Note 300 — Chapter VI · SOLICITATION

The Dominican Maestro Alvarado, in his heated defence of the Inquisition, in 1811, calls attention to the fact that, in its later period, its penitents were largely ecclesiastics, because firstly their theology exposed them to uttering compromising propositions; secondly, “porque solos los clérigos y frailes son los que confiesan y todos saben muy bien lo peligroso de este materia y los muchos que en él han naufragado.”—Cartas del Filosofo Rancio, I, 316 (Madrid, 1824).