BOOK III. OF PERSECUTIONS UNDER THE PAPACY, AND PARTICULARLY OF THE INQUISITION. (continued 2)

191It is required that this solicitation be made in the act of sacramental confession; and such confessors are vehemently suspected, and must abjure as such, and be enjoined fastings and prayers, and may be condemned to the gallies, or perpetual imprisonment; must be suspended from hearing confessions, and deprived of their benefices, dignities and the like.

Yea, sometimes, according to the heinousness of the offence, a more grievous punishment is inflicted. “The Venetians ordered one of them to be burnt alive, by command of the pope. He had been father confessor to some nuns in the dominions of Venice, and had got twelve of them with child; amongst whom the abbess and two others had children in one year. As he was confessing them, he agreed with them about the place, manner, and time of lying with them. All were filled with admiration and astonishment, taking the man for a perfect saint, he had so great a shew of sanctity in his very face.” Epist. ad Belgas, Cent. 1. Ep. 66. p. 345. & Ep. 63. p. 316.

In Portugal also the crime of sodomy belongs to the tribunal of the inquisition. By the laws of that kingdom sodomites are punished with death, and confiscation of all their effects; and their children and grandchildren become infamous. After the natural death of a sodomite, if the crime hath not been proved, they cannot proceed against him, neither as to the crime, nor confiscation of effects, although the crime can be proved by legal witnesses; because crimes, which are not particularly excepted, of which sodomy is one, are extinguished by the death of the delinquent. Nor do they proceed against a dead sodomite, nor confiscate his effects, although he hath been convicted, or confessed when he was alive. If such a one takes sanctuary in a church, he cannot be taken out of it.

If we compare these things with the punishments of heretics, it will appear that the crime of sodomy in the kingdom of Portugal is esteemed a much smaller one than that of heresy, because sodomites enjoy privileges which are 192denied to heretics. And yet it may happen, that a truly pious man, who fears God, and is most careful of his eternal salvation, may be accounted an heretic by the Portuguese inquisitors; whereas, a sodomite cannot but be the vilest of men. But it is not at all strange, that by the laws of that tribunal Barabbas should be released, and Christ crucified.

Blasphemers also, who deny God, or their belief in him, or the virginity of our Lady, are subject to the inquisitors, and punished in the following manner. If the blasphemy be very heinous, and the blasphemer a mean person, he is made to wear an infamous mitre, hath his tongue tied, and pinched with an iron or wooden gag, is carried forth as a public spectacle without his cloak, whipped with scourges, and banished. But if he be a person of better condition, or noble, he is brought forth without the mitre, thrust for a time into a monastery, and punished with a fine. In smaller blasphemies they are dealt with more gently, at the pleasure of the inquisitors, viz. the blasphemer is condemned to stand, during divine service, upon some holiday or other, with his head naked, without his cloak and shoes, his feet naked, a cord tied round him, and holding a burning wax-taper in his hands. Sometimes also they squeeze his tongue with a piece of wood. After divine service is over his sentence is read, by which he is enjoined fastings, and a fine.

This punishment, however, doth not take place as to a clergyman. For if a clergyman was to appear without his shoes, and with an halter about his neck, and thus stand at the gates of the church before the people, the clerical order, and the ministry of the clergy would suffer disgrace; and it would become a wonder, and evil example to the laity, if the blaspheming clergy were thus exposed.

In these cases the inquisitors mostly act according to their own pleasure, who have an ample power of judging according to the nature and heinousness of the crimes. A certain person who had a quarrel with a clergyman of Ecya, a city in Spain, accidentally said, in the hearing of others, 193that he could not believe that God would come down into the hands of so profligate an adulterer. The vicar of the ordinary fined him for the speech. But the clergyman, not contented with this revenge, afterwards accused him of blasphemy at the tribunal of the inquisitors at Seville. Nor did the fine to which he was before condemned by the ordinary, prevent his being taken up by command of the inquisitors, imprisoned for a whole year, brought out in triumph without cloak or hat, carrying a wax candle in his hand, his tongue gagged with a wooden gag, thus to punish his blasphemy; and being forced to abjure, as lightly suspected, he was fined a second time.

Fortune-tellers, who look into the palms of the hands, such who exercise divination by lots, and use candles and holy water to discover stolen goods, if they deny any heretical intention, may be tortured to discover it; and if found guilty, are excommunicated, whipped, banished, and subject to other punishments. If any pretend to foretel the mysteries of faith by the stars, or the life or death of the pope, or his kindred, they may be punished with death, and confiscation of goods. With these fortune-tellers are joined witches; who are reported to deny the faith, and make a compact with the devil. These poor wretches are miserably tortured to force them to confess, and then burnt. The inquisitors, within the space of 150 years, burnt 30,000 of them.

Finally, the Jews are also severely handled by this tribunal. The inquisition, indeed, is not designed to compel the Jews to turn Christians, but is introduced against those who, being converted from Judaism to Christianity, return again to the principles they have forsaken; or who deny matters of faith common to them and Christians; or if they invoke devils, or sacrifice to them; or if they speak heretical blasphemies, or pervert a Christian from the faith, or hinder infidels from being converted; or knowingly receive an heretic, or keep heretical books, or deride the host or the cross; or keep Christian nurses, and the like. But the inquisition is levelled principally against those, who having 194professed Christianity, and been baptized, turn again to Judaism. When suspected they are liable to the torture, may be compelled to abjure, fined, imprisoned, whipped, or burnt, according to the nature of their errors, or heretical actions.

SECT. IV. Of the manner of proceeding before the tribunal of the Inquisition.

It now remains that I give some account of what relates to the execution of the inquisitorial office.

When the inquisitor is first constituted by the pope, he must present himself to the king, or other temporal lord of those territories in which he is to act, and deliver his apostolic commission, and demand full protection for himself and officers, in all matters belonging to their office. He must also shew his commission to the archbishops and bishops of the dioceses in which he is sent. Finally, he takes an oath from the civil officers, that they will defend the faith, and obey the inquisitor with all their might; and this oath they may compel them to take, under pain of excommunication, and all the punishments which attend it.

After this, the inquisitor appoints a sermon to be preached on a certain day, all other sermons being suspended; at which, four of each religion must be present, and in which he commends the Catholic faith, and exhorts the people to extirpate heretical pravity. When the sermon is ended, he admonishes them to discover to himself all persons who are erroneous, and have said or done any thing against the faith; and then orders monitory letters to be read from the pulpit, by which all persons, of whatsoever condition, clergy or laity, are commanded, under pain of excommunication, to 195discover to the inquisitors within six or twelve days following any heretic, or person suspected of heresy, which they know. These monitory letters are called, “An edict of the faith.” When these letters are read, he promises, in the pope’s name, indulgencies for three years to all who assist him in reducing heretics, or who discover to him any such; or person defamed, and suspected of heresy; or who, in any other case, bear true witness before him in an act of faith. And finally, he assigns a time of grace to all heretics, &c. viz. the month following; promising them, that if within that space they come freely to him, before they are accused or apprehended, and voluntarily discover their guilt, and ask pardon, they shall obtain pardon and mercy; viz. freedom from death, imprisonment, banishment, and confiscation of effects.

From this obligation to accuse heretics, no persons, of whatsoever dignity or degree, are exempted; brother must accuse brother, the wife her husband, the husband his wife, the son his father, when heretical, or suspected of heresy; the edict obliges all; and neither kings nor princes, nor nearest relations are exempted.

Joan, the daughter of the emperor Charles V. was cited by the inquisitors to be interrogated before them, against a certain person, concerning some things relating to the faith. She consulted her father, who advised her to make her deposition without any delay (lest she should incur excommunication) not only against others, but even against himself, if she knew him to be blameable in the least matter. Joan obeyed this command of her father, and immediately deposed before Ferdinand Valdez, archbishop of Seville, at that time bishop and inquisitor general.

Lewis de Carvajal, although governor and captain general of the province of Tampico and Pamico, was forced to walk out in public penance, because he did not denounce four women, who were secretly Jews, and to whom he was uncle; and though a little before he had the honourable title of president, he was forced to hear his ignominious sentence 196publicly, was for ever deprived of all offices under the king, reduced to the lowest misery, and through grief and weariness of his life, soon went the way of all flesh.

If any person comes in within the appointed time to accuse himself, he is asked, how long he hath continued in his errors, and from whom he learnt them? whether he hath had, and read any heretical or suspected books? what they were, from whom he had them, and what he hath done with them? Other questions are added concerning his accomplices in heresies, that he may tell the names of all those heretics, or persons suspected of heresy, whom he knows. He is farther asked, whether he hath ever been inquisited, processed, or accused or denounced in any tribunal, or before any judge, on account of the aforesaid errors, or other things relating to heresy? He is also admonished simply to tell the whole truth which he knows, as well of himself as of others; because, if he is afterwards found deceitfully to have concealed any thing, he is judged as one whose confession is imperfect, and as impenitent, and feignedly converted. Finally, he is interrogated, whether he repents of these errors and heresies into which he hath fallen? and whether he is ready to abjure, curse, and detest them, and all other heresies whatsoever, that exalt themselves against the holy apostolic and Roman church, and to live for the future catholicly, according to the faith of the church of Rome, and devoutly to fulfil the salutary penance enjoined him?

However, such as come thus voluntarily, are far from escaping all punishment, but are either treated kindly at the pleasure of the inquisitor, according to the quality of their persons and crimes, or else condemned to pay a fine, or give alms, or some such works of charity. But if they wait till they are accused, denounced, cited or apprehended, or suffer the time of grace to slip over, they are pronounced unworthy of such favours.

And in this case many foolishly deceive themselves with a false opinion, believing, that because favour is promised to such who appear voluntarily, they shall be free from all 197punishment; because they are only saved from the more terrible ones, it being left to the pleasure of the inquisitors to inflict some penitential punishment on them, according to the nature of their crime, as will appear from the following instance. “There was at the city of Cadiz a certain foreigner, who yet had lived in Spain for twenty years; who, according to a common superstition, dwelt in a desart in a certain chapel, upon the account of religion. Hearing in his chapel of the great number of those who were taken up every day at Seville by the inquisitors, for what they call the Lutheran heresies; having heard also of the decree of the inquisitors, by which he was commanded, under the terrors of excommunication, immediately to discover to the inquisition whatsoever he knew of those things, either as to others or himself; the poor stupid hermit comes to Seville, goes to the inquisitors and accuses himself, because he thought the said inquisitors would use singular clemency towards those who thus betrayed themselves. His crime was, that whereas being about twenty years before this at Genoa, and hearing a certain brother of his disputing about a man’s justification by faith in Christ, of purgatory, and other things of the like nature, he did not wholly condemn them, though he never thought of them afterwards. He therefore acknowledged his crime, and came to ask mercy. When the lords inquisitors had received his confession, they commanded the poor hermit to jail; where, after a long confinement, he was brought out in public procession, and was sentenced to wear the sanbenito, to three years imprisonment, and the forfeiture of his effects.”

Sometimes also they use a certain stratagem to draw persons to a voluntary appearance before the inquisitors. “When they have apprehended any remarkable person, who hath been the teacher of others, or who they know hath been resorted to by many others, upon account of his doctrine and learning, as being a teacher and preacher of great repute; it is usual with them to cause a report to be spread amongst the people, by their familiars, that being 198grievously tortured, he had discovered several of those that had adhered to him, suborning some persons out of the neighbouring prisons to assert that they heard his cries amidst his tortures, in order to give the greater credit to the report. These reports are spread for this reason, that such who have attended on his instructions, or have been any ways familiar with him, may in time go to the holy tribunal, confess their fault, and implore mercy, before they are sent for, or apprehended. By this means they impose on many, who, if they had waited for their summons, had never been summoned at all. Or if it should have happened that they had been summoned, would not have been dealt with more severely than they generally are, who trust to the inquisitors promises.”

If any person is accused by another, the accuser is interrogated, “How long he hath known N. against whom he denounces? likewise, how he came to know him? Again, whether he observed that the aforesaid N. was suspected of matters relating to the faith from his words, or his actions? Likewise, how often he had seen the said N. do or say those things for which he thought him an heretic, or suspected of heresy? Likewise, at what time, and in the presence of whom the aforesaid N. did or said those things of which he is denounced? Likewise, whether the aforesaid N. hath had any accomplices in the aforesaid crimes, or any writings belonging to the offences denounced? Likewise, to what end and purpose the aforesaid things were done or said by the aforesaid N. whether seriously, or in jest? If it appears that there was a long interval of time between the commission of the crimes denounced, and the making the denunciation, the inquisitor interrogates the denouncer, why he deferred so long to come to the holy office, and did not depose before, especially if he knew that he incurred the penalty of excommunication by such omission?” He is moreover asked, “Whether he knows any thing farther of N. which concerns the holy office, or of any other person? Likewise, whether he hath at any time had any cause of hatred or enmity with 199the aforesaid N. and whence it proceeded? With what zeal, and with what intention he comes to the holy office, and to make denunciation? Whether he hath denounced through any passion of mind, ill will, hatred, or subornation? And he is admonished ingenuously to tell the truth.” He is especially interrogated how he came by his knowledge, because on that principally the truth and weight of the testimony depends.

When the denunciation is received; first, it must be read over to the denouncer, that he may add, take away, or alter as he pleases. Secondly, he must subscribe to his deposition; or if he cannot write, he must at least put under it the sign of the cross. Thirdly, he must take an oath of secrecy.

After this, the witnesses are called on. And in this affair all persons, even such as are not allowed in other tribunals, are admitted. Persons excommunicated, heretics, Jews, and infidels, wives, sons and daughters, and domestics, are allowed as witnesses against those accused of heresy, but never for them: those who are perjured and infamous, whores, bawds, those under the ban, usurers, bastards, common blasphemers, gamesters, persons actually drunk, stage-players, prize-fighters, apostates, traitors, even all without exception, besides mortal enemies.

When the witnesses are summoned, first they take an oath upon the scriptures to speak the truth. After this he is asked by the inquisitor, whether he knows, or can guess the cause of his citation and present examination? If he says yes, he is interrogated how he knew it? If he says no, he is interrogated, whether he hath known, or doth know now any one or more heretics, or persons suspected of heresy, or at least is able to name any such? Whether he knows N.? What was the occasion of his acquaintance with him? How long he hath known him? Whether he hath been used to converse with him? Whether he hath heard at any time any thing from the said N. concerning the Catholic religion? Whether ever he was in such a place with the said N. and 200whether the said N. did or said there such and such heretical things, or favouring of heresy? Who were present when N. did or said the aforesaid things? How often he saw them said or done, and on what occasion, and how? Whether the said N. spoke the aforesaid things in jest, or without thinking, or through a slip of his tongue, or as relating the heresies of some other person or persons? Whether he said any thing which ought not to have been said, through hatred or love, or omitted and concealed somewhat that ought to have been explained? He is farther admonished to tell the single truth, because, if he is detected of speaking falsely, he will be made to suffer the penalties, not only of perjury, but of favouring heresy.

After this, one of the proctors of the court demands that the criminal be taken up, and the inquisitor subscribes an order for this purpose. When he is apprehended, he must be well guarded, put in irons, and delivered to the jailkeeper of the inquisition.

When the criminal is put in jail, he is brought before the inquisitor. The place where he appears before the inquisitor, is called by the Portuguese the table of the holy office. At the farther end of it there is placed a crucifix, raised up almost as high as the ceiling. In the middle of the room there is a table. At that end which is nearest the crucifix, sits the secretary or notary of the inquisition. The criminal is brought in by the beadle, with his head, arms and feet naked, and is followed by one of the keepers. When they come to the chamber of audience, the beadle enters first, makes a profound reverence before the inquisitor, and then withdraws. After this, the criminal enters alone, who is ordered to sit down on a bench at the other end of the table, over against the secretary. The inquisitor sits on his right hand. On the table near the criminal lies a missal, or book of the gospels; and he is ordered to lay his hand on one of them, and to swear that he will declare the truth, and keep secrecy.

After taking this oath, of declaring the truth both of 201himself and others, the inquisitor interrogates him of divers matters. As, whether he knows why he was taken up, or hath been informed of it by any one or more persons? Where, when, and how he was apprehended? If he says that he knows nothing of it, he is asked, whether he cannot guess at the reason? whether he knows in what prisons he is detained? and upon what account men are imprisoned there? If he says he cannot guess at the cause of his imprisonment, but knows that he is in the prisons of the holy office, where heretics and persons suspected of heresy are confined, he is told, that since he knows persons are confined there for their profanation of religion, he ought to conclude that he also is confined for the same reason; and must therefore declare what he believes to be the cause of his own apprehension and confinement in the prisons of the holy office. If he says he cannot imagine what it should be, before he is asked any other questions, he receives a gentle admonition, and is put in mind of the lenity of the holy office towards those who confess without forcing, and of the rigour of justice used towards those who are obstinate. They also compare other tribunals with the holy office, and remind him, that in others the confession of the crime draws after it immediate execution and punishment; but that in the court of the inquisition, those who confess and are penitent, are treated with greater gentleness. After this, he is admonished in writing, and told, that the ministers of the holy office never take up any one, or are used to apprehend any one without a just cause; and that therefore they earnestly beseech him, and command and enjoin him, exactly to recollect and diligently to consider his actions, to examine his conscience, and purge it from all those offences and errors it labours under, and for which he is informed against.

After this he is asked, what race he comes of? Who were his parents and ancestors? that hereby he may declare all his family. Whether any one of them was at any time taken up by the holy office, and enjoined penance? This they are especially asked, who descend from Jews, Mahometans, 202and sectaries. Where he was brought up? In what places he hath dwelt? Whether he ever changed his country? Why he did so, and went into another place? With whom he conversed in the aforesaid places; who were his friends, and with whom he was intimate? Whether he ever conversed with any of his acquaintance about matters of religion, or heard them speak about religion? In what place, and when, and how often, and of what things or matters they conversed?

He is moreover asked, of what profession he is, and what employment of life he follows? Whether he be rich or poor? What returns he hath, and what the expences of his living? Then he is commanded to give an account of his life, and to declare what he hath done from his childhood, even to this time. And that he may declare all this, he is asked, in what places or cities he studied, and what studies he followed? Who were his masters? whose names he must tell. What arts he learnt? What books he hath had and read? and whether he hath now any books treating of religion, and what? Whether ever he hath been examined and cited, or sued, or processed before any other tribunal, or the tribunal of the holy inquisition, and for what causes; and whether he was absolved or condemned, by what judge, and in what year? Whether ever he was excommunicated, and for what cause? Whether he was afterwards absolved or condemned, and for what reason? Whether he hath every year sacramentally confessed his sins, how often, and in what church? Then he is commanded to give the names of his confessors, and of those from whom he hath received the eucharist; and especially for the ten years last past, and more. What orations or holy prayers he recites? Whether he hath any enemies? whose names he must tell, and the reasons of their enmity.

If the criminal is persuaded by these, or by more or less such interrogatories, openly to confess the truth, his cause is finished, because it is immediately known what will be the issue of it.

203But if after all these interrogatories the prisoner persists in the negative, and says he doth not know why he is cited or sent to prison, the inquisitor replies, that since it appears from his own words, that he will not discover the truth, and that there is no proof of his having such enmities with any person, or that there are no such causes of hatred as he alledges, by which others could, or ought to be induced slanderously, and falsely to inform against him, that therefore there arises the stronger suspicion, that the depositions against him in the holy office are true. And therefore he is beseeched and abjured, by the bowels of mercy of Christ Jesus, to consider better and better, and ingenuously to confess the truth, and to declare whether he hath erred in words or deeds, in the aforesaid matter relating to the faith, and the holy office, or rendered himself suspected to others.

If by such general interrogatories the inquisitor cannot draw from the prisoner a confession of the crime of which he is accused, he comes to particular interrogatories, which relate to the matter itself, or the crimes or heresies for which the criminal was denounced. For instance, if he was accused for denying purgatory, then one, two, or three days after his first examination, he is again interrogated by the inquisitor, whether he hath any thing, and what to say, besides what he said in his other examination? Whether he hath thought better of the matter, and can recollect the cause of his imprisonment, and former examination, or hath at least any suspicion who could accuse him to the holy office, and of what matters? Whether he hath heard any one discoursing of paradise, purgatory, and hell? What he heard concerning that matter? Who they were, that he heard speaking, or disputing of those things? Whether he ever discoursed of them? What he hath believed, and doth now believe about purgatory? If he answers, that his faith concerning it hath been right, and denies any ill belief, but that he believes as holy mother church believes and teaches, he is ordered to say what the holy Roman mother church doth think and believe concerning this article.

204If the prisoner knows the reason of his being apprehended, and openly confesses every thing of which he hath been accused to the inquisitor, he is commended, and encouraged to hope for a speedy deliverance. If he confesses some things, but cannot guess at others, he is commended for taking up the purpose of accusing himself, and exhorted by the bowels of mercy of Jesus Christ to proceed, and ingenuously to confess every thing else of which he is accused; that so he may experience that kindness and mercy, which this tribunal uses towards those who manifest a real repentance of their crimes by a sincere and voluntary confession.

In these examinations the inquisitors use the greatest artifice, to draw from the prisoners confessions of those crimes of which they are accused; promising them favour, if they will confess the truth. And by these flattering assurances they sometimes overcome the minds of more unwary persons; and when they have obtained the designed end, immediately forget them all. Of this Gonsalvius^[260] gives us a remarkable instance. “In the first fire that was blown up at Seville, anno 1558, or 1559, amongst many others who were taken up, there was a certain pious matron with her two virgin daughters, and her niece by her sister, who was married. As they endured those tortures of all kinds, with a truly manlike constancy, by which they endeavoured to make them perfidiously betray their brethren in Christ, and especially to accuse one another, the inquisitor at length commanded one of the daughters to be sent for to audience. There he discoursed with her alone for a considerable time, in order to comfort her, as indeed she needed it. When the discourse was ended, the girl was remanded to her prison. Some days after he acted the same part again, causing her to be brought before him several days towards the evening, detaining her for a considerable while; sometimes telling her how much he was grieved for her afflictions, and then 205intermixing familiarly enough other pleasant and agreeable things. All this, as the event shewed, had only this tendency, that after he had persuaded the poor simple girl, that he was really, and with a fatherly affection concerned for her calamity, and would consult as a father what might be for her benefit and salvation, and that of her mother and sisters, she might wholly throw herself into his protection. After some days spent in such familiar discourses, during which he pretended to mourn with her over her calamity, and to shew himself affected with her miseries, and to give her all the proof of his good will, in order, as far as he could, to remove them; when he knew he had deceived the girl, he begins to persuade her to discover what she knew of herself, her mother, sisters, and aunts who were not yet apprehended, promising upon oath, that if she would faithfully discover to him all that she knew of that affair, he would find out a method to relieve her from all her misfortunes, and to send them all back again to their houses. The girl, who had no very great penetration, being thus allured by the promises and persuasions of the father of the faith, begins to tell him some things relating to the holy doctrine she had been taught, and about which they used to confer with one another. When the inquisitor had now got hold of the thread, he dextrously endeavoured to find his way throughout the whole labyrinth; oftentimes calling the girl to audience, that what she had deposed might be taken down in a legal manner; always persuading her, this would be the only just means to put an end to all her evils. In the last audience he renews to her all his promises, by which he had before assured her of her liberty, and the like. But when the poor girl expected the performance of them, the said inquisitor, with his followers, finding the success of his craftiness, by which he had in part drawn out of the girl, what before they could not extort from her by torments, determined to put her to the torture again, to force out of her what they thought she had yet concealed. Accordingly she was made to suffer the most cruel part of it, even the rack, and the torture by water; till at last they had 206squeezed out of her, as with a press, both the heresies and accusations of persons they had been hunting after. For, through the extremity of her torture, she accused her mother and sisters, and several others, who were afterwards taken up and tortured, and burnt alive in the same fire with the girl.”

But if they do not succeed neither with this way, the inquisitor permits some person or other, who is not unacceptable to the prisoner, to go to him, and converse with him; and if it be needful to feign himself still one of his own sect, but that he abjured through fear, and discovered the truth to the inquisitor. When he finds that the prisoner confides in him, he comes to him again late in the evening, keeps on a discourse with him, at length pretending it is too late to go away, and that therefore he will stay with him all night in the prison, that they may converse together, and the prisoner may be persuaded by the other’s discourse to confess to one another what they have committed. In the mean while there are persons standing at a proper place without the jail, to hear and to take notice of their words; who, when there is need, are attended by a notary.

Or else the person who thus treacherously draws out any thing, according to his desire, from his fellow-prisoners, prays the jail-keeper, when according to custom he is visiting his prisoners, to desire that he may have an audience. And when he goes out of his jail to give an account of his office, he discovers not only what he heard from any of the prisoners, but also how they received the doctrine proposed to them; whether with a chearful or angry countenance, and the like; if they refused to give them an answer, and what they themselves think of them. And the accusations of such a wretch they look on as the best and most unexceptionable evidence, although the person be otherwise one of no manner of worth, credit, or regard.

They who have been lately in the prison of the inquisition in Spain and Portugal, tell us of another method they make use of to draw a confession from the prisoners, viz. 207The inquisitor suborns a certain person to go and speak to the prisoner, and to tell him he comes of himself, and of his own accord, and to exhort him to tell the inquisitor the truth, because he is a merciful man, and such fine tales. This is now particularly the custom in Spain and Portugal, as to those they call the new Christians. If the prisoner affirms himself to be a Catholic, and denies that he is a Jew, and is not convicted by a sufficient number of witnesses, they suborn one to persuade him to confess. If he protests himself innocent, the other replies, that he also hath been in jail, and that his protesting his innocence signified nothing. What, had you rather dwell for ever in jail, and render your life miserable, by being ever parted from your wife and children, than redeem your freedom, by confessing the crime? By this, and other like things, the prisoners are oftentimes persuaded to confess not only real, but fictitious crimes. And when their constancy is thus almost overcome, the inquisitor commands them to be brought before him, that they may make him a confession of their faults.

After these examinations, if the prisoner persists in the negative, he is admitted to his defence, and hath an advocate or proctor appointed him, but such only as the inquisitors allow him; and who, as soon as ever they know the prisoners are criminal, bind themselves by oath to throw up their defence. A copy of the accusation is usually given to the prisoner, to which he must answer article by article; and likewise a copy of the proofs, but not of the names of the witnesses, nor any circumstances by which they may discover who they are, for fear the witnesses should be in danger if known.

After the process is thus carried on, it is finished in this manner: Either by absolution, if the prisoner be found really innocent, or the accusation against him not fully proved. Not that they pronounce such person free from heresy, but only declare that nothing is legally proved against him, on account of which he ought to be pronounced an heretic, or suspected of heresy; and that therefore he is 208wholly released from his present trial and inquisition. But if, notwithstanding this, he should afterwards be accused of the same crime, he may be again judged and condemned for it; and this absolution will stand him in no stead.

If the party accused is found to be only defamed for heresy, and not convicted of heresy by any legal proofs, he is not absolved, but enjoined canonical purgation. The manner of the purgation is this: the party accused must produce several witnesses, good and Catholic men, who must swear by God, and the four holy gospels of God, that they firmly believe he hath not been an heretic, or believer of their errors; and that he hath sworn the truth, in denying it upon oath. If he fails in his purgation, i. e. cannot procure such a number of purgers as he is enjoined, he is esteemed as convict, and condemned as an heretic.

If the person accused is not found guilty by his own confession, or proper witnesses; yet if he cannot make his innocence appear plainly to the inquisitor, or if he is caught contradicting himself, or faultering, or trembling, or sweating, or pale, or crying; or if there be half proof of his crime, he is put to the question or torture. And this liberty the inquisitors sometimes shamefully abuse, by torturing the most innocent persons; as appears by the following instance.

“^[261]A noble lady, Joan Bohorquia, the wife of Francis Varquius, a very eminent man, and lord of Higuera, and daughter of Peter Garsia Xeresius, a wealthy citizen of Seville, was apprehended, and put into the inquisition at Seville. The occasion of her imprisonment was, that her sister, Mary Bohorquia, 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 own doctrine. When she was first imprisoned, she was about six months gone with child; 209upon 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 in her. Eight days after her delivery they took the child from her, and on the fifteenth shut her close up, 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 jail, she was so shaken, and had all her limbs so miserably disjointed, that when she laid upon her bed of rushes, it rather encreased her misery than gave her rest, so that she could not turn herself without the most excessive pain. In this condition, as Bohorquia had it not in her power to shew her any, or but very little outward kindness, she endeavoured to comfort her mind with great tenderness. The girl had scarce began to recover from her torture, when Bohorquia 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 of her arms, thighs, and legs; and in this manner she was brought back to prison, just ready to expire, the blood immediately 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 causes of it) and was found to be innocent upon inspecting and diligently examining her cause, therefore the holy 210tribunal pronounces her free from all charges brought against her by the fiscal, and absolving her from any farther 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, &c. And thus, after they had murdered her by torture, with savage cruelty, they pronounced her innocent.”

After the sentence of torture is pronounced, the officers prepare themselves to inflict it. “^[262]The place of torture in the Spanish inquisition is generally an under-ground and very dark room, to which one enters through several doors. There is a tribunal erected in it, in which the inquisitor, inspector, and secretary sit. When the candles are lighted, and the person to be tortured brought in, the executioner, who was waiting for him, makes a very astonishing and dreadful appearance. He is covered all over with a black linen garment down to his feet, and tied close to his body. His head and face are all hid with a long black cowl, only two little holes being left in it for him to see through. All this is intended to strike the miserable wretch with greater terror in mind and body, when he sees himself going to be tortured by the hands of one who thus looks like the very devil.”

The degrees of torture formerly used, were principally three: first, by stripping and binding. Secondly, by being hoisted on the rack. Thirdly, squassation.

This stripping is performed without any regard to humanity or honour, not only to men, but to women and virgins, though the most virtuous and chaste, of whom they have sometimes many in their prisons. For they cause them to be stripped, even to their very shifts; which they afterwards take off, and then put on them straight linen drawers, and then make their arms naked quite up to their shoulders. 211As to squassation, it is thus performed: the prisoner hath his hands bound behind his back, and weights tied to his feet, and then he is drawn up on high, till his head reaches the very pully. He is kept hanging in this manner for some time, that by the greatness of the weight hanging at his feet, all his joints and limbs may be dreadfully stretched; and on a sudden he is let down with a jirk, by the slacking the rope, but kept from coming quite to the ground; by which terrible shake his arms and legs are all disjointed, whereby he is put to the most exquisite pain; the shock which he receives by the sudden stop of his fall, and the weight at his feet, stretching his whole body more intensely and cruelly.

The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa tells us,^[263] that the torture now practised in the Portuguese inquisition is exceeding cruel. “In the months of November and December, I heard every day in the morning the cries and groans of those who were put to the question, which is so very cruel, that I have seen several of both sexes who have been ever after lame. In this tribunal they regard neither age nor sex, nor condition of persons, but all without distinction are tortured, when it is for the interest of this tribunal.”

The method of torturing, and the degree of tortures now used in the Spanish inquisition, will be well understood from the history of Isaac Orobio, a Jew, and doctor of physic, who was accused to the inquisition as a Jew, by a certain Moor his servant, who had by his order before this been whipped for thieving; and four years after this he was again accused by a certain enemy of his for another fact, which would have proved him a Jew. But Orobio obstinately denied that he was one. I will here give the account of his torture, as I had it from his own mouth. After three whole years which he had been in jail, and several examinations, and the discovery of the crimes to him of which he 212was accused, in order to his confession, and his constant denial of them, he was at length carried out of his jail, and through several turnings brought to the place of torture. This was towards the evening. It was a large under-ground room, arched, 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 inclosed 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 at once 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 farther torment. And as he persisted in his denial, they tied his thumbs so very tight with small cords, as made the extremities of them greatly 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 little bench. Into the wall were fastened little iron pullies, through which there were ropes drawn, and tied round his body in several places, and especially his arms and legs. The executioner 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, 213the torturer, of a sudden, drew the bench from under him, so that the miserable wretch hung by the cords without any thing 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 an 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 on him the last torture. The torturer tied ropes about Orobio’s wrists, and then put those 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 his arms 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, whether 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 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, even those already suffered, must be successively inflicted to satisfy the sentence. Upon this the torture 214was repeated the third time, and then it ended. After this he was bound up in his own clothes, and carried back to his prison, and was scarce 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 Sambenito, and after that term to perpetual banishment from the kingdom of Seville.

Ernestus Eremundus Frisius,^[264] in his History of the Low Country Disturbances, gives us an account from Gonsalvius, of another kind of torture. There is a wooden bench, which they call the wooden horse, made hollow like a trough, so as to contain a man lying on his back at full length; about the middle of which there is a round bar laid across, upon which the back of the person is placed, so that he lies upon the bar instead of being let into the bottom of the trough, with his feet much higher than his head. As he is lying in this posture, his arms, thighs, and shins are tied round with small cords or strings, which being drawn with screws at proper distances from each other, cut into the very bones, so as to be no longer discerned.^[265] Besides this,^[266] the torturer throws over his mouth and nostrils a thin cloth, so that he is scarce able to breathe through them; and in the mean while a small stream of water like a thread, not drop by drop, falls from on high, upon the mouth of the person lying in this miserable condition, and so easily sinks down the thin cloth to the bottom of his throat; so that there is no possibility of breathing, his mouth being stopped with water, and his nostrils with the cloth; so that the poor wretch is in the same agony as persons ready to die, and breathing out their last. When this cloth is drawn out of his throat, as it often 215is, that he may answer to the questions, it is all wet with water and blood, and is like pulling his bowels through his mouth. There is also another kind of torture peculiar to this tribunal, which they call the fire. They order a large iron chafin-dish full of lighted charcoal to be brought in, and held close to the soles of the tortured person’s feet, greased over with lard, so that the heat of the fire may more quickly pierce through them.

This is inquisition by torture, when there is only half full proof of their crime. However, at other times torments are sometimes inflicted upon persons condemned to death, as a punishment preceding that of death. Of this we have a remarkable instance in William Lithgow, an Englishman, who, as he tells us in his travels, was taken up as a spy in Mallagom, a city of Spain, and was exposed to the most cruel torments upon the wooden horse. But when nothing could be extorted from him, he was delivered to the inquisition as an heretic, because his journal abounded with blasphemies against the pope and the Virgin Mary. When he confessed himself a Protestant before the inquisitor, he was admonished to convert himself to the Roman church, and was allowed eight days to deliberate on it. In the mean while the inquisitor and Jesuits came to him often, sometimes wheedling him, sometimes threatening and reproaching him, and sometimes arguing with him. At length they endeavoured to overcome his constancy by kind assurances and promises; but all in vain. And therefore as he was immoveably fixed, he was condemned, in the beginning of Lent, to sutler the night following eleven most cruel torments; and after Easter to be carried privately to Granada, there to be burnt at midnight, and his ashes to be scattered into the air. When night came on his fetters were taken off, then he was stripped naked, put upon his knees, and his hands lifted up by force; after which opening his mouth with iron instruments, they filled his belly with water till it came out of his jaws. Then they tied a rope hard about his neck, and in this condition rolled him seven times the 216whole length of the room, till he was almost quite strangled. After this they tied a small cord about both his great toes, and hung him up thereby with his head towards the ground, and then cut the rope about his neck, letting him remain in this condition till all the water discharged itself out of his mouth; so that he was laid on the ground as just dead, and had his irons put on him again. But beyond all expectation, and by a very singular accident, he was delivered out of jail, escaped death, and fortunately sailed home to England. But this method of torturing doth not belong to this place, where we are treating only of the inquisition of a crime not yet fully proved.

If when the person is decently tortured he confesses nothing, he is allowed to go away free; and if he demands of his judges that he be cleared by sentence, they cannot deny it him; and they pronounce, that having diligently examined the merits of the process, they find nothing of the crime of which he was accused legally proved against him.

But if, when under the question, he confesses, it is written in the process; after which he is carried to another place, where he hath no view of the tortures, and there his confession made during his torments is read over to him, and he is interrogated several times, till the confession be made. But here Gonsalvius observes,^[267] that when the prisoner is carried to audience, they make him pass by the door of the room where the torture is inflicted, where the executioner shews himself on the purpose to be seen in that shape of a devil I have described before; that as he passes by, he may, by seeing him, be forced to feel, as it were over again, his past torments.

If there be very strong evidence against the criminal, if new proofs arise, if the crime objected to him be very heinous, and the discoveries against him undoubted; if he was 217not sufficiently tortured before, he may be tortured again, but then only “when his mind and body are able to endure it.”

If he doth not persist in his first confession, and is not sufficiently tortured, he may be put to the torture again; not by way of repetition, but continuation of it.

But if he persists in his confession, owns his fault, and asks pardon of the church, he is condemned as guilty of heresy by his own confession, but as penitent. But if he obstinately persists in heresy, he is condemned, and delivered over to the secular arm to be punished with death. If he confesses any thing by torture, he must be forced to abjure it.

When a person accused of heresy is found to be only slightly suspected of it, he is considered either as suspected publicly or privately. If he is publicly suspected, this was formerly the manner of his abjuration. On the preceding Lord’s day the inquisitor proclaims, that on such a day he will make a sermon concerning the faith, commanding all to be present at it. When the day comes, the person to abjure is brought to the church, in which the council hath determined that he shall make his abjuration. There he is placed upon a scaffold, erected near the altar, in the midst of the people, and is not allowed to sit, but stands on it, that all may see him, bare-headed, and with the keepers standing round him. The sermon being made on the mass, to the people and clergy there present, the inquisitor says publicly, that the person there placed on the scaffold is suspected from such and such appearances and actions, of the heresy that hath been refuted in the public sermon; and that therefore it is fit that he should purge himself from it, by abjuring it, as one slightly suspected. Having said this, a book of the gospels is placed before him, on which laying his hands, he abjures his heresy. In this oath he not only swears that he holds that faith which the Roman church believes, but also that he abjures every heresy that extols itself against the holy Roman and apostolic church: and particularly the heresy of which he was slightly suspected, naming that heresy: 218and that if he shall do any of the aforesaid things for the future, he willingly submits to the penalties appointed by law to one who thus abjures, and is ready to undergo every penance, as well for the things he hath said and done, as for those concerning which he is deservedly suspected of heresy, which they shall lay on him; and that with all his power he will endeavour to fulfil it.

If he hath not been publicly suspected, he abjures privately after the same manner in the episcopal palace, or inquisitor’s hall.

If he is vehemently suspected, he is placed in like manner upon a scaffold; and after he hath taken his oath upon the gospels, his abjuration is delivered him in writing, to read before all the people, if he can. If he cannot read, the notary, or some religious, or clergyman reads it by sentences, pausing between each till the other hath repeated it after him; and so on, till the whole abjuration is gone through. In this abjuration he submits himself to the punishments due to relapses, if he ever after falls into the heresy he hath abjured. After the abjuration is made, the bishop admonishes him, that if ever hereafter he doth, or says any thing by which it can be proved, that he hath fallen into the heresy he hath abjured, he will be delivered over to the secular court without mercy. Then he injoins him penance, and commands him to observe it; adding this threatening, that otherwise he will become a relapse, and may, and ought to be judged as an impenitent. However, suspected persons, whether it be slightly or vehemently, are not condemned to wear crosses, nor to perpetual imprisonment, because these are the punishments of penitent heretics; though sometimes they are ordered to wear for a while the Sambenito, according to the nature of their offence. Ordinarily they are injoined to stand on certain holy days in the gates of such and such churches, holding a burning taper of such a weight in their hands, and to go a certain pilgrimage; sometimes also they are imprisoned for a while, and afterwards disposed of as is thought proper.

219Gonsalvius gives us some instances of these punishments.^[268] “There was at Seville a certain poor man, who daily maintained himself and his family by the sweat of his brow. A certain parson detained his wife from him by violence, neither the inquisition nor any other tribunal punishing this heinous injury. As the poor man was one day talking about purgatory, with some other persons of his own circumstances, he happened to say, rather out of rustic simplicity than any certain design, that he truly had enough of purgatory already, by the rascally parson’s violently detaining from him his wife. This speech was reported to the good parson, and gave him a handle to double the poor man’s injury, by accusing him to the inquisitors, as having a false opinion concerning purgatory. And this the holy tribunal thought more worthy of punishment than the parson’s wickedness. The poor wretch was taken up for this trifling speech, kept in the inquisitor’s jail for two whole years, and at length being brought in procession, was condemned to wear the Sambenito for three years in a private jail; and when they were expired, to be dismissed, or kept longer in prison, as the lords inquisitors should think fit. Neither did they spare the poor creature any thing of his little substance, though they did his wife to the parson, but adjudged all the remains of what he had after his long imprisonment to the exchequer of the inquisition.

“^[269]In the same procession there was also brought forth a reputable citizen of Seville, as being suspected of Lutheranism, without his cloak and his hat, and carrying a wax taper in his hand, after having exhausted his purse of 100 ducats towards the expences of the holy tribunal, and a year’s imprisonment in the jail of the inquisition, and having abjured as one vehemently suspected; only because he was found to have said, that those immoderate expences (and on these accounts the Spaniards are prodigiously extravagant) which 220were laid out in erecting those large paper or linen buildings, which the common people corruptly call monuments, to the honour of Christ now in heaven, upon Holy Thursday; and also those which were expended on the festival of Corpus Christi, would be more acceptable to God, if they were laid out upon poor persons, or in placing out to good persons poor orphan girls. Two young students^[270] added to the number in that procession. One because he had written in his pocketbook some verses made by a nameless author, so artificially, as that the same words might be interpreted so as to contain the highest commendation of, or reflection upon Luther. Upon this account only, after two year’s imprisonment, he was brought forth in procession, without his hat and cloak, carrying a wax taper; after which he was banished for three years from the whole country of Seville, made to abjure as lightly suspected, and punished with a fine. The other underwent the same censure, only for transcribing the verses for their artful composition, excepting only that he commuted his banishment for 100 ducats towards the expences of the holy tribunal.”

If any one informed against, confesses on oath his heresy, but declares that he will abjure and return to the church, he must publicly abjure in the church before all the people. There is placed before him the book of the gospels; he puts off his hat, falls on his knees, and putting his hand on the book, reads his abjuration. And from this none, though otherwise privileged, are excepted. After this abjuration they are absolved from excommunication, and reconciled to the church; but are injoined various punishments, or wholesome penances by the inquisitors at pleasure. What the punishments of religious persons are, may be seen from the two following instances.

Friar Marcellus de Pratis, a religious of the order of the Minors, was condemned in Sicily by the inquisition (because 221he had rashly feigned himself a saint, impeccable, confirmed in grace, and had pronounced other scandalous and rash propositions) to the gallies for three years, to be banished for two more into such a convent of his own religion as should be assigned him, with this addition; that he should fast every Friday on bread and water, eat upon the ground in the refectory, walk without his hat, and sit in the lowest place in the choir and refectory, and be perpetually deprived of his active and passive vote, and of the faculty of hearing any persons confessions whatsoever.

One Mary of the Annunciation, prioress of the monastery of the Annunciation at Lisbon, a maid of thirty-two years old, had pretended that the wounds of Christ, by the special grace and privilege of God were imprinted on her, and shewed thirty-two wounds made on her head, representing the marks of those which were made by our Saviour’s crown of thorns, and blood sprinkled on her hands like a rose, the middle of which was like a triangle, and shewed the holes of the nails narrower on one side than the other. The same were to be seen in her feet. Her side appeared as though it had been laid open by the blow of a lance. When all these things were openly shewn, it was wonderful to see how they raised the admiration and devotion of serious and holy men, and withal surprized and deceived them; for she did not suffer those pretended wounds to be seen otherwise than by command of her confessor. And that absent persons might have a great veneration for her, she affirmed, that on Thursdays she put into the wounds a small cloth, which received the impression of five wounds in form of a cross, that in the middle being the largest. Upon which these cloths were sent, with the greatest veneration, through the infinite devotion of the faithful, to the pope, and to almost all the most venerable and religious persons of the whole world. And as Paramus then had the administration of the causes of faith in the kingdom of Sicily, he saw several of those cloths, and the picture of that woman drawn to the life; and a book written by a person of great authority concerning her life, sanctity, and 222miracles. Yea, Pope Gregory XIII. himself determined to write letters to that wretched creature, to exhort her thereby to persist with constancy in her course, and to perfect what she had begun. At last the imposture was found out, that the marks of the wounds were not real, but made with red lead; and that the woman’s design was, when she had gained authority and credit enough, by her pretended sanctity, to recover the kingdom of Portugal to its former state, which had legally fallen under the power of Philip II. Upon this the following sentence was pronounced against her by the inquisitors of Lisbon, December 8, anno 1588. First, she was commanded to pass the rest of her life shut up in a convent of another order, that was assigned to her without the city of Lisbon. Likewise, that from the day of pronouncing the sentence, she should not receive the sacrament of the eucharist for the space of five years, three Easters, and the hour of death excepted; or unless it were necessary to obtain any jubilee, that should in the mean while be granted by the pope. Likewise, that on all Wednesdays and Fridays of the whole year, when the religious women of that convent held a chapter, she should be whipped, whilst the psalm, “Have mercy on me O God,” was reciting. Likewise, that she should not sit down at table at the time of refreshment, but should eat publicly on the pavement, all being forbidden to eat any thing she left. She was also obliged to throw herself down at the door of the refectory, that the nuns might tread on her as they came in and went out. Likewise, that she should perpetually observe the ecclesiastical fast, and never more be created an abbess, nor be chosen to any other office in the convent where she had dwelt, and that she should be always subject to the lowest of them all. Likewise, that she should never be allowed to converse with any nun without leave of the abbess. Likewise, that all the rags marked with drops of blood, which she had given out, her spurious relics, and her effigies describing her, should be every where delivered to the holy inquisition; or if in any place there was no tribunal of the inquisition, to the prelate, or any other person appointed. Likewise, that she 223should never cover her head with the sacred veil; and that every Wednesday and Friday of the whole year she should abstain from meat, and live only on bread and water; and that as often as she came into the refectory, she should pronounce her crime with a loud voice in the presence of all the nuns.

Michael Piedrola also took upon himself for many years the name of a prophet, boasted of dreams and revelations, and affirmed they were revealed to him by a divine voice. Being convicted of so great a crime, he abjured de levi, was for ever forbid the reading of the Bible, and other holy books, deprived of paper and ink, prohibited from writing or receiving letters, unless such only as related to his private affairs; denied the liberty of disputing about the holy Scripture, as well in writing as in discourse; and finally, commanded to be thrown into jail, and there pass the remainder of his life.

Another punishment of heretics who abjure, is the confiscation of all their effects. And this confiscation is made with such rigour, that the inquisition orders the exchequer to seize on not only the effects of the persons condemned, but also all others administered by them, although it evidently appears that they belong to others. The inquisition at Seville gives a remarkable instance of this kind.

“Nicholas Burton, an Englishman, a person remarkable for his piety, was apprehended by the inquisition of Seville, and afterwards burnt for his immoveable perseverance in the confession of his faith, and detestation of their impiety. When he was first seized, all his effects and merchandizes, upon account of which he came to Spain, werewere, according to the custom of the inquisition, sequestered. Amongst these were many other merchandizes, which were consigned to him as factor, according to the custom of merchants, by another English merchant dwelling in London. This merchant, upon hearing that his factor was imprisoned, and his effects seized on, sent one John Frontom, as his attorney into Spain, with proper instruments to recover his goods. His attorney accordingly went to Seville; and having laid before the holy tribunal 224the instruments, and all other necessary writings, demanded, that the goods should be delivered to him. The lords answered that the affair must be managed in writing, and that he must choose himself an advocate (undoubtedly to prolong the suit) and out of their great goodness appointed him one, to draw up for him his petitions, and all other instruments which were to be offered to the holy tribunal; for every one of which they exorbitantly took from him eight reals, although he received no more advantage from them, than if they had never been drawn at all. Frontom waited for three or four whole months, twice every day, viz. in the morning, and after dinner, at the gates of the inquisitor’s palace, praying and beseeching, on his bended knees, the lords inquisitors, that his affair might be expedited; and especially the Lord Bishop of Tarraco, who was then chief inquisitor at Seville, that he, in virtue of his supreme authority, would command his effects to be restored to him. But the prey was too large and rich to be easily recovered. After he had spent four whole months in fruitless prayers and intreaties, he was answered, that there was need of some other writings from England, more ample than those he had brought before, in order to the recovery of the effects. Upon this the Englishman immediately returns to London, and procures the instruments of fuller credit which they demanded, comes back with them to Seville, and laid them before the holy tribunal. The lords put off his answer, pretending they were hindered by more important affairs. They repeated this answer to him every day, and so put him off for four whole months longer. When his money was almost spent, and he still continued earnestly to press the dispatch of his affair, they referred him to the bishop. The bishop, when consulted, said he was but one, and that the expediting the matter belonged also to the other inquisitors; and by thus shifting the fault from one to the other, there was no appearance of an end of the suit. But at length being overcome by his importunity, they fixed on a certain day to dispatch him. And the dispatch was this: the licentiate Gascus, one of the inquisitors, a man well skilled in the frauds of the inquisition, commands 225him to come to him after dinner. The Englishman was pleased with this message, and went to him about evening, believing that they began to think in good earnest of restoring him his effects, and carrying him to Mr. Burton the prisoner, in order to make up the account; having heard the inquisitors often say, though he did not know their real meaning, that it was necessary that he and the prisoner should confer together. When he came, they commanded the jail-keeper to clap him up in such a particular prison, which they named to him. The poor Englishman believed at first that he was to be brought to Burton to settle the account; but soon found himself a prisoner in a dark dungeon, contrary to his expectation, and that he had quite mistaken the matter. After three or four days they brought him to an audience; and when the Englishman demanded that the inquisitors should restore his effects to him, they well knowing that it would agree perfectly with their usual arts, without any other preface, command him to recite his Ave Mary. He simply repeated it after this manner: ‘Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is Jesus the fruit of thy womb. Amen.’ All was taken down in writing, and without mentioning a word about the restoring his effects (for there was no need of it) they commanded him back to his jail, and commenced an action against him for an heretic, because he had not repeated the Ave Mary according to the manner of the church of Rome, and had left off in a suspected place, and ought to have added, ‘Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners;’ by omitting which conclusion, he plainly discovered that he did not approve the intercession of the saints. And thus at last, upon this righteous pretence, he was detained a prisoner many days. After this he was brought forth in procession, wearing an habit; all his principal’s goods for which he had been suing being confiscated, and he himself condemned to a year’s imprisonment.”

Besides this confiscation of effects, they enjoin them wholesome penances; such as fastings, prayers, alms, the frequent 226use of the sacraments of penance, and the eucharist; and, finally, pilgrimages to certain places.

Some penances are honoraryhonorary, attended with infamy to those who do them. Such are, walking in procession without shoes, in their breeches and shirt, and to receive therein public discipline by the bishop or priest; to be expelled the church, and to stand before the gates of the great church upon solemn days, in the time of mass, with naked feet, and wearing upon their cloak an halter about their neck. At this time they only stand before the gates of the church, with a lighted candle in their hand, during the time of solemn mass on some holy day, as the bell is ringing to church.

Besides these, they now use the punishment of banishment, of beating, and whipping with scourges or rods. Sometimes they are condemned to fines, excluded as infamous from all public offices, prohibited from wearing silver or gold, precious garments and ornaments, and from riding on horses or mules with trappings, as nobles do.

But the most usual punishment of all, is their wearing crosses upon their penitential garments, which is now frequently enjoined penitents in Spain and Portugal. And this is far from being a small punishment; because such persons are exposed to the scoffs and insults of all, which they are obliged to swallow, though the most cruel in themselves, and offered by the vilest of mankind; for by these crosses they are marked to all persons for heresy, or, as it is now in Spain and Portugal, for Judaism: and being thus marked, the they arethey are avoided by all, and are almost excluded from all human society.

This garment was formerly of a black and bluish colour, like a monk’s cloak, made without a cowl; and the crosses put on them were strait, having one arm long, and the other across, after this manner †. Sometimes, according to the heinousness of the offence, there were two arms across, after this manner ‡. But now in Spain this garment is of a yellow colour, and the crosses put on it are oblique, after the 227manner of St. Andrew’s cross, in this form X, and are of a red colour. This cloak the Italians call “Abitello,” the Spaniards “Sant Benito,” as though it was “Sacco Benito,” i. e. the blessed sackcloth, because it is fit for penance, by which we are blessed and saved. But Simancas says it is the habit of St. Benedict.

Finally, the most grievous punishment is the being condemned to perpetual imprisonment, there to do wholesome penance with the bread of grief and the water of affliction. This is usually enjoined on the believers of heretics, and such as are difficultly brought to repentance; or who have a long while denied the truth during the trial, or have perjured themselves.

Besides this condemnation to perpetual imprisonment, such persons are also enjoined other penances, viz. sometimes to stand in the habit marked with the cross at the door of such a church, such a time, and so long, viz. on the four principal festivals of the glorious Virgin Mary, of such a church; or on such and such festivals, at the gates of such and such churches. Sometimes before they are shut up in prison they are publicly exposed, viz. being clothed with the habit of the crosses, they are placed upon an high ladder in the gate of some church, that they may be plainly seen by all; where they must stand till dinner time; after which they must be carried, clothed in the same habit, to the same place, at the first ringing to vespers, and there stand till sun-set; and these spectacles are usually repeated on several Sundays and festivals in several churches, which are particularly specified in their sentence. But if they break prison, or do not otherwise fulfil the penances enjoined them, they are condemned as impenitents, and as under the guilt of their former crimes; and and if they fall again into the hands of the inquisitors, they are delivered over as impenitents to the secular court, unless they humbly ask pardon, and profess that they will obey the commands of the inquisitors.

However, if persons remain impenitent till after sentence is pronounced, there is no farther place for pardon. And yet there is one instance of Stephana de Proaudo, extant in the 228book of the sentences of the Thoulouse inquisition, who, being judged an heretic the day before, and left as an heretic to the secular court (from whence it appears that it was not then usual for those who were left to the secular court to be burnt the same day on which the sentence is pronounced, as is now practised in Spain and Portugal) seeing on the following day, viz. Monday, that the fire in which she was to be burnt was made ready, said on that very day, that she was willing to be converted to the Catholic faith, and to return to the ecclesiastical unity. And when it was doubted whether she spoke this feignedly or sincerely, or through fear of death, and was answered, that the time of mercy was elapsed, and that she should think of the salvation of her soul, and fully discover whatsoever she knew of herself or others concerning the fact of heresy, which she promised to say and do, and that she would die in the faith of the holy church of Rome; upon this the inquisitor and vicars of the bishop of Tholouse called a council on the following Tuesday, and at length it was concluded, that on the following Sunday she should confess the faith of the church of Rome, recant her errors, and be carried back to prison, where it would be proved whether her conversion was real or pretended; and so strictly kept, that she might not be able to infect others with her errors. Emerick^[271] also gives us an instance at Barcelona, in Catalonia, of three heretics, impenitent, but not relapsed, who were delivered over to the secular arm. And when one of them, who was a priest, was put in the fire, and one of his sides somewhat burnt, he cried to be taken out of it, because he would abjure and repent. And he was taken out accordingly. But he was afterwards found always to have continued in his heresy, and to have infected many, and would not be converted; and was therefore turned over again, as impenitent and relapsed, to the secular arm, and burnt.

The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa,^[272] gives us another instance of a very rich new Christian, whose 229name was Lewis Pezoa, who, with his whole family, had been accused of secret Judaism, by some of his enemies; and who, with his wife, two sons and one daughter, and some other relations that lived with him, were all thrown into the jail of the inquisition. He denied the crime of which he was accused, and well refuted it; and demanded that the witnesses who had deposed against him might be discovered to him, that he might convict them of falsehood. But he could obtain nothing, and was condemned as a negative, to be delivered over to the arm of the secular court; which sentence was made known to him fifteen days before it was pronounced. The Duke of Cadaval, an intimate friend of the Duke d’Aveira, inquisitor general, had made strict inquiry how his affair was like to turn. And understanding by the inquisitor general, that unless he confessed before his going out of prison he could not escape the fire, because he had been legally convicted, he continued to entreat the inquisitor general, till he had obtained a promise from him, that if he could persuade Pezoa to confess, even after sentence pronounced, and his procession in the act of faith, he should not die, though it was contrary to the laws and customs of an act of faith. Upon that solemn day therefore, on which the act of faith was to be held, he went with some of his own friends, and some that were Pezoa’s, to the gate of the inquisition, to prevail with him, if possible, to confess. He came out in the procession, wearing the infamous Samarre, and on his head the Caroch, or infamous mitre. His friends, with many tears, besought him in the name of the Duke de Cadoval, 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 said duke had obtained his life from the inquisitor general, and would give him more than he had lost. But all in vain; Pezoa continually protesting himself innocent, and that the crime itself was falsely invented by his enemies, who sought his destruction. 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 230approach 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 intreaties, by which at last they overcame his constancy, 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.” And having confessed his crime, he was remanded to jail. Two years after he was sent to Evora, and in the act of faith walked in procession, wearing the Samarre, on which was painted the fire inverted, according to the usual custom of the Portuguese inquisition; and after five years more that he was detained in the jail of the inquisition, he was condemned to the gallies for five years.

If the person accused is found a relapse by his own confession, he cannot escape death, even though he is penitent. If he be in holy orders, he is first degraded. After sentence is pronounced against him, he is delivered to the secular arm, with this clause added to his sentence by the inquisitors: “Nevertheless, we earnestly beseech the said secular arm, that he will moderate his sentence against you, so as to prevent the effusion of blood, or danger of death:” Thus adding hypocrisy and insult to their devilish barbarity.

If the person accused be an impenitent heretick, but not relapsed, he is kept in chains in close imprisonment, that he may not escape, or infect others; and in the mean while all methods must be used for his conversion. They send clergymen to instruct him, and to put him in mind of the pains of hell-fire. If this will not do, they keep him in chains for a year or more, in a close, hard jail, that his constancy may be overcome by the misery of his imprisonment. If this doth not move him, they use him in a little kinder manner, and promise him mercy, if he will repent. If they cannot thus prevail with him, they suffer his wife and children, and little ones, and his other relations, to come to him, and break his constancy. But if after all he persists in his heresy, he is burnt alive.

If the person accused be found guilty of heresy by the 231evidence of the fact, or legal witnesses, and yet doth not confess, but persists in the negative; after having been kept in jail for a year, he must be delivered over to the secular arm. So that if it should happen that he is accused by false witnesses, and is really innocent, the miserable wretch, though falsely condemned, is delivered to the power of the secular court, to be burnt alive; nor is it lawful for him, without the commission of mortal sin, as the Roman doctors think, to save his life, by falsely confessing a crime he hath not committed; and therefore it is the duty of the divines and confessors, who comfort such a negative, and attend on him to his punishment, to persuade him to discover the truth; but to caution him by all means not to acknowledge a crime he hath not committed, to avoid temporal death; and to put him in remembrance, that if he patiently endures this injury and punishment, he will be crowned as a martyr.

It is however evident, if the practice of the Portugal inquisition be considered, that the inquisitors are not so very solicitous about the eternal salvation of those they condemn, as they are to consult their own honour by the criminals confessions even of false crimes. Of this we have a remarkable instance, of a noble Portugueze, descended from the race of the new Christians, who was accused of Judaism. But as he did most firmly deny the crime objected to him, nothing was omitted that might persuade him to a confession of it; for he was not only promised his life, but the restitution of all his effects, if he would confess, and threatened with a cruel death if he persisted in the negative. But when all this was to no purpose, the inquisitor general, who had some respect for him, endeavoured to overcome his constancy by wheedling, and other arguments; but when he constantly refused to confess himself guilty of a crime he had not committed, the inquisitor general being at last provoked by his firmness, said, “What then do you mean? Do you think that we will suffer ourselves to be charged with a lie?”lie?” And having said this, he went off. When the act of faith drew near, the sentence of death was pronounced against him, and a confessor allowed 232him to prepare him for death. But at last he sunk under the fear of his approaching dreadful punishment, and by confessing on the very day of the act of faith the crime falsely fastened on him, he escaped death; but all his estate was confiscated, and he himself condemned for five years to the gallies.

If the person accused is a fugitive, after waiting for his appearance a competent time, he is cited to appear on such a day in the cathedral of such a diocese, and the citation fixed on the gates of the church. If he doth not appear, he is complained of for contumacy, and accused in form. When this is done, and the crime appears, sentence is pronounced against the criminal; and if the information against him be for heresy, he is declared an obstinate heretic, and left as such to the secular arm. This sentence is pronounced before all the people, and the statue or image of the absent person publicly produced, and carried in procession; on which is a superscription, containing his name and surname; which statue is delivered to the secular power, and by him burnt. Thus Luther’s statue was burnt, together with his books, at the command of Pope Leo X. by the Bishop of Ascoli.

The inquisitors also proceed against the dead. If there be full proof against him of having been an heretic, his memory is declared infamous, and his heirs, and other possessors, deprived of his effects; and finally, his bones dug out of their grave, and publicly burnt. Thus Wickliff’s body and bones were ordered to be dug up and burnt, by the council of Constance: Bucer and Fagius, by Cardinal Pool, at Cambridge; and the wife of Peter Martyr, by Brookes, Bishop of Gloucester, at Oxford; whose body they buried in a dunghill. And thus Mark Antony de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato, was condemned after his death for heresy; and the inquisitors agreed that the same punishments should be executed upon his dead body, as would have been on himself had he been alive.

Having taken this resolution, the twenty-first day of December, anno 1624, was appointed for the pronouncing sentence. Early in the morning of it, so vast a multitude had 233got together to St. Mary supra Minervam, where they generally give these religious shews, that they were forced not only to shut up, but to guard the gates with armed men; and the great area before the church was so prodigiously thronged, that there was scarce room for the cardinals themselves to pass. The middle aisle of the church, from the first to the fourth pillar, was boarded in, with boards above the height of a tall man. At the upper and lower end of it there were gates, guarded by Switzers. On each side there were scaffolds, running the whole length of the inclosure; in which were seats for the cardinals and other prelates, and other conveniences, to receive the courtiers and other noblemen standing or sitting. On the right hand, coming in, the sacred council presided; on the left hand were placed the inferior officers of the holy inquisition, the governor of the city, and his officials. Before the pulpit was to be seen the picture of Mark Anthony, drawn in colours, covered with a black common garment, holding a clergyman’s cap in his hand, with his name, sirname, and archiepiscopal dignity, which formerly he had borne, inscribed upon it, together with a wooden chest bedaubed with pitch, in which the dead body was inclosed. The rest of the church was filled with citizens, and a great many foreigners; the number of whom was at that time larger, because the jubilee that was at hand had brought them from all parts to the city, that they might be present at the opening of the sacred gates.

Things being thus disposed, a certain parson mounted the pulpit, and with a shrill voice, which rung through all the parts of the spacious church, and in the vulgar language, that the common people might understand him, read over a summary of the process, and the sentence by which the cardinals inquisitors general, specially deputed for the affair by the pope, pronouncedpronounced Mark Anthony, as a relapse into heresy, to have incurred all the censures and penalties appointed to relapsed heretics by the sacred canons, and papal constitutions; and declared him to be deprived of all honours, prerogatives, and ecclesiastical dignities, condemned his memory, 234and cast him out of the ecclesiastical court, delivered over his dead body and effigies into the power of the governor of the city, that he might inflict on it the punishment due, according to the rule and practice of the church. And finally, they commanded his impious and heretical writings to be publicly burnt, and declared all his effects to be forfeited to the exchequer of the holy inquisition. After this sentence was read, the governor of the city and his officers threw the corpse, effigies, and aforesaid writings into a cart, and carried them into the Campo Fiore, a great multitude of people following after. When they came there, the dead body, which as yet in all its members was whole and entire, was raised out of the chest as far as the bottom of the breast, and shewn from on high to the vast concourse of people that stood round about; and was afterwards, with the effigies and bundle of his books, thrown into the pile prepared for the purpose, and there burnt.

And finally, in order to beget in the common people a greater abhorrence of the crime of heresy, they usually pull down and level with the ground the houses or dwellings in which heretics hold their conventicles, the ground on which they stood being sprinkled over with salt, and certain curses and imprecations uttered over it. And that there may be a perpetual monument of its infamy, a pillar or stone, four or five feet high, is erected in the said ground, with large characters on it, containing the name and owner of the house, shewing the reason of its demolition, and the reign of what pope, emperor or king, the matter was transacted.