Note 720 — PART IV. From the Reformation to the present time. (continued 2)

We are told that there is a copy of Paramo’s book now in Dr. Williams’s library in Red-Cross Street, London, and a most extraordinary production it appears to be. It was undertaken under the patronage of Don Gaspar de Quiroga, then abp. of Toledo, and Inquitor general, and first printed at Madrid in 1614.—It begins by proving God himself to have been the first inquisitor—He convicts Adam and Eve of pertinacious heresy, infidelity, apostacy, and blasphemy. God cited Adam, otherwise the process would have been null. On Adam’s appearance, He enquired, that is, made inquisition into the crime. The man accused his wife, then the judge questioned her: He did not examine the Serpent, because of his obstinacy.—The examinations were secret and separate, that there might be no collusive lying. He calls no witness; the inquisitor overlooks the reason, that there were none to call, and affirms that conscience and confession are a thousand witnesses, and save the judge all the trouble, except that of condemning. The whole was done secretly, that it might be a precedent for the holy office; and so closely does this holy office observe the precedent, that they make the dress of penitent offenders after the very pattern of the clothes which God made for Adam and Eve, and confiscate all the property of a heretic, because Adam and Eve were turned out of paradise.—The author further maintains, that Abraham was an inquisitor, and Sarah likewise; for she turned Ishmael out of doors for idolatry. In this manner he goes on through the Pentateuch, and the books of Joshua and Judges, finding inquisitors all the way through.—David was a staunch inquisitor. Zimri, who slew his master, was of the holy office: so was Elijah. Elisha and Jehu also are among the heroes of persecution; and Nebuchadnezzar most unexpectedly proves to be an inquisitor also.—Under the Gospel, Christ was the first inquisitor: the lice, which devoured Herod, and the rulers who spoiled the Jews, only executed the sentences of death and confiscation which he had pronounced. James and John, who proposed to have the Samaritan heretics destroyed by fire, were inquisitors, of course. Then follow the apostles, and after them the popes. &c. Thus the divine origin and authority of the horrid inquisition is proved from scripture—and proved as plainly and conclusively too, as many venerated religious tenets and usages are now every day proved by some of our most renowned protestant writers:—for instance the precious contents of the athanasian creed, the popular rite of infant sprinkling, and the whole ceremony of what is called christening. The scriptures seem no less violated or abused, in being brought to support these, than they are in being brought to support the inquisition. Let us therefore not be too severe on Luiz de Paramo for writing such book as that here noticed.