[Illustration: TORTURES OF THE PULLEY AND THE FIRE.]

        [Illustration: TORTURES OF THE HORSE AND SUFFOCATION.]




                                  THE

                         Inquisition Revealed;

                                  IN

                              ITS ORIGIN,
                    POLICY, CRUELTIES, AND HISTORY,

                                 WITH

                        Memoirs of its Victims

              IN FRANCE, SPAIN, PORTUGAL, ITALY, ENGLAND,
                      INDIA, AND OTHER COUNTRIES.

                    DEDICATED TO CARDINAL WISEMAN.

                                  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!”--LUTHER.


                                LONDON:
                  AYLOTT AND JONES, PATERNOSTER ROW.

                               MDCCCLI.

                                LONDON
                    J. UNWIN, GRESHAM STEAM PRESS.
                             BUCKLERSBURY.




                              DEDICATION.

                                  TO

                    HIS EMINENCE, CARDINAL WISEMAN.

                           MY LORD CARDINAL,

Roman Catholics and Protestants are alike interested in this volume:
designed, as it is, to advance pure Christianity. They have an equal
right to profess 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 traditions. Hence their illiberality in Italy, Sardinia,
Spain, Portugal, the Brazils, and other countries, where the priesthood
is dominant. Hence the inveterate 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 understand 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 “mystery of
iniquity,”--the “MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE
EARTH,”--“drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of
the martyrs of Jesus.”--2 Thess. ii. 3--7; Rev. xvii. 5, 6.

Every British Christian is deeply interested in
studying the doctrines of Popery; its _Priestly
power_--_Absolution_--_Transubstantiation_--_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
condemnation of Popery.

This volume contains the substance of the valuable works of Limborch,
Llorente, Dellon, Gavin, Buchanan, Bower, Newton, Gibbon, Watson, Ranke,
Sismondi, Jones, Puigblanch, Edgar, Elliott, Mendham, Giesler, Dowling,
D’Aubigné, 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 dedicated, with due respect,
to

                            YOUR EMINENCE,

                                   BY THE AUTHOR.




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 REVEALED.




CHAPTER I.

POPERY AS PREDICTED IN SCRIPTURE.

     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 Romish priesthood, has been enforced and
guarded by pains and penalties during many ages. For the last _six_
centuries, this has been done chiefly by a court, denominated, in all
countries where it has been established, “THE 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
hierarchy, as the agents of the 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 Catholics, 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 multitude 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
benevolence, 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 Redeemer exhibited
intolerance, malevolence, and cruelty, exceeding what had ever been
witnessed 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 God 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 correcting 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, and
that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 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.
1--3.)

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 the 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
fornication: and upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON
THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF 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, Wherefore 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 perdition. 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.
Elliott, in his “Commentary” on this chapter, says:--

“This vision represented pictorially a gaudily dressed drunken harlot,
seated on a beast of monstrous form, with _seven_ heads, and on the
seventh _ten horns_. The beast, in respect of its body, depicted 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 _Rome_ in its character of the papal
see, and mother-church of Western Christendom; including, doubtless, 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 subject 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 frequently united; so the church of Rome answered to the
symbol in either point of view; interchanging mutual favours, such as
might suit their respective 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 indulgences, relics,
transubstantiation-cup, as if the cup of salvation, &c. (see the Pope’s
own medal, holding out the cup of her apostacy, struck at Rome 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 in 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 ornaments 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, evidently, 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 Rome 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 Romish 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.”

Nothing can be more evident than that “Babylon the Great” designs the
mystical city of the papal commonwealth, a regnant system of spiritual
wickedness--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 conviction; 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 inciteth 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 LORD’S hand, that
made all the earth drunken.’ And is not this a much more proper emblem
of _pontifical_ than of _imperial_ Rome?

“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 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 Rome, 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 Rome pagan hath slain her thousands of innocent
Christians, Rome 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 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 Mohammed 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
Christianity; they propagated their delusions mainly by the sword, and
not lying miracles; and, indeed, the impieties of Mohammed never
equalled the blasphemies 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 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 doctrine 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, ‘showing himself to be
God.’ Many Roman emperors affected divine honours, and demanded
adoration; but there was no antecedent apostacy from Christianity 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 ‘Vice-God,’ a ‘God upon earth,’
arrogating the title of ‘His Holiness,’ boasting of ‘infallibility,’
claiming a right to depose kings and bestow kingdoms on whom he
pleases--answers exactly to the description 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 conjectured such a character
rising up among the people of God, and such deeds perpetrated in the
name and form of religion. This required the prescience 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.

PROGRESS OF ANTICHRIST.

     Spirit of Antichrist--Priests, Clergy, and
     Laity--Ceremonies--Mosheim--“Pious Frauds”--Splendour of
     Prelates--Constantine--the
     Hierarchy--Titles--Creeds--Arianism--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 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 messengers of the apostle, and of his
“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 distinction 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
government restored to its former lustre, and their country arising from
its ruins. And, accordingly, the _bishops_ considered themselves
invested with a rank and character similar to those of the _high
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 idolators, 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 _mysteries_, as having a hidden
meaning and a peculiar virtue, after the manner of the rites of the
Pagan priests. Hence originated the term _sacraments_, 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, by which ecclesiastics were
eminently distinguished.”

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 persecuting enemies. In these
synods or councils, as they were called, various decisions were formed
unfriendly 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. Superiority 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 Rome,
took it into his head to force the Asiatic Christians, by the pretended
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 advanced 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.

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 Christianity!

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 temporal majesty.
A throne, surrounded with ministers, 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 authority. 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
luxurious life. When the honours and privileges of the bishops and
presbyters were augmented, the deacons also began to extend their
ambitious views, and to despise those lower functions and employments
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 ceremonies; 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 Constantine. He became
a most munificent patron of Christianity, as by its profession he
succeeded to the throne of the Cæsars. The extravagant claims of the
ambitious prelates 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
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople, claimed superiority;
whilst a sort of feudality was established, descending from patriarchs
to metropolitans, 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 patriarchs 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 suggestion 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 presbyters and deacons, who filled the first
stations of these orders, carried their pretensions to an extravagant
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 corresponding 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 God 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_, consisted 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, and referred them to
the day of judgment for a settlement. After two months’ deliberation,
they agreed on that form denominated “_The Nicene Creed_,” which
required to be believed by all Christians. 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 Scriptures; and this authority, claimed and acted
upon, produced all the superstition, intolerance, and cruelty, which
characterise the terrible _Inquisition_.

Constantine 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, Constantius. Athanasius, patriarch of
Alexandria, became the champion of orthodoxy; and thus two parties arose
among the clergy.

Decrees and state power authorised _inquisition_ and _persecution_; and
“Hence,” says Dr. Mosheim, “arose endless animosities and seditions,
treacherous 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 confusion
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 Honorius,
which doomed to death every one who differed from the Catholic faith.
From this edict serious persecutions arose. But, A.D. 451, the council
of Chalcedon resolved, “that the same rights and honours conferred on
the bishop of Rome, were due to the bishop of Constantinople,”
confirming his jurisdiction, 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 opening of the _fifth_ century, Constantinople
was the eastern capital, in which Arcadius presided as emperor, while
Rome continued the western metropolis; 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 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 ceremonies, 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 ignorant 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
superstition 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, 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 superstitious 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 perform Divine service in the great church
together with him; but he would neither accept the invitation, 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 he was the Roman High Priest_! The patriarch
indulged him in every thing he required, and they celebrated Easter
together, with extraordinary 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 assembled 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!

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, “SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF 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 commended
as a prince of many virtues, and of but few vices; and Gregory, in his
letters to him, hypocritically 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, 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 murderer! 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 attaining his object; but he
has been highly extolled by the Romish 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; 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 Constantinople, 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 imperial edict, assembled a
council in the church of St. Peter at Rome, 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
ambition allow them or the world,” as Mr. Bower states, “to enjoy any
rest, till they got themselves acknowleged for UNIVERSAL MONARCHS, as
well as UNIVERSAL BISHOPS!”

Throughout the seventh century, popery advanced, 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 astonishment by reflecting Jews and pagans; when Mohammed, an Arab
travelling merchant, a young man of singular talents, ambition, and
enthusiasm, 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 included 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 followers; 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 Rome, but in the language of Scripture, a “BEAST;” and, in the
east, by the imposture of Mohammed, as the predicted “FALSE PROPHET.”
(Rev. 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
kingdoms 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, assuming that of the false
prophet, Mohammed.

Popery still advanced in the west; and the barbarous 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 murder, gave
large donations to their religious instructors, to save them from the
torments in the future world due to their crimes. These gifts were
commonly 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 Rome 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 possessed 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 dominations
of the inferior prelates. The western barbarians who received the name
of Christ, looked upon the bishop of Rome 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
consequences 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 deposition 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 monsters, 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 assumption 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
anathemas 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 apprehension 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 humanity, 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 ANTICHRIST!! Such
was the spirit and the power that originated and carried on the
execrable COURT OF HOLY INQUISITION!!

With these advances of the papal power there was a corresponding
corruption in the doctrines and ceremonies of religion. While Romanists
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 purposes. 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 contested 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 inculcated 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




CHAPTER III.

ORIGIN OF THE ROMISH INQUISITION.

     Persecution of the Paulicians--Albigenses--Their sufferings in
     Languedoc--In England, Spain, France--Counts Raymond and
     Roger--Massacre of their People--Dominic, founder of the
     Inquisition.


Intolerance 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
Christians 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
Constantine 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 precious gift; and,
finding the instruction of the Scriptures different from the prevailing
superstitions, he formed a system of theology for himself from the
sacred oracles. Constantine 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 increased 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 required _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 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 insolence and oppressions of the Romish 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 knowledge was eagerly sought
by several persons, who became eminent preachers in the southern parts
of France, in Savoy, in Piedmont, and in the contiguous districts of
Germany. Their followers were called after their teachers, or by various
contemptuous 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, says of them, “They are increased to great
multitudes throughout all countries. In Germany, we call them _Cathari_;
in Flanders, 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 Romish 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 discovered without great judgment.”

Evervinus, an abbot in Cologne, in a letter to Bernard, the most famous
priest of the church of Rome of his time, called _St. Bernard_, says,
A.D. 1140, “There have been lately some heretics discovered among us,
near Cologne, though some of them have, with satisfaction, returned
again to the 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 arguments 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.” Claudius, archbishop of Turin, writes,
“Their heresy excepted, they generally live a purer life than other
Christians.” Cassini, a Franciscan friar, says, “That ALL THE ERRORS of
these Waldenses consisted in this, that they denied the church of Rome
to be the HOLY MOTHER-CHURCH, AND WOULD NOT OBEY HER 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 WHORE OF BABYLON, and the barren tree which Christ himself 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 mentioned in the
Revelation; that the fire of purgatory, 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 learning; and he professed that they
believed the doctrines of the apostles, though they disbelieved in
purgatory, prayers for the dead, and the invocation of saints. But they
were condemned in an ecclesiastical 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 dissenters 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 persecution, 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 martyrs 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
presuming to give reception, or the least assistance to the followers
of this heresy, _which first began in the country of Thoulouse_,
whenever they shall be discovered. 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
expresses his mind thus:--“Because in Gascony, Albi, in the parts of
Thoulouse, 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 CURSE, both
themselves and their defenders and harbourers; and, _under a curse, we
prohibit all persons from admitting 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 Arragon, 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
aforesaid 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. However, 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, Guido 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
increased authority. They promised indulgences to all who afforded them
aid against the heretics; and they succeeded in this office, but
rendered themselves 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, was
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 excommunicated
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
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 territories 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 Thoulouse, 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 Beziers, 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 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 Albigenses, _with fire and sword_, till they were
extirpated. 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 Roger 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. Magdalen. Some were
desirous of sparing the Catholics 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 knoweth them that are His!_”

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 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
capitulate. Dissimulation was practised, as enjoined by the Pope; so
that the prince, with three hundred 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, delivering them over to the general of the army, Simon de
Montfort. The citizens, however, made their escape, during the night,
and fled to other provinces; but a few of them being captured, _four
hundred_ of the captives were burned alive, and _fifty_ more were
hanged, by Simon de Montfort, under the direction of Arnald, as legate
of the Pope. The noble Count Roger 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
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 inhabitants 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
possession of the castle of Cassero, which surrendered; but “the
pilgrims, seizing nearly _sixty heretics, burned them with 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 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 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 witnessed this crusade against the
Albigenses, afterwards 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 overthrown!”

Dominic witnessed many of these sad outrages and dreadful slaughters;
and he proceeded, as the chief inquisitor, to search out the number and
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 Gallia Narbonensis, about A.D. 1208; and he
was confirmed in that office, in the fourth Lateran 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
Inquisition. 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 Cistertian abbot, who hath appointed us to
this office, we have reconciled the bearer of these presents, P.
Rogerius, converted by God’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 coming 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 _Black Friars_ in England.




CHAPTER IV.

THE INQUISITION IN SEVERAL COUNTRIES.

     Inquisition in France--Pontifical decrees--Used by
     Princes--Arragon, Castile, Navarre and Portugal--Various
     countries--Sicily, Rome, Venice--Apostolics--Knights
     Templars--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 dominions of his father, and banished the inquisitors from
Thoulouse. But his chief city was besieged and taken by Amalric, 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, constituting every bishop in France a kind of
inquisitor, 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 Rome, 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 Alexander, as Innocent IV. had
appointed the provincial 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 abolished 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 decrees, 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
apostolical 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 effectually to execute their office, let them take into
their assistance some discreet persons, and carefully inquire out
heretics. And if they find out any, either really culpable, or such who
are defamed, let them proceed against them according to our statutes.
And that they may more freely and 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 sovereign 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
individuals, known to be devoted Catholics, were prosecuted 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 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, Dalmatia,
Ragusia, Bosnia, Croatia, Istria, and several provinces of Germany. It
was extended, 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 apprehended, 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 appropriated to the common treasury, another third be
reserved for the Pope, and the remainder to be shared by the
inquisitors; that the spiritual husbandmen 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 confirmed, A.D. 1477, by
Ferdinand and Elizabeth; and various other privileges were accorded to
the inquisitors by the Emperor Charles V.

Rome 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
inconvenience to himself, Urban IV. created Ursarius inquisitor-general,
A.D. 1265. This office was continued, with some intermissions, until the
Reformation 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 “inquisitors-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 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 instant requests of Pope
Innocent, Alexander, Urban, Clement, and seven other Popes, their
successors, the most renowned commonwealth could never be persuaded to
receive the office of the _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
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 antichristian
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, therefore, 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 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 regarding 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 Verona, 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, Pagano da Lecco, A.D. 1277.

About A.D. 1320, the Pope excommunicated Matthew Galeacius, 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 should 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 sentence against
him. The Pope also commanded Aycard, the archbishop of Milan, and the
inquisitors in Lombardy, to proceed against him and his adherents; 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 resigned his principality to his son Galeacius, and
himself 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.


Divine prophecy dooms a perpetual overthrow to popery; and it declares
also that this is to be 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 Wycliffe, justly called “The Morning Star of the Reformation!” 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 England 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 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 inquisitors and
punishment, to suppress his doctrine, and to deliver him in custody to
the archbishop of Canterbury or the bishop of London. He then appealed
to those prelates, requiring them to apprehend the daring reformer, and
to keep him in irons till they should receive his further orders from
Rome. 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 disciples. 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, 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 officio_, which authorised the bishops, as inquisitors, 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 Sawtree, 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 occasions. These forms, Dr. Southey states,
“were probably derived from the practice of the accursed Inquisition in
Languedoc; and they were well devised for prolonging the impression on
the spectators.” 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 constable and
marshal of England there present; beseeching 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 be burnt alive! Sawtree accordingly
suffered martyrdom 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 following,
A.D. 1413, was the before-named Sir Roger Acton, Master John Browne, Sir
John Beverly, 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 temporality, and, according to the Act, were first hanged
and then burned in the Giles-field. In the same year, also, one John
Claydon, 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 dreadful 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 condemned 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 professed 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 conveyed 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 among studious inquirers
after the Gospel in several nations; and, as the sister of Wenceslaus,
king of Bohemia, had become the queen of Richard 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
Inquisition, 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 excommunicated his followers.
But he continued his labours in teaching and writing, until he was
summoned 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.

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 Wycliffe 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 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! Ye 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
necessaries. 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 consented against my conscience to the condemnation of
Wycliffe 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 Redeemer, A.D. 1416.

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 Inquisition 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. Multitudes 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 magistrate 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 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 husband 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 shocking, 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 with wine, which had been
forbidden by the Catholics. Their fortification they called _Tabor_, and
the people were hence called _Taborites_. They chose leaders, and
defeated the troops of the emperor in eleven engagements; 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 Waldenses, A.D. 1480.




CHAPTER VI.

THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN.

     Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella--Holy Office--Torquemada,
     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
provinces 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. 1356, Nicholas Eymerick,
inquisitor-general of Arragon, wrote a book of rules, as “The Guide of
Inquisitors;” and this was the chief directory, though the Inquisition
greatly declined, until the union of the crowns of Arragon, 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 for their learning, and some of them
had risen to the highest offices in the state. Yet, 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
converted 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., therefore, 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 governors 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 were commanded by
the inquisitors to seize the emigrants as heretics; their property was
confiscated, 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 Sixtus IV., who granted, and in the reign of Ferdinand
and Isabella, who had asked for it. The first inquisitor-general was
friar Thomas de Torquemada, prior of the convent of Santa Cruz, of
Segovia, of the order of the Preaching Brotherhood. God grant that, for
the propagation and maintenance of the faith, it may last until the end
of the ages. ‘Arise, O 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 numerous 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 guarantee against imprisonment, confiscation of property, or
even death; for the inquisitors invited accusations, and the accusers
were secure, as their depositions were kept secret, and the parties
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 appointed him inquisitor-general of Castile and Leon,
and of Arragon. These powers being confirmed by Pope Innocent VIII.,
A.D. 1485, distinct tribunals were established at Seville, Cordova,
Jaen, Villa-Real, 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 condemned and executed.
Upwards of _one hundred thousand_ families were reputed to have
emigrated from the country. Absolution or redress might, indeed, be
obtained at the court of Rome 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 apartment; 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 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 professed 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 ascertained; 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 VI.
received continual complaints against him; but he feared to suspend him.
However, he constituted four others as joint inquisitors-general, A.D.
1494; and Torquemada 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 poison in his
food; and in public he was guarded by a troop of _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 imprisonment, 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,
Saragossa, 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 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 representations of
Cardinal Adrian, the inquisitor-general, Charles was induced to support
the existing enormities 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 prince zealous for the Divine commands, and that
he be always obedient to the commands of the church. And, amongst other
things, _this I principally and most ardently recommend to him, highly
to honour and constantly support the office of the Holy Inquisition_, as
constituted by God against heretical pravity, with its ministers and
officials; because by this single remedy the most grievous offences
against God 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, he 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 affectionate
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 will 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 sanction 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 fé_
against the Spanish Lutherans, in the Great Square of Valladolid. The
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 occasion. _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 Lutheranism.

At Seville, the same year, another _auto_ was celebrated, in which John
Pontius, son of Roderic, earl of Villalon, was publicly burnt as a
Lutheran. With him were executed, John Gonsalvus, a preacher, with four
ladies of note; Bohorques, scarcely twenty years of age; Maria Viroesia,
Cornelia, and Vœnia, in whose house assemblies were held for prayer.
Besides these, were _seven_ others, and among them, a student, a
physician, and a nun. The sacrifice of this company of _thirteen_
persons, besides several effigies, 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 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 fé_, which was celebrated with extraordinary
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 fé_, the inquisitors reserved the greatest
number, and most noted of the prisoners for Protestantism, 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 terminated after broiling in the flames
there a multitude 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 principal 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 tumultuous 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
publicly burnt, as Lutheran heretics, in the presence of the king at
Valladolid.

Philip was not satisfied, however, with the sacrifice 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_ penitents; two of them, an Englishman and a
Frenchman, 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. 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, therefore, 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
president, 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 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. De 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 populace of Brussels,--all of them
for their secret correspondence 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 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 fé_, 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 Inquisition
     against them--In several cities--Established in Goa--Decree against
     the Jews--Even after they professed Christianity--Luther’s
     followers in the Netherlands--Inquisitors seek them--Alarm in the
     cities--Edicts of Charles V.--Philip succeeds him--Duke of Alva’s
     murders--“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
employed to convert them to a profession 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-converted Jew, in 1506, who had appeared to disbelieve in some
miracle, the people of Lisbon rose, and 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! exterminate!’ And during the three following days,
two thousand of the newly converted, men, women, and children, were put
to the sword, and their reeking limbs, yet warm and palpitating, burnt
in the public places of the city. The same fanaticism extending 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 prevent 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 destruction, by monstrous
and deadly heresies. And it is very worthy of observation, that the year
in which 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_,’ because before his festival the seed could
not be sown in the ground for want of rain, whereas, afterwards,
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 necessary officials, who should take diligent care of the affairs
of the faith. Alexius Diaz Falcano entered upon his office, as
inquisitor at Goa, A.D. 1541. And from that period this tribunal has
continued, so that by its intolerance, victims, and cruelties, it has
brought the province to the lowest stage of degradation, 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 VII., 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.”

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 indulgence from the Pope; but his divines
declared, “that God was greatly offended with such money; and that he
could not reasonably expect any prosperous 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 flattering 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 Rome.

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
Vander Hulst, chancellor of the emperor in Brabant, and Nicolas Van
Egmont, a Carmelite friar. These were appointed inquisitors-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 apprehending those who might
be infected with heretical 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, assembled 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 privileges 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 ecclesiastical 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 privileges of the citizens. Still they
were ill at ease, 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 commissaries. For
several were shortly condemned as heretics, in many cities; of whom some
were beheaded, 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 I may never suffer myself to be, or to be called,
the lord of those who deny Thee, the Lord!”

Resolved 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
remonstrated 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
infatuated monarch was deaf to every argument; and the only concession
which he made was, that, for the future, heretics, instead of being
burnt, should be hanged.

Philip, influenced by superstition, and governed by the priests,
supported the policy of the inquisitors in the Netherlands. Their
cruelties, therefore, 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 inquisition 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 Inquisition. William, prince of Orange,
undertook the deliverance of his native country, which he accomplished
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 Grotius
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.”




CHAPTER VIII.

THE INQUISITION IN FRANCE.

     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.


France 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 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 expedition 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 “_The Concordat_,” in virtue
of which they agreed to sacrifice what were understood as the rights of
the church, mutually sharing the spoils. The king conceded to the Pope
his supremacy, independent of all councils of the church, while Leo
despoiled the ecclesiastical corporations of France of the power to
nominate to the bishoprics, 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 interests together, separated,
each to pursue his own course: but the king having afterwards been
irritated 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 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 Alençon, 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, no 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 conciliating his
favour, asking his advice as to the best mode of dealing with the
heretics that infested 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
throughout the “Most Christian kingdom of France” at the mercy of the
sovereign pontiff. He responded 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 archbishop 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 responsible to this dread tribunal; and
the first victim of the inquisitors was Briconnet, count of Montbrun,
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
professor 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 Pavanne was burned
at the stake in the Place de Grève, 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 such 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 France,
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. From 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 France to
the inquisitors of Rome.

Francis returned to Paris in the character of a 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 king’s officer?_ It is an attack, aimed at
literature, true religion, the nobility, nay, the crown itself.” But
Francis had descended from this kingly standing 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 execution was
followed by that of fourteen other reformers, who were burnt at the
stake, maintaining, 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 Reformation in France,”
describes this procession, thus expressed by a modern writer:--“Between
the hours of eight and nine in the morning the procession began to issue
from the church of Saint Geneviéve. 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. Geneviéve,
St. Opportune, St. Landré, St. Honoré; 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 Saint Louis. Then followed a great
number of cardinals in their scarlet robes; of bishops, abbés, 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 prevented 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 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 to prolong
his sufferings. 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. Geneviéve.
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, he 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 _balançoire_ (or swing)
is appalling.”

Europe was filled with the reports of these cruelties on the French
reformers, and the Protestant princes remonstrated with the king. But
Francis had become the slave of superstition and priestly intolerance,
and governed by the inquisitors of Rome. 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 exterminating sword and
fire of the inquisitors. Men, women, and children were massacred with
fiendish cruelty. Towns, villages, and hamlets 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
persecutor dies,--despairing, dishonoured, and undeplored. 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 instrument of
revenge, administered by the husband of a lady whom he had dishonoured.
His character, therefore, was worthy of “the mystery of iniquity,” the
Romish 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
Protestants 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!

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 dissenters from the
Romish 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, concealed 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 Guise, 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 and blasphemous execrations of their
murderers. “Imagine,” says a French author, “sixty thousand assassins,
armed with pistols, stakes, cutlasses, 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 through the mire, or flung
headlong into 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 expressions 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 Inquisition, may still
be obtained at the mint of Rome!

Charles IX. raged in savage cruelty against the Protestants. Even the
king of Navarre and the prince of Condé were devoted to the same
destruction; 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 Romish 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 continued 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, contrary to the most solemn obligations which human or divine
laws can frame, to revoke the “Irrevocable Edict of Nantes.”

By this 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 would 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 west, 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 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 blasphemies, 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 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 dipped 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 downward, 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 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 possibly conceived!

“These, fellow Protestants, were the methods used by the ‘Most Christian
King’s’ apostolic dragoons 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 anything 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 God, 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 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--Martyrdom 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 Inquisition. 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 prelates, acting under the authority of the
popes. Spiritual courts were organised in many dioceses, where holy men
of God were sought after and punished as heretics, by the bishops and
archbishops, as inquisitors of heresy. Their antichristian spirit may be
learned from the cruel proceedings of the ecclesiastics against the
thirty Germans at Oxford, under Henry II., and against the Wycliffites,
as noticed in Chapter V.

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 became 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 New 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, outstripped 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
_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 person, 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 proclamation, 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
themselves from the obedience of your grace. Nothing but translate all
rule, power, lordship, authority, obedience, and dignity, from your
grace to themselves. 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 French king, to
have deposed him from his crown and dignity, interdicted his land. For
which matter your most noble realm hath wrongfully, alas! stood
tributary, not to any temporal prince, but to _a cruel, devilish
bloodsucker, drunken ever since with the blood of the saints and martyrs
of Christ_!

“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 excommunicated, and then all his actions will be quashed_.”

Henry became alarmed by this bold exposure of the wicked deeds of the
prelates, and he 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, and Gardiner, bishop of Winchester; and, as
she denied transubstantiation, they condemned 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 afterwards, 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, after she had endured it once without accusing any person
of partaking her opinions. It was concerning 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 Rich,
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 companions in martyrdom to the same
invincible fortitude 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 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, accepting their
sacrifice, and receiving their spirits into everlasting rest.” June,
1546.

Henry VIII. dying January 28, 1547, was succeeded 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 young king died, July 6, 1553, and was
succeeded on the throne by his sister Mary. She was a consistent Papist,
directed entirely by the Romish prelates. They revived all the powers of
the Inquisition, and soon imprisoned Cranmer, 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 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 superstition, 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
obsequious 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 Rome 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 ratified 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
blessing, and directions how to govern the church; and on the 25th,
there was a solemn procession through London, consisting of _eight_
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 chancellor.

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
inquisition everywhere, as the only sure method to extirpate 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 his 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
Carmarthen.

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, “Instructions 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 examination is to know
of them, for what reason they are brought before them; upon which they
are tortured 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 Latimer
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 Romish 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_ 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
Execution of Justice in England,” reckons the number of those who died
in the reign of Mary by imprisonment, 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 death of her sister Mary.
She was a Protestant in 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
imprisonment, 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 require
volumes; their _principles_, and many of their _practices_, being
precisely those of the _execrable_ ROMISH 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 characters 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 dishonour on the prelates and
the queen. A congregation 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
custom, _they were required to bear faggots during sermon at Paul’s
Cross, as a token of their deserving the flames! Ten of the men and one
woman were condemned 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 London, who were allowed to
hold their meetings for religious worship, interceded with the queen for
their mistaken countrymen; but she gave them a positive refusal to
their request. John Fox, 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 sufficient 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 Commission 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 Scripture 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? [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 conferences 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 follow. I am enforced with all humility, and yet plainly, to
profess that I cannot, with safe conscience, 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 instruction 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 thereunto. Remember, 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, ‘_Thus I will--thus I order--my
will is reason sufficient!_’”

Grindal’s mode of arguing was precisely that of the Protestants against
the Papists, and of the apostles against the rulers of the Jews. But
this appeal to the Scriptures availed nothing with the royal inquisitor;
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 Canterbury, 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 examining 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 Walsingham, secretary of
state, to sign a letter, September 20, 1584, to the archbishop, and the
bishop of London, 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 imprisoned 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_,
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
condemned. 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 the hard terms were being
arranged with the archbishop, Udall died in prison, from his long
confinement 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 profitable 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 apprehended 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 condemned, 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 hanged for dispersing the
writings of the nonconformists.

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 nonconformists. 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
banishment_; 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_!!”

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 succeeded him, and
was banished by the queen. In 1596, Dr. Bancroft, a haughty, unfeeling
persecutor, 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
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 herself 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 suffered 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
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 archbishop of Canterbury; but,
being unfitted for political intrigue, he was suspended in 1620, and
Laud, bishop of London, exercised almost unlimited authority in
ecclesiastical affairs. His bigotry would have qualified him for
inquisitor-general in Rome 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
Commission 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 tampering 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 thirst
of revenge outweighed 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 cap
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 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, unparalleled, 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
restoration 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 of Toleration,” as a shield against priestly
oppression, 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 persons
     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_; pretending 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, therefore, 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 sanguinary
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, transubstantiation, 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 ecclesiastical traditions, and taking the Holy
Scriptures as the only rule of faith and duty, are thus declared
_heretics_ by the Papists. Such are punished variously, some being burnt
alive.

2. OPEN AND SECRET HERETICS.--These are described thus, by the
Romanists:--“An _open_ heretic is one who publicly avows something
contrary 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 _arch-heretics_, as the inventors or chief teachers of
doctrines contrary to those established by the Pope. Among the most
distinguished of these, the Papists reckon Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe,
Luther, Calvin, Zuingle, Cranmer, Knox, and others, the leaders of the
Protestant reformation. Multitudes 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 without blame, and err through probable or
insuperable ignorance. The punishments of schismatics are privation of
ecclesiastical power, if priests, excommunication, and, finally, death.

4. RECEIVERS OR FAVOURERS OF HERETICS.--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 excommunication, and
banishment for ever, with confiscation of goods.

5. HINDERERS OF THE OFFICE OF THE INQUISITION.--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 constant heart, through many tribulations
and persecutions, 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 contemners, besides the Divine judgment
that hangs over them, they shall not escape the ecclesiastical
vengeance.”

6. SUSPECTED HERETICS.--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. PERSONS DEFAMED FOR HERESY.--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 purgation, with some
other penalty.

8. RELAPSED PERSONS.--Persons relapsed are those who, after having
publicly abjured heresy, are convicted of falling into it again. The
punishment of such persons is extreme; they are given over to the
secular power to be burnt without mercy.

9. READERS OF PROHIBITED BOOKS.--Nothing can exceed the intolerance of
the Papists in relation 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 PRIESTS ADMINISTERING THE LORD’S SUPPER.--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 suspected, and then be delivered
over to the secular power to be punished with death.

11. PRIESTS SOLICITING IN CONFESSION.--Incontinent 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. BLASPHEMERS.--Blasphemers are of various kinds--some saying, “I deny
God; 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 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. DIVINERS AND FORTUNE-TELLERS.--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 AND WIZARDS.--These were regarded as 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. POLYGAMISTS.--Those who marry two or more wives are suspected of
heresy, and of disregarding the sacrament of matrimony. Such are
punished with penances, fastings, and slavery in the galleys, for five,
seven, or ten years. This crime is but lightly considered in Spain,
though it is looked upon as more serious by the inquisitors in Rome.

16. JEWS AND JEWISH PROSELYTES.--Divine prophecy declares that the Jews
shall continue a 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 endeavoured 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, in
France and Spain. They have been oppressed, fined, and banished, unless
they would turn Christians. 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.




CHAPTER XI.

MINISTERS OF THE INQUISITION.

 Inquisition in
 Spain--Inquisitors--Vicars--Counsellors--Promoters-Fiscal--Notaries--
 Treasurer--Executor--Familiars--Cross-Bearers--Visitors--Privileges--
 Jurisdiction--Prohibition of books--Prison-keepers.


Spain, Portugal, and Rome have been most notorious for cruelty, by means
of the dreaded court of 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 the forfeited 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 appointed for the service of this court. These require some notice,
the better to understand the character of the Inquisition.

1. INQUISITORS 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
president of the Inquisition, and was called “inquisitor-major,” or
“inquisitor-general.” The Romish cardinals, also, were
inquisitors-general.

2. VICARS.--These are appointed by the inquisitors, 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 be accused.

3. COUNSELLORS.--These were skilful lawyers, 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 depositions 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 required 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 executor, 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.

10. CROSS-BEARERS.--These also are soldiers, a kind of militia, trained
and armed for the 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 inquisitor-general. They are commonly commissioned
as occasions seem to require investigation.

12. PRIVILEGES OF INQUISITORS.--Extraordinary 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 inquisitor, 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 so ample, that few
persons are excepted from it; because 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 consul. 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. Meadows, 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
authority over the Inquisition. But Cromwell sent new instructions,
requiring from the king his instant liberation, 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
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
prohibition, with a particular stress upon the Scriptures, “with all
parts of them, either printed or manuscript, with all summaries and
abridgments, although historical, of the said Bible, in the vulgar
tongue.”

15. KEEPERS OF THE PRISONS OF THE INQUISITION.--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 imprisoned 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 warrant 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 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
imprisoned 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 in the prison, he died in the hospital of
the Inquisition!

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, with her,
two daughters, but kept in different cells. They bemoaned their
separation, and entreated the keeper to suffer 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 granted 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, 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 round 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 in the galleys! Dreadful as
these are, they are far from being the most affecting examples of
cruelty in the Inquisition.

16. TERRORS OF THE INQUISITION.--No words can express the dread of the
people regarding the tribunal of the inquisitors. They regard the
prisoners 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.

TRIAL 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 accusations from any persons against others, under the
authority of the chief inquisitor. Public preparations are made,
therefore, for the commencement of proceedings against them on account
of alleged crimes.

1. THE EDICT OF FAITH.--Some Sunday is appointed 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. PROCESS BEFORE THE TRIBUNAL.--There are three ways of
proceeding--_first_, 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 testimony 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 prisoners.

3. ARREST OF THE ACCUSED.--Persons accused of heresy, living in cities,
are usually arrested in the dead of night, by familiars of the
Inquisition. 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 confinement, generally
for a long time, till they are convicted of any crime of which they may
have been guilty.

4. EXAMINATION OF PRISONERS.--After solemn prayer to the Holy Spirit has
been read, the prisoner is brought before the inquisitor in the chamber
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 confess fictitious crimes, in the
vain hope of obtaining liberty.

5. BILL OF ACCUSATION.--The promoter-fiscal exhibits the bill of
accusation against the prisoner, thus,--“I, _N._, fiscal of the office
of the Holy Inquisition, do, before you, the reverend inquisitor,
delegated judge in causes of the faith against heretical pravity,
criminally accuse _M._, who being baptised 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 New
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 FOR THE PRISONER.--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.

8. THE PROCESS TERMINATED.--Sentences are pronounced according to the
decisions of the inquisitors. Those declared innocent are absolved; and
those suspected are subjected to abjuration, purgation, 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 confiscated;
his opinions and writings are condemned; and he is deprived of all
ecclesiastical or public offices and honours, while he is delivered over
to the secular power to be punished. If he persist in his opinions,
sentence is immediately pronounced, 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. ABJURATION OF A PENITENT.--A heretic, against whom an information has
been laid, confessing his heresy to the bishop or inquisitor, promising
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 Gospels, with his
head uncovered, and, falling 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
returning, 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. PENANCES OF THOSE WHO ABJURE.--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
personages, 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
fraternity, in the presence of the notary of the Holy Office. But the
most common punishment is wearing 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.




CHAPTER XIII.

TORTURES 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 doctrine 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 to induce the accused to confess regarding friends or
associates, who may hold opinions deemed heretical. 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 Romish 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 Romish perversion of the
Scriptures.

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 OF TORTURE.--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 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 himself 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
clothing 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
everything 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.

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. SQUASSATION.--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 legs
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 FIRE-PAN.--This was applied to the prisoner while he was fastened
in the stocks, when a 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 renewed. The Rev. Archibald
Bower, once an inquisitor, 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, producing extreme agony to the victim.

8. THE HORSE.--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 tightened, 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 fastened 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 inquisitors. Some used canes put between the fingers,
which were then pressed together, so as to dislocate the joints, and
occasion exquisite pain. Others 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 revolting 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 words 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 conducted in a manner so manifestly opposed to equity and
humanity. A few selected cases of their tortured victims will still
further illustrate the diabolical savageness of the inquisitors: these
cases are given from the most undoubted authorities.

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 witnesses 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 inquisitors, 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 which he 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, during 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 had never said what he 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 mentioned, 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 accusation. 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 _the
torture was begun, but not finished_, commanded that it should cease.
The accused was withdrawn from the _chevalet_, or _rack_, 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 remarks 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 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 fé_, in his
shirt, without a cloak, his head uncovered, and with a torch in his
hand; that he should abjure heresy 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 afterwards given in, that Juan de
Salas performed his _auto da fé_ 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 publish a decree, in 1558, commanding that the torture should
not be administered without an order from the council.”

2. DONNA JOHANNA BOHORQUES.--Limborch, from Gonsalvius, gives the
following account of this noble young lady, who was really murdered by
the inquisitors 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 Bohorques, 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 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
inquisitors, was allowed her for her companion. This young creature was,
on a certain day, carried out to her torture; and being 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, after all, they could not
procure 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, dissemble
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 restored to those to
whom they of right belonged.’ And thus, after they had murdered her, by
torture, with savage cruelty, they pronounced her innocent!”

Llorente adds, “Under what an overwhelming responsibility will these
monsters appear before the tribunal of the Almighty!”

This instance of refined barbarity in the inquisitors strikingly
displays their hypocrisy as professors of the benevolent religion of
Christ, and their malignity against those who dared to listen to the
doctrines of the Scriptures, then condemned under the name of
LUTHERANISM.

3. DONNA MARIA BOHORQUES.--This lady was sister of Johanna, who had been
murdered in the 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 suspicion of being a Lutheran. Under the instruction of
D. Juan Gil, bishop of Tortosa, she was perfectly 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
arguments 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
depositions of her accusers, though she allowed the principal 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 disapproved 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 da fé_, at which she was
to suffer, the inquisitors made every exertion to bring her back to the
Romish faith. They sent to her, successively, two Jesuits and two
Dominican priests, who laboured with great zeal for her conversion; 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 fé_, two Dominicans joined in the attempt, and were
followed 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 interested 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 meditating on the death of their Redeemer, in order to confirm that
faith by which alone they could be 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. MELCHIOR HERNANDEZ.--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
conversation 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 bore the cruel infliction without
uttering a word. On the 18th of October, 1565, he 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; that they conversed
respecting the law of Moses, but that he regarded their communications
as mere pastime. Between this and the commencement of the _auto da fé_,
next day, he made several communications, in hope of escaping death,
giving the names of various parties as his accomplices. This disclosure
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 confessed 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 extraordinary and contradictory
statements, perplexing to his judges; three of whom voted for his
punishment and two for his reconciliation. The council decreed that
Melchior should be burnt on the 8th of June, 1567; 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 receive his confession. He gave another synagogue, 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 sentenced 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 be supposed to have forgotten them_.”

Overcome by this malignant suggestion, Melchior delivered an indignant
invective against the inquisitors, 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 with the names and quality of these
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
confirmed 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 declaration against myself.” “But how is it,” said the
inquisitor, “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 witnesses?” “I do not know,” replied Melchior, “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,” asked the inquisitor,
“in declaring things injurious to yourself, if they were false?”
Melchior declared, “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 da fé_.”

Nothing was now to be expected but death, and he was desired, on the 6th
of June, 1568, to prepare for it by the next day. At two o’clock in the
morning he desired an audience with the inquisitor, 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 no injury might be done to their honour and
reputation.”

Melchior Hernandez was, therefore, sacrificed to the bigotry of the
inquisitors, first being strangled and then burnt. As to his inventions
and false accusations of others, nothing can justify him; but such
endeavours to escape from the dreadful tribunal 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 pronounced 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 understanding 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 persuade Pezoa to confess, even after sentence
was pronounced, and his procession in the act of faith, 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 Inquisition, to prevail on him,
if possible, to confess. He was led forth in the procession, wearing the
infamous 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,
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 of 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 Fé_--Act of Faith at Madrid--Act of Faith at
Lisbon--Testimony of Rev. Mr. Wilcox.


The _auto da fé_, 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 fé_ may be called _the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy_. It is
a kind of gaol delivery, 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 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
Rome, who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their pictures painted
on their breasts, with dogs, serpents, 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 hatbands.

On the occasion, a scaffold 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 Inquisition,
and invectives against heretics, a priest ascends a desk near the
scaffold, and having taken the abjuration 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 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 Romish 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 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 MADRID, A.D. 1680.

Spain and Portugal, more than any other countries, 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 celebrated 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, 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 counsellors 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 proclamation, the ceremony opened
in the following order. The march was preceded by a hundred
coal-merchants, 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 represented 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 Dominican 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 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 pasteboard, 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 the 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 Roman Catholics
call blasphemous tenets.

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 king 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 distinction, 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 the king’s balcony. Then he went up the steps 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 oath which a counsellor of the Inquisition had just read to him. The
king continued in this posture 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 pasteboard 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 both sexes,
condemned 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
Foncural. 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 condemned 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 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 England, witnessed an _auto da
fé_, 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, _Justitia 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 narrowly escaped
being burnt, who, over their black 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 Portuguese _fuego revolto_,
or flames turned upside down. Next 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 procession,
_Horrendum ac tremendum 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 countenance of those that are to be burnt, there is
something 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 for people to behold that glorious body,
to worship any being but Him that created it?’ After the prisoners come
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 _N._, lord archbishop of Lisbon, or of his
deputy, _M._, called on the name of his Lord Jesus Christ, and 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 _N._, advocate-fiscal, on the
one part, and you, _N._, 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, _N._, of the city of
Lisbon, to be a convicted, confessing, affirmative, and professed
heretic, and to be delivered 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 touch 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,
earnestly 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, 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 person, 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 what religion 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 be 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 him to be _carried
to the place of execution, and there to be burnt alive_. At the place of
execution, which, at Lisbon, is in the Ribera, 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 Rome; 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 made! Let the dogs’
beards be made!_’ which is done by thrusting of flaming furzes, fastened
to a long pole, against their faces; and this inhumanity is commonly
continued until their faces are burned to a coal, and is always
accompanied with such acclamations 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 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 fé._
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, 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 considerable 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 he 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!”




CHAPTER XVI.

MODERN VICTIMS OF THE INQUISITION.

Galileo--Dr. Orobio de Castro--Count of Olavides--A Beata--Joseph da
Costa.


“Popery is unchangeable.” Such is the profession of its greatest
advocates. They declare that “the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Church”
is ever 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 religion 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 essential 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. GALILEO TORTURED IN THE INQUISITION.--Galileo 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 discoveries, 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 Copernican System of the World,” when he was again
arrested and condemned by that court to imprisonment for life, while his
books were burnt, as if science could injure religon. Torture in the
prison compelled him to sign the following abjuration; and, lest his
death should endanger the Inquisition, he was banished to Florence. “I,
Galileus, son of the late Vincentius 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 most 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 vehemently 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 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 will 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 myself 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 help 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 Rome, in the convent
of Minerva.

“I, Galileus Galilei, have abjured as above, with my own proper hand.”
July 22nd, 1633.

Galileo, indignant against his oppressors for compelling him to swear to
an error, as he rose from his knees, said, “It still moves!” His
tortures left him afflicted, but he lived seven years, and died in
January, A.D. 1642.

2. DR. BALTHASAR OROBIO DE CASTRO.--Limborch 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
professor 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 convicted, and
whipped by his order, for thieving; and afterwards, 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 fastened to the wall, and the
whole room enlightened with candles placed in them. At one end of it
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
inquisitor 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
torture, 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 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, which put him to such
intolerable 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
apartment, to ask their advice, if the torture could be continued
without danger of death, lest the ecclesiastical 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 endure the rest of the torture; and hereby preserved him from
having the tortures that he had already endured, 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 tortures that have already been suffered
must be successively 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
Amsterdam, professed himself a Jew, and was circumcised, taking the name
of Isaac, and died A.D. 1687.”

3. COUNT D’OLAVIDES.--Don Paul, Count d’Olavides, was an extraordinary
person. He undertook the fertilising Sierra Morena, or the Black
Mountain, on which he planted colonies of Germans. These being
Protestants, he was apprehended as a heretic, A.D. 1776. Limborch says,
“The victim which marks this period was the celebrated Olavides, whose
arrest suspended the progress of colonisation in the Sierra Morena. This
incident was derived from the same causes which contributed 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 endeavours
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 scrutinised; his works and actions were noted and
exaggerated; 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 danger, he made some ineffectual attempts to obtain the
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 fé_ are still celebrated at the tribunal of the
Inquisition, with more or less publicity, 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 waiting 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 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 particular 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; prohibition 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 Roman Catholic faith. Four priests in surplices, and
with wands in their hands, then came in. They repeatedly laid their
wands across his shoulders while a _Miserére_ 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 interference of the
monarch himself, and the clemency of the grand-inquisitor, could
probably have prevented 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 fé_, 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 _blessed 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 de Molinos, a
Romish priest, of a noble family in Spain, founder of the _Quietists_.
They placed religion in spiritual feeling, in opposition to ceremonies,
deducing his principles from the Scriptures. Molinos having published a
book, entitled “Spiritual Guide,” at Rome, A.D. 1675, he 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 confinement 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 conversion of the heretic. The assessors to
the inquisitors exhausted the syllogistic art, but hardened as she was,
she would not yield to their powerful arguments 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 fé_. 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 la fé_ (long live the faith). Her cause was
read from the pulpit, in the principal church of the Dominicans,
intermixed with obscenities expressed in the grossest terms. Nothing now
remained but to deliver her up to the secular judge, that she might be
punished with death. A retraction, previous to this act, might have
saved her life, but the unfortunate fanatic persisted in not making it,
and was delivered up. The approaching punishment, and depression of
spirits, occasioned by the fatigues of the day, made her desist from
her obstinacy 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.”

“You 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 constructed 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 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 themselves 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 tribunal
occasions, even in its actual state of slumber.”

5. JOSEPH DA COSTA, PEREIRA FURTADO 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,” 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 staff, 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 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 England without a previous passport.

“When I had read this fatal note, all the sorrowful consequences of an
imprisonment rushed upon my mind, sensible that the fury of my
persecutor 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
Highness the Prince Regard, which leave I had solicited, in consequence
of being employed in the royal service as one of the literary directors
of the royal printing-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
procured a formal passport from the minister of foreign affairs, 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; 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 informed 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
excellent 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
misfortunes 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 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 uncertainty as to my fate, and sustaining every possible
inconvenience attendant on such prisons, I remained 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 interrogatories, 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 confinement, 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 Inquisition; 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 constables, officers of the Inquisition, who
walked by the side of the carriage, I was conveyed to St. Anton Gate.
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 assertion; 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,
recommending 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 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 perpetual 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 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, parentage, 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 confession must be immediate; because the
present time was the most favourable moment a prisoner in the
Inquisition could have--for, should I confess afterwards 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 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 my being a freemason was the cause of my trial by the
Inquisition. 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 was 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 accusation as should be
necessary. The inquisitor replied, that he could do no otherwise than
praise my laudable resolution to confess my crimes; but it was his 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;
that I had committed crimes whose 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 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 confer upon me was that of accelerating my
cause; for 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
solitary 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 executioners 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 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.




CHAPTER XVII.

BRITISH VICTIMS OF THE INQUISITION.

William Lithgow--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, 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 connected 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 sergeant,
‘Clothe him again, and enclose him 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 hundred 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
walk, 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 the silver plate. The day following,
the governor entered my prison 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 wrathfully swore that I should see his face no more till
grievous torments should 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
musted 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 directions delivered, and, alas! too accessory to me in
the performance, my room was made a dark drawn dungeon, 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 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
permission, the forty-seventh day after my first imprisonment, and five
days before Christmas, 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 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 innocency, he, invective and malicious he, after many
tremendous threatenings, commanded 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 tormentor, began to disburden me of my irons, which
he could not unloose for a long time, whereat the chief-justice being
offended, the malicious villain struck away above an inch of my heel
with the bolt; whereupon I grievously groaning, being exceeding faint,
and without my three ounces of bread and a little water for three days
together, the alcaide said, ‘O, traitor, all this is nothing, but the
earnest of a greater bargain you have in hand!’

“After this, the alcaide and scrivan, being both 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 corregidor 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 tormentor, 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 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 depending 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 imploration, ‘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 God, have mercy upon
me, and strengthen me with patience to undergo this barbarous 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.

Now, the alcaide giving commission, the executioner 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 consisting 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, perceiving 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.

“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
cruelties, could have subsisted any longer, reserving life.

“And now, at last, they charged my broken legs 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’ gentlewoman, got permission to
visit me, and with her licence she brought abundance of tears,
presenting 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 Christmas
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 satisfaction 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 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. Yet 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, ‘Reverend 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 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 interview 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, unclothed 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 roof of a high loft (for the cords ran in two rings
fastened above), they cut the garter, and there I 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 reclothed 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 the 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 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 VASCONELLOS.--This lady, having been released from the
Inquisition at Lisbon, made the following deposition, in December,
1706:--

“Elizabeth Vasconellos, now in the city of Lisbon, 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 Lisbon, 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, as 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 merchant, 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
conformed to the Romish 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 Romish 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
Protestant, 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 to
her 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 a
considerable time, and told 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 days 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 fé_, 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 executioner, with 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 questioned, whether she
would profess the Romish religion 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 Protestant, though
she were burnt for it. To this they answered, that her being the queen
of England’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 tribunal 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 officers 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 undergone death, yet not being able to endure
a life of so much misery, she consented to subscribe as they would have
her, and accordingly, as she was directed, wrote at the bottom of a
large paper, which contained she knew not what; after which they advised
her to avoid the company 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 charitable Christians.

“The abovesaid Elizabeth Vasconellos did solemnly affirm and declare the
above-written deposition to be true, the day and year above written.

                                                          “JOHN MILNER,

                                                     “JOSEPH WILLCOCKS.

“_Lisbon, January 8, 1707_, N. S.”

       *       *       *       *       *

3. JOHN COUSTOS.--Mr. Coustos having escaped from the Inquisition,
published the narrative of his sufferings, shortly after his return to
England in 1744. From 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.

“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 Romish 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 Romanist. 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 inquisitors; and, two days after, Mr. Mouton went
alone to fetch the diamond, computed to be worth a hundred moidores.
This familiar had five subalterns of the Inquisition with him; and
having led 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. Forbidding 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 complaints, 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. Having recovered, I was sentenced
to suffer the tortures 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 persisted 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 declared that, if I died under
torture, I should be guilty of self-murder. And the last time of
suffering 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 outwards; 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
dislocated, 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 barbarians made me undergo this
torture a second time, which I bore with equal constancy. I was remanded
to my dungeon, attended by the surgeons, who dressed my bruises; and
here I continued till their _auto da fé_.

“Nine different times they put me to the torture, 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 I fell
into the merciless and bloody hands of the inquisitors.

“The day of the _auto da fé_ 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 apprehensions which
always overspread my mind, made me find the toil of the galley more
supportable.

“By the tortures inflicted on me in the Inquisition, 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, provided 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, informing 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 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 Inquisition 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 replied 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 relation 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, who employed their various tortures to force me to apostatise
from my holy religion. I return our sovereign, George II., the most
dutiful and respectful 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.”

MR. BOWER.--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 character of the
Inquisition. He was born in 1686, near Dundee, in Scotland. His parents
being Roman 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 Inquisition. 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 manuscript book of
directions for inquisitors, for his private guidance. These rules
required the extremes of inhumanity; and his attendance on the trials of
the Holy Office he found most agonising, so that he frequently uttered
exclamations of horror. Though 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 miserable victim died at that
moment under the torment!

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 Inquisition. Being ordered to arrest his best friend in Macerata,
he remonstrated with the inquisitor-general, urging, “My lord, you know
the connexion--;” when the inquisitor, with all the sternness 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 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 nobleman 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 English 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 fisherman, 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 Rome. He entreated his protection, 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
conveyed 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 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.




CHAPTER 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 city 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 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 establishments in Europe, sacrificing multitudes of its
victims in prison, and many in public, by the _auto da fé_. 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 1673, 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.
Apprehending 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. No attention would be paid to his case until
after the _auto da fé_, then about to be celebrated. He was designed for
the next horrid festival, in about three months; and accordingly he was
kept in the damp and loathsome 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 Goa, 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, resembling 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 windows, 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 me 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 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 profession, and
whether he knew the cause of his imprisonment? 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 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 confession, 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 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 fé_; and, after a length of
time, he was roused one night by the gaolers, bearing lights. Having
dressed himself, 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 fé_, by the tolling of the great bell in the cathedral; and these
being assembled, the prisoners were marched singly through the hall,
where each was given in charge to an inhabitant, who was responsible for
his safety, as his “_godfather_.” The procession, headed by the
Dominicans, was led through the principal streets of the city; and the
ceremonies of this shocking exhibition 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 of
_four_ 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 government, and he
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.


DR. C. BUCHANAN AT THE INQUISITION OF GOA.

Dr. Claudius Buchanan, chaplain to the East India Company, and
vice-provost of the college of Fort 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 viceroy, 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 courteously, at the convent of the Augustinians,
by Josepha Doloribus, the second in dignity of the inquisitors.
“Apartments were assigned to me,” 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
preservation 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
concerning 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 da fé_.

“January 27th, 1808. On the second morning after my arrival, I was
surprised by my host, the inquisitor, coming into my apartment clothed
in _black robes_ from head to foot, for the usual dress of his order is
white. He said he was going to sit on the tribunal of the Holy Office.
‘I presume, 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. ‘RELATION DE L’INQUISITION 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 happened which caused my first
alarm at Goa. My servants slept every night at my chamber door, in the
long gallery which is common to all the apartments, 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 _alguazils_ of
the Holy 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 breakfast, the inquisitor apologised for the
disturbance, and said the boy’s alarm proceeded from a ‘_phantasma
animi_,’ a phantasm of the imagination.

“After breakfast we resumed the subject of the Inquisition. The
inquisitor admitted that Dellon’s descriptions of the _dungeons_, of the
_torture_, of the _mode of trial_, and of the _auto da fé_, 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 ‘Religious Ceremonies,’ together with
plates of the system of torture and burnings at the _auto da fé_. I
added, that it was now generally believed in Europe that these
enormities 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 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 suppressed by royal edict in the year 1775, and
established again in 1779. The Franciscan father before mentioned
witnessed the annual _auto da fé_, 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 ascendant 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 restrictions, the chief of which are the two
following:--

“‘_That a greater number of witnesses should be required to convict a
criminal than were before necessary; and_,

“‘_That the_ auto da fé _should not be held publicly as before; but that
the sentences of the tribunal should be executed privately, within the
walls of the Inquisition_.’

“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, ‘_Nuno sigillum non revelat Inquisitio_.’ Formerly, the friends of
those unfortunate persons who were thrown into its prison, had the
melancholy satisfaction of seeing them once a year walking in the
procession of the _auto da fé_; or, if they were condemned to die, they
witnessed their death, and 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 concealment 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
frequency 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 countenance, 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 confined for life in
a dungeon, whether the inquisitor 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 expediency of its
longer continuance, had been called in question; that I had myself
written on the civilisation 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 proceedings; 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
evidently 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 Inquisition, 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 promised to do. But having
been so well entertained 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 _unhealthiness_ 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 Inquisition. 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 da fé_. At the procession described by Dellon,
in which he himself walked bare-foot, clothed 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?’ 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. ‘Now, 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 beginning, to show me only a
certain part of the Inquisition, 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
describe 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 whether 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 fé_. 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 attentions, (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
captives 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 replied,
‘That is a question which I cannot answer.’

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.

“From the Inquisition I went to the place of burning, in the _Campo
Santo Lazaro_, on the riverside, where the victims were brought to the
stake at the _auto da fé_. 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 accompanied 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
ministers of the Inquisition, with their racks and flames, to visit
these lands before the heralds of the Gospel of peace. But the most
painful reflection was, that this tribunal should yet exist, unawed 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 letter, which he said he would give me,
before I left the place, for the British resident in Travancore, being
an answer to a letter from that officer.

“When I arrived at the Inquisition, and had ascended the outer stairs,
the door-keepers surveyed me doubtingly, but suffered me to pass,
supposing that I had returned by permission and appointment 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 concerning 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 Goa; 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 leave of Joseph à Doloribus, without uttering
a word!”

Dr. Buchanan makes various reflections on his detail of the visit which
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 Montesquieu, ‘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.


Divine Inspiration, describing the papal apostacy, gives various
striking particulars, illustrations 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
characteristic 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 ecclesiastics
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 God and Saviour Jesus
Christ, by _enticing and provoking, 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 tribunal; and very heavy
censures were attached to those who should neglect or despise this
injunction. When this edict was first published, as Catholic authors of
credit state, such a considerable number of females went to the palace
of the Inquisition, 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 inquisitors, 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 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 inquisitors 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, commonly rolled in luxury, and indulged
in licentiousness 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 condemn; 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 authority, he should assume
the vices of the oriental monarchs.” M. Lavallée, in his “Histoire des
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 Versailles, 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 attendance. 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 mythology; the floor of the finest marble, and so
constructed as to admit the growth of orange trees, and a crystal
stream, which, imparting a delicious coolness, rolled off 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
embellishments of this splendid retreat, which he was the more
surprised to find where he had rather expected to have seen the rigid
tokens of inquisitorial devotion, he prepared to withdraw. But the
inquisitor 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 French army, when part of the troops were quartered at Saragossa,
after the great battle of Almanza, in 1706. M. de Legal, the
lieutenant-general, having been excommunicated 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 Gavin, 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 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 me there, 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, ‘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, 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 confinement. 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 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 apartment
with 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_; and must
tell you, that I have been in 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. You 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 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 inclined 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 appetite. 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 enchantment; 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 Francisco 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; and that his coming to see me was only out of the respect he
had for my family, and to tell me, at the same time, that some of my
lovers had procured 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.’ ‘O! 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 Francisco 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 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 nobody 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 me 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 saw all the circumference of the wheel set
with sharp razors. After that, she showed me a pit full of serpents and
toads. Then she said to me, ‘Now, my good mistress, 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 pleasure; for
they are put all naked and alive into the pan, and the cover of it being
locked up, the executioner 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 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 become 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 Francisco
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 follow her advice, and grant Don
Francisco everything he would desire of me. ‘If you are in that
disposition,’ said she, ‘leave off all your fears and apprehensions, 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 troubled 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, however, 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
myself, which he received mighty graciously. Having drunk up the
chocolate, she went out, and we discoursed 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 me 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 company,
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 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 amusements 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 dinner. That day we had all sorts of exquisite meats, and were
served with delicate fruits and sweetmeats. 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, _fifty-two_ 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
playing at cards, and some walking about, we spent three hours together.
At last, Mary came up ringing 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 recreation; so you may go into what
room you please till eight of the clock, and then you are to go into
your own chambers.’ So they all desired leave to go with me to my
apartment to spend the time there; and I was very glad that they
preferred my chamber to another. All going down together, we met in 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 Francisco 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 command; 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 command.

“I was in a most desperate condition; but my new sister, Leonora,--this
was her name,--prevailed so much upon me, that I overcame my vexation
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 warrant 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 happened 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 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 removed 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 carried. 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 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 delivered
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 regiment being broken, he came home, and in two
months after married me. Another officer married Leonora.”




CHAPTER 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 intelligent mind perceived by this means the enormous
superstitions and cruelty of the papacy; but these advantages, without
the blessed principles of the Scriptures, leaving men ignorant of true
Christianity, 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, particularly 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 remarks, that “the Lives of the
Saints were represented 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 scandalous reproach which these pretended pious
representations 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 da fé_. After
the extinction of the Spanish 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 dungeons.”

While many wretched beings were sacrificed in private, perishing in the
horrid prisons, those who were liberated carried marks of their fearful
treatment 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 Inquisition. Mr.
Townsend relates, that the Dutch consul, with whom he became acquainted
during his travels in Spain, in 1787, could never be prevailed 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 France
made progress in Spain, in 1807, the Chevalier de St. Gervais, a French
officer, was seized and imprisoned 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 port in that part called
_Barcelonette_. The sides of this walk, which is named the _Longa_, are
adorned with fine buildings. I was tranquilly enjoying 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 Antæus 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. ‘Have these Jacobin monks,’ said I,
‘succeeded to the Druids, who called themselves the agents of the Deity,
and arrogated to themselves the right of excommunicating and putting to
death their fellow-citizens?’ My complaints 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
confess my faults, in order to the attainment of my liberty. ‘Confess
your own faults first,’ said I to him; ‘ask pardon of God for your
hypocrisy and injustice. By what right do you arrest a gentleman, 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
country?’ ‘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 suspect 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 persuaded me
that submission was the only means by which I could hope to recover my
liberty. I appeared, therefore, clad in yellow, with a waxtaper 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,
CHARITY, MERCY.’ 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 sins. ‘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 mendicant friar, concerning
the Virgin and her lights.” [One of these having come to his chamber,
presenting 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 opportunity 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
commissioned 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 city.’ In 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 undeserving.’ ‘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 day 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, the 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
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 Inquisition was demolished,
some months after, in revenge for an outrage upon Colonel Lehmanowsky,
an officer of the French army. His report of it confirms many of the
foregoing details of that dreadful place. He states,--

“In the year 1809, I was attached to that part of Napoleon’s army which
was stationed at Madrid. Soult was commander-in-chief and governor of
the city. My regiment was the 9th Polish Lancers.

“One night, about ten or eleven o’clock, as I 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 I thought of the priests and Jesuits, and
the Inquisition, 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, however,
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 me 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 buildings. 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 withdrew, and after conversation apparently with
someone within, he re-appeared, presented his musket, and shot one of my
men. This was a signal of attack, 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 rams 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
soldiers, saying, ‘Why do you fight 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 opportunity 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 gratified 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, 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 Inquisition, 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 order to break it. The fathers, who had been
looking on with the greatest dismay, now broke out in loud remonstrance
against our desecration of their holy and beautiful house. As they were
thus engaged, 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 handwriting 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 staircase.

“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
inquisitor-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 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 we saw some, of which 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 gradually 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 infernal 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 declared 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 machine for
racking the joints. Another was put under 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 the fatal
circle. The beautiful image instantly prepared 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 Madrid, 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 Lehmanowsky, “I gave orders for
the library, paintings, and furniture to be carefully removed, and sent
to the city for a large quantity of gunpowder. Placing this in the
vaults and subterranean 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 structure 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 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
Inquisition in every part of the country, as pernicious to the interests
of the community, and incompatible 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,” published his first edict,
April 5, 1815. Little improvement 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 Revolution, 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 _his mother as his accuser_; another seems 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 11th
of November, 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 punishment was to be death by
the _pendulum_. The method of thus destroying the victim was as
follows:--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 cut the skin of his nose, and gradually cut on until life was
extinct. This, it appears, was one of the substitutes for the more
barbarous exhibitions in public, when the inquisitors did not dare to
perform an _auto da fé_. And this, let it be remembered, was one of the
modes of punishing those accused of heresy, by the secret tribunal of
the Romish Inquisition, A.D. 1820!

Spain still groans under the dreadful domination of popery. Christian
liberty is unknown to her people. They are kept by the Romish priesthood
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
Inquisition, 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 1789-1790. In the “Preface” to his valuable “History” of that
court, he says, “My perseverance has been crowned with success far
beyond my hopes; for, in addition to an abundance of materials, obtained
with labour and expense, consisting 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 everything that appeared
to me of consequence in the registers of the council of the Inquisition,
and in the provincial tribunals, for the purpose of compiling 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, R.N., in his volumes on “Spain and the Spaniards,”
in 1843, cites from Gibbon, “What has Spain done with the _four hundred
cities_ she once possessed?” and replies, “Spain might answer to the
pithy question, ‘Ask the _church_, they can, perhaps, inform you.’ It
is not owing to the _church_,” he adds, “but to the ecclesiastical
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 Moriseoes; 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 ruins of decayed
villages and 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
in 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 ruling,
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. Now this
cause having been removed, 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 Protestants, of whose
religious principles 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, which requires every member of the
Catholic church to approach the sacraments of confession and communion
at Easter time, is sought to be made universally stringent to this day,
not by the exploded 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 reformation in these respects; but
there are few indications 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 condition 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 according to the established
principles of the Romish 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 attach 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!




CHAPTER XXI.

THE INQUISITION AT ROME AND DR. ACHILLI.

     The Inquisition continued at Rome--Its deeds and cruelties--Pope
     Gregory--Pope Pius IX.--Memorial of the overthrow of the
     Inquisition in 1849--Letter to the Rev. E. Bickersteth--Siege of
     Rome by the French--Imprisonment and Release of Dr. Achilli.


Rome, the seat and centre of papal intrigue, continued to maintain the
Inquisition. Travellers 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
fact, has not arisen from the superior clemency and humanity of the
Italians, or from the greater benevolence of their religion, but from
peculiar circumstances. The avarice of the popes has dictated the
necessity of a less sanguinary policy at Rome, while it has been
enriched by multitudes of foreigners of the higher ranks, who had been
attracted as visitors to Rome, to view the monumental 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. Persecution and punishments were, therefore,
not permitted to the same extent in Italy as in Spain and Portugal;
though deeds of cruelty, at which humanity shudders, were perpetrated in
the private dungeons of the Inquisition.

Many serious persons were led to suppose that the suppression of the
Inquisition at Rome had followed its abolition in Spain. This, however,
was 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 staff of ministers and officers of
the Inquisition had been maintained, with its confessors, familiars, and
guards, requisite for carrying out its sentences, by 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 Rome 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. Dominicans 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 affirms that the bloody persecutions of the Vatican have ceased,
asserts a falsehood.”

Salvatore Ferretti, a native of Tuscany, but who has been several years
in London, editor of _L’Eco di Savonarola_, appeals,--“Has Pius IX. even
abolished the infamous tribunal of the Inquisition at Rome? the
following will answer this in the negative. ‘Deceived by the display of
benignity and mercy upon the part of the new pontiff,’ says
_L’Indicatore_, ‘we spoke, in the seventeenth number of our journal,
1846, of the unfortunate 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
fallible. 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 disguised, taking his walks
accompanied by his keeper, would indicate the existence of the
Inquisition.’ O Rome, when wilt thou dare to raze from its foundations
this infernal edifice? The sole remnant 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 by the tortures of the Inquisition
and the bayonets of Austria!”

Raffaelle 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 monastery 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 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 known to have been administered, by the agents of the papal
court, to obnoxious individuals; 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 Rome, 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 God 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 dungeons of the Holy Office. Appalling proofs of
this were discovered on the opening of the Inquisition, on 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 courtyard, 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 chambers 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
Office, at the time of its suppression in February, 1849:”--

“In consequence of a decree of the Roman Constituent Assembly, by which
the suppression of the tribunal of the ‘Holy Office’ was resolved, the
government ordered that the fathers of the Dominican order, then
inhabiting that vast locality, should remove to the convent called
‘Della 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 Roman notary Caggiotti, to prevent the
abstraction of any object, and a keeper was appointed to the premises.
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, _human bones_ 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 being broken. In the roof of another
subterranean chamber a large ring was found fixed. It is supposed to
have been used in administering the torture. 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 black 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 examinations were conducted. Among the
inscriptions made with charcoal on the wall, it was observed that many
appeared of a very recent date, expressing 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 Rome from the Holy Land, having in his possession
papers which had belonged to an ecclesiastic there. Passing himself for
that person, he succeeded in surprising the court of Rome into ordaining
and consecrating him a bishop. The fraud was 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 himself, to expiate his own fraud, than the
gross blunder of the church of Rome, which had no other means of
concealing his character of bishop, its 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 flat, 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
tranquillity of those persons who had relations with the Holy Office.

“Attention was especially directed to the book called ‘Solecitazione,’
(containing reports,) and to 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 appears, 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 abominable licentiousness. It can be
shown, from documents, 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_, _La Jeune Suisse_, the
masonic societies of England and Scotland, and the anti-religious sects
of America, &c. There is an innumerable quantity of information and
processes 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 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 ‘Della 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 Rome, the civic guard came in much haste to the Holy Office,
from having observed great clouds of smoke issuing from one of the
chimneys, accompanied 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, however,
nearly complete, a collection of decrees, beginning with the year 1549,
down to our own days. They were divided year by year, each volume
containing 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
destroying that vast edifice, it should be portioned into dwellings for
poor families of Rome. In consequence 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 property, 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
remunerated; 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 political ends.

“2. That to succeed in its purposes, the Holy Office had especially
recourse to confession, of which 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
procuring 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 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 with blood. A trap-door was to be seen, and a burial
with human bones. But a subterranean cave occasioned special horror,
covered with 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 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.’”

DR. ACHILLI AND THE INQUISITION AT ROME.--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 Minerva, 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 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 Rome, 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 triumvirate 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 England 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 comparative mildness: yet, it
seemed, that he 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 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 Nono,
on his return to Rome.

“The treatment experienced in this prison is certainly not so bad, in
most cases, as it is in every other within the walls of Rome. The Castle
of St. Angelo is chiefly set apart for prisoners of distinction.
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 celebrated Cardinals Caraffa, Coscia, and others, were
hung. 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 Rome. 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 perpetuam 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 defenders
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, 26, 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 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 Gusman; raised in Spain the funeral pile
and the scaffold, devastating the fair kingdoms of Granada and Castile,
through the assistance of those detestable monks, Raimond de Pennefort,
Peter Arbues, and Cardinal Torquemada. That which, to its eternal
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 Rome, 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 established 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 burn alive two holy men,
John Huss, and Jerome of Prague; that which, at Florence, subjected
Savonarola to the torture; and at Rome condemned Aonio Paleario, and
Pietro Carnesecchi. It is the self-same Inquisition with that of Pope
Caraffa, and of Fr. Michele Ghistieri, who built the palace called _The
Holy Office_, where so many victims fell a sacrifice to their barbarity,
and where at the present moment the Roman Inquisition still exists. Its
laws are always the same. _The Black Book, or Praxis Sacræ Romanæ
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
iniquity” 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, presented a moving spectacle to my eyes. Throwing off
her bonnet, and letting loose in a moment her 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 endeavouring 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 pardon 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 beforehand 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 pardoned, 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.’

“‘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
prefixed to all works that are printed here, in lieu of that of the
master himself. I assure you that neither 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 intimation! To
be the accuser of my own son! ‘Such is 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 overwhelmed 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 difficulty; and 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 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; 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
tranquillise 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
pretence 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.




CHAPTER 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. Seymour--Society in Rome--Italian
     estimate of Woman--Reasons for Nunneries--Their walls and iron
     gratings--Their secrecy--Testimony of an Officer--Religious
     temptations--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 influence and its morals are felt throughout the whole
circle of society in popish countries; and its operations extend to all
classes, even to the educational and public institutions. It is seen in
the religious houses. We have, in Chapter XIX., some affecting 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 regulated by rules framed or
sanctioned by the “Holy Office;” and in what manner soever the recluses
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 Rev.
Blanco White, formerly chaplain to the king of Spain,--as he had the
best means of information,--will be satisfactory 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 continued in manhood, till at the age of
five-and-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 dissoluteness left, indeed, no secrets among the
spiritual slaves, who, unable to separate the laws of God from those of
their tyrannical church, trampled both under foot in riotous despair.
Such are the sources of the knowledge I possess: God, sorrow, 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 known the best among them; I have heard the
confessions 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 inhabitants. _This I know_, with all the
certainty which the self-accusation of the guilty can give. It is,
besides, a notorious fact, that _the nunneries in Estremadura and
Portugal are frequently infected with 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 intercourse, adapted to corrupt the
heart of the priest, and prepare him for the most vicious practices. And
the dangers to unprotected nuns cannot 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_ 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 metropolis 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 unscrupulous 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 furtherance 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 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 in 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 independent 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 another of his children, for a few days, in
an hotel at Turin. On the 8th of June, a display of fireworks 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 fête, and very
reluctantly to leave their daughter, who excused herself on some
pretext, at home. They were absent but a short time; yet, in the
interval, the vague apprehensions they seem to have entertained were
fatally verified. Their daughter had disappeared--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 unfortunate 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 gentleman 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, 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
acknowledge_, 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 Heldivier!_ Thwarted by her
parents in her attachment 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 Rome. The archbishop, _unwilling to commit himself by a
written order, had furnished his convert with 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 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 successfully
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 his own opinion on the
subject, if he presumed 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 principle contended for,
on behalf of the church of Rome, 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 church_. 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 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. Heldivier, 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 indifference and
pusillanimity; and Mademoiselle Heldivier remains in the convent of
Santa Croce, where she has formally abjured 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 the
uncontrolled power of the Romish clergy may still dare to effect, and a
humiliating example of a government, which has allowed the ties of
private right and public law to be broken asunder_, because it is itself
a victim to the worst form of bigotry, and the most servile subjection
to spiritual oppression!”

Rome must be regarded as the fountain of the papal Catholicism. In that
metropolis is concentrated the wisdom, the authority, and the
perfection 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 administered in its spirit,
as testified by the most respectable writers. Perhaps no one will be
esteemed more worthy of credit than the Rev. M. Hobart Seymour, M.A., a
clergyman of the highest reputation in the church of England. In his
“Pilgrimage to Rome,” 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. 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 witnessed 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, who 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 universally, is too correct in the main, as
applied to the tone of society in Italy, and especially in Rome.

“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 respectable 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 character, 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
commodity--living among a people ever ripe for any and every
revolution--living in this state, they live suspicious of each other;
and being without commerce, without education, without employment, they
too often make vice and intrigue, and at all events pleasure--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 intercourse; 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 opportunity, and were
restrained only by the strict superintendence of parental presence. This
is a state of society unknown in England, and almost as unintelligible
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 intercourse
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 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 England, 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 removed out of
sight, that no stranger should see her; her name would never be heard in
conversation; 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 astonishment 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 punished as a criminal_, and confined, if
possible, still more closely than before. I cannot say precisely what
are the provisions 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
monasteries are so constructed, that the inmates are as 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 examining
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 monasteries, 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 communion of 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 imprisonment 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 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, ‘O, Signor, 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
Inquisitions” at Rome. 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, communicated to us, in private, the
impressions created on his own mind. He was a man of years and
experience--was the father of a large family, was a very domestic,
amiable and religious man, for a Romanist--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 remarkable; 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, sadden all his best feelings, and trouble his very
dreams. He could not think or speak of the subject 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 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
five-and-twenty_ years of age!”--Pp. 181-183.

Surely no one can read this testimony concerning the condition of _nuns
at Rome_, 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 remarks 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 themselves 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 nunneries. The
great majority of the nunneries of 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 remembrance 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 practically
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_,’ and results in the most
extravagant claims to visions and revelations. It is the religion of
madness; or perhaps, 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 years of age. I have 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 required 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
walls 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.

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 remarks,--“Every
one who knows anything of Italy, and especially of Rome, is aware that
the most debauched and profligate characters in the land are among these
inmates of the cloister. At present, 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 confessional, 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 sisterhood. But I entertain a less
favourable opinion of others. It should ever be remembered, however,
that from the very nature of some of these establishments, _there is no
possibility of knowing what passes within them. Immured within those
lofty walls and iron bars, 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 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 Rome, 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 ceremonial 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! 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 comes 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 desire 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 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 hell may possibly be rife throughout their cloisters, and the
cry of innocence and outraged virtue, stifled within the walls, may
remain unheard by 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.

[Illustration: VIEW OF THE “VIRGIN MARY” OPENED.]

[Illustration: FRONT VIEW AND PROFILE OF THE “VIRGIN MARY.”]




CHAPTER XXIII.

“THE KISS OF THE VIRGIN MARY.”

     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
Romish 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 employed 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 denominated “THE VIRGIN,” or “THE VIRGIN MARY.”

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 Faulcaut, who had seen it in the
Inquisition of Saragossa, it appears to have been common in Germany. The
following testimony is from a work called “THE KISS OF THE VIRGIN; a
Narrative of Researches made in Germany, 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 R. L. PEARSALL, of Willsbridge, Esq., in a Letter
to the Rev. H. T. Ellacombe, 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 countries. 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 probable 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.

“‘PASSER PAR 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
descending through trap-doors, called _oubliettes_, into the nether
regions of the prison, from which he never returned.

“‘THE KISS OF THE VIRGIN,’ (or _Jungfern-Kuss_), was an equally
well-known phrase in Germany, and its import was almost as little
understood. 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
understand 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 it, and the
contradictory and, consequently, unsatisfactory 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 lie.

“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
Nürnber-gerisehen Geschichte herausge geben von D. T. C. Siebenkees,
Nürnberg, 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 Ropes; so, at least, it was publicly given out, to
justify the thing. Therein was an _iron_ statue, _seven feet high_,
which stretched abroad 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 countries.”

Mr. Pearsall pursued his inquiries with indefatigable 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 Nuremberg. 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 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 underneath, 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 accompanied 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 Nuremberg, 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 of Nuremberg. From 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 accompanied 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 connected 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 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, I 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
contrivance 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 powerful screwing implement made to grasp him tightly,
so as to inflict great pain, and to render it impossible that he could
fall from her gripe. Whilst she held him thus firmly, a trap-door was
opened under 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
Polybius, 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, (_Abrégé de l’Histoire
d’Allemagne_, 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. Gévay, a learned Hungarian in the Imperial
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 specimens 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 Rome 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 Scriptures. Its
dreaded Inquisition, in all its various agencies, is regarded with the
utmost abhorrence by the more intelligent people of Rome and of the
other States of Italy. The Catholic priests, too, 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 Romish
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 “Rome 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 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 suffer 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, Gresham Steam Press, 31, Bucklersbury, London.


Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:

the most renowed=> the most renowned {pg 63}

that was establised=> that was established {pg 339}