioned in the inventories of deceased inquisitors
and other officers of the institution, in 1809,
1810, and 1811, when the Inquisition in Spain
was suppressed, 'all the archives were placed at my
disposal ; and, from 1809 to 1812, I collected every-
thing that appeared to me of consequence in the
registers of the council of the Inquisition, and in
ITS ABOLITION IX SPAIN. 315
the provincial tribunals, for the purpose of com-
piling this History."
Llorente gives the following as the total numbers
of the victims, ascertained from the records of the
Inquisition in Spain :
Persons who were condemned and perished
in the flames 31,912
Persons burnt in effigy 17,659
Persons condemned to severe penances .... 291,450
Total 341,021
Besides these, however, it is presumed that very
many died under torture by the inquisitors, and
that large numbers perished in prison, without any
record on earth being made of their sufferings or
their names. The last person that was publicly
burnt by the inquisitors in Spain, is said to have
been a Beata; and she was charged with having
entered into a compact with the devil : she suffered,
November 7th, 1781.
Spain, at present, is proverbial for its degradation,
under the blighting intolerance and bigotry of
popery. This is testified by intelligent travellers,
who represent the debasement of the nation as
resulting from the past operations and the remaining
spirit of the Romish Inquisition. The testimony
of two of these discriminating observers of society
may suffice for the present purpose.
Captain Widdrington, E..N., in his volumes on
" Spain and the Spaniards," in 1843, cites from
Gibbon, " What has Spain done with i\\cfour hun-
dred cities she once possessed?" and replies,
" Spain might answer to the pithy question, * Ask
THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
the church, they can, perhaps, inform you.' It is
not owing to the church" he adds, "but to the eccle-
siastical bodies under that name, whose will was the
law for so many ages, that Spain has all but been
erased from amongst the nations of the earth. The
persecutions of the Jews ; the expulsion of the
Moriscoes ; the locking-up of vast properties in
mortmain; and the final establishment of the
dreadful tyranny, to consolidate and keep these
enormities together, have destroyed the resources
of the country, and converted, probably, one-half of
the finest part of it into despoblados. These
causes, and not the discovery of America, have
reduced this first of European kingdoms to the
state in which we behold it. Where are the forty
towns of Toledo, that have disappeared since the
time of Philip II.? Ask the priesthood, for they
are the real authors of such destruction. Where
are the industrious people that teemed in Andalusia,
the very names of whose locations are lost, although
they once filled the country along the Guadalquivir,
making it one vast garden and continued line
of towns and villages ? Ask the advisers and
directors of the Catholic kings. Who have caused
the reduction of Estremadura, nearly the most
beautiful region in all Europe, to a vast despoblado ?
The same authorities. Let the traveller go from
Burgos to Valladolid, and thence to Leon, returning
by Benevente, or shape his course as he may in that
region, he will see everywhere amid the most
fertile land, producing everything to gladden the
heart of man little more than the rums of decayed
ITS ABOLITION TX SPAIN. 317
villages arid towns the shadows and spectres of
former wealth and prosperity ; the same heads and
hands have produced these fatal consequences a
state of things to which there is, happily, no parallel
m Europe ! "
Again, this intelligent author remarks : " There
is one very important historical fact to notice,
which may help to explain some of the anomalies
now daily being manifested. Until this generation,
the riding, consolidating, all-pervading, and all-
managing principle of the government was the
ecclesiastical power. This was the lever that raised
the nation, and kept it up during the war of
independence. JS"ow this cause having been re-
moved, as we have seen, rather abruptly not lowered
by gradual progress, but suddenly, and to many,
unexpectedly as yet no counterpoise has been
applied to supply the place ; so that the people, in
the time of public excitement, are like a vessel that
has suddenly lost her rudder in an Atlantic gale."
Mr. Hughes, in his " Revelations in Spain,
in 1845," states the hatred cherished by the
Spaniards against the English though so deeply
indebted to our country for having effectually aided
them against the .French and Napoleon on account
of our being Prqtestants, of whose religious princi-
ples they are profoundly ignorant, through the
misrepresentations of their Romish priests ; and he
remarks, " If there is no Inquisition now-a-days
invested with the ancient terrors, the dregs of its
spirit survives in enforced religious observances.
The regulation enforced by the council of Lateran,
318 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
which requires every member of the Catholic church
to approach the sacraments of confession and com-
munion at Easter time, is sought to be made
universally stringent to this day, not by the ex-
ploded horrors of excommunication and deprivation
of Christian burial, but by minor pains and penalties.
A fine is levied from every person who does not
perform these religious functions at Easter. The
poorer classes throng the churches in crowds during
the latter weeks of Lent. The overworked clergy
perform their duties in a necessarily brief and
perfunctory manner ; ten minutes dispose of each
loaded conscience, and absolution is pronounced.
Perhaps the worst feature of the system is the
coercion exercised upon the female population of
Spain. No young woman can manage to get
married, unless she produce a certain number of
tickets from her parish clergyman, attesting her
regular approach to the tribunal of penance at
stated intervals. There is need of much reform-
ation in these respects ; but there are few indica-
tions of an apostolical spirit in Spain ; few tokens of
the energy of good ecclesiastics ! "
Testimonies of this kind might be multiplied,
from most respectable authors, regarding the con-
dition of Spain, not only declaring the desolation
of that beautiful country, but affirming that the
superstition and degradation of its people arise
from the blind policy, and the intolerant operations
of popery.
Spanish priests, educated and disciplined accord-
ing to the established principles of the Bomiah
AT BOMB; 319
court, may well be presumed to be ignorant, in a
great degree, that the evils afflicting their country
result from their ecclesiastical system. But it can
hardly be supposed that all of them are entirely
ignorant of the Holy Scriptures, and the national
benefits that flow from the acknowledgment of
them as the Divine rule of Christianity. Many of
them must have become acquainted with the sacred
doctrines and holy maxims of the oracles of God ;
and, therefore, a fearful amount of guilt must
attacli to the superiors in the priesthood. They
must be regarded as responsible to the Almighty
for the evils prevailing in their country, and they
must merit the severest denunciations uttered
against the Scribes and Pharisees, who by their
traditions made void the law of God. And while,
by their priestcraft and disallowance of the
Scriptures, they injure both the temporal and eternal
interests of their people, the priests in Spain must
incur the righteous displeasure of the Eternal Judge!
CHAPTEK XXI.
THE INQUISITION AT HOME AND DR. AC1IILLI.
The Inquisition continued at Rome Its deeds and cruelties
Pope Gregory Pope Pius IX. Memorial of the over-
throw of the Inquisition in 1849 Letter to the Rev. E.
Bickersteth Siege of Rome by the French Imprison-
ment and Release of Dr. Achilli.
BOME, the seat and centre of papal intrigue,
contiimed to maintain the Inquisition. Travellers
320 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
have remarked, however, that the abominations
and horrors of that tribunal have never appeared
in so shocking a point of view in that city, as in
Spain and Portugal. This, though matter of fa^t,
has not arisen from the superior clemency and
humanity of the Italians, or from the greater bene-
volence of their religion, but from peculiar circum-
stances. The avarice of the popes has dictated the
necessity of a less sanguinary policy at Home,
while it has been enriched by multitudes of
foreigners of the higher ranks, who had been
attracted as visitors to Borne, to view the monu-
mental remains of its ancient greatness and glory.
But a feeling of dread would have prevented the
approach of many, if the tribunal in that city
had made a public exhibition of its victims. Perse-
cution and punishments were, therefore, not per-
mitted to the same extent in Italy as in Spain and
Portugal ; though deeds of cruelty, at which hu-
manity shudders, were perpetrated in the private
dungeons of the Inquisition.
Many serious persons were led to suppose that
the suppression of the Inquisition at Borne had
followed its abolition in Spain. This, however, waa
far from being the case, as appears from the various
accounts given by recent writers, especially Dr.
Achilli, concerning the state of that institution in
Italy.
Pope Pius IX. knew that the regular staif of
ministers and officers of the Inquisition had been
maintained, with its confessors, familiars, and
guards, requisite for carrying out its sentences, by
AT HOME.
his predecessor, Gregory XVI. And although there
had recently been no public executions, from what
was discovered in the palace of the Inquisition, when
it was taken, on the flight of Pius IX., it is clear that
only a very brief period had elapsed since its horrid
sentences were carried into execution on many a
miserable victim.
Pius IX., the present pope, although regarded by
many as far surpassing in benevolence almost every
former pontiff, has been a zealous supporter of that
tribunal. Hence, " A Narrative of the Iniquities
and Barbarities practised at Borne in the Nineteenth
Century, by Raffaelle Civeci, formerly a Cistercian
monk," published in 1847, declares, "in Rome the
Inquisition avowedly exists. In other parts of
Italy it has changed its name, but not its character ;
for a government, in a degree not less galling,
tyrannises over the consciences of men. Domi-
nicans have given place to commissioners and
inspectors, without renouncing their right to search
out the secrets of all hearts, under the veil of a
supposed sacrament, satisfied to find victims on
whom to place their iron grasp. Whoever aifirms
that the bloody persecutions of the Vatican have
ceased, asserts a falsehood."
Salvatore Eerretti, a native of Tuscany, but who
has been several years in London, editor of
IS Eco di Savonarola, appeals, " Has Pius IX.
even abolished the infamous tribunal of the Inqui-
sition at Rome ? the following will answer this in
the negative.. 'Deceived by the display of be-
nignity and mercy upon the part of the new pon-
322 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
tiff,' says IS Indicators, ' we spoke, in the seven-
teenth number of our journal, 1846, of the unfor-
tunate Archbishop Cashiur, who for twenty-one
years has been confined in the dungeons of the
Inquisition at Rome, guilty of no other crime than
having proved the infallibility of a pope to be falli-
ble. We hoped, if not for his entire liberation, at
least for some indulgence towards the unhappy
man, from the high clemency of Pius IX.' Instead
of this, our correspondent informs us that poor
Cashiur is, by order of Pius IX., more severely
treated than ever. The few concessions which had
been made to him by Pope Gregory, have been
taken from him by Pius IX. The pretext is, that
the archbishop had had a dispute with brother
Pius, a monk of the order of St. Dominick, and
gaoler of the Inquisition ; but the true motive, says
our correspondent, is, ' that it is wished to conceal
from the whole world the existence of the infamous
tribunal ; and the sight of Cashiur, although dis-
guised, taking his walks accompanied by his keeper,
would indicate the existence of the Inquisition.'
Borne, when wilt thou dare to raze from its
foundations this infernal edifice ? The sole rem-
nant of the barbarism of the middle ages still
exists within thy walls, and thou wilt call thyself
civilised !
" What is consoling is the fact that Italy will
not be slow to invoke the benefit of a religious
reformation. There is only a Luther wanting to
raise the first cry of alarm. It cannot be doubted
that the papal religion in Italy is maintained only
AT SOME.
by the tortures of the Inquisition and the bayonets
of Austria!"
Baffaelle Civeci gives the following statement
regarding the way in which the inquisitor-general
at Rome destroyed certain monks who, having
found a Bible in the library, were desirous of
introducing its study into their monastery. " The
general, in order to crush the design, deemed it
expedient to put in practice the celebrated maxim,
divide et impera. The monk Stramucci was sent to
the monastery of San Sevetinonelle Marche, where,
owing to the insalubrity of the situation, or some
other cause, he was, from a robust man, reduced to
a skeleton. D. Andrea Gigli, curate in the monas-
tery of Chiaravalle, was called to Rome. He was
then in the enjoyment of excellent health, but in a
short time his appearance was strangely altered, and
after gradually sinking for two months, he was one
morning found in bed a corpse. "We were in the
same college, and I was an eye-witness to the fact.
D. Eugenio Gabrielli, who was in the flower of his
youth, was, in the same manner, gradually declining
for six months, and then, like the former one, died
of what was called consumption. The Abbot
Bucciarelli, a man of herculean stature, slept with
his fathers after an illness of only three days. The
Abbot Berti was, after two months, attacked by a
slow fever, and expired after ten days' illness. D.
A. Baldini, at the expiration of thirty-four days,
was seized with violent spasms and inflammations,
and went to rejoin, in heaven, those martyrs who
had preceded him. The other six, through a special
THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
interposition of Providence, escaped death ; but all
had to sustain, for many months, a dangerous
struggle with this last enemy. Only D. Alberico
and myself remained untouched by this mysterious
agency., but we lived in daily expectation of sharing
the same fate ! "
Poison is Imown to have been administered, by
the agents of the papal court, to obnoxious indivi-
duals ; and these unhappy monks appear to have
been carried off by that shocking means. Various
forms of murder were practised also within the
dungeons of the Inquisition, as it was commonly
apprehended at Rome.
Dr. Achilli, for many years " Deputy Master of
the Sacred Palace," and himself a victim of that
court at Borne, in a recent work, entitled, " Dealings
with the Inquisition," testifies to the continued
enormities of that horrid tribunal. He says, " This-
disgrace to humanity, whose entire history is a
mass of atrocious crimes, committed by the priests of
the church of Rome, in the name of Grod and of His
Christ, whose vicar and representative the Pope,
the head of the Inquisition, declares himself to be
this abominable institution is still in existence,
in Rome and the Roman states. The Inquisition
existed in full vigour during the whole period of the
pontificate of Pope Gregory. Pius IX. put on a
show of liberality ; but this pope, believed so liberal
by many, was always secretly combined with the
Jesuits and the Inquisition."
Many were the victims of that atrocious court,
sacrificed with fiendish cruelty in- the secret dun-
AT SOME. 325
geons of the Holy Office. Appalling proofs of this
were discovered on the opening of the Inquisition,
ou the flight of the pope, in February, 1848. The
celebrated .Father Prout, a Roman. Catholic priest,
present on the occasion, in a letter to the London
Daily News, therefore, describes the scenes that
were witnessed by the citizens, at the opening of
the dungeons of the Inquisition. "In one part,"
he states, "you see a quadrangular court, surrounded
by strongly barred dungeons ; in another, a court-
yard, along which extends a triple row of cages,
resembling the port-holes of a three-decker ; in
another, skeletons in recesses ; in another, a vault
full of skulls, and piles of scattered human remains,
directly under a perpendicular shaft four feet
square, which ascended perpendicularly to the floor
of the building above, and was covered there with
a trap-door ; and in another, two large subterranean
lime-kilns, if they may be so called, shaped like a
bee-hive, in masonry, filled with layers of calcined
bones, forming the substratum of two other cham-
bers on the ground floor, in the immediate vicinity
of the very mysterious shaft above-mentioned.
These horrible sights may be seen by every one in
Rome. To-morrow," says Father Prout, "the
whole population of Rome is publicly invited by
the authorities to come and see, with their own
eyes, one of the results of .entrusting power to
clerical hands."
Father Prout is 'believed also to have written
the following paper, which was published, as a
" Memorial regarding the tribunal of the Holy
326 THE INQUISITION EEVEALED.
Office, at the time of its suppression in February,
1849:"
" In consequence of a decree of the Eoman Con-
stituent Assembly, by which the suppression of the
tribunal of the ' Holy Office' was resolved, the go-
vernment ordered that the fathers of the Dominican
order, then inhabiting that vast locality, should re-
move to the convent called 'Delia Minerva,' the chief
seat of their order. They were in number eight,
exercising the functions of commissary, chancellor,
&c. The doors were then carefully sealed by the
Boman notary Caggiotti, to prevent the abstraction
of any object, and a keeper was appointed to the pre-
mises. These precautions taken, the inventory was
commenced. The first place visited was the ground-
floor of the edifice, where were the prisons, and the
stables, coach-houses, kitchens, cellars, and other
conveniences for the use of the assessor and the
father inquisitors. This part of the building was
to be immediately prepared for the reception of the
civic artillery, with the train belonging to it.
" Some new doors were opened in the wall, and
part of the pavement raised ; in this operation, liwman
tones were found, and a trap-door discovered, which
induced a resolution to make excavations in certain
spots pointed out by persons well acquainted with
the locality. Digging very deep in a place, a great
number of human skeletons were found, some of
them placed so close together, and so amalgamated
with lime, that no bone could be moved without
foeing broken. In the roof of another subterranean
chamber a large ring was found fixed. It is sup-
AT ROME. 327
posed to have been used in administering the tor-
ture. It still remains there. Along the whole
length of this same room, stone steps, rather broad,
were attached to the wall these, probably, served
for the prisoners to sit or recline on. In a third
under-ground room was found a quantity of very
blade and rich earth, intermingled with human hair,
of such a length that it seemed women's rather than
men's hair ; here, also, human bones were found.
In this dungeon a trap-door was formed in the
thickness of the wall, which opened into a passage
in the flat above, leading to the rooms where exami-
nations were conducted. Among the inscriptions
made with charcoal on the wall, it was observed
that many appeared of a very recent date, express-
ing in most affecting terms the sufferings of every
kind endured in these chambers. The 'person of
most note found in the prison of the Inquisition was
a bishop named Kasher, who had been in confinement
for upwards of twenty years. He related that he
had arrived in Borne from the^Holy Land, having in
his possession papers which had belonged to an eccle-
siastic there. Passing himself for that person, he
succeeded in surprising the court of Borne Jmto
ordaining and consecrating him a bishop. The fraud
\vas afterwards discovered, and Kasher, being then
on his way to Palestine, was arrested and brought
to the prison of the Holy Office, where he expected
to have ended his days less, as he expressed him-
self, to expiate his own fraud, than the gross blun-
der of the church of Borne, which had no other
means of concealing his character of bishop, its
328 THE INQUISITION JBEYEALED.
own absolute laws preventing his being deprived
of it.
" The inventory of the contents of the ground
flat being finished in a few days, it was then thrown
open to the impatient curiosity of the public. The
crowd that resorted to the scene was very great,
and the public indignation rose so high, that there
was a loud and general cry for the destruction of an
edifice of such detestable 'memory. This feeling was
so strong, that on a Sunday afternoon, in March,
faggots were thrown into the cellars and other
under-ground rooms, with the intention of setting
fire to the building ; and this would have been
accomplished, had not a battalion of civic guards
rushed to the spot from the Piazza di S. Pietro.
To the truth of all that is here related, thousands,
both Italians and foreigners, who visited the place
can testify ; and there exists also a detailed account
of everything, written and solemnly attested with
legal forms.
" Passing to the upper fiat, the attention of the
government was especially directed to the chancery
and the archives ; the first containing all the current
affairs of the Inquisition; the second jealously
guarding its acts, from its institution until now.
Before commencing the catalogue of the contents
of the chancery, it was resolved to remove such
papers as might disturb or compromise the tran-
quillity of those persons who had relations with the
Holy Office.
" Attention was especially directed to the book
called ' Solecitazione,' (containing reports,) and to
AT SOME. 329
the correspondence. This was done by order of the
government, which thereby gave another proof of
that moderation which its enemies deny to it. It ap-
pears, from a careful examination of these documents,
which remain for the inspection of such as desire
proofs, that the past government made use of this
tribunal, strictly ecclesiastical in its institution, also
for temporal and political objects, and that the'most
culpable abuse was made of sacramental confession,
especially that of women, rendering it subservient
both to political purposes and to the most abomi-
nable licentiousness. It can be shown, from docu-
ments, that the cardinals, secretaries of state, wrote
to the commissary, to the assessor of the Holy
Office, to procure information as to the conduct of
the suspected individuals, both at home and abroad,
and to obtain knowledge of state secrets by means
of confession, especially those of foreign courts and
cabinets. In fact, there exists long correspondences,
and voluminous processes, and severe sentences,
pronounced upon La Giovine Italia, LaJeuneSuisse,
the masonic societies of England and Scotland, and
the anti-reb'gious sects of America, &c. There is
an innumerable quantity of information and pro-
cesses on scandalous and obscene subjects, in which
the members of regular religious societies are
usually implicated.
"Passing from the chancery to the archives,
which is in the second floor, it appeared, on first
entering, as if everything was in its usual place ;
but on further inspection it was found, with much
astonishment, that though the labels and cases were
Y
330 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
in their places, they were emptied of the packets of
papers and documents indicated by the inscriptions
without. Some conjecture that the missing packets
have been conveyed to the convent ' Delia Minerva,'
or were hidden in the houses of private persons ;
while others suppose that they were burnt by the
Dominican fathers. This last hypothesis receives
weight from the circumstance that in November,
1848, shortly after the departure of the Pope from
Home, the civic guard came in much haste to the
Holy Office, from having observed great clouds of
smoke issuing from one of the chimneys, accompa-
nied by a strong smell of burnt paper. But whatever
were the means, the fact is certain, that, in the
archives of the Inquisition, the most important
trials were not to be found ; such, for instance, as
those of Galileo Galilei, and of Giordano Bruno,
nor was there the correspondence regarding the
reformation in England, in the 16th century, nor
many other precious records. There remains, how-
ever, nearly complete, a collection of decrees, begin-
ning with the year 1549, down to our ^>wn days.
They were divided year by year, each volume con-
taining the decrees of one year. Of these, of all that
was contained in the chancery and archives of the
Holy Office, a catalogue has been taken, with every
legal formality of certification. It ought to be
added that, after the above-mentioned threat of
setting fire to the Holy Office, it was unanimously
decreed by the Assembly that, instead of destroy-
ing that vast edifice, it should be portioned into
dwellings for poor families of Borne. In conse-
AT BOME. 331
quence of this decision, the government was obliged
to remove all the papers in the chancery and
archives, along with three libraries existing in the
Holy Office, to the Palazzo dell Apolinare, which
was the residence assigned for the Minister of
Finance.
" Of these three libraries one was private pro-
perty, the other two belonged to the Inquisition.
It must not be omitted to notice that the Holy
Office had its independent revenue, arising from
gifts of state property, chiefly bestowed by Sixtus V,
and Pius IV., amounting clear to about 8,000 scudi.
This sum was chiefly spent in paying the monks
attached to the Inquisition, some of whom received
considerable salaries. In the above income is not
included the money exacted from prisoners as board ;
the account of what was paid, for example, by the
famous Abbess of Monte Castrelli, was found to be
3,000 scudi. The authorised paid agents of the
Holy Office, called ' Patentali,' were well remune-
rated ; indeed, this was a system by which many
persons were demoralised and corrupted, whose
birth and education should have removed them far
from such a base and guilty traffic, but who were
tempted, perhaps, by necessity.
" To conclude, in a few brief categories we may
sum up the results of this inquiry :
" 1. That the court of Rome availed itself of the
tribunal of the Holy Office for temporal and politi-
cal ends.
" 2. That to succeed in its purposes, the Holy
Office had especially recourse to confession, of which
T 2
332 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
it made the most enormous and abominable abuse,
not only violating secresy, but tampering with its
integrity.
"3. By means of confession, the most odious
licentiousness was insinuated in the confessionals.
With this branch, the Holy Office occupied itself
with extraordinary diligence, but without finding
a remedy for the causes of such scandal.
" 4. That the Holy Office corrupted all classes,
buying information and secrets.
" 5. That the ecclesiastical nuncios at foreign
courts are in constant correspondence with the
Holy Office, and from possessing means of procur-
ing intelligence quite peculiar to themselves, keep
the court of Rome informed of the most hidden
political secrets."
Enormous as the abominations are which are thus
testified concerning the Inquisition, they are only
identical with what are recorded in the former
part of this work ; and this testimony is confirmed
by the following paragraph in a letter from a friend
at Rome, April 3, 1849, addressed to the Rev. E.
Bickersteth :
" The day before yesterday, the palace of the
Inquisition was opened to the public. People
crowded to see that horrible place, where so many
good Christians have been tormented, under the
pretext of being heretics. There were then seen
the horrid dungeons where the victims of the
papacy have been incarcerated.
" It seems that the inquisitors, in hopes of an
intervention to bring back the Pope and cardinals
AT ROME. 333
to Rome, did not take sufficient care to remove
certain objects which might betray their cruelty to
the people. There were then to be seen in the
lower dungeons, which are the worst, the squalid
remains of the dresses, not only of men, but of
women and children. On the walls are to be read
expressions of grief written with charcoal, and some
loith Hood. A trap-door was to be seen, andaburial
icith Tinman bones. But a subterranean cave occa-
sioned special horror, covered toith remains of bones
and earth mixed, including human skulls and skeletons
of different forms and sizes, indicating persons of
different ages. The only things which have not been
found, with the exception of some things which
might have been used for the purpose, are the
instruments of torture, which were used to make
the guilty confess. It seems that these they have
been careful enough to destroy, if indeed they may
not be found walled up in some corner; and for this
end the government have determined to have the
walls broken into, to discover what may be hid
there. All who have seen those remains of clothing
and bones, feel justly indignant at the inhumanity
of those assassins, who, under the cloak of religious
zeal, permitted every kind of cruelty. Would that
those who wish to excuse that hellish tribunal,
and who do not believe what others say to be
truth, would come and see them with their own
eyes. I wish that the friends and defenders of
popery in England would come and touch these
things with their own hands, and then tell me of
what papal ministers are not capable, when they
334 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
have the heart to perpetrate such barbarities. I
shall urge the government to leave this place in
statu quo for some time, so that my friends among
the English may verify, with their own eyes, all
that they hear said concerning this ' Palace of the
Inquisition.' "
DB. ACHILLI AND THE INQUISITION AT EoME.
Popish policy by the Inquisition, at the present
time, may be seen strikingly illustrated in the case
of Dr. Achilli. His instructive volume records,
according to its title, his "Dealings with the
Inquisition." He was born at Viterbo, in Italy, in
1803, and took the Dominican habit at the age of
sixteen. In the year 1821 he was ordained a priest,
and in 1826 appointed professor of various sciences
in the Seminary and Bishops' College at Viterbo.
He filled the chair of Theology in the college of the
Dominicans till 1833, when he was elected Regent of
Studies, and Primary Professor in the College of Mi-
nerva, at Rome. He was then appointed Visitor, in
the Roman States and in Tuscany, of the convents of
the Dominicans, among whom he continued till
1839, when, disgusted with his order of monks, he
left it by permission of Pope Gregory XVI., and
preached four years at Naples. He returned in
1841 to Rome, where he was imprisoned for a
hundred days in the Inquisition. From this he
was liberated, in July, 1842, on renouncing, for
perpetuity, all his honours and privileges ; and the
Holy Office decreed his dismissal from all branches
of the ecclesiastical ministry. In October he left
Italy and became a British subject, being employed
AT ROME. 335
as a professor of theology in the Malta Protestant
College, especially for the training of young men,
converts from Rome, for the evangelical ministry in
Italy. In 1848, he came to England; but the
revolution in Rome, and the flight of the Pope, led
him to return to that city, to advance the cause of
Christ, by preaching and circulating the Scriptures.
He left London, January 8th, 1849, and entered
Home, February 2nd ; on the 5th the Constituent
Assembly met, forming a republic. On the 24th
of June, Dr.'Achilli married the daughter of Captain
Hely ; and on the 3rd of July the French army took
possession of Rome, after a siege of three months,
restoring the government of the Pope, under a tri-
umvirate of cardinals. The prisons of the Inquisition
were immediately crowded with their victims. No less
than sixty priests, who had ministered consolation to
the wounded and dying patriots, were seized and
imprisoned ; and, by the authority of the cardinals,
aided by six French soldiers, three officials of the
Inquisition arrested Dr. Achilli at midnight, July
the 29th, and immured him in their dungeons. But
the great wall of the Holy Office having been
destroyed in the siege, he was removed next day to
the Castle of St. Angelo. His imprisonment was
soon known, and the religious community in Eng-
land was roused at the outrage, so that the Council
of the Evangelical Alliance presented strong appeals
to the British and French governments on his
behalf, and sent two gentlemen as a deputation to
Rome. They were not allowed to see him ; but, on
account of this excitement, he was treated with
336 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
comparative mildness : yet, it seemed, that lie was
designed to be sacrificed on the return of the Pope.
The French government, perceiving their national
honour tarnished by this imprisonment, contrived
his liberation; and, notwithstanding the vigilant
hostility of the cardinals, he was requested to give
evidence before a military commission, and brought
out, by two French soldiers, under this pretence,
and furnished with all the means of escape in a
military dress, January 19, 1850 !
Dr. Achilli's imprisonment in the Inquisition,
and his liberation by the contrivance of the French
general, produced a powerful sensation throughout
Europe. It led multitudes to contemplate, and
even to execrate the Romish Inquisition, as ruinous
to individuals, and hostile to the best interests of
nations. And by the exhibition of the abominable
character of that court, in the records of his book,
" DEALINGS WITH THE INQUISITION," Dr. Achilli
has conferred a lasting obligation on the Christian
public ; while it cannot fail to excite the righteous
indignation of all the followers of Christ against
that tribunal, and against the whole system of
popery !
Dr. Achilli's testimony, therefore, regarding his
own imprisonment and the state of the Inquisition
will be necessary in this place. He says, " I was
imprisoned in the Inquisition from July 29th, 1849,
to January 19th, 1850. Every precaution was
taken to render my confinement severe, and every
means of escape provided against. And, as it was
imagined that the prisons of the Inquisition were
AT ROME. 337
less secure than those of the Castle of St. Angelo,
I was speedily removed to that fortress. In fact,
every thing indicated a determination, on the part
of the church of Rome, to keep me in perpetual
incarceration.
" The story of my imprisonment presents a new
feature in the annals of the Inquisition. Secure of
their privilege, satisfied with the possession of their
prey, which they were persuaded no earthly power
could force them to surrender, they delayed my
condemnation, partly because the tribunal was not
yet entirely re-organised, owing to the absence of
the Pope and the cardinals, and partly because in
consequence of the fact of my imprisonment being
well known, and many persons of high consideration
having declared themselves interested in my favour
they feared their designs might be frustrated,
were it made public that I had received my final
sentence. Their only course, therefore, was to
condemn me to suffer in secret. The fact was, that
I was detained captive, in order to grace the
triumphal car of Pio ISTono, on his return to Eome.
"The treatment experienced in this prison is
certainly not so bad, in most cases, as it is in every
other within the walls of Eome. The Castle of St.
Angelo is chiefly set apart for prisoners of dis-
tinction. Cardinals and prelates who fall into
disgrace with the Pope are confined in it. For this
purpose there are a variety of apartments ; in one
of them are shown the iron rings that had the
honour of securing the cord with which the cele-
brated Cardinals Caraffa, Coscia, and others, were
338 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
liung. Pope Clement VII. was likewise a prisoner
in this fortress, at the time of its occupation by the
Imperial forces, which he himself had called into
Home. The records of this edifice, which, as
everybody knows, was originally the mausoleum of
the Emperor Adrian, would throw considerable
light on the history of the papacy, and unfold
many of the evil deeds of the popes. It has been
the scene of the most unheard-of cruelties, as well
as of the most shameless and revolting obscenities.
The well-known orgies of Pope Alexander VI.,
which were celebrated partly in the gardens of the
Vatican, and partly in the Castle of St. Angelo,
have left a stain upon its walls which can never be
effaced. Like the Pope's bulls, it serves ' ad per-
petuam rei memoriam.' In one of the halls are the
notorious pictures by Julio Romano, of which it
would be difficult to decide whether the artistical
skill they display be more admirable, or the subjects
they represent more grossly indecent and detestable.
Colonel Calandrelli, one of the most valiant de-
fenders of the republic, and a triumvirate after
Mazzini a gentleman equally learned in the
history of his country, as he has shown himself
brave in her service has assured me that he has a
work ready for publication, in which the whole
history of this celebrated Castle is unfolded from
authentic documents." Pp. 4, 25, 2G, 465.
Cardinal Wiseman having attempted a vindication
of the Inquisition, Dr. Achilli notices his Jesuitical
effort ; and he asks, " What, then, is the Inquisition
of the nineteenth century ? The same system of
AT HOME. 339
intolerance which prevailed in the barbarous ages.
That which raised the Crusade, and roused all
Europe to arms at the voice of a monk [Bernard]
and of a hermit [Peter]. That which in the name
of a God of peace, manifested on earth by Christ,
who, through love for sinners, gave himself to be
crucified brought slaughter on the Albigenses ;
filled France with desolation, under Domenico di
Gfusman ; raised in |Spain the funeral pile and the
scaffold, devastating the fair kingdoms of Granada
and Castile, through the assistance of those detest-
able monks, Eaimond de Pennefort, Peter Arbues,
and Cardinal Torquemada. That which, to its eter-
nal infamy, registers in the annals of France the
fatal 24th of August, and the 5th of November in
those of England. That same system which at
this moment flourishes in Borne, which has never
yet been either worn out or modified, and which,
at this present time, in the jargon of the priests, is
called, 'The Holy, Roman, Universal, Apostolic
Inquisition !' Holy, as the place where Christ was
crucified is holy ; Apostolic, because Judas Iscariot
was the first inquisitor ; Roman and Universal,-
because from Rome it extends over all the world.
" But what is the Inquisition of the present day
in Rome ? It is the very same that was instituted,
at the council of Verona, to burn Arnold of Brescia ;
the same that was establised at the third council
of the Lateran, to sanction the slaughter of the
Albigenses and the "Waldenses, the massacre of
the people, the destruction of the city ; the same
that was confirmed at the council of Constance, to
310 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
burn alive two holy men, John Huss, and Jerome
of Prague ; that which, at Florence, subjected
Savonarola to the torture ; and at Home condemned
Aonio Paleario, and Pietro Carnesecchi. It is the
self-same Inquisition with that of Pope Caraffa,
and of Fr. Michele Grhistieri, who built the palace
called The Holy Office, where so many victims fell
a sacrifice to their barbarity, and where at the pre-
sent moment the Roman Inquisition still exists.
Its laws are always the same. The Black Book, or
Praxis Sacrce Romance Inquisitionis, is always the
model for that which is to succeed it. This book is
a large manuscript volume, in folio, and is carefully
preserved by the head of the Inquisition. It is
called Libro Nero, The Black Book, because it has
a cover of that colour ; or, as an inquisitor explained
to me, Libro Necro, which, in the Greek language,
signifies, The Book of the Dead" Pp. 106, 109.
Dr. Achilli mentions some cases illustrative of the
atrocious wickedness of the inquisitors : one of
these will strikingly exhibit " the mystery of ini-
quity" in their system. He says, "During my
residence at Viterbo, my native town, where I was
public professor and teacher in the church di Gradi,
I was one day applied to by a lady of prepossessing
appearance, whom I then saw for the first time.
She requested, with much eagerness, to see me in
the sacristy ; and as I entered the apartment, where
she was waiting for me, she begged the sacristan to
leave us alone, and suddenly closing the door, pre-
sented a moving spectacle to my eyes. Throwing
off her bonnet, and letting loose in a moment her
AT EOME. 341
long and beautiful tresses, the lady fell upon her
knees before me, and gave vent to her grief, in
abundance of sighs and tears. On my endeavour-
ing to encourage her, and to persuade her to rise
and unfold her mind to me, she at length, in a voice
broken by sobs, thus addressed me :
" ' No, father, I will never rise from this posture,
unless you first promise to pardon me my heavy
transgression.' (Although much younger than
herself, she addressed me as her father.)
" ' Signora,' replied I, ' it belongs to God to par-
don our transgressions. If you have in any way
injured me, so far I can forgive you; but I confess
I have no cause of complaint against you, with
whom, indeed, I have not even the pleasure of being
acquainted.'
" ' I have been guilty of a great sin, for which no
priest will give me absolution, unless you will be-
forehand remit it to me.'
" ' You must explain yourself more fully ; as yet
I have no idea of what you allude to.'
" ' It is now about a year since I last received
absolution from my confessor ; and the last few-
days he has entirely forbid me his presence, telling
me that I am damned. I have tried others, and all
tell me the same thing. One, however, has lately
informed me, that if I wished to be saved and par-
doned, I must apply to you, who, after the Pope,
are the only one who can grant me absolution.'
" ' Signora, there is some mistake here, explain
yourself: of what description is your sin :'
" ' It is a sin against the Holy Office.'
342 THE INQUISITION KEVEALED.
" ' "Well, but I have nothing to do with the Holy
Office.'
" ' How ? are you not Father Achilli, the vicar
of the Holy Office ?'
" ' You have been misinformed, Signora ; I am
Achilli, the deputy-master of the Holy Palace, not
Office : you may see my name with this title pre-
fixed to all works that are printed here, in lieu of
that of the master himself. I assure you that nei-
ther my principal nor myself have any authority in
cases that regard the Inquisition.'
" The good lady hereupon rose from her knees,
arranged her hair, wiped the tears from her eyes,
and asked leave to relate her case to me; and
having sat down, began as follows :
" ' It is not quite a year since, that I was going,
about the time of Easter, according to my usual
custom, to confess my sins to my parish priest.
He being well acquainted with myself and all my
family, began to interrogate me respecting my son,
the only one I have, a young man twenty-four years
of age, full of patriotic ardour, but with little
respect for the priests. It happened that I
observed to the curate that, notwithstanding my
remonstrances, my son was in the habit of saying
that the business of a priest was a complete
deception, and that the head of all the impostors
was the Pope himself. Would I had never told
him ! The curate would hear no further. ' It is
your duty,' said he, ' to denounce your son to the
Inquisition.' Imagine what I felt at this intima-
tion ! To be the accuser of my own son ! 'Such is
AT BOMB. 343
the case,' observed he, ' there is no help for it I
cannot absolve you, neither can any one else, until
the thing is done.' And, indeed, from every one else
I have had the same refusal. It is now twelve
months since I have received absolution; and in
this present year many misfortunes have befallen
me. Ten days ago I tried again, and promised, in
order that I might receive absolution, that I would
denounce my son ; but it was all in vain, until I
had actually done so. I inquired then to whom
I ought to go, to prefer the accusation ; and I
was told, to the bishop, or the vicar of the Holy
Office, and they named yourself to me. Twice,
already, have I been here, with the intention of
doing what was required of me, and as often have I
recollected that I was a mother, and was over-
whelmed with horror at the idea. On Sunday last
I came to your church, to pray to the Virgin, the
mother of Christ, to aid me through this diffi^
culty; aud I remember that when I had recited
the rosary in her honour, I turned to pray also to
the Son, saying : ' O Lord Jesus, thou wert also
accused, before the chief priests, by a traitorous
disciple : but thou didst not permit that thy mother
should take part in that accusation. Behold, then,
I also am a mother ; and, although my son is a
sinner, whilst thou wert most just, do not, I implore
thee, require that his own mother should be his
accuser.' Whilst I was making this prayer the
preaching began. I inquired the preacher's name,
and they told me yours. I feigned to pay attention
to the discourse, but I was wholly occupied in
344 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
looking at you, and reflecting, with many sighs,
that I was under the obligation to accuse to you
my own child. In the midst of my agitation a
thought suddenly relieved me, I did not see the
Inquisition in your countenance. Young, animated,
and with marks of sensibility, it seemed that you
would not be too harsh with my son j I thought I
would entreat you first to convert him yourself, to
reprimand, and to threaten him, without inflicting
actual punishment upon him.'
" I shall not recapitulate my injunctions to this
poor woman, to trauquillise her mind with respect
to having to denounce her son. I advised her to
change her confessor. But, had I really been vicar
of the Holy Office, what was my duty in this
matter ? To receive the accusation of this mother
against her own son. An unheard-of enormity!
She naturally would have made it with grief and
tears, and I should have had to offer her consolation.
And since this horrible act of treason has the pre-
tence of religion about it, I should have employed
the aid of religion to persuade her that the sacrifice
she made was most acceptable to God. Perhaps,
to act my part better, I might have alluded to the
sacrifice demanded of Abraham, or Jephtha ; or
cited some apposite texts from Scripture, to calm
and silence the remorse of conscience she must
have experienced, on account of the iniquity of
bringing her child before the Inquisition."
Pp. 115-119.
FEMALE VICTIMS. 345
CHAPTEE XXII.
FEMALE INQUISITIONS IN ROME.
Policy of the Inquisition in the Romish Church In Nunneries
They are Prisons Testimony of Rev. B. White Case
of Abduction at Turin Testimony of Rev. M. H. Sey-
mour Society in Rome Italian estimate of Woman
Reasons for Nunneries Their watls and iron gratings
Their secrecy Testimony of an Officer Religious temp-
tations Impurity in Nunneries Instances of wickedness
Suicide of an Abbess Popery as regarded by the
Romans.
ROMISH policy in the Inquisition, as we have
seen, is not limited to the Holy Office. Its influ-
ence and its morals are felt throughout the whole
circle of society in popish countries ; and its opera-
tions extend to all classes, even to the educational
and public institutions. It is seen in the religious
houses. We have, in Chapter XIX., some affect-
ing examples and illustrations of the enormities
and immoral practices of the celibate priests, among
all ranks. And such evils are known to have been
common in convents and nunneries. These have
been considered as so many " Female Inquisitions."
Many of them are, in a proper sense of the term,
prisons, whose unhappy inmates are altogether in the
power of the priests. They are governed and regu-
lated by rules framed or sanctioned by the " Holy
Office ;" and in what manner soever the recluses
z
346 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
are treated, they have no means of redress, being
entirely removed from the jurisdiction of the civil
magistrate, secluded in secret apartments, to which
priests only have access.
What is the general character of both priests
and nuns, in Roman Catholic countries, is testified
by many ; and the testimony of the Eev. Blanco
White, formerly chaplain to the king of Spain, as
he had the best means of information, will be satis-
factory regarding his own country. He says,
" Men of the first eminence in the church were the
old friends of my family my parents' and my own
spiritual directors. Thus I grew up, thus I con-
tinued in manhood, till at the age of five-aud-thirty,
religious oppression, and that alone, forced me
away from kindred and country. The intimacy of
friendship and undisguised converse of sacramental
confessions opened to me the hearts of many whose
exterior conduct might have deceived a common
observer. The coarse frankness of associated dis-
soluteness left, indeed, no secrets among the spi-
ritual slaves, who, unable to separate the laws of
Grod from those of their tyrannical church, tram-
pled both under foot in riotous despair. Such are
the sources of the knowledge I possess : God, sor-
row, and remorse, are my witnesses.
" What need I say of the vulgar crowd of priests,
who, coming, as the Spanish phrase has it, from
coarse swaddling clothes, and raised by ordination to
a rank of life for which they have not been prepared,
mingle vice and superstition, grossness of feeling
and pride of office, in their character? I have
FEMALE VICTIMS. 347
known the best among them ; I have heard the con-
fessions of young persons of both sexes, who fell
under the influence of their suggestion and example ;
and I do declare that nothing can be more dangerous
to youthful virtue than their company. How many
souls would be saved from crime but for the vain
display of superior virtue which Rome demands
from her clergy !
" The picture of female convents requires a more
delicate pencil, yet I cannot find tints sufficiently
dark and gloomy to portray the miseries which I
have witnessed in their inmates. Crime, indeed,
makes its way into those recesses, in spite of the
spiked walls and prison gates which protect the in-
habitants. This I know, with all the certainty
which the self-accusation of the guilty can give.
It is, besides, a notorious fact, that the nunne-
ries in jEstremadura and Portugal are frequently
infected ivith vice of the grossest kind. But I'will
not dwell on this revolting part of the picture !"
"Auricular confession," with its authorised rules
and questions, seems, above everything in human in-
tercourse, adapted to corrupt the heart of the
priest, and prepare him for the most vicious prac-
tices. And the dangers to unprotected nuns can-
not but be inexpressible. How can a virtuous
mind contemplate this practice, in the nature of
things, without revolting from it with indignation ?
The MIND surrendered to the keeping of a fellow-
being, who probes every feeling and knows every
thought ! the MIND forced into a mould, as of
iron, and there held by an unholy priest ! maidens
z 2
348 THE INQUISITION REYEALED.
unbosoming themselves in secret to unmarried men,
to men who are trained up from childhood for
the priesthood, as the sure means of a respectable
livelihood ! Married women exhibiting the inmost
recesses of their hearts to strange men ! Is there
not iniquity unspeakable in this practice? It
seems necessary, therefore, to complete the present
work, to offer some exhibition of the state of those
prisons of females, kept under the government of
priests, and especially as they exist in the metro-
polis of the Roman pontiff. This appears essential
to the "INQUISITION REVEALED."
Popish policy regarding convents, and the fact
of their being secret prisons, similar to those of the
Inquisition, will appear more fully from an atrocious
case of priestly intrigue, in violation of the law of
God, the particulars of which are given in The
Times newspaper of Friday, November 15, 1844:
" A popular French writer has recently asserted,
in a work of fiction, in which he virulently, though
not always unjustly, assails the policy of the Romish
clergy, that the pretensions of the more unscrupu-
lous agents of that church openly defy all the most
sacred relations of mankind ; that they dare to set at
nought even the ties of filial duty ; and that no
artifices are too base for them to resort to, in further-
ance of their ends. But we have met with nothing
in the pages of fiction which illustrates these
serious and almost incredible charges more forcibly,
than an occurrence which has actually taken place
in the course of the present year, in one of the
capitals of the south of Europe. "We feel impelled
FEMALE YICTIMS. 349
to give to these painful events, and most sinister
machinations, a greater publicity than they have
hitherto received ; not only because it is well that
the actors iu such transactions should learn, that
they cannot escape the animadversions of Europe,
but because the case we are about to relate affords a
warning not to be overlooked by our Protestant
fellow-countrymen, whose families may chance to fall
within the reach of the same dangerous influences.
" The post of Dutch minister at the court of
Turin had been reputably filled, for some years, by
a Protestant gentleman of the name of Heldivier,
who resided with his family in that city, until, in
consequence of some new diplomatic arrangements
on the part of the Dutch government, he received,
in May last, his letters of recall. Some domestic
anxiety had been occasioned to this family by one
of the daughters, a young lady of ardent and inde-
pendent temperament, who was supposed to have
formed an attachment to a young lawyer of the
town, whose character and position did not make
him a suitable match for her. Their departure was,
therefore, hastened ; but after M. Heldivier had
presented his letters to the king of Sardinia, he
was accidentally detained, by the illness of ano-
ther of his children, for a few days, in an hotel
at Turin. On the 8th of June, a display of fire-
works took place, in honour of the birth of an heir
to the duke of Savoy. The ex-minister and his
wife were induced to attend this fete, and very
reluctantly to leave their daughter, who excused
herself on some pretext, at home. They were
350 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
absent but a short time ; yet, in the interval, the
vague apprehensions they seem to have entertained
were fatally verified. Their daughter had dis-
appeared and for ever. At that hour of the night
she had quitted the hotel, alone, and without even
a change of dress. The police were immediately
sent in search of the fugitive. The young advocate,
who was at first suspected to have had a hand in the
elopement, was examined, but he proved himself to be
totally ignorant of the occurrence ; not a vestige of
her was to be found within the jurisdiction of the
authorities of the city; but this absence of all
evidence raised a strong presumption that she
would be found in the precincts of some convent,
more inaccessible than a prison or a tomb.
"Application was made to the archbishop of
Turin, as the supreme ecclesiastical power of the
kingdom, for leave to pursue these inquiries, or for
information, if he possessed it, on the subject ; for,
meanwhile, the anxiety and anguish of this unfor-
tunate family had been raised to a pitch which we
shall not attempt to describe ; and even the public,
startled by the actual disappearance of a young
lady, still a minor, the daughter of a gentle-
man who came amongst them as the representative
of a foreign sovereign, took the liveliest interest in
their extreme distress.
"The archbishop thought fit to reply to this
application, that he had reason to believe that
Mademoiselle Heldivier had indeed sought refuge
in a convent, but that he was unable to state where
she was at present. A few days more, however,
FEMALE VICTIMS. 351
brought the whole transaction to light. When the
archbishop of Turin asserted that he was unable to
state where the young lady was, he might have
stated, and he did afterwards acTcnoivledge, that no
person living had had so great a hand in the affair
as himself. For two years he had been carrying on
a system of secret communication with Mademoiselle
Ileldivier! Thwarted by her parents in her attach-
ment for the young advocate, she had sought to
avenge herself upon them by transferring her
confidence from her father to this priest from her
natural protectors, to the jealous arms of the church
of Koine. The archbishop, unwilling to commit
himself by a written order, had furnished his convert
idth one-half of a sheet of paper, cut in a particular
manner ; the other half was given to the abbess of
the convent of Santa Croce, in Turin, with orders
to receive the bearer of the corresponding fragment
at any hour of the day or night. Provided with
these credentials, the fugitive found shelter in the
convent walls ; but, by the advice of the archbishop,
her flight was deferred until her father, by the
delivery of his letters of recall, had, as these clerical
conspirators contend, surrendered those diplomatic
rights and privileges which would have been fatal
to their scheme.
" The fact being thus ascertained, a strong effort
was made to bring the authors of this plot to
account for their action, and to yield up the young
person whom they had gotten into their possession.
Setting aside the odious secret arts by which this
alleged conversion had been effected, and the
352 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
irreparable injury done to an honourable family,
the case was one which demanded the strongest
remonstrances, as an unparalleled invasion of the
law of nations, and of the rights of diplomatic
persons. A Dutch subject a minor the child of
a Dutch minister is encouraged to quit her father's
abode, received into a convent, and there detained,
not only by moral but by actual force, since every
attempt even to search these convents was success-
fully resisted by the clergy. His Majesty granted
him an audience ; but, in answer to the prayers
and demands of M. Heldivier, that his daughter
might be restored to him, the only reply which the
absolute monarch dared to make was, that whatever
might be Ms own opinion on the subject, if he pre-
sumed to interfere with the ecclesiastical jurisdiction
of the convents, he should be excommunicated ! Such
an answer, on such an occasion, might have been
expected from a Philip II. of Spain ; and such
powers as are thus recognised and established fall
little short of those of the Inquisition ! The prin-
ciple contended for, on behalf of the church of
Borne, is this that any child, having completed the
age of twelve years, may, for any cause, motive, or
pretext, throw off the parental authority, and fling
itself under the protection of the chtirch. If the
child be a Protestant, so much the better, since,
while it abjures its filial duties, it abandons its
religious faith ; but, whether Catholic or Protestant,
the protection of the church, thus sought and thus
given, is absolute and inviolable !
" There are few countries now, in Europe or the
FEMALE VICTIMS. 353
world, where such a doctrine as this would not be
demolished by the ordinary notions of civil rights
and justice. But the dominions of the king of
Sardinia are not one of those countries. In vain
did Mr. Abercromby, our own intelligent minister
at the court of Turin, and Baron Mortier, the
representative of France, represent that M. Heldi-
vier, as a diplomatic person, had an incontestable
right to quit the country in peace, taking with him
all his family. The inexorable grasp of the infallible
church prevailed. The king of Holland appears to
have taken this outrage upon the family of his
minister with a most unbecoming indiiference and
pusillanimity ; and Mademoiselle Heldivier remains
in the convent of Santa Croce, where she has
formally abjiired the Protestant heresy, and will,
probably, take the veil on the completion of her
noviciate.
"We have no wish to draw any excessive or
unjust inferences from this strange occurrence,
which seems to belong, not only to another country,
but to another age ; but it exhibits an awful picture
of what tlie uncontrolled power of the Romish clergy
may still dare to effect, and a hwniliating example
of a government, which has allowed the ties of private
right and public laic to be broken asunder, because
it is itself a victim to the worst form of bigotry,
and the most servile subjection to spiritual oppres-
sion! "
Rome must be regarded as the fountain of the
papal Catholicism. In that metropolis is concen-
trated the wisdom, the authority, and the perfection
354 THE INQUISITIOK BEVEALED.
of that system, which has been established by the
pretended "Vicar of Christ." We are bound,
therefore, to examine the institutions of him who is
entitled " His Holiness," and worshipped under the
designation of " Most Holy Father ! "
Nunneries abound in Rome; but they are, in
reality, so many prisons, and most of them appear
to be governed by the most intolerant rules, framed
under the authority of the Inquisition, and ad-
ministered in its spirit, as testified by the most
respectable writers. Perhaps no one willbe esteemed
more worthy of credit than the Her. M. Hobart
Seymour, M. A., a clergyman of the highest reputa-
tion in the church of England. In his " Pilgrimage
to Home," written after his visit to that city, at the
close of 1844, and in the early part of 1845, he
testifies concerning the condition and character of
society among the Romans, as shall be quoted from
his instructive volume.
Regarding the city of Rome itself, he declares,
"Although the hotels are admirable, the best of
them being under the management of foreigners,
every species of filth and every kind of odour greet
the visitant on his entrance among the streets of
this city of the church. For filth, for odours, for
indecency, for all that is offensive to the eye, to the
feelings, to the habits of a cleanly and orderly
people, the city of Rome surpasses almost any city
in the world ! "Pp. 139.
In testifying concerning the Roman convents, he
says, " The subject of monasteries, as nunneries are
called in Italy, is beset with considerable difficulties.
FEMALE VICTIMS. 355
The conclusion at which we have arrived, after all
the information we could obtain, is this : that
however unmixed the evils of such a system may
seem however inexcusable and unredeemable in
France or England, in Germany or Switzerland,
the establishment of monasteries in Italy bears a
different complexion; not, indeed, from anything
in the nature or conduct of such establishments
themselves, but from the state of society in Italy.
" The social state of that beautiful land is as sad
and melancholy, as its skies are bright and joyous.
In the addresses of the preachers at the several
receptions of novices and nuns, at which we were
present, there was one pervading idea one, too,
not lightly put forth or incidentally alluded to, but
running through the whole discourse, and forming
the main substratum of everything else. I allude to
the idea, that it was very difficult for a young
female to preserve herself pure and holy from the
sin and vice of the world, except within the walls
of a monastery. These preachers had never wit-
nessed the social system of England, or other lands ;
they had seen only that which pervaded Italy, and
especially that of Rome. They were unmarried
men, wlio knew nothing of the purity, the modesty,
the virtue, that belongs to a high-toned state of
female society. They had seen only the remains of
the loose, wanton, and licentious spirit that breathed
through every part of Italy during the last century;
and every one who has the means of observation
or information, seems to feel that the judgment
of these men, though overstrained, as applied
356 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
universally, is too correct in the main, as applied
to the tone of society in Italy, and especially in
Borne.
" I was much struck with this idea, when put
forth so strongly, as expressing the conviction of
those men ; and it soon appeared to be a very general
feeling among the laity as well as among the clergy.
And I was surprised at finding that, even among
the women, who had themselves borne the most res-
pectable and irreproachable characters, there was a
strong conviction, that however objectionable the
life of the cloister, it yet was the safest life for a
female. My wife had much communicated to her
by ladies, who were mothers of families, and were
conversant with the difficulties that surrounded
them . And the general impression was, that the
state of society was so ill-arranged that the tone of
feeling was so loose that moral principle was so
lightly valued that regard for female purity was so
little cherished and the whole frame-work of
the .social system so loosened and disjointed, that
there was neither a due respect for female charac-
ter, nor sufficient protection for female purity.
Living under governments essentially despotic
living under laws that are framed only to screen the
authorities living in lands where justice can be
bought and sold, like any other marketable commo-
dity living among a people ever ripe for any and
every revolution living in this state, they live sus-
picious of each other ; and being without commerce,
without education, without employment, they too
often make vice and intrigue, and at all events plea-
FEMALE YTCTIMS. 357
sure the business, and education, and employment
of life. In such a state of things among the men,
women become regarded by them merely as a means
to an end, merely as a means to minister to the
pleasures of the hour ; till too often she sinks into
that state in which character is an incumbrance,
and modesty is unknown.
" This is a dark picture, though a faithful one, of
Italian society. It was drawn for us by Italian
hands, in the freedom and frankness of private in-
tercourse ; and strongly illustrates the ground of
their great predilection for monasteries. A young
Italian lady, before her marriage, is not permitted
to stir out of the sight of her mother ; and no
acquaintance with men, and no intimacy even with
her own brothers, in the sense in which we regard
acquaintance or intimacy, is permitted. The
mothers seem to act as if they thought it was morally
impossible their daughters should not fall, if only
they had a moment's opportunity ; as if they
thought their daughters were seeking the opportu-
nity, and were restrained only by the strict super-
intendence of parental presence. This is a state of
society unknown in England, and almost as unin-
telligible as unknown. And, strange to say, all the
warm and affectionate intercourse of brothers and
sisters, and all the frankness and confidence of
respect and protection that characterises the inter-
course of unmarried persons in society in England,
are things utterly unknown and unintelligible in
Italy." Pp. 168-171.
Nunneries, therefore, in the present state of
358 THE INQUISITION REYEALED.
society, in the opinion of Mr. Seymour, are
necessary in Italy. He says of them, " There are
two very cogent motives towards the maintenance
of nunneries in Italy ; one, as a means of safe and
secure seclusion from the hideous forms of vice and
immorality that characterises Italian society : the
other, as an easy and convenient means for settling
and providing for the unmarried daughters of the
land.
" The feeling, that the life of the cloister is the
only safe and secure protection for an unmarried
female, is warmly cherished and most deeply seated ;
and it is carefully fostered by the parents, in order
to induce their daughters to remain in the cloister.
It is no less carefully cherished and fostered by the
priesthood, to conceal the penetralia of conventual
life ; and so far is this carried, that if a novice,
having taken the white veil, should, at the conclusion
of her noviciate, refuse to take the black veil, she
would be regarded as a reckless, wilful girl, who
preferred a life of exposure to the worst temptations
of the world, to a life of holiness and peace in a
nunnery. Her parents and relations would refuse
to receive her ; or, if they did receive her, it would
be as a fallen and unhappy one. And as, in Eng-
land, a family would weep and mourn over one of
their number who had fallen into sin, and shame,
and sorrow, bringing ruin upon herself and disgrace
upon her family ; just so, in Italy, would a family
regard the girl who had finished her noviciate, and
refused to proceed further. She would be kept
from contact with her other sisters ; she would be
FEMALE VICTIMS. 359
removed out of sight, that no stranger should see
her; her name would never be heard in conver-
sation ; and, even in her own family, it would never
be breathed, save in those low and whispering
tones in which we speak of those that have fallen.
"With such a prospect before her, as a matter of
certainty, it ceases to be any cause for astonish-
ment that the young novice should persevere, and
lay aside the white veil, and assume the black,
becoming a recluse for life." Pp. 173, 174.
Mr. Seymour's representation of the condition of
nuns is most affecting; but only in accordance
with what is declared by others who are competent
to form a correct opinion. He says, of the wretched
victim of this system, "At the last day of her
noviciate she is nominally free, and then, on
assuming the black veil, she becomes a prisoner for
life. If she escapes from the monastery, or
attempts to fly, the law proclaims her an outcast,
and all the ministers of justice pursue her as a
felon, and she is seized and pit/nished as a criminal,
and confined, if possible, still more closely than
before. I cannot say precisely what are the pro-
visions of the law respecting such runaways, but the
notion that it is a sin deserving death is carefully
propagated, and the belief generally prevails that
imprisonment in a dungeon for life is the destined
penalty within the walls of a convent. The terrors
of the law are thus one great security against any
attempt at escape from a nunnery. And, besides
this, escape is next to impossible ; for the monas-
teries are so constructed, that the inmates are as
360 THE INQUISITION BETEALED.
much prisoners within them, as criminals are
prisoners in the public gaols. The windows are
barred ; the gates are chained ; the walls are lofty.
Exteriorly they always present this sad appearance,
and interiorly it is necessary to pass through one,
two, and sometimes three massive gates or doors,
made as strong as wood and iron can make them,
and locked and chained as securely as art can
effect. It has always appeared .to me, when ex-
amining these monasteries, that it was physically
impossible for a young female to make an effectual
attempt to escape. She cannot escape ; and if she
could, she would immediately be seized by the
police, and remanded to some worse punishment in
her prison.
" I have examined the exterior of many monas-
teries, and have been admitted into the interior of
some, so as to be allowed to converse with the nuns
at the grating : my wife has been admitted into the
intima penetralia of others. The impression left
on her mind, as on my own, has been the same
that there is no possibility of escape ; and that the
nuns must remain, in general, not because their
home is happy, but because they have no means of
leaving it. It is often indeed said, and great care
is taken to propagate the idea, that their home is
happy that their occupations are innocent that
their hearts are peaceful ; while all within is a
paradise of holiness and happiness, the very type
and shadow of our home in the heavens. It is
carefully reported, that this fulness of happiness,
this repletion of peace, this secret and holy com-
FEMALE VICTIMS. 361
munion pf sister with sister, and total separation
from all the ties of a family, and all the cares of
life, is the real magic that binds, as by a spell, the
hearts of novices, and the minds of nuns ; so that
they would not exchange their nunneries for the
noblest palace their simple repast for the most
joyous, festive scenes their life of dull monotony
for the most brilliant society ; or the companionship
of the sisters for the society of the most affectionate
of husbands. All this is so often said, that in Italy
it is as familiar as a household word; but all
appeared otherwise to us. We felt, that if, indeed,
they were so happy, there was no necessity for
such lofty walls to keep them there ; that if, indeed,
all within was such a perfect paradise, there was no
need of such pains to prevent their deserting it ;
that if all was a type of heaven, it seemed strange
to have such bars of iron, and such gratings of iron,
to compel these spirits of holiness to remain in the
enjoyment of it. In England, these lofty walls and
iron bars bespeak a prison, to confine the criminal
and prevent his escape ; and, certainly, in Italy they
look as if designed for the same purpose. And it
is nothing else than rank hypocrisy, to say that
these lofty walls and iron bars are designed for any
other purpose than the enforced constraint and
imprisonment of the inmates of the monastery.
To so cruel and tyrannical an extent is this impri-
sonment carried, that no nun is permitted to speak
with any one, even through the grating, unless in
the presence of a second nun as a spy, to prevent
any plan of escape, or aught else concerted with
A A
362 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
the stranger, or any conversation passing to the
prejudice of the monastic life, or to the unveiling
of the secrets of the nunnery. It is all a part of
the system to surround the inmates with every
imaginable check and restraint, to preclude the hope
and prevent the possibility of escape, and so secure
the nuns as prisoners for life, and recluses for ever.
At one nunnery, where we were conversing with
two nuns at the grating, having visited them in
company with the relations of one of them, I
observed that the iron was double, the two gratings
being some inches apart, so that even hand could
not touch hand through them. I asked the reason
of such double defence, begging to know whether,
as all was such a paradise, it was designed to keep
the ladies in, or to keep the gentlemen out. I was
merrily answered on the instant, ' 0, Signer, one
grating will keep the ladies within, and the other
will keep the gentlemen without !' "Pp. 177-180.
Mr. Seymour obtained information of the most
appalling character, from persons who possessed
intimate acquaintance with these " Female Inquisi-
tions" at Home. Their testimony, therefore, could
not be invalidated. He states on this point, " A
gentleman, who holds an official station in the papal
court, and who, from the nature of his office, has
been obliged to accompany the cardinal-vicar in
his visitation of some of the nunneries, communi-
cated to us, in private, the impressions created on
his own mind. He was a man of years and experi-
ence was the father of a large family, was a very
domestic, amiable and religious man, for a B/omanist
FEMALE VICTIMS. 363
and certainly was the most respectable character,
as an Italian gentleman, it was our good fortune to
meet in Italy. He and his wife communicated
many things which we could not otherwise have
learned, and frequently, by introductions, put us in
the way of ascertaining matters in which they
themselves could not prudently appear. He used
to say, that when the novices became nuns at an
early age, as eighteen or twenty, they seemed to be
sufficiently happy for two or three years ; at least,
that for that time there seemed to be nothing re-
markable ; but that when they became old enough to
see and understand well what were the consequences
of the step they had taken, and that now there was
no hope before them, they soon gave way to sorrow
and despair. He spoke with deep feeling of the
effect of this on the spirits and appearance of the
young ladies. He stated that the broken-hearted
look the shades of indelible sorrow the lines of
settled and unalterable sadness the expression of
resentment or despair that characterised many of
these young creatures, used to affect his heart, sad-
den all his best feelings, and trouble his very
dreams. He could not think or speak of the sub-
ject without such feelings that tears would come
into his eyes; saying, that it was inconceivable
the number of nuns that went to an early grave
under this system. Those who awoke to the reality
of their state, and thought of all the ties of home
and affection, and their exchange of all freedom for
the dull monotony and useless employments of the
cloister, soon pined and saddened, and sinking into
AA 2
364 THE INQUISITION EETEALED.
despair, died of madness ; while some others, like
gathered flowers, plucked from their native gardens,
where they might long have bloomed and gladdened
the scene, soon faded and withered and died. He
always said that this was the melancholy destiny of
the greater portion; and that nothing on earth
could induce him, with the knowledge he possessed,
to allow one of his daughters to take the veil ; for
that the majority of nuns at Rome died of madness
before they were Jive-and-twenty years of age !"
Pp. 181-183.
Surely no one can read this testimony concern-
ing the condition of nuns at Home, without the
deepest emotion and horror. The system that
requires it must be inhuman and execrable ; and
those who administer it, though titled dignitaries in
a priesthood, must be fearfully guilty. It may be
said that the ladies are carefully taught in their
seclusion the duties of religion, and directed to its
divine consolations. But Mr. Seymour further re-
marks on the morals and religion of the Roman
nuns. Referring to the testimony of his friend in
the "papal court," he says, "Now all this, though
very different from our notions on the subject,
seems very natural. There are some monasteries
where the inmates have many privileges and many
comforts, and can enjoy the world in a measure.
There are some, too, where the nuns occupy them-
selves in the education of the young, and this gives
an object of interest to their hearts and to their
minds. But all these are the higher order of nun-
neries. The great majority of the nunneries of
FEMALE VICTIMS. 365
Italy are very different. There are no occupations
for mind or body there is no object before the
mind ; so that, with thousands, the heart is left to
prey upon itself. For the greater part of the day,
the sisters are left to themselves, to brood over the re-
membrance of the past, or to talk to each other about
nothing. There they live, with far less enjoyment
for the present, and infinitely less hope for the
future, than those ladies of an eastern harem, on
whom we think with so much compassion. They
have no objects in which they can take an interest ;
they have no persons on whom their affections may
be placed; and they have no means of being practi-
cally useful to others.
" Such a state of existence is not conducive to
the growth of a true and healthful religion in the
soul. Accordingly it is found, that wherever there
is religion in a nunnery, it runs into that wild and
prurient thing that we rightly call ' monomania, 1 and
results in the most extravagant claims to visions and
revelations. It is the religion of madness ; or per-
haps, more correctly speaking, it is madness taking
the direction of religion.
" Once, my wife and myself, in company with a
married couple of Italians, were in consultation
with two nuns related to our friends, one of whom
was stating that no man except the Pope himself
was ever permitted to enter that monastery. This
she spoke of as a privilege of which they had some
right to be proud. But while she was speaking,
the confessor made his appearance ! He was a good-
natured, merry-looking man, of about thirty-five
366 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
years of age. I hare often been struck with the
fact, that in almost every instance the confessors of
these nunneries were younger men than myself,
even when I was married. On his withdrawal, I
asked the nun, of what use was the confessor ?
She replied that it was necessary for the nuns to
confess their sins. I said, that I understood they
had entered the nunnery to escape the sins of the
world ; and I asked, as all temptation to sin was
thus supposed to be excluded, what kind of sins had
they to confess. The question perplexed them not
a little, and they could answer me only by laughing.
I persevered, however, and at length they told me,
that the nuns had so many quarrels and differences
among themselves, that it led to much that re-
quired confession and absolution ! I thanked them
for the information, and only remarked that this
showed that, after all, the lofty walls and iron bars
of a nunnery were no protection against sin.
" It is a curious fact, that in all the lives of holy
and sainted nuns that have been given to the world,
the arch-tempter is always described as tempting
them through the passions. He invariably is made
to appear in the form, of a very handsome young
man ! It is equally observable, that in the lives of
holy monks and sainted friars, the arch-enemy is
usually said to have appeared in the form of a very
lovely young female ! All this is very natural ; and
it shows, that even within the waDs of both the
monastery and the convent, the monks and the
nuns are sometimes thinking of other subjects than
those of heaven !" Pp. 183-186.
FEMALE VICTIMS. 367
Although the internal economy of nunneries is
generally concealed with the utmost vigilance from
the public, yet many things transpire at Rome,
from time to time, that indicate the state of morals
among their occupants, and to demonstrate the
wickedness that is practised by them in secret.
Mr. Seymour states some fearful facts. He re-
marks, " Every one who knows anything of Italy,
and especially of Eome, is aware that the most
debauched and profligate characters in the land
are among these inmates of the cloister. At pre-
sent, the question concerns the moral character of
the nunneries. So many things have of late years
been stated so many narratives of vice have been
published so many personal histories of victims to
the system have been given and so much has been
said and written as to the dangers of the confes-
sional, that I feel justified in saying a few words as
to the moral state of the nunneries in Italy.
" I entertain a favourable opinion of many of
these nunneries ; believing that they realise that
for which they are designed, namely, a safe retreat
for unprotected females, and are conducted in a
manner that bespeaks a moral and religious sister-
hood. But I entertain a less favourable opinion of
others. It should ever be remembered, however,
that from the very nature of some of these establish-
ments, there is no possibility of Tcnovnng what passes
within them. Immured within those lofty walls and
iron liars, none can go forth to reveal what may have
passed within : so that, though possibly the most
hideous forms of vice may reign throughout though
368 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
every chamber may be a polluted place though
violence and murder may stain every gallery ; yet
there is no voice to tell it to the world. I have
already stated that an official gentleman, who, at
times, was obliged to attend the cardinal-vicar at
the formal visitation of monasteries, gave us some
information on the subject. His wife informed my
wife, that on one occasion, shortly before our visit to
Borne, they found in a nunnery, which they named,
and which was not ten minutes' walk from our
residence, that no less than four of the nuns were
enceinte! They were immediately removed to
another establishment ; the reverend confessor was
removed elsewhere, and the whole affair was kept
as secret as possible. It would never have been
known, were it not that this nunnery was one of
those whose inmates are occupied in teaching the
young ladies of Rome, and young ladies will talk.
And matters became more canvassed, owing to the
impression that the poor confessor was only a
scape-goat for a higher personage, whose guilt was
to be concealed by the dismissal of a subaltern.
" But there are some establishments from which
even this suspicion could never go forth. They are
so closely kept, that mortal eye can never see the
intima penetralia. The 'sepulte vive,' for example,
that is, the ' buried alive,' are establishments of this
kind. The young creature, as a part of the cere-
monial of admission, is laid alive in her coffin ; and,
when once admitted, she is, in fact, as if dead and
buried to her friends ; for she is never allowed to
see again father or mother, brother or sister !
FEMALE VICTIMS. 369
Once a year, on an appointed day, the parents of
the ' buried alive,' may attend at the nunnery, and
the young creature within may hear their loved and
familiar voices, but she must never see them ; and,
as no kind of intercourse is ever permitted, she can
never know whether they are living or dead, except
as she hears or does not hear their voices on that
day. If a parent has died during the year, the
abbess assembles the nuns, she tells them that the
parent of one of them is dead, and desires all to
pray for the soul of the departed ; but she never
reveals the name of the dead ; so that all the nuns
are left in a state of agonising suspense, till the
one day conies round, and all listen to catch the
tone of their parents' voices ; and the absence of
the longed-for voice tells the tale of the bereaved
recluse ! Such, at least, is the account the Romans
give of these establishments, which thus seem the
very climax of cruelty, rending and agonising the
hearts of the inmates, under the pretence of a de-
sire to wean them from the world !" Pp. 186-188.
Language fails to characterise this system of
manifold iniquity and refined barbarity. But deeds
even worse than these may well be imagined. Mr.
Seymour observes, therefore, " But that which
concerns our present subject is the veil of secresy
that covers all within such establishments as these.
There may be I must not say there is there may
possibly be the most frightful vice there may be
the most ruffian violence there may possibly be
the veriest climax of profligacy there may possibly
be all this, and the public never know it. History
370 THE INQUISITION BEYEALED.
has recorded the fact, that in the apartments of the
inquisitors of Spain there were found sixty-two
young women, who had been corrupted and ruined
by the inquisitors, and kept there where the public
can never know it. The French soldiery flung
open the Inquisition, and revealed the secret." [See
Chapter XIX.] " There is no security against the
same evil in a very large proportion of the nunneries;
for every crime of earth and Tiell may possibly be rife
throughout their cloisters, and the cry of innocence
and outraged virtue, stifled within the walls, may
remain unheard ly the world without. While we
were at Rome, an abbess of one of the nunneries
rushed forth frantically from the opened gates,
plunged into the Tiber, and there sought, in its
deep waters, to drown the memory and remorse of
the past ! We were surprised at the pains taken
to deny and conceal this fact, though known and
witnessed by hundreds. The ecclesiastics could
not bear to hear it mentioned ! " Pp. 188, 189.
THE KISS OF THE VIRGIN. 373
CHAPTEE XXIII.
"THE KISS OF THE VIRGIN MAET."
Reality of the Iron Virgin Researches of Mr. Pearsall in
Germany His discoveries in Austria Description of the
Machine Its origin in Spain Victims of the Virgin.
CRUELTY, as we have seen, is the distinguishing
characteristic of the Komish Inquisition. And
torture, as employed by that hated court upon its
unhappy, helpless victims, was inflicted in various
modes. These are described, generally, in Chapter
XIII. But there is one particular machine for
punishment, referred to in Chapter XIX., as em-
ployed by the inquisitors in Spain, of the most
horrible kind ; and which Colonel Lehmanowsky,
who witnessed it in the Inquisition at Madrid,
correctly declares, that it " surpassed all others in
fiendish ingenuity." This machine was denomi-
nated " THE VIRGIN," or " THE VIRGIN MART."
Many persons have denied its existence, as too
horrible to be credible ; but, besides the evidence
already adduced, from the testimony of that military
officer, and of Madame Paulcaut, who had seen it in
the Inquisition of Saragossa, it appears to have
been common in Germany. The following tes-
timony is from a work called " THE Kiss or THE
374 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
VIEGIN ; a Narrative of Researches made in Ger-
many, during the years 1832 and 1834, for the
purpose of ascertaining the mode of inflicting that
ancient punishment, and of proving the often
denied and generally disputed fact of its existence :
by E. L. PEAESALL, of "Willsbridge, Esq., in a
Letter to the Eev. H. T. EUacombe, F.S.A., Vicar
of Bitton in Gloucestershire."
This narrative was read, January 12th, 1837,
before the Society of Antiquaries, and published in
their " Transactions," vol. xxvii., pp. 227-256.
Mr. Pearsall remarks, " In England, thanks to
the publicity of our judicial proceedings, those who
fell under the hands of the executioner perished
before the eyes of the world, in a mode prescribed
by the law. This was not the case in other coun-
tries. Wherever there was a despotic monarch,
or an irresponsible corporation endowed with an
unlimited criminal jurisdiction, men were accused,
imprisoned, and never more heard of. Their pro-
bable fate could be guessed only from circumstances,
or from some unguarded expression from the lips of
such as were likely to be aware of it.
" ' PASSES PAE LES OUBLIETTES,' was a well-
known phrase in France ; and yet few were able to
define its meaning accurately. Every one, however,
understood that when a man was considered by the
tribunals to be guilty of certain crimes, he was
doomed to pass, as it were, into oblivion, by de-
scending through trap-doors, called oubliettes, into
the nether regions of the prison, from which he
never returned.
THE KISS OF THE VIRGIN. 375
" ' THE Kiss OF THE VIBGIN,' (or Jungfern-
Kuss), was an equally well-known phrase in Ger-
many, and its import was almost as little under-
stood. A general impression, however, reigned
among the multitude, that,. in certain towers and
prisons, there was a terrible engine, which not only
destroyed life, but also annihilated the body of the
person sacrificed ; and this, from being constructed
in the form of a young girl, was called ' The
Virgin*
" During a residence in Germany, some years
ago, chance threw me in the way of hearing much
of this engine, without being able clearly to under-
stand what it was, excepting that it exercised the
functions of executioner in the form of the Virgin
Mary, and exterminated its victims' by hugging
them in arms furnished with iron blades. Thus
they were soon deprived of life. It was said to
have existed in many towns and castles, and even
convents. Some represented it to be an image of
the Virgin Mary, which the culprit was told to kiss,
and which, on being touched by him, was set in
motion by inward machinery, which caused the
figure to fall down and crush him. Others said,
that its arms expanded and clasped him to a breast,
out of which poniards protruded. Others, again,
represented it merely as an emblem of Justice,
placed above a trap-door, on which the culprit trod,
as he advanced to pay her his homage, and which,
being left unbolted, sank underneath his weight,
and precipitated him into an abyss.
" The difficulty of obtaining evidence respecting
376 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
it, and the contradictory and, consequently, unsatis-
factory nature of the little that I did for some time
obtain, made me begin to treat the stories which I
had heard as the result of popular error. Added
to this, I found almost all the members of the
modern school of philosophy prepared to treat the
thing as an old woman's tale ; and one of them told
me that the whole affair was a mere monkish He.
" Discouraged as I was by the result of my
inquiries, I could not altogether hold the thing as
utterly without basis. And being loath to treat as
mere idle rumour that which had been heard of by
every German, and was believed by the great
majority of the people, I was tempted to take a
middle course between belief and unbelief, and to
conclude that the Virgin must have been the plank,
or German guillotine. The conclusion which I
arrived at was, however, disturbed by a passage
which I accidentally met in a book, entitled,
' Materialen zur Niirnber-gerischen Geschichte
herausge geben vonD. T. C. Siebenkees, Niirnberg,
1792.'
" The passage in question is represented to have
been extracted from a Chronicle (which the author
has not indicated), and may be thus rendered in
English : ' In the year of our Lord 1533, the
Iron Virgin was constructed, for the punishment of
evil-doers, within the walls of the Frogs-Tower,
opposite the place called Die Sieben Zeiler that is
to say, the Seven Eopes ; so, at least, it was publicly
given out, to justify the thing. Therein was an
iron statue, seven feet high, which stretched abroad
THE KISS OF THE VIBGIN. 377
both its arms in the face of the criminal, and death
by this machine was said to send the poor sinner to
the fishes. For, so soon as the executioner moved
the step on which it stood, it hewed, with broad
hand-swords, the criminal into little pieces, which
were swallowed by fishes in hidden waters. Such
secret tribunals existed formerly in many coun-
tries."
Mr. Pearsall pursued his inquiries with indefa-
tigable industry in the German cities, and made
many discoveries in secret "torture chambers."
" Many persons of the better class," he remarks, "to
whom I spoke on the subject, denied that the Virgin
had ever existed in Austria ; but my laquais de place,
and others of the lower class, told me, that when
they were young, it was said to be standing in a
tower which hangs over the canal that runs through
Vienna into the Danube, and that whenever the
water there looked a little red (as was usually the
case after a storm), nothing was more common than
to hear people say, ' So, the Virgin has been at her
work again.' "
Mr. Pearsall made important discoveries at Nu-
remberg. There he was aided by Dr. Mayer, keeper
of the archives of the city. " Dr. Mayer told me,"
says he, "that the passage from the Chronicle,
quoted by Siebenkees, was no fable ; that the
machine had formerly stood in a vault near to the
Sieben Zeiler, and that he himself had seen part of
the machinery which belonged to it, although the
figure itself had disappeared. ' The figure,' said
he, ' stood at the brink of a trap-door ; and when
B B
378 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
the individual who had suffered by its embraces was
released from them, he fell downwards through it on
a sort of cradle of swords, placed in a vault under-
neath, and which were arranged so as to cut his
body in pieces, which dropped into running water,
over which the machine stood.'
" Desirous of seeing the spot where the Virgin
stood, I procured permission to visit it from the
city architect, who sent me the keys by a man
named Kiefer. This man has been a long time in
the employment of the magistrates, and he accom-
panied Dr. Mayer and myself to the spot in
question. He was a stranger to Dr. Mayer ; but
he had himself, many years back, been in the vault.
He found no stream of water there, although the
place was extremely wet and damp ; and on one
side of the vault, which was drier than the other,
there was a sort of grave, in which were many human
skulls and bones. He told me that in his youth he
had known an old man, named Kaiferlin, who had
seen the machine in a perfect state. He stated,
also, that Kaiferlin told him, that two or three
days before the entry of the French into Nurem-
berg, the Virgin and all the instruments of torture
formerly kept in the place where she was, were
taken away by night in a cart, and that neither she
nor they had ever been heard of since."
Mr. Pearsall at length found this Virgin in the
Castle of Feistritz. Baron Diedrich informed him,
" I bought it of a person who obtained it, with the
left hand, during the French revolution, and had
with it a great part of the contents of the arsenal
THE KISS OF THE TIHGEf. 379
of Nuremberg. Prom him I received it in a cart,
with several things which had formerly belonged to
that arsenal. It came to me rusted and in bad
condition, deprived of its machinery, but accom-
panied by the pedestal on which it now stands, and
which seems to have been made for it."
"The construction of the figure," says Mr.
Pearsall, " was simple enough. A skeleton, formed
of bars and hoops, was coated over with sheet iron,
which was laid on and painted, so as to represent a
Nuremberg citizen's wife of the sixteenth century.
The front of the machine opened like folding doors,
the two halves of the front part of it being con-
nected by hinges with the back part. On the
inside of its right breast are thirteen quadrangular
poniards. There are eight of these on the inside of
the left, and two on the inside of the face. These last
were clearly intended for the eyes of the victim, who
must have, therefore, gone backwards into it, and
have received, in an upright position, in his breast
and head, the blades to which he was exposed.
That this machine had been formerly used cannot
be doubted ; because there are evident blood-stains
yet visible on its breast, and on the upper part of
its pedestal. How it was worked is not known,
for the mechanism which caused it to open and
shut is no longer attached to it ; but that there
was some such mechanism, is clear from the holes
and sockets which have been cut out on the surface
of the pedestal, showing the points where parts of
the apparatus intended to work it must have been
inserted. It stands, at present, on castors, and there
BB 2
380 THE INQUISITION REVEALED.
are two iron springs, which its present proprietor has
caused to be placed in it, for the purpose of making
its sides to open whenever it is moved forward;
but this is done to startle, by way of pleasantry,
those who see it for the first time."
Mr. Pearsall traces the origin of this machine
to Spain, and in connexion with the Inquisition.
He says, " In the year 1835, 1 met at Liege with a
very well educated and accomplished man of letters ;
he was a Frenchman by birth, and had been attached
to the court of Joseph Buonaparte, when he was
promoted by his brother Napoleon to be king of
Spain. There, my informant told me, that he had
an opportunity of inspecting the chamber of the
Inquisition at Madrid, and that, among other
instruments with which it was provided, he found
an image of the Virgin Mary, composed partly of
wood and partly of iron. This engine was called
' Mater Dolorosa, and with it was administered the
last and severest degree of torture. Its ordinary
position was that of a woman standing erect, with
her arms crossed on her bosom; but there was a con-
trivance by which she was made to expand her arms,
and then the inside surfaces of them were seen to be
garnished with a number of small points or stilettoes.
The person to be tortured was placed opposite to
her, breast to breast, and then her arms were
brought round his back, and by means of a power-
ful screwing implement made to grasp him tightly,
so as to inflict great pain, and to render it impos-
sible that he could fall from her gripe. Whilst she
held him thus firmly, a trap-door was opened under
THE KISS OF THE VIRGIN. 381
his feet, so as to cause him to hang in agony over
an abyss. In this position he was importuned to
confess his guilt, while the arms of the machine
were slowly and gradually screwed tighter and
tighter, till life was squeezed out of his body.
The corpse was then released, and fell through the
trap-door into a sort of oubliette. Now, I am
much inclined to think that the machine in the
possession of Baron Diedrich was made to do its
inhuman duty somewhat in the same manner as the
machine in the Spanish Inquisition."
Priestly cruelty in Spain appears to have derived
this instrument from the invention of this kind by
Nabis, tyrant of Sparta. See Hampton's Poly-
bius, vol. ii., p. 291. Mr. Pearsall remarks,
" Perhaps, also, the merit of having invented the
Virgin is due to the genius of Spain ; and it is by
no means impossible that it was thence transplanted
into Germany during the reign of Charles V., who
was monarch of both countries. According to
M. de Pfeffel, (Alrege de VHistoire cFAllemagne,
p. 414) there were great tumults in Germany during
the years 1531 and 1532, and continual quarrels at
Nuremberg, between the Protestants and Catholics.
'In 1532 was published,' says he, 'the famous
Criminal Code of the Empire, which was the most
severe and the least observed in Europe.' In 1533
the Iron Virgin was, according to the Chronicle
cited by Siebenkees, constructed at Nuremberg.
" I cannot fix the time when this machine was
first employed in Spain ; but I was told by Mr.
G-evay, a learned Hungarian in the Imperial
382 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
Library at Vienna, that he had read of this machine
in Spanish romance of the early part of the sixteenth
century, which proves that it was known in Spain
at the period in question. The author, also, of a
French romance, published at Paris in 1828, and
entitled ' Cornelia Borogina,' makes mention of it
as Spanish, and this attributes it to the same epoch.
Add to this, that it is an instrument much more
congenial with the genius of the Spanish nation
than with that of the Germans.
" Probably one might find in Spain other speci-
mens of this machine ; perhaps some may exist in
Italy ; for I have heard that at the close of 1814,
there was something like it at Florence. But
after having seen the engine in the possession of
Baron Diedrich, one can no longer doubt that
others of its species were employed as appendages
to the ancient tribunals; and one is, therefore,
obliged to regard the story of ' The Kiss of the
Virgin? not as a popular legend, but as history."
Reflecting on popery, existing thus in Eome and
other countries called Catholic, degrading all classes
of the community in every nation, we cannot but
consider it deserving the execration of mankind.
It is a system of priestcraft grafted on the Gospel,
a " mystery of iniquity," utterly at variance with
the first principles of humanity, as well as the letter
and spirit of Christianity, as taught in the Scrip-
tures. Its dreaded Inquisition, in all its various
agencies, is regarded with the utmost abhorrence
by the more intelligent people of Eome and of the
other States of Italy. The Catholic priests, too,
THE KISS OP THE VIRGIN. 383
are hated generally, as the crafty oppressors of the
laity ; and, though this might be denied by the
adherents of the Pope, the fact is notorious, from
the late revolutions in Europe, and especially from
the present condition of the Italian States, whose
governments require to be severally supported by
the military power of Austria, while Rome itself is
occupied by a French army, as indispensable to
the support of "the Most Holy Father" against
his beloved children, in his own city !
Intelligent persons, in all popish countries, regard
the Eomish priesthood with mingled contempt and
dread. This is testified by every well-informed
writer. As an evidence of this, it may be stated,
that a merchant from Portugal, recently in London,
being asked by an English merchant, freely, in his
counting-house, whether he allowed his own parish
priest familiarly to visit his family, consisting
chiefly of daughters, replied, " No, indeed ! on.
no account whatever would I suffer him to enter
my house ! " and, laying his hand upon the desk,
he declared, with peculiar emphasis, " I would
rather suffer this hand to be chopped off, than
allow the priest to associate with my family ! "
Priestly influence is reluctantly endured by the
Catholics, though ignorant of pure Christianity,
while sensible men groan under its oppressive
intolerance. Hence, the intelligent author of
"Borne in the Nineteenth Century," referring to
the jealousy and domination of the priests, remarks,
concerning a Catholic friend, who had travelled in
other countries, that he cherished the utmost
384 THE INQUISITION BEVEALED.
repugnance regarding the established practice of
Confession. But still he complied with the custom,
for fear of the priests ; arguing, " What can I do ?
If I neglect it, I am reprimanded by the parish
priest ; if I delay it, my name is posted up in the
parish church ; if I persist in my contumacy, the
arm of the church will overtake me, and my rank
and fortune only serve to make me more obnoxious
to its power. If I choose to make myself a martyr
to infidelity, as the saints of old did to religion, and
to suifer the loss of property and personal rights,
what is to .become of my wife and family ? The
same ruin would overtake them, though they are
Catholics : for I am obliged, not only to conceal
my true belief, and profess what I despise, but
I must bring up my children in their abominable
idolatries and superstition ; or, if I teach them the
truth, make either hypocrites or beggars ! "
Romanism, as will appear from these various
facts, instead of promoting the pure and saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ by keeping the people
in ignorance of the holy Scriptures, it impedes the
advancement of true religion. And, while the
intolerant jealousy of the priests disgusts the people,
their whole system produces that infidelity which
so fearfully prevails in all the states of Europe,
to the hindrance and dishonour of pure Christianity.
Our confidence is, however, that the whole system
of popery will, in due time, be utterly destroyed,
by "the brightness of the coming of Christ," in the
full light of the holy Scriptures !
J. Unwin, Gieshani Steam Press, 31, Bucklersbury, London.
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
p, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388
1 material to the library
from which it was borrowed.
3 1158008623976
A 000114023
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