NON
CIRCULA
BX
1711
R94
MDCCCLX IV
NON
CIRCULATING
I'
B 451572

ARTES
LIBRARY
1837
SCIENTIA
VERITAS OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
E PLURIBUS UNUM
PSI-QUAERIS PENINSULAM AMOENAME
CIRCUMSPICE
HISTORY
1894

LIBRARY
OF THE
KASITY OF MIRI
OF
The Inquisition
FROM ITS ESTABLISHMENT IN THE TWELFTH CENTURY
TO ITS EXTINCTION IN THE NINETEENTH.
BY
WILLIAM HARRIS RULE, D.D.
The Son of Man came not to destroy
men's lives but to save them.
TOL. II.
LONDON:
HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO., 32, PATERNOSTER ROW;
WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE.
NEW YORK:
SCRIBNER, WELFORD & CO., BROADWAY.
MDCCCLXXIV.
*
BX
1711
·R94-
V. 2
LONDON:
WERTHEIMER, LEA AND CO., PRINTERS,
CIRCUS PLACE, FINSBURY.
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE NETHERLANDS.- Under Charles V., Emperor .
CHAPTER XXIV.
SPANISH AMERICA.-Inquisition founded by Charles V. .
PAGE
1
13
CHAPTER XXV.
PORTUGAL.—Early History
33
CHAPTER XXVI.
PORTUGAL.-The Jesuit Vieyra and others
18
CHAPTER XXVII.
PORTUGAL.-Vain Hope of Reformation
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PORTUGAL.-Barbarities, Abominations, and Decline
CHAPTER XXIX.
INDIA. First Inquisition
CHAPTER XXX.
INDIA AND CHINA.-Conflict of Parties in the Far East .
CHAPTER XXXI.
INDIA.-The Inquisition at Goa
•
60
76
SS
. 100
. 119
CHAPTER XXXII.
ITALY.-The First Italian Tribunals
. 138
CHAPTER XXXIII.
ITALY.-Revival in the Fifteenth Century
. 161
2
iv
CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PAGE
ITALY.-The Roman Congregation
. 174
CHAPTER XXXV.
ITALY.-The Protestant Reformation
190
CHAPTER XXXVI.
ITALY. — "Sacred Congregation "— General Business
. 208
CHAPTER XXXVII.
ITALY.-Learned Men
ITALY.-De Dominis
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
. 226
248
•
CHAPTER XXXIX.
ITALY.-Molinos and The Quietists
. 258
CHAPTER XL.
THE JEWS
. 269
CHAPTER XLI.
SUPERSTITION
283
CHAPTER XLII.
SICILY AND VENICE
. 298
CHAPTER XLIII.
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION
APPENDIX.-No. IV. Inquisitorial Ignorance.
No. V. Edict of Pius VI. concerning the Jews . 331
1 312
. 329
INDEX
. 343
¡

PIGIE
ME
GRANAGLIAL FERRETTI
AUTOTYIA, SERDAN:30
CHURCH OF ST. MARY, SOPRA LA MINERVA.

HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE NETHERLANDS
UNDER CHARLES V., EMPEROR.
WHEN Martin Luther stood before the Diet at Worms,
to answer for himself with a safe conduct in his hand,
and refused to abjure his faith, some members of
that assembly proposed that since he would not be
reconciled to the Church of Rome, he should be
straightway arrested and punished for heresy. They
considered him incapable of pledging faith, because,
as a heretic, he could have no faith to pledge, and by
consequence could not enter into any contract with
another party, nor claim the fulfilment of any pledge
to himself.
But Charles V., presiding at the Diet, rejected the
proposal to break faith with Luther, whom he knew
to be a dissentient from Rome when he gave him the
safe-conduct. Sigismund, it is true, had broken faith
with Huss at the Council of Constance, where he gave
up the Bohemian Reformer to be burnt, but Sigismund
was ashamed of his perfidy, and they say that he
blushed openly. Charles would not blush like Sigis-
mund. This he said in January, 1521, and not only
left Luther free, but actually connived at his escape,
and saw him provided with shelter after leaving the
Diet. Luther made good use of the involuntary leisure
VOL. II.
B
2
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
afforded him at that juncture, of which the German
Bible is the fruit and evidence, and a sentence of
Charles himself, at that very time meditating the de-
struction of Luther's work, reveals to us what his
thoughts were when he seemed to be making an
honourable stand against solicitation to a breach of
faith.
About thirty years later, when he had abdicated
the Imperial throne, he thus wrote:-
"I committed a fault in not having Luther killed.
I thought, but it was a mistake, that I should find a
remedy for heresy by other means. What those
other means were, can now be clearly understood.
"'*
No later than the 8th of May following, he pro-
ceeded to take very decisive measures for destroying
the Lutheran Reformation in a part of the Empire
where it was making most hopeful progress; and
those "other means," by which he expected to accom-
plish his purpose, are clearly detailed in a placard, or
proclamation, addressed to the provinces of "Lower
Germany," now more familiarly called the Nether-
lands.
That edict strictly forbade the Netherlanders to
publish any book containing mention of the Holy
Scriptures, or explanation of any passage of the Bible,
written without permission expressly given by some
competent authority. Severe penalties were threat-
ened on whomsoever should venture to infringe this
prohibition, or give assent to any portion of the errors
of Martin Luther.
At that time, be it remembered, there were not yet
any Inquisitors appointed to the Netherlands, neither
had any special mandates been published respecting
religion. When there were any heretics to be punished,
recourse was had to the Inquisitors at Paris for that
service in the French or Walloon Provinces, or to
those of Cologne for the Flemings. But now, in 1522,
* Histoire de la Revolution des Pays-Bas sous Philippe II., par
THEODORE JUSTE.
THE NETHERLANDS, UNDER CHARLES V.
3
Charles V. created an Inquisition of his own, and ap-
pointed one Councillor Francis Van der Hulst, of
Brabant, to be Inquisitor-General in the United Pro-
vinces.
Until then the Pope only, or an ecclesiastical autho-
rity acting in the Pope's behalf, had appointed Inquisi-
tors, but now the Emperor by himself, as if no Pope
existed, displayed perfect independence, so intro-
ducing a new kind of Inquisition, which we must
therefore describe as we find it, perfectly abnormal,
and in no respect better than the other. For the first
time in history if we mistake not, one layman was
made quæstor of the Faith by another layman, from
whom he received a merely temporal power to search
after all heretics in his whole neighbourhood, and
punish them at his own single pleasure. He had
full commission to cite them to appear before himself,
and then to cast them into prison; take inventories
of their goods; proceed against them by actual In-
quisition without observing the ordinary forms of
justice; put to the question, imprison for a time, or
banish perpetually from all or any of those provinces ;
pass sentence of death, and have it carried into
execution without listening to any appeal. The Em-
peror also empowered this Van der Hulst to appoint
Sub-Inquisitors wherever he thought them necessary
to carry out his wishes.
Pope Adrian VI., himself a Dutchman, connived at
the irregularity, well knowing how easily the new
tribunals might be brought under direct papal admi-
nistration at the first convenient season, and no doubt
he counted on the value of his own influence over this
new Inquisitor whom he had known, in former years,
as Tutor of young Don Carlos of Spain, the present
Emperor. Most readily the Pope creates the man
Inquisitor-Universal, and declares him Inquisitor-
General in the Duchy of Brabant, Counties of Flan-
ders, Holland, Zealand, Hainault, Artois, and all
places of Low Germany under the Emperor's domi-
4
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
nion. Adrian also saved his own authority by for-
mally setting aside the canons in favour of this
"learned, prudent, experienced and zealous" layman.
If ever it became necessary to judge and condemn
clergymen, he was directed to call in the aid of a
Bishop to superintend the ceremony of degradation.
And the Pope declared that this appointment of the
Dutch Councillor did not derogate from the right of
every Bishop to be Inquisitor in his own diocese.
But Van der Hulst made such terrible use of his
office that he had to flee for life, and the archduchess
Margaret, after he had left Holland, was compelled to
pacify the people by suspending the effects of his
commission.
The Emperor, disappointed at the ill-success of his
experiment for uprooting heresy, directed his coun-
cillors at Brussels to debate whether it would be the
better plan to have a regular Inquisitor set over all
the Netherlands, or whether the bishops might not do
all the work for themselves. The majority thought
the bishops were too rough and too much given to
usurp the jurisdiction of the sovereign, and make
pecuniary compositions for their own profit instead of
imposing punishments.
The Archduchess, therefore, wrote to Pope Cle-
ment VII. to appoint Inquisitors, and nominated
three, but the sagacious pontiff quietly took the matter
into his own hands and made Cardinal Erard de la
Marck, Bishop of Liège, Inquisitor-General with extra-
ordinary powers. But the worthy Dutch councillors
were not to be so summarily set aside, and the arch-
duchess, as advised by them, decided that the cardinal
should be refused. The Pope made no trouble of it,
but accepted her three nominees and made them all
Inquisitors. They had, indeed, been acting, after the
flight of their chief, the Councillor Van der Hulst,
but without any instructions how to act, and, there-
fore, the Emperor took upon himself to draw up the
following instructions, dated at Maestricht on the
THE NETHERLANDS, UNDER CHARLES V.
5
10
23rd of February, 1546, and we observe that they
are quite unlike the recognised laws and customs of
the Holy Office.
1. Each Inquisitor, or his sub-delegate, was to visit
the province assigned to him, attended by a notary of
known integrity and aptitude, and search for heretics
and persons vehemently or probably suspected.
2. He should find out all who read or possessed
condemned books, or who held conventicles or
carried on disputes concerning the Catholic religion.
All information was to be put into correct form by
a notary, and kept with care for use. Witnesses
were to tell the truth without fear or favour, to give
the names of their authors, and write them in the
report, that good men might not be unjustly scan-
dalised.
3. An accusation, whose author refused to be named,
should not be made the basis of any procedure.
4. If an Inquisitor or sub-delegate found that any
one from personal reasons had accused another, the
accuser should be handed over to the chief magistrate
of the place to be dealt with accordingly.
5. Inquisitors might call before them any subjects
of the Emperor, of whatever rank or dignity, and com-
pel them to give evidence and return answers on pain
of being reputed abettors of heretics, and punished as
such. If the persons accused were ecclesiastics, the
Inquisitors were to proceed against them so as might
appear to themselves just and right.
6. Persons legitimately proved heretics, should be
kept under guard, to be handed over to the judge of
the place.
7. Special cases of priests were to be referred to
Mary, Queen of Hungary, sister of the Emperor,
Regent of the Low Countries.
8. Ecclesiastics, being duly convicted of heresy, and
canonically degraded, the Council should forthwith
execute the sentence passed upon them.
9. Laics breaking Imperial orders were to be
6
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
punished by civil authorities-not by priests, nor
Inquisitors.
10. Persons guilty of offences partly civil and
partly heretical, were to be tried by a mixed court of
Inquisitors and Councilmen.
11. On pain of Imperial indignation, no Council
was in any way to hinder the Inquisitors.
12. Neither were any of the Bishops, or their
officers.
13. All Curates not good Catholics, were to be
dismissed by the Inquisitors, and better men put into
their places.
14. In like manner were all Curates having concu-
bines to be dealt with.
15. Bad Schoolmasters were to be sifted out on the
same principle.
16. And so were all religious Booksellers and Prin-
ters.
This very singular code, redolent of military abso-
lutism, rough and ready, could not have issued from
the obscure cunning of a professional Inquisitor, and it
closes with an injunction which betrays the extreme
simplicity of the writer. He meekly advises the
slayers of the flock to be moderate, humane, and just!
They should beware ne nimis errungant, that they do
not wring the poor heretics too dry!
A few years later he presumed again to lecture the
greedy Inquisitors, which they much disliked, but he
would not withdraw his counsels, and we may suppose
that they did not heed them. To humanise Inqui-
sitors was more than even an Emperor could do,
and we find more congenial injunctions given and
accepted. Such was an order of Queen Mary of
Hungary, to extirpate the sect of Anabaptists, but
this they were not strong enough to do, however
heartily they might strive to do it; and another order
required them to visit the nunneries, and correct the
disorderly conduct of the nuns.
As for the Emperor, he grew more savage with age.
His last placard of the kind, dated September 25th,
THE NETHERLANDS, UNDER CHARLES V.
7
1550, was intended to summarise and perpetuate those
which had preceded. In it he decreed the penalty of
death "by the sword, the ditch, and fire" on heretical
offenders. Somewhat following the Inquisitorial system
of Spain, he excluded from every office of trust or
honour persons once suspected of heresy, even after
they had done penance, and merited forgiveness. He
provoked delation, offering informers half the goods of
heretics condemned. He commanded supreme and pro-
vincial courts to unite members of their own with the
ecclesiastical judges whenever informations of heresy
came before them, that they might take part in their
proceedings, and in the action that should follow; and
yet further, he laid on all his own officers and vassals
the obligation to aid the clergy in apprehending and
detaining persons pursued for heresy. He interdicted
judges from mitigating the penalties prescribed under
the pretext that they were excessive, or merely
threatened in terrorem. He pronounced null and void
all sales, gifts, conveyances, or last testaments made
by persons who had been but once convicted of an
heretical opinion, and threatened to punish, as partners
in guilt, all who should presume to intercede for mercy
on them.
Besides this general placard he issued one sepa-
rately against Anabaptists. Their guilt, he said, was
in every case equal, and so should be their punish-
ment, with but one slight abatement in favour of any
who repented before death. As for such penitents, he
graciously permitted the men to be beheaded, and the
women buried alive. All who continued pertinacious
were to be burnt alive.
These were the latest acts of Charles V.-a man
so hardened that he could look back on a sanguinary
career of thirty years without compunction. Brandt
and others have written harrowing narratives of the
sufferings of their martyred countrymen, which are
easily accessible to those who desire to peruse them.
We must be content with a very few brief notes.
8
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
On February 9th, 1522, the Augustinian Friars of
Antwerp, being convinced of the errors of their
Church by the study of Luther's writings, were driven
from their convent. The Prior, however, abjured
Lutheranism in the Church of St. Gudule before the
Nuncio, the Chancellor of Brabant, the Suffragan
Bishop of Cambray, and many others. Three of the
monks, Henry Voes, John Van Essche, and Lambert
Thoren stood firm to their convictions, and were con-
demned to be degraded, that the magistrates might be
at liberty to put them to death. Thoren escaped, but
the two others were burnt alive on the first day of
July, 1523, in the great square of Brussels, in presence
of all the "religious" in the city, Carmelites, Recol-
lects, and Dominicans. On their way to the fire they
cried aloud that they were going to suffer as Chris-
tians. When they were bound to the stake, and the
faggots lighted, they recited the Creed, and then
began to sing the Te Deum in alternate sentences, and
continued singing until the flames choked them.
Another of those monks was put into a sack and
drowned in the Scheldt. To make this execution the
more impressive the Government caused the vacated
monastery to be levelled to the ground, and a church
to be built on the site and dedicated to St. Andrew.
In spite of this terror, converts to the reformed religion
multiplied, and monks and nuns spontaneously forsook
their cells and left the convents empty, especially in
Holland and Zealand, and it is to be noted that the
secession from the Romish Church was greatest among
the more educated classes.
Some time in 1524, a sailor went up aloft in his ship
in the port of Antwerp, and preached "heresy" to
the people on shore. He was delated, given over to
the secular arm, put into a sack, and drowned.
Sept. 15, 1523. John Backer, of Woerden, was
burnt alive. He was a priest twenty-seven years of
age. His offence was twofold. He had preached the
Gospel and he was married. They brought him out
THE NETHERLANDS, UNDER CHARLES V.
9
to the burning in a yellow coat and cap, and as they
bound him to the stake he cried, "O Death, where is
thy sting! O Grave, where is thy victory! Death
is swallowed up by the victory of Jesus Christ."
In 1527 a woman at the Hague was strangled-
burying alive not being introduced as yet--and burnt.
In 1528 an ex-monk was burnt alive for the double
crime of marrying and preaching. They offered him
life if he would declare his wife a concubine, but he
preferred to die.
In 1532 the magistrates of Limburg burnt a family
of six persons, father, mother, two daughters and their
husbands. They went in company to martyrdom,
singing psalms on the way.
In 1533 three men were burnt in Arras for refusing
to honour the holy candle, and treating the custom as
a superstition.
In 1536, our countryman, William Tindall, driven
over to Flanders by persecution for having translated
the New Testament into English, was burnt alive in
the fortress of Vilvorde.
About the same time some women in Holland were
taken to the fire when in the pains of childbirth, and
gave birth to their infants at the stake.
On the 7th January, 1548, in the State prison of
Vilvorde, between five and six o'clock in the morning,
John Estor, Lord of Bigard, and his mother, were
beheaded. They had been condemned for contravening
edicts for the extirpation of heretics and reprobate
sects. They had prevented a monk from hawking
about some objects of superstition for sale among the
villagers on their estates.
These public executions, almost always distinguished
by the unflinching boldness of the sufferers, failed to
intimidate the increasing multitude of converts. The
martyrs exulted in their martyrdom. The spectators
caught the enthusiasm of their faith, and so powerful
was their testimony to the truth that the executioners
recommended the Queen Regent to permit such per-
10
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
sons to be executed in private that their voices might
not be heard. The suggestion was accepted so far as
the magistrates thought necessary. The hunt for
dogmatising heretics was prosecuted with increasing
diligence, and portraits of preachers to secret congre-
gations were exhibited in public places that the adhe-
rents of this imperial Inquisition might be assisted in
the search.
Now began the public resistance of the provinces
which eventually issued in their separation from the
Empire, and it was to brave this opposition, and if
possible, overawe the remonstrants, that Charles V.
put forth the Placard of 1550 above-quoted. But that
document provoked demonstrations of revolt which
the tyrant could no longer face, and with an affectation
of piety by no means unusual, he professed himself
dissatisfied with the world, retired to the convent of
Yuste, resigned his crown, and put on a friar's frock.
How many slaughtered victims he will meet at the
last account none can tell. There have been various
calculations. The lowest number is fifty thousand,
and the highest a hundred thousand, but such esti-
mates are sufficient evidence that the destruction of
human life by fire and sword was vast.
His own view of the matter is worth knowing, as it
is conveyed in a paper written by himself after the
retreat to Yuste.*
"I wished to establish the Inquisition," he means
the Spanish, "in order to prevent and punish these
heresies which from the neighbourhood of Germany,
England, and France were propagated. People were
all opposed to me, saying that there were no Jews
among us. After some discussions we came to the
conclusion that an ordonnance should be promulgated
wherein it would be declared that all persons of what-
ever state or condition they might be who had fallen
into either of the cases there specified, should be ipso
* Sur le séjour de Charles-Quint au monastère de Yuste, par GA-
CHARD, dans les Bulletins de l'Academie royale de Bruxelles, t. xii.
THE NETHERLANDS, UNDER CHARLES V.
11
facto condemned to suffer death by fire, and their
property would be confiscated.
"For the execution of this edict certain commissaries
were charged to make inquest of the culprits, and
denounce them to the justices under whose jurisdiction
they were found. These justices, after having verified
the delict, had to cause such as were obstinate to be
burnt alive, and cut off the heads of those who recon-
ciled themselves to the church. Things went on so,
although people were very ill content, nor were they
discontented without reason, seeing the extreme
severity of this ordonnance. But I was compelled
by necessity to take this measure."
The forms of Inquisition as organised at Rome were
not observed, but Inquisitors were appointed by the
Popes Adrian VI., Clement VII., Paul III., and
Julius III. The Spanish Inquisition was eventually
introduced into the Netherlands for a short time, and
also first extended by Charles V. into Spanish America.
I have therefore gone beyond my original intention,
and given the events recounted in this chapter a place
in the present history.
On the abdication of Charles V., the crown of Spain
fell by his gift to his son Philip II., and the Nether-
land Provinces were also committed to his govern-
ment. By the advice of Cardinal Granville he made
no sudden change in those regulations which his
father had made on his own absolute authority, but
it was very soon evident that whereas the Emperor
made the Inquisition secondary to the Army, the King
delighted in the Holy Office with its dark and crafty
brutality. He was neither brave enough nor active
enough to lead armies, but could urge and even guide
the stealthy movements of Inquisitors. Piles of cor-
respondence with them may still be found. His own
broad, slovenly, and almost illegible hand-writing
fills and overflows the wide margins of memorials and
reports. He satisfies appeals for royal bounty and
protection, and acknowledges their services in quality
of untitled ambassadors or spies.
12
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Under his patronage, Spanish Inquisitors were sent
into those Provinces, notwithstanding promises to the
contrary extorted by the clamours of the inhabitants.
The sanguinary placards were all revived, and only
so far altered as to make way for the more scientific
persecution of Spaniards, whose language he could
speak, and whose country he made in every sense his
own. The worst part of the Spanish people almost
worshipped him, and with the commencement of his
reign began the overwhelming power of the Holy
Office. From September, 1555, when he joined his
father in Brussels, began a closely-organised revolt
against the Inquisition, and on the 20th July, 1561,
after Inquisitorial atrocities that were never exceeded
in any other land, and again after the murderous
vengeance of the Duke of Alva, a dismal chapter of
horrors closed with signing the Deed of Independence
of the United Provinces, a work which would not,
probably, have been accomplished if the Council of
the Holy Office had not provoked universal hatred
and indignation.
The same effect was, sooner or later, produced
wherever the horrible tribunals had been erected, and
so, contrary to all that was ever meant, or hoped, or
feared, the gigantic abomination wrought out its own
remedy.
We shall hear again of Philip II. as crowned
Inquisitor-in-chief, especially in Sicily.

L. VOSTERMAN.
CHARLES V. EMPEROR.
13
CHAPTER XXIV.
SPANISH AMERICA.
INQUISITION FOUNDED BY CHARLES V.
THE Court of Rome has not usually made gift or grant,
except for some adequate consideration. Accordingly,
when Pope Alexander VI. made a pecuniary concession
to Ferdinand and Isabella (A.D. 1501), he did so on
the consideration that it was their desire "to acquire
and recover the islands and countries of the Indies,"
-America being included in the Indies,-" in order
that in them every condemned sect being cut down, the
Most High might be worshipped and revered. At
Rome, however, the Pope was indisputably the Most
High-Altissimus-and the Bull itself acknowledges
that it was not only the desire of his Holiness to
extirpate heathenism in America, even by the extirpa-
tion of the heathen themselves, but to destroy all
condemned sects that disputed his supremacy.
We know that long before Luther there were
condemned sects; and the document now quoted
betrays an apprehension that in the wildernesses of
the New World, no less than in the Alpine valleys,
sects might flourish and spread which could not be
utterly suppressed, even by the aid of troopers and
Inquisitors. In America, therefore, it would seem to
be agreed that, while the army was destroying the
natives, the Church was to annihilate the sects.
The Emperor-King presided over this work in his
Transatlantic dominions. Encouraged by his power-
ful patronage, a few bishops met together in what they
called a General Council, to consult for the more
perfect organisation of their Church. Mexico, Guate-
mala and Oaxaca were thus represented in November,
14
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
1537, and a report of their deliberations was trans-
mitted to his Majesty. From a lesser assembly, or
Junta, held in "the City of Thenuxtitlan in Mexico
of New Spain," the first Bishop of Mexico, Don
Fray Juan de Zumárraga, with a few of his brethren,
sent him a very full communication, dated April 17th,
1539, from which we learn that they had met under
Royal Authority and command, and in obedience to
that command sent home abundant information, and
as directed, asked both for help and advice as to what
it might in future be necessary to solicit of the Pope,
not however through any ecclesiastical channel, but
by Charles himself, who should judge for them, and
make the request his own. The letter is important,
as it reveals the policy to be pursued in the New
World for the strict governing of the laity, with sup-
pression of whatever the clergy did not approve.
Zumárraga writes as follows:-
"Because the natives continue to use Gentile rites,
especially in their superstitions, and idolatries or
sacrifices, although not in public as they used to do,
but go by night to their oratories, cues, and temples,
which are not yet all destroyed, and in the inmost
pay
recesses of which they have their idols, and them
as much reverence as ever, and it is believed that few
of their older people have left their sects, but with
equal affection keep concealed many of those idols,
although we have often advised, and even threatened
them. In those cues and oratories which we have
pulled down to the ground during the last three
months we have found their idols, and so long as they
are not utterly demolished,—and they are still allowed
to keep possession of the lands which once belonged
to those oratories and temples whence the papas
derived their maintenance,-they will persist in their
idolatry, and while the false worship is not destroyed
there, the true worship, divine adoration and Chris-
tianity cannot be established. We therefore beg your
Majesty to be pleased to order that those lands, and
SPANISH AMERICA.
15
the property of their temples and oratories which
their papas and ministers possessed, be applied to our
use, and that alms [meaning forced contributions] be
raised for the churches of these countries. We beg
that we may have authority to use the stones of their
temples for building churches, and that we may have
power to overturn and burn and destroy the idols that
are in them, for by the First Commandment we are
all bound to destroy idolatry, and the Latria, or
Christian religion, cannot be planted there until they
are rooted up and separated from their rites."
For the present, the Bishops had determined (as
appears by the tenth chapter of the document before
us), that native Indian proselytes when behaving amiss,
especially the men, should be put into stocks, or con-
fined in prisons (which was accounted gentle treatment
and slight correction), to teach them good behaviour.
But further on, in the twenty-fourth chapter, they
advise that "as stripes, imprisonment, and other such
punishments (having been already tried), are not
found to do the natives any good, they who behave
badly shall be made to do penance."
What penance
means in the language of Inquisitors, now needs not
to be explained.
99 *
The several races of New Christians were the princi-
pal objects of pursuit across the Atlantic Ocean. That
none of them might find refuge in America, the Spanish
Inquisitor-General, the magnificent Cardinal Ximenez
de Cisneros, had nominated (May 7th, 1516) Fray
Juan Quevedo, Bishop of Cuba, to be his delegate in
the kingdom of Terra Firma, as the Spanish-American
continental territories were then called, and empowered
him to appoint the necessary ministers. Charles V.
had already prepared the way for an institution of his
own, by desiring the Cardinal Adrian to nominate
Inquisitors, to be independent of the Spanish Inquisi-
tion; and, on the Cardinal's nomination, appointed
Alonso Manso, Bishop of Puerto Rico, and Pedro de
* Documentos Historicos de Mexico. Brit. Mus. 4183, h.
16
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Cordova, Vice-Provincial of the Dominicans, to be
"Inquisitors of the Indies and Islands of the Ocean."
The Imperial Order to that effect was signed on the
20th of May, 1520, while as yet the Episcopate of the
New World was incomplete.
The New Christians of America were not only
fugitive Jews from Europe, but Gentile natives of
those vast regions who had been compelled to submit
to baptism, so far as the Spanish conquests brought
them under the power of the invaders; and as they
were no less heathens than before, they observed
certain forbidden rites of the old idolatry-relics of
their state in olden time when under their own kings-
and they practised those rites with an enthusiastic
attachment, so far as secrecy or hope of impunity
encouraged them so to do. On the other hand, the
newly-created Inquisition, although not yet set up
over regularly-defined districts, and administered only
by Dominicans itinerant from place to place, pushed
its power to the utmost; and, after beginning its
peculiar work of death, so alarmed the baptised Indians
that they retreated by multitudes into the interior,
renounced the profession of Christianity, and joined
themselves to the yet unconquered tribes.
The Spanish Viceroys, alarmed at the general deser-
tion, and fearing that the recently-acquired territories
would be depopulated, and that those combinations.
of Indians would grow too powerful to be resisted,
entreated Charles to put a stop to the proceedings
of the Inquisitors. His Majesty, partaking of their
apprehension, commanded (October 15th, 1538) the 2-
Inquisitors not to interfere, on any account, with
aboriginal natives of America, but restrict their inter-
ference to Europeans and their descendants. Yet the
Indians were not exempted from inquisition of heresy,
but placed under the control of the Bishops, a set of
men practically inferior to Inquisitors, but seldom
so murderous as they, and now instructed to proceed
with gentleness and caution. But the Inquisitors
SPANISH AMERICA.
17
could not so easily be displaced; and being still per-
mitted to follow their vocation in regard to Europeans
by birth or descent, they soon transgressed that limit,
and evaded the Royal Order by means of the Secret,
until the original evil, after some slight mitigation for
a few years, became almost as flagrant as ever, and the
inhibition had to be renewed (October 18th, 1549).
The vigilance of the temporal authorities, and the tor-
rent of popular hatred which the barbarous insolence
of the Holy Office had drawn forth, made the position
of an Inquisitor scarcely less perilous than odious,
and few persons were found willing to undertake the
charge.
The humbled Inquisitors then cried out for succour;
and Philip II., after having set aside the more politic
restrictions of his predecessors, and feasted his eyes
on the martyrdoms of Spain, as he had gloated over
those of England, issued a Royal Order (January 25th,
1569), complaining that the heretics, by books and con-
versations, introduced their new doctrine into America;
said that the Council of the Supreme, with the Inqui-
sitor-General at their head, had resolved to name
Inquisitors and ministers, not to perambulate the
country, as formerly, but to be intrenched amidst
palaces and prisons, and be obeyed, as in Spain, by
magistrates and soldiers; and he commanded accord-
ingly. Consequently chiefs of inquisitorial districts
were installed, first in Panamá (June 20th, 1569), and
next in Lima (January 29th, 1570). The Inquisi-
tors made solemn entries into those places; and the
authorities, again reduced to abject submission, re-
ceived them with every demonstration of honour that
could be devised. Mexico followed next in submission
to Spain (August 18th, 1570); and the process of
organisation reached yet another stage, when it was
ordained that at three central tribunals, in Lima,
Mexico, and Cartagena de Indias, Inquisitors-General
should preside, and guide the operations of subordi-
nate establishments (December 26th, 1571), subject,
VOL. II.
C
18
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
however, to the Supreme Council in Madrid. There
is reason to believe that persecutions were by this
time renewed on a very large scale.
It is known that in 1574, the very year that the
conqueror of Mexico, Hernan Cortés, died, the first
Auto was celebrated in the city of Mexico with great
pomp; and, unless by the absence of royalty, was not
inferior in grandeur to that of Valladolid, where Philip,
as the reader may remember, so rigidly and ostenta-
tiously fulfilled his vow to take vengeance on the
heretics. At this first Mexican Auto, it is related that
a Frenchman, who had probably escaped the Bartholo-
mew massacres, and an Englishman, were burnt as
impenitent Lutherans. Eighty penitents were exhi-
bited at the same time, some punished for Judaizing,
and some for holding the opinions of Luther or Calvin.
A few did penance for bigamy, the sorry Christianity
of Spain not having sufficed to overcome the customs
of Paganism,—customs which only the Gospel, with
the spread of true experimental piety, eradicates.
And a few others did sore penance for magic and
superstition.
As if the religion of the Reformation were a plague,
and as if the plague might be kept within bounds by
cutting off communication, "infected persons" were
forbidden to cross the seas. The laws relating to
America abound in provisions of the kind; but a Royal
Ordinance of the beginning of the seventeenth century
may be taken as a pattern of them all. "We ordain
and command," says Philip III., "that no one newly
converted to our Holy Faith, from being Moor or
Jew, nor his child, shall pass over into our Indies,
without our express licence. And we also prohibit
and command that no one who has been reconciled"
(by the usual penance), "nor the child or grandchild
of any one who has publicly worn a Sambenito, nor
the child or grandchild of a person burnt or condemned
as a heretic, for the crime of heretical pravity, through
either male or female descent, shall pass over to the
SPANISH AMERICA.
19
Indies, under penalty of loss of goods for our chamber
and fisc; and his person shall be placed at our mercy,
to be perpetually banished from our Indies; and, if
he have no property, let them give him a hundred
lashes, publicly."*
Lashes were doubtless given, and property confis-
cated, but ways of egress might be opened by royal
licence. Spanish merchants of impure blood might
pay their fees of office, and pass without notice beyond
the ocean; or, through petty bribery to underlings,
persons of inferior class could at any time emigrate;
and thus a rapidly-increasing multitude of New Chris-
tians was mingled with the Spanish-American popu-
lation. These people brought constant work for the
Inquisitors, who not only demanded aid of the secular
arm, but were ever encroaching on the jurisdiction of
the magistrates, which rendered it necessary for the
Court of Madrid to interpose by advising the gentler
method of agreement between the rival powers beyond
sea, or by enforcing the mandates of the Sovereign.
The rivalry of two powers served one great end.
It diminished the power of the Inquisition; for vice-
roys, in their jealousy of ecclesiastical pretensions,
were not sorry to see public indignation sometimes
burst on those "holy officers," who were obliged to
content themselves with particular Autos, where they
alone officiated, where the civil authorities would take
no part, and where offenders could not be killed.
There is a small book, printed in Mexico in 1648,
intituled, "Relation of the Third Particular Auto-de-Fè
that the Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition
of the Kingdoms and Provinces of New Spain cele-
brated in the Church of the Professed House of the
Sacred Religion of the Company of Jesus, on the
thirtieth of March, 1648; the very Illustrious Lords
Doctor Don Francisco de Estrada y Escovedo, Doctor
Don Juan Saenz de Mañozca, and Licentiate Don
* Ordenanzas Reales para la Contratacion de Sevilla, &c. Vallado-
lid, 1604.
20
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Bernabé de la Higuera y Amarilla, being Inquisitors
therein." * This rare document consists of the Sum-
maries that were published by the Reader on that
occasion: and has a preface, equally authentic of
course, from the pen of one of the said lords, or of a
secretary. This is written in intricate out-of-date
Castilian, of which a close translation shall speak in
precisely correspondent English.
"As indefatigable for vigilance of the care, and
awake to the duties of the labour, the upright, just,
and holy Tribunal of the Inquisition of New Spain,
always desiring to manifest to the Christian people,
amidst the accustomed piety that is an attribute of
their profession, and to make known to the world, in
view of the clemency that is the boast of their glories,
the necessary punishment and inevitable chastisement
that is done on the heretical perfidy and rebellious
obstinacy of the cruel and sanguinary enemies of our
sacred religion; who, blind to its light, deny it, and
deaf to its voice, flee from it. The Lords Inquisitors
who act therein, anxious to gain in rich perfection the
foreseen toil of their wakefulness, and the fruit of their
unwearied labour, have celebrated two Particular Acts
of Faith in the past years, 1646 and 1647, in which,
with all attention and good order, were despatched,
and went forth to public theatre, seventy-one causes:
the greater part of them Jews, observant of the dead
and detestable law of Moses. And now,
And now, for particular
and convenient ends, not open to the investigation
of curiosity, and not without well-advised resolution,
this Holy Tribunal determined to celebrate another
Particular Act of Faith in the Church of the Professed
House of the Sacred Religion of the Company of
Jesus, one of the most capacious and convenient for
the purpose, that there are in this city, on March 30th,
1648. In which were put to penance and punished
(manifesting its severity no less than its clemency and
* It may be found in the British Museum, by referring to the
"Old Catalogue," under the head INQUISITION.
SPANISH AMERICA.
21
pity) twenty-eight persons, as well men as women,
for the atrocious delinquencies and grave crimes by
them perpetrated, that in this brief and summary re-
lation shall be told. The guilty penitents going out
of the prisons of the Inquisition, each one between two
ministers of the Holy Tribunal, at six o'clock in the
morning, without any obstruction of the way, or
disturbance of good order, from the numerous multi-
tudes of people that were packed close on both sides of
the broad streets, but who gave good way to the crimi-
nals until they reached the said church: where after
the orderly procession of penitents was brought in,
and the Lords Inquisitors were seated in their
tribunal, it being then seven o'clock in the morn-
ing, the noise of the people that attended being
hushed, in good and prescribed order began the
reading of the causes, and continued until six
o'clock in the evening; and the guilty having ab-
jured, and they with whom that business had to be
done being absolved and reconciled, they took them
back in the same form and order to the house of
the Inquisition, whence they had come by different
streets, with the same accompaniment. And the
day following the justice of lashes was executed; all
this kingdom remaining in hope of another more
numerous and General Act, for exaltation and glory
of our Holy Catholic faith, punishment and warning
of her enemies, edification and instruction of the
faithful."
Notwithstanding the incapacity of the scribe, the
summaries present lively pictures of the moral state of
society in Mexico at that time; and some of them
have peculiar value, as disclosing the manner in which
Jews persisted, from generation to generation, in
observing that "dead and detestable law of Moses,"
as the Spanish doctors were pleased to call it. Others
exhibit specimens of clerical depravity and vulgar
superstition.
Gaspar de los Reyes was one of the vagrants who
22
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
found their way to New Spain. He was a layman,
cleverly acting the part of priest, who said mass,
absolved, imposed penance, baptized, married, gave
extreme unction, buried, and swindled very exten-
sively. As to the burying and the swindling, there
could be no doubt that they were facts accomplished;
but seeing that sacramental acts depend for validity
on intention, there must have been great perplexity
in the case of Gaspar de los Reyes. Did he intend
to do as the Church intends? No one could trust in
the rectitude of his intentions: therefore transubstan-
tiation, absolution, regeneration, legitimacy of chil-
dren, and final salvation of penitents, were sunk into
the category of uncertainties under his hands. It was
a bad case,-very bad. The man must have been a
heretic. He was contumacious, and should have been
burnt. But in absence of a secular arm to inflict that
penalty, he was made to carry a green taper in his
hand, a rope round his neck, and a white coroza on
his head. Then he was abjured de vehementi,-only
suspected, although vehemently; not convicted, for
the Inquisitors had no power to kill him, and it would
have been a scandal for the Church to have a con-
victed heretic seen among living men,-received three
hundred lashes, or was to receive them, and was to be
shipped off to the galleys of Old Spain, in captivity
"perpetual and irremissible." Another lighter case
of the same kind was to be punished with two hundred
lashes, and five years in the galleys.
Fray Josef de Santa Cruz, forty-three years of age,
monk, priest, and confessor, had come to Mexico from
Seville without licence, thrown off his habit, changed
his name, married twice, become the father of several
children, and was in practice as a physician. After
the lapse of several eventful years he was discovered,
arrested, imprisoned, brought out in this Auto, and
sentenced to carry a green candle. He abjured de
vehementi; was made to save the funds of a hospital
in Mexico by serving the sick poor there for four
SPANISH AMERICA.
23
years, without pay; and then, from being a prisoner
at large, was to be given up to his prelates, to be
dealt with according to the canons and rules. This
sentence obviously tended to reserve him for the fire
when a general Auto, so earnestly desired by the
Inquisition, might be granted for the exaltation and
glory of the faith.
Alexo de Castro, eighty-two years of age, native of
Manilla in the Philippines, a concealed Mohammedan,
as they said, was accused of Moorish practices in
private. As they could not burn him, he was im-
prisoned in a monastery, there to serve, and there to
perish.
Sebastian Domingo, sixty years of age, a Negro
slave. This was a most pitable case. Poor Sebastian
had married when young; his wife and he had been
separately sold, and his second owner compelled him
to marry another woman, supposing that by that
means he might be attached to the estate, and pre-
vented from running away to seek his lawful wife.
For this compulsory second marriage he was delated,
and imprisoned in the Inquisition of La Puebla de
los Angeles. There, in consequence of a large increase
in the number of prisoners, he was taken from the
dungeon, sworn to fidelity and secrecy, and compelled
to be servant in the Holy House. It would appear
from his defence, that he did not understand the
extent of his obligation as to secrecy, but, yielding to
an impulse of humanity that did him great honour,
spoke to a prisoner through the grating of his prison-
door, carried a message to his wife, who was soon
imprisoned for receiving it, and brought him letters,
with pen, ink, and paper. The grateful woman gave
him money for the service, and the receiving it was
added to the list of his transgressions. They sentenced
him to a green candle, rope, abjuration de levi, two
hundred lashes, six years' labour in the Spanish gal-
leys; or, if he could not go to Spain, and the Tribunal
knew, "in secret," a reason why he could not, he was
24
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
to be sold for a hundred dollars, to be applied to the
ordinary expenses of the Holy Office. The sale, how-
ever, was of his services, only, for a time which would,
of course, be long enough to make sure of him for life,
and at the expiration of that time he was to be restored
to his owner. Suppose him to outlive the infliction
of two hundred lashes, or suppose that, not to lower
his value, the lashes were forgiven, and that some one
would buy him for ten years, and get the utmost pos-
sible amount of service from him during that time,
how much would the slave be worth, if alive, at the
age of seventy? But this fraud upon his owner was
committed, for the consideration of a hundred dollars,
by "the upright, just, and holy" Inquisition.
Ana Xuares, twenty-five years of age, a native of
Mexico. Both her parents had been punished as
Judaizers. Her marriage with a first husband had
been annulled, on some account, a year before; he
was still alive, in the galleys for five years, wearing a
sambenito, and further sentenced to perpetual confine-
ment to one place of abode. She married a second
time, and, contrary to their doctrine that a con-
demned heretic is dead, they condemned her for that;
and she and her new husband were soon separated and
imprisoned. After a few days' incarceration, she
asked for mercy, was admitted to audience, and con-
fessed that, from the age of fourteen, she had observed
the fasts and customs of the Law of Moses. Her
maternal grandmother is said to have attended at
secret meetings in the house of one Simon Vaez, at
Seville, to converse concerning the precepts, fasts,
rites, and ceremonies, of Judaism. At those meetings
all present were accustomed to take part, each bringing
evidence of his own perseverance, and all encouraging
each other to stand fast in the same observance.
They formed, says the summary, a sort of con-
ciliabulum, or pretended council, where "Catholics"
were declared to be under eternal condemnation, and
their devotions, processions, and other usages were
SPANISH AMERICA.
25
spoken of with insolent profanity, showing the "lively
hatred that those perfidious and obstinate Jews
cherished in their bad hearts." That aged Jewess
and "famous dogmatiser" used to take the lead; talk
with pride of her children and grandchildren that
were good Jews, instructed from childhood by herself;
who had made proficiency, fasted admirably, and
already attained to high reputation as good Jews and
Jewesses throughout the Hebrew nation. Ana Xuares
had been one of her most zealous pupils, and displayed
intense enthusiasm in attachment to her religion.
She loved her second husband, say they, much better
than the first, and married him far more willingly, not
because he was a better Jew, but because his father
had been burnt in one of the Inquisitions of Portugal.
When in prison, she carried on written correspondence
with fellow-prisoners under a false name, and eluding
the vigilance of the Alcaydes, sent messages, received
and forwarded messages to other prisoners, made jests
about the sambenitos they would have to wear, and
agreed with them to make up those garbs of infamy so
gay that they would be ornamental, and be rather a
credit to the wearers than a disgrace. The Lords
Inquisitors in the mother-country would have been
horrified to know of this low state of discipline in the
Holy House of Mexico. In Seville, or Coimbra, or
Goa, prisoners would never have been set to do the
work of servants; neither would men be taken from
the cells to serve in the kitchen, nor women employed
to do needlework. The punishment of this Jewess
consisted in appearing in the procession of the Auto,
in the garb of a penitent, carrying a green candle,
confiscation of her goods, formal abjuration, perpetual
confinement to one place, the sambenito, perpetual
banishment from all the West Indies, transportation
to Old Spain in the first fleet that might sail from the
Port of St. Juan de Ulloa, perpetual banishment from
Seville, the home of her family, and from the Court of
Madrid, and obligation to present herself at the Inqui-
26
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
sition immediately on landing in Spain, that her person
might be known, and that she might receive orders
for the fulfilment of all particulars of the allotted
penance and confinement. If she failed as to any of
those particulars, she would be punished, as an impeni-
tent, with death.
With all the incompetence of those Mexican Inqui-
sitors, they had a certain low ingenuity; they contrived
to recover lost ground, and they gained the desire of
their heart in the revival of general Autos. One such
they had in 1659, when William Lambert, an Irishman,
was burnt in Mexico, being suspected of the heresies
of Luther, Calvin, Pelagius, Wycliffe, and Huss.
Luther and Pelagius come rather awkwardly toge-
ther; but this lavish enumeration of heresies was a
mere decoration of the record. His real offence was
writing "against the Holy Office, its erection, style,
mode of proceeding, and the secrecy it observed; also
against the Inquisitors' secretaries and servants." One
Pedro Garcia de Arias was burnt at the same time, his
chief offence being freedom of speech in regard to the
same persons.
*
Englishmen and other foreigners, being Protestants,
were put to death with very little ceremony, and
especially when captured in the buccaneering expe-
ditions that were carried on in those days on the
coasts of America. One Louis Ramé, a Frenchman,
saw fourteen officers taken into custody by the In-
quisitors at Vera Cruz, and solicited to deny their
faith. They were carried to the stake on June
20th, 1683, and five who refused to abjure were
strangled and burnt. Nine endeavoured to purchase
life by renouncing their religion; were baptized, flat-
tered, and feasted publicly the next day; but on
the evening of that very day the perfidy of the
Inquisitors retributed the cowardice of the renegades.
Eight died on a gallows. One, John Morgan, escaped
by the breaking of a rope; and this they hailed
* Puigblanc, chap. v.
SPANISH AMERICA.
27
as a miracle to prove that one "a good Catholic."
No doubt there were many renegades, and the
same Frenchman mentions one Thomas, a native of
Plymouth, who about six months before had pro-
fessed Popery to save his life.
Louis Ramé wrote a remarkable account* of his
own sufferings. He describes himself as a French
sailor, cast on shore at Porto Rico, in April, 1676,
and kept prisoner of war more than sixteen months.
Conveyed thence to Vera Cruz, and permitted to
work in the town for his livelihood, he found employ-
ment in the house of a baker, but gave great offence
by refusing to assist a priest in trying to pervert
a dying Dutchman. On the 17th of December, 1678,
he met a procession with the host, and refused to
kneel; for which second offence he was instantly
thrown into irons, and kept prisoner in a private
house. After a fortnight's delay, they carried him
to the Inquisition in Mexico. When making the
usual minute interrogations, the Inquisitors asked
him to abjure; but, on his firm refusal, sent him
back to the cell, where they first endeavoured to
overcome his constancy by argument and persuasions,
and, this failing, drugged his food, so as to induce
headache, nausea, and extreme debility and anguish.
In this condition, they brought him up again,
emaciated and almost delirious, after a year's con-
finement, and accused him of many crimes that he
had never so much as thought of. These accusations
all failing, they questioned him on his observance
of the practices of his "cursed sect;" and as he
not only confessed that he prayed and read the
Bible, but amply justified his so doing by quotations
from the sacred volume, they sent him back again
into confinement, and during three months the Chief
Inquisitor paid him a weekly visit for controversy.
* A Complete History of the Inquisition in Portugal, Spain, Italy,
etc. By the Rev. Mr. BAKER, M.A." Westminster, 1736. Rela-
tion vi.
28
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
But controversy failed. Louis Ramé still abode in
the truth; the Inquisitor ceased from visiting, and
they gave him "such violent food" that he almost
lost his reason. Then, after the second year, he
was subject to another audience, but yielded not.
A third year then passed, and then a fourth; yet,
contrary to the usual practice, they suffered the
dogmatizing heretic to live. The reason of this
tormenting lenity might perhaps be found in the
existing relations between France and Spain; but
for whatever reason, his life was spared. Probably,
in pain and solitude, he sought strength from God,
and the event proved that strength was not denied.
"Do you want anything?" the Chief Inquisitor,
Juan de Miel, sometimes asked him; and he once
answered, "I want the patience of Job, the virtue
of Joseph, the wisdom of Solomon, the resolution
of Tobit, the repentance of David, justice from your
tribunal, and a quick despatch."
Their final sentence consigned him to the royal
prison, the old palace of Montezuma,-until he could
be banished from the kingdom of New Spain. De-
lighted at the thought of such a banishment, he swore
to keep the secret of the Holy Office while in the
dominions of the King of Spain. But more than four
years yet elapsed before his captivity terminated. In
Mexico, in Vera Cruz, in the Havana, and in Cadiz,
he was treated as a criminal, although not convicted,
nor even accused of any crime. At length, his long-
sorrowing wife, who had gone to live in Ireland, heard
of his imprisonment in Cadiz, came over to London,
interested benevolent persons in his case, obtained
some advocacy at the Court of Madrid, and on the
18th of May, 1687, she received him in London.
With a hearty simplicity that characterizes the whole
narrative, he wrote at the close of it, "God be praised;
I was thought dead, but am living."
Renewed favour with the temporal authorities, as it
gave the American Inquisitors a wider field, and en-
SPANISH AMERICA,
29
couraged them to greater insolence, brought them into
increased disfavour with the clergy of their dioceses,
until the venerable Palafox, and the Bishop of Carta-
gena, in America, appealed so earnestly against them
at Rome, that Clement XI. gave a Brief (January
19th, 1706), containing a clause for the removal of the
tribunal from that city.
Yet we are not to imagine that this Pope was less
favourably disposed towards the Holy Office than any
of his predecessors. His published letters give abun-
dant evidence to the contrary; and the following
Brief shows that, after suppressing one of the tribunals
in America, he employed the Supreme Council of Old
Spain to be the instrument of his vigilance in the
West. The language is admirably cool, and the docu-
ment may be interesting to Englishmen and Anglo-
Americans.
"Clement XI. to his Venerable Brother, the Arch-
bishop of Zaragoza,* Inquisitor-General of Spain.
"Venerable Brother, Health, etc. It has come to
the knowledge of our Apostleship that the Holy Bible,
translated into an American dialect, has lately been
printed in the city of London, according to the de-
praved doctrine and corrupt sense of Protestants,
under whose care and management it is brought to
light for the purpose of being circulated in America.
Now if the circulation takes effect, as the heretics
desire, it is easy to conjecture what damage will be
done to the faithful, to whom the food of Holy Scrip-
ture, sprinkled and infected with much poison, shall
be presented under the name of spiritual nourish-
ment. Therefore our pastoral duty imperatively re-
quires us to oppose this most serious evil by all
means possible; but our solicitude and charity advises
that we should first of all call in your fraternal zeal to
help our vigilance. Therefore, with the utmost ear-
nestness, we desire you to use whatever means are in
*Antonio Ibañez de la Riba-Herrera. LLORENTE, cap. xl.,
art. 1.
30
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
your power, and employ all your authority, to pre-
vent this mischief which now threatens, and will very
soon break out openly, that, by this heretical con-
trivance, the true doctrine of Christ may not be
corrupted in the minds of those faithful. Resolve,
then, that nothing shall be left undone by you that
may be necessary to cut short the circulation of
depraved books of this kind in America, where not
even importation of them should be allowed, lest they
be circulated among the faithful. It becomes the
public authority, in this matter, to aid those who
are in charge of souls, that what tends to the destruc-
tion of those souls may be altogether excluded and
made an end of, considering that, by this pretence
of propagating the Divine oracles, they design to
insinuate the errors yet more deeply. Considering
the great importance of this matter we doubt not
that your Fraternity will act strenuously and with
great diligence, while we most lovingly impart to you
our Apostolic blessing."
This is dated August 31st, 1709, from Santa Maria
Maggiore, where Clement presided over the Congrega-
tion of the Inquisition; and no doubt Riba-Herrera
did his best to suppress the version in America. I find
it named in the Spanish Index of prohibited Books.
Notwithstanding the nominal suppression, in 1706,
of the Inquisition of Cartagena, it soon sprang to life
again in Mexico. As in all other parts of Spanish
America, it was numbered with the establishments
that were thought to impart honour to those coun-
tries, until the political convulsions of Europe spread
into the transatlantic world, and, after many alterna-
tions of defeat and victory, the Inquisition fell in all
the States. The latest efforts of the Inquisitors there
were directed against the propagators of new political
opinions; and so late as the year 1815 a priest was
put to death in Mexico for having taken part in a
movement for separation of the colony from Old Spain.
That was his real offence; but it was preferred to
SPANISH AMERICA.
31
throw him into the secret prison of the Inquisition,
and proceed against him for atheism. One proof
of the atheism of this priest, Josef María Morellos,
was, that he had two children. If having children
proves a Romish priest to be an atheist, few of those
priests, either in the Old World or the New, can be
free from the taint of atheism.
For such atrocities as those of the Papacy, com-
mitted through its Inquisition, shall not God be
avenged? The denunciations of prophets, and the
events of history, declare that the priesthood cannot
escape His avenging retribution, and the world has
witnessed their humiliation in countries where they
had domineered for ages. In South America, during
the struggles of Old Spain for constitutional freedom,
after the fall of Bonaparte, and when the Spanish
colonies were demanding independence, the clergy
took part against the people on the side of absolute
government; and, not content with using the legi-
timate influence of their position, diminished as it
was by their own misconduct, they expended the
wealth of their churches in carrying on a civil war.
Ammunition was stored in the houses of priests and
bishops; and preachers assailed those members of their
congregations who promoted the new order of things.
Then popular fury burst upon the clergy. The Arch-
bishop of Mexico, Don Juan de la Serna, was banished;
the Bishop of Honduras was put to death; and most,
if not all the bishops, were driven from their sees.
One brief paragraph, translated from the Spanish of
the Canon P. A. F. de Cordova, an apologist of their
own, may serve to intimate what it remains with
political historians to narrate in full.
"The Bishop of the capital" (Lima), "Don Benito
de Lue y Riega, the Lord Archbishop Moxo of Charcas
and Videla, Lord Bishop of Salta, have died in conse-
quence of sufferings in banishment. They" (the
Republicans)" obliged Orellana, Bishop of Tucuman,
to betake himself to flight through deep forests and
32
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
trackless wilds. The present Bishop of Paraguay has
quite lost his reason through the treatment he suffered.
Señor Otondo, Bishop-Elect of Santa Cruz, lies in
prison at Salta; and Rodriguez, Lord Bishop of San-
tiago, of Chile, is exiled in Mendoza." * The Bishop
of Truxillo, who had concealed himself in a solitary
place, called Torche, was traced, apprehended, and
banished; and the warlike stores found in his palace
were transferred to the magazine of artillery in
Truxillo. Thus were the weapons of offence, which
they and their predecessors had used so actively for
seven centuries, turned against themselves, and the
world saw a solemn confirmation of the Saviour's
words: "They that take the sword shall perish by
the sword."
Perhaps the fugitive bishops, who so perished in
America, bethought themselves, in their last days, of
the severer sufferings of the thousands of Waldenses
and Reformed in the solitudes of the Alps and the
Pyrenees. And if their hearts were softened with
suffering, as we must hope they were, they might
experience some compunction while contrasting the
provocations of their own tyranny with the unoffend-
ing innocence of those martyred disciples of the
Crucified.
* Memorias para servir á la Historia de las Persecuciones de la Iglesia
en America. Lima, 1821.
33
CHAPTER XXV.
PORTUGAL.
EARLY HISTORY.
HAPPILY indeed for Portugal in the fifteenth century,
the sway of the "Catholic Sovereigns," Ferdinand and
Isabella, did not extend into that kingdom, neither
did the Inquisition of Torquemada. But the spirit of
persecution cannot be excluded from a country where
the Romish priesthood are in power.
In Portugal, as in Spain, the Jews had long been
oppressed. Although multitudes who left Spain in
1492 were allowed to dwell in Portugal, it was only
under conditions of extreme severity; and at length
they were reduced to the same terrible alternative of
exile or compulsory profession of Christianity. They
who submitted to baptism took upon themselves, not
the easy yoke of the Lord Jesus Christ, of whom they
had been taught nothing, but an insufferable bondage
to the Church of Rome. Under the usual designation
of New Christians, they were obnoxious to suspicion,
contempt, and the most vexatious vigilance of the
priests; although King Emanuel had granted them a
promise, in 1497, that they should be exempt from
inquisition for twenty years. Whether, at this time,
there was any Court of Inquisition in that kingdom,
it is not easy to say; but it is unquestionably certain
that there, as in every other province of the Popedom,
there were formal prosecutions for heresy.
exemption was confirmed and extended in 1507; and,
in 1521, King John III. renewed it for another term
of twenty years, with a clause to the effect that, even
after the expiration of that term, their descendants.
VOL. II.
D
The
34
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
of
should not be tried for heresy without being confronted
with their accusers, and that the property of any
those persons who might be put to death on convic-
tion of heresy should, nevertheless, descend to their
heirs. These privileges, like all others, must have
been purchased by the New Christians for themselves
and their children. Six years before the time ap-
pointed, the exemption was withdrawn, and Pope
Clement VII. sent an Inquisitor, Fray Diego de Silva,
to set up an Office in Lisbon; and this he did, they
say, not of his own motion, but in compliance with
pressing representations and entreaties from King
John III.,* who complained that those New Christians
were receiving the doctrines of Luther, which then
began to find acceptance in all parts of the Peninsula.
After some reluctance, real or affected, Clement con-
sented to absolve the King from his obligation to keep
the promise made to the Portuguese by his prede-
cessor, and sent the friar, invested with full authority
to introduce at once the Holy Office. Don Diego
came, but encountered the execrations of the people,
and the New Christians expostulated so strongly, that
King John was obliged to consent to remit the case
to Rome for further consideration. Clement died mean-
while, and his successor, Paul III., as one struggling
under a sense of honour, hesitated to confirm the act
of his predecessor. But, yielding to the pressing
solicitation of the King of Portugal and the prevail-
ing spirit of the Church, he issued a Bull (March
23rd, 1536) that satisfied the importunities of fifteen
years, and enabled King John fully to avenge the con-
tempt which, as he said, those Judaisers had shown to
ceremonies of the mass and images of the saints. His
Holiness named three bishops as commissaries, or sub-
Inquisitors, with Silva, to whom he gave the title of
* Never was king more priest-ridden than John III.; and the
probability is that he was moved by the new Society of Jesus,
whose members had great influence over him, and engaged him to
send the first Inquisitors to Goa.
EARLY HISTORY IN PORTUGAL.
35
Inquisitor-in-Chief, and commanded them to act in
conjunction with the ordinary of the diocese, but for
three years to follow the practice of criminal courts,
and proceed according to common right. He also
forbade the confiscation of property; thus, as he con-
ceived, in some degree adapting the odious institution
to the circumstances of the country. In due time a
Supreme Council was formed in Lisbon, which sat
twice every week.
Thus began the Inquisition of Portugal, as the docu-
ments quoted by Antonio de Sousa* demonstrate.
Some writers, following Páramo, relate that one
Juan Perez de Saavedra, a clever impostor, having
forged a Bull, in the year 1540, to the purport that
the Tribunals of Portugal should be assimilated to
those of Spain, assumed the dress and title of a car-
dinal, came with a splendid equipage to Badajoz, a
town on the Spanish frontier, acted as Papal Nuncio,
received all the honours that should be paid to such a
personage, visited the Holy Houses, instructed the
Inquisitors, heard appeals, redressed grievances, levied
contributions, accepted presents, suffered his attendants
to receive fees, did much "good," as he afterwards
pleaded, by diminishing the odium of the Inquisition
through such acts of lenity as were never known to be
performed by any true Inquisitor, took money, indeed,
but, unlike real Inquisitors, did not take life. He
learned inquisitorial secrets, but divulged none of
them. When discovered to be an impostor, he pleaded
that, for the skilful management of so beneficial a
fraud he deserved praise and reward. He was arrested,
notwithstanding, and sent to expiate his offence against
inquisitorial and pontifical dignity by nineteen years'
labour in the galleys. His fraud, it might have been
expected, and the presumption of heresy which attends
all offences against the Inquisition, should have
brought him to the stake. But it was not so. Con-
fessors of Christ are they who go to the stake. Fraud
* Aphorismi Inquisitorum.
36
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
is too agreeably familiar to be accounted a mortal sin;
and even Philip II. of Spain, severely zealous as he
was, sent for "the false Nuncio of Portugal" after his
release from punishment, and complacently bade him
relate his adventures. He did so, but adorned the
narrative with romance enough to provide material for
a novel and a play, very popular in Portugal, exhi-
biting the tricks of Saavedra, "O falso Nuncio de
Portugal." And the popularity of the tale might mis-
lead those who did not critically examine dates, and
could not detect improbabilities.
Some who have closely studied this episode in the
history of Portugal think they find a solution of the
improbability which, at the first glance, would make it
appear incredible. They suppose the imposture to
have been favoured by Charles V. and the Jesuits.
Charles, they observe, had married the sister of King
John. In his reign the Jesuits arose, became exces-
sively influential in his court, were admitted to his
fullest confidence, gave themselves to the promotion
of his plans, and acted as spies over his servants.
Charles, dreaming of a universal empire, would fain
have annexed Portugal to Spain as a first step towards
it; for it has ever been the ambition of the Spaniards
to make the Peninsula all their own. The Jesuits,
therefore, were not unlikely to avail themselves of a
project that would tend to aggrandize their order.
The most intelligent Portuguese are said to have
entertained this opinion; and although it cannot be
affirmed that "the false Nuncio " was a creature of
Charles and the Jesuits, it is certain that he was so
considered. The indulgence, nay, the honour, that
was afterwards extended to him by Philip II.,
strengthens the probability that the common report
was true.
The partition of Portugal into inquisitorial districts
very soon took place. The Tribunal of Evora was
erected by De Silva, in the year 1537; with João de
Melho, afterwards Archbishop of Evora, for its first
EARLY HISTORY IN PORTUGAL.
37
Inquisitor. In 1539 Cardinal Henry, second Inqui-
sitor-General, established that of Lisbon; to which
court he transferred De Melho, with orders to make a
beginning there also. And the same Cardinal created
a third at Coimbra, in 1541, under the administration
of two Commissary Inquisitors; Bernardo da Cruz, a
Dominician, and Affonso Gomez, a Canonist.
If we had all the correspondence that passed be-
tween the true Nuncio and King John, and the Court
of Rome, we might, perhaps, gain a clear insight into
the earlier history of the Portuguese Inquisition, and
the veil which now hides most of the proceedings
of the Inquisition and Government of Lisbon at that
time might be withdrawn. But enough is published
to show that those proceedings were atrocious.
From a Brief of Paul III. to the King (June 16th,
1545), we learn that Simon de Vega, His Majesty's
ambassador, had taken a letter to Rome five months
before, advocating the cause of the Inquisition in
Portugal, and complaining at great length, and in no
very respectful terms, of a former Brief, wherein the
Pope had forbidden that neophytes (otherwise called
New Christians), then imprisoned, should be subjected
to any further trial or punishment, until Giovanni
Ricci, Bishop-elect of Sipento, had further informed
him concerning some of them. The Pontiff wondered
that the King, with an air of bitterness very unbecom-
ing in a Christian, had demanded permission to inflict
vengeance on the Jews, and full severity on heretics.
Then he proceeded to tell him that he had received
many and sore complaints of the conduct of the Inqui-
sitors, who were accused of having burnt many persons
unjustly, and of having kept very many more in cus-
tody in order to burn them also unjustly. He had
therefore commanded judgment to be suspended, and
a report of the doings of those ministers of the Holy
Office to be transmitted to himself, that he might see
whether they had been just or unjust.
The truth is that pontifical authority was resisted by
38
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
the Inquisition. For when Pope Paul III. confirmed
the appointment of Fr. Diogo de Silva, he did so
under a compromise with the agent of the New Chris-
tians in Rome, who obtained, by purchase as usual,
an order for the release of his brethren then in the
prisons of the new Inquisition in Lisbon. But those
Inquisitors, headed by the King, refused to open the
prisons; while the Nuncio, resolved to maintain the
dignity of the Pope, caused the proclamation of pardon
to be affixed to the church-doors, and himself went to
the prisons, saw them opened, and released one thou-
sand and eight hundred persons from durance, and
many of them, no doubt, from death. On the other
hand, the King persisted in hostility to the Pope, and
placed his forces at the service of the Inquisitors, who
furiously renewed the persecution. At the same time,
Duarte da Paz, a Knight of St. John, agent of the
persecuted people, was actively engaged at Rome in
moving the court to enforce the favourable orders his
clients had purchased. At length, Papal authority
overcame the fury of John III. Paul commanded the
Cardinal Henry of Portugal, head of the Inquisition,
both as chief Inquisitor, and by virtue of his dignity
as legate, to exhort the King his "brother" to abstain
from unchristian severity. And to his "son," the
King, the Pope sent another Brief, exhorting him to
be careful that while the Inquisition was free, it should
also be moderate; to remember that those neophytes
were as yet but babes in Christianity, and that both
nature and Holy Scripture teach us to treat babes with
soft words rather than threatenings.
We may conjecture yet another reason for such
rare gentleness. Paul III., be it remembered, was an
earnest patron of the Jesuits in the infancy of their
Society. It was he who issued Letters Apostolic to
sanction the "Spiritual Exercises" of Ignatius Loyola.
The policy of Ignatius and his followers was to con-
vert heretics rather than kill them, and it can hardly
be conceived possible that the same Pope would equally
EARLY HISTORY IN PORTUGAL.
39
approve of two such contrary methods for the suppres-
sion of Protestantism. Yet it was equally the object of
Ignatius and of Dominic to get rid, by the easiest
method, of all seceders from the Church of Rome.
Thus policy was invoked, more than humanity, and
the policy of gentleness was manifestly the safer. At
this time the Council of Trent was sitting, and Pro-
testantism was formidable. Protestant Princes, in
conjunction with the Emperor of Germany, were
urging the Pope to make some concession to the fair
demands of the Reformers.
Orlandini tells a story of the Prince Cardinal
Henry, Inquisitor-General of Portugal, having a monk
questioned who, they said, had seen evil spirits.*
The man was accustomed to shut himself up in a
darkened room, and see visions, by an illusion that
would easily befall persons accustomed so to retire for
spiritual exercises, according to the direction given in
a famous little book by Ignatius Loyola, who was then
expecting it to be issued for use under pontifical au-
thority. The chief part of those exercises consists in
meditations on the History of our Lord Jesus Christ,
on Heaven, and on Hell, and on Purgatory, until the
persons and scenes came up in imagination with most
exact, yet grotesque particularity of form, feature,
action, and even voice; the fragrance of Paradise,
or the stench arising from Hell's dark gulfs. This
folly was highly commended by Pope Paul III., yet
persons who professed themselves clever in seeing
visions were very reasonably suspected of proficiency
in the Black Art. The young Propaganda was, in
this respect, in antagonism with the Inquisition.
For Lutheran heretics, since no one had been com-
missioned to purchase Briefs, as for the Judaizers, they
were left to be burned, unpitied. Doubtless the Pope
would allow their condemnation to be just. A deep
shade of obscurity covers the story of those victims.
We find it everywhere stated, indeed, that public exe-
* ORLAND. Hist. Soc. Jesús, Pars prima, lib. v. 54.
40
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
cutions were no less frequent in Portugal than in Spain,
but we do not find authentic materials for a consecu-
tive sketch; and must therefore be content to mark
but few instances, and can only give a comparatively
brief notice of the Inquisition in Portugal.
William Gardiner, a native of Bristol, was a man
"honestly brought up, and by nature given unto
gravity; of a mean stature of body, of a comely and
pleasant countenance, but in no part so excellent as
in the inward qualities of the mind, which he always,
from his childhood, preserved without spot of repre-
hension." Having been respectably educated, he
entered into the service of a merchant who had con-
nexions both in Spain and Portugal; and, when about
twenty-six years of age, was sent to Spain for the
transaction of business, but, putting into Lisbon, was
there detained for some time. His rapid acquisition
of the language, and acquaintance with the com-
mercial relations of his employer, led to his establish-
ment in that port. In those days Englishmen were
earnest Protestants, and some such were then in
Lisbon, "good and honest men." In their society,
with help of good books, and by the blessing of God,
he became increasingly earnest in the cultivation of
personal religion. On the first day of September,
1552, a son of the King of Portugal was married to a
Spanish princess; the wedding was solemnised with
great pomp in the cathedral; the King first, and then
every estate in order, flocked into the church; mass
was celebrated with the utmost ceremony, and "the
Cardinal did execute." The young Englishman, who
had hitherto kept aloof from Romish worship, had
gone with the multitude to see the wedding, rather
than the mass, which now he saw in perfection. The
Cardinal stood, elevating the host; the people, "with
great devotion and silence, praying, looking, kneeling,
and knocking." Gardiner felt the horror that seizes
on a Christian mind in such a situation, and went
home sad. He did not tell the cause of his heaviness
EARLY HISTORY IN PORTUGAL.
41
to any one; but, "seeking solitariness and secret
places, falling down prostrate before God, with mani-
fold tales he bewailed the neglecting of his duty,
deliberating with himself how he might revoke that
people from their impiety and superstition." But he
came to a determination that could not be executed
without putting his life in peril; and, not shrinking
from the sacrifice, he deliberately settled all his tem-
poral affairs, paying his debts, and leaving his accounts
balanced, and then continued night and day in prayer
and meditation in Holy Scripture.
In course of the nuptial festivities another mass
was to be performed, the King and the royal family
being present, and the Cardinal officiating. William
Gardiner was there "early in the morning, very
cleanly appareled, even of purpose, that he might
stand near the altar without repulse." The King
and his train came, the crowd filled the church, and
Gardiner, as if carried nearer by the press, took a
seat almost close to the altar, having a Testament
in his hand, which he read, heedless of the scene.
Mass began. But he sat still. "He which said mass
proceeded: he consecrated, sacrificed, lifted up on
high, showed his god unto the people. All the people
gave great reverence; and, as yet, he stirred nothing.
At last they came unto that place of the mass where
they use to take the ceremonial host, and toss it to
and fro round about the chalice, making certain circles
and semicircles.* Then the said William Gardiner,
not being able to suffer any longer, ran speedily unto
the Cardinal, and, even in presence of the King, and
all his nobles and citizens, with the one hand he
snatched away the cake from the priest, and trod it
under his feet, and with the other overthrew the
chalice."
They were all astounded; but, after the profound
silence of a moment, a great cry arose from all the
congregation; nobles and common people ran together
* In what is called "the lesser elevation."
42
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
to seize him, and one of the latter wounded him in the
shoulder with a dagger. But the King commanded
him to be saved, and reserved for examination. The
tumult having subsided, he was brought before his
Majesty, who asked him what countryman he was,
and how he dared to commit such an act, in his pres-
ence, against the sacraments of the Church. He
answered, "Most noble King, I am not ashamed of
my country, who am an Englishman, both by birth
and religion, and am come hither only for traffic of
merchandise. And when I saw, in this famous as-
sembly, so great idolatry committed, my conscience
neither ought nor could any longer suffer, but that I
must needs do that which you have seen me presently
do. Which thing, most noble Prince, was not done.
nor thought of by me for any contumely or reproach
of your presence, but only for this purpose, as before
God I do clearly confess, to seek only the salvation of
this people."
Supposing that he had been instigated by others,
Edward VI. being then on the throne of England,
and anxious to obtain information, they put him into
the care of surgeons, and, when his wound was
nearly healed, subjected him to the usual process of
examination. He persisted in declaring that they
only who committed such gross idolatry were the cause
of his action. They took possession of his papers, but
could learn nothing. They imprisoned all the English
that were then in Lisbon, but could not find any accom-
plice or adviser. They questioned him as to religion;
and so far was he from attempting to evade their inqui-
sition, that he disputed fearlessly with the theologians,
using Latin, which, for such a subject, was more
familiar to him than Portuguese. Then they adminis-
tered various kinds of torture; and, among others,
forced a ball down his throat, and drew it up again
with such violence, and so often repeated, that death
would have been more tolerable. After the tormentors
had wearied themselves in vain, and he still declared
EARLY HISTORY IN PORTUGAL.
43
that he would do the same again, were it possible, to
testify against their idolatrous perversion of a holy
sacrament, they brought him to the vestry of the
cathedral, and chopped off his right hand, which he
took up with his left, and kissed. Then they took
him to the market-place, cut off his left hand, and
mounted him on an ass. From the market-place
they carried him thus to the river-side, hoisted him up
over a pile of wood, which was set on fire; and, by a
rope and pulley, they alternately let him down into it,
and pulled him up, that the populace might enjoy the
sight of his half-roasted body. "In this great tor-
ment, for all that, he continued with a constant spirit;
and, the more terribly he burned, the more vehemently
he prayed." All this time they were exhorting him
to repent, and pray to the Virgin; but he preached
to them in return, entreating them to leave off such
vanity and folly. "When Christ," said he, "ceases.
to be your Advocate, then will I pray the Virgin Mary
to be mine." Life was ebbing out, and with his last
breath he prayed, "Judica me, Deus, et discerne
causam meam de genti non sanctâ:
"Judge me,
O God, and defend my cause against an ungodly
people." He was endeavouring to recite the psalm,
when they drew him up and down with violence, the
burning rope broke, and he fell into the pile, and was
heard no more.
""
One Pendigrace, his fellow-lodger, was kept in the
Inquisition for two years, and frequently tortured;
but he said nothing that could enable the Inquisitors
to proceed against any of his countrymen, and, after
his release, returned to England. From a narrative
written by Pendigrace, and confirmed by the testi-
mony of other Englishmen, Foxe, our great martyro-
logist, derived the information, as we find it in his
66 Acts and Monuments."
Scotland was honourably represented at Coimbra.
The learned George Buchanan was first Professor of
Greek and Latin in the university recently established
44
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
in that city. He had fled from Scotland as one sus-
pected of Lutheranism, and again incurred suspicion.
We take his own account of the matter, as it is written
with remarkable moderation. He says that they
insulted him most bitterly, stranger as he was, one
who certainly had not many there to rejoice in his
safety, or sympathize with him in suffering, or to
avenge his wrongs. A composition in verse that he
had written in Scotland against the Franciscans, but
for which the King of Portugal had excused him
before he left France to teach in Coimbra, was
brought against him. Yet the accusers knew not
what it was; for he had only given one copy to the
King of Scotland, at whose desire he wrote it. They
made it a crime that he ate flesh in Lent, although it
was said that there was no one in Portugal who did
not do the like. Some things that he said were cap-
able of application to the monks, but those were
sayings that none but monks would consider criminal;
and they were alleged against him. They were angry
that in a familiar conversation with some young Portu-
guese, when speaking of the eucharist, he had said
that he regarded Augustine as very favourable to a
view condemned by the Church of Rome. These
charges they had extracted as evidence from three
prisoners in the Inquisition, whose names he never
knew. Other two, Jean Tolpin, a Norman, and
Giovanni Ferreri, a Piedmontese, bore witness that
they had heard many trustworthy persons aver that
Buchanan thought ill of the Roman religion.
And to be brief: after the Inquisitors had troubled
themselves and him for a year and a half, that they
might not be thought to have vexed a man not al-
together unknown without some reason, they shut him
up in a monastery for some months, that the monks
might teach him more exactly. Now it does not seem
that those monks were either unkind or bad, except
as they were utterly ignorant of all religion, and so
little troubled was he, that it was chiefly at this
EARLY HISTORY IN PORTUGAL.
45
time that he reduced to verse several of the Psalms of
David.* Buchanan, therefore, was not the worse, nor
was the world the poorer, for this persecution, which
tended to concentrate his attention on the ever-
blessed word of God, and to make the fruit of those
studies public. He was released about the year 1550
or 1551, and lost little time in getting well out of
Portugal.
In 1560, Mark Burges, another Englishman, master
of the ship "Minion" was burnt in Lisbon. In the
same year, the Inquisition of Goa was added to the
four; namely, those of Portugal, Lisbon, Evora, and
Coimbra. But of Goa we shall speak separately in
due course.
The Inquisitors burnt Protestants at every oppor-
tunity; but their business was chiefly with the
descendants of Jews, who remained separate from the
original Portuguese, and were still called New Chris-
tians. Nor was any occasion missed, either in Rome
or Lisbon, for making gain of those unhappy people
by keeping them alive, so long as bigotry was not
stronger than cupidity. Thus, in 1579, Sebastian
having been beaten by the Moors in a luckless expe-
dition to Africa, they obtained a Bull from Gregory
XIII. to exempt them for ten years from confiscation
of their property by Inquisitors, in consideration of a
sum equal to £250,000 which they had contributed
for its outfit. Philip II. of Spain strongly objected to
this act of bare justice; and when Cardinal Henry,
the same man whom Pope Paul III. had been induced
to employ for the protection of that very people, suc-
ceeded his nephew Sebastian as king, either forgetting
the Pontiff's earlier lessons, or remembering that
Papal charity is but venal, he obtained consent of the
same Pope to annul the so-called indulgence three
months after its publication. Learned men on other
occasions set their faces against similar compacts with
rich heretics, who were fleeced in Portugal as relent-
* Georgii Buchanani Vita ab ipso scripta biennio ante Mortem.
BUCHAN. Opera, tom. i.
46
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
lessly as now are the Jews in Morocco, and murdered
afterwards.
Clement VIII. (August 23rd, 1604) issued a Bull of
nominal indulgence, reciting similar documents of
Clement VII. and Paul III.: but this one only aggra-
vated the wretchedness of their condition by the
restrictions with which it was loaded; and De Sousa
acknowledges that its intention was, not to relieve the
complainants, but, new circumstances having arisen,
so to alter the inquisitorial regulations as to provide a
new remedy for heresy. In fact, it was a pardon for
past offences under certain conditions; but, after the
publication of that pardon, a system of inquisition was
to follow, far less easy of escape than any that had
preceded. From that time amnesties with spiritual
offenders were not repeated, because, as the Portuguese
theologians contended, all the tenderness ever spent
on heretics had been spent in vain. This was no
doubt sincerely said, although it reads like the irony
of an enemy; and we may understand it as a con-
fession that the Reformation had taken so deep root.
that the Inquisition could not extirpate it.
66
Now, after the lapse of more than two centuries, we
wonder at the mockery of a sermon delivered at an
Acto-de-Fé, in Evora (A.D. 1637), by a commissary of
the Holy Office, and Prior of the Dominicans. My
well beloved Portuguese," cried the monk, "let us
render our heartiest thanksgivings to heaven for the
signal favour that has been shown us in this holy
tribunal. If we had not had this, our kingdom would
have become a bush without flowers, and without
fruit, fit only to be burnt . . . Let us just look on
England, France, Germany, and the Low Countries,
and see what progress heresy has made through lack
of an Inquisition. There can be no difficulty in un-
derstanding that we should have been like those
places, had we been deprived of so great a benefit.” *
Yet, as the ecclesiastics themselves confess, the Inqui-
*Sermon do Padre Fr. Antonio Continho, impresso em Lisboa,
1638.
EARLY HISTORY IN PORTUGAL.
47
sition has not been able to keep the Gospel out of
Portugal. The copy of an address presented on
behalf of "a few true Portuguese" to the Patriarch
of Lisbon, a few years ago, now lies before me, wherein
I read that they deplored the misery of their " poor
and unhappy nation, great when it was not governed
by strangers," but where now, as they are pleased to
say, "the ministers of hell do labour, without ceasing,
to pull down the Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion
to the ground."*
England and Germany have done well enough
without the horrible Tribunal. France would have
done much better without persecuting the Reformed.
As for the Low Countries, the Inquisition did no
better there than to awaken the horror and indignation
of the inhabitants, and provoke a sweeping revolution.
But it caused the overthrow of a cruelly despotic
monarchy, armed an indignant nation against the
See of Rome, prepared an asylum for the persecuted
of other lands, founded an emporium of enterprising
commerce, and created a centre of religious, moral,
and intellectual influences, for which mankind are at
this day more deeply indebted to the overruling pro-
vidence of God than many of us are able to conceive.
* A Nação. Lisboa, 6 de Março, 1868.
48
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXVI.
PORTUGAL.
THE JESUIT VIEYRA AND OTHERS.
ANTONIO VIEYRA, a Jesuit missioner in South America,
returned to Portugal in the year 1661; and, on the
authority of a summary published by the Inquisitors,
describes the sufferings of some victims in an Acto
held at Evora in the year preceding.
Maria da Conceição, born in the town of Estramoz,
daughter of Manoel Soares Pereira. Manoel was still
living in Lisbon, with a son; and so both father and
brother could assist the missioner to understand her
case. She was apprehended, together with two of
her sisters, all three being unmarried, on suspicion of
Judaism. She made an abjuration in due form, but
that was not enough to satisfy the Inquisitors, and
their interrogations did not elicit anything in reply
whereon to found a sentence. They therefore ordered
her to be stripped, and, with no other covering than
the usual coarse canvas drawers, she was laid on the
rack. For some time she endured the torture, and by
silence nearly overcame the tormentors, when, unable
to resist any longer, she confessed to the whole charge.
Satisfied for the time, they slackened the cords, took
her off the rack, put on her clothes, carried her back
to the cell, and, as soon as she had recovered the use
of her limbs, brought her into court again, to ratify
her confession. But, instead of doing this, she told
their lordships that everything she had said while
under the executioners' hands was entirely false, and
that she was a sincere Christian, and always had been ;
but that a false confession to the contrary had been
wrung from her in the extremity of torture.
THE JESUIT VIEYRA, AND OTHERS.
49
On hearing this they ordered her to be racked a
second time; and the torture being applied as cruelly as
before, she sank again under its violence, and repeated
the same confession, which was taken down in writing
while her limbs were yet stretched. This done, she
was lifted off, and carried to her cell. As soon as
she could be removed, she was brought again to her
judges, who bade her confirm the first and second
confessions. She still persisted in the same answer;
and had now the courage to add that, if they were to
rack her a hundred times, she would always act in the
same manner until she expired, or, at least, so long as
God should give her strength to support the torments.
Their cruel treatment, she said, and her own frailty,
might possibly force her again to confess that of which
she was perfectly innocent, yet, the moment she was
taken off the rack, she would refuse to ratify what had
been thus extorted from her. She further entreated
them to take her case into serious consideration, and
to undeceive themselves; and, in the most pathetic
terms, assured them that this was her final resolution,
and that all the torments in the world would not make
her alter it. The unrelenting Inquisitors were so pro-
voked by what she said, that they instantly ordered
her to be racked a third time; and, as the summary
itself declares, she underwent all this torture with
amazing constancy.
For refusing to ratify extorted confessions, after
having thrice borne the torture, which was as often
as the rule of the Inquisition allowed, she was con-
demned to be whipped through the streets of Lisbon
by the common hangman, and then to be banished
for ten years, to the island of Principe, on the western
coast of Africa.
It would be too tedious to relate many circum-
stances of wanton and capricious tyranny that attended
the arrest and imprisonment of those three sisters,
against whom there were very trifling accusations, if
any; and neither Inquisitors nor familiars so much as
V OL. II.
E
50
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
knew their names.* One might wonder that the
Inquisitors should have read out the story at the
Acto, and printed it afterwards; but their power was
at that time uncontrolled; and it pleased them to
spread terror through the land by such recitals, for
the exaltation of their office, and for the maintenance
of their sanguinary faith.
We now come to some of the most noteworthy
passages in the history of this Inquisition; and first,
concerning this same Jesuit, Vieyra.
His boyhood was spent in Bahia, and the rudiments
of his education were acquired in the Jesuit school of
that city. His father never intended him to join such
an ill-reputed company, but its members make it a
virtue to decoy promising youths from their homes,
and to alienate their affections from their parents.
So did the heads of that establishment, and Antonio,
when but a child, became their prey. When about
thirty-three years of age, he appeared on the theatre
of Jesuit activity in Lisbon. King John IV. made
him a preacher in the chapel-royal; and, finding that
he had talent for negotiation as well as for preaching,
employed him on political missions in England,
Holland, and France, and finally, in Rome. At Rome
he was induced to devote himself to the romance of
mission service, according to the spirit and obligation
of his order, and returned to South America, where
he continued until the Portuguese in Brazil, being
weary of Jesuit missioners, put him and his colleagues
on board ship, and sent them back again. Having
reached Lisbon, he went straightway to Court, resumed
his political vocation, attached himself to the cause of
the licentious Queen, and took an acting part in pro-
moting the deposition of her miserable spouse, Affonso.
Passing over matters that have no relation to our
*From a collection of Letters entitled Authentic Memoirs concern-
ing the Portuguese Inquisition," etc. London, 1761. Letter IV.
The account of Maria da Conceição is said to be translated from an
account written in Portuguese by Antonio Vieyra.
THE JESUIT VIEYRA, AND OTHERS.
51
present history, we find him driven from Lisbon, and
under disgrace at Coimbra, in the year 1663.
There his political and ecclesiastical enemies be-
thought themselves of heresies that he had striven to
propagate with characteristic energy; and after hearing
him deliver many sermons, having accumulated from
his own lips much material for evidence against him,
they consigned him to a dungeon in the Inquisition
of Coimbra, on the second day of October, 1665, and
kept him there until December 24th, 1667. During that
time he underwent repeated examinations; and the
official record of his case, as published by the Inqui-
sitors, and republished by their friends under royal
authority, furnishes the picture of a heretic of a pecu-
liar class. From a very copious and authentic record,
we note as follows.
Vieyra was a sort of millenarian. He had written a
paper on "The Hopes of Portugal, Fifth Empire
of the World," having for its object to prove that
one Bandarra, a shoemaker, was a true prophet.
He quoted certain predictions of the said Bandarra,
to the purport that about a hundred years before
the universal resurrection, a certain dead King of
Portugal would rise from his grave, become a great
conqueror, and be Emperor of the world.
General Council of the Inquisition of Portugal, and
the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition
at Rome, each sat in very solemn consultation over
this silly paper. They extracted and condemned a
multitude of propositions, and among others these
following:-
The
"1. That a dead King would rise again to reign
over a fifth empire.
"2. That, to make way for the fifth empire, the
Roman empire would be extinguished.
"3. That this might be expected on the credit of
Bandarra.
* Deducção Chronologica, e Analytica.
Joseph de Seabra da Sylva. Lisboa, 1767.
Dada á luz pelo Doutor
PROVA Num. xlv.
52
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
"4. That the said deceased King had promised,
before his death, that he would come again to fulfil
the prophecy of Bandarra.
66
5. That the shoemaker's predictions were in-
fallible.
"6. That such a resurrection is to be expected with
the certainty of a faith as strong as would have been
the faith of Abraham for the resurrection of Isaac from
his ashes.
66
7. That the resurrection of that King would
prove the mission of that prophet.
"8. That under his reign all the Jews and all the
Gentiles would be converted.
9. That the ten tribes of Israel would be assem-
bled, and, by the said King, would be presented to
the Pope.
"10. That, after this event, Satan would be bound
a thousand years.
"11. That the world would live in innocence, with-
out war, and without trouble, until the loosing of
Satan, the coming of Antichrist, and the day of judg
ment.
He
The author was brought to the table of the Inquisi-
tion, and interrogated after the usual manner.
acknowledged the millenarian paper to be his. He
confessed that he had said, in the hearing of several
persons, that "in order that it might be known in
that kingdom who among the New Christians, bap-
tized out of the Jewish nation, were or were not true
Catholics, and who were still Jews, a town or towns
might be granted them, whither they might proceed,
and where they should have liberty of conscience.
He said that they being there assembled, a resolution
should be taken whether it would be better to expel
from the kingdom such as were not Jews, or to keep
them in it." He owned the proposal; but declared
that it was ventured with submission to conscience,
and subject to the rejection or approval of the Apos-
tolic See. He acknowledged that in some sermons he
THE JESUIT VIEYRA, AND OTHERS.
53
had spoken in a prophetic style, predicting both
calamities and blessings to Portugal.
In due time he was brought up again from the
dungeon into the presence of the Inquisitors, and told
that the Inquisition of Portugal and the Supreme
Tribunal at Rome agreed together in condemning his
propositions as "foolish, rash, scandalous, injurious,
sacrilegious, offensive to pious ears, erroneous, and
savouring of heresy." Then they recounted the cen-
surable sentences, one by one; and the heretic, instead
of submitting without reserve, prayed permission to
explain himself. He was permitted accordingly, and
explained at length. This indulgence, conceded to
him as a rather eminent member of the Society which
until recently had been all-powerful in Portugal, he
made use of to plead that his opinions harmonized
with those of the Church of Rome.
One thing, however, it is said, exposed him to the
ire of his judges beyond almost any heretical dogma
he could have uttered. It is reported that he said,
in the words of Alonso de Castro,* "Cease to make
inquest after heresies. They had better all come out
to open day, that they who so readily pronounce
against heresy may see how easy it is to be in error."
He rebuked the haste of some daring censors, who,
panting to speak ill of the doctrine of others, them-
selves maintained error and falsehood; and bitterly
complained that his judges had used force and violence,
denying him the natural right of making a defence,
insisting that he should only give them his confession,
endeavouring to detect his hidden thoughts, and set-
ting down against him answers he had not made.
Their only reply to this remonstrance was a rebuke
that, in the hearing of some persons, he had said that
it would be well for the kingdom if the names of
* I cannot believe that De Castro ever said anything like this.
It is possible, of course; but I have not found anything in his
book tending in the like direction. Vieyra might himself have so
spoken.
54
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
informers and witnesses at that Board were published
for the information of New Christians when accused
of Judaism, and proceeded against in consequence.
And he had also advised the admission of Jews to
public offices, and proposed that they should never be
troubled on account of religion, provided they said
nothing against it.
"And the process having reached this point, at
which the obstinacy of the criminal in his erroneous
and dangerous opinions was leading him blindfold
towards a miserable precipice; in order that he might
have certain knowledge in this inquisition that the
first nine propositions, taken from the said paper of the
Fifth Empire of the World, on which all the others
depended, and from which they were derived by the
criminal, were not only censured, as already stated, by
the most grave examiners of the Sacred Congregation of
the Holy Office at Rome, but that also, being seen, after
their censure, by the Holiness of Pope Alexander VII.,
he expressly approved that censure, and commanded
notice of this to be given by the said Congregation to
the General Council of the Holy Office of this king-
dom, and the papers to be so condemned, and the in-
ventions of Bandarra to be so prohibited as here, in
effect, they are."
This condemnation was made known to Vieyra at
the table of the Holy Office. A hundred and four
propositions, extracted from his paper on the Fifth
Empire, were read; and he made, or was said to have
made, an unqualified retractation of them all, "sub-
mitting himself to that which was decided by His
Holiness, (having been previously censured by the
ministers of the Holy Office,) as became an obedient
son of the Holy Catholic Roman Church."
The guardians of the faith commanded that the
culprit should hear his sentence in the hall of the
Inquisition, in the accustomed form, before the In-
quisitors and other ministers of the same, with some
monks and priests belonging to the University; and
THE JESUIT VIEYRA, AND OTHERS.
55
be "deprived for ever of active or passive voice,
forbidden to preach, and confined in that college or
house of his own religion which the Holy Office may
assign to him, and never go out of it without their
order: that, for the term by them appointed, he be
obliged to abstain from treating on those propositions
of which he was convicted, either by word or writing,
on pain of being punished severely: and that, after
the sentence is thus published, it be published again
in the college of this city," (Coimbra,)" by one of the
notaries of the Holy Office in presence of all the
community and they shall relieve him from the
greater condemnation that for his faults he merited,
having respect, &c.; and he must pay the costs."
This sentence was recited to the culprit in the
hall of the Inquisition, on Friday evening, December
23rd, 1667, two hours and a quarter being spent in
reading it; and on the Saturday morning following it
was published in his college, whence he was taken to
the Jesuit-house at Pedroso, which was assigned to
him for the place of his confinement; but which,
before his leaving, was changed by the General Coun-
cil for the house of the Cotovia in Lisbon; and, being
in that house, he was released and pardoned by the
same Council, at the end of the month of June, 1668.
In August, 1669, he left the Court of Lisbon for that
of Rome, with licence from the King, and at the sum-
mons of the General of his Order, who wished to do
him honour, and was eager to retaliate on the indig-
nity done to the whole Company in the person of one
of its most eminent members. An opportunity for
retaliation soon occurred.
Only a few days before the publication of the sen-
tence on Vieyra, another Jesuit, Nuno da Cunha, had
been summoned by the Queen-Mother to a private
conference, to concert a measure for the deposition of
the King, Affonso VI. It matters not to inquire
whether that young King deserved such treatment,
or to know the character of his mother, Donha Luisa
56
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
or of his wife, who retired to a convent, was divorced
from him, and married his successor on the throne
of Portugal. It is enough to note that the Jesuits
managed this affair; and that in the reign of Dom
Pedro IV., whom they patronised, the Inquisition
lost just what the Society gained. During the re-
gency of Dom Pedro, Vieyra was released from Lisbon,
and went to Rome, there to assist in carrying on an
attack on that Tribunal. Thanks, then, to Jesuit
influence, that Vieyra was not racked and burnt, just
like any worthless plebeian too insignificant to be
known by name and surname, or like one of the Jews.
In the year 1672 a general attack was made on all
the New Christians in Lisbon, in consequence of the
loss-or, perhaps, the secret removal by some priest-
of a few forms, or wafers, from one of the churches.
There was no one on whom suspicion could be fixed;
but the Inquisitors, if they had not contrived the
occasion, resolved to profit by it, seized many hundred
persons who had the misfortune to be of Jewish des-
cent, drew on them a flood of popular outrage, and
subjected them to the dreadful ordeal of torture. Their
sufferings, for once, excited pity; and some Portuguese
noblemen, bishops, monks, and doctors, went in a
body to the King, and begged him to put an end to
these atrocities. His Majesty did not dare to open
the dungeons, take out the innocent sufferers, and
incarcerate the guilty Inquisitors in their stead; but
he did presume to refer the matter to the Court of
Rome. Before an answer could be had, the thief was
detected, not a New Christian, but an old one; and
therefore the injured persons ought, in common hon-
esty, to have been released, and compensated, so far
as compensation could be made; but the Inquisitors
thought that such an act would be beneath their dig-
nity, and therefore kept the unoffending prisoners in
durance, in order to question them further, in the
presumption that they must have had some communi-
cation with the criminal.
THE JESUIT VIEYRA, AND OTHERS.
57
The appeal to Rome was prosecuted; and Pope
Clement X., that he might judge of their manner of
conducting trials, commanded the chiefs of the Holy
Office to send the records of four. They refused.
The Pope insisted. No reports were forthcoming.
The Pope threatened them with excommunication.
They began to fear; and, not able to send the reports
of four causes, not having so many on record, they
managed to send two. The King, sharing in the
indignation of the complainants, prosecuted his appli-
cation to the Court of Rome for a reform in the rules
and administration of the Inquisition, but gained
nothing. After his death, the Inquisitors had the
audacity to go to his widow, Donha Luisa, then, by
the law of Portugal, Queen-Regnant, take her to the
grave of her late consort, exhume his body, and treat
it with brutal insult in her presence. No doubt there
was a mingling of political passion with inquisitorial
barbarism in this instance, but that only made their
conduct the more abominable.
In the year 1690 a deputation from the New
Christians of Portugal appeared in Rome, and threw
themselves at the feet of Alexander VIII., imploring
pity on five hundred prisoners, of all ranks and ages,
then in the dungeons, who had been arrested without
respect of sex or condition, and had lain there, some
fourteen years, some twelve, and none less than seven.
On reviewing the affairs of this Inquisition, we find
few traces of true Gospel Christianity among its vic-
tims. Darkness and the shadow of death covered the
land; and the hired guardians of the faith having few
objects of persecution on account of religion, kept
their places by making other victims. Cupidity, per-
haps, more than bigotry, led them to the New Chris-
tians; and the prevalence of magic and witchcraft
afforded them constant occupation. A superstitious
dread of innovation enabled them to enlarge the cir-
cle of their operations; and I borrow an amusing
anecdote to diversify for a moment this dismal page.
58
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Just thirty years after an Italian Jesuit, Francesco
Lana Terzi, had published the first hint for aerostation,
in his "Prodromo di alcune Invenzioni nuove," another
member of the Society, Bartolomeo Gusmão, arrived
at Lisbon from a mission in Brazil. Once, when
in that country, his attention was caught by some
extremely light vegetable substance, spherical and
hollow, that was floating like a bubble in the air. He
tried to imitate nature, and succeeded in inflating
bags of thin paper with hot air, or some kind of gas,
and sending them up towards the sky. At length he
constructed a real balloon, and conceived the idea of
ascending with it to the clouds. Full of this project was
he when he set foot on shore at Lisbon. His balloon
went up without him, as if to pilot for a daring flight;
and Lisbon gazed upwards, as with the eye of one
man. The clergy shuddered at this trespass on a
region hitherto inaccessible to mankind; but when they
heard that Gusmão himself proposed to mount bodily
with it, or with one like it, they thought it high time
to interfere, and the innovator was brought into their
presence. They demurred at the safety of such an
ascent, as well they might; and the inventor, not
fathoming the depth of their abhorrence, assured them
that there would be no danger whatever, nor any
difficulty either, and that he would engage to carry
away into the winds the Grand Inquisitor himself, and
all the members of the Inquisition. The irreverent
proposal confirmed their Lordships in the persuasion
by this time prevalent in Lisbon, that Gusmão was
possessed by the devil; and, instead of consenting to
be carried up into empty space, they sent him down
into a dark cell, and put an end, at least for the time,
to any chance of his attempting such excursions. In
vain did he labour to assure them that the balloon, or
whatever else he might have called the vehicle, was
not framed in contempt of any religious doctrine, or
in violation of any law of the Church. Their sentence
was resistless; and he was sent into his dungeon,
THE JESUIT VIEYRA, AND OTHERS.
59
there to meditate on the uncertainties of science.
The Jesuits, however, used their best influence, and
obtained the release of their too venturous brother,
who prudently retired over the frontier into Spain.
This happened in the year 1700; and in 1724 this
pioneer of aeronauts died, not having again ventured
to propose an ascent into the realm of air.*
* Histoire Religieuse, Politique et Littéraire, de la Compagnie de
Jesus, par J. CRÉTINEAU JOLY. Tome iv., chap. 240.
-
60
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXVII.
PORTUGAL.
VAIN HOPE OF REFORMATION.
THE Jesuit Balthasar da Costa, Provincial of Malabar,
a Jew by blood, and probably a Jew in principle, was
at that time resident in the College of Santo Antão, in
Lisbon. Touched with sympathy and horror, he
resolved to espouse the cause of his brethren, and
presented an address, with that intent, to Manoel
Fernandes, confessor of Pedro, who was then Regent
of the kingdom. As representative of "the Nation,
as the baptised Jews were called, he bade the Father
Confessor peace in Christ, and proceeded to make a
proposal in their behalf.
The conquests of Portugal in India were melting
away for want of sufficient forces to retain them. The
Provincial of Malabar therefore proposed that three
thousand men should be raised, and embarked as
quickly as possible; that ships of war should be built in
India, where materials and labour were much cheaper
than in Portugal; that the army should be increased by
constant additions, and the fleet manned as fast as it
could be constructed. But, seeing the exhausted state
of the Indian revenue, his reverence the Confessor
might reasonably ask where money could be found
for the creation of a new army and new navy beyond
the seas, and the maintenance of such forces for time
to come. "Your reverence asks how? I answer :
By one means which is not contrary to any law,
Divine or human, but may be considered very agree-
able to both, as much resembling one of the highest
attributes of God-as we men speak-which is that of
VAIN HOPE OF REFORMATION.
61
mercy, that attribute which shines forth so brightly
in forgiving sinners; and since God has pardoned,
thousands of times, those on whom I think this attri-
bute should now be exercised, princes ought to imitate
the same. Let me explain myself. What man of
sound understanding would think it strange if His
Highness were to give a general pardon to all his
people of the Hebrew nation ?" The Provincial
presses this proposal with great earnestness and force
of argument, and asks what would follow that exercise
of royal clemency. "A very rich donative would
follow; a revival of commerce, and a great accession
of martial power and influence would follow, with
recovery of dominion in India. Religion itself would
be benefited; for those forces could fight against the
enemies of Christ, and, by killing the Indians, would
extend the kingdom of the Saviour." Such were this
Jew-Jesuit's notions of slaughtering pagans and
Nestorians for the greater glory of God.
66
But would not "the people of the Nation" abuse a
general pardon by relapsing into Judaism again?
And then would not old mischiefs be repeated?
Would not these people, smitten with dread again,
flee from Portugal by thousands, carrying their wealth
into other kingdoms, defrauding the Exchequer,
spoiling the commerce of Portugal, and snapping the
very nerves of power in the kingdom? Again I
say that for this there is a remedy. When a general
pardon has been granted, the manner of proceeding
with these people in the Holy Tribunal should be
reformed by apostolical authority, proceeding with
them as they do at Rome. And who can prevent
this? Do we want to be more zealous in the faith
than the Supreme Pontiff, head of the Church, and
Vicar of Christ on earth? Does the Vicar of Christ
act against Divine, natural, or ecclesiastical right,
in allowing a defence to them that are accused,
and permitting them to see the evidence, as the laws.
of nations require? No one could say this without
rashness."
62
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
That a reform in the procedure of the Portuguese
Inquisition was needed, he showed by referring to the
last persecution at Coimbra. "Your reverence knows
very well that in order to fix upon ten persons who
may be accused, you must first of all take up twenty.
Did not your reverence see in those six hundred
and thirty-four, if I remember right, at Coimbra, how
many innocent persons were put under penance
through false witnesses, and how many were also
punished as falsifiers?" What has happened once
may be repeated often, and cannot but be repeated, if
things are done in the dark. The proposal, Da Costa
acknowledges, may alarm Fernandes, and a storm of
indignation may be raised against it by the Inquisi-
tors; but that will not matter much, if His Highness
will pursue the object vigorously at Rome: and the
object being once gained, there is a person at Rome
who will watch what goes forward in that Court,—this
is Antonio Vieyra,-and his Highness can use his own
sovereign power to see the reform of the Inquisition
carried out in Portugal.
Here was a scheme to cut up the very root of the
Inquisition. For if a Prince might issue a general
pardon to heretics or Jews, and if the temporal
power might interfere with the customs of Inquisitors,
the Holy Office might be as well shut up. Never-
theless, the scheme was entertained, and was as
follows:-
"1. It is proposed that the Inquisitors abstain from
imprisonments and executions. If these should cease,
His Highness, whom God preserve, would be better
served; but the affair must be confided to persons of
prudence, and left to the ultimate disposal of His
Highness himself.
66
2. Whatever is done must be done secretly, or
every effort will be baffled. Four persons are named
as proper to be trusted, collective deliberations of any
greater number are to be avoided, and yet every
individual of "the Nation" is to be taken into
confidence, not failing one.
VAIN HOPE OF REFORMATION.
63
"3. All the money necessary for raising the
desired number of soldiers shall be paid down in
advance, and the recruiting shall begin without loss of
time.
"4. Supplies of clothing and provisions shall be
forthcoming.
"5. His Highness shall be recommended to send a
courier to Madrid, who shall there take post to Rome,
which city he may reach in ten days, and there await
the decision of His Holiness."
From the pen of Manoel Fernandes we have a
further exposition of the project, authenticated, like
the other papers, and printed by royal order.
Confessor Fernandes sagaciously begins by declaring
that his clients desire no more than that their causes
be examined in truth, and certain inconveniences
obviated which might occur, not through any fault of
the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition, which they pro-
fess to acknowledge as very perfect in justice, and
very mild in mercy, but through confusion and want
of veracity in many people of their own nation, who
make accusations to gratify private enmity, and from
other dishonest motives. Actuated, then, by the
purest Christian motives, and admiring the mercy and
justice of Inquisitors, Fernandes merely asks that, for
this time, a general pardon be granted them for
everything, to leave them just as if, up to the present,
they had not committed any delinquency;
that all
the prisoners now in durance be released without fur-
ther penalty; and that in future accused persons be
judged at the Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition in Por-
tugal, in the same manner as the Holy Father judges
them in Rome. For the glory of God, and for the
exaltation of the faith of Jesus Christ, they offer at
once in this month of March, 1673,-
"1. To land five thousand men in India, with all
necessaries for their use, at their own cost.
The ships
in which they go, the peoples of the Nation will hire;
and as to any ships that they may hire of His High-
64
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
ness, they will cover all risk by sea, by fire, and by
pirates. For the future, they will purchase all the
ships necessary; but, at present, time is short, and
they need the ready money for the soldiers.
"2. Every year they will convey to India one
thousand two hundred men, paid here at their cost,
and the ships in which they go. They will send them
to whatever part of India may be desired.
"3. Every year they will pay in India twenty
thousand crusades towards the maintenance of the
forces, beginning with the year 1674.
"4. They will supply all the missioners to India
with provisions for their voyage, and will pay for the
letters (Bulls) of all bishops sent to India, so often as
bishops shall be wanted.
"5. They will engage to establish a Company for
India, supplying the capital in that form which may
be agreed on with His Highness, whom God pre-
serve."
That all this may take effect, they represent that
the utmost dispatch will be necessary, as there is little
time. And, meanwhile, the Inquisition should abstain
from executions and imprisonments, because impri-
sonments, within the next two months, might be very
prejudicial to the business in hand, as is evident.
Grievous must have been the suffering that extorted
so large an overture from the baptised Jews of Por-
tugal. They had ventured to the utmost verge of
possibility, if not beyond it; and when Fernandes
held a conference with the authors of the scheme, and
endeavoured to extract yet more, they met his demands
with such explanations as demonstrated that if their
lives depended on compliance, their lives must be lost,
inasmuch as they had calculated to the utmost extent
of their ability, and to produce any higher ransom
was impossible. Three months more were spent in
negotiation; and the Regent, finding that he could
not raise the terms any higher, accepted the articles
of agreement.
VAIN HOPE OF REFORMATION.
65
Yet
Then Manoel Fernandes, still keeping the secret,
drew up a letter to be sent by Dom Pedro to the Pope,
praying for his authority to suspend the action of the
Inquisition, and to reform its laws. Besides reciting
the complaints of the Hebrew nation, the latter stated
that, in one year, and in one Acto-de-Fé, no fewer
than thirty of the New Christians were brought out to
be punished for having caused persons to be put to
death by bearing false witness against them.
that false witnessing was forced by threatenings or
torture; for, when in terror of death, or bewildered
in agony, they had named persons of whom they
knew nothing, saying anything that the tormentors
wished, only to be delivered from their hands. One
Inquisitor, having some fear of God, or some feeling
of humanity, had relinquished his office in disgust, on
seeing persons crowd into his presence to accuse others,
without the slightest reason beyond the mere animaĺ
instinct of doing something to please the Holy Tribu-
nal, and thereby save their own lives, perish who might.
"Through fear of false accusations," says the letter,
"neither the good nor the bad feel themselves in safety;
and, consequently, the land loses its inhabitants, and
multitudes flee away to heretical countries, where
many of them lose their faith, and their children con-
tinue in heresy, or turn Jews again, to the irreparable
injury both of the Church and of the kingdom, which
is drained of its population and its wealth. Even
those who have not yet left the country have sent
away their capital, in order that, if they be thrown
into the Inquisition, it may not be included in the
attendant confiscation. Consequently, the kingdom
cannot follow up its conquests, especially in India,
which is now for the most part in possession of the
Dutch, who keep it by the power of a Company,
which they strengthen with money brought them by
people of the Nation.""
For this reason His Highness prays the Pope to
reform the Inquisition of Portugal, and assimilate it
VOL. II.
F
66
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
to that of Rome. He supplies His Blessedness with a
motive for so doing, and for granting a general pardon
to that people, by telling them that "they bind them-
selves for ever to defray the expenses of missioners of
the faith, and also to pay them that are made bishops
for India, and to aid with money the propagation of
the Catholic faith, which will doubtless be much ex-
tended. For which end, I lay this petition before
Your Holiness, having first taken counsel with many
learned and virtuous persons, and which I hope will
have effect, and for the highest reason do so desire."
Francisco d'Azevedo, also a Jesuit, the agent sent
to Rome at the cost of the supplicants, discharged his
duty very zealously, aided by the no less diligent
Vieyra, and communicated intelligence of his pro-
ceedings to Fernandes. Without much delay, Pope
Clement X. accepted an obviously prudent policy,
and sent a Brief to his Nuncio in Lisbon, to be used
whenever it might become necessary to restrain the
Inquisitors. But the desire of the Regent of Portugal
to hold the Inquisition in subjection to the Crown,
leaving the King to correspond directly with the Pope,
was not granted. The Nuncio, too, kept the Brief to
himself, not even informing Dom Pedro that he had
received it. On this rock of jealousy of the temporal
power, therefore, the whole project of inquisitorial
reform was wrecked.
The Inquisitors of Coimbra proceeded, as usual, to
celebrate one of their annual Actos; and, either in
haste to gratify their impatience for the spectacle, or,
which is most likely, to avoid the interference of the
Pope's Nuncio, whom they knew as representing the
mind of Rome just then favourable to the reform they
dreaded, it was determined to light the fires a week
before the time accustomed. The Inquisitor-General
of Portugal had promised the Nuncio, in general
terms, that he would abstain from celebrating Actos
for the present; but he now pretended to have under-
stood that that promise would be considered to relate
VAIN HOPE OF REFORMATION.
67
to Lisbon only, and not to the provinces. The Roman
Congregation of the Inquisition, too, had so tempered
the Pope's intention, that the Nuncio was instructed
not to interfere, so long as the Inquisitors would sus-
pend those public exhibitions, whatever they might
do in the impenetrable secrecy of the torture-chamber
and the dungeon.
But this precipitate activity at Coimbra compelled
the Nuncio to send his secretary to the Inquisitor-
General with the Brief of Inhibition, and a copy of
the same to be shown to his companions. The Inqui-
sitors of Coimbra were to be told that if they persisted
in their purpose, and held an Acto, it would be at
their own peril. They would no longer be regarded
as Inquisitors, but as private persons; and would be
obliged to make reparation of all injuries committed
on the sufferers, in honour or in life. He advised the
Inquisitor-General to send a special messenger to
Coimbra, who might arrive there at night, and have
the Acto deferred until a future day. The Brief was,
as yet, to be kept secret; but if an answer of com-
pliance did not reach the Nuncio before four o'clock
that afternoon, he would wait no longer, but then do
as he should see fit.
The Inquisitor could not resist that authority, but
he complained to the Regent. The Regent, hearing
that, after all his pains, the Nuncio was acting without
royal sanction, and putting a Brief in force in his
dominions without his knowledge, became extremely
angry; and, when the offender called at the palace
next day, refused to see him. This incident might
not have prevented the accomplishment of Da Costa's
project, for it was approved at Rome, and the Cardinal
Barberino wrote a letter of thanks to Fernandes for
himself and the other members of the Society in
Lisbon. Azevedo and Vieyra kept up the good will of
their patrons at the Papal Court; and the Inquisition
in Portugal would have undergone some permanent
change, if the justifiable jealousy of Dom Pedro, not
68
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
sufficiently balanced by sound policy and self-posses-
sion, had not impelled him to oppose the very measure
he had sought.
Active correspondence followed, and Vieyra now
appears openly at Rome, endeavouring, through Con-
fessor Fernandes, to induce the Regent of Portugal to
make a Jesuit the Grand Inquisitor in his dominions,
and thus to bring all the Inquisitors under the control
of the Jesuit Confessor and his Company. But this
negotiation also came to nothing. As for the Indian
scheme, the terms were vague, as well as exorbitant,
and could hardly have been carried into effect, and
all interests were selfish and conflicting. The Regent,
with all his good sense, was moved by covetousness,
not pity. The Jesuits were actuated by ambition and
revenge, not mercy. The Pope and his creatures
obeyed policy rather than religion, and while the offer
of gold purchased for the baptised Jews a brief hope
of deliverance, the essential spirit of Romanism could
not be changed. The principle of Inquisition had
always been approved by the Jesuits, and allowed by
the courtiers, and here again the momentary impulse
to reform failed to produce any permanent result.
Clement X. died in 1676, and Vieyra left Rome.
The agent Azevedo could do no more. Innocent XI.
ascended the Papal throne; and after the Brief of his
predecessor had produced no other effect than to pre-
vent, perhaps, a few imprisonments, and delay a few
burnings, it left those who lay in the dungeons of the
Holy Office to perish there. At length, the Arch-
bishop of Braga obtained from Innocent a Bull to
nullify the Brief of Inhibition, and restore the tribunal
in Portugal to full power.* Of this restoration there
is abundant evidence.
A list preserved by Dr. Geddes contains a hundred
and six names with a summary of each case, being the
report of an Acto celebrated in Lisbon, on the 10th of
May, 1682, after the new death-warrant of Pope
* Da Sylva. Prova, Num. lvii.
VAIN HOPE OF REFORMATION.
69
Innocent. Tenderness, they said, had ever been spent
in vain on heretics, and therefore, was not to be
wasted any longer. Six men and two women had died
in prison, and their effigies were burnt. Ninety-four
men and women were subjected to various punishments
of flogging, imprisonment, banishment, and galleys,
for a great variety of offences, all of them being in
some way or other heretical. There was contempt or
injury to the Holy Office, bigamy, the crime against
nature, Judaism, Mohammedanism, witchcraft, com-
pacts with the devil, and sacrilege. The following
four men were delivered to the secular arm :-
"Gaspar Lopez Pereire, a New Christian, a mer-
chant, a bachelor, the son of Francisco Lopez Pereire,
a native of the town of Mogadouro, an inhabitant of
Madrid, and resident in this city of Lisbon, convicted,
confessing, affirmative, professing the law of Moses,
obstinate, and impenitent." He was burnt alive.
"Antonio de Aguiar, a New Christian, a merchant, a
native of Lanichenilla, near to Madrid, an inhabitant
of Seville, and resident in this city of Lisbon, convicted,
confessing, affirmative, professing the law of Moses,
obstinate, impenitent." He was burnt alive.
"Miguel Henriques da Fonseca, a New Christian, an
advocate, native of the town of Avias, an inhabitant
in this city of Lisbon, convicted, confessing, affirmative,
professing the law of Moses, obstinate, impenitent.'
These three were burnt alive within two hours after
their delivery to the secular arm.
""
"Pedro Serraon, more than half a New Christian, a
bachelor, the son of Antonio Serraon an apothecary,
(who is in this list) a native, and inhabitant of this
city, convicted, negative and obstinate." This last
was strangled, and afterwards burnt to ashes with the
preceding three.
I borrow from a manuscript record a suggestive
catalogue of victims in various degrees at Lisbon,
August 8th, 1683, in a General Acto.*
*
Three men for an unnatural crime did penance.
* B. M. 4625, g.1.
70
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Six suspected persons made abjuration de levi.
A man, 33 years of age, appeared in the character
of wizard, had been convicted of superstitious prac-
tices, and was sentenced to three years' hard labour
at Castromarin.
A converted Jew, aged 27 years. Name, Francisco
de Portugal, born at Tetuan, in the very heart of
animal barbarism, was pompously convicted of heretical
and ill-sounding propositions. The penalty of his
inevitable ignorance, if such it was, was stripes first,
and then five years in the galleys.
Matias Duarte, a poor man, 31 years of age, native
of the island of the Pico, and inhabitant of Terceira.
His guilt was "heretical propositions." To prevent
any further use of his tongue that might offend the
priests or others, he was sentenced to wear a gag, and
condemned to seven years of abject suffering in the
galleys.
Manal de Acosta Oliveyra, aged 33 years.
This
was a surgeon, born in Lisbon, where he then resided.
He had married two women, and his great guilt must
have lain in the abuse of the sacrament of marriage,
but the crime was frequent in Portugal. Oliveyra
was flogged, and sent to the galleys for five years.
Amadeo de Soto, 31 years old, a labourer, came from
Terceira. His offence is bigamy, and the penalty five
years in the galleys.
An ex-monk, who was not in priest's orders, but
had presumed to say mass. He is called Antonio de
Basconceloz. He was to be flogged, and after that,
be chained to the oar in the galleys for six years.
After abjuration de vehementi for Judaism, Manal
Gomez Carcereres, 49 years old, a New Christian,
physician in practice in Lisbon.
To be flogged,
then to suffer imprisonment with penitential habit at
pleasure of jailors, probably for life.
Two did not abjure, and appeared in the Acto.
These were:-João Suarez de Silveyra. An apothe-
cary, 32 years old. He had been reconciled in an
VAIN HOPE OF REFORMATION.
71
Acto of the year 1673, but again taken as a revocante;
and sentenced to wear the penitential habit, suffer
three years as a convict at Miranda, and then be
graciously banished from Portugal.
Francisco Manuel Delgado, 43 years old.
A mer-
chant, convicted of Judaism, like Silveyra. He had
been reconciled in an Auto in the Church of St. Ann of
Triana in Seville a fortnight before, but escaped and
is caught here in Lisbon. He wears the sambenito, will
be sent to the prison of this Inquisition, and be flogged,
and then, wearing the vile habit, will be sent to
Brazil as a convict for three years. This punishment
seems comparatively light, but a Jew-born merchant
was not a man to be killed. He could be robbed now
and again, and being let loose after the three years
convict life, could return to business and be made
prey of at any convenient occasion.
Twenty more men abjured on charge of Judaism,
but no particulars are registered. They go to their
sad penances in the mass.
One woman, a New Christian suspected, was ab-
solved in prison, but came to adorn the Act.
Three women condemned to hard penances, no
doubt. They had been accused of seeing visions. The
last of them, 61 years old, was to suffer lashes, and
then be sent across the ocean to Brazil for five years.
Other two women had been practising witchcraft,
and were said to be in league with the devil. They
too were to be flogged, and be three years at Castro-
marin.
There was one woman who did not abjure and
fifteen who did. Their offence was Judaism, but the
servants of the Holy Office did not take the trouble
to describe them or their cases.
The three following were burnt alive:-
66
Diogo Ruiz Enriquez. 47 years. New Christian.
Merchant. Convicted.-Negative and pertinacious."
"Diogo Ramos. 65 years. New Christian. Shoe-
maker. Convicted. Negative. Relapsed."
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
72
Convicted.
66 Ana Ruiz. 71 years.
Feigned.
False. Deceitful. Continént. Diminutive. Impeni-
tent."
Another list preserved by Dr. Geddes accounts for
threescore men and women who were brought out in
an Act of Faith, in Lisbon, on Sunday, 6th Novem-
ber, 1707, "the most illustrious Lord Bishop Nuno
d'Acunha de Ataida, Counsellor of State, and Dean of
His Majesty's Chapel being Inquisitor-General. First
we have the men, and then the women, twenty-five of
the former, and thirty-one of the latter, condemned to
most cruel punishments which few of them could
possibly survive, with two men and two women burnt
alive within two hours after the sentences were
pronounced. These were
"Don Gabriel Luis de Medina, aged 67 years, a New
Christian, a merchant, native of the Court (Royal city)
of Madrid, in the Kingdom of Castile, and inhabitant
in this city of Lisbon; feigned, false, dissembling,
confessing, diminutive and impenitent.
"Antonio Tavares da Costa, aged 33, half a New
Christian,* a merchant, native and inhabitant in this
city; feigned, false, dissembling, confessing, revoking,
varying and impenitent.
66
Maria Lopes de Sequeyra, aged 26, a New Chris-
tian, not married; the daughter of Joseph de Se-
queyra, a farmer of the revenue, native and inhabitant
in this city: feigned, false, dissembling, confessing,
diminutive and impenitent.
66
Donha Margarida Correa, aged 54, a New Chris-
tian, the widow of Thomas Pinto, a shop-keeper,
native of the city of Malaga, in the Kingdom of
Castile, and inhabitant in the town of Setuval, in this
Archbishopric; convicted, negatives, pertinacious
and relapsed."
Dr. Geddes makes some notes on this list well worth
reading; such are the following
* Half a New Christian, because either his father or his mother
was not of the Jewish race.
VAIN HOPE OF REFORMATION.
73
On Luis dos Reys, a Friar, he observes: "If this
friar was a priest, as it is probable he was, at the age
of nine-and-twenty, and withal was no Christian, (as
the Inquisitors say he was not) could he, when he
administered the Sacraments ever intend to do that as
a Christian ordinance? This therefore, shows plainly
how uncertain all Papists are of their being Christians,
according to the doctrine of their own Church, that
the intention of the priest that consecrates is necessary
to the being of a Sacrament. But whether that was
this friar's case or not, it is not yet forty years since a
parish priest was burnt at Lisbon, who confessed that
whenever he administered a Sacrament, he had a
formed intention not to administer it as a Divine
ordinance; upon which all the children that had been
christened by him, and were alive, were baptized
anew. I was told this by Consul Maynard, who saw
him burnt at Lisbon."
On two married women, one thirty, and the other
thirty-three years of age, he writes: "Let these
young married women be kept never so long in the
prisons of the Inquisition, their husbands, though
never so fond of them, dare not for their lives express
the least uneasiness at it; nor dare a parent for a
child, nor a child for a parent. Nay, if they do not
seem to rejoice at it, as a thing that is for the benefit
of the prisoner's souls, they will fall under the sus-
picion of being heretics themselves. This fills all
places where there are Inquisitions with hypocrisy
and dissimulation, to the debasing of people's natures
and cowing of their spirits. And should the degene-
racy from the martial courage of their ancestors, which
is at this time so visible in divers nations, be imputed
to the Inquisition's terrible and merciless persecutions,
which are among them on the account of religion, I
do not believe that the thought could be looked on as
very extravagant."
And on Leonor Maria, a poor girl only fourteen
years of age, he makes the following impressive
observations:-
74
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
"What a dismal thing must it be for a young
creature, so young as this was, being under fourteen
when she was first thrown into the prisons of the
Inquisition, to spend months, if not years, all alone in
a dark hole, without seeing or hearing any living
creature besides a dogged keeper, and now and then
the angry Inquisitors, threatening her with the tortures
of the rack, if she did not confess all her heresies, and
discover all her teachers and complices in them. And
who can express the agonies the spirits of tender
parents are in, knowing their children, whom they
had bred up delicately, to be in such dreadful circum-
stances? and these agonies are the more torturing, for
their not daring to make the least discovery of them,
on pain of being suspected as favourers of heretics.
And how airy and beautiful soever these young ladies
are when they are first arrested by a familiar, they
do, one and all, in the procession of the Act of the
Faith, either stalk like so many walking ghosts, or, if
they are carried, as they are pretty often, they look
like so many alabaster statues, carried upon hand-
barrows; nothing of colour nor of life being to be seen
in their lips, nor about their eyes, which are commonly
shut close, by reason of their not being able to endure
the light after their having been so long in darkness;
the young women's countenances being commonly so
much changed from what they were, that as they
walk, or are carried in the procession, they are not
certainly known by their nearest relations and most
intimate acquaintance."*
Let it be observed in passing, that a comparative
study of the two Inquisitions of the Iberian Peninsula
would disclose a very strongly marked distinction
between them. The punctual rigour of the Spanish
Inquisitors is not repeated in Portugal, where the
student cannot fail to observe a more savage, yet more
* Miscellaneous Tracts in three Volumes. By MICHAEL GEDDES,
Doctor of Laws, and Chancellor of the Church of Sarum. London,
1714. Vol. I., Tract v.
VAIN HOPE OF REFORMATION.
75
feeble, discipline. False witnesses, for example, are
seldom or never punished in Spain, but rather re-
warded; whereas in Portugal, after their evidence
had been accepted, they have been punished by
scores at once. In Spain, proposals to reform the
Tribunal would bring the proposers to the stake;
whereas in Portugal the subject is freely canvassed in
open day. In the one kingdom an Inquisitor resign-
ing his office in disgust would be surely put to death;
but in the other an Inquisitor has been known to re-
sign, not only with impunity, but with applause. Yet
the Portuguese Actos are distinguished by a brutal
excess of torment, betraying a weakness and wan-
tonness far beyond what we generally find even in
Spain.
76
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
PORTUGAL.
BARBARITIES, ABOMINATIONS, AND DECLINE.
A FOREIGNER in Spain, who saw a crowd of spectators,
cowled and uncowled, surrounding a quemadero, with
a pile of faggots blazing, and a human being shrieking
and burning in the midst of it, half concealed, how-
ever, by fuel and smoke, might suppose the execu-
tioners to be men possessed by infernal spirits, and
thus impelled to perpetrate a deed emblematical, as
they say, of the last judgment, but certainly pre-
senting a resemblance to hell.
In Portugal the scene was not less fiendish, and it
was also more profoundly brutal. In the Act itself,
the Spanish and Portuguese customs were very simi-
lar. The use of the gag, for example, prevailed in
both, and was affectingly exemplified to Dr. Michael
Geddes, when a prisoner was brought out who had
been several years shut up in a dungeon where clear
daylight never penetrated. He saw the poor man
raise his eyes towards the sun, and heard him exclaim
in rapture, as if overwhelmed with the majesty of the
object, "How can people that behold that glorious
body worship any other being than HIM that created
it?" Instantly the gag was thrust into his mouth,
and the priests who attended him to the Terreiro de
Paco were not troubled with any more of his reflec-
tions. Instead of being marched thence to the place
of execution, they who were to be burnt were taken
first to common prisons, kept there for an hour or two,
and then brought before the Lord Chief Justice, who
asked each of them in what religion he intended to
BARBARITIES, ABOMINATIONS, DECLINE.
77
die. If he said, "In the Roman Catholic Apostolic,"
the sentence was, that he should first be strangled,
and then burnt. If he named the Protestant, or any
other differing from the Romish, that functionary
directed that he should be burnt alive. This rule was
universal.
At Lisbon, the place of execution was at the water-
side. For each person to be burnt, whether dead or
alive, a thick stake, or spar, was erected, not less than
twelve feet above ground; and within about eighteen
inches of the top there was a thick cross-piece, to serve
for a seat, and to receive the tops of two ladders.
Between those ladders, which were for the use of two
priests, there was one for the condemned person,
whom they compelled to mount, sit on the transverse
piece, and there be chained fast. The priests then
went up, delivered a hasty exhortation to repentance,
and, that failing, declared that they left him to the
devil, who was waiting to receive his soul. On per-
ceiving this, the mob shouted, "Let the dog's beard
be trimmed;" that is to say, let his face be scorched.
This was done by tying pieces of furze to the end of
a long pole, and holding the flaming bush to his face
until it was burnt black. The disfiguration of coun-
tenance, and his cries for "mercy for the love of
God," furnished great part of the amusement for the
crowd, who, if he had been suffering death in a less
barbarous way for any criminal offence, would have
manifested every appearance of compassion. When
"the beard" was trimmed, they lit the heap of furze
at the foot of the stake, and, if there was no wind,
the flame would envelope the seat, and begin to burn
the legs; but, as there generally is a breeze on the
banks of the Tagus, it seldom reached so high. If
there was no wind, he would be dead in half an hour;
but the victim generally retained entire consciousness
for an hour and a half, or two hours, in dire torment,
which the spectators witnessed with such delight as
could never be produced by any other spectacle. In
78
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
short, the burning, or rather roasting to death, was
so contrived that the sufferer should be exposed to
every spectator, and that his cries from that elevation
should be distinctly audible all round.
After such a brutalizing education, who can wonder
at the degradation of the Portuguese, notwithstanding
the ancient wealth and power of Portugal, once the
first maritime nation in the world, with the fertility
of the soil, the loveliness of the climate, and the com-
mercial advantages that lie open to the people, espe-
cially in relation to Great Britain? But the cause
of their degradation is evident. The cause is Popery;
and until that be removed, the cure cannot be
effected.
From the common humiliation no class of people
was exempt. Persons of the highest respectability
were made to walk in procession, as penitents, in the
so-called Acts of Faith, in punishment of the slight-
est indiscretion, or in consequence of the most frivo-
lous accusation. This occurred to Doctor Francisco
Figueyras, a Jew, whose talents and integrity made
him valuable to the clergy of Lisbon,-whom he
served as advocate, or procurator, of the Archbishop,
afterwards Patriarch,—and hateful to the Inquisitors.
He was thrown into their prison, narrowly escaped
the fire, walked in the garb of a penitent, about the
year 1730; and some time afterwards, when the Patri-
arch entered Lisbon in state, the Jewish Doctor walked
before him, bearing the insignia of the Church whose
rights, in the exercise of his functions, he had often
skilfully defended, Jew though he was!*
Absolutism was never more perfect in Portugal than
during the first half of the eighteenth century. All
classes were laid level before the Holy Office; and all
were made to furnish agents of malice and cupidity.
For example: An impudent beggar, once meeting a
* A Discourse on the Calamities of Portugal, addressed to his
Countrymen, and especially to His Most Faithful Majesty, Joseph, King
of Portugal, by the CHEVALIER DE OLIVEYRA. London, 1756.
BARBARITIES, ABOMINATIONS, DECLINE.
79
merchant's clerk on an errand for his master, thrust a
little waxen image of a saint into his face, that he
might kiss it; for it was the custom of beggars to
appeal to passengers in the name of saints, and offer
them the images to kiss. The young man, being in
haste, hurried on without paying attention to beggar
or saint; and for this alleged contempt he was thrown
into the Inquisition, (about the year 1750,) and kept
there more than a year. He did not walk in the
Acto-de-Fé, but underwent some secret penance, which
they bound him by oath never to divulge. He did
keep silence; but his emaciated frame and gloomy
countenance plainly showed how severe it had been.
Bowing to the necessity that compelled obedience
from all, the Kings of Portugal swore, at their coro-
nation, to maintain the jurisdiction of the Tribunal,
and this they were forced to do; but on various occa-
sions the royal interposition on behalf of subjects
under accusation was treated with contempt; and,
once at least, insolent Inquisitors ransacked the King's
palace in search of prohibited books.*
Amidst this insolence of power, their pride was
humbled by one of the most awful visitations ever
known in the history of the world. From the first
day of November, 1755, to the seventeenth, the whole
Peninsula was agitated by shocks of earthquake; but
no city suffered so much as Lisbon. One long shock,
lasting for about five minutes, buried more than ten
thousand persons in the ruins. Terror seized on the
survivors. The rabble, reckless of death, robbed the
dying, broke into houses that were yet standing,
although shaken, and committed every conceivable
atrocity. From prisons, burst open or overthrown,
the criminals escaped, and forthwith swelled the flood
of crime. In far greater number, the prisoners of the
Inquisition, while the hand of heaven was opening the
cells, also made their escape. But although the build-
*Authentic Memoirs concerning the Portuguese Inquisition. London,
1761. Letter I.
80
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
ing was in ruins, the institution stood, and inquisitorial
vengeance pursued the fugitives, and put many of
them to death, on charge of having taken part in the
robberies.
The intelligence of this calamity produced a pro-
found impression in England. Every one who con-
fessed belief in Providence spoke of it as a visitation
of retributive justice. Whitefield wrote a letter "to
the remaining disconsolate inhabitants of Lisbon,"
attributing the earthquake to the displeasure of
Almighty God. Wesley pointed to the insatiable
avarice of the King of Portugal, and to the Inqui-
sition, as provocations to this judgment.
The Chevalier de Oliveyra, a Portguese gentleman
who had been convinced of the errors of Romanism,
and consequently left his country, and had resided
many years in England, no sooner heard of the event
than he wrote an impassioned letter to his countrymen
and his King, giving utterance to the same conviction.
Among the ruins of Lisbon," he says, "we reckon
that of the Tribunal, or palace of the Inquisition. For
many years you have cried up how very agreeable
this Tribunal was to God, for the services they have
done Him in supporting the faith, and promoting His
glory. He has nevertheless destroyed that Holy Office.
Dare you say that in this He has shown Himself un-
grateful towards you? or, that He had not power suffi-
cient to preserve His palace from destruction? But
is it not very likely, on the contrary, that if He has
reduced it to a heap of ruins, it is because He held it
in abomination? and that, far from being affected by
your false zeal, He truly detests and regards it as a
barbarous fury, an infernal persecution; and, of con-
sequence, a service unworthy of him, being diametri-
cally opposite to what He requires from His servants?
On a view, then, of the destruction of what you call
the Holy Office, and for the reasons that I have
alleged, can any one doubt that, in the sight of God,
it is a diabolical Office, only fit to be engulfed in the
dark abyss?"
BARBARITIES, ABOMINATIONS, DECLINE.
81
Among the reasons assigned by Oliveyra, and by
others also, there was one which they mark with so
much emphasis and reiteration, that we can scarcely
veil it here." In the rigorous punishments you inflict
for sorcery, bigamy, polygamy, blasphemy, and, in a
word, all the sinful errors into which human frailty
falls, ye have nevertheless taken great pains to use
indulgence, and spare openly, all those who are capa-
ble of that abominable crime which formerly drew
down the vengeance of the Lord on the cities of the
plain; which He destroyed in a manner so terrible
and surprising, that that example might remain as an
eternal monument to posterity. Whence is this par-
tiality, but that you are yourselves guilty of that crime
which modesty forbids me to name? I could furnish
you with many incontestable truths; but I shall con-
tent myself with reciting the above," drawn from Holy
Scripture,"to the inhabitants of Lisbon who are yet
living. Dread then, ye miserable frail mortals, dread
the melancholy lot of the Plain. Ye have already
experienced it in a great measure. So conduct your-
selves henceforth that it may not return again amongst
you, that ye be not totally consumed." Heresy, he
reminds them, was to be punished with confiscation of
goods, and infamy to rest on the descendants of the
heretic, who is not suffered even to take asylum at the
altar; while the crimen nefandum did not exclude the
guilty from the benefit of sanctuary. The Aphorisms
of Da Sousa also show that the property of such a
criminal is guarded by a special provision in favour of
his family. To the martyr of Christ, to the man who
counts not his life dear to him, but lays it down for
truth's sake, no such indulgence is afforded.
In view of those abominations, Oliveyra exhorted
the King to declare the Inquisition extinct, and forbid
the palace to be rebuilt, or any one to assume the title
of Inquisitor again. But the exhortation was of no
avail. On the 20th of January, 1756, the Chevalier
sent presentation copies to King Joseph, through his
VOL. II.
G
82
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
secretary of state, to the Queen, to the Prince Dom
Manoel, and to the Royal Academy of Portugal.
They were burnt at Lisbon by the common hangman,
amidst the ruins of the city; and so far were the
courtiers and ecclesiastics from acknowledging that
tribunal to be accursed, that they clave to it as to a
thing most sacred; and when, a few years afterwards,
the Jesuits were very justly expelled out of the
country, on account of political offences, it was
alleged, as one of the chief misdoings of that Com-
pany, that they had advocated some relaxation of the
rigour usually shown towards the Jews.
In Portugal, as for many centuries in England, the
Jews were persecuted for the sake of their wealth
rather than because of their unbelief, and the Inquisi-
tors lent themselves to murder them in prospect of
sharing the spoil. On their behalf Oliveyra remon-
strates with the King. Of all the men in the world,
he says, the Jews possess most perfect knowledge of
the arts of commerce; but no sooner has a Jew
acquired wealth than he is arrested and strangled by
the Inquisition. Or if, having by hard study attained
eminence as a physician, he cures the most dangerous
and desperate diseases, the Inquisition loads him with
irons, and lays him on the rack.
New Christians, too, even falsely accused of Judais-
ing, were made the victims of cupidity or malice. Of
a hundred persons thus accused, and delivered to the
flames, Oliveyra says that scarcely two or three were
condemned justly. Few, indeed, professed to die in
the Law of Moses; and almost all declared themselves
Christians to the last, and protested that they had
always lived in the religion of Christ, not knowing
any other. In vain they confessed themselves after
the Romish manner. In vain they invoked the names
of Mary and of the saints, and in those names, and the
name of the Saviour, prayed for mercy. The Inqui-
sitors had given sentence, and that sentence was
irrevocable. The cruelty was the more flagrant towards
BARBARITIES, ABOMINATIONS, DECLINE.
83
those who had been forced by the Inquisition to
profess themselves converts from Judaism, and were
then persecuted on accusation of wishing to return to
Judaism again. Many New Christians, who had
scarcely ever heard the name of Moses, and did not so
much as know that there was an Old Testament, were
charged with Judaising; or, fearing that snare, fled
the country. Neither had they been taught the truths
or the obligations of Christianity. They were to
be seen in strange countries, wandering vagabonds,
scarcely able to beg their bread, so ignorant were they
of the languages to be spoken, outcast and starving.
Many again, being of native Portuguese extraction,
and having no sympathy whatever with Jew or
neophyte, were arrested on a pretended suspicion of
Judaising, than which nothing could be further from
their thoughts; and when it was observed that the
Inquisition was torturing and burning such persons,
the rumour would arise that the Inquisitors themselves
were Jews in secret, and the suspicion that they were
now avenging on these Old Christians the massacres
of Jews in times past, by those who bore the Christian
name.
We remember that the Jesuits were supposed to
have introduced the Inquisition into the country, and
that the false Nuncio of Portugal was reputed to be a
creature of theirs. If that were proved, there would
then be a strong presumption that the retributive pro-
vidence of God had taken that Society in the very
snare they laid for Portugal; for when, three years
after the earthquake, the Jesuits were expelled, the
Inquisition took a very active part in their expulsion.
From the press of the Holy Office in Lisbon, Dom
Jozé, Inquisitor-General, issued a mandate,
con-
demnatory of "the wicked and seditious errors of the
Jesuits." Their doctrine, he stated, was compre-
hended in three principles, each leading to the most
fatal consequences. They were these:-
"1. That it is lawful to calumniate any person
84
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
whatever, to bring false witnesses against him, to lay
crimes falsely to his charge, either in public writing
or by word of mouth, in order to take vengeance for
injuries received, or for the calumniator to defend his
own innocence and honour.
"2. That it is lawful for any one to kill, of his own
authority, the person who has grievously injured or
slandered him that it is lawful to kill a false accuser
or false witness, and even the judge who gives reason
to fear any grave damage on his part, if that damage
be unjust and inevitable, and there be no other way of
avoiding it.
"3. That it is no sin to lie, or to swear falsely,
making use of ambiguities, equivocations, or mental
reservations, if this be necessary to save one's life,
honour, or property, from considerable damage."*
And wherein do these principles differ from those of
Eymeric and Peña? The first is the very soul of
inquisitorial practice. The second is exemplified in
all the history of the Holy Office. The third is
almost an exact summary of the instructions given to
Inquisitors for extorting false evidence, and taking
the life of the innocent. But that mattered not.
Inquisitor was a very fit person to catch a Jesuit; and
therefore, when the Jesuits were to be caught, and
sent away for their crimes, the Inquisitors, as best
acquainted with their arts, were employed to render
assistance in the service.
An
A signal instance of political vengeance, executed
by means of the Inquisition, occurred in the case of an
aged Jesuit, Gabriel Malagrida, who had been impri-
soned on a charge of treason, and remained in custody
after the expulsion of his brethren. I shall describe
this case briefly, almost in the language of Da Sylva,
which the reader will be pleased to observe, and take
the epithets as his, not mine.
* Recueil des Décrets Apostoliques et des Ordonnances du Roi de
Portugal concernant la Conduite des Jésuites dans le Paraguai, etc.
Amsterdam, 1761. Piece xxvii.
BARBARITIES, ABOMINATIONS, DECLINE.
85
"This monster," Saint Gabriel Malagrida, employed
himself, while in prison, in writing, with his own
hand, two abominable books, which brought him to
the tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition, to
which it belonged to examine all propositions con-
trary to faith and to religion. After a searching
examination of his books and of himself, the guardians
of the faith convicted Malagrida of having persuaded
people to regard him as a saint and true prophet.
They found that, not content with deceiving the
people of that kingdom with his honey of hypocrisy,
he had scattered abroad the most fearful poison, of
which his heart was full, to foment discords and sedi-
tions, and to prophecy evil; at the same time con-
triving plots for the fulfilment of his own predictions.
He furthermore wrote a book, and even at the table of
the Holy Office persisted in defending it, affirming
that its contents were dictated by God our Lord, by
the most holy Mary our Lady, and by saints and
angels of heaven, who conversed with him. The titles
of two books, exhibited on that occasion, were such as
would have gained him great admiration, if he had
written on behalf of the priesthood. One was called,
"The heroic and admirable Life of the Glorious Saint
Anna, Mother of the Most Holy Mary, dictated by the
Saint herself, with the Assistance, Approbation, and
Presence of the Most Sovereign Lady herself, and her
Most Holy Son." This was in Portuguese. The
other, in Latin, was "A Treatise on the Life and
Empire of Antichrist."
Even allowing for the exaggeration and perversion
of the sayings of a culprit, which are usual in the hall
of an Inquisition, it seems evident that this man was
either insane, or that he pretended insanity. Instead
of answering their questions, he amazed his judges by
a long recitation of audible revelations, and tales of
supernatural visions. The Virgin Mary, he said, ab-
solved him daily in a particular form of words, and
empowered him to predict the death of the King
86
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
within two months, and to denounce heavy calamities
on the nation.
In presence of the foreign ministers at the Court of
Lisbon, all the high functionaries of State, and the
nobility of the kingdom, he was declared an impeni-
tent heretic, expelled from the Church, and delivered
over to the King's officers of justice to be punished.
He was forthwith burnt to death, on the 21st day of
September, 1761; * and thus the Inquisition triumph-
ed over the Jesuits.
The Inquisition of Portugal continued, and survived
the revolutionary period of the latter years of the last
century, and the first fourteen years of the present;
but it fell in 1821, amidst the renewed struggles for
civil liberty on the Peninsula. The letter of the Por-
tuguese Constitution, then framed, seemed to promise
religious liberty also, guaranteeing freedom of worship
to foreigners, and, by fair construction, leaving the
Portuguese free to accept the Gospel of their own
accord; but little advantage was taken of that liberty.
In Madeira, however, an active persecution of Dr.
Kalley, and of the natives converted by his means,
demonstrated that, although the external form of the
Inquisition had fallen, the spirit thereof survived; and
it soon became evident, both in Spain and Portugal,
that if both its form and its name were not soon re-
stored, it would not be for want of inclination in the
Church of Rome.
Accordingly, an opportunity occurred in due time.
The Portuguese lawyers were employed to construct
a new penal code; and a royal decree of December
22nd, 1852, established that code in anticipation of
the legislature. The code of 1852 advanced nothing
on the charter of 1826. It fills a thick octavo volume,
and the following is a literal translation of two articles
on religious offences:-
"Art. 130. He who fails in respect to the religion
of this kingdom-the Roman, Catholic, and Apostolic
*Da Sylva. Parte i., divis. 15,
BARBARITIES, ABOMINATIONS, DECLINE.
87
-shall be condemned to imprisonment from one to
three years, with a fine proportioned to his income, in
every one of the following cases :-
"1. Injuring (or insulting) the said religion pub-
licly, in any dogma, act, or object of its worship, by
deeds, or words, or publications, in any form.
2. Attempting, by the same means, to propagate
doctrines contrary to the Catholic dogmas confirmed
by the Church.
"3. Attempting, by any means, to make proselytes
or conversions to a different religion, or sect, con-
demned by the Church." (As all truly Christian deno-
minations are.)
"4. Celebrating public acts of worship, other than
the worship of the said Catholic religion.
"Art. 135. Every Portuguese who, professing the
religion of the kingdom, shall fail in respect to the
same religion, by apostatizing, or renouncing it
publicly, shall be condemned to the loss of his political
rights.
"1. If the criminal be a clerk in holy orders, he
shall be banished out of the kingdom for ever.
"2. These penalties shall cease as soon as the
criminals return to the bosom of the Church.
"If the guilty person, under Article 130, be a
foreigner," (an Englishman, for example, to whom a
very recent treaty between the Queen of Great Britain
and the Queen of Portugal guarantees perfect liberty
of worship,)" the punishment, instead of fine and im-
prisonment, shall be expulsion from the kingdom."
For the administration of these Articles, ecclesiastical
courts are provided, in pursuance of a Concordat
between the Pope and the Queen.
The ecclesiastical courts were meant to be equiva-
lent with the Tribunals of the Faith in Spain, which
are now extinct, Spain having the liberty which is not
yet enjoyed in Portugal.
So late as this year, 1873, a document, written and
printed in Lisbon, contains a statement that in 1870
88
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
João José da Costa Almeida, formerly a Chaplain in
the Portuguese Navy, and, in 1871, Henrique Ribeiro
d'Albuquerque, also a Romish priest, renounced the
communion of the Church of Rome, and were received
into the Spanish Evangelical Church, under the pas-
torate of Don Angel Herreros de Mora, whose deliver-
ance from the Tribunal of the Faith at Madrid, in
1856, I have narrated in a preceding chapter. But
it is added that they were both obliged to be natur-
alised as Spaniards previous to their public recantation,
as the law there severely punishes any priest, if a Por-
tuguese subject, who leaves Popery."*
* Report of the Spanish Evangelical Church at Lisbon, 1868-
1872.
89
CHAPTER XXIX.
INDIA.
FIRST INQUISITION.
HEROIC perseverance in the pursuit of a great object
is nowhere exhibited more brilliantly than in the
history of the first Indian missions of the Jesuits.
This, however, is not the place to characterise, much
less to describe, the labours of the Propaganda. Our
present business is to trace the introduction of the
Inquisition into India, and its progress there.
Many English Protestants, in their exuberant
charity, would scarcely believe that the earliest re-
corded indications of an Inquisition in India are from
the pen of the saintly Jesuit, Francisco Xavier, a man
who has been most unreasonably held up as a model
for the imitation of our Missionaries.
Bouhours, the French biographer of Xavier, relates
that on December 16th, 1544, he met with a priest,
Miguel Vaz, Vicar-General of the Indies, in Cochin.
To him he suggested, and with him concerted, a plot
for displacing Affonso da Sousa, the Viceroy, who
would not support his enterprises with armed force to
the extent that he desired. The Vicar-General em-
barked forthwith for Lisbon, bearing a long and
earnest secret letter from "the Saint to John III.
of Portugal, imploring him to recall Da Sousa, his
own friend and patron, and the following extract
probably contains the first formal request for "the
horrible tribunal." Mark it well :-
66
"O my Lord, by your burning zeal for the Divine
glory, by the care you have of rendering to God
an account of your conduct and of keeping your
90
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
conscience clear, I beseech and conjure Your Majesty
to send out a suitable servant, armed with necessary
authority, whose only care it shall be to see to the salva-
tion of the innumerable souls that are here perishing ;
and who in that post shall have a power unlimited by
the authority and government of those whom you com-
mand to oversee your revenue and your affairs; that
thus, for the future, those many and grave inconve-
niences and scandals may be avoided, from which
formerly the affairs of religion here were free." *
Affonso da Sousa himself says that Francisco Xavier,
in a letter to John III. of Portugal, dated November
10th, 1545, stated that "Jewish perfidy was daily
spreading in those countries of Eastern India that
were subject to Portugal, and earnestly prayed the
King to send the office of the Inquisition into that
country, as the remedy of so great a perfidy." This
was following up the previous application. His
Majesty, however, did not comply with the request,
nor was it carried into effect until fifteen years later,
when, as Da Sousa further states, the Cardinal Henry,
at that time Inquisitor-General in the kingdom of
Portugal, erected a tribunal of the Inquisition in Goa,
and sent thither the necessary Inquisitors, officers, and
servants. The first Inquisitor was Alexo Diaz Fulcano,
sent over from Lisbon in 1560. But it is not likely
that the establishment of such an institution in India
would have taken place on the suggestion or the
request of any one person; and we cannot better give
an exact view of its origin and progress, than by
marking events as they occurred.
First: there was a bishopric at Goa, established
there, as was usual in all new colonies, when that
part of the coast fell into possession of the Portuguese,
in 1510.
Then followed an application of all the accustomed
methods of conversion, under the terror of a strong
* This letter may be found in Turselin's Sancti Francisci Xaverii
Epistolarum Libri Quatuor. Lugduni, 1682.
FIRST INQUISITION IN INDIA.
91
garrison. Favours and honours were lavished upon
the first converts; while the Viceroy and highest
functionaries stood sponsors for proselytes at baptism.
The accession of proselytes, along the eastern coast
of India more particularly, and some consolidation of
military and civil power, indicated that the time was
come for an enlargement of the ecclesiastical platform;
but there was still some delay, until more vigorous
measures could be taken to sustain a complete hierarchy.
The conversion of Gentile Malays was therefore the
object chiefly pursued for some years. Adults were
persuaded, or intimidated; but children were stolen,
baptised, brought up in the Jesuits' houses, and in
due time employed to bring in fresh recruits. They
were often paraded through the streets, singing cate-
chism; and every child that could be decoyed to join
the processions was taken up by the Jesuits and
baptised. A great number of these forcible baptisms
were effected in the year 1557, in spite of the resistance
of their parents.*
The flock being multiplied, and somewhat disciplined
into subjection, the Bishop of Goa was promoted to be
Metropolitan; and two new Bishops were sent out to
take possession of the dioceses of Malacca and Cochin,
created for them in advance. This was done in 1559.
And as the introduction of a new Romish hierarchy
into any country is sure to be followed by correspondent
manifestations of authority, the very next year that
establishment was followed by the introduction of the
"Holy Inquisition."
The Inquisitors were already there, preparing and
waiting for favourable opportunities to act, and
Melchior Carneiro, Bishop-designate of Cochin, was
in the mountains of Malabar, on a mission to the
Nestorian Christians.
Those Christians had been for many centuries in
communion with the see of Babylon, or Mosul, and
* Parentibus quanquam invitis ac renitentibus. (ACOSTE Hist.
Rerum in Oriente gestarum. Parisiis, 1572. Fol. 14.)
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
92
traced a succession of bishops back to the apostolic
age. They were not clear of some corruptions that
had overspread Christendom, but had none of the
characteristics of Popery; and although reproached
on account of the heresy of Nestorius, whose followers
certainly did not entertain a sufficiently exalted view
of the person of the incarnate Saviour, they had
received from Nestorius a doctrine in other particulars
far superior to that of Rome. Their clergy were
married; they knew of but two sacraments, Baptism
and the Eucharist; they did not pray to saints, nor
worship images; they knew nothing of auricular con-
fession; they had not heard of purgatory or transub-
stantiation. They only acknowledged two sacred
orders, Presbyterate* and Diaconate; although a
member of the former had always taken the oversight
of his brethren within a diocese, and borne the title.
of Vicar. These Vicars were associated under a
Metropolitan, whom they represented, and who acknow-
ledged the yet superior authority of the Patriarch of
Babylon. In their worship, they had used ancient
Syriac Liturgies. Of Pope and Mass they had not
heard until after the Portuguese invasion of their
country; and, to express their abhorrence of idolatry,
they shut their eyes when an image or a consecrated
wafer was produced.
Carneiro signalised himself by making an assault
on that communion. He took possession of one of
their churches, and kept it for two months under
Portuguese authority. With extreme difficulty he col-
lected hearers, and that only by making the most of
*The Syriac name
-presbyterate, not sacerdotate, or
sacrificing priesthood-agrees well with the style of the New
Testament. A Presbyter in order is Bishop by office.
Here is a question of a word. Dr. Buchanan so understood,
and so reported; but the Arabic and Syriac authorities quoted by
Asseman (Bibl. Oriental., tom. iii. pars 2) do not confirm this report,
but give the title of Bishop, and, what is much more, minutely
describe the office. The title is commonly used, and could not be
relinquished without a disregard of original authorities.
FIRST INQUISITION IN INDIA.
93
his position and husbanding his means. The people
generally fled from him; but he succeeded in per-
forming a ceremony of anabaptism on a few, telling
them that the baptism they had received in the Syrian
Church was no sacrament; and he bound his prose-
lytes to swear submission to the Pope of Rome. The
Indian Metropolitan concealed himself among the
fugitives of his flock, wisely refusing to go down to
the coast to hold a disputation with Carneiro. Car-
neiro, bent on the destruction of the Metropolitan,
pursued him into a neighbouring kingdom, and strove
to induce the King, or Chief, to put him to death, as a
propagator of error and a disturber of peace. In this
the Bishop of Cochin failed; but notwithstanding the
provocation he had given to the native Christians, he
returned to his new-made See without suffering the
least violence. But in Cochin, if his own report be
true, an arrow struck off his hat; and a note, supposed
to be written by some native Christian, and containing
expressions of disrespect concerning Gonsalvo, chief of
the Jesuits at Goa, with blasphemies against our Lord
Jesus Christ, was found in a charity-box in the prin-
cipal church. That any Syrian Christian who could
write should blaspheme the Saviour whom he acknow-
ledged and worshipped-although he might speak
disrespectfully enough of the Jesuits, whom he hated-
is not very probable; but such a note was exhibited
by the priests, to show that while the arrow gave
reason to suspect a murderous intention, the paper
bore evidence of heresy. Either Carneiro or Gonsalvo
might have written it.
"That thing," says Sacchini, "admonished the
fathers that they should see more diligent inquest made
concerning the faith of certain men. And behold! a
vast number of false brethren of the circumcision
are discovered. These men, fugitives from various
regions of the world, had found means of concealment
in India, and, while bearing the name of Christians,
secretly practised the rites of Judaism, and propagated
94
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
the same by stealth." Perhaps the truth may be that
some New Christians, having fled from Europe on
account of persecution, were endeavouring to get rid
of the spurious Christianity which had been forced
upon them in Europe. It is not incredible that they
would be sometimes overtaken in uniting with the
natives to resist the oppression of Portuguese govern-
ors, or to counteract the schemes of Jesuits. Be that
as it may, they not only suffered the persecution.
which ordinarily fell upon their brethren in every
land, but they also served in India as the cover for
an attack upon the native Christians. "Therefore,"
according to Sacchini, "if ever the tribunal of the
Holy Inquisition was necessary, the fathers (Jesuits)
considered that it was necessary at that time, both be-
cause of the licentiousness prevalent, and the medley
of all nations and superstitions; and therefore sent
urgent letters both to Portugal and Italy, and made
representations to those in the country to whom per-
tained such care, which clearly demonstrated that in
order to preserve that fortress in faith incorrupt, the
tribunal should be established in Goa.”*
And a very
short time afterwards, in the year 1560, it began its
operations there.
There can be no doubt that the first proceedings
were sufficiently terrific. The "vast number of false
brethren" that were detected, or of others that were
taken for such, did not go unpunished. The Inquisi-
tors of Goa would not be less active than their brethren
in Portugal, and their victims would be so much the
more easily disposed of, as no way of appeal to any
protecting power ordinarily lay open to them. From
slaughtering Jewish Christians the "sacred searchers
of the faith" proceeded to their chief work of over-
throwing the ancient Syrian Church.
Seven years
after the erection of the tribunal in Goa, Mar Joseph,
Syrian Bishop of Cochin, in consequence of a rescript
from Pius V. to Cardinal Henry of Portugal, autho-
*SACCHINI, Hist. Soc. Jesu, pars secunda, lib. i., pp. 150, 151.
FIRST INQUISITION IN INDIA.
95
rising the Indian Inquisition to prosecute him, stood
at its table, was declared guilty of the Nestorian
heresy, sent prisoner to Lisbon, and thence, in the
year following, to Rome, where he died quickly.
Burnings were common at that time. General bap-
tisms were celebrated with great pomp at Goa, the
ecclesiastical metropolis of India, and so were general
Acts of Faith. It was deemed an equal mark of
affection towards the Jesuits to attend either. One
Sebastian Fernando, writing to his General at Rome
(November, 1569), applauds the charity of his bre-
thren, who attended persons condemned by the sacred
Inquisitors on account of depraved religion, not quit-
ting them from the moment of sentence until the
flames rose round them at the stake.* Then, of
course, they decorously withdrew. Such Nestorians
as would not go to mass, and keep their eyes open
at the elevation, or who showed any disaffection to
Rome, were burnt alive for the edification of the
public of India.
Nestorian bishops and priests continually disap-
peared, either immured in Goa, or shipped away to
Italy or Portugal. Now and then a name transpired.
Simeon, a bishop in the Church at Malabar, was
seized, sent to Rome, and graciously permitted to
breathe within the walls of a convent of Friars
Minors, in Portugal, until, in the year 1559, he
perished, PERIIT. For with this significant word a
―PERIIT.†
learned monk closed his brief notice of Simeon.
is the euphemism commonly used at Rome to signify
the death of a heretic by violence. From another
source we hear that Menezes, Archbishop of Goa,
gained possession of an intercepted letter of Simeon's,
containing Nestorian errors; that he sent the letter
to the chief Inquisitor in Lisbon, and that from that
time forth no more was heard of Mar Simeon. Hence
+
*De Rebus Indicis Epist. Liber. Parisiis, 1572.
† Asseman. Dissert. de Syriis Nestorianis, p. 447.
La Croze, Hist. du Christ. des Indes, livre i.
It
96
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
it may be fairly presumed that he was conveyed
to the prison of the Inquisition; and then, as one
relapsed into heresy, he would be given over to the
secular arm, or would perish in secret.
The same Archbishop, Aleixo de Menezes, held a
Diocesan Synod at Diamper, in Cochin, on the 20th
of June, 1599, and six days following. In that Synod
a large number of Syrian priests were present, not by
free choice, but by the pressure of Portuguese in-
fluence; and were induced, although in the territory
of a pagan sovereign, to subscribe the following extra-
ordinary decree, previously written, with the other
acts, by himself and a Jesuit, in Portuguese, for
signature by those poor Malays:-"All the priests
and faithful people of this bishopric, in Synod as-
sembled, submit themselves, with much respect and
obedience, to the holy, righteous, just, and necessary
tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in these
parts, acknowledging how the said tribunal contri-
butes to the purity of the faith. They swear and
promise obedience to its commands. They desire to
be judged according to its laws in matters of faith;
and they beseech the Inquisitors to appoint in their
place, on account of the distance," (the distance of
Goa from the diocese of Cochin), "the reverend
Jesuit fathers of the college of Vaipicota, or some
other learned persons from the number of those who
reside in this diocese." *
All authentic history of this part of India contra-
dicts the statements of the Diamper Synod. The few
priests who were persuaded to join the Church of
Rome did so with reluctance, and not without reser-
vation; and the majority, both of clergy and laity,
Above all
regarded the usurpers with abhorrence.
things, the Inquisition was hateful to them; and when
the books containing the ancient Syriac Liturgies
were burnt, and the use of those Liturgies forbidden,
under peril of excommunication, which was equivalent
*Sess. iii., Act. 22.
FIRST INQUISITION IN INDIA.
97
with death, they conceived a profound indignation,
which every successive provocation deepened, until
they desperately broke off the yoke.
The bitterness of Roman orthodoxy was not con-
cealed in a profession of faith drawn up under the
authority of Clement VIII. for subscription by the
Orientals who came into the unity of the Roman
Church. The convert was required to sign his name
twice; once to the Creed, and once again to a pro-
mise to maintain it. He was made to reprobate and
curse utterly all heretics, and all who believed or
taught heretically. They compelled him to declare
that no man dying outside the Church of Rome could
be a partaker of eternal life, and to promise that he
would enforce the same faith on all persons under his
authority. Going far beyond the limits of even Roman
orthodoxy as then established, the Creed for Orientals
anticipated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception
of the Virgin Mary, lately published by authority (in
1854,) and pronounced that our Lord became incar-
nate "in the immaculate womb of the most Blessed
Mary, ever virgin." And,
And, as if Clement VIII. had
resolved to distinguish his pontificate by some record
of complete impiety, the convert was required to ab-
jure the Sabbath, together with circumcision and the
distinction of meats; a contrivance doubtless intended
to provide the Inquisitors in India, as in Spain, with
occasions for testing the religion of persons suspected
to be of Jewish extraction. Moreover, by annihilating
the Sabbath in India, and not noticing the Lord's
Day, those keepers of the faith no doubt calculated
that they should succeed in diverting from those lands
the religious knowledge, the sanctity, and the blessed-
ness that always, in some degree, distinguish Sabbath-
keeping nations, and constitute a strong barrier
against the delusions and vices of Popery.
* Brevis orthodoxæ fidei professio, quæ ex præscripto Sanctæ Sedis
Apostolicæ ab Orientalibus ad sacrosanctæ Romanæ Ecclesiæ unitatem
venientibus facienda proponitur. Romæ, 1595.
VOL. II.
H
98
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Long did those Christians refuse obedience to the
Roman Pontiff, but they were lashed into submission;
and, after wearisome and humiliating negotiations,
a Synod being convened at Amida, a sort of union
was effected. Once, during the correspondence, their
Patriarch Elijah ventured to address Paul V. in such
words as these: "We beseech you to send us good
letters, in consideration of our profession" of obedience
to the Papal See, "to show on our arrival in India,'
(whither Elijah was going, in the new character of one
holding authority from the Pope); "because, in Ormus
and in Goa, and beyond, the Inquisitors of the Faith
sorely trouble us. For the men of our country are
not at all learned; and therefore they trouble us ex-
ceedingly, or else take money from us, and then let us
go. One priest of Amida has died in consequence of
what they have done to him" (A.D. 1616). But it
does not appear that Paul V. condescended to lay any
restraint on the Inquisitors, who went on their way,
killing some, and ruining others by fines and confisca-
tions, until one too hasty step provoked the people of
Malabar to snap their fetters.
It is worth noting that Cardinal Bellarmine, that
specious Jesuit whom it was fashionable for courtiers
around the throne of our James I. to regard as a para-
gon of sanctity, and some of whose writings found
clerical translators in England, was the man who
acquired merit at Rome by leading the inquisitorial
persecution of the Nestorians. One of his biographers*
boasts that it was he that saw and discovered the
Patriarch Elijah, of Babylon (A.D. 1610), to be a Nes-
torian, who, masked as a Catholic, sent his profession
of faith to Paul V. under malicious terms. It was he,
too, who took the part of Farinacci, when his "most
useful book," De Haresi, was assailed. Bellarmine
spent a month in reviewing the work, gave it his
probation, and sent it forth improved.
ap-
* Vita del R. Card. Bellarmino dal P. FRANCESCO MArazzani,
cap. xi.
FIRST INQUISITION IN INDIA.
99.
Having failed to obtain any concession from Rome
in favour of their ancient Syrian ritual, the Malabar
Christians seceded from communion with Francisco
García, the Jesuit Archbishop of Cranganore, and
applied to the Nestorian Patriarch of Babylon, or the
Jacobite at Damascus, for another in his place. One
was sent to them named Atahalla; but the Inquisitors
seized him in Meliapore (St. Thomas), took him to
Goa, and there he perished in their hands, after
having graced their last forlorn triumph over the
Syrian Church by walking in an Acto-de-Fé, at the end
of which they burnt him in the usual manner. Meet-
ings were held by the Syrian clergy in the diocese
of Cochin, and, at length, a Nestorian bishop was
ordained in the year 1653.
Uor M
100
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXX.
INDIA AND CHINA.
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST.
BETWEEN the Inquisition and the Jesuits there were
frequent conflicts. The reckless barbarism of elder
birth and the refined cunning of the later sect could
not be harmonised, yet both were devoted to the same
object, the defence and extension of the Papacy.
The Pope, as common father, was often appealed to
for the settlement of their difficulties, and did his best
to promote the interests of both.
În India and China the two corporations could the
less easily agree, because their action was entirely
different. The Jesuits thought it expedient to pursue
a policy of extreme concession, surrendering the dis-
tinctive truths of Christianity, and keeping out of sight
even the discipline and ritual of their own Church, if
thereby they could win over the heathens to their
side, rather than lead them to Christ. The Inqui-
sitors, on the other hand, pretended perfect ortho-
doxy, assumed an air of intense anxiety to preserve
the integrity of Romish faith, and, so far as the power
of Portugal extended and they could avail themselves
of military force, they had the power of life and death
in their hands, and could impress the natives with
dread, and overawe their own clergy too. Hence it
came to pass that not only the Jesuits, but the Bishops
and the priests regarded them with dread and jealousy,
and appealed to Rome against their violence.
The Inquisitors, both at home and abroad, never
showed more arrogance than about the year 1610,
when Cardinal Bellarmine was in the height of power
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST.
101
in Rome, and the Inquisitors and Jesuits, at that time
less disunited than usual in Europe, were at hot war
in India. Just then the Cardinals, elate with hope of
recovering from the East what they had lost at home,
were ready to make every possible concession, on the
newly-occupied missionary fields, that might lead to
an ingathering of proselytes to the Church. So, in
a General Congregation of the Holy Roman and
Universal Inquisition, held in the Apostolic Palace at
St. Peter's, on the 26th March, 1611, in presence of
Pope Paul V. and the most reverend Roman Car-
dinals, Inquisitors-General against heretical pravity,
His Holiness conceded to the Fathers of the Society of
Jesus, in China, and to other Catholic priests:-
1. That in the celebration of the Mass, they might
have their heads covered, it being a sign of irreverence
in China to uncover the head; but they were not to
wear a common hat or cap, but either a cap provided
for the occasion, of the same colour as the furniture
of the altar, or such a cap as was usually worn by
preachers in the pulpit.
2. His Holiness also permitted the said Fathers to
translate the Bible into Chinese, not, indeed, common
Chinese, but the dialect used by literary men; and
he also permitted the divine offices of Mass and
Canonical Hours to be translated into the same
dialect.
3. He further permitted the Sacraments to be
administered, and other services of the Church to
be performed in the same language, provided the
officiating ministers were lawfully promoted to holy
orders, and conformed to the sacred rite of the Roman
Church.*
As the Chinese Mission advanced, questions mul-
*Constitutiones Apostolica, Brevia, Decreta, &c., pro Missionibus
Sinarum, Tunquini, &c., ad usum R.R.D.D. Episcoporum, Sacerdo-
tumque à Summis Pontificibus ab Eminentissimus D.D. Cardinalibus S.
Congregationis de propaganda Fide respective in Orientem missorum.
Parisiis, MDCLXXVI. cum privilegio Regis. Pars secunda, pagina 51.
102
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
tiplied, and (A.D. 1645) after discussion in the Con-
gregation de propaganda Fide, a second and much
larger inquiry was opened in the Holy Office, whereby
that Congregation was made the seat of judgment for
China and the whole eastern world, and had the
fullest opportunity for letting mankind know to what
extent they would maintain the unity of the faith,
and by what principle they would be guided in at-
tempting the conservation of that faith. The Quali-
ficators reported, and the Fathers of the Holy Office
adopted their judgment to the effect following:-
Question. "Whether the Chinese Christians were
bound to observe the positive law as to fasts, confess-
ing once in the year, communicating, observing the
festivals in the same manner as the Indians in New
Spain and in the Philippine Islands were bound to do,
by the direction of Pope Paul III. for the East and
West Indies."
Answer. The positive ecclesiastical law concerning
fasts is absolutely binding on the Chinese Christians,
and this should be clearly made known to them by
the Missioners. But considering the difference of
countries, and the quality of persons, there is room
for dispensation, if His Holiness pleases, and as Paul
III. granted to the Indians. This indulgence being
obtained, the Missioners of Holy Mother Church
would endeavour to shew pity to those for whom the
Pope had made the law, by kindly remitting a great
part of it. The Chinese were certainly under obligation
to confess once in the year, and the Missioners ought
to inform them accordingly. Holy Communion, too,
should be administered to them once in the year,
but with some choice of time convenient. All the
Festivals ought to be observed by the Chinese con-
verts, but, by the Pope's leave, the number of Feast-
days might be reduced.
66
Q. Whether ministers of the Gospel in the afore-
said kingdom might for the present, at least, abstain
from putting upon women the holy oil of catechumens,
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST. 103
and from putting spittle in their ears, or salt in their
mouths; and also whether they might abstain from ad-
ministering the sacrament of Extreme Unction to those
women. The reason of doubt on these matters was
that the Chinese are very jealous of their wives, and
daughters, and other women, and are scandalised by
actions of the kind."
A. The sacramental rites should all be observed in
baptising women, and Extreme Unction must be
administered to them, notwithstanding the doubt
which was expressed, but care should be taken to
introduce such rites and ceremonies, and to administer
them with such circumspection that the men would
have no reason to suspect any impropriety on part of
the priests.
Q. "It is established by Law in China that thirty
per cent. interest is charged on money borrowed,
without consideration of the wealth of the lender, or the
injury of the borrower. The question was whether it
is lawful for the Chinese to receive 130 for 100 of their
money, even if there were no gain by lending nor any
loss in borrowing. The reason for doubt was that (on
these terms) there was some danger in recovering the
loan, for the borrower might either abscond or delay
repayment, or would have to be prosecuted, and so
forth."
A. The Qualificators thought there ought to be very
small interest on temporary loans, and for the rest,
the customary conditions might be lowered.
Other questions concerning usury were put and
answered. But what had the Society of the Propa-
ganda or the Holy Office to do with monetary regula-
tions in China?
Q. "It was customary in the towns and cities of
China to impose certain contributions on the inhabi-
tants to defray the cost of sacrifices in the idol-temples
of their demons, and for invitations and feastings in
those temples in the Festival of the New Year, at
other festivities, and at times indifferent, for the sake
104
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
of entertaining the people. The question was whether
it was lawful for Christians and their ministers, from
whom, as from other inhabitants, these contributions
were required, to give any thing for purposes of the
kind; but if Christians were not to contribute, there
would be more tumult raised against the Christians.
among the Heathens."
A. The Fathers thought that Chinese Christians
might contribute their money, so long as the money
was not intended to be given for countenancing the
acts of Idolatry, especially if they protested before-
hand, if that were practicable, that they gave the
required contribution only for the entertainment of
the people, and for acts indifferent, or at least for
whatever was not repugnant to the religion and wor-
ship of Christians.
Q. "In all the cities and towns of that kingdom
there were temples erected to a certain idol, called
Chin Hoang, which the Chinese regard as Protector,
Ruler, and Guardian of the place, and by an estab-
lished law of the kingdom, all the governors, who are
called Mandarins, were required, on taking possession
of their office, and twice every month in the course of
the year, under penalty of deprivation of the office,
to go into the said temples, and there to go down upon
their bended knees, and striking the ground with their
head, adore and venerate that idol, offer candles, per-
fumes, flowers, meat, and wine in sacrifice; and when
they took possession of their office, to swear before the
said idol that they would administer aright, and if
they did the contrary, would submit to the punishment
inflicted by the idol, and at the same time they asked
of it to teach them how to govern well, and did other
things of the same kind.
66
They asked whether, considering the weakness
of that people, Christian Governors might, for the
present, be allowed to carry a kind of cross (quandam
crucem) which they might place out of sight on the
altar of the idol, among flowers, or have in their
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST. 105
hands concealed, and without any intention of wor-
shipping the idol, but the cross, might make those
genuflexions, reverences and adorations before that
altar, but only outwardly, and feignedly, directing
all worship inwardly and in heart, towards the cross,
because, if governors of this kind were compelled to
refuse this kind of worship, they would rather apos-
tatise from the Faith than lose their places."
A. They were answered that Christians could never
be allowed to perform public acts of this kind, with
mere pretence of rendering worship or reverence to an
idol, or under pretext or intention of reverencing a
cross held in the hand, or concealed under flowers on
the altar.
Q. "The Chinese have a certain literary man,
Master in moral philosophy, long ago (olim) departed
this life, called Cung-Fu-Cû, who for learning, rules,
and writing, is so much admired in all the kingdom,
that people of all ranks, from kings downward, pro-
pose him to themselves for imitation, follow him,
venerate and praise him as a speculative and holy
man. In every city and town temples are erected to
this Master. But Governors are bound to offer solemn
sacrifice in his temple twice in the year, themselves
performing the service of priest; and without solem-
nity, twice every month in the year, some of the
literary men assemble together with him for the
administration of the things which are offered in a
sacrifice of the kind; namely, one entire dead sow,
one whole goat, candles, wine, flowers, perfumes. So
all the literary men, when they take a degree, must
go into the temple of that Master, make their genu-
flexions, and offer candles and perfumes before his
altar. All this worship, sacrifice and reverence,
according to the formal intention of all that people,
is rendered in thanksgiving for the evidences which
remain of his good teaching, and that they may
obtain from him, and for the sake of his merits, the
happiness of an excellent genius, wisdom and under-
standing.
106
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
66
They asked whether Governors who were, or had
been Christians, and literary men, might be called
and compelled to enter the aforesaid temple, to make
a sacrifice of the kind, or to assist at sacrifices of the
kind, or make genuflexions before it, or accept any of
the meats offered to idols, and partake of those obla-
tions, especially because those infidels think that
whoever eats of those idol-meats will make great
progress in letters and in degrees; and if carrying
the cross in their hands, they may lawfully do this
in the way already expressed above; because, if they
were forbidden to do this, there would be a tumult
among the people, Ministers of the Gospel would be
sent away into exile, and the conversion of souls
would be hindered and extinguished."
A. The Fathers agreed that this would not be lawful,
and must not be allowed to the Christians on any
account whatever.
Q. "There was a custom of inviolable observance
with the Chinese, like the doctrine delivered by the
abovesaid master Cung-Fu-Çû, that in all the towns of
China they had temples dedicated to their deceased
ancestors, and in each of them all who were of his
family assembled twice in the year that they might
make solemn sacrifices, with a great display of cere-
monies; and on an altar adorned with many candles,
flowers and perfumes, set up an image or portrait of
the deceased father or grandfather, in which sacrifice
one of them performs the office of priest and minister,
and they offer flesh, wine, candles, perfumes, and
goats' heads. The common intention of this sacrifice,
with those people, was to render thanks to their fore-
fathers, pay honour and reverence for the benefits
they had received from them, and for what they hoped
to receive. Therefore they prostrated themselves
before the altar and made many deprecations, praying
for health, long life, abundance of fruits, multiplication
of children, great prosperity, and deliverance from all
adversaries. The same sacrifice was also offered in
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST. 107
their houses, and at the sepulchres of the dead, but
with lesser ceremony.
"They asked whether Christians, feignedly, and
only in outward appearance, as said before, might be
present at a sacrifice of the kind, or exercise any
ministry in it, mingled with the infidels, either in the
temple, or the house, or the sepulchre, publicly or pri-
vately, or if in any manner this could be permitted to
those Christians; lest, if it were absolutely forbidden
them, they should lose their faith, or, to speak more
correctly, withdraw themselves from the outward acts
of Christians."
66
A. The Inquisitors entirely objected to any parti-
cipation, however disguised, in any such ceremonies.
Q. The Chinese Christians asserted that in those
oblations they only meant to exhibit such reverence
to their deceased forefathers as they would render to
them if they were still alive, and only in memory and
reverence of progeniture and parentage, presenting
such food to them as they would eat if they were
living, without any other intention, or any hope of
gifts in answer to prayer, as they knew them to be
dead, and their souls buried out of sight.
"They asked whether this might be done among
Christians only, without any association with heathens
in temples, houses, or sepulchres, placing a cross on
the altar of the deceased, directing their intention to
it, yet so as to attribute to the image of their pro-
genitor nothing more than the filial honour and
reverence which they would show him if he were
alive, by giving him such food, and refreshing him
with such perfumes, and so satisfy the people. They
asked whether this might now be allowed, in order to
avoid inconveniences."
A. After what had been already said the Qualifi-
cators judged that the objections already given to
such proposals could not be removed by the means
suggested, nor any unlawful and superstitious actions
be permitted in the worship of the true God.
108
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Q. "In order to preserve the memory of their pro-
genitors, the Chinese made use of certain tablets on
which their names were written, which they called
the seats of souls, believing that the souls of the
deceased came and were present in those tablets to
receive sacrifices and oblations. The said tablets
were placed on their proper altars, with roses, candles,
lamps, and odours; and before those altars they made
genuflexions and prayers, expecting that help would
be given by the departed in their necessities and
labours. They asked whether it might be lawful for
Christians, setting aside all Gentile superstitions and
errors, to use, for the present, tablets of the kind,
placing them on the same altar with the images of
our Lord and the Saints, or in some other separate
place with the ornaments above said, in order that
they might satisfy the Gentiles, or make the same
prayers and sacrifices with the same intention."
A. The Inquisitors persist in utterly rejecting such
proposals.
Q. "When a Chinese died, whether he were Gentile
or Christian, it was an inviolable custom to prepare a
kind of altar in the house of the deceased, with his
image, or tablet, as already described, with the urnal
ornaments, the dead body in its coffin being placed
behind. All who came into the house to render their
condolence, knelt before the altar and image of the
deceased, striking the ground with their heads three
or four times, having brought candles and perfumes
with them to be consumed and burnt before the altar
with the portrait of the deceased.
"Might Christians, and especially Ministers of the
Gospel, for the sake of mutual benevolence and kind-
ness, do the same, especially when the deceased had
been principal persons in the town?"
A. The Fathers thought that if the table so prepared
was no more than a table, not an altar true and proper,
and if other things were equally confined within
the limits of civil and political respect, it might be
suffered.
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST. 109
Q. "It was asked whether ministers ought to declare,
and openly and particularly teach catechumens prepared
to receive baptism, that sacrifices and all the things
specified above were unlawful, although the incon-
venience should follow that the catechumens would
desist from receiving baptism, and persecutions, death,
or the exile of the Ministers of the Gospel would be
the consequence."
A. "It was decided that Ministers of the Gospel
were bound to teach that all sacrifices, except those
offered to God only, are unlawful, that the worship
of demons and idols was to be abandoned, and that
everything relating to worship of the kind is false and
repugnant to Christian faith. But they should descend
to particulars so far only as the capacity of the cate-
chumens would allow, or their ignorance require;
considering other circumstances and customs, and the
dangers to be apprehended."
After a question concerning the use of a Chinese
word signifying holy, another on a point of ceremony,
and another on prayer for the dead, the concluding
inquiry was one of great importance.
Q. "Are we preachers of the Gospel bound in this
kingdom to preach Christ crucified, and to show His
most holy image, especially in our churches? The
occasion of this doubt is that the Gentiles are scanda-
lised with such preaching and exhibition, and judge it
to be the greatest folly."
To this question the following answer was re-
turned :-
A. "They," that is to say, the Inquisitors, "decided
that for the sake of no prudence, nor under any pre-
text, should the doctrine of the Passion be deferred
until after Baptism, but by all means taught before.
But as to the actual preaching of Christ crucified,
although Gospel ministers are not bound to it in every
single Sermon, but must set forth the Word of God
and the divine mysteries prudently and opportunely,
and explain them according to the capacity of the
110
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
catechumens, they are not obliged to abstain from
speaking of our Lord's passion in these sermons,
because the Gentiles are offended with it, and think it
foolishness. They also decided that it was right for
images of Christ crucified to be had in the Churches,
and that therefore care should be taken to place them
there so far as practicable."
Decrees were issued by the Roman Congregation of
the Universal Inquisition on matters of worship and
of discipline from time to time, as well as on ques-
tions directly relating to the faith. The Pope con-
stantly took the decision of that Congregation before
giving his assent to any proposal, or answering to
any question on appeal, thus placing the eastern Mis-
sions under the control of the Holy Office. On the
same plan all Missions, all religious communities
and all confraternities in world-wide Popedom were
brought under the same searching oversight. Here
ceased all hope of redress of wrongs committed by the
remote tribunals, except, very rarely, for reconsider-
ation of his own decisions by the Pontiff who had
already sanctioned the very measure appealed against
as grievous. He became, in effect, Chief Inquisitor,
presiding over that Congregation in the supreme
government of the Church. It is needless to multiply
instances. They can be found with documentary
evidences in the collection now quoted.
Next arose grave difficulties in India between the
Inquisition and the Bishops and Missionary Clergy.
There is no space here for a narrative of those affairs,
but a sufficient notice of them may be supplied by an
extract from a Brief of Pope Clement X.
"Dear children, Health in the Lord! As it has
reached our ears, not without causing a feeling of
profound grief, that the administrators of this Holy
See in Eastern parts, sent hence by the same, have
been ill received and sorely vexed by the tribunal of
the Inquisition and its officials, we are extremely sur-
prised. For while it is the only function of the most
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST. 111
Holy Inquisition to remove all impediments which
might hinder the integrity, conservation, and propa-
gation of the faith in the Church of God, it appears to
us altogether foreign from the design of this tribunal
to do that which your officials, and especially the
Commissary of Siam, have perpetrated against the
workmen, as aforesaid, of the Holy See, sent by the
same into Eastern Asia for the propagation of the
Catholic faith.
"For, as has been related to us, they have dared,
without any competent authority, to proceed inju-
riously against our venerable brother Peter, Bishop of
Beyrout, honoured with the office of Vicar Apostolic,
by compelling him to exhibit his credentials, even
after he refused to do so, as being immediately subject
to the Holy See, and by declaring him not only a
rebel against the most Holy Inquisition, but also a
person suspected of unsound faith; and then by com-
manding all the faithful to abstain entirely from com-
munication with him. I even hear that they refused,
to hold any correspondence with him, or with the
missioners, and that they affixed a sentence to this
effect to the church-doors, causing great scandal to all
Christians, and grave detriment to the Christian faith.
In consequence of this, another official of the In-
quisition of Goa, resident in those parts, drove from
his station a missioner, sent by the Holy See to
labour at Cambay. He did this under a pretence of
heresy, and commanded the missioner to be transported
to the city of Macao; whence, after being ignomi-
niously cast into prison by the Commissary of the
same Inquisition, and kept there for five months,
he was conveyed to the prisons of the Inquisition in
Goa. The same thing had happened to another mis-
sioner some time before, to the great injury of Chris-
tians, who, being deprived of the help of missioners,
are left exposed to the incursions of the devil; and, nó
man helping them, they are abandoned to the guile
of that most hateful enemy.
112
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
"And although no man can make us believe that
these things were done at the command of that tri-
bunal, we cannot suppose that the whole blame is to be
laid on its inferior officers. We cannot suppose that
you are yourselves to be altogether excused, seeing
that you did not inflict any punishment on the Com-
missary of Siam for the injury done to the aforesaid
Bishop of Beyrout; nor do we observe that any of the
officers of your Inquisition who committed the offence
were put out of office.
"Therefore, by virtue of the supreme power over
His Church which our Lord Jesus Christ has committed
unto us, in order that all hindrances to the propaga-
tion of the faith may be henceforth removed, we declare
that all vicars apostolic and their missioners, now
sent, or hereafter to be sent, to China, Cochin-China,
Tonquin, Siam, Camboya, and other places of the
East, are to be altogether free from the jurisdiction of
the Inquisition of Goa in those regions which are not
under the temporal government of the King of Por-
tugal. And we command you with apostolic authority
that you entirely abstain from exercising against them
any such acts, either by yourselves or by your inferior
officers, under whatever pretext, colour, or privilege.
Otherwise you will place yourselves in opposition to
the will of this Holy See, with great discredit of your
filial observance towards the same. Considering, how-
ever, your singular piety, we hold it for certain that
no such thing can come to pass. To you, meanwhile,
dear children, we paternally and freely impart the
apostolic blessing.
"Given at Rome, at St. Mary's the Greater, under
the seal of the Fisherman, on the tenth day of Novem-
ber, 1673, in the fourth year of our pontificate."
Smoothly as the language of this document may
sound, it betrays great displeasure; and the anger of
the Roman Jesuits must have been intense on finding
that their brethren, both in Europe and the East, like
their father Ignatius before them, were subjected to
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST.
113
inquisitorial jurisdiction, and made to suffer the indig-
nities of imprisonment and inquest. The Jesuit
Vieyra, whom we saw imprisoned in Coimbra, and
who made his way thence to Rome, was still at that
Court, moving every spring whereby he could hope to
humble the Inquisition. To Vieyra also the Pope had
granted a Bull of exemption for life from the autho-
rity of the Inquisition of Portugal, and reserved him
to be under his own peculiar care. The tribunal of
Goa might almost be regarded as a branch of that of
Portugal, inasmuch as the territory was now Portu-
guese, and the Inquisitors were all sent out at the
expense of that country, and kept under the immediate
protection of the King.
Under the same date, another Brief was executed
for the Archbishop of Goa; or, in case of the see being
found vacant, for the members of the chapter; reciting
in general the same facts, and adding, as regarded the
Archbishop, that he had forbidden all Christians to
hold any communication with the Bishop of Beyrout,
under a penalty of two hundred pieces of money, and
under peril of excommunication also. So shattered
was Catholic unity! So cold was apostolic charity in
that branch of the Church of Rome! Twelve days
after, Clement issued a third document--a constitution
to be observed in Rome by all whom it might concern-
bringing the missioners under the sole authority of
the Roman See.
This was as much as the priestly antagonists of the
Inquisitors could wish; for whatever may have been
the outrages of the Inquisition in India, the Pope and
his Court would not on any account have it suppressed.
Far from that, the fathers of the Holy Office were com-
forted with apostolic benediction, bidden, indeed, to keep
their hands off the vicars apostolic and the missioners,
but left quite free to wash them daily in the blood of
Nestorians, New Christians, and any Protestants who
might stray into those regions. As for the Jesuits,
every man of them had taught heresy enough, and
VOL. II.
I
114
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
that a thousand times over, for him to be sent home in
irons, and burnt at Lisbon in a slow fire. The Court
of Rome well knew that they were not preaching in
China anything like what Rome or any Church in
Christendom would allow to be called Christianity;
and the Sacred Congregation of the supreme and
universal Roman Inquisition had but lately issued its
last sentence in very feeble condemnation of the mis-
sioners. They also knew full well that the only effect
of their decision was, or would be-just as much as
they had intended-to quiet the clamours of the
Franciscans at home, and, for the moment perhaps, to
shut the mouths of Protestants. Still those Jesuit
missioners, in spite of the decisions of 1656, which
were again and again confirmed, taught their Chinese
proselytes to adore Confucius; to burn perfumes
before the tablets of their ancestors, in sign of worship;
to join in idolatrous festivities and other practices; to
throw a veil of concealment over the story of the
Saviour's crucifixion; never, therefore, to let a crucifix
be seen, lest the heathen should object to the scandal
of the cross, and lest the so-called Christian converts
should take offence if they heard the foundation-truth
of the Gospel-that our Lord Jesus Christ suffered a
shameful death-that the founder of the Christian
religion was despised and rejected of men, and should
renounce Christianity openly, or at least lose the grace
of baptism.
Who then could say that the Roman Propaganda
was jealous for the faith; or that the Supreme and
universal Inquisition cared at all for the faith; or that
the sacred College of Cardinals in Rome itself had
any true zeal for the propagation of the faith? In
this case the position of affairs was quite intelligible.
The Chinese Emperor, Kang-he, had proclaimed free-
dom of worship for his subjects, provided they per-
formed their ceremonies according to the teaching of
his former preceptor, John Adam Schall, who elabo-
rated a form of religion scarcely distinguishable from
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST. 115
his own; and by order of the Holy See the same crafty
missioners were to be exempted from the meddling of
the Inquisition, which, if it acted at all, could not
help treating those mandarin clergymen as paganising
heretics, which indeed they were. However, all this
was quite consistent with Roman policy, which was to
exalt the Papal throne at any cost, and not allow even
Roman faith to stand for one moment in the way.
There was a Latin father who said beautifully of the
true Catholic faith, "Quod semper, quod ubique, quod
ab omnibus;" and the like we may say of Roman
politicians, but in a profoundly lower sense, and within
a pitifully contracted circle,- What always was, what
you find everywhere, what they all do.
Notwithstanding all that the Court of Rome might
say when directly called upon by Capuchins and others
in India, to remove the scandal caused in Europe by
the proceedings of the Jesuit Missioners in India and
China, it is notorious that the Holy Office put forth
no effectual effort to restrain them. To have been
consistent they should have burnt every paganising
Jesuit that could be caught. Their departure from
common Christianity, from the faith professed in
Rome, even cumbered and corrupted with false wor-
ship as that is, should have been held unpardonable, but
the criminals were complimented and blessed in the
very Papal Briefs professedly written for their con-
demnation. On the other hand, one man * who had
*Father Norbert: his well known Memoirs, in three quarto
volumes, the last of which bears this title-Mémoires Historiques,
Apologétiques, etc. Présentés en 1751, au Souverain Pontife Benoit XIV.
sur les Missions de la Société de Jésus aux Indes et à la Chine, où l'on voit
le Commerce immense, et les fausses Rélations de leurs Missionaires, les
persecutions qu'ils ont faites aux Envoyés du Siège Apostolique, et aux
fidèles Ministres de l'Evangile, leur opiniâtreté à pratiquer les Rites
Idolâtres et Superstitieux, anathématisés par plusieurs Papes, et nouvelle-
ment par deux éclatantes Bulles, qu'on donnera dans ce Volume; avec
un détail de la conduite des Féres Jésuites à l'égard de Benoit XIV., et
de l'Auteur de cet Ouvrage. Par le R. P. NORBERT, Capucin de
Lorraine, Missionnaire Apostolique de ces Pays-là, et Procureur-
General en Cour de Rome, de ces mêmes Missions. A Londres,
chez les Libraires François, MDCCLI.
116
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
honestly exposed their doings, reporting what he had
himself seen and known in India, was obliged to quit
Rome before he could venture to publish the narrative
of his experience when among them, and necessitated
to print his work in Besançon, and afterwards a justi-
fication of the same in London.
A single instance of actual connivance with prac-
tices that would have cost any number of men their
lives in Italy or Spain, will show the character of
those Indian Inquisitors, the author himself being
witness.*
"About twelve years ago, in the time when Father
Norbert was in the Indies, the city of Goa was be-
seiged by twenty-five thousand Mahrattas. The in-
habitants could not venture outside the city without
being exposed to pillage. It was not long before a
drought made them implore help from Heaven. To
this end they addressed themselves to St. Anthony of
Padua. You will see how they insulted the Saint
rather than invoked him. The Viceroy, the Primate,
and all the religious bodies assembled with the people;
they stripped the image of the Saint of all its magni-
ficent garments, and put a rope about its neck. In
this humiliating condition they carried it in procession
to the ditch that surrounds the city, and in sight of all
the people they hung it up in one of them. If Father
Norbert had been in Goa at the time he would have
raised his voice against a practice so shameful to the
Christians, and which ought to be condemned by the
Inquisition. In the same year he had occasion to
speak with an Augustinian, one of the most learned
men in Goa, who had been Professor of Theology
there, and the procession afforded ample material for
conversation. Then did you wish,' said Father Nor-
bert, by this means to force the Saint to drive away
the Mahrattas from the city? Or did you mean to
excite yourselves to anger because he had not yet done
so? Is not such a kind of worship unreasonable?
6
* Tome iii., page 56.
CONFLICT OF PARTIES IN THE FAR EAST. 117
6
6
What can the Gentiles of the Indies think of it?
Would they treat one of their idols with such con-
tempt - even if it were an image of the Devil?
Is there any good sense in honouring the statue of a
Saint on the altar one day and letting it down the
next day into the bottom of a filthy ditch? Nothing
astonishes me more than to see how a city with an
Inquisition, and a Primate, where there are so many
Theologians and Missioners, gives in to a thing so
ridiculous, to say nothing worse.' The Professor,
without seeming at all surprised, answered all this in
just a word-It was the costumada-the custom.'
To think of destroying this custom would be to run
the risk of driving the people to revolt.
• Tell me
then,' said Father Norbert, what is the spirit of the
people?'
St. Anthony,' replied the Augustinian,
was humble; his humility has brought down upon
the earth continual graces from Heaven, so by this
humble action of having the rope about his neck, and
being hung up in the ditch, it is hoped that he will
obtain the grace that is asked of him.' Father Nor-
bert rejoined, But the Saints cannot do any meri-
torious actions after this life. They have reached
the journey's end, and are no longer on the way. The
Catholic Church obliges us to believe this truth,
founded on the Holy Scriptures. Besides, it is not
the saint that is humbled in this case, but it is you
who humble the statue.' The expression costumada
came again," and the narrative proceeds to say that
St. Anthony in their Indian missions is generally
treated in the same way by persons pretending to be
Christians. But the Holy and Universal Inquisition
seemed to have no vocation to keep the faith pure,
unless when prompted by a motive entirely ecclesias-
tical or political. The Inquisitors therefore thought
that the Commissary should have held his peace, even
at Rome, for in relating a multitude of abominations
6
Father Norbert said here what his "Holy Church" would
pronounce to be "savouring of heresy," if not heresy direct.
118
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
which it was impossible to deny, the Pope said he
had acted contrary to certain Bulls. He had told
what indeed was true, but he had spoken bitterly,
and by divulging a multitude of indisputable facts,
had scandalised souls. The Congregation of the Index
condemned the book, and the Pope screened himself
under the report of this congregation, which is at the
head of the Roman and Universal Inquisition.
119
CHAPTER XXXI.
INDIA.
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
We have read that Mar Simeon, the Nestorian vicar, or
bishop, perished in the den at Goa, none tells how.
About thirty years after him, M. Dellon, a French
traveller, was thrown into that prison; and, by a rare
interposition of Providence, lived to relate what he
had witnessed, and what he suffered.
While spending some time at Damaun, on the north-
western coast of Hindostan, M. Dellon incurred the
jealousy of the Governor, and also of a black priest,
on account of a lady, as he is pleased to call her, whom
they both admired. He had expressed himself rather
freely concerning some of the grosser superstitions of
Romanism, and thus afforded the priest, who had the
honour to be secretary of the Inquisition for that place,
an occasion of proceeding against him for heresy.
The priest and the Governor united in a representa-
tion to the Chief Inquisitor at Goa, which brought an
order for him to be arrested. Like all other persons
whom it pleased the Inquisitors or their servants to ar-
rest in any part of the Portuguese dominions beyond the
Cape of Good Hope, he was at first thrown into a com-
mon prison, with a promiscuous crowd of delinquents,
the place and the treatment being of the worst kind,
even according to the colonial barbarism of the seven-
teenth century. In that common prison there was the
most complete impartiality. All fared alike, and many
prisoners perished from starvation and disease. Many
offenders against the Inquisition were there at the
time, some accused of Judaism, others of Paganism, in
120
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
which sorcery and witchcraft-under a most accurately
scientific classification-were included, and others of
immorality. In a field so wide and so fruitful the
scrutators of the faith could not fail to gather abun-
dantly.
After an incarceration of at least four months,
M. Dellon and his fellow-heretics were shipped off for
the metropolis of Portuguese India, all of them being
in irons. The vessel put in at Bacaim, and the pri-
soners were transferred, for some days, to the prison
of that town, where a large number of persons were
kept in custody, under charge of a commissary of the
Holy Office, waiting for a vessel to take them to Goa.
In due time they were again at sea, and a fair wind
wafted their fleet into that port after a voyage of seven
days. Until they could be deposited in the cells of
the Inquisition, the Archbishop of Goa obligingly
threw open his prison for their reception; which
prison, being ecclesiastical, may be deemed worthy
of description. "The most filthy," says Dellon, "the
most dark, and the most horrible of all that I ever
saw; and I doubt whether a more shocking and hor-
rible prison can anywhere be found. It is a kind of
cave, wherein there is no day seen but by a very little
hole. The most subtle rays of the sun cannot enter
into it, and there is never any true light in it. The
stench is extreme. . . The Archbishop must have
had this prison to keep his parishioners in order.
""
On the 16th of January, 1674, at eight o'clock in the
morning, an officer came with orders to take the prison-
ers to "the Holy House." With considerable difficulty
M. Dellon dragged his iron-loaded limbs thither. The
officers helped him to mount the steps at the great en-
trance, and, in the great hall, smiths were waiting to
take off the irons from all the prisoners. One by one
they were summoned to audience. Dellon, who was
called the last, crossed the hall, passed through an ante-
chamber, and entered a room called by the Portuguese
"Board of the Holy Office," where the Grand Inqui-
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
121
sitor of the Indies sat at one end of a very large table,
on an elevated floor in the middle of the chamber. He
was a secular priest, about forty years of age, in full
vigour; a man that could do his work with energy.
At one end of the room was a large crucifix, reaching
from the floor almost to the ceiling; and at one end of
the table, near the crucifix, sat a notary on a folding
stool.
At the opposite end, and near the Inquisitor, Dellon
was placed, and, hoping to soften his judge, fell on his
knees before him. But the Inquisitor commanded him
to rise, asked whether he knew the reason of his
arrest, and advised him to declare it at large, as that
was the only way to obtain a speedy release. Dellon
caught at the hope of release, began to tell his tale,
mixed tears with protestations, again fell at the feet of
Don Francisco Delgado Ematos, the Inquisitor, and
implored his favourable attention. Don Francisco told
him, very coldly, that he had other business on hand,
and, nothing moved, rang a silver bell. The Alcayde
entered, led out the prisoner into a gallery, opened
and searched his trunk, stripped him of every valuable,
wrote an inventory, assured him that all should be
safely kept, and then led him into a cell about ten feet.
square, and shut him up there in utter solitude. In
the evening they brought him his first meal, which he
ate heartily, and slept a little during the night follow-
ing. Next morning he learnt that he could have no
part of his property. Not even was a priest allowed
his Breviary there; for in that place they had no form
of religion, and for that reason he could not have a
book. His hair was cropped close, and therefore he
"did not need a comb
Thus began his acquaintance with the Holy House,
which he describes as great and magnificent," on
one side of the great space before the church of St.
Catherine. There were three gates in front, and it
was by the central, or largest, that the prisoners had
entered, and ascended a stately flight of steps, leading
122
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
into the great hall. The side-gates provided entrance
to spacious ranges of apartments, belonging to the
Inquisitors. Behind the principal building was ano-
ther, very spacious, two stories high, and consisting of
double rows of cells, opening into galleries that ran
from end to end. The cells on the ground-floor were
very small, perhaps from the greater thickness of the
walls, without any aperture from without for light or
air. Those of the upper story were vaulted, white-
washed; each had a small, strongly-grated window,
without glass, and higher than the tallest man could
reach: Towards the gallery, every cell was shut with
two doors, the one on the inside, and the other on
the outside, of the wall. The inner door folded,
was grated at the bottom, open towards the top for the
admission of food, and made fast with very strong
bolts. The outer door was not so thick, and had no
window, but was left open from six every morning
until eleven; an arrangement necessary in that cli-
mate, unless it were intended to destroy life by
suffocation.
To each prisoner was given an earthen pot, with
water wherewith to wash; another, full of water to
drink; with a cup, a broom, a mat whereon to lie; a
large basin for necessary use, changed every fourth
day, and another vessel to cover it, and receive offals.
The prisoners had three meals a day; and their health,
so far as food only could contribute to it in such a
place, was cared for in the provision of a wholesome,
but spare, diet. Physicians were at hand to render
medical assistance to the sick, as were confessors ready
to wait upon the dying; but the confessors gave no
viaticum, administered no unction, said no mass. The
place was under an absolute interdict. If any died,-
and that many did die is beyond question,-his death
was unknown to all without. He was buried within
the walls, without any sacred ceremony; and if, after
death, it was pronounced that he died in heresy, his
bones were taken up to be burned at the next Acto.
•
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
123
Unless there happened to be an unusual number of
He
prisoners, each one was alone in his own cell.
might not speak, nor groan, nor sob aloud, nor sigh.
His breathing might be audible when the warder
listened at the grating, but nothing more.
Four
warders were stationed in each long gallery. The
gallery was open, indeed, at each end, but awfully
silent, as if it were the passage of a catacomb. If one
of the victims, in despair, or pain, or delirium, uttered
a cry, or dared to pronounce a prayer even to God,
the jailors would run to the cell, rush in, and beat
him cruelly, to inspire terror in the rest.
Once in two months the Inquisitor, with a secretary
and an interpreter, visited the prisons, and asked each
prisoner if he wanted anything, if his meat was regu-
larly brought, and if he had any complaint against
the jailors. His want, after all, lay at the mercy of
the merciless. The utterance of his complaint would
bring down vengeance, rather than gain redress. But
in this visitation the Holy Office professed mercy with
much formality, while the inquisitorial secretary col-
lected notes which aided in the crimination, or in the
murder, of their victims.
The officers at Goa were, the Inquisidor Mor, or
Grand Inquisitor, who was always a secular priest;
the second Inquisitor, who was at that time a Domini-
can friar; several deputies, who came when called for,
to assist the Inquisitors at trials, but never came with-
out such a summons; qualifiers, as usual, to examine
books and writings, but never to witness an examina-
tion of the living, nor be present at any act of the
kind; a fiscal; a procurator; advocates, so called, for
the accused; notaries and familiars. Of these officers
enough has been said in preceding chapters. The
authority of this tribunal was absolute in Goa, as it
would be in Portugal, except that the Archbishop and
his Grand Vicar, the Viceroy, and the Governors,
could not be arrested without authority obtained, or
sent, from the Supreme Council in Lisbon. There
124
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
does not appear to have been anything peculiar in the
manner of examining and torturing at Goa, where the
practice coincided with that of Portugal and Spain.*
The personal narrative of M. Dellon affords a dis-
tinct exemplification of the sufferings of prisoners.
He had been told that when he desired an audience,
he had only to call a jailor, and ask it, and it would
be allowed him. But, notwithstanding many en-
treaties and tears, he could not obtain one until fifteen
days had passed away. Then came the Alcayde, and
one of his warders. The Alcayde walked first out of
the cell. Dellon, uncovered and shorn, and with legs
and feet bare, followed him; the warder walking
behind. The Alcayde just entered the place of audience,
made a profound reverence, stepped back, and allowed
his prisoner to enter. The door closed, and Dellon
remained alone with the Inquisitor and secretary.
He knelt, but Don Fernando sternly bade him sit on
a bench, placed there for the use of culprits. Near
him, on the table, was a Missal, on which they made
him lay his hand, and swear to keep secrecy, and to
tell them the truth. They asked if he knew the cause
of his imprisonment, and whether he was resolved to
confess it. He told them all that he could recollect of
unguarded sayings at Damaun, either in argument or
conversation, without ever, that he knew, contradict-
ing any article of faith directly or indirectly. He
had at some time dropped an offensive word concerning
the Inquisition, but so light a word that it did not
occur to his remembrance. Don Fernando told him
that he had done well in accusing himself so willingly;
exhorted him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
to complete his self-accusation fully, to the end that
he might experience the goodness and mercy which
were used in that Tribunal towards those who showed
true repentance by a sincere and unforced confession.
The secretary read aloud the confession and the ex-
* As described in the Sixth Chapter of the present work, and
the Appendix, No. I.
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
125
hortation. Dellon signed it. Don Fernando rang
the silver bell. The Alcayde walked in. In a few
moments the prisoner was again shut up in his dun-
geon.
At the end of another fortnight, and without having
asked for it, he was again taken to audience. After
a repetition of the former questions, he was asked his
name, surname, parentage, baptism, confirmation,
place of abode, in whose parish? in what diocese?
under what Bishop? They made him kneel down,
make the sign of the cross, repeat the Paternoster,
Hail Mary, Creed, commandments of God, command-
ments of the Church, and Salve Regina. He did it all
cleverly, and even to their satisfaction; but the
Inquisition exhorted him, by the tender mercies of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to confess more without delay,
and sent him to the cell again.
His heart sickened. They had required him to do
what was impossible; to confess more, after he had
acknowledged all. In despair, he tried to starve
himself to death; but they compelled him to take food.
Day and night he wept. At length he betook him-
self to prayer, imploring pity of "the blessed Virgin,"
whom he imagined to be, of all beings, the most
merciful, and the most ready to give him help. At
the end of a month he succeeded in getting another
audience, and added to his former confessions what
he had now remembered for the first time touching
the Inquisition. But they told him that that was not
what they wanted, and sent him back again.
This was intolerable. In a frenzy of despair he
determined to commit suicide, if possible. Feigning
sickness, he had a physician, who treated him for
fever, and ordered him to be bled. Never calmed
by any treatment of the physician, blood-letting
was repeated often, and each time he untied the
bandage when left alone, hoping to die from loss of
blood; but death fled from him. A humane Franciscan
came to confess him, and, hearing his tale of misery,
126
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
gave him kind words, asked permission to divulge his
attempt at self-destruction to the Inquisitor, procured
him a mitigation of solitude by the presence of a
fellow-prisoner, a Negro accused of magic; but after
five months the Negro was removed, and his mind,
broken with suffering, could no more bear up under
the aggravated load. By an effort of desperate inge-
nuity, he almost succeeded in committing suicide,
and a jailer found him weltering in his blood, and
insensible. Having restored him by cordials, and
bound up the wounds he had inflicted on himself, they
carried him into the presence of the Inquisitor once
more, where he lay on the floor, being unable to sit.
They gave him bitter reproaches, ordered his limbs to
be confined in irons, and sent him back to a punish-
ment more terrible than death. In fetters he became
so furious that they found it necessary to take them
off; and from that time his examination assumed
another character, as he defended his positions with
citations from the Council of Trent, and with some
passages of Scripture, which he explained in the most
Romish sense, and discovered a depth of ignorance in
the Inquisitor, Don Fernando, that was truly sur-
prising. That person had never heard the passage
which Dellon quoted to prove the doctrine of bap-
tismal regeneration: "Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God." Neither did he know anything of that famous
passage in the twenty-fifth session of the Council of
Trent, which declares that images are only to be
reverenced on account of the persons whom they
represent. He called for a Bible, and for the Acts of
the Council, and was evidently embarrassed on finding
the passages where Dellon told him they might be
seen.
As the time for a general Acto drew near, Dellon
heard, every morning, the cries of persons under tor-
ture; and afterwards he saw many of them, both men
and women, lame and distorted by the rack.
On
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
127
;
Sunday, January 11th, 1676, he was surprised by the
jailor refusing to receive his linen to be washed;
Sunday being washing-day in the "Holy House."
While perplexing himself to think what this could
mean, the cathedral bells rang for vespers, and then,
contrary to custom, rang again for matins; and he
could only account for that second novelty by suppos-
ing that an Acto would be celebrated next day. That
Sunday evening they brought him supper, which he
refused; and, contrary to their wont at all other times,
they did not insist on his taking it, but carried it
away. Assured that those were all portents of the
horrible catastrophe, and reflecting on oft-repeated
threats in the audience-chamber that he should be
burnt, he gave himself up to death; and, overwhelmed
with sorrow, fell asleep about midnight.
He had not been long asleep when the Alcayde and
warders entered the cell with great noise, bringing a
lamp; the first time since his imprisonment that they
had allowed a lamp to shine there. The Alcayde,
laying down a suit of clothes, bade him put them on,
and be ready to go out when he came again. At two
o'clock in the morning they returned, and he issued
from the cell, clad in a vest and trousers, black striped
with white, and his feet bare.
About two hundred prisoners, of whom he was one,
were made to sit on the floor, along the sides of a spa-
cious gallery, all in the same dark livery, and just
visible by the gleaming of a few lamps. A large
company of women were also ranged in a neighbour-
ing gallery in the same manner. But they were all
motionless, and no one knew his doom. Every eye
was fixed, and every one seemed benumbed with
misery. In a room not very distant, Dellon perceived
a third company; but they were walking about, and
some appeared to have long habits. Those were per-
sons condemned to be delivered to the secular arm;
and the long habits distinguished Confessors busily
collecting confessions, in order to commute the penalty
128
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
of "tasting fire" for that of strangling.
At four
o'clock servants of the house came, with warders, and
gave bread and figs to those who would accept the
refreshment. Dellon refused to take it; but the man
gave him some hope of life by advising him to accept
what was offered. "Take your bread," said he;
"and if you cannot eat it now, put it in your pocket:
you will be certainly hungry before you return.'
From this he inferred that he should not end the day
at the stake, but come back to undergo penance.
""
A little before sunrise the great bell of the cathedral
tolled, and at its sound Goa was aroused. The people
ran into the streets, soon lining the chief thorough-
fares, and crowding every place whence view could
be had of the procession. Day broke, and Dellon saw
the faces of his fellow-prisoners, most of whom were
Indians. He could only, by their complexion, dis-
tinguish about twelve Europeans. Every countenance
exhibited shame, fear, grief, or an appalling blankness
of apathy; as if unutterable suffering in the lightless
dungeons beneath had bereft them of intellect. The
company soon began to move, but slowly, as the
Alcayde led them, one by one, towards the door of
the great hall, where sat the Grand Inquisitor; whose
secretary called the name of each as he came, and the
name of a sponsor, who also presented himself from
amongst a crowd of the bettermost inhabitants of Goa,
assembled there for that service. "The General of
the Portuguese ships in the Indies" had the honour
of placing himself beside our Frenchman.
As soon as the procession was formed, it marched
off in order. Poor Dellon went barefoot like the rest,
through streets made rough with little flint-stones,
scattered thickly about; and sorely were his feet
wounded, after an hour's marching up and down.
Weary, and covered with shame and confusion, this
long train of culprits entered the church of St. Francis,
where preparation was made for the Acto; the climate
of India not permitting a celebration of that solemnity
under the burning sky.
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
129
4.
There they sat, together with their sponsors, in
galleries prepared for the occasion. Sambenitos, grey
zamarras, with painted flames and devils, corozas (or
carrochas, as the Portuguese call them), tapers, and
all the paraphernalia of an Acto, made up a woeful
spectacle. The Grand Inquisitor, the Viceroy, and
other personages, having taken their seats of state, and
the great crucifix being erected on the altar between
massive silver candlesticks, with tapers contrasting
their glare with the deadly black of dress and skin,
the Provincial of the Augustinians mounted the pulpit,
and delivered the sermon. Dellon made but one note
of it, where the preacher compared the Inquisition to
Noah's ark, which received all sorts of beasts wild,
but sent them out tame. And the appearance of the
hundreds who had been inmates of that ark certainly
justified the figure.
After sermon, two readers went up, one after ano-
ther, into the same pulpit,--(surely one person in the
same pulpit might anywhere be sufficient,) — read
the processes between them, and pronounced the sen-
tences, the person concerned standing before them,
with the Alcayde holding a lighted taper in his
hand. Dellon, in his turn, heard the cause of his long
sufferings. He had maintained the invalidity of
baptismus flaminis, or desire to be baptised when there
is no one to administer the rite of baptism by water.
He had said that images ought not to be adored, and
he had called an ivory crucifix a piece of ivory. He
had spoken contemptuously of the Inquisition; and,
above all, he had an ill intention. His punishment
was to be confiscation of his property, banishment
from India, and five years' service in the galleys in
Portugal, with such penance as the Inquisitors might
enjoin.
All the prisoners being excommunicate, the Inqui-
sitor, after the sentences had been pronounced, put on
his alb and stole, walked into the middle of the church,
and absolved them all at once. Dellon's gallant
VOL. II.
K
130
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
sponsor, who before this moment would not even an-
swer him when he spoke, now embraced him, called him
brother, and gave him a pinch of snuff in token of
reconciliation. Penance, however, had to follow, the
absolution notwithstanding.
There were two persons-a man and a woman-for
whom the Church had no more that she could do;
and these, with four dead bodies, and the effigies of
the dead, were taken to be burnt on the Campo Santo
Lazaro, on the river side, the place appointed for that
purpose; that the Viceroy might see justice done on
heretics, as he surveyed the execution from his palace-
windows.
The remainder of Dellon's history adds nothing to
what we have already heard of the customs of the
Inquisition. He was taken to Lisbon, and, after
working in a gang of convicts for some time, was
released on the intercession of some friends in France
with the Portuguese Government. With regard to his
despair and attempts at suicide when in prison, we
may observe that suicide was very frequent there, as
he states. The contrast of this disconsolate impatience
with the resignation and constancy of Christian con-
fessors in similar circumstances is obvious, and affords
valuable exemplification of the difference between
those who suffer without any consciousness of Divine
favour, and those who can rejoice with joy unspeak-
able and full of glory.
The friends of M. Dellon were not so active as they
might have been in procuring his deliverance; and it
does not appear that the French Government made his
case a subject of reclamation. But the English in
India, even when but occupants of a few factories,
showed a better sense of duty, as one instance re-
corded by Father Norbert * may illustrate.
"A Capuchin missioner, named Father Euphrem,
* Memoires Historiques, etc., présentés en 1751 au Souverain Pontife
Benoit XIV., sur les Missions de la Société de Jésus aux Indes et à la
Chine, par le R. P. NORBERT. Tom. iii., p. 56.
Tom. iii., p. 56. Londres.
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
131
arriving at Madras towards the end of the last (seven-
teenth) century, on his way to his mission in Pegu,
the English requested him to remain in the city. They
promised him entire liberty in respect to the Roman
religion, which he might exercise, and preach, and
minister to the Catholics that were already settled
there. He readily consented," says Norbert, "to such
equitable proposals, and formed an establishment,
which still exists under the protection of the English
Company.
"This father had pointed out, in a sermon, that
there is a great difference between the worship that
should be rendered to the Sovereign Creator, and the
honour that we pay to Mary, who is but a creature;
and therefore some Portuguese, superstitious as Indians,
accused him at the Inquisition of Goa of having
preached against the Mother of God. The Jesuits,
who are Inquisitors there, managed very adroitly to
carry off the missioner, take him to Goa, distant from
Madras about two hundred leagues, and, without any
other formality of prosecution, cast him into the depth
of a prison. The English, justly shocked at such a pro-
ceeding, undertook to break the prisoner's chains.
One of their vessels dropped anchor off Goa, and
eight or ten determined men, well armed, presented
themselves at the gate of the Inquisition, asking to
see the interior. Two of them kept guard at the gate,
and the others, sword in hand, threatened the Inquisi-
tors that, if they did not instantly give up Father
Euphrem, they would run them through. Euphrem
was quickly set at liberty. They carried him away to
the ship, the sentinels meanwhile keeping the gate;
and, as soon as these could follow them on board, the
ship hoisted sail, and took back the missioner to
Madras."
The Inquisition of Goa continued its Actos for a cen-
tury after the affair of Dellon. The one at which he
was present followed an interval of two years, or rather
more, but so long an interval was not usual; and an
132
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
aged Franciscan friar, whom Dr. Buchanan found
there, told him that from the year 1770 to 1775 he
had witnessed five annual celebrations. In this last
year the King of Portugal, in "humanity and tender
mercy," as the same friar said, abolished the tribunal.
But immediately after his death the power of the
priests again gained the ascendant, and the Queen
Dowager re-established it in 1779, after a bloodless
period of five years; subject, indeed, to certain restric-
tions, but not in the slightest degree better than before.
One apparent improvement was, that a larger number
of witnesses was required to convict a criminal. There
were to be seven, indeed, in the time of Dellon; but
as any one, irrespective of character, might witness
against a person accused of heresy, as it required very
great courage to refuse to give evidence according to
the wish of the Inquisitors, and as the notary made
the utmost of every word that might be condemnatory,
that trifling change of the rule of the Church concern-
ing inquisitorial examinations availed very little on
the side of humanity. Another restriction was "that
the Acto-de-Fé should not be held publicly, as before;
but that the sentences of the tribunal should be exe-
cuted privately, within the walls of the Inquisition."
This only made the Secret perfect, and augmented
the power, while it diminished the odium, of the insti-
tution, "in the presence of British dominion and
civilization."
In the summer of 1808 Dr. Claudius Buchanan
visited Goa, and had been unexpectedly invited by
Joseph à Doloribus, second and most active Inquisitor,
to lodge with him during his visit. Not without some
surprise, Dr. Buchanan found himself "heretic, schis-
matic, and rebel" as he was-politely entertained by
so dread a personage. Professing to regard his
English visitor merely as a literary man,-for of
course his Anglican orders were ignored, -Friar
Joseph, himself well educated, seemed to enjoy his
company, and was unreservedly communicative on
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
133
every subject not pertaining to his own vocation.
When that subject was first introduced by an appa-
rently incidental question, he did not scruple to return
the desired information; telling Dr. Buchanan that
the establishment was nearly as extensive as in former
times. In the library of the Chief Inquisitor he saw
a register containing the names of all the officers, who
still were numerous.
66
On the second morning after his arrival, the Doctor
was surprised to see his host come into his apartment
clad in black robes from head to foot, instead of white,
the usual colour of his order, the Augustinian. He
said that he was going to sit on the Tribunal of the
Holy Office; and it transpired that, so far from his
august office" not occupying much of his time, he
sat there three or four days every week. After his
return in the evening, the Doctor put Dellon's book
into his hand, asking if he had ever seen it. He had
never seen it before; and, after reading aloud and
slowly, "Relation de l'Inquisition de Goa," began to
peruse it with eagerness. While Dr. Buchanan em-
ployed himself in writing, Friar Joseph devoured page
after page; but, as the narrative proceeded, betrayed
evident symptoms of uneasiness. Then he turned to
the middle, looked at the end, skimmed over the table
of contents, fixed on principal passages, and at one
place exclaimed, in his broad Italian accent, "Men-
dacium! Mendacium!" The Doctor requested him to
mark the passages that were untrue, proposed to dis-
cuss them afterwards, and said that he had other books
on the subject. The mention of other books startled
Father Joseph: he looked anxiously on some books
that were on the table, and then gave himself up to
the perusal of Dellon's Narrative until bed-time. Even
then he asked permission to take it to his chamber.
The Doctor had fallen asleep under the roof of the
Inquisitor's house, confident, under God, in the pro-
tection at that time guaranteed to a British subject,
his servants sleeping in a gallery outside the chamber
134
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
door; and, about midnight, he was "waked by loud
shrieks and expressions of terror from some one in the
gallery." In the first moment of surprise he concluded
it must be the alguacils of the Holy Office seizing his
servants, to carry them to the Inquisition. But on
going out he saw the servants standing at the door,
and the person who had caused the alarm, a boy of
about fourteen, at a little distance, surrounded by
some of the priests, who had come out of their cells
on hearing the noise. The boy said he had seen a
spectre, and it was a considerable time before the
agitations of his body and voice subsided.
morning, at breakfast, the Inquisitor apologized for
the disturbance, and said the boy's alarm proceeded
from a phantasma animi,-a phantom of the imagina-
tion.
Next
It might have been so. Phantoms might well
haunt such a place. As to Dellon's book, the Inqui-
sitor acknowledged that the descriptions were correct,
but complained that the writer had misjudged the
motives of the Inquisitors, and written uncharitably
of Holy Church. Their conversation grew earnest:
the Inquisitor was anxious to impress his visitor with
the idea that the Inquisition had undergone a change
in some respects, and that its terrors were mitigated.
At length Dr. Buchanan plainly requested to see the
Inquisition, that he might judge for himself as to
the humanity shown to the inmates, according to the
Inquisitor; and gave as a reason why he should be
satisfied, his interest in the affairs of India, on which
he had written, and his purpose to write on them
again, in which case he could scarcely be silent con-
cerning the Inquisition. The countenance of his host
fell; but, after some further observations, he reluc-
tantly promised to comply with his request.
Next morning, after breakfast, Joseph à Doloribus
went to dress for the Holy Office, and soon returned
in his black robes. He said he would
He said he would go half an hour
before the usual time, for the purpose of showing him
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
135
the Inquisition. The Doctor fancied that he looked.
more severe than usual, and that his attendants were
not so civil as before. But the truth was that the
midnight scene still perplexed him. They had pro-
ceeded in their palanquins to the Holy House, distant
about a quarter of a mile; and the Inquisitor said, as
they were ascending the steps of the great entrance,
that he hoped the Doctor would be satisfied with a
passing view of the Inquisition, and would retire when
he should desire him to do so. The Doctor followed
with "tolerable confidence" towards the great hall
aforementioned, where they were met by several well-
dressed persons, familiars, as it afterwards appeared,
who bowed very low to the Inquisitor, and looked
with surprise at the stranger. Dr. Buchanan paced
the hall slowly, and in thoughtful silence; the Inqui-
sitor thoughtful too, silent, and embarrassed. The
shades of a multitude of victims seemed to haunt those
chambers, and Dr. Buchanan could not restrain himself
from breaking silence. "Would not Holy Church
wish, in her mercy, to have those souls back again,
that she might allow them a little further probation ?"
The Inquisitor answered nothing, but beckoned him
to go with him to a door at one end of the hall. By
that door he conducted him to some small rooms, and
thence to the spacious apartments of the Chief Inqui-
sitor. Having surveyed these, he brought him back
again to the great hall, and seemed anxious that the
troublesome visitor should depart; but only the very
words of Dr. Buchanan can adequately describe the
close of this extraordinary interview.
"Now, Father,' said I, 'lead me to the dungeons
below. I want to see the captives.' 'No,' said he,
'that cannot be.' I now began to suspect that it had
been the mind of the Inquisitor, from the beginning,
to show me only a certain part of the Inquisition, in
the hope of satisfying my inquiries in a general way.
I urged him with earnestness; but he steadily resisted,
and seemed offended, or rather agitated, by my
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
136
importunity. I intimated to him plainly that the only
way to do justice to his own assertion and arguments
regarding the present state of the Inquisition, was to
show me the prisons and the captives. I should then
describe only what I saw; but now the subject was
left in awful obscurity. Lead me down,' said I, 'to
the inner building; and let me pass through the two
hundred dungeons, ten feet square, described by your
former captives. Let me count the number of your
present captives, and converse with them. I want to
see if there be any subjects of the British Government
to whom we owe protection. I want to ask how long
they have been here, how long it is since they have
seen the light of the sun, and whether they expect
ever to see it again. Show me the chamber of tor-
ture, and declare what modes of execution, or of
punishment, are now practised inside the walls of the
Inquisition, in lieu of the public Acto-de-Fé. If, after
all that has passed, Father, you resist this reasonable
request, I shall be justified in believing that you are
afraid of exposing the real state of the Inquisition in
India.'
"To these observations the Inquisitor made no
reply, but seemed impatient that I should withdraw.
'My good Father,' said I, 'I am about to take my
leave of you, and to thank you for your hospitable
attentions; and I wish always to preserve on my
mind a favourable sentiment of your kindness and
candour. You cannot, you say, show me the captives
and the dungeons: be pleased, then, merely to answer
this question, for I shall believe your word. How
many prisoners are there now below in the cells of
the Inquisition?' The Inquisitor replied, "That is a
question which I cannot answer.' On his pronouncing
these words, I retired hastily towards the door, and
wished him farewell. We shook hands with as much
cordiality as we could at the moment assume, and
both of us, I believe, were sorry that our parting took
place with a clouded countenance."
THE INQUISITION AT GOA.
137
After leaving the Inquisitor, Dr. Buchanan, feeling
as if he could not refrain from endeavouring to get
another and perhaps nearer view, returned to avail
himself of the pretext afforded by a promise, from the
Chief Inquisitor, of a letter to the British Resident in
Travancore, in answer to one which he had brought
him from that officer. The Inquisitors he expected
to find within, in the "Board of the Holy Office."
The doorkeepers surveyed him doubtfully, but allowed
him to pass. He entered that great hall, went up
directly to the lofty crucifix described by Dellon, sat
down on a form, wrote some notes, and then desired
an attendant to carry in his name to the Inquisitor.
As this person was walking across the hall, the Doctor
saw a poor woman sitting by the wall. She clasped
her hands, and looked at him imploringly. The sight
chilled his spirit; and as he was asking the attendants
the cause of her apprehension,-for she was awaiting
trial,-Joseph à Doloribus came, in answer to his
message, and was about to complain of the intrusion,
when he parried the complaint by asking for the letter
from the Chief Inquisitor. He promised to send it
after him, and conducted him to the door. As they
passed the poor woman, the Doctor pointed to her,
and said with emphasis, "Behold, Father, another
victim of the Holy Inquisition." The other answered
nothing: they bowed, and separated without a word.
When Dr. Buchanan published his "Christian Re-
searches in Asia," in the year 1812, the horrible
tribunal still existed in Goa; but the establishment
of a scheme of constitutional government in Portugal
eventually put an end to it, at least in form, throughout
the Portuguese dominions abroad.
138
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXXII.
ITALY.
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
THE first principles of the Inquisition were laid down
in the Fourth Lateran Council, under Pope Innocent
III., in the year 1215. Innocent IV., about thirty
years later, addressed certain Constitutions to the
governors, magistrates, and municipal bodies in the
provinces of Italy, who were all regarded as children
and vassals of the Papal See. They suffered them-
selves to be so regarded, and condescended so to act,
with the single exception of the Republic of Venice;
which refused, indeed, to accept the ignoble designa-
tion, or to allow the Bishop of Rome directly to con-
trol its magistrates in the exercise of their domestic
jurisdiction; but the Venetian State did not refuse to
persecute by its own authority.
"After that Pope Innocent IV.," says Fra Paolo
Sarpi, "tried to deprive the Emperor Frederic II. of
the empire, kingdom, and states that he possessed;
and a great part of Christendom being thereupon in
arms, and all Lombardy in debate with the March of
Trevigi and Romagna, then divided into favourers of
the Pope and of the Emperor, they were infected with
various perverse opinions;" (as this historian calls
evangelical doctrines;) "and, retreating to Venice,
there to live in security, the wisdom of this govern-
ment found a remedy in the year 1249, to guard the
city from being infected with that contagion which
infected the rest of Italy. Wherefore they deter-
mined to choose honest, discreet, and Catholic men
to inquire against heretics; and that the Patriarch of
Grado, the Bishop of Castello, and the other Bishops
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS,
139
of the Doge of Venice, from Grado to Cavarzere,
should judge of their opinions; and that those that by
any of the bishops were given out to be heretics,
should be condemned to the fire by the Doge and
Councillors, or the major part of them."*
The Doge and Councillors of Venice took it for a
fundamental principle of Christianity that heretics
ought to be punished, and that the punishment should
be capital; but they said that they would not allow
a foreigner to intermeddle either in the sentence or
the execution. Neither did they; and although the
Venetian territory ceased to afford refuge to the per-
secuted, inquest was not to be made, nor death de-
manded, by any foreign prince or prelate, and the
Inquisition there began under an exclusively civil
authority and jurisdiction.
Where the magistrates of other Italian States did
not resist the young Inquisition for the sake of honour,
the people often resisted for the sake of liberty. Of
two Dominicans appointed to conduct the operations
of an Inquisition in Lombardy, one was killed while
in the execution of his office; and although the men-
tion of this fact should perhaps be attended with a
note of disapprobation, it must be remembered that
the Church recognised, and even invited, tumultuary
violence on its own side; instructing the priests to
raise mobs for the purpose of murdering heretics.
We must therefore acknowledge that if the mob so
taught and so employed sometimes fell upon their
teachers, the retribution was merited, to say the least;
and they who roused the mob at first deserved the
blame at last. To this day the same sanction is given
to mob violence. That against traitors and public
enemies every man is a soldier," is a sentence ascribed
to Tertullian, and quoted by ecclesiastics where they
would instigate the laity to violence in support of
their Church.t
66
*History of the Inquisition of Venice, by Paolo Sarpi. Translated
into English. Chap. i.
It was used by the Marquis of Vallada in a debate in the
140
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
By this principle the legislatures of Italian States
believed their laws to be sanctified, when they en-
gaged the people to destroy heretics. In this spirit
was framed a statute of the ancient "Art" or Guild
of Calimala, in Florence, beginning with these
articles:-
"1. We will observe, and honour, and maintain, the
holy Catholic faith, and will give help and counsel to
the Government of Florence for destroying heretical
pravity, if by that Government we are so required.
And this we will do in good faith, according to the
Statute of the Commune of Florence." (Which statute
required popular assistance for that purpose.)
66
2. It is also provided that no one shall dare to
speak villainy of God, or of His saints, or of Holy
Mary, or to name them villainously or lawlessly in
the Court of Calimala, under a penalty of twenty-five
pounds (livre) for each and every time, or above that
sum, at the pleasure of the consuls of Calimala." *
It is most proper that a corporate body should re-
strain its members by fine from using any blasphemous
or indecent language; but to engage in general to
destroy heresy at the pleasure of the Government,
and to silence by heavy fines any testimony borne
against idolatry, is another matter.
After the death of the Dominican in Lombardy, the
nobles and magistrates feared to enforce the decrees
of the Emperor Frederic against the Patarenes and
others, as Innocent IV. still required them to do; and
the Inquisition was therefore empowered, by the Pope,
to lay them under ecclesiastical censures until they
had inserted the pontifical and imperial statutes-
Portuguese House of Lords on the 4th of May, 1855. His object
was to banish a Protestant who had attempted to discourse publicly
in Lisbon on the doctrines of his religion, which both the Marquis
and “the Minister of the Kingdom" regarded as an offence against
the religion of the State.-Diario do Governo, Lisboa, 5 de Maio,
1855.
* Statuto dell' Arte di Calimala, nell'
dei Municipi Italiani, di P. E. GIUDICI.
Appendice alla Storia Politica
Firenze, 1851.
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
141
copies of which were sent to them for that purpose-
among the statutes of their "cities and places," and
had sworn to observe the same, and cause them to
be observed with all their might. And as for private
persons, against whom the terrors of an interdict could
not be launched, he commanded his dear sons, the
Inquisitors, to exact caution-money from persons sus-
pected of aiding or abetting heretics, to be forfeited
to the Holy Office, if they were detected in rendering
the least succour or encouragement to excommunicated,
or even suspected, persons. This award of prize
money to the scrutators of the faith could not but
quicken their diligence, and stimulate their courage.
And now the so-called Vicars of Christ breathed
defiance against all the world. The Empire and the
Papacy were in arms against each other, almost di-
viding Europe between the factions of Guelph and
Ghibeline. Italy there was none. State was divided
against state from one end to the other of what once
was Italy; and the horrors of a religious war un-
speakably aggravated the general confusion. The
Church of Rome devolved on the Inquisitors the active
service of this war, and Pope after Pope instructed
them how to impress prelates to head the troops of
crusaders raised to fight against Christians in the
name of Christ. These Inquisitors travelled from
place to place, delivering inflammatory harangues,
and then enlisting volunteers for the murderous enter-
prise. For wages they offered plenary indulgences,
and all the booty that their marauders could find in
the dwellings of the persecuted. For honour they
gave the murderers crosses, desecrating the sign of hu-
man redemption by making it a badge of butchery.
The annals of the thirteenth and fourteenth centu-
ries are full of the conflicts that raged between the
Inquisition, or its agents, and the civil powers of
Europe; but, most of all, with those called Italian.
But the isolation of states, the ignorance of populations,
and the advancing organisation of the ecclesiastical
142
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
1
forces, determined the victory, in most cases, to the
aggressors.
In Genoa, for example, one Anselmo, an Inquisitor-
General, persisted in requiring the Governor of the
city, Filippo di Torino, to insert the numerous Decrees
of the Emperors and Constitutions of the Popes in the
tables of civic law, and publish them throughout the
city and state for universal observance. The Governor,
supported by the magistracy in general, refused to do
so, and thereby incurred condemnation as a hinderer
of the Holy Office, and fell under suspicion of being a
favourer of heretics. The Inquisitor summoned him
to appear at his table, there to undergo examination;
but he indignantly refused to go. Anselmo solemnly
excommunicated him, and placed Genoa under inter-
dict. Filippo appealed to Alexander IV. for redress;
and His Holiness deigned to suspend the interdict
until a certain day, merely to give the recalcitrant
Governor space for repentance. Before the appointed
day came, the poor man tendered obedience, caused
all the Constitutions that the Inquisitor pleased to
specify to be inscribed among the laws of Genoa, and
had all put to death whom the Inquisitor chose to de-
liver over to him under sentence of heresy. During
this ignominious quivering under the hoof of priestly
tyranny, some one had written a "Short Tract con-
cerning the Perils of the Last Times," disclosing some
abominations of the Dominican and Franciscan Inqui-
sitors. To get rid of such annoyances, Pope Alexander
employed a method of suppression which afterwards
became general, and still should form the constant
business of a Roman congregation. He commanded
three Cardinals to read the book, received their cen-
sure, gave that censure sanction, and required the
copies that had seen the light to be given up to the
Inquisitors within a week, to be publicly burnt. Thus
Genoa was made quiet for a time; and there can be
no doubt that, besides the book, many of its readers
were committed to the flames.* Genoa may be fairly
*BZOVIUS, A.D. 1256.
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
143
taken as a specimen of the state of all that lay south
of the Alps.
The silent abjection of Italy, and the inquisitorial
triumph achieved over Europe, gave Pope Alexander
leisure to strengthen the existing code, and issue new
mandates to the Inquisitors and other clergy every-
where, assigning to each class of ecclesiastics their
peculiar part in the general service; thus imparting
to the tribunals uniformity of administration, and
making the secular clergy more and more subservient
for the general inquisition of heretical pravity.
""
Language could not be more sternly imperative than
that of Alexander IV. to his "beloved children, the
podestas, councillors, and communities of the cities and
other places of Italy. "We command the whole of
you (universitati vestræ) by Apostolic letters, that so
far as we have explained to you the laws of the
Emperor Frederic against heretical pravity, of which
copies are sent herewith, you every one of you cause
them to be made known in your capitulars against
heretics of all sects whatever, and proceed in con-
formity thereto with exact diligence. And we have
directed our beloved children, the friars Inquisitors
of heretical pravity, and in our letters to each of them
have enjoined, that if you do not, they compel you
by excommunication of your persons, and interdict
on your land without appeal."* The civil autho-
rities not being sufficiently prompt in rendering obe-
dience to this mandate, he sent the very next year a
law, which they, as mere auxiliaries to the Inquisition,
were to execute in all their states. And as for the
Inquisitors themselves, he gave them a Bull to save
them from any concern of conscience, while commit-
ting unlimited rapine and murder, setting forth that
"the God of indulgences and Father of mercy,
valuing their services in the cause of the faith, had
empowered him to refresh them with salutary re-
wards; and that, therefore, relying on the authority
*Litera Apostolicæ, ut supra.
""
144
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
of God, and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul,
he gave them, beforehand, a free pardon of all sins.
Being thus booted, they could less uncomfortably
wade through blood.
Whoever would study in original sources the change-
ful state of religion in Italy under the pontificate of
Alexander IV. might find the first suggestions in his
Letters Apostolic. In spite of all those fulminations,
so frequently repeated, and in defiance of all the coer-
cion that he could employ, the laity would not yield
universal obedience to his pleasure; and from almost
all quarters the Inquisitors reported that magistrates
and people did not support them to the extent of
their requirements, and that they were prevented by
passive resistance from rooting the tares out of the
field.
Some few cities, on the other hand, were made to
seem loyal to the Pope; and one of them is marked
as worthy of everlasting honour on that account.
That city was Viterbo, a place held under the pressure
of ecclesiastical authority. At Chiana, in the patri-
mony of St. Peter, Capello di Chiana, as he is called,
having been convicted of heresy, and condemned
accordingly, but probably supported by the people,
had refused to yield, and the Inquisitors could not get
possession of his person. Some of the authorities of
Viterbo, doubtless themselves ecclesiastics, came to
the help of the Inquisitors by raising "an army" to
march against him; and the "Father of the faithful"
hastened to laud their zeal, and exhort them to attack
the town without loss of time, and lay waste the lands
of Capello. The senators of Viterbo, indeed, had
forbidden the troops to march; but Alexander bade
them go, notwithstanding, and commanded the sena-
tors to revoke the prohibition. "Be careful thus to
obey our admonitions and commands," said he to the
ruffians, "that you may increase in merits with God,
in grace from us, and in glorious fame with men.
men.”
At this rate Alexander proceeded until his death.
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
145
In the latter half of the thirteenth century the
Papal thunders rolled more widely; the Bulls being
no longer addressed to those provinces only where
Roman influences were most powerful and the ser-
vants of the Inquisition most active, but to "all
believers in Christ," under the assumption that all the
world was amenable to the Pope.
In Parma, Honorius IV. being our witness, the
inhabitants rescued a woman from the stake, whither
the chiefs of the city had led her, in pursuance of a
sentence of the Holy Office. The people dispersed
the executioners, went to the Franciscan convent,
burst open the doors, battered in the roof of the
church, took away vestments and other valuables, and
administered such a castigation on the bodies of as
many friars as they could catch,-each member of
that brotherhood being invested with the office of
Inquisitor,-that the whole of them fled, one alone
excepted, who had not strength to flee left in him,
but died of the wounds received. Gladly would the
Podesta, the Captain, and other magistrates of Parma
have been released from obligation to burn their
fellow-citizens, and for some time they refused to
acknowledge the authority of the Bishop, who cited
them to answer for the riot; but the usual application
of an interdict brought them to the dust again; and,
abjectly thanking the Pope for his lenity in sparing
them from the vengeance of a crusade, the community
of Parma paid Pope Honorius a fine of a thousand
marks of silver, which he imposed on them for their
insolence.
Apostolic letters, however, do not suffer the whole
truth to transpire, or we should hear much more than
such incidents as these; and probably on the present
occasion we should hear confessions of Gospel truth
as well as protestations against the Pope. Many
persons crossed over to Sicily, in hope of finding
refuge on that island; but the vigilant Pope sent a
party of Inquisitors after them, who pursued them into
VOL. II.
L
146
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
their most remote retreats, and did not relinquish the
pursuit so long as a fugitive could be tracked. But
that was not until the lapse of nearly seventy years,
when a few survivors came back into Calabria (A.D.
1353), and there preached Christ with considerable
acceptance, rousing again the ire of Rome. Innocent
VI. dispatched a Dominican Inquisitor to counteract
their influence also, if possible, and subjected the
whole kingdom of Sicily to censure, in revenge for
some degree of humanity in the laity, who presumed
to connive at the existence of any more enlightened
Christians among them.*
But all the states of Italy in the fourteenth century
still retained a strong feeling of national independence,
and especially the nobles, who would certainly have
cast off the yoke of Papal supremacy had it not been
for the Inquisition.
Venice was, in those times, the strongest, most flou-
rishing, and most important state of all, on account of
its commercial prosperity, and its position as a bul-
wark of Christendom against the Turks. To subdue
Venice by force was therefore impossible. The Popes
resorted to stratagem. Nicholas IV., himself a Minor
Friar, on coming to the Papal throne in 1288, besought
the Doge and Senate to allow the brethren of his order
to exercise their functions as Inquisitors within the
Republic. The Venetians, foolishly imagining that
Popes can be bound by stipulations, and trusting in
their own power to resist future encroachments, yielded
to his importunity after some reluctance, and suffered
the Franciscans to assume the office in conjunction
with the Doge, or, as they fancied, in subordination
to the Doge. To their chief magistrate they re-
served the dignity of Inquisitor-General, inasmuch as
he sanctioned the prosecutions, received the spoils, and
paid the Inquisitors very handsomely. The Pope
most readily agreed to the arrangement, and the Doge
was flattered. He fondly thought himself an Alex-
* Bzovius, A.D. 1353.
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
174
ander, able to mount and rein in the Bucephalus that
none else had mastered. The Venetians were content,
and forthwith gloried in being the only people in the
world whose magistrates were permitted to look into
the dungeons, and haply to exert some influence in
managing the affairs of the Inquisition. Twelve years
passed away quietly. The Inquisitors did their duty
with diligence, and the Councillors of State were com-
placent and undisturbed, until one Friar Anthony,
too confident in possession, issued a monitory to the
Doge, requiring him to swear submission to the Papal
and Imperial Constitutions against heretics. These
Constitutions, as we have just now related, would have
reduced all civil power to a nullity, except for killing
victims marked out in secret for execution. The
Doge refused obedience; but the erection of a lay
Inquisition in the first instance, and the subsequent
admission of the Friars to share in its management,
laid the foundation of sore troubles.
Among other chiefs of the Ghibelines, or adherents
of the Emperor in opposition to the Pope, Matteo
Visconti, Lord of Milan, incurred the displeasure of
His Holiness. To overcome him by crusade was not
yet possible; and, as for interdict, the Pope had
already almost laid an interdict on the Milanese clergy
by preventing no small number of them from perform-
ing their ordinary duties; but the Inquisition had to
settle the quarrel. Other means having failed, Matteo
was accused of heresy, and information was taken by
the Inquisitors to show that he had been guilty of
many wicked actions, and, among them, the following:
-He had for many years prevented the Inquisitor
Placentino from appointing officers to arrest heretics,
and had impeded the officers of the Holy Inquisition.
He had forcibly arrested that Inquisitor-Bishop and
many other prelates, and sent them into exile. He
had violated the interdict at Milan, by compelling
priests to minister the Sacraments against their will.
He had followed the sect of one Manfredo.* Visconti
* Bzovius, a.d. 1322.
148
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
being now condemned for heresy, Frederic of Austria,
Louis of Bavaria, and the Marquis of Monferrato, de-
clared war on him, and under this plea of heresy,
deprived him and his children of their dignity and
their dominions.
It is to be regretted that we have no means of en-
livening and hallowing the present sketch by reciting
any triumphs of our Lord's martyrs; for some such
there must have been. The Inquisitors themselves,
however, afford us just a glimpse into those scenes
of murder, by leaving a few notes of their own on
record.
Giraldi Segarelli, a native of some part of the Duchy
of Parma, of humble parentage, made his appearance
in the capital, probably about the year 1270. A friar,
Salimbeno, whose manuscript was found in the library
of Cardinal Sabelli, a "Supreme Inquisitor in the uni-
versal Christian Republic," describes him as little bet-
ter than an idiot;—which might mean that he was much
like a thorough monk. He says that he sold his pro-
perty, went into the city, and gave away the money
to the rabble, and then devoted himself to preaching,
-to the delusion, as he says, of the lowest and most
licentious of the people. It appears to be certain,
however, that his followers multiplied exceedingly,
that he was for some time imprisoned by the bishop
in the episcopal palace, and then sent away from
Parma, but returned, and continued to propagate his
doctrine in the city. The inquisitorial summary of
his doctrine is as follows:-
That the Church of Rome has utterly lost the
authority received from the Lord Jesus Christ, on
account of the wickedness of the prelates. That the
Church governed by Pope, cardinals, clerks, and
monks, is not the Church of God, but is reprobate
and barren. That the Roman Church is the apostate
harlot of whom St. John speaks in the Apocalypse.
That the authority originally given to the Roman
Church has passed over to the Apostolics, as they are
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
149
called, a spiritual congregation, raised up by God in
these last times. That he, Giraldi Segarelli, was
Divinely commissioned to bring back the Church to
its original purity. That the Apostolics are the only
Church of God that resembles that of the apostles;
and therefore they owe no obedience to the Pope, nor
to any other person; but they have their law from
Christ,-the law of a free and perfect life. That the
Pope cannot compel them to desert their sect, nor has
he power to excommunicate them. That all persons
are at liberty to enter their sect, wife without permis-
sion of her husband, and husband without consent of
his wife; and that in such cases the Pope cannot dis-
solve the marriage, but, according to the friar, the
Apostolics say they can. That no one can leave them
without mortal sin, nor any be saved that is not one of
them. That all who persecute them commit mortal sin,
and are in danger of perdition. That unless the Pope
were as holy as St. Peter, he could not absolve. That
all the Popes and prelates, since the time of Silvester,
have been deceivers; and that all the ecclesiastical
orders are a detriment to the faith of Christ. That
the laity should not pay tithes until the prelates are
as poor as the apostles. That life is more perfect
without a monkish vow than with it. That God can
be worshipped anywhere better than in a church.
That no man should swear, not even when required by
an Inquisitor to do so. And he is charged, as usual,
with immoral opinions and practices.
This very shade of doctrinal sentiment prevailed in
the thirteenth century,-wherever it might have origi-
nated,—especially among the Hussites; and many of
its features, where divergent from the Scriptural
standard, were offensively developed in the earlier
period of the German Reformation. But there is
much purely Gospel truth in it; and the offence of
Giraldi must have chiefly consisted in denying the
holiness and authority of the Church of Rome. For
this he was burnt alive at Parma on the 18th day of
July, 1300.
150
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
)
Seven years after this martyrdom, Dulcino and
Margarita his wife fled from Milan, and took refuge
in the mountain-country of Novara. Into those re-
treats no fewer than six thousand fugitives followed
them. The Inquisitor-General of Lombardy sent
crusaders to hunt them down; and many were taken,
--how many our authority does not say,-and were
brought to Vercelli, where Dulcino and his wife were
torn limb from limb, by order of the Inquisitors, and
their disjointed bodies were then burnt. This brutal
execution was followed by a new crusade, undertaken
by command of Clement V., who offered a plenary
indulgence to each crusader. The bishops and the
Dominicans united for the extirpation of the false
Apostolics, as they called them, with perfect unani-
mity, and with terrible success.
It is not probable that the Inquisitors, up to this
time, preserved very exact or copious records of their
proceedings; and although the summaries became
very full as soon as the offices, properly so called,
came into action, much of the material thus accumu-
lated has perished. Often have the Inquisitors de-
stroyed their own archives, to prevent their being
seized by the agents of hostile governments, or by
angry mobs. We must therefore be content with such
material of history as can be found, miscellaneous and
fragmentary though it be; and even this teaches us
that, besides pursuing and punishing heretics, the so-
called guardians of the faith laid hands on all sectarians
of any novel superstition or any new sort of politics
that happened to be prevailing in their neighbour-
hood, so far as it was practicable for them to go.
As it had been maintained in the Vatican from a
rather early date that by divine right the Pope is
Lord of all, so was it held to be a sin of sacrilege to
deny or even to grudge anything to a Pope, and
heresy to dispute or even doubt the validity of his
claim to supreme power, with universal possession
and obedience. The Inquisition was the standing
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
151
army,
the reason of whose existence was the necessity
of a well-trained force to fight his battles, and to be
ready for action at any moment, inasmuch as the
mere visible array would be of service. For example:
When, in the fourteenth century, the Marquises
d'Este, Lords of Ferrara, desired to make sure the in-
dependence of their State, and offered to negotiate to
that effect with Pope John, twenty-second of the
name, the Holy Father, not satisfied with refusing
that request, declared them heretics.
Then the Inquisition instituted proceedings against
them; and although both those lords, Rinaldo and
Obizzo, were known to be "zealous Catholics," and
Guelphs beside, they were amazed to find themselves
treated as heretics by the Holy Office, and enemies of
the Pope.* With equal reason,-not to say greater,
might the Roman Inquisition of this day, if there
were one, propose to burn the whole population of
Italy; for the Italians have taken possession, not only
of the little estate Ferrara, but of the Italian terri-
tory altogether, seeing that it had been in possession
of the Popes up to the 20th of September, 1870, when
the soldiers of the real King of Italy entered Rome.
But Popes and Inquisitors cannot change their un
changeable nature.
Just then we find them persecuting astrologers,
necromancers, alchemists, and wizards, in Italy.
Pagan superstition, which is persistent far beyond
general belief, even in our own country in the present
day, intimately pervaded the popular mind in those
dark ages; and, in spite of imperial edicts and in-
quisitorial severities, all varieties of occult science
were as diligently cultivated in Italy as in Scythia
or in Barbary. The clergy themselves were hardly
less proficient than the laity in those follies.
In the thirteenth century astrology seems to have
taken rank with acknowledged sciences; and, in the
fourteenth, proficiency in its mysteries was a passport
* MURATORI, Annali d'Italia, VIII., i., 161.
152
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
to fame, if not also to fortune. Astronomy and
judicial astrology were confounded into one. In the
Universities of Padua and Bologna there were chairs
of judicial astrology; and men of the finest genius
thought it incumbent on them to prosecute the study.
The most potent sovereign never thought himself
more happy than when attended by some renowned
astrologer, who, privy to the movements, conjunctions,
and oppositions of the heavenly bodies, prescribed
fortunate, or warned his clients against unfortunate,
days and hours. Houses were built, cities founded,
armies set on the march, and battles fought, only at
the times approved by those secretaries of the fates;
and under the direction of inferior wizards were per-
formed the more important actions of domestic life.
Prayer itself was thought to be more or less efficacious
according to the hour of its offering; and a man who
doubted the power of the stars was generally sus-
pected of impiety towards God. But the Inquisitors
were, of all persons, the most profound students of
these arts; and it was no small part of their duty to
decide whether the teaching and practice of the astro-
loger was consistent or not with the doctrine of the
Church. According to them, it became criminal when
he entered into compact with devils, and used their
power-for they believed that there was such a
power for the perpetration of evil. And it cannot
be doubted that this craft occasioned the grossest
immoralities, and that the study of demonology and
witchcraft, pursued with avidity by the highest and
the lowest clergy, tended to aggravate incalculably
the abominations of the confessional. If it had been
otherwise, and the Inquisitors, possessing superior
intelligence, had used their opportunity to save the
people from its corruption, we might find pleasure in
recording instances of their usefulness, and should
gladly confess that, in one respect at least, the Inqui-
sition was a public benefit. From two notices of the
dealings of the Holy Office with astrologers in the
fourteenth century the reader may judge.
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
153
Pietro di Albano, native of Albano, a village in the
territory of Padua, was born in the year 1250. When
very young, he went to Constantinople to learn Greek,
an accomplishment so rare in those times as to invest
its possessor with an almost supernatural character in
the estimation of the vulgar; and the vulgar, be it
noted, comprehended high as well as low. With
Greek he also studied philosophy and medicine. At
Padua, on his return, he was welcomed proudly by his
countrymen; and from Padua he went to Paris, where
he spent several years, and during his residence
there composed a book on physiognomy, "The Con-
ciliator," a work intended to reconcile many dis-
cordant opinions on subjects relating to philosophy
and medicine, and began a Commentary on Aristotle.
While in Paris, it is said, he began to be accused of
using enchantments and magic; and "The Con-
ciliator," then written, contains a statement that some
persons, unwilling or unable to receive his teaching,
had vexed him with long-continued attacks, but that
truth, and the authority of the Pope, saved him out of
their hands. His notions of truth, however, were
those of an enthusiast in something very like star-
worship. He would watch for the moon to be in a
favourable position, or Jupiter, and would then fall on
his knees and pray, feeling that a prayer thus offered
to God had special power. The citizens of Padua he
exhorted to found a new city under some rare con-
juncture of the stars that he foresaw, and assured them
that thus they might at once escape from their old
city, and be delivered from all the evil influences that
fought against their prosperity. But they counted
the certain cost of such an enterprise, and that consi-
deration outweighed the hope of an uncertain gain.
Albano was not alone in this folly, which was charac-
teristic of his time; and while doting on astrology, he
conferred a real benefit on Italy, by introducing some
rudiments of medical science that were afterwards
unfolded. Probably, his more successful practice was
154
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
what induced some less fortunate physicians to charge
him with magic, while certain speculations of his on
some of our Lord's miracles gave people reason to
suspect him of heresy.
To rebut the suspicion of heresy he made a solemn
profession of faith, and Benevuto da Imola relates that,
"when on the point of death, turning towards his
friends, and pupils, and the physicians who stood
around the bed, he told them that three studies had
engaged his attention during life :-philosophy, which
had made him subtle; medicine, which had made him
rich; astrology, which had made him deceitful. And
to show that he harboured no ill will towards the
Dominicans, who had always persecuted him, he
directed that his body should be buried in their church
in Padua. It was buried there accordingly; but the
Inquisitors opened his tomb at night, burnt the corpse,
and scattered the ashes to the winds. This took place
in the year 1315 or 1316.
Harder was the case of Francesco di Ascoli, called
Cecco, burnt to death at Florence in the year 1327.
He was Professor of Astrology in the University of
Bologna, when yet but a young man, and wrote a
book on the principles of that imaginary science.
Astrology, therefore, could not have exposed him to
punishment; but the sentence pronounced against
him by Friar Lambert (December 16th, 1324) sets
forth that he had spoken "badly and inordinately of
the Catholic faith," and was therefore required to do
penance by making a general confession, saying thirty
Paternosters and thirty Ave Marias every day, fasting
every Friday, and hearing a sermon from some Domi-
nican or Minorite every Sunday. They further com-
pelled him to bring all his books of astrology to be
burnt, forbade him to lecture in Bologna or elsewhere
any more, either publicly or privately, deprived him
of all magistracy or honour, and fined him seventy
Bolognese pounds.
Indignant at this treatment, he left Bologna, and

THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
155
took up his abode in Florence; but here new troubles
overtook him. Some say that he gave offence to the
Governor of the city by telling an ill fortune of his
wife and daughter; but it appears more probable that
the cause of his disgrace and condemnation was very
different; that he wrote a treatise on the sphere of
Sacrobosco, or Holywood, a mathematician of Halifax,
in Yorkshire, wherein he affirmed that the heavenly
spheres are inhabited by races of malignant spirits,
which by enchantments might be made to do many
wonderful things; that the courses of the stars neces-
sitate human events, the birth of Christ included, as
well as His poverty and death; that Antichrist would
come into the world in obedience to the same neces-
sity.
Monstrous as these assertions were, they were no
more than natural consequences of the first principles
of astrology; and it was therefore cruel for the Church
to allow professorships of the pretended science in
Universities, leaving every one at liberty to teach or
learn it, and yet condemn those who used this liberty,
so far as to maintain propositions which inevitably
result from the pagan fatalism they were encouraged
to promulgate or accept.
The Inquisitor of Bologna sent his brother at Flo-
rence a report of the sentence pronounced against
Cecco in the former city; and on the 15th of Decem-
ber, 1327, the astrologer was openly condemned as a
heretic in the church of the Friars-Minors, and deli-
vered over to the secular authority to be duly punished.
A book he had written in verse, under the title of
Acerba, was to be burnt at the same time, and all who
read it were to be excommunicated. On the same
day the Governor's lieutenant "forthwith sent Master
Cecco in custody of his knight and servants, and in
presence of a great multitude of people, to be burnt;
thus to signify the death eternal wherewith he and all
such will be punished."
Tiraboschi,* whom I follow, doubts the guilt of
* Storia della Letteratura Italiana, Tomo V., parte i., lib. 2.
156
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Cecco; and supposes that he fell a victim to the envy
of one Dino, who could not rest until he saw his rival
put out of the way. This, however, is a question of
no importance, since it is enough to have produced
this instance of inquisitorial severity, incited rather by
private passions than by an honest care for preserva-
tion of the faith.
Albano and Cecco, we may also observe, were per-
secuted singly; and the latter perished alone. No
general inquisition of dogmatizing astrologers was
made, nor any crusade preached to extirpate their
followers. All this was reserved for dissenters from
the dominant Church, who were hunted down like
brute beasts; and thus did the Inquisition ravage
Italy, not so much by the ordinary procedure of its
tribunals, as by making use of every occasion of poli-
tical disquiet, and by fanning the flames of cupidity
and fanaticism. Dissenters multiplied.
Dissenters multiplied. Gathered in
small companies or associated in considerable societies,
many being anxious to learn, and not a few impatient
to teach, they incurred persecution which aggravated
their discontent and only weakened the Church it was
intended to avenge. A Bull of Pope John XXI. (or
XXII.), addressed to Brother Lambert, of the Order of
Preachers, Inquisitor in Lombardy, alleges that both
clerks and laymen are in revolt, joining themselves
with condemned heretics in confederacies, societies,
and leagues, which they zealously promote by aid and
counsel, incurring vehement suspicion of heresy. He
commands Lambert to proceed canonically against all
persons guilty or suspected, and for their surer pun-
ishment to avail himself of all the privileges of his
office. This Bull is dated August 21, 1326. A rem-
nant of those who had been driven from Sicily in the
preceding century sprang up there again; and we
find Gregory XI. praising the city of Palermo for
having bestowed an annual salary of twelve ounces of
gold on their Inquisitor, Simon Pureano (A.D. 1375),
while he urges the Bishop of Turin to crush a sect
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
157
called Bricaraxii, who had multiplied in that diocese.
The result of this injunction was not very agreeable
to the Inquisition. One Fra Antonio, a Dominican,
famous in Turin and the neighbourhood both as
preacher and Inquisitor, was leaving church after
delivering a sermon and saying mass, on the Sunday
after Easter (A.D. 1375), when a party of twelve men
surrounded him, plunged their daggers into his body,
and left him dead on the spot.
Less than two months before, another Inquisitor
had been assassinated at Susa; but the avengers of
blood shed by the Inquisition, instead of delivering
their countrymen from its oppression, aggravated the
evil, by providing the Pope and his clergy with pre-
tence for proclaiming a renewed crusade. Little
work, however, remained for crusaders; for the resorts.
of heretics were broken up in Italy.
The Inquisition now gave its attention to those
writings which might contribute to revive the sects it
had suppressed. The writings of the kind most widely
circulated at that time appear to have been from the
pen of Raymund Lully, a native of Majorca, by birth
a Jew, and eventually a Franciscan friar. This re-
markable man had spent his life in striving to convert
the Moors in Africa, and to lay the foundation of
Oriental studies in Europe, and fell a victim to his
zeal for winning over the African Mussulmans, some
of whom stoned him to death. He had composed
twenty-one works, philosophical, religious, and mis-
cellaneous, which were too suggestive of new ideas to
be allowed to circulate. Nicholas Eymeric, the noted
Inquisitor often named in these volumes, presented the
books to Gregory XI., praying that they might be
examined. Twenty-four theologians, with a bishop
at their head, made the examination, and condemned
them as containing many things heretical and
blasphemous.
This assemblage of censors at Rome confirmed the
precedent, as I should suppose, for the Congregation
158
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
of the Index subsequently created, and acting in
agreement with the Congregation of the Holy Office.
But no sooner has the solemn censorship of books
begun at Rome, than the censors encounter a suc-
cession of writers whose influence no earthly power
can resist.
Although the Inquisitors began the work of literary
censure and prohibition at this early period, they
were not the persons to whom alone such very critical
work could be most confidently entrusted. Their
butcherly vocation was not favourable to any kind of
literary service. It was therefore undertaken by
other hands,* and the Popes, perhaps following the
Sorbonists and Louvainians, had just a small catalogue
prepared condemning about seventy books, and
printed in Venice in 1548, being the first thing of
the kind which had appeared in Italy. Vergerio
wrote in Italian against its impiety and ignorance.
In 1552 another was published in Florence, with some
errors corrected, and some added. In consequence of
Vergerio's attack upon this Index, a third was con-
structed at Milan in 1554, with the same ill success. In
the same year a fourth came to light at Venice, the folly
and almost madness of which provoked him to make a
new exposure, not this time written in Italian, but in
Latin. Lastly, they fabricated a fifth in the year 1559,
at Rome. But that fifth attempt, according to Sacchini,
was considered too severe, and in 1560 the Pope
strictly forbade the controversies it had excited, and
called in the aid of Lainez, General of the Jesuits, to
encounter heresy by means of controversy in Rome.†
But neither was controversy successful there. The
conditions of success, fair play, good reason, and
a good cause to begin with, were all wanting. Abso-
lute prohibition, therefore, has been the approved
method, and immediately after the close of the Council
* Literary Policy of the Church of Rome, by the Rev. JOSEPH
MENDHAM, M.A., Chap. II.
† SACCHINI. Hist. Soc. Jes., iv. 10.
THE FIRST ITALIAN TRIBUNALS.
159
of Trent, Paul IV. published the first official Index,
prepared by some bishops and learned men of various
countries whom the Council had appointed for the
work, with his Bull prefixed, bearing date at St.
Peter's, Rome, March 24th, 1564. Not satisfied with
this performance, Sixtus V. issued a more complete
expurgatory, prefaced also with a Bull dated on the
7th before the Ides of March, 1589. This book con-
tains twenty-two rules, of which the seventh and the
twentieth, perhaps the most remarkable, are as
follows:-
“Rule_VII.—The Holy Bible, or any part of it,
translated into any living language, even by a
Catholic, is never permitted without a new and special
license from the Apostolic See; but vulgar (i.e. ver-
nacular) paraphrases are altogether interdicted."
This rule was relaxed gradually, in later Indexes,
since it could not be enforced.
"Rule XX.--Libraries and printing-offices, wherever
they are, must be visited; if in Rome, by the Master
of the Sacred Palace, but in other places by the
Bishops or other superior clergy, and by the Inquisi-
tors, or at least by such persons as they depute.
Packages, also, belonging to persons who expose
books for sale in streets or neighbourhoods in cities,
or who carry them about to sell in villages, towns, or
other places, must be searched.
"But let no books be offered for sale unless a list
of them is made out and signed by the authorities
abovesaid; nor may any other books than those
marked in the list be offered for sale, under such
penalties as those authorities may please to fix.
"From the public place, too, which is established
for collecting customs and importing goods, the officers
of the place shall not suffer books to be taken unless
they who imported them, or the booksellers, produce
a list certified by those to whom it pertains to examine
books, and then obtain a license.
"But the heirs and executors of last wills must not
160
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
use the books left by the deceased, nor give them to
others to be used, nor let them go out of their hands.
on any account whatever before they have had a list
made by persons authorised, and have obtained a
license from the same.
"As for a book prohibited, let all men know that it
is not lawful for anyone to tear it or burn it by his
own authority, but it must be delivered to the Master
of the Sacred Palaces at Rome, or, in other places, to
the Chief Clergyman, and the Inquisitor, whose duty
it will be to make diligent inquiry of the person who
delivers it. But where an office of the Holy Inqui-
sition is not established, and there is a university of
studies, the Bishop, with the Dean of the University,
must do all this. And whatever books or writings are
interdicted from the use of the faithful, neither Jews
nor Infidels, nor other such people dwelling or being
in Christian provinces or places may have them, read
them, buy them, sell them, or carry them away. And
whoever shall offend in this matter shall be punished
by the aforesaid, according to the gravity of his
offence. And moreover, books prohibited in any
language are also prohibited into whatsoever language
they be translated."*
* Index Librorum Prohibitorum à Sixto V. Papa confectus et publi-
catus; at verò à successoribus ejus in sede Romaná suppressus. Edente
JOSEPHO MENDHAM, A.M. Londini, 1835.
161
CHAPTER XXXIII.
ITALY.
REVIVAL IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
THE Inquisition in Italy was nearly dormant from
the time of its last effort in Piedmont, until the reign
of Pope Calixtus III., who republished (A.D. 1458) a
Bull of Innocent IV., empowering the Inquisitors in
Lombardy to publish a crusade, and to confer on cross-
bearers against heretics at home indulgencies equal to
those which had been granted to crusaders against
Mussulmans in the Holy Land. But the spirit of that
age had changed; and although the scandal of the
Cross was undiminished, and the few confessors of
Christ still suffered tribulation in the world, there
was in the world a growing indisposition to fight the
battles of the priesthood; and many of the more emi-
nent clergy, from the time of the Council of Florence,
and the immigration of the Greeks, became more dili-
gent in prosecuting Grecian and Latin studies than in
reading the senseless theology of later centuries, or in
the censorship of religious books, or making inquest
concerning faith.
After several ineffectual efforts to establish a regular
Inquisition in the Alps, John, Archbishop of Embrun,
a bold yet cautious and persevering man, undertook
(A.D. 1461) to extirpate the Waldensian Church by
dint of "monitions, exhortations, and injunctions;
but difficulties met him at every step, and he prudently
delayed the employment of any violent measures.
Eleven years afterwards, a Minorite Friar, deputed
"by apostolic authority" to act as Inquisitor in the
Valleys, pursued the usual routine, so far as practicable,
VOL. II.
M
162
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
and thereby arrived at certain knowledge of the doc-
trines that multitudes of the inhabitants entertained.
But he presumed not to go any further, the whole
population being hostile to measures of persecution.
At Rome, however, the purpose to maintain by
force the ascendancy of the Papal See, and by force to
crush every hostile power that might arise against the
Church within her own borders, continued steadfast;
and while the Inquisitors were almost idle for want of
work to do, or powerless in those places which they
would have gladly visited, an important step in ad-
vance was taken by the revocation of cases of heresy
to the Pope himself for ultimate decision, with reser-
vation of certain offences to be absolved by the Pope
only, on payment of office-fees at Rome. One of those
reservations is the power of absolution from crimes
of heresy, which Paul II. made for himself and his
successors (A.D. 1468). The law is to be found in
the Extravagantes,* is currently quoted by the canon-
ists, may be acted on at present, so far as people can
be now found willing to spend money upon absolutions,
and was for ages at the foundation of the boasted
supremacy and universality of the Inquisition.
The immediate successor of Paul II. was Sixtus IV.
a busy, politic, and ambitious Pontiff, whose reign fur-
nishes at least one inquisitorial anecdote, just enough
to show how little care was taken of Christianity itself
by the most jealous guardians of the Papacy.
Galeotto Marnio, of Narni, a man of considerable
eminence for learning, wit, pugilistic powers, and bulk
of person, had the good fortune to be favourably
remembered by Sixtus, who in his younger days
had heard him lecture in the University of Padua.
Galeotto did not err, like the astrologers, through
excess in belief, but was of another class, very nume-
rous, whose fault was unbelief. This man wrote a
book on Sacred and Moral Philosophy, in which he
maintained that whoever lives according to the light
*Extravagantes Communes, lib. v., cap. ix., tit. 3.
REVIVAL IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
163
*
of reason and the law of nature is sure of gaining
eternal happiness. The monks at Venice accused him
of heresy. His own writing was evidence in confir-
mation of the charge; and, to borrow the statement
of Sanuto, the Inquisitor of heretical pravity having
informed the Signory that one Galeotto Marnio, a
learned man, very clever and very fat, then at Mon-
tagnana, was a heretic, and one who thought very ill
of the faith, demanded of their lordships the secular
arm. They therefore commanded him to be arrested
and thrown into prison. The Inquisitor said that he
had written a certain book which was damnable, and
had carried this book into Hungary and Bohemia,
where he had many followers. The case having been
heard, they condemned Galeotto to be mounted on a
scaffold, with a crown of devils on his head,-or high
paper cap painted with devils all round,-while the
sentence of the Inquisition was read, his book burnt,
and he openly censured for what he had said or written
against the Church. This being done, he was to be
sent to prison for six months, and kept on bread and
water by way of penance, -appropriate penance for a
high liver. The sentence was executed. A scaffold
was raised in one of the squares of Venice, and there-
upon were seated the Inquisitor and members of the
Board of Inquisition, all in state. Galeotto was led
out of prison duly crowned, brought across the square,
and presented to their lordships. One of the specta-
tors, as he made his appearance, involuntarily ejacu-
lated, "How fat!" Turning to the speaker, Galeotto
answered sharply, "Better be a fat pig than a lean
goat." He showed himself on the scaffold, walked
back to prison, and lived well there, no doubt, for a
day or two.
Sixtus IV. did for this obese jester what he never
would have done for the most virtuous confessor of the
Saviour, whom he set at nought. He commanded him
to be liberated from prison, received him at Rome,
* MURATORI, Script. Rer. Ital., tom. xxii., p. 1206.
164
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
declared him innocent of heresy, and covered him
with honours. This occurred in 1477.
They were more in earnest when dealing with truly
Christian people. The indefatigable Archbishop of
Embrun, having watched one-and-twenty years for
opportunity, and surrounded himself with ninety
familiars, besides many others who aided him secretly,
"took new information," by which it appeared that
all the inhabitants of the valley of Fraissinière, and
many in other valleys, were of "most infamous re-
pute," and vehemently suspected to be members of
66 the said heretical sect" of the Waldenses. Follow-
ing out this information, and making the best use of
his body of familiars, the Archbishop-Inquisitor ven-
tured (A.D. 1486) to publish what they would call in
Spain an Edict of the Faith, commanding all who
were conscious of heresy to come with a spontaneous
confession within a time appointed. But "they neg-
lected to obey." That monition was published on
the eighteenth day of June. It was repeated on the
twenty-ninth of the same month, and again on the
ninth of July; but none were moved to spontaneous
confession. In the month of August, "the aforesaid
most reverend Lord Archbishop John commanded all
that were suspected-mentioning them by name-to
be cited to answer for their faith, offering them grace
if they would return to the bosom of the Church; but
they all contumaciously neglected." On the fifteenth
of September the Archbishop gave. "letters patent
and excommunicatory," on account of their "perfidy
and stubborn contumacy." Two days were spent in
publishing the excommunication, "which they bore
until the sixth of February, 1487, and continued yet
much longer contumacious. Among them was one
called Angelino Palloni, who now laboured with all
his might to conceal the truth with lies. And this is
true," as the Inquisitor who made the record* asseve-
rates at the close of every paragraph.
* Given at length by Dr. Allix in his "Remarks upon the Eccle-
siastical History of the Ancient Churches of Piedmont."
REVIVAL IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
165
Would that all Archbishop-Inquisitors had been
equally timorous or equally humane.
On the Italian side the Inquisition had more power.
Giordano Tertian was burnt at Susa, and Hippolito
Roussière at Turin. In the same city Hugo Champ de
Finestrelles was disembowelled, and his mutilated
body exposed to public insult. In one valley three
thousand persons were murdered, either slain by the
sword, or smothered by fires lighted at the mouths of
caves, whither they had gone for refuge.
The report of those butcheries overawed many, no
doubt, but it also roused the indignation of every
Italian whose spirit was not utterly broken. This
was manifest in Brescia, where the Inquisitor Antonio
di Brescia, in conjunction with the Bishop or his
Vicar-General, condemned some men and women, as
impenitent heretics, to be delivered to the secular
arm for burning, "and required the officers of the city
of Brescia to fulfil the appointed execution; but the
said officers,”—I quote from a Brief of Innocent VIII.,
""
"to the no small scandal of the orthodox faith,
refused to minister justice, and execute the said sen-
tences, unless they might first see the processes which
had been carried on by the Bishop and Inquisitor.
This drew a mandate from the Pope, who contended
that as the crime of heresy was ecclesiastical, crimes
of the sort should not on any account go unpunished,
and he instructed the Inquisitor and Bishop to com-
mand the officers, under pain of excommunication, to
kill the persons condemned within six days. The
Brief was dated at Rome, September 30th, 1486. I
do not know the effect of this injunction.
This is not the place to narrate the crusade on the
Waldenses in the archdiocese of Embrun, conducted
by Albert de Capitaneis, whom Innocent VIII. sent to
the Duke of Savoy, as Nuncio from the Apostolic See,
to demand troops for the intended massacre.
should be noted that an Inquisitor went with the
Nuncio, to represent that institution of the Church of
Yet it
166
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Rome which, as long as it could, directed the murder
of those who were counted as its enemies.
Florence, with its turbulent and uncertain liberty,
had not cast off the servility of its ancient statutes, and
the civil power still inflicted vengeance on whomso-
ever ecclesiastical accusers might condemn. But it
made a show of independence by employing laymen
to take part in the trial of persons accused of heresy.
Of this we have a memorable instance in the exami-
nation and execution of Savonarola. A copy of the
process, published some years ago from a manuscript
in the Magliabecchian Library in that city,* supplies
the following particulars :-
The lords of Florence solemnly elected and deputed
"special and prudent men to be commissaries and
examiners in their name. Sixteen persons, all Flor-
entine citizens, met together on the ninth of April,
1498, in the presence of Simone Rucellai and Tom-
maso Arnoldi, Florentine canons, acting in the capa-
city of commissaries for Pope Alexander VI. by a
special commission. These persons proceeded exactly
as regular Inquisitors would have done. On the first
day they questioned Savonarola, but without torture.
On the second, they examined him in the hall over
the Bargello prison, "first with words, then with
threats, then with torture; and he had, on that day,
three and a half stretchings on the rack, twice given."
Then, on eight successive days, they prosecuted the
examination "with words and comforts, without any
torment or lesion of body." There is a pretended
record of this examination; but as it is known to be
falsified throughout, I do not quote it. The attes-
tations are, in the first place, those of Savonarola him-
self, who is represented as appending to the documents,
"I freely confess that I am guilty of all that is written
above, and in the other twenty-three papers preceding
by one hand." But instead of é scritto, "is written,
it should be ho scritto, "I have written;" and instead
* GIUDICI. Appendice, ut supra.
REVIVAL IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
167
66
of una mano," one hand," it should be mia mano,
my hand." This makes an entire difference, and is
a very good example of notarial falsification, which,
no doubt, was of frequent occurrence. Eight eccle-
siastics, secular and regular, and of various ranks,
subscribed at length, as having been present all the
time, showing that the Papal commissaries appointed
their assessors, ten clerics and sixteen laymen, twenty-
six in all. On the 20th and 22nd of May, smaller com-
panies, but similarly constituted, conducted further
examinations. The General of the Dominicans and
the Auditor of the Governor of Rome, Francesco
Romolino, were, on these days, the Pope's com-
missaries.
It will be remembered by those who have read the
history of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, that two of his
brethren of the Convent of St. Mark were associated
with him, and put to death at the same time; and I
cannot refrain from translating the brief notes that
close this record of their martyrdom in the cause of
Christian liberty.
66
On the 23rd of the same May.
“FRA GIROLAMO, ¡At 13 o'clock were degraded,
and then burnt in the Piazza
of the Signori.
"FRA DOMENICO,
"FRA SALVESTRO,
"The General and Messer Francesco above named
gave the sentence desired. Ser Ranieri da San
Gimignano.
"The tenor of the sentence was, that the Com-
missaries Apostolic, having understood that the
above-named have committed the crimes narrated
above in the interrogatories put to Fra Girolamo on
the 20th, and having found them to be heretics and
schismatics, and to have preached things new, &c.,
judged that they ought to be degraded and consigned
to, or, rather, left in the hand of the secular judge.
And so it followed."
168
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
As to Florence, then, a mixed Commission, repre-
senting the Pope and the Republic, acted instead of
the Inquisition: and, in fact, this is the type of a
practical condemnation of the secret system of that
tribunal that was continued in the Dukedom of Tus-
cany until its recent absorption into the Kingdom of
Italy, and has been in some degree occasionally
realised wherever Romanism has arrogated ecclesias-
tical predominance over civil power, except in the
Papal States, so long as those States continued to exist.
It happened, when the Jews were driven from
Spain, and a remnant that survived the perils and
waste of transport made their appearance on the banks
of the Tiber, that the Pope was pleased to allow them
to enter within the patrimony of St. Peter, and live.
Some early writers, caught by this appearance of
charity in the Pope of the day, compared his conduct
with that of Ferdinand and Isabella, to his great
advantage; and many, by repeating the encomium
then circulated, and perhaps further deceived by a
show of comparative lenity in the Inquisitions of the
Papal States, have helped to strengthen an erroneous
impression that the Roman Tribunal has been distin-
guished from others by a moderation very nearly
approaching to humanity. A fact or two of history,
related by one of their great annalists (Bzovius),
might remove the false impression.
In the year 1498-very soon after the extension of
Roman hospitality to those poor Jews-two hundred
and thirty Marranos, or Moors, who had renounced
their compulsory profession of the corrupt Christianity
of Spain, and were therefore driven from the country,
came to Rome, but were soon detected, reported to
the Holy Office, and thrown into prisons. At length,
however, they once more submitted to repeat their
false confession, and were solemnly received into the
Roman Church by Alexander VI. If any of them
had persisted in refusing to do so, they would have
been burnt to death, or left to die in prison. They
REVIVAL IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
169
preferred to live under the name of "Catholic," and
were absolved and reconciled with great ceremony;
but an offender of superior station was at that time
under discipline in Rome.
Pedro de Aranda, Bishop of Calahorra, in Spain,
and Major-domo of the Pope, lay in prison, accused of
the heresy of the Marranos. Alexander VI. appointed
a board of high ecclesiastics to hear and determine on
his case. Many witnesses were examined on part of
the Fiscal, and no fewer than a hundred and one on
part of Aranda. From such a multitude of depo-
sitions, the judges could easily gather enough to serve
their purpose; and at length, on Friday, September
14th, the day of the Holy Cross, the commissaries
laid their summary before the Pope, as Chief Inqui-
sitor, in secret consistory; the honour of being judged
in that court being rendered to an officer of the apos-
tolic palace. "Which being heard, Alexander, with
counsel of the most reverend lords the Cardinals,
deprived Aranda of the episcopal dignity, and of all
benefices and offices, and deposed him, and degraded
him from every order. The said Peter, being thus
deprived, deposed, and degraded, was at length
thrown into a chamber of the Castle of St. Angelo,
there to endure an imprisonment," that was, of
course, perpetual. His theology was probably un-
sound, but his practices were yet more offensive to
that most licentious Pontiff and his court.
laughed at indulgences," says a biographer; "ate
flesh on Friday and Sabbath (Saturday); breakfasted
before saying mass; and denied purgatory."
"He
During the latter part of the fifteenth century, and
the first thirty years of the sixteenth, we find little to
relate of the Inquisition in Italy, beyond what may
be summed up in a few lines.
In Sicily, the King of Spain, then sovereign of that
island, endeavoured to introduce the rules of the
Spanish Inquisition; * but his emissaries were obliged
*In the year 1477, a Sicilian Inquisitor, coming into Spain, ad-
170
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
to retreat; the inhabitants being united in resistance.
The spirit of independence had been strong enough
in Italy to obtain seats for the bishops, and even for
laymen, in the Holy Office; and the Secret, perhaps
in consequence of their intervention, was not enforced
so rigidly as in Spain.
In the Venetian territory, Inquisitors who attempted
to act alone could not obtain help of the magistrates,
who refused to execute sentences passed without their
concurrence; and at Brescia, again, the people, em-
boldened by the refusal of the magistrates, had, once
at least, cut short the matter by driving away the
Inquisitors.
Naples, although a realm of Spain, refused, with
Sicily, to admit the Spanish Inquisition, or any other
tribunal conducted by a distinct body, acting apart
from the ordinaries.
Lombardy, Piedmont, and the states of Northern
and Central Italy, had been long surrendered to
inquisitorial government; and the aliter credentes, or
persons differing from those of the dominant religion,
hid themselves in the mountains, or concealed their
dissent by outward conformity to the rites of Roman-
ism; but the habit of concealment having been con
tinued from generation to generation, they must have
well nigh lost all truthful and manly simplicity. Nor
were they the only sufferers. The confessional and
clerical celibacy destroyed morality, while the Inqui-
sition, by provoking a reaction against all that bears
the name of Christian, destroyed faith, and induced
among the higher classes of both clergy and laity a
pagan infidelity. Of this Pope Leo X., although
he issued a Bull (A.D. 1513) for the maintenance of
orthodoxy in Universities, was in his own person an
vised the adoption of the Constitution of the Sicilian Inquisition in
Spain. Afterwards, when Spanish cruelty had been infused into the
Sicilian form, it was proposed to givo new life thereto by the adop-
tion of Spanish rules.
REVIVAL IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
171
example; and as for the lower classes, they were per-
vaded with the grossest superstition. If the censures
pronounced by some of the clergy were not utterly
calumnious, magic, sorcery, witchcraft, infanticide,
incest, devil-worship, and every conceivable kind of
abomination, were as familiar to the lower classes as
was atheism to Leo X., and lewdness to Alexander
VI. Nor could it be otherwise. The natural result
of an Inquisition is the extinction of all faith, most
certainly of that divinely imparted faith which
"worketh by love," purifying men's hearts.
Leo X., notwithstanding his admiration of excel-
lence in painters, and his disposition to patronise
poets, entertained as profound a dislike of innovation
on the doctrine of his Church as became a Pope.
Acknowledging, indeed, that learning might be
attained by help of books, and that the art of print-
ing might be very useful, inasmuch as many printed
books might be had for comparatively little money;
and that even profane literature might be skilfully
made subservient to the cause of Christianity; he
said that a complaint had fallen on his ear that cer-
tain masters of the art of printing, in various parts of
the world, had printed books, translated from Greek,
Hebrew, Chaldee, and Arabic, into Latin; and that
they had dared to publish others, both in Latin and in
vulgar tongues, containing errors in faith, with per-
nicious dogmas contrary to Christianity, and injurious
to the fame of persons illustrious in dignity.
Lest thorns should choke the good seed, and poison-
ous herbs grow up together with the medicinal, it
behoved him to be vigilant. With the approbation,
therefore, of the Fifth Council of Lateran, then sitting,
he wished to provide an opportune remedy; and that
the printing of books might thenceforth be conducted
more happily, he determined and ordained "that in
all times to come no one should print, or cause to be
printed, any book or other writing, either in Rome or
any other city or diocese whatever, unless it were first
172
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
approved, if in Rome, by the Pope's Vicar and Master
of the Sacred Palace; or, in other cities and dioceses,
by the bishop, or some other person having under-
standing* of science. Books or writings proposed to
be printed were to be diligently examined by the
bishop or his delegate, and by the Inquisitor of heretical
pravity, in the city or diocese where it was to be put
to press, and approved by subscription under their
own hand, to be given without fee, without delay, and
under peril of excommunication." The penalties of
disobedience were to be, loss of the books unlawfully
printed, and therefore to be burnt publicly, a fine of a
hundred ducats to swell the fund for building the
Church of St. Peter, suspension from the exercise of
printing for one year, and such other inflictions as the
transgressor might incur by contumacy. This standing
order was given in a public session of the Council
on May 12th, 1515.
This Fifth of Lateran is acknowledged by the Church
of Rome to be a General Council: the regulation then
made for placing the universal press at the mercy
of Inquisitors was adopted by the Council of Trent,
is amplified in the Rules of the Indexes of prohibited
Books, and Books to be expurgated, and, even lately, it
has been cited as the fundamental authority for all such
* A reasonable qualification. But even in the pontificate of Leo
X. it must have been easier to prescribe understanding than to ad-
minister. Only a few years earlier, when the Prince Giovan Pico
della Mirandola had maintained nine hundred propositions at
Rome, derived from Chaldean, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin authors,
and relating to theology, mathematics, natural history, magic, the
Cabbala, and other sciences, real or reputed, the Roman scholars,
bewildered by his erudition, surmised that he must assuredly be a
heretic. The censors of the Faith laboured hard over his nine
hundred propositions, and extracted just thirteen which they
thought capable of affording evidence of heresy. The prince was
censured as temerarious and suspected. But he presumed, as a
temerarious person might presume, to write a defence of himself,
and even to put some questions to the Censors. What," said he,
"is Cabbala ?" "Cabbala," answered one of the learned Inquisi-
The
was a wicked heretic, who wrote against Christ.
tors,
Cabbalists are a sect who follow him."
(6
REVIVAL IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
173
coercive proceedings as the clergy could venture upon
in countries where they had any degree of judicial
power. It is a part of Canon Law which Pius IX.,
the present Pope, has declared to be binding on his
clergy in the British dominions, and which they were
bound to enforce, so far as by their influence or
their assumed position they might find it practicable.
So far they were at perfect liberty to execute their
master's pleasure.
This Council did not confine itself to books, but
ordained that "all false Christians, and those who
think ill concerning faith, of whatever people or nation
they may be, as well as heretics, or persons polluted
with any stain of heresy, or Judaizers, be utterly ex-
cluded from the company of believers in Christ,
and expelled from every place, especially from the
Roman Court, and punished with due severity." And
it was the pleasure of the Pope and Council that the
relapsed should be dealt with "without any hope of
pardon or of remission."
We now proceed to survey the Roman Inquisition
under its assumed character of "supreme and uni-
versal," and to observe its rise into a position of cen-
tral power, absorbing, and even rendering less neces-
sary, the provincial courts.
174
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
ITALY.
THE ROMAN CONGREGATION.
Ar the very same time that Paul III., no longer able
to prevent the assemblage of a Council for the Refor-
mation of Christendom, was reluctantly engaged in
preparing to convene the bishops and others in a
town of the Tyrol, he was quietly preparing
Inquisition, to be conducted on surer principles,
having Rome as its seat and centre of government,
and the outermost bounds of the Popedom for its
circumference. A comparison of dates demonstrates
that at the very same time that the Germans were
invited and almost implored to attend the Council,
as if to give their advice on the subject of religion,
just a quarter of a century after the publication of
Luther's theses, and to meet with some concession on
the part of Rome, the Court of Rome was fully deter-
mined on crushing the Reformation, if it could be
crushed, by the systematic employment of all the force
at their command. The dates are these:-
1. The Bull of Indiction for the Council of Trent,
May 22nd, 1542.
2. A Constitution for the establishment of a Supreme
and Universal Inquisition at Rome, July 21st, 1542.
3. The Council was to meet in November of the
same year, by which time the new inquisitorial
system would be in full action.
4. The Council began its debates-without the
Germans on the 15th January, 1546.
5. The new Inquisition had anticipated every doc-
trinal conclusion by commencing its deadly operations
in Italy in 1543.
THE ROMAN CONGREGATION.
175
Its establishment and constitution must be now
described.
The Pope declared in the second document that,
from the beginning of his pontificate, he had enter-
tained a fixed purpose to drive away all heresy; but,
in spite of all that he could do, bad men still persisted
in their wickedness. Nevertheless, hoping that the
authority of a General Council might awe them into
submission to the faith, he had put off the business of
inquisition of that kind of heretical pravity until that
day. Why he was that day in so great haste to take
the matter out of the hands of the Council, and that
in contradiction to the practice of his predecessors, he
did not condescend to say; but all the world knows
that a majority of the Council of Trent, even under
all its Italian influences, could hardly have been
found, that would agree to a universal Inquisition,
governed by the Curials at Rome, or to any Court of
similar pretensions. It is also well known that the
Pope's legates at that Council were the men who
proposed every subject of deliberation, after previous
correspondence with Rome, and authority or instruc-
tions received thence, determining afterwards to
manage the debate, or to stop it when they could not
guide; and that the subject of Inquisition was one of
the subjects they never ventured to introduce.*
In framing his Constitution, therefore, the Pope lost
sight of the Council, after merely observing that it
could not yet be assembled; and "lest, while a Coun-
cil was in expectation, all things should grow worse
and worse," and being himself unable to transact all
business, especially while under the pressure of so
many cares, he named and appointed six cardinals to
* The dislike manifested to the Inquisition in the Council of
Trent on two memorable occasions deserves the attention of the
studious reader :-once, when an attempt to establish it in Naples
provoked an insurrection in the city; and again, when a similar
attempt was proposed for the Milanese. Fra Paolo Sarpi, as
translated and annotated by Courayer, gives a full view of the
subject.-Histoire du Concile de Trente, iii., 5; viii., 42.
176
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
be Commissaries and Inquisitors-General and Most
General (generalissimos) in all cities, towns, lands,
and places of the Christian Republic, on both sides of
the Alps, to act, under apostolical authority, as his
delegates. Whoever wandered "from the way of the
Lord,” and from the paths of Catholic faith thinking
evil of that faith, or were in any way, or in any degree,
suspected of heresy, together with their followers,
abettors, or defenders, who gave their aid or counsel,
directly or indirectly, publicly or privately, -all
persons, of whatever state or dignity, low or high,
-were to be subject to their universal jurisdiction.
Lest persecution should be retarded, or inquisitorial
fury mitigated, lest the clergy in any city, town,
land, or place, should interpose to protect their flock
from the incursion of Roman robbers, Paul ordained
that the six cardinals should act, "even without the
ordinaries of places, and act even in causes wherein
those ordinaries had a right to intervene." By his
own supreme right he declared that the Most General
Inquisitors should proceed officially, by way of in-
quest, investigation, or otherwise; imprisoning all
guilty or suspected persons, proceeding against them
until final sentence, punishing with due penalties
those whom they convicted, and, as was just, taking
possession of the property of condemned persons who
had suffered death.”
The new Universal Roman Inquisition was to have
a fiscal, a proctor, public notaries, and other necessary
officers, who might be priests, or monks of any order.
After they had condemned any priest or other or-
dained person as impenitent or as relapsed, it would be
their duty to require some bishop or other dignitary
to degrade him; and in case of disobedience or delay
they might compel obedience by ecclesiastical con-
For putting condemned heretics to death,
Paul armed them with spiritual power-so far as
that power could avail-to command and compel the
secular arm to slay the victims whom they marked.
sures.
THE ROMAN CONGREGATION.
177
Their new prerogative extended to the appointment
of Inquisitors where, and when, and as often as they
pleased, to hear appeals and give ultimate decisions,
-the graces of absolution and reconciliation being
reserved to the Pope himself, and to cite and inhibit
in all parts of the world. Then followed a with-
drawal of power and authority from all other judges ;
which was plainly enough an arrogation to him-
self and his Commissaries of the power of life and
death over the subjects of every sovereign in the
world!
Not attributing to Jesuits every plot against Pro-
testants, I cannot but note a statement of the Jesuit
historian Orlandini, who appears to describe the
origin of this appointment. "Ignatius," (founder of
the order,) "admonished by these troubles," (the
religious awakenings in Italy,) "having found an
opportunity of conversation with the Pope, not only
related to him how great confusion had arisen at
Parma from wicked men, but also how great a stain
on the Christian Republic was spreading itself in
Venice and at Modena; and pointed out that unless
that could be quickly brought to an end, it would
overrun the whole of Italy. He also repeated the
same most seriously and frequently to many Cardinals,
especially to Burgensis and Theatinus, to whom the
Pope had committed the care of watching against this
pestilence. Moved by their authority, as well as by
the deference that he paid to the judgment of Igna-
tius, and under the influence of great fear lest the
poison lingering in the veins should diffuse itself
through the noblest members of the Church, the Pope
conceived the plan of a sort of new Tribunal, to con-
sist of aged cardinals, excelling in zeal and wisdom,
who might make inquest with supreme power on
heretics and depraved persons." *
"* Excepting fits of
occasional jealousy, the most perfect harmony has
prevailed between the sister societies.
* ORLANDINI Hist. Societ. Jesu, pars i., lib. iv., num. 18
VOL. II.
N
178
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
To obviate jealousy in Spain against this new Tri-
bunal, the Spanish Inquisition was exempted from the
direct control of the Roman Congregation. This
exemption was obviously suggested by the known un-
willingness of that body to submit to the dictation of
the Court of Rome, and by the spirit of national inde-
pendence that had often been repressed, but was never
quenched in the bosom of a true Spaniard. Neither
was the direct control of this Congregation necessary
in regard to heretics in Spain, so long as the Pope
himself, sure to act with the concurrence of his Car-
dinals, appointed the Spanish Inquisitor-General; and
so long as the King and Court of Spain were pre-
eminent in enmity toward the Reformation.
The Italian clergy, although nearer home, were not
so well trusted in Rome as the Spanish for fighting
heretics. Yet the Spanish priests were not so trust-
worthy as they seemed; for a secret spread of evan-
gelical doctrine had taken place in the parishes and
convents of Spain, and was not yet discovered.
Now that inquisitorial powers had their centre
within the walls of Rome, new orders were thence
communicated to the Inquisitors in the extra-Roman
States of Italy. Clement VII. had noted that the
friars of Lombardy were infected with heresy, at least
twelve years before this time. It was reported to
him that they were preaching it openly; and he com-
manded the Inquisitors to take measures against some
of them, as under suspicion of Lutheranism. The
clergy of Bologna and Milan, like the corporate bodies
of old chartered towns, then enjoyed many exemptions
from superior jurisdiction, some granted by Popes,
and others, perhaps in order to obtain their assistance
against the laity, conceded by Inquisitors; but Paul
III., when devising this new Tribunal, had opened
the way for its action in Bologna and Milan by
abolishing those privileges (January 14th, 1542),
under the pretence that preachers in those states had
presumed to maintain scandalous and heretical propo-
sitions in disputations and in sermons.

THE ROMAN CONGREGATION.
179
To extinguish the memory of old or Jewish super-
stitions, and to establish the peculiar superstition of
his Church more expeditiously in the neophytes, or
newly-proselyted Jews, he stirred up the clergy and
Inquisitors everywhere to a more vigorous and minute
examination into their domestic habits (March 21st,
1542). And he induced Charles V., perhaps in return
for the useless gratification of a General Council, to
decree the establishment of an Inquisition in Sicily,
after the Spanish model (A.D. 1543). The Sicilians
at first resisted, but eventually gave way.
The new Cardinal-Inquisitors were not slow in
using their powers. Not failing to make inquest on
living heretics, as we shall presently see, they sought
to make their ground good by silencing the press,
which speaks on while authors die. Many books
would be destroyed, no doubt, and many more dis-
figured; but multitudes of books, pamphlets, and
letters were circulated throughout Italy, in spite of
prohibitions. There were clandestine presses at work
in all directions, especially in the northern states.
Printers, when forbidden to carry on their business,
walked abroad during the years of interdict, like men
who had no vocation at home; but their wives, and
daughters, and servants, composed the forms, and
worked the presses in secret. Books without name of
printer or of place were in every hand; and people
read them all the more attentively and profitably
because they were forbidden. The public, by willing
ignorance, covered the printers, and buried the secret.
The cardinals fancied themselves omnipotent, except
that they were not able to make inquisition in person.
Therefore they confided the superintendence of that
service to a reverend father, Tommaso María di Bo-
logna, Inquisitor over the cities of Ferrara and Modena.
They empowered him and his "substitutes" to visit all
libraries, offices, churches, monasteries, and private
houses, search for books, burn the bad ones, and en-
force on all booksellers, printers, officers of customs,
180
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
and other delinquents, the penalties of forfeiture,
stripes, fine, suspension of trade, imprisonment, or
banishment, in proportion to the degrees or the num-
bers of their offences in contravention of the new order
(July, 1543).
It is not improbable that this search after prohibited
books was a first measure, perhaps the first, that led
to the inquisition on persons, of which we have a few
examples.
The Venetian magistrates, contented with the sin-
gular privilege of superintending the inquisition of
their fellow-citizens, gave Rome no cause, by any
slackness in the service, to deprive them of that
honour. The state of things at Venice is described
in a letter to Luther from Baltassare Altieri, an Italian
attached to the British Legation in that city. He
wrote just four months after the final appointment of
the Congregation of Cardinals, in these words: "The
fury of Antichrist rages here daily more and more
against the elect of God. Many are proscribed, of
whom some are said to have gone to the distant pro-
vinces, some to Basil and other parts of Switzerland,
others into the neighbouring regions" of the Alps;
"and many have been seized, and are pining away
in perpetual imprisonment. But there is no one to
deliver the innocent, none to do justice to the poor
man and the orphan, none to maintain the glory of
Christ. All conspire together to oppress the Lord
and His anointed; and nowhere is this calamity more
cruel and prevalent than in Venice itself, where Anti-
christ is dominant, and, while using open violence,
possesses all his goods in peace. Wicked one that he
is! Son of perdition; Author of sin! That signal
thief and most hungry of wolves slaughters and de-
stroys the Lord's flock at his pleasure, and without
restraint. But we cease not to pray God that He
would send a stronger than he, who may come and
bind him, take away all the weapons in which he now
so confidently trusts, and strip him of the spoils."

THE ROMAN CONGREGATION.
181
We further gather from this letter that the preachers
had been silenced, but that many of them were con-
cealed in the city, hoping for the effect of intercession
by Protestant princes of Germany with the Doge and
his government, or for some favourable change, when
the promised Council should meet.*
But no help came from those quarters. From the
correspondence of the Cardinals Pole and Contarini,
we gather that their Eminences had a "sacred piece
of work" to do-sanctum quoddam negotium, says
Pole-at Modena. This is explained by an Italian
editor of Pole's Epistles to be the suppression of an
insurrection in Modena, provoked by the doings of
the Inquisitors there.
there. Father Tommaso María did
his best, no doubt, and the civil authorities helped
him according to the measure of their zeal; but it
required an Apostolic Letter from Paul III. to induce
them to arrest one whom the Pope described as the
leader of an insurrection against his Inquisitor, to
throw him into prison, and send up his books and
papers to Rome.†
In Tuscany the secular arm was uplifted to inflict
the sentences of those ferocious keepers of the faith.
Severe penalties were enacted on the possessors of
heretical books, as well as on the printers; and after
the usual searchings, arrests, and processes, it was
determined to edify the Tuscans by an Act of Faith
at Florence, resembling a Spanish Auto. Twenty-two
persons were therefore brought out in procession,
wearing the usual apparel of ignominious penance;
and it is noted that among them was Bartolommeo
Panchicerichi, a gentleman who had served the Duke
of Tuscany as ambassador at the Court of France.
They underwent shameful exhibition in the cathedral;
and a company of women, by way of giving diversity
to the inquisitorial triumph, appeared in like manner
in the church of St. Simon. (A.D. 1556.)
* SECKENDORF, Comm. de Luth., lib. iii., sect. 25, § xcvii.
GERDES, Spec. Ital. Reform., xxxvii.

182
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
But commerce could not prosper and the Inquisi-
tion range within the same field. The merchant-
city was filled with terror and mistrust. Foreigners,
being eyed with suspicion as innovators in religion,
and haunted with incessant vexations whenever they
appeared in Florence, ceased to frequent a mart where
familiars dogged their steps. Their ships no longer
gladdened the course of the Arno. The merchants
became poor. The inhabitants emigrated. Artists
and literary men shunned the halls of the Medici.
The more earnest Protestants took refuge in Germany
and England; and the less instructed, being left with-
out shepherds, perished for lack of knowledge.
The
The desperate resistance of the Neapolitans to an
attempted introduction of the Roman Inquisition into
that city, in the year 1547, furnished a terrific episode
in Italian history. The Viceroy endeavoured to com-
pel the citizens to accept the Tribunal by military
force. He one day marched a body of three thousand
Spanish soldiers into Naples to quell a riot which his
proclamation for its erection had provoked.
soldiers fought desperately, but the people were infu-
riated; and before the bells could ring for evening
prayers for the souls in purgatory, the last of the three
thousand had fallen, and their bodies, heaped together
with a greater number of Italians, choked the streets.
This carnage, at the same time, rebuked the brutality
of the Inquisitors, and told with what horror and
detestation the so-called holy and equitable Roman
Inquisition was regarded all over Italy. It was too
well known by this time to be thought a shade less
diabolical than that of Lisbon or Valladolid.*
By the indefatigable activity of the Cardinal-Inqui-
sitors, headed by the Pope, who required the civil
power everywhere to support the Holy Office, Luther-
anism, as they called the reviving Christianity of that
* This extremely brief summary does not overstate the issue of
a prolonged and desperate conflict. See THUANUS, lib. iii., num. 4;
PALLAVICINI, lib. x., cap. 1; PAOLO SARPI Hist. Conc. Trid., iii., 5.
THE ROMAN CONGREGATION.
183
time, died away: and Socinianism, that had been for
some time springing up, killed most of the vitality
that remained.
In Sicily, Philip II. of Spain outran his predecessor,
being swifter-footed for shedding blood; and the chief
men of the island, the very men who, twelve years
before, had driven away an Inquisitor, burnt his
papers, and beaten his underlings, being now charmed
with privileges offered them by the Spanish Nero,
themselves became familiars and patrons of the reno-
vated Institution, built prisons at their own expense,
and salaried the officers. Vain is the help of man!
Over violence Popery by violence can always triumph,
because it knows how to use violence with greater
skill. Protestantism, too, when it degenerates into
Socinianism, becomes a Christianity so false, that it
had better by far die than live.
A few good men, however, survived the wreck of
the Reformation in Italy, and were sacrificed one by
one. Such were the following:-
Fannio, a pious and learned man, was hung at
Florence, and then burnt, on the Pope's demand, in
the year 1550.
Dominico suffered violent death at Piacenza, about
the same time, praying for his persecutors.
Galeazzo Treccio, after enduring imprisonment and
questioning, probably with torture, bore witness to
the truth as it is in Jesus, and was burnt alive in a
town of the Milanese (A.D. 1551).
Giovanni di Montalcino, an eminent man, once Pro-
fessor of Metaphysics in the University of Bologna,
and a faithful expositor of the New Testament, was
burnt alive in Rome (A.D. 1553).
Francesco Gambia, of Brescia, for having joined in
an act of evangelical communion at Geneva, was
taken, when crossing the Lake of Como on his way
homeward, condemned by the Inquisitors of Como,
strangled, and then beheaded, and his body burnt
(A.D. 1554).
184
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Pomponio Algieri, of Capua, a devout Christian,
became known in the Academy of Padua, was arrested
and imprisoned in Venice; but, not being a Venetian,
was given up to the Cardinal-Inquisitors, and burnt
alive in Rome for their entertainment and the pleasure
of Paul IV. (A.D. 1555).
Varaglia, a Capuchin friar, Inquisitor, and son of
an Inquisitor; one who had signalised himself in
killing Waldenses. This man, while striving to make
himself master of the controversy between Rome and
the Reformed Churches, had been converted to the
truth and service of the Lord Jesus Christ, and soon
fell into the hands of his former brethren, who burnt
him in Turin (A.D. 1557).
Luigi Pascal, an itinerant preacher among the
scattered Christians of Calabria, was taken to Rome,
condemned by their Eminences, and burnt outside the
Castle of St. Angelo in their presence, the Pope pre-
siding at the ceremony (A.D. 1560). This must be
the person of whom Sacchini speaks,* calling him a
very confident and cunning master of impiety, sent
from Geneva to Rome, the chief seat of religion, that
there he might vitiate the truth at its fountain-head.
He says that the man was taken, put into irons, and
condemned to fire. Hardened and stubborn in heart
and ears, says the Jesuit, he rejected salutary admo-
nitions and advice. The Governor of the city applied
to Laynez, General of the Society of Jesus, to go to
him, to convince him of the truth, that he might be
saved from eternal fire after their fire had consumed
him. Laynez went to the prison, and there found
some cardinals, a few bishops, and many men of rank,
among whom were some relatives of the Pope, whom
the Governor had invited to be also present. They
could not have been all assembled in the cell; there-
fore it is most probable that they met in the dreadful
hall where prisoners were put to the question.
The Inquisitors had finished their work. The good
* Hist. Soc. Jesu, iv., 11.
THE ROMAN CONGREGATION.
185
man was in the power of the Governor of Rome as to
his body; and his soul was already committed to
the God of everlasting mercy. Laynez, a veteran
controversialist, who had debated in Trent, and
encountered Beza in the Conference of Poissy, entered
into a formal disputation with this poor Waldense.
They contended hard; and Laynez, stimulated by the
applause of the dignitaries around him, endeavoured
to perplex him with a sort of Socratic subtlety. The
bishops joined in, and, by ensnaring questions, they
tried to make him contradict himself; but he stood
firm. Believing in the Son of God, he had the witness
in himself; and in that assurance he could rejoice, and
be triumphant over death and hell.
In Venice, from time to time, the inquisitorial spies
detected members of a secret society of worshippers in
that city, a feeble remnant of those whose dispersion
was reported by Altieri to Luther; and them the
magistrates condemned of course. The usual mode of
execution there was by drowning in the sea.
Gerdes
collects the names of four such who were drowned
between the years 1562 and 1567. They were called
Giovanni Guirlanda, Antonio Ricetto, Francesco Sega,
and Francesco Spinola.
The constitution for the establishment of a Supreme
and Universal Inquisition at Rome was published, as
we have seen, in July, 1542, met in November of the
same year, and commenced its operations in Italy
in 1543.
The Council of Trent made an imperfect beginning
of its deliberations in 1545, and closed them in 1563.
During the eighteen years of intermittent action and
debates in the Council and in Conciliar Congregations
on a great variety of subjects with very voluminous
correspondence with many countries, the Inquisition
only once engaged the attention of the Council
openly, and just proceeded far enough to enable us
to judge how far it is likely that such an assembly
would in those days have sanctioned its establishment
in Italy or anywhere else.
186
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
The two chief historians of the Council, Fra Paolo
Sarpi and the Cardinal Pallavicini, while differing
widely on this and almost every other subject, agree
as to the facts, which were too public to be materially
disguised on either side.
While some of the French Bishops were considering
how they might best conciliate the Huguenots, and
the King of France had intreated the Pope to allow
communion in both kinds, the Spanish clergy and
the King of Spain were devising how they might
most expeditiously destroy the Lutherans, and to that
end longed for greater support in Italy. Philip the
Second, having followed his father in a course of
pitiless persecution in the Netherlands, and being
actually engaged in the reckless struggle against con-
science which was soon to provoke the Netherlanders
to declare their country a republic, made a proposal
to the Pope Pius IV. to establish an Inquisition
in Milan on the Spanish model, with a Spaniard as
Chief Inquisitor. The Milanese, he said, were near
to many places infested with heresy, and it was
necessary to watch over that State with especial care,
using every means for the maintenance of religion
and the service of God. Rodolfo Pio, Cardinal of
Carpi, an inveterate hater of heretics, and opponent
of ecclesiastical reform, was engaged by the Spanish
Ambassador at Rome to persuade the Pope to accede
to the proposal, and was encouraged to render Philip
that service by an intimation that, if he succeeded,
the King would use his utmost effort to have him
elected Pope in the next conclave. Much pleading
was not necessary to persuade Pius, who at once laid
the proposal before the Consistory. The argument
employed in its favour was that such an establishment
would be very useful for keeping Milan in dependence
on the Holy See.
As soon as the towns of the Milanese heard of this
correspondence, they deputed two Cardinals, Sforza
and Morone, to go for them to the Pope; Cesare
THE ROMAN CONGREGATION.
187
Taverna and Princisvale Bisotto to the King of Spain;
and Sforza Brivio to the Council. Brivio was in-
structed to pray the Cardinals and the Prelates of this
State to take pity on their common country, which
was already burdened with excessive charges, and
would be utterly overwhelmed under the additional
charge of an Inquisition, which would be heavier
than all the others put together. He was to represent
to the Council that already many persons had re-
solved to leave the country, because they knew that
the Tribunal had seldom in view the good of con-
sciences, but often the confiscation of goods, or other
worldly interests, and that if, in the very presence of
the King they who were at the head of this Office
treated their own fellow-countrymen with so great
severity, they would do far worse toward the people
of Milan, for whom they cared much less, and where
a remedy would not be so near at hand. He was to
point out to the Prelates the pain and alarm which
the sad intelligence gave them, and entreat them to
use all their influence for averting the calamity. This
delegate fulfilled his commission very successfully.
The Milanese Prelates were moved by these represen-
tations so much the more as the clergy had even more
reason than the laity to dread this horrible Tribunal.
In this view the Neapolitan clergy sincerely shared.
They were apprehensive that, if once the dreaded
yoke were laid on the State of Milan, they would no
longer be able to resist its imposition on themselves,
nor could they defend themselves as they had done
some years before.
The Prelates of Lombardy then assembled, and
resolved to write one joint letter to the Pope, and
another to the learned and energetic Charles Borromeo,
nephew and favourite of the Pope, Archbishop of
Milan, and at that time exerting greater influence
over the Council than any other man. They showed
the Cardinal that the proposed erection of an Office of
Inquisition in Milan would be prejudicial to himself,
188
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
since, in quality of Archbishop, he would have to be
at the head of it.* To the Pope they represented
that there were not the same reasons for establishing
as rigorous an Inquisition in Milan as in Spain, nor
could he have the same reason for so doing; that
besides ruining the State, it would be exceedingly
prejudicial to the Holy See, for, as the Inquisition
would assume authority over the Prelates, they would
have little obedience left for the Pope, but would be
compelled to unite themselves closely with secular
princes who, by its means, would hold them in abso-
lute subjection. They represented that, if a General
Council were at any time held, the Pope would have
few bishops whom he could trust, or whom he could
freely command. They insisted that no one should
believe what the Spaniards pretended, that an Inqui-
sition in Milan would be subject to Rome, after what
every man knew Spanish Inquisitors had done in
the case of Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo, and how
they had always refused to give Rome the report of
his case, which had been demanded of them; and
how the Sicilian Inquisitors acted so long as they
depended on the Inquisitors in Spain.
Not content with writing these letters, and otherwise
using their influence with friendly Cardinals, they
proposed to have some words inserted in the decrees of
the Council to exempt, or at least to guard, the bishops
against the jurisdiction of the Tribunal, and to regu-
late the manner of inquisitorial proceedings, either
in that session or the next. Cardinal Morone, then
President, led them to expect some satisfaction.
For the rest, says Sarpi, this accident caused such
a great movement in the Council, on account of the
great number of persons interested, that some very
grave consequences would have followed, but for the
news received, a few days afterwards, that the Duke
* This implies that even if it were established it was understood
that the appointment of a Spaniard as Chief Inquisitor would not
be admissible, much as the King of Spain desired it.
THE ROMAN CONGREGATION.
189
of Sessa, perceiving universal symptoms of an insur-
rection in the country, and apprehending that the
Milanese would follow the example of the Flemings,
who, to escape the Inquisition, had left the Church of
Rome and adopted the reformed religion, had stopped
the ambassadors destined to go into Spain, and pro-
mised to employ himself in their favour, since he had
come to know that the conjuncture was not proper for
such an enterprise.*
* Fra PAOLO SARPI Histoire du Concile de Trente, par Pierre
François de Courayer, viii., 42.
190
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXXV.
ITALY.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
Not least interesting among the objects that present
themselves in a survey of Italy at this time, is the
terror of the clergy at the Protestant Reformation.
Even the efforts made by the champions of Romanism
to counteract the evangelical influences that were
spreading into Italy from beyond the Alps recoiled
upon themselves. The Jesuits did their best to raise
a more cultivated race of priests, who might frustrate
the labours of the Reformers; but they found it im-
possible to set the minds of their pupils into action
without endangering their orthodoxy. Literary men
strove sincerely to clear their country from the re-
proach of ignorance; but their zeal first exposed them
to suspicion of heresy, and then actually drew them
into new opinions. Many dignitaries of the Church
saw that unless they made some show of reformation
of manners, it would be impossible for their clergy to
recover the confidence of the people; but when they
gave utterance to that persuasion, they spoke so like
the Lutherans, that they were suspected of a secret
design to betray the cause of their Church to the
enemy. In all cases the Inquisition came upon the
field, and visited persons unjustly suspected with the
penalties intended for the real heretics. Monks and
priests often turned away from their over-zealous
brethren with fear for themselves, and sometimes not
without cause.
When Luther's Theses were condemned in the Bull
of Leo X., January 3rd, 1520, and his condemnation
and excommunication were pronounced by the same
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
191
Pontiff in the Bull of June 16, 1521, work for the
Inquisitors was expressly provided. Clause 15 of the
latter document is clear enough. The Inquisition is
not mentioned, nor was mention requisite. Patriarchs,
Archbishops, Bishops, Prelates and Chapters of Col-
legiate Churches, Monks and Friars, were commanded
to act for the enforcement of Canon Law against "the
said Martin, and his followers and abettors, excom-
municated, anathematised and accursed heretics," and
to interdict and curse them by name in the most
frequented Churches, when the greatest number of
persons were present at Divine Service, with the
cross erected, bells ringing, candles burning and then
extinguished and thrown upon the ground and trod-
den under foot, stones thrown thrice, and other
appointed ceremonies observed. "And also for the
greater confusion of the aforesaid Martin and other
heretics aforesaid, their adherents, followers and
abettors, we command by virtue of holy obedience,
all and every the Patriarchs, &c., that as they were
appointed for quieting schisms, so necessity being
now urgent, and as it is incumbent on their office,
they do now set themselves as a wall of defence for
the protection of the Christian people, and be not
dumb like dogs that cannot bark, but cry aloud with-
out ceasing, lifting up their voice and preaching, and
causing others to preach the Word of God, and
declare the Catholic faith against the above condemned
and heretical articles."
This solemn declaration of the Catholic faith could
not be otherwise made than by an Auto-de-Fé
wherever the Tribunal was established, and the ac-
tion of the Tribunal was distinctly indicated by a
general order for the threefold monition of absent
heretics to appear and answer for themselves previous
to the solemn act of excommunication. The Inqui-
sition and the Company of Jesus were thus to proceed
in concert against the Reformation.
The Roman College was founded by Ignacio de
192
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Loyola in the year 1551: and a Calvinist, as Orlandini
tells us, entered among the first students. How far
the statement is correct, one cannot say; but the tale
is curious, and the reader shall have it as it is given.
The nascent Institution, says Orlandini, could not
be kept secure against the snares of heresy. Philip
Melancthon, and another leader of the German revolt,
sent an agent of theirs to study in the house, in order
that, by his means, they might acquaint themselves
with the internal affairs of the Society, and, if pos-
sible, pervert some of the inmates by their "execrable
and hateful doctrine." This person, whose name the
Jesuit annalist does not condescend to mention, was a
fine man, thirty years of age, of noble figure, exceed-
ingly clever, and one that so perfectly assumed an
air of obedience to the slightest indication of authority
by a superior, and went through the ceremonial devo-
tions of the place with so much apparent piety, that
he bade fair to attain the highest eminence, and be
one of the fairest ornaments of the Order.
"He
omitted nothing that was necessary to conceal his
own sect, and cover his nefarious intentions."
But being one day employed in keeping the dining-
room in order, and having one Brother Oliver for his
assistant, he took occasion to talk with the said
Oliver when they were alone, with none to overhear
them, concerning points of controversy.
The two
brothers discoursed freely and at length on the use of
images, the power of the Roman Pontiff, faith and
works, and other topics pertaining to the controversy
that was then so rife. Oliver, however, faithful to the
obligations of his institute, suffered the Calvinist to
talk, perhaps encouraged the conversation, and, in the
course of a few days, he had noted down "from his
impudent mouth twenty-five destructive articles of
doctrine, hateful to Catholics." Possessed of these
proofs of guilt, Oliver disclosed the treachery to the
blessed Father Ignatius, who instantly took measures
for making it known to Cardinal Caraffa, then Inqui-
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
193
sitor at Rome. The Cardinal threw the German
hypocrite into the Inquisition, did with him what
Orlandini does not say, but leaves us to conjecture,
and thus extorted confession and compelled repent-
ance. But "that impunity in sinning might not
increase licence, Caraffa sent the man to the galleys
for life, and bound him to the most shameful
benches.' ""**
Of all persons in Rome, not one could be more
deeply panic-stricken than Pope Paul IV. The
newly-erected prisons of the Inquisition were crowded.
Spies prowled about everywhere. The Inquisitors
drank in delations as thirsty souls drink in water.
Suspicion, however slight, however unfounded, was
enough for the suspected person to be shut up from
the light of day. None dared breathe a murmur at
the severity of the Tribunal, or betray pity for the
sufferers, or he would be punished as an abettor of
heresy. Even the College of Cardinals trembled; for
one of their own number was incarcerated on suspicion
of heresy, although he had contended most ardently
for the honour of the Church. As for the Roman
people, their dread was beyond measure, when they
saw the Inquisition take cognizance of matters which
had never before come within its jurisdiction.†
It was from personal dislike, if report be true, that
the Pope threw Cardinal Morone into prison. Morone
had been Apostolic Legate in the Council of Trent,
and a most eminent advocate of the highest pre-
tensions of the Papacy; but his ungrateful master
flung him into the castle of St. Angelo as a state
prisoner, and then consigned him to the Inquisition.
The Inquisitors were unable, or unwilling, to find him
guilty of heresy, and the Pope desired him to come
out of prison; but he refused to accept liberty until
publicly released from the discredit of such a position
by a declaration of his innocence. Paul would not
*Hist. Societ. Jesu, pars prima, xi., 7.
† MURATORI, Annali d'Italia, anno 1560.
VOL. II.
194
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
stoop to satisfy this reasonable demand, and the Car-
dinal remained a prisoner until summoned to the
Conclave to take part in the election of another Pope
after the death of Paul.
Egidio Foscherati, Bishop of Modena, was made
prisoner at the same time as Morone, and perhaps
with even greater injustice. The Cardinal may have
spoken on matters of discipline with a freedom resem-
bling that of the Reformers, but the Bishop had not
so far offended.*
Dr. Thomas Wylson, an Englishmen who took
refuge in Rome to escape the displeasure of Queen
Mary, but who had never actively opposed Romanism,
was informed against for having written an objection-
able book on Rhetoric, and another on Logic. "For
which," he afterwards said, "they accounted me a
heretic, notwithstanding the absolution granted to all
the realm" (of England) "by Pope Julius III., for
all former offences or practices devised against Holy
Mother Church, as they call it. A strange matter!
* MURATORI, Annali d'Italia, anno 1560. When referring to
the most learned, industrious, and accurate Lodovico Antonio
Muratori, I cannot refrain from adding a brief note; and
am the more disposed to do so as the treatment dealt to this
author is by no means singular. While compiling his ad-
mirable Annals of Italy, he could not help noticing many passages
of history which the priests would gladly have buried in oblivion.
For this offence the Spanish Inquisitors put him into their Index as
an author whose works were to be expurgated. Benedict IV., one
of the most respectable of the Roman Pontiffs, wrote to the In-
quisitor of Spain an intimation that the works of great men ought
not to be prohibited, but disproved; and he instanced the writings
of Muratori, as deserving that indulgence. The Annals just
mentioned were accordingly reprinted in Rome by Giuseppe Cata-
lani, with notes to refute or explain away all passages adverse to
the temporal power of the Pope as well as to Romish doctrine.
The Roman edition of 1786, with notes meant to be corrective, is
the edition that I have used; and I find that instead of extenuating
the cruelty perpetrated on these two persons, Catalani fully
examined their cases, and, far from denial or extenuation, confirms,
and much enlarges, the testimony of Muratori, who confidently
appealed to that Pope for protection against the Inquisitor. Such
protection was promptly given, and this edition of Muratori is very
much enriched by the annotations of the censor.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
195
that things done in England seven years before, and
the same universally forgiven, should afterwards be
laid to a man's charge in Rome! But what cannot
malice do?......God be my Judge, I had then as little
fear-although death was present, and the torment
at hand, whereof I felt some smart as ever I had in
my life before. For when I saw those that did seek
death to be so maliciously set, to make such poor
shifts for my readier despatch, and to burden me with
those back-reckonings, I took such courage, and was
so bold, that the judge then did much marvel at my
stoutness; and, thinking to bring down my great
heart, told me plainly that I was in further peril than
whereof I was aware, and sought thereupon to take
advantage of my words, and to bring me in danger
by all means possible. And after long debating with
me, they willed me at any hand to submit myself to
the Holy Father, and the devout College of Cardinals.
For otherwise there was no remedy."
From the debate Dr. Wylson was taken back to the
dungeon, and would probably have lost his life, but
the prison was set on fire, the Roman people forced
the building open, and released the prisoners alive;
and thus he escaped in the tumult, fled from Rome,
and, after his return to England, was made one of
the principal Secretaries of State, in the reign of our
brave Queen Elizabeth.* In that reign other Secre-
taries of State had, like Dr. Wylson, sufficient expe-
rience of the wickedness and danger of Popery to
guard this nation against its inroads; but now it
would seem as if, without some chastening experience,
few statesmen can be expected to follow their
example.
With respect to the prisons of the Inquisition in
Rome, the great horror which the Romans had of
them is easily accounted for by noting the little that
we have known of them; and the case now to be
related may serve by way of illustration.
* STRYPE'S Annals of the Reformation under Queen Elizabeth, anno
1577.
196
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Fra Tommaso Fabiano di Mileto, a conventual friar
of the order of St. Francis, received sentence on the
16th of December, 1564, in the Apostolic Palace, in
presence of the Governor of Rome and the Pope's
Referendary. The cause had been specially entrusted
by the Cardinals, Inquisitors-General, to the Cardinal
Borromeo, and the sentence, authenticated by his
signature, contains a full account of the offences
charged against the friar. He had believed and
held-
That it is not sinful to eat flesh on days when it is
forbidden by the Church.-That images and relics
ought not to be reverenced.-That Christ is our only
Advocate, and we should not have recourse to saints
in our supplications.-That there is no purgatory
after this present life.-That indulgences granted by
Popes are of no value.-That the Popes who do not
imitate St. Peter are not vicars of Christ, nor succes-
sors of St. Peter.-That priests cannot bind and loose
from sins. That the Pope has no more authority
than a simple priest.--That justification is by faith
alone.-That predestination and foreknowledge de-
stroy free will.-That baptism should be administered
with water alone, and without ceremonies, as also
marriage and the mass without ceremonies.-That
confession of particular sins to a priest is not necessary,
and that it is sufficient to confess to God.-That
holy orders are not a sacrament.-That the host is
not the true body of Christ. Besides holding these
points of doctrine, he had taught them to others for
five or six years past; he had possessed and read
heretical books; he had had intercourse with heretics.
Borromeo said that the friar was not obstinate, and
that having taken the advice and opinion of his col-
leagues, the most illustrious and most reverend Inqui-
sitors, he resolved to deprive him of all ecclesiastical
dignities and honours; but, inasmuch as, influenced
by good advice, the friar had evinced his penitence,
the Cardinal absolved him from the censures thus
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
197
pronounced, and ordered that he should receive abso-
lution at once, under condition of returning to the
Church and doing penance, the form of which penance
is described in every particular, including the abitello,
or penitential habit with a cross. This, it might have
been thought, would be accounted sufficient for a
forgiven penitent; but after it comes the following
dreadful sentence, necessary to satisfy the anger of
the Church:
"And because it is not convenient and just to be
zealous only in taking vengeance for offences com-
mitted against princes of this world, and yet not to
be concerned for offences committed against the
Divine Majesty; and also that crimes may not remain
unpunished with bad example to our neighbour, it is
our pleasure that you be walled up in a place sur-
rounded with four walls,-che tu sij murato in un loco
circondato da quattro mura,-which place we will
cause to be assigned to you; where, with anguish of
heart and abundance of tears, you shall bewail your
sins and offences committed against the majesty of
God, the Holy Mother Church, and the religion of the
Father St. Francis, in which you have made pro-
fession."*
So within four walls built up around him, but with
sufficient space to kneel down before a crucifix and an
image of the Virgin, this poor man was to be confined,
and out of that place he was not to stir, but there
suffer anguish of heart, and shed many tears. There
was no order given for any door, but only four walls
were to be built up around him; and from what is
known of those structures, we may suppose that a
small opening was to be left above, for food to be
dropped down to him. Perhaps it would have been
called a little-ease in England, in the days of Bonner,
where the prisoner was to be kept, to putrefy and
expire in his own filth. Mr. Gibbings so describes
the cell in a carefully-written note.
"Case of a Minorite Friar,” etc. Edited by the Rev. RICHARD
GIBBINGS, B.D. Dublin, 1853.
198
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
The pit, with a trap-door, and the small cells with
skeletons in them, embedded in lime, which Gavazzi
saw in the Roman Inquisition, and will be presently
described in his own words, were probably a variety
of the same secret prison, as used in Italy. The same
kind of sepulchre for the living was in use in Spain;
and Mr. Wetherell, to whom I am indebted for the
Spanish Cartilla described in the Appendix of Vol. I.,
wrote me the following account of what he had seen in
Spain. He says, "I had often heard talk in Spain of
the Emparedados (or persons walled up), and doubted
about them; but at length I saw it. About fifteen
years ago (in the year 1840), the building of the
Inquisition at Seville, being in ruins, was inhabited
by a poor man, with his wife and child. This last,
knocking about one of the rooms, moved a brick in
the wall, where there proved to be what is called un
zitaron,* covering or marking a space in the wall about
a yard and a half wide by a foot or more in depth.
At the bottom of this place were found, and I saw, the
bones of two persons, which must have been built up
in the manner described by Father Gavazzi."
By some means or other, Fra Tommaso, the Minorite,
* Zitaron is peggiorative of zitára, dropping the Arabic article,
which remains in the more perfect form, azitára; it is recognised
by the Spanish Academy, which in the Diccionario del Academia
explains it thus:-"A thin wall, like a tabique (partition-wall of
bricks on edge to divide rooms), built of brick and lime. In some
parts of Castilla the thick wall of the sides of the house, not the
front, is also comprehended under this name. According to Father
Guadix, quoted by Covarrubias, it is an Arabic word, which comes
from zatar, a division, or covering, and the particle a being added,
it becomes azatára." Now a wall of this kind, whether thick or
thin, is not a main wall, is no part of the original structure, and
is not necessary to the stability of the building. It may be run up
at any time in the basement of a building in front of a main wall,
either making one long and very narrow enclosure, or divided into
small doorless cells. The victims may remain there to die slowly,
or, as Gavazzi saw in Rome, the place being filled up with
quicklime or with earth, they may be buried alive or suffocated
This done, the zitaron could be at any time removed,
and not a trace of it remain, nor of the murders done in it.
at once.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
199
escaped from his "place with four walls." He might
have found a loose brick in the wall, and broken
through; or some one of the servants may have pitied
him, and helped him to get out. Be that as it might,
his effigy was burnt, according to a sentence read on
the 8th of November, 1565.
Pietro Carnesecchi was one of the most illustrious
victims of the Roman Inquisition. The Italian Princes,
sharing in the alarm produced by the Reformation,
and fearing lest the doctrines reported to prevail in
Germany should lead to a political revolution in Italy,
earnestly desired to suppress the new opinions. Yet
the Princes did not wish their subjects to be indis-
criminately abandoned to the Inquisition, but desired
that their own deputies should assist at the processes
of the Holy Office. In this view Cosimo, Duke of
Tuscany, ordered that the Nuncio should give him an
account of such causes as might occur, and that the
sentences should not be executed without his consent.
The Pope, for his part, thought that the Tribunal,
thus held in check, would not have sufficient power to
put down innovation, and resolved to take another
method for the accomplishment of that object. His
method was to strike at the chiefs, in order to terrify
their followers; and to draw them from distant states
to the Inquisition at Rome, seemed the measure most
conducive to that end. He therefore began by de-
manding individuals to be given up to himself. The
Lordship of Venice had led the way of compliance by
giving up Giulio Zanetti, who had fed to Padua under
an accusation of heresy; and the Republic excused
itself for an act that was not unlike brutality by al-
leging that Zanetti was born at Fano, and was there-
fore a subject of the Pope. Throughout Italy Paul IV.
sought after such persons, to the alarm of the people,
who broke out into riot at Mantua and some other
places.
But to return to Carnesecchi; he was a man of high
family and great learning. He had been Protonotary
200
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
at Rome under Clement VII., but was, in common
with many eminent Italians, a friend of many of the
Reformed. On this account he had once been actually
in the custody of the Inquisition, but the Duke of
Tuscany, using his influence by correspondence with
Rome from Florence, managed to get him released.
On that occasion Carnesecchi left Rome, went to France,
and had communication with the chiefs of the Reform
there. Paul IV. then cited him to appear again at
Rome; but he came not, and was therefore declared
contumacious, and his contumacity became undoubted
when his reply to the Papal summons was nothing
less than a written attack upon the Papacy. At that
juncture, trusting in the friendship of the Duke, Car-
nesecchi ventured to visit him at Florence; and
Pius V., by this time on the throne, commanded the
Duke to surrender his guest. The Tuscan would have
thought himself bound, he said, to deliver up his own
child to the Pope, if so required; and, without a blush,
he saw his friend arrested while sitting at his table,
and carried away by force to Rome.
On the 16th of August, 1567, Carnesecchi was sen-
tenced to death, having been convicted of thirty-four
condemned opinions. The sentence was publicly read
to him on the 21st of the month following. Having
consigned him to the secular arm, they put on him
the sambenito, painted with flames and devils. Mean-
while, Cosimo, with remorse for his cowardice and
perfidy, strove to move the Pope to compassion, and
succeeded in obtaining a respite of ten days before
putting him to death, with promise of grace if he
would renounce his heretical opinions, and return to
the Catholic faith. The Pope also sent a Capuchin
friar to exhort him to repentance and conversion to
the Church of Rome; but the exhortation was vain.
So far was he from conversion that he endeavoured by
disputation to convert the Capuchin, and showed that
he did not shrink from death. He was then burnt
alive. To the last he bore himself with singular con-
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
201
stancy. He even chose to walk to the scaffold, as if
in pomp, wearing fine linen, and new and elegant
gloves, since the sambenito did not allow the use of
other garments. The ecclesiastical writers, and espe-
cially the continuator of Baronius, find great fault
with one who wrote that Carnesecchi was burnt alive e;
and even affirm that the Roman Inquisition never
inflicted such a cruel punishment; and some historians,
Botta for example, say that he was hanged or beheaded,
and only the sambenito burnt: but there was no such
mitigation of the punishment in this case, and there
are authentic records yet extant to demonstrate that
he was really burnt alive.*
Extreme terror and consternation followed this mur-
der of Carnesecchi, not only in Tuscany, but in all
Italy. Every one only feared for himself, for his re-
latives, or for his friends. Pleasant and confidential
conversation was banished, even from the secret in-
tercourse of families. And the terror extended beyond
Italy; for in Italy no nationality was respected. An
Englishman, Thomas Reynolds, resident or visiting in
Naples, had been accused to the bishop, together with
three Neapolitan gentlemen; and Rome being now
the inquisitorial centre of the world, the bishop sent
them all thither. The Cardinals threw our country-
man into prison, and laid him on the rack. From
torture, and other sufferings in prison, there he died.
Many an Englishman has perished in like manner.
There could be no mercy in the Congregation of
Cardinals, or, if there were any, not for an English
Protestant in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, who
sternly refused to hold any correspondence with the
Pope or his Court, who were using every method pos-
sible to put down the Reformation in England. Some
time in the year 1581, a Hertfordshire man, named
Richard Atkins, full of zeal, travelled to Rome for the
*This is proved by Mr. Gibbings in his Report of the Trial and
Martyrdom of Pietro Carnesecchi, transcribed from the original MS.,
etc. Dublin University Press, 1856.
202
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
express purpose of delivering his testimony against
Popish idolatry. Coming to the English College
there, he knocked at the door, and being admitted,
told the students that he came thither to rebuke lov-
ingly the great disorder of their lives, which it was
grievous to hear of, and pitiable to behold. He fur-
ther told them that he had come to Rome to let their
proud Antichrist understand that he was offending
the Heavenly Majesty, robbing God of His honour,
and poisoning the whole world with his abominable
blasphemies. He charged the astonished youths with
worshipping stocks and stones, and that "filthy sacra-
ment "the host,-which was nothing more than a
foolish idol.
Perhaps they thought him insane, although such
bursts of holy indignation were by no means uncom-
mon, and naturally arose from the profound abhorrence
which then prevailed in the Protestant world, without
which a superficial Reformation would soon have died
away. One of the students, Hugh Griffin, a young
Welshman, at once delivered him to the Inquisition,
but for some reason unexplained, he was detained in
custody but for a few days, and then discharged.
Shortly after his release, he went into St. Peter's
Church, made his way to an altar where a priest
was saying mass, and when the priest elevated the
host, he dashed at once to the altar, knocked down the
chalice with the wine, and attempted to snatch the
wafer from the priest's hand. Of course, Atkins was
instantly seized, beaten, and would have been stabbed
on the spot if they had not dragged him away to
prison. There he avowed that he had come to Rome
for the very purpose of exposing the Pope's wicked-
ness and idolatry. No further evidence of heresy
was wanting, and he was at once condemned to be
burnt. The sentence did not surprise him, and he
declared himself willing to suffer. During the interval
between the sentence and the execution some of the
English came to him with the usual exhortations to

A ONIUS PALEARIUS ALTER POST CICERONEM ROME LOGVENTIA
PARENS HERETICORUM ERROR BUS IMPLICATUS IGNEA BSUMPTUS
SEBENTE POME PIRYT ANNO. MDLXIX.
S FIO V
AONIO PALEARIO,
Uor M
[See Vol. I p. xi.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
203
repent, but he disputed with them vigorously, sus-
tained his argument with quotations from Holy Scrip-
ture, and solemnly prepared himself to die.
They sat him on an ass without a saddle, naked from
the middle upward. Some English priests walked
alongside, talking to him in their usual way, but,
regardless of all they could say, he raised his voice,
and in broken Italian told the crowd that they were
going in a bad way, and exhorted them, for Christ's
sake, to have care for the salvation of their souls.
Four men with burning torches went with him all the
way, frequently touching his naked body with the
fire; but he, with a cheerful countenance, persisted
in speaking to the people, bent forward to meet the
torches as they were thrust at him, and sometimes
took the brand and held it close to his own flesh with-
out shrinking. This continued about the distance of
half a mile, till they reached the place of burning.
There the Italians surpassed themselves in cruelty,
contriving to burn his legs first, instead of letting
him be suffocated quickly amidst blazing faggots, as
was usual. But he gave no sign of pain, nor of impa-
tience, except that when they offered him a cross, and
the English would have had him to embrace it, he
told them they were "evil men to trouble him with
such paltry when he was preparing himself to God,
whom he beheld in majesty and mercy, ready to
receive him into eternal rest. One, John Young, an
English Papist, who took part in the murder of his
countryman, related these circumstances to two or
three Englishmen who wrote his description to their
friends at home.*
""
The name of Aonio Paleario has been made familiar
to readers of Italian history by the translation of some
of his writings into English. That learned and good
man, after being driven from place to place during
many years of persecution, found a home in Milan,
* STRYPE'S Annals, Vol. III., Book I., Chap. 3, and Appendix
VII.
204
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
as a teacher of Greek and Latin. He was friend and
correspondent of many eminent men. Many of the
letters which passed between him and them were col-
lected and published after his death. Before the first
assembling of the Council of Trent, he wrote an
address to the Swiss and German Reformers, under
the title of "Testimonies to the Peoples and Nations
who call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The work had no signature. It consists of twenty
articles, or testimonia, against the wickedness of the
Pope and Court of Rome, and their clergy; and dis-
closes the corruption of the Roman Church in all its
parts. After his death a book was found in manu-
script, containing the same twenty testimonies, each
followed with a copious exposition. The following
note was written on the volume :-I Aonius, servant
of the Lord Jesus Christ, give this most firm testimony
with the determination that, if it be necessary, I will
not refuse to die for that faith which I owe to Jesus
Christ, the author of my peace and salvation." The
work bears no date, but the original testimonies were
certainly written before the assembling of the Council,
and we may gather from his other writings that he
never equivocated. He was neither priest nor
preacher, and it has been conjectured that it was not
thought politic to take his life during a sitting of the
Council, nor in any interval during the Sessions, or
his testimonies might have been brought into promi-
nence in the discussions of the Council itself.
After the close of that memorable assemblage,
Pius V., then in the Chair at Rome, being, as
is notorious, an implacable persecutor, Aonio was
imprisoned for three years, and then given to the
flames by the Roman Inquisition. His biographer
says that Paul IV. protected him from his enemies,
who were deterred by their knowledge of the Pope's
friendly regard for him from proceeding openly
against him. But when Pius V., a Dominican and
rabid Inquisitor, came to the Pontificate, he hastened
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
205
to kill the author of the Testimonies, and of the
admirable treatise on the merits of the death of Christ.
Some writers, perhaps not informed of the actual
contents of the Testimonies, nor of the other little
work, have too hastily attributed his death to the
intrigues of enemies. It needed no such stimulant
to quicken the anger of the Inquisition; for never did
any writer more clearly expose the false teaching and
wicked life of the clergy of his day than did Aonio
Paleario.
A
The Inquisitors reported that he had recanted be-
fore his death, and was therefore hanged instead of
being burnt alive. But that plainly appears not to be
the truth. Thuanus distinctly affirms that he was
burnt alive at Rome, and so says the Annalist Lader-
chius. Other writers confirm this statement.
picture,* in what is now a public library, in the
Episcopal Seminary of Veroli, in Rome, exhibits
direct evidence. It is a portrait of Paleario, taken
many years before his death, but his name and des-
cription were rudely painted underneath in bad Latin,
at some time after his death, with a statement that
Aonius Palearius, second after Cicero for speaking in
* The authenticity of this picture, when photographed, was
formally attested by the librarian, as follows:
Dichiaro io sotto Bibliotecario della pubblica biblioteca esistente
nel Vescovile Seminario di Veroli (Roma), che la presente fotogra-
fia di Aonio Paleario venne dal Sig. F. Spina fotografo eseguita in
mia presenza sopra un ritratto ad olio esistente nella biblioteca
medisima e rappresentante Aonio Paleario.-Veroli, 10 Maggio,
1872.
Il bibliotecario
Luca
Canco
Mazzoli
Comune di Veroli Prova di Roma-Si certifica
essere autentica la di contro estesa firma del
Sig. Canco D. Luca Mazzoli.
L. S.
Per Il Sindaco
Giuseppe Franchi.
Asse
L. S.
206
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Roman (Rome), being implicated in the errors of
heretics, was consumed in fire at Rome, in the year
1569. This appears to be the correct date, although
it does not agree with the date assigned to his last
letter by a writer now to be quoted.
With the calm dignity of a Christian confessor, he
wrote letters to his wife and two sons on the eve of
his martyrdom. To his wife he said: "I am now an
old man of seventy years, and useless. Our children
must provide for themselves by their virtue and in-
dustry, and lead an honourable life. God the Father,
and our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Communion of
the Holy Spirit be with your spirit." To his sons,
Lampridio and Pedro he gave fatherly counsels, with
directions as to some family affairs, and his last earthly
correspondence closes with these words to them:
(6
My hour approaches. May the Spirit of God con-
sole and preserve you in His grace. Your Father,
AONIO PALEARIO." These letters are dated at Rome,
July 3rd, 1570.*
From 1542 to 1559 the Cardinal-Inquisitors had
carried matters with a very high hand, and were able
to suppress any very strong manifestation of public
hatred; but as soon as Paul IV. died, the inhabitants
of Rome gave full vent to their abhorrence of the new
system. Amidst the uproarious rejoicing which took
place, as usual, as soon as the Pope's decease was
known, the common prisons were opened, according
to the custom, and the prisoners released; but the
new prison of the Inquisition was kept strictly shut.
Thither the people ran, forced the gates, released the
prisoners, and set the building on fire. Then it was
that Dr. Wylson escaped, and fled to England. With
great difficulty they were restrained from treating the
Dominican convent, della Minerva, in the same way,
and from taking vengeance on the monks, who, beyond
* Aonii Palearii Verulani Opera recensuit, et Dissertationem de Vitå
Fatis, et Meritis Aonii Palearii, præmisit FRIDER. ANDR. HALLBAUER.
Jenæ, 1728. THUANI Hist., lib. xxxix., cap. 2.
THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION.
207
all others, were devoted to the service of the Inquisi-
tion. The crowd moved towards the Capitol, broke
down a fine statue of the departed Pontiff, knocked
off the head, and rolled it in the streets for three days,
when they dropped the unvisaged boulder into the
Tiber. They would have treated the Pope's body in
a similar manner, but it was hastily hidden in a vault.
The Commissary of the Inquisition was wounded, and
his house burnt down. The arms of the Caraffa family
-for it was Cardinal Caraffa who supported the
founder of the Jesuits in advising Paul III. to create
the Congregation of the Holy Office-were every-
where torn down.
But popular tempests, lull as rapidly as they spring
up; and the Cardinals resumed their station without
any effectual resistance. They had learnt that the
walls of the Holy House were not sufficiently sub-
stantial, and in due time the Princes of the Faith for-
tified themselves within a much more solid edifice.
The present palace of the Roman Inquisition, raised
by Pius V., bears an inscription to attest the year of
its completion, 1569. A letter addressed to Bullinger
in 1568 conveys the intelligence that at that time
some persons were every day burned, strangled, or
beheaded; that all the jails and places of confinement
were full, so that there was constant toil in building
new prisons; and that Rome, though very extensive,
could scarcely hold and keep in custody the multitude
of the godly. This Pius V., when Cardinal Ghislieri,
was the first man who bore the title of Supreme
Inquisitor. He kept it until his death; and his
successor, Gregory XIII., became Prefect of the
Congregation of the Inquisition,-a title proudly sus-
tained by every Pontiff down to this day.
208
CHAPTER XXXVI.
ITALY.
(6 SACRED CONGREGATION
GENERAL BUSINESS.
"BLESSED Father," said Baronius to Paul V., "the
ministry of Peter is twofold-to feed and to kill. For
the Lord said to him, 'Feed my sheep;' and he also
heard a voice from heaven, saying, 'Kill, and eat.'
To feed sheep is to take care of obedient, faithful
Christians, who in meekness, humility, and piety,
show themselves to be sheep and lambs. But when
he has no longer to do with sheep and lambs, but
with lions, and other wild, refractory, and trouble-
some beasts, Peter is commanded to kill them; that is
to say, to attack, fight, and slaughter them, until
there be none such left."* This notion of killing-
eating is another matter-was not peculiar to Baro-
nius. Pius V. acted up to it thoroughly; and, among
many butcher-like doings, confirmed all the privileges
and graces granted to crusaders of both sexes, by two
Innocents, one Leo, one Julius, one Clement, and
others of his predecessors, and constituted them a dis-
tinct society, for the purpose of helping Inquisitors
whenever necessary, and bade them do so without the
least scruple or limitation as to means (A.D. 1570).
In consistence with this appointment, and about this
time, the
the Bartholomew Massacre was contrived,
partly at Rome, during a visit of the Cardinal of
Lorraine, and partly by the instigation of the Inqui-
sitors at Madrid. It is not surprising, therefore, that
when intelligence of that great crime reached the
Courts of Europe, it should have been celebrated by
* Sententia Baronii Card. super Excommunicatione Venetiarum. In
Villa Sanvincentiana. 1608.
66 SACRED CONGREGATION”
q”—GENERAL BUSINESS. 209
those of Pius V. and his princely familiars, namely,
Cosimo of Tuscany and Philip II. of Spain, with
public rejoicings and Te Deums, whereas it awakened
horror everywhere else.
Let us now take note of the proceedings in general
of the Sacred Congregation.
They set up an Inquisition in Malta; of which,
however, there is little to be told. When Charles V.
gave Malta to the Knights of Jerusalem in 1530, it
would seem that there was no settled court of Inqui-
sition established in Sicily, of which island Malta had
been a dependency, for the Inquisitors at first itine-
rated, and perhaps on that account the Inquisition
is not mentioned in the Charter; but the Grand
Master of Malta was required to send traitors and
heretics to the Viceroy of Sicily, and the see of Malta
was also to continue in relation to the parent state.
Then, after the Tribunal was established at Palermo,
its Inquisitors required that heretics detected in
Malta should be sent across to them for treatment.
The Grand Master, Casiera, resisted this demand, and
quarrels between the Order of St. John and the Holy
Office became frequent and long-continued. This,
however, gave the Court of Rome occasion to extend
their direct inquisitorial jurisdiction into Malta, so
far, at least, as the jealousy of the Masters, and the
resistance of the people, would allow (A.D. 1574). *
The first seat of the Tribunal at Palermo was the
royal palace; its next, the fortress of Castellamare,
which was doomed to destruction. For eighty years
after its establishment the acts of the "Modern Inqui-
sition" are imperfectly known, the records having
perished when the fortress-in which were five hun-
dred prisoners-blew up in 1590.†
* VERTOT, Ordre de Malthe, liv. xiv. Malta Illustrata, lib. ii.,
nota xiv.
† Progress of the Two Sicilies under the Spanish Bourbons, from 1735
to 1840." By JOHN GOODWIN, Esq., Her Majesty's Consul for
Sicily. In Journal of Statistical Society.
VOL. II.
P
210
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
The diocese of Milan-once boasting independence
-bounding on the territories of Reformed Switzer-
land, was kept under the searching vigilance of the
Congregation, of which the acts of a Provincial Synod
in 1582 are evidence. For the "preservation of the
faith," that Synod commanded the inhabitants of the
province of Milan, 1. To shun commerce with
heretics; 2. And declared it desirable that no person
should be admitted into their country who came from
lands infected with heresy; or, 3. If that could not
be prevented, that no one should be allowed to lodge
in a private house, but confined to an inn, or to the
house of his agent, if he had one. 4. If any such
came into the diocese, whoever received him should
give immediate notice of his arrival, and of his habi-
tation, to the bishop, the Inquisitor, or the parish-
priest; but no ecclesiastical person whatever should
receive him into his house. 5. The stranger was not
to enter a church, except at sermon-time. 6. No one
was to send his son into a country of heretics, not
even for instruction in commerce, while under twenty-
five
years of age. 7. Nor was any one to go thither
without licence obtained from his bishop or the Inqui-
sitor. 8. Such licence only to be obtained on recom-
mendation of the parish-priest. 9. No Milanese might
reside even in the neighbourhood of heretics without
licence; nor, 10. Sell an estate in order to remove to
an infected country; 11. Under peril of being pro-
ceeded against according to the Canons.
After these regulations were added others for the
government of printers and booksellers, and for the
extirpation of Jewish blasphemy and perfidy. The
Swiss, on the other hand, were watchful against
encroachments on their cantons; and, on one occa-
sion, the Cardinal, itinerating in the cause of the
Inquisition, not being considered a safe person, very
narrowly escaped imprisonment, and had to make
speed back to Rome again. People in those days did
66 SACRED CONGREGATION”—GENERAL BUSINESS. 211
not understand how sickness will get into a country
in spite of quarantine.
At Rome the Cardinals bore a high hand, and, in
revenge for being forbidden to exercise authority in
Protestant countries, cruelly persecuted English and
other heretics who ventured to enter Italy, killing
some, throwing some into prison, and sending others
to the galleys. "Three weeks ago," wrote the
Cardinal D'Ossat, in a letter dated Rome, June 23rd,
1595, "a Fleming was burnt alive in the Campo de'
Fiori, because he would not be converted." About the
same time, an Englishman, about thirty years of age,
a native of London, met the host in procession, and,
filled with that horror and indignation which they
only can conceive who have felt the same, as if he had
passed into a region of blasphemy, where the people
were in open revolt against the Majesty of Heaven,
he knocked the pyx out of the hand of the priest who
carried it, exclaiming that it was an idol. He must
have heard of the horrid punishment of William
Gardiner in Lisbon, for striking the chalice and the
wafer out of the priest's hand when massing in the
cathedral; but, with the certainty of a like death, he
acted. Five days after, as soon as the Sacred Con-
gregation could dispatch the forms, he was led from
the prison of the Inquisition back to that spot, where
his hand was cut off, and his tongue cut out; then he
was scorched with blazing torches, and after being so
tormented, they burnt him alive in presence of the
people.*
I may now produce documentary evidence of the
control exercised by the Cardinal-Inquisitors over all
the Inquisitions of Italy, in pursuance of the design
which led to the appointment of that Sacred Congre-
gation. Twenty years after that event, a Manual was
published bearing date of 1608,-probably there were
many similar,-containing "Brief Instructions in the
* MENDHAM'S Pontificate of St. Pius F. London, 1822. Page
120.
212
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Manner of treating Causes of the Holy Office, for
the Very Reverend Vicars of the Holy Inquisition,
appointed in the Dioceses of Modona" (Módena),
Carpi, Nonantola, and the Garfagnana."
((
It was
printed in Modena, and bears the signature of F.
Michel Angelo Lerri, Inquisitor of Modena. The
Manual is very brief, and looks insignificantly small,
if compared with the folio of Eymeric and Peña, to
which the reader is referred as the standard authority.
It is in Italian, for the benefit of the very reverend
Vicars, to whom Latin reading might not have been
so easy; and repeats the directions which I have com-
pendiated, from that source, in preceding chapters.
Lerri exhorts his vicars to encourage the denouncers
of heretics to persevere, heedless of the reproach of
being spies of the Holy Office, because they would
not be discovered; or, if haply they were detected,
they ought not to fear the name of spy, since, in
time of plague, men would do anything to stay
contagion, regardless of consequences; and for what
they do now, in zeal for the Lord, they shall be re-
warded in heaven. With extreme earnestness he
enforces the usual injunctions on all concerned to
observe the most profound secrecy, and instructs the
notary how to disguise or falsify the summaries of
evidence, that the prisoners may not have the slightest
clue for conjecturing who has testified against them.
As for the methods of extorting self-accusation, he is
explicit enough, so far as he goes, but stays at the
point where torture would be mentioned, as if he
wished it to be employed sparingly by the subalterns,
and rather inflicted under his own eye.
"Many
other things," he writes, "have to be observed con-
cerning the defences of the criminal; but as it is our
intention that the cases shall be dispatched in the
Holy Office of this city, and that when they reach this
stage, and defences have to be made, processes ended,
and sentence given, the criminals be in prison here,
we add no more. In every case, he reserves to
himself the ultimate decision on their reports.
""
(6
SACRED CONGREGATION”—GENERAL BUSINESS. 213
Among the standing directions to the Vicars, there
is one to publish, or cause to be published, the General
Edict of the Holy Office three times every year in all
places under his jurisdiction,-on Corpus Christi Day,
on the first Sunday in Advent, and on the first in
Lent. They are to send him monthly reports of all
their proceedings, omitting no particular, however
minute. They are "admonished that when they
have received any information, or formed any process,
they are not to speak of it, nor make the least allusion
to it, to any one except the notary concerned. If
any one comes to ask a question concerning the Holy
Office, they are to rebut the question, and reprove the
inquirer, telling him that the affairs of the Holy Office
cannot be disclosed to any one, and always affirming
that they know nothing about it. Above all, they
must not allow it to be known who has given infor-
mation, or borne witness, or they will be severely
punished for divulging what is to be concealed; and
of this they must warn their notaries. And if any
one comes to ask favour for any criminal, they must
answer him vaguely, that his case will be disposed of
as early as possible, and such mercy as the Office is
wont to use will be shown him. And if any person
writes letters on behalf of any criminal, they shall not
on any account answer them, except after express
permission had from their lord, Pope Paul V." That
is to say, they are to make inquisition on others, but
no one is to make it on them.
Clement VIII., be it observed, had said that the
judges and officers of the Inquisition were to do
everything gratuitously; and Inquisitor Lerri said
something of the same kind. But he appended to
the Manual, for the government of his vicars, the
table of fees which appears literally translated on the
following page. In the Manual, it comes under the
head of "Instructions from the Congregations in
Rome." For payment, he informed them, lands were
not to be seized, but the amount of charges might be
214
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
levied on fruits and rents.* For being torn from the
bosom of his family, for each act of malignant accus-
* "TO THE NOTARY.
For making out the summary
and if the process be long, the labour shall
be considered.
For each page of the summary
For each letter..
scudo 1 of gold;
bol. 4.
bol. 3.
For any citation of witnesses.
bol. 2.
•
For the citation of the criminal
bol. 3.
For the decree of defence
bol. 2.
For each witness in defence
bol. 6.
bol. 20.
bol. 4.
For any kind of security
For every page of the copy of the process..
And when a copy of the process itself is not
given, for every page of the said process... bol. 2.
For every page of the copy of defensive pro-
cess...
For the decree of torture..
For the torture.
For the citation to the sentence
For the sentence
For the copy of the sentence
•
•
bol. 5.
bol. 2.
bol. 10.
bol. 4.
scudo 1 of gold.
bol. 20.
For the relaxation (delivery to the stake)………….. bol. 10.
For the Congregation
bol. 10.
For the visit to the house of the criminal……………. bol. 20.
TO THE LORD FISCAL.
For any witness, at instance of the criminal... bol. 12.
For the torture
For the Congregation
..
For the visit to the house
For the sentence
bol. 20.
bol. 20.
bol. 40.
scudo 1 of gold.
TO THE SERJEANTS.
For the capture of the criminal in the city ... scudo 1 of gold;
when this takes place out of town, regard
must be had to the distance.
For the torture
For the visit to the house
bol. 40.
bol. 20.
For accompanying the criminal to the sentence bol. 40;
and for this regard shall be had to their
trouble and danger.
"As for the jailor, that is left to the discretion of the Inquisitor;
and in the said list of fees (tassa) there is not any mention made of
it. That the Inquisitors, or vicars, for the future, may not apply
pecuniary penalties for the benefit of the Holy Office, or of any
other places, without first giving a statement of the same to the
Sacred Congregation of Rome. And this is by order of the
Sacred Congregation. And let this suffice for the present," etc.
(6 SACRED CONGREGATION",
GENERAL BUSINESS. 215
ation laid against himself, for every stage of suffering,
for imprisonment, for torture, and even for being
carried to the stake, the victim was to pay. Ruffians
and tormentors were to be bought at his own cost, to
murder him by piece-meal, and then to keep the
secret. Who can wonder after this that assassinations
have been done in Italy for hire?
The perusal of these instructions, as of all docu-
ments relating to the Inquisition, and of incidental
allusions to them occurring in other writings, leaves
the impression that it was very active, and meddled
with all the affairs of political, domestic, and social
life. But it is also certain that popular and tumul-
tuary resistance had given place to another kind of
reaction, and that the acts and pretensions of Inquisi-
tors were canvassed in relation to the controversy
between the secular and ecclesiastical powers,—a con-
troversy which contributes much to the history of
Europe in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
A memorable quarrel of Paul V. with the Republic
of Venice, when he excommunicated the Venetians,
closed in a formal reconciliation in the year 1607.
Contarini, the Venetian ambassador, had an audience
of the Pope, who pledged himself that he would not
remember anything that had passed; and solemnly
appropriated to the occasion a sentiment, if not a
sentence, of Holy Scripture. "Recedant vetera, nova
sint omnia," said he :-"Let old things pass away, let
all be new." Then, to assure the Republic that
Venice had nothing more to fear from himself, he
gave the benediction to all; and the memory of past
offences seemed to be wiped clean out: but the chief
offenders were not forgiven. Among these, perhaps
first of them, were Fra Paolo Sarpi, historian of the
Council of Trent, and Fulgenzio Manfredi, his friend.
They were both invited to Rome; but Sarpi was too
wise to be decoyed, and therefore assassins were em-
ployed to kill him at home; but he escaped from their
hands, alive indeed, but severely wounded. On seeing
216
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
that the ruffians were fled, he coolly delivered that
memorable piece of wit, "Agnosco stylum Romanum;"
which may be translated, either, "I recognise the
Roman style," or, "I know the Roman dagger."
Manfredi was less wary, and could not resist an
invitation to the great city. He left Venice in August,
1608, with a safe-conduct containing a clause that
nothing should be done to his dishonour; and that
promise was considered necessary, because he was
then under suspicion of heresy, on account of some
plain things he had written during the quarrel, and
some passages in sermons that he had preached in
Venice. These offences, too, were much aggravated
by his having held friendly intercourse with Sir
Henry Wotton, British ambassador to his Republic,
and with that admirable Irishman, Bedell, after-
wards Bishop of Kilmore; and by his "extolling
and commending the kingdom of England."
That he might more easily obtain the pardon of
their Lord God, as they chose to speak, the Inquisitors
made him their prisoner, and coolly declared that the
safe-conduct was meant for his coming, not for his
returning. Then, dealing with him as a person who
had surrendered himself to them by coming of his
own accord,-whereas he had been enticed by flat-
teries and false promises, they decreed that he should
visit the seven privileged churches within and without
the walls of Rome; that for the next five years he
should recite, weekly, the seven penitential psalms,
with certain litanies, orisons, and prayers; and fast
rigorously every Friday during the same period. The
Commissary of the Inquisition, seated in state in the
palace of the Holy Office, pronounced the sentence ;
Manfredi heard it, kneeling. The penance was easy,
although the detention in Rome was tedious, and
Manfredi hoped to see Venice again in five years'
time. But that was a vain hope, for they were artfully
leading him to the stake.
"Actually touching with his hands the Holy Gospels

TINELLI.
FRA PAOLO SARPI.
66 SACRED CONGREGATION ”—GENERAL BUSINESS. 217
of God which lay in view, he abjured, execrated, and
declared his abhorrence of the heresies and errors of
which he was adjudged to be very strongly suspected,"
and signed a schedule of abjuration drawn up by the
Inquisition, in exceedingly ample terms, for that pur-
pose. By attaching his signature to this document,
he was made to swear and promise that he would
"never again preach, utter, or put forward, either
publicly or privately, similar assertions, nor keep, nor
read, either book or writing containing heretical and
condemned doctrine; nor do anything by reason of
which it might be possible to form such a suspicion
against him." Independently of the usual engagements
to denounce heretics and suspected persons, and to
observe all penances enjoined on him by the Holy
Office, which engagements were too broad and too
indefinite to be fulfilled by any man, the special obli-
gations of this bond were so framed as to ensnare him
daily; and when he recited the minute abjurations
and promises, word for word, and, after all, subscribed,
"I, Fra Fulgenzio, with my own hand," he, in effect,
signed his own death-warrant.
Fra Paolo Sarpi, who anxiously watched the pro-
ceedings taken against his friend, describes what
followed :-
"Matters passed on with him, sometimes well, some-
times ill, according as he was looked on, till February
last (1610), and then, one evening, Cardinal Pamfilio,
the Pope's Vicar, sent some serjeants to apprehend
him, pretending that he had done something, I know
not what, that came within his jurisdiction. They
put him into prison in the Tower of Nona, a common
jail. Then they went to seize his papers; and, having
looked into them, removed him from that place to the
prison of the Inquisition. There they drew up three
charges against him :-
66
"I. That he had among his books some that were
prohibited.
"2. That he carried on correspondence, by letters,
with heretics of England and Germany.
218
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
"3. That there was a writing, all of his own hand,
containing various articles against the Holy Catholic
and Apostolic Roman Church; particularly, that St.
Peter was not superior to the other Apostles; that the
Pope is not head of the Church; that the Pope cannot
command anything beyond what Christ has com-
manded; that the Council of Trent was neither a
General Council nor a lawful one; that there are
many heresies in the Church of Rome; and a great
many other things.
"To these charges he answered :-
"1. As to the books, he did not know that they
were prohibited.
"2. As to the correspondence by letter that had
taken place between himself and those persons, they
were none of them declared heretics.
"3. As to the writings that were under his own
hand, they were imperfect; and they were not his
opinions, but only memoranda for consideration on
those points.
"At which answers of his the Inquisition being un-
satisfied, they resolved to proceed against him by
way of torture; which being intimated to him, he
answered, that he was not a person to be put to tor-
ture; but, however, they might do as they pleased,
for he cast himself upon their mercy. On the 4th of
July he was brought into St. Peter's, where there was
an unspeakable throng of people; and being there
placed upon a platform, his faults were rehearsed, and
the sentence passed on him, that he should be excluded
from the bosom of Holy Church as a heretic relapsed,
and delivered over to the Governor of Rome, to be
chastised with a whip of bull's hide, but without
fetching blood.*
* Father Paul relates the matter according to his best informa-
tion; but it appears from the summary, as published by Mr. Gib-
bings from the original MS., that Manfredi had been already tor-
tured, and that torture might have been by scourging. But on the
4th of July he was delivered over in the usual manner to the
secular arm, which, in this case, was the Governor of Rome, dis-
tinguished, by a legal fiction, from the Pope, his mastor.
66
29
SACRED CONGREGATION -GENERAL BUSINESS. 219
"At this ceremony, which lasted about an hour,
Fra Fulgenzio stood with his eyes lifted up to heaven,
and never spake a word. People thought he had a
gag in his mouth. The ceremony being over, he was
conducted to the church of St. Saviour in Lauro, and
there degraded; and next morning he was brought to
the Campo de' Fiori," (the Roman Smithfield,)" and
there hanged and burned."
The words "hanged and burned" may seem to in-
timate that the penalty of death was mitigated by
allowing him to be strangled, and the body burnt
afterwards. As I have not the original of Father
Paul's letter at hand, I cannot judge. He was mur-
dered, whether by rope or flame it matters not.* The
signature of "R. Cards Bellarminus" appears as one
of eleven Inquisitors who set their hands to his con-
demnation, and whose autographs appear in fac-simile
in the valuable pamphlet to which I am indebted for
this narrative.
While our King James I. was temporising with
Popery, and many victims to his weakness were
suffering in Spain and Portugal, an English gentle-
man was most wickedly consigned to solitary im-
prisonment until his death, in Rome.
Mr. John Molle, born in or near South Molton, in
Devonshire, had travelled much in France, occupied
some situations of considerable trust, endured some
sharp vicissitudes of war, and after returning to
England was appointed by Thomas, Earl of Exeter,
about the year 1607, to be governor in travel to his
grandson, Lord Ross. He undertook the charge with
reluctance, and resolved that he would not go beyond
the Alps. But young Lord Ross, whether it was a
fancy of his own, or the artful suggestion of another,
set his heart on going to Rome, and so strongly was
he bent on it that Mr. Molle could not prevent him.
Governor and pupil set out together on the journey,
* Report of Proceedings in the Roman Inquisition against Fulgentio
Manfredi. By Rev. RICHARD GIBBINGS, M.A. London, 1852.
220
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
but no sooner had they entered the inn at Rome than
Mr. Molle was abruptly seized, carried away into the
Inquisition, and without a word of accusation that was
ever known, with no form of examination or trial, nor
any sentence, he was kept there full thirty years.
His perfidious pupil, the young Lord Ross, was feasted
and entertained with unbounded civility by the
Romans, but there lay his tutor in close prison. Only
one person besides his jailors ever saw him, and then
but for a single interview in the presence of a priest
who watched the conversation. Friends in England,
66 many and great," sought his release, but sought in
vain. England suffered it. When about eighty-one
years of age, a faithful confessor of Christ, our vene-
rable countryman was released by death. Dr. Thomas
Fuller, who knew his son, relates this, and affirms
that in all the time of his imprisonment Mr. Molle
never received a letter from any one, nor had any
of his friends or relatives the least communication
with him. "The pretence and allegation of his long
imprisonment was because he had translated Du
Plessi's book of the visibility of the Church out of
French into English; but besides, there were other
contrivances therein, not so fit for a public relation."*
Another notable example of the dealing of the
Roman Court and Inquisition with eminent foreigners
is found in the diplomatic correspondence of the time.
I copy from Winwood's "Memorials," word for word,
what they say of l'Abbé de Bois, a distinguished
Frenchman. Under date of Paris, November 28th,
1611, M. Beaulieu, secretary of the British ambas-
sador, writes,-
"These honest men," (the Jesuits,) "by their vil-
lainous dealings and practices, do more and more
draw the hatred and curse of the world upon them-
selves; and by an accident lately fallen out, which is
imputed unto them, they are likely to incur the indig-
nation of the rest of the clergy more than ever; and
* FULLER'S Ecclesiastical History, A.D. 1607. 5 James I.
(6
""
SACRED CONGREGATION GENERAL BUSINESS. 221
that is in the person of one l'Abbé de Bois, a man very
famous here, both for his gallant preaching, and for
his knowledge in matters of the world; who (upon
the coming forth of Bellarmine's new book,* which did
put all the world in an uproar) did preach in one of
the greatest churches in this town, very fully and
effectually, both against the Pope's temporality and
the practices of the Jesuits; who, to clear themselves
in some sort of those imputations, did by their cunning
and artifice draw him afterwards to make in private
kind of recantation, and ever since to hold his tongue
against them. Notwithstanding the which, his former
deed remaining still altâ mente repostum, they found
the means, by the Nuncio's allurements, to persuade
him to go to Rome, whither he took his journey
two or three months ago, carrying with him also some
commission from the Queen, whose almoner he is.
But now the news is, that they yonder, luy ayans jetté
le chat aux jambes, have put him in the Inquisition,
from whence he is not like in haste to come out.
Which act doth exceedingly much offend all the
world here, especially those of the clergy; but some
think there is a further mystery therein, which I will
forbear to relate."
A letter from Sir Dudley Carleton, British ambas-
sador at Venice, December 13th, supplies what M.
Beaulieu forbears to relate :-
"I doubt not but you have heard ere this of the Abbot
de Bois his voyage to Florence and to Rome, together
with his surprisal there by the Inquisition, which hath
given occasion to very much discourse, both in regard
of the violating of the law of nations, he being at that
instant an agent for the Crown of France, and author-
ized with letters of credit, as also by their breaking
* Bellarmine's answer to George Barclay, in which he maintains
that the Pope has rightful authority to depose heretical kings.
Happy times are the present for their lordships the reviewers,
when we authors are not invested, like that cardinal, with inquisi-
torial powers. If we were, I fear we should be tempted to place
some of our censors under discipline.
|
222
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
their word and faith passed to him in a safe-conduct
for his passage before his coming toward them. Not
long after his arrest, there was one executed in the
Campo de' Fiori four hours before day, and suddenly
cut down and buried. Which, though it were done
of purpose that the French might not be too openly
scandalized, for the care of whose reputation they did
likewise give out that it was an Italian priest della
Crocetta that was then put to death; yet could they
not dissemble the matter so secretly but that it is fre-
quently written, and certainly believed, that the poor
abbot did penance at Rome for the sermons he had
preached in Paris against the Jesuits."*
While relating these instances of encroachment on
the rights of nations by the Roman Inquisition, which
is identical with the Pope and Court of Rome, I would
draw attention to a succession of Papal acts which
give the Roman Inquisition direct authority within
the walls of monasteries and convents all over the
world. So long as there exists a Pope with power to
act, the authority continues; so long as the Secret of
the religious houses and the Secret of the yet remain-
ing Roman Pontiff are equally maintained, and so long,
also, as those houses have in our country the inviola-
bility of private dwellings, the inspection of con-
vents, long desired, indeed, but hitherto successfully
resisted, should be perseveringly demanded and
allowed, as necessary for the protection of the in-
mates.
Bearing this in mind, note that the Roman Congre-
gation of Cardinals was established in the year 1542,
to be a "Supreme and Universal Inquisition." A
document† was issued to all the Spanish monasteries
in the year 1633 by the Inquisitor-General of Spain,
Sotomayor, wherein are recited certain constitutions
of Julius III., successor of the Pope who formed that
*WINWOOD'S Memorials, vol. iii., pp. 307, 308, 311, 312.
↑ Manual de Confesores ad Mentem Scoti, por el R. P. F. Juan de
Ascargota. Madrid, 1764, p. 416.
(6
""
SACRED CONGREGATION GENERAL BUSINESS. 223
Congregation, and of eight other Pontiffs after him,
especially Gregory XV., who issued seven other man-
dates in support of the Inquisition; and all this body
of persecuting law, with whatever addition to it may
have since been made, was to be enforced in England
no less than in Spain. This is worse, ten thousand
times worse, than any suspension of the Habeas Cor-
pus, made on an extreme emergency, by Parliamentary
authority, as a measure inevitably necessary to enable
some public authority to act, under the searching
scrutiny of the public eye, for the sake of public
safety, that authority being still responsible to the
Crown for all its decisions, and amenable to those
Divinely-promulgated laws which never can be set
aside. In contempt of the Habeas Corpus, and there-
fore in defiance of Parliament, those Papal mandates,
essentially and formally inquisitorial, are of course
acknowledged in English Convents as having force
of law.
A Lutheran, a young man, 27 years of age, called
Asuero by the Italian historian, was burnt in Bologna,
on the 4th November, 1618.* He was a German,
son of one John Bispiach, of Serbandmit, in the Arch-
diocese of Cologne. They found him an inoffensive
stranger, sick in the hospital, ominously named Della
Morte. Angiol Michele Castelari, chaplain of the
hospital, discovered by his conversation that his
knowledge of religion had been derived from the
teaching of the Reformers, and reported him accord-
ingly to a Dominican Inquisitor, who came to his
bed-side to examine him, and found him to be "a
heretic." This examination took place about a month
after his admission to the hospital, and without delay
they carried him off to the prison of the Holy Office.
After a lingering process, the Inquisitors confirmed
* Un Auto-de-Fé in Bologna il 5 Novembre 1618. Documento
orignale pubblicato con comentario e note da M- G-(Michelangelo
Gualandi) Bologna, 1860.
224
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
the chaplain's report by declaring him guilty of heresy
some time in March, 1616, he being still sick.
They condemned him for things said against God,
the Virgin Mary, the Pope, Indulgences, Saints, fast-
ings, and the Mass, summed up by themselves in
eleven articles. The process was sent to Rome, and
efforts were made to shake his faith, but he continued
firm in what they called his "false opinions." They
then sentenced him to be burnt alive, but accompanied
the sentence with a promise that if he would repent,
he should be pardoned and set free. But he said he
would rather die a martyr. The Inquisitor, never-
theless, sent him a form of abjuration to sign, but
after having it in his possession for a fortnight, he
sent it back, saying that he wished to die a good
Christian, and could not abjure his faith. They then
prepared to read the sentence publicly in order that it
might be executed, and for the execution advertise-
ments were printed, and spectators invited to attend
at the church of St. Dominic.
A scaffold being erected for the ceremony of abju-
ration, the bell rang at twenty of the clock in the
morning, and a great crowd filled the church. In the
presence of many theologians and doctors, a Notary
proclaimed the sentence that he should be chained to
a stake and burnt as a most obstinate Lutheran. They
then gave him over to the secular arm. Emaciated
with disease, and worn out with long imprisonment,
he could not walk, and was therefore carried in a chair
from prison to church. After the sentence was pro-
nounced, the secular authorities agreed to burn him
the next morning; and on hearing their determination,
he calmly expressed a wish for comforters. The writer
of the narrative, Giovanni Martino, then went to the
Prior of the Dominicans to consult what should be
done to comfort him, and after taking counsel with
the chaplain, and the Commissary of the Inquisition,
they sent Giovanni Battista Orto, a notable Canonist,
to go to him in quality of Comforter, attended with a
“SACRED CONGREGATION وو
-GENERAL BUSINESS. 225
train of clergy. The Canon and ten other priests, all
full robed, therefore walked in a body to the prison,
had him carried to the fire in a chair, sat round the
poor German and endeavoured to speak to him in the
Latin tongue. Orto began:-Respondi michi fratres.
"Speak Italian," said he, " for I can understand that."
What consolation followed we cannot tell, but they
closed their conference with an Ave Maria and a Litany,
and in the Ora pro nobis he seemed to join.
But he would not talk much, much less dispute.
Now and then he ejaculated, "Jesus! Jesus!" They
say he kissed a crucifix, but that is what any devout
Lutheran would readily do. That they took for a
signal of confession, but he gave no sign, and remained
silent, like one fainting in the arms of death.
Having administered their miserable comfort, the
Canon and his attendants went to report to the Inqui-
sitors that he had recanted. But it is evident that he
made no recantation. On the contrary, when they
gave him a paper purporting to contain a summary of
his opinions, he declared it to be utterly incorrect, and
said "Non dico piu questo, che voglio morire Christiano.
MISERICORDIA GIESU!" The "piu" might have been
added by the Notary. The words can only be ren-
dered, "I say not so. I wish to die a Christian.
Have mercy on me, Jesus!" They read three Masses
in his hearing, and reported him a penitent, but the
Inquisitor would not let him communicate.
Finally, "for his great weakness," they laid him in
a chair; porters carried their helpless prey to the fire,
and as they bore him through the streets of Bologna
he said the Creed, the Miserere, and the Te Deum,
and many times ejaculated,
times ejaculated, "Jesus!" "Mercy!"
They chained him to the stake; slowly and clumsily
they strangled him. 'All judged that he died well
in the grace of God." The Notary closed his record
with the prayer-at that time hypocritical, and always
useless, Requiescat in pace. Amen. "Let him rest in
peace."
VOL. II.
66
Q
226
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXXVII.
ITALY.
LEARNED MEN.
:-
STRANGELY mingled and contrasted were the events of
the last half of the fifteenth century: the introduc-
tion into Western Europe of the language of ancient
Greece; the new art of Printing; the unlocking of
treasuries of Greek and Latin Classics; the discovery
of new countries; real history and enterprising travel;
the literature of Palestine and Arabia; a second birth
of sculpture and painting; the novel association of
learning and refinement; a sudden quickening of
intellect and imagination. Face to face with the
enthusiastic students of language, philosophy, and art
were the Inquisitors, jealous guardians of what was
called The Faith. But this was a misnomer. The
clergy rendered a passive assent to propositions which
no one was required to understand, nor were there
many persons capable of distinguishing between the
sublime mysteries of divine revelation and the trifling
fables of superstition. The enthusiasm, therefore,
which greeted the heralds of newly discovered science,
rejected the religion which rested only on human
authority, and since the name, and in some degree,
the essential truths of Christianity had been presented
to the Italians of that age, and to their fathers for
many
generations under the imperious authority of an ig-
norant priesthood, ignorant of the first elements of
true Christian theology, and forbidden to reason con-
cerning the Dogma they were supposed to teach, there
was no real faith in the clergy, nor any cordial sub-
mission in the laity. Cardinals and Popes, being
least of all men subject to any laws, were least careful
LEARNED MEN.
227
to place themselves under decent restraint, and not
unfrequently betrayed their own utter unbelief. Hence
Italy was at once distinguished by an excessive admi-
ration of art, an unbounded license of philosophic
speculation, and equal scepticism in regard to Chris-
tianity.
Early in the sixteenth century, after the sages of
old Greece and Rome had nearly usurped the place of
Apostles and Prophets, when a new religious awaken-
ing rapidly spread over the civilised world, earnest
Christianity, when it here and there appeared in Italy,
was opposed by Arianism, or by that deeper depar-
ture from the true Catholic Faith of the first General
Council of Nice which took the name of Socinianism
from the brothers Lælius and Faustus Socinus, the
latter of the two being the reputed leader of the sect
which was propagated from Italy into Poland, where
its preachers fraternised with the Jews, as in Italy
they fraternised with the Philosophers. A few ex-
amples will now show how the Inquisitors in Italy
fought against beneficent science, and the hurtful in-
fluences of scepticism, just as savagely as they were
ever fighting against the saving power of the Gospel
of Truth.
We first notice the Academy of Grillenzone. Few
Italian cities in this century possessed so many accom-
plished scholars as were to be found in Modena.
Four of the most learned cardinals, Cortese, Sadoleto,
Badia, and Bertani, were natives of Modena. An
Academy sprang up in that city spontaneously,--a
mere consequence of the presence and intimate asso-
ciation of persons of similar pursuits, and the hospi-
talities of Giovanni Grillenzone, a physician, facilitated
its establishment. There were seven brothers of the
Grillenzone family, of whom five were married, and
after their father's death these brothers, with their five
wives, and not fewer children than from forty-five to
fifty, sat at table in one spacious apartment, the elder
sisters waiting on the rest. Giovanni, although not
228
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
the eldest brother, occupied the chief place by common
consent, and this extraordinary picture of domestic
unity and comfort attracted the regards of both
citizens and strangers towards the dwelling. But
learned men received the warmest welcome. Their
parties were numerous, and their conversation impart-
ed a polish to the family itself, which repaid the
munificent hospitality afforded to their guests.
Masters who had already taught Latin and Greek,
jurisprudence, philosophy, and medicine, in Bologna
and Ferrara, as well as Modena, met together in this
magnificent mansion; and Giovanni Grillenzone was
induced to devote an apartment to purposes of volun-
tary study. Two lectures were delivered therein
daily, to explain the most difficult passages of Greek
and Latin classics. At length it became a custom to
close each day with select parties at supper, when
those present gave full scope to their powers in
brilliant conversation on every subject of public
interest. The Reformation, then at its height all
over Europe, could not but engage the most intelli-
gent attention, and the various topics of doctrine,
discipline, jurisprudence, and public policy that arose,
were naturally pursued with earnestness and candour.
In proportion to the advance of a spirit of enquiry
thus fostered, was the increase of students, who made
the new Academy their centre of opinion; many being
attracted from distant parts of Italy to reside in
Modena. One of their friends, Ortensio Landi, speaks
of an "infinite number of young students of Greek,
Latin, Tuscan, sacred and profane literature." But,
-Tiraboschi proceeds to say," while this Academy
was flourishing so happily, an event happened that
threw it into confusion, and nearly involved it in utter
ruin. The heresies of Luther and Calvin, that were
stealing even into Italy, now threatened to infest this
city also with their poison; and it seemed as if they
tended singularly to gain over the adherence of these
academicians." Muratori thought that this was a
LEARNED MEN.
229
mere suspicion, induced by a sort of contempt which
they manifested towards priests and friars, who cer-
tainly gave occasion for contempt. "But, to tell the
truth," says Tiraboschi, "there was much more than
suspicion; and I shall not be afraid of obscuring the
fame of that city, if I relate explicitly what we find in
contemporaneous writers."
"We have an account of the whole matter in the
manuscript chronicle of Alessandro Tassoni, a writer
of those times, of which there is a copy in this Esten-
sian Library. He relates that in the year 1540 there
came to Modena one Paolo Ricci, a Sicilian, under the
assumed name of Lisia Fileno, who, being regarded
as a very learned man, was gladly welcomed in a city
where learning was so highly valued. He knew that
some persons in Modena were already inclined to
favour the new opinions; and to these he discovered
himself with freedom, began to gain other followers,
and, assembling them secretly in a private house, he
there explained to them his guilty doctrine; and, at
the same time, stimulated by the presumption that is
peculiar to innovators, even the rudest members of
the congregation, not excepting women, undertook to
teach, and to decide freely on the meaning of the
sacred Books, wherever opportunity occurred,-in the
streets, in shops, and in churches. They disputed
concerning faith and the law of Christ; and they all
promiscuously lacerated the Holy Scriptures, quoting
Paul, Matthew, John, the Apocalypse, and all doctors,
-whom, however, none of them had heard.'
""
Some time after these meetings were discovered,
the preacher Fileno was arrested by order of the
Duke of Modena, Ercole II., and carried prisoner to
Ferrara, where, they say, "he made a public renun-
ciation of his errors." But, whatever he did then,
the seed he had sown sprang up so largely and so
vigorously, "that the members of the Academy noted
down every word of the preachers in the churches,
commenting so severely on what they said, that
230
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
several of them forsook their pulpits; and Cardinal
Morone, who was Bishop of Modena, wrote to Cardinal
Contarini, under date of July 3rd, 1542, that he could
no longer find monks willing to preach there.
"The
day before yesterday a minister of the Order honestly
told me that his preachers would not come into the
city any more, because of the persecution that the
members of the Academy are waging against them, it
being everywhere reported that Modena is become
Lutheran."
And indeed the preachers from Dominican monas-
teries must have felt it a most insufferable persecution,
when those keen Italian lawyers sat down coolly
before them, taking notes of their absurd harangues,
and made them the subject of grave criticism or of
brisk sarcastic ridicule.
While Morone and Contarini were in correspondence,
and the College Apostolic was moved to horror by the
report of a dogmatical conspiracy at Modena, the
more liberal Cardinal Sadoleto wrote from Rome to
his friend Lodovico Castelvetro, telling of the dis-
pleasure felt by the Pope and Cardinals on hearing
how the academicians were wavering in their faith.
Castelvetro, for himself and his friends, who probably
felt more interested in literary pursuits than in dis-
cussing questions of religion, returned him an assurance
of their innocence, and obedience to the Church.
Sadoleto responded gladly to that assurance, rejoiced
in their good dispositions, and exhorted them to write
a letter to the Pope himself, reiterating the same pro-
fessions. The best method, however, so the Romans
thought, was to draw up a formulary, that all the
leading inhabitants and learned men of Modena might
subscribe, the suspected and the unsuspected alike, in
order that the weight of their example on account of
rank or learning might be thrown into the scale
against the influence of Lutheranism.
The formulary was drawn up by Contarini. The
three Cardinals-Morone, Contarini, and Sadoleto-
LEARNED MEN.
231
met in Modena. The priors and conservators of the
city appeared before them on the 1st of September,
1542, and subscribed the document, together with the
Cardinals themselves. Then came the dignified clergy
of the city, the superiors of monasteries, and the
chiefs of the Academy. Thenceforth both city and
Academy spared no pains to display their orthodoxy;
and when two Franciscan preachers, in the year 1544,
seemed to deliver Lutheran doctrine, they were duly
punished. But suspicion of heresy was too deep a brand
for any such affectation of zeal to wipe away; and the
Academy of Grillenzone, deserted through fear, soon
fell into oblivion. After that subscription of the
formulary, the suspicion seemed to be lulled, but only
seemed. It lay unslumbering in the restless bosoms
of Inquisitors. The next year one Pelegrino degli
Erri obtained the situation of Commissary of the
Roman Inquisition, established himself in that capacity
in Modena, demanded and obtained the help of the
secular arm, and at midnight broke into the dwelling
of Doctor Filippo Valentino, a nobleman of the city.
Erri suspected Valentino of unsound doctrine; Valen-
tino had suspected Erri of dark intentions, and
therefore absconded before Erri came. The nobleman
afterwards managed to get an appointment as podestá,
or magistrate, of Trent: and thus, holding down the
secular arm in that city, was less easy to be captured
on any light suspicion.
Castelvetro, too, was visited with long-boded ven-
geance. One Caro, an insignificant poetaster of
Modena, who had been stung by his criticisms, vowed
revenge. So did a licentious brother of the unfor-
tunate scholar, whose admonitions had become weari-
some, long to have him put out of the way. These
persons, it was supposed, moved Erri to proceed, and
were made use of by him to supply material for a
prosecution, when, in 1557, the tempest burst.
Bonifacio Valentino, a canon of the cathedral; his
cousin, Filippo Valentino, already mentioned; Antonio
232
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Godaldino, a printer; and Lodovico Castelvetro, were all
four commanded to show themselves in Rome. Two
of them, Bonifacio Valentino and Antonio Godaldino,
were arrested, carried thither as prisoners, and thrown
at once into the dungeons of the Inquisition. The
others, Castelvetro and Filippo Valentino, regarding
themselves as no better than prisoners under observa-
tion, went thither at their own expense. Bonifacio
Valentino, convicted of Lutheranism, made a public
retractation in the church of the Minerva, on the 6th
of May, 1558; and on the 29th of the same month,
being Whit-Sunday, he was exhibited in the cathedral
of Modena, to impress the people there with a spectacle
of the same kind. Godaldino, who had sold some
good books in Modena, was kept prisoner in the
Inquisition, most probably until death.
Favoured by Providence, Castelvetro and Filippo
Valentino escaped from Rome, and were therefore
condemned and excommunicated for contumacy. As
for Castelvetro, it is difficult to understand how he
could evade the pursuit of the provincial Inquisitors
by concealment, and then elude punishment on dis-
covery; but it was said that he allowed himself to be
persuaded to go to Rome under a safe conduct, there
to give an account of his faith, and that he went in
company with a brother, Giovanmaria, who was also
under suspicion. It is related that after undergoing
some examinations, and perceiving the tanglings of
Inquisitorial snares to be gathering fast round him, he
succeeded in escaping out of Rome at night, under
cover of the deep darkness that veiled so many
atrocities in that most wicked of cities, and in a happy
moment ministered the rare benefit of cover to a fugi-
tive. And a fugitive he continued to the end of life.
Pope Pius IV. invited him to venture into Rome again,
with promise of a kind reception; but, reasonably
incredulous, he prayed permission rather to lay his
case before the Council then in Trent. The Pope
rejected that prayer, it being his will that the Inqui-
LEARNED MEN.
233
•
sition at his own Court should retain Castelvetro under
its jurisdiction. He therefore fled from Italy for a
time, but afterwards returned to Chiavenna, and there
died in 1571.
A nephew of this eminent man, of the same name,
fell into the clutches of the Inquisitors in Venice; was
condemned for heresy, having translated into Italian
a work of one of the German Reformers; and was
doomed to perpetual imprisonment, if not to fire
(A.D. 1612). The English ambassador requested his
release, and the Senate, complying with the request,
and without saying a word either to Nuncio or Inqui-
sitor, set him free.
*
Giordano Bruno, of Nola, ranked high among the
philosophers of his age, as the current biographers tell
us, but this may with equal propriety imply the highest
praise or the most emphatic censure, and it is not neces-
sary that the present author should concern himself so
much with the personal merits or demerits of the
victims of the Inquisition, as with the proceedings of
the Inquisitors in his case.
He was born in Nola, in the year 1548, and bap-
tised with the name of Philip. During infancy he was
probably nursed with liberal care, and even in early
childhood he enjoyed the advantages of wealth and
culture, breathing, as it were, the very atmosphere of
the Muses, first in the public schools, and then in his
paternal palace, where he was well taught in the
elements of a liberal education, the groundwork of
advanced study. In the tenth or eleventh year of his
age he came from Nola to Naples, to be taught the
classics, logic, dialectic, and such other branches of
learning as were then thought necessary. One of his
masters, Teofilo da Varrano, an Augustinian monk,
was afterwards known as a a great metaphysician.
Young Bruno was assiduous in hearing lectures, both
public and private, showing a love beyond his age for
* Vita di Giordano Bruno da Nola, Scritta da Domenico Berti,
Firenze, Torino, Milano, 1868. Presso G. B. Paravia e Comp.
234
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
the doctrines of philosophers; but the doctrines of
philosophers were not free from the pagan taint con-
tracted in the preceding century.
His avidity in seeking after philosophic novelties
must have received a powerful impulse from the
Waldenses, fugitives from Piedmont, who flocked into
the Calabrian provinces, seeking refuge from a most
savage persecution. He heard how horribly their
brethren were hunted down and murdered. Thrilled
with pity and indignation, he listened to those recitals.
For no offence whatever, against any law of reason or
humanity they were shut up together by scores.
Armed ruffians would drag them out, one by one,
blindfold each one his victim, lead him to an open
field, bid him kneel down, cut off his head, and then
returning to the house, carrying the red sword and
napkins dripping with blood, seize, and blindfold, and
set others to be killed in like manner, until none were
left alive. He heard of one party of victims, num-
bering eighty-eight. They told him how the old men
went cheerfully to die, and how the helpless, terror-
stricken youths were dragged away by force. He was
filled with sickening horror when he saw the bodies.
of slaughtered Christians carted away, quartered, and
the human remains scattered along the highways,
until those ways crossed the frontier of Calabria.
Disgusted with a world wherein such atrocities were
possible, yet not sufficiently instructed how to escape
from such a world, he made up his mind that he would
betake himself to a monastery, and there pursue in
quietness his favourite studies. He entered into the
Convent of St. Dominic, in Naples, and so flung him-
self, unwittingly, into the arms of those very mur-
derers, chief actors in the deeds of blood. A lad only
fifteen years of age, he entered that fraternity, took
the name of Giordano, and remained there about
thirteen years-A.D. 1563-1576.
His biographer says that after the first year he
betrayed an active, fantastic, restless, indocile spirit,
LEARNED MEN.
235
often saying and doing things utterly repugnant to
the feelings and habits of friars. One day he gave
'away all his images of saints, male and female (Santi
e sante), and kept a crucifix only. The master of the
novices drew up a written accusation, but seeing what
it would lead to, relented, and tore it up. The stir
subsided, and in the year 1572 he was ordained priest.
After this ordination he spent a short time in several
Neapolitan convents, not staying anywhere, but giving
full scope to his thoughts, and laid little restraint upon
his utterances. His notions, they say, were Arian,
or semi-Arian, such opinions having become rife in
the kingdom, as we too well know they were, and this
exposed him to an accusation more formidable than
the first.
When eighteen years of age, as they report, he began
to doubt the principal doctrines of the Church—they
do not say of the Bible, that not being the Romish
rule of faith,-not only of the Trinity, but the per-
sonality of the Godhead "and the real Presence," and
became a Pantheist, quoting the well-known verses:-
Principio cœlum, ac terras, camposque liquentes,
Lucentemque globum lunæ, Titaniaque astra
Spiritus intus alit, totamque infusa per artus,
Mens agitat molem, et magno se corpore miscet.
En. vi. 724.
He denied the incarnation of our Lord. His imagi-
nation became licentious, as his comedy "The Candle-
stick," published ten years later, witnesses. Being
now a priest, the Inquisition proceeded against him
the more vigorously, and having an intimation of
the impending danger, he fled from Naples secretly,
and escaped to Rome, where he arrived during the nup-
tial festivities of Giacomo Buoncompagni, of the family
of Gregory XIII., Cardinals and Ladies (?) sitting at
table together. Thither the prosecution for heresy
followed him, and thence he fled about the midsummer
of 1576, his flight being probably hastened by the
236
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
affair of Carranza.* Having put off his monastic habit
and resumed his baptismal name, he escaped secretly,
and wandered over the country, not knowing whither
he went. At last he came to Genoa, and thence
after three days, took ship and landed at Noli, where
he found some employment in teaching children
grammar, and instructing adults in "the Sphere."
Soon again he is found at Turin. He presented him-
self at the gate of Turin sad in countenance and
oppressed in spirit. Feverish and emaciated, covered
with rags, the sentries drove him away as one infected
with the plague. "Although his name was famous
far and wide, and on his head glittered the double
crown of poetry and philosophy, he was forced to go
begging for a morsel of bread." From Turin to
Venice, from Venice to Padua. Then at Breccia,
where he met with a monk suddenly turned prophet,
who professed himself a great theologian, learned in
all languages. Some people thinking the man who
could know so much must be possessed with an evil
spirit, had thrown him into prison. Bruno heard of
it, went to the prisons, saw the man sobered by the
rough discipline of the place, and reported that he had
cast out the evil spirit, and turned him into an ass
again, as he had been from the beginning. After
some more wandering Bruno came to Milan, where he
found Sir Philip Sydney, made him his friend, made
his way out of Italy, and, for a short time, settled
at Geneva about the end of 1576.
Clad as a Dominican friar, he enters Geneva, and
takes his lodging at an inn. The celebrated Galeazzo
Caracciolo, Marquis of Vico, son of Carlantonio Carac-
ciolo and a lady of the family of Caraffa, sister of
Pope Paul IV., hearing of the arrival of a stranger in
such a garb, called on him and made his friendship.
Caracciolo, now an "evangelical" persuaded Bruno to
join with himself and other Italians who had seceded
from the church of Rome. Changing his dress, he
*Related above, Vol. I., chap. xvi.
LEARNED MEN.
237
appears as a layman, accepts their friendship, and
attends in their congregation. On the Sunday, as
Bruno afterwards confessed when examined by the In-
quisitors, he went to hear a preacher named Balbani,
who expounded St. Paul's Epistles to the Italians, and
"preached the Gospels,"-perhaps making a practical
distinction between teaching and preaching, according
to our Lord's instructions. "Being also desirous to
know what and how much the innovators knew who
had gained predominance in that city, he also attended
at the sermons delivered by other pastors in the
French language." But he never joined either the
Italian or the French Reformed.
At this time he was framing a philosophical mono-
theistic system of his own, founded on the conception
of a being or a principle which he would describe as
the Infinite and the One; a system derived from
reason, not from revelation. From that time he de-
scribed himself as a philosopher by profession, and
was so extremely tolerant of all religions that he
appeared to have no religion of his own. According to
the report of his examiners, he confessed that he des-
pised the theologians at Geneva, called them pedants,
and said that his reasonings and disputes with them
were on philosophy, not theology. Going yet further,
he condemned all religions, as teaching people to trust
without working, and called the religions of his time
not reforms but deforms. He was disgusted with
the severity of Calvin and the murder of Servetus.
Referring to the profession of their religious belief
which Cardinal Contarini had drawn up and Sadoleto
had caused the people of Modena to sign, he observed
that Calvin had done the same at Geneva, although in
an opposite sense, and imprisoned some Italians who
refused to sign. When required to give his opinion
concerning some eminent persons, he spoke with great
admiration of Elizabeth, Queen of England, whose
energy and uncompromising adherence to her prin-
ciples in opposition to the Pope he lauded highly.
238
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
From the documents relating to his examination by
the Inquisitors in Venice, and published by Berti, I
make the following summary :—
May 23, 1592. One Giovanni Mocenigo, "by ob-
ligation of my conscience,' as he says, 66 and by
22
order of my confessor," delates Bruno to the Father
Inquisitor of Venice.
May 25. Mocenigo comes again with further infor-
mation.
May 25. Giovanni Gabrielli the Inquisitor endorses
the denunciation.
May 26. Gabrielli presents the paper to the Holy
Office.
May 26. On a separate leaf the same day (Tuesday)
the following is written, (in Italian) Signor Matthew
De Avantio Capitaneus of the Council of Ten, ap-
peared in the Holy Office, and reported thus:—" Ốn
Saturday, at the third hour of the night, I took into
custody Giordano Bruno da Nola, whom I found in a
house opposite St. Samuel, where dwells the most
excellent (clarissimus) Ser Zuane Mocenigo and I
have imprisoned him in the prisons of the Holy Office;
and that I have done for this Holy Tribunal.'
May 26. The bookseller Giambattista Ciotto is
summoned to appear before the Tribunal of the Holy
Office. He deposes.
May 29. Giacomo Bertano, bookseller from Ant-
werp, resident in Venice, tells what he has known
of Bruno in Frankfort, Zurich, and Venice.
May 29. Bruno himself is interrogated. He relates
his acquaintance with Mocenigo. This man wrote to
him from Venice to Frankfort, inviting him to come.
to Venice to teach him all he knew, especially about
astrology and magic, with his philosophy, offering
him ample compensation. He came after some time,
lived in his house and was treated very kindly. At
length, when he had received full information of all
his particular opinions and speculations, he professed
to be discontented because he had not learnt more,
LEARNED MEN.
239
1
and when Bruno wished to close his engagement and
depart, Mocenigo shut him up, as if to detain him and
extract more knowledge. This provoked remonstrance.
Then the confinement became close custody, and at
last the officer of the Inquisition took him at night,
and carried him away. He tells them the story of his
life without disguise.
May 29. More information in writing from Mocenigo.
May 30. Bruno proceeds with the narrative of his
life, and offers to submit his writings to the Pope.
May 31. In obedience to an order of the Inqui-
sition of Venice, Fra Domenico da Nocera, a Domini-
can Friar, sends in writing a report of a conversation
he has had with Bruno.
June 2. A further examination of Bruno as to his
philosophy. At this examination, the Pope's Nuncio,
the Patriarch of Venice and the Father Inquisitor are
present. The examination is continued later in the day.
June 3. The examination is continued. Bruno is
now sworn to tell the truth.
June 4. The examination is continued, and Bruno
is sworn again. He is sent back to prison.
June 23. One Don Thoma Mauroceno is questioned
on what he knows of Bruno.
June 23. A further report from Ciotto.
July 30. Bruno is again interrogated. They ask
him to tell more. He wishes to return to the Church,
asks pardon of his judges, and prays for life.
September 17. The Cardinal of St. Severino has
written to the Venetian Inquisitor, requiring Bruno to
be given over to the Governor of Ancona. The Tri-
bunal commanded Bruno to be sent thither as soon as
possible,* to be sent forward thence to the Tribunal at
Rome.
September 28. "The Patriarch (of Venice), with
the members of the Tribunal of the Inquisition at
* As soon as possible implies delay, or indecision in the College.
After eleven days' delay, the ecclesiastics repeat the demand for
extradition.
240
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Venice, come to the college and demand the extradition
of Bruno, as the author of heretical works, and
heresiarch. This demand is made by order sent from
Rome, through the Cardinal of Sanseverino. The
Prince (Doge) answers that that shall be thought upon,
and the Patriarch shall hear."
The Inquisitor comes again the same day, but is
told that the matter has not yet been taken into con-
sideration.
October 3. The Senate writes the Ambassador that
it would prejudice the authority of the Tribunal of
Venice to allow the extradition of Bruno.
October 10. A memorandum from Rome that this
answer shall be remitted to the Ambassador Ordinary,
who will reply.
December 22. The Nuncio comes to the College
to insist that the case of Bruno belongs to the Holy
Inquisition, and should therefore be remitted to Rome.
The Procurator Donato and the Nuncio dispute.
January 7, 1593. Another Procurator (Ferigo Con-
tarini) is consulted by the College on the question,
and he inclines to think that Bruno should be sent.
The College gives way to the Pope, "from a desire to
gratify him."
January 9. The Ambassador at Rome is informed
of the decision accordingly.
January 16. The Ambassador at Rome writes a
pleasant letter for the Pope from Rome to the Doge.
So Venice, half laic and half cleric, makes a stand of
ceremony and then gives way. The Pope is master
after all, and Bruno, whether at Rome or at Venice, is
the victim. By way of Ancona he will be conveyed to
Rome. He has been nearly one year a prisoner in
Venice, and will be more than seven years immured
in Rome, kept without need of any further trial, until
it shall please their Eminences to put him to death.
The final sentence was read in Santa Maria on the
Minerva, in presence of the members of the Supreme
Congregation of the Holy Office, with the Commis-
LEARNED MEN.
241
saries, the Assessors, the Consultors, the Doctors, and
the Theologians. The Governor of Rome was there,
imbecile shadow of the ancient Roman, and a great
crowd of spectators. The usual summary of heresies.
was read, and the usual sermon preached. On the 9th
day of February, in the year 1600, Bruno was led to
the very spot where, fifteen years before, he had found
refuge when in flight from Naples. There sat, in the
congregation of Inquisitors, Deza, Spanish Inquisitor-
General, Bellarmine, and Baronius, and, among those
of lower degree, many of his own old companions.
He was brought into the presence of his judges wearing
his habit as a Dominican, covered with a sambenito.
They bade him kneel, and then read over him the
fatal sentence, which he heard in silence, giving no sign
of emotion. Then followed the process of degradation,
which needs not be described, the judges pronouncing
with one voice the accustomed form-" By the autho-
rity of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, and by our own authority, we take from thee
the clerical habit; we depose thee; we degrade thee;
we deprive thee of every ecclesiastical order and bene-
fice." When they had finished, he looked sternly at
them, and replied, scornfully, "You feel greater fear
in pronouncing these words than do I in hearing
them." As the last syllable escaped his lips, they
handed him over to the Governor of Rome, who bade
the City Guard to take him from Santa Maria to the
public prison. There they allowed him to remain for
eight days before the execution, but he gave no indi-
cation of any change of mind, or likelihood of change.
He betrayed no fear of death, nor dread of burning.
He had no martyr-triumph, no exulting hope of glory,
but a disgust of life. He had often expressed an
apprehension that he would be killed for his opinions,
and often said that he must expect such a death and
meet it without shrinking. His friends in London
remembered how he had once exclaimed, "Do thou,
O Courage (animosità), fail not with the voice of thy
VOL. II.
R
1
242
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
enlivening favour, often to sound this sentence in
my ear-
Tu ne cede malis, sed contra audentior ito.
'Yield not to bad men, but go and face them bravely.""
He had been reserved until the Jubilee, that his death
might add a feature of interest to the festivities. Not
fewer than fifty cardinals were in the city. The streets
of Rome were thronged with people. Long trains of
pilgrims, in the costumes of many countries, went in
procession from church to church to fulfil their vows,
and to get indulgences from Purgatory. Cardinals,
princes with their pomp moved amidst the crowds,
and from time to time the Pope himself would be seen
with his equipage, full of exultation. From the church
of the Minerva issued a party of priests preceded by a
crucifix, guarded with a strong body of soldiers, and
having in their custody the Philosopher of Nola, in
the cloak with devils and flames painted. They led
him to the Campo di Fiora, where stood a lofty stake
sunk firmly in the ground, with faggots laid around it.
They bind him hastily to the stake, pile up the wood,
set it on fire. The flames blaze fiercely. They hear
the crackling thorns, but Bruno utters no cry.
Smothered and consumed, he leaves no testimony to
soul-sustaining truth-utters no hope of heaven. That
was a Roman Jubilee. No offence forgiven, no debt
cancelled, no prisoner released. But the horrid tri-
bunal was, no doubt, satisfied.
If this terrible Tribunal of the Roman Faith had
chosen to watch over the morals of Italian literature,
and had especially directed its vigilance towards the
poets, it might have moderated the licentiousness of
that class, and the impure imagination and corres-
pondent immorality of the Italian people; but it did
not. Vice might take its course, and the confessors
would greedily collect the profits; but as soon as ever
a religious poet raised his voice, the Inquisitors were
on the alert, listening for heresy, that they might put
LEARNED MEN.
243
him to silence. Such a poet was Gabriello Fiamma, a
canon of the church of the Lateran, and Bishop of
Chioggia. From childhood he was an ardent student,
and early became a popular preacher in the chief
cities of Italy. Princes employed him in affairs of
great importance. There is nothing that we know of
to entitle him to be considered evangelical, but his
offence was earnestness; and it was not through any
good-will of the Inquisitors that he escaped the torture-
chamber and the dungeon. That they did their best
to bring him thither appears from a letter of his own,
written in Naples, where he was preaching Lent
sermons (A.D. 1562). "In my last," he writes, "I
told you of the success of my labours, which have been
infinitely applauded by the public in general, but by
some malignant and envious persons are ill-rewarded,
as you may already know. And this I have been
made to feel. Last evening, by order of the Cardinal
Alessandrino," (soon afterwards Pope Pius V.,) "all
my manuscripts were seized, every book noted,
and even the least scrap of paper in my possession.
This is no grievance to me, as the order comes from
that worthy and most religious lord, and from the
most Holy Tribunal of the Inquisition; but I am
indeed sorry that occasion for this has been given by
some malevolent and envious persons." Of course he
writes in this manner of the Inquisition in view of the
possibility that his letter may be intercepted, and fall
into the hands of his enemies.
The case of Galileo Galilei is too notorious to be
passed over without very distinct notice. This emi-
nent man was born in Pisa, on the 15th of February,
1564, and was therefore in the seventieth year of his
age at the time of his last trial, which took place in
the months of April and May, 1633. Urban VIII., by
the fires he had kindled in the squares of Milan, was
already the terror of Italy; and public dread was by
no means diminished when men saw that the Inqui-
sition not only meddled with religious opinions, but
244
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
+
extended its action into the domain of natural science.
In Florence, still a great city, in spite of the persecu-
tion that spoiled its commerce, Galileo taught mathe-
matics, under the patronage of the Grand Duke.
During many years he had endeavoured, both from
the professorial chair and by the press, in Pisa and in
Rome, to prove that the earth revolves around the sun,
and not the sun around the earth. The friars de-
clared his theory to be absurd, false, and heretical.
The Holy Office caught this rumour of heresy, and
the Congregation of Inquisitor-Cardinals at Rome, by
command of the Pope, required their consulters to
report on the writings of Galileo. Their sentence
was condemnatory, of course; and Galileo was sum-
moned to Rome, there to receive the censure, or
endure the consequence. He went. Cardinal Bel-
larmine called him into his presence, and commanded
him to abandon the suspected "doctrine" under pain
of imprisonment, and never more to teach it, either by
word or by writing. He promised, and the Sacred
Congregation appeared satisfied. But Galileo could
not keep his promise. He applied himself to the
composition of a Dialogue between three persons; one
in doubt, a second addicted to the Ptolemaic system,
and a third believing the Copernican. He trusted
that, by venturing an hypothesis rather than pro-
pounding a theory, he might escape the charge of
dogmatising. The interlocutors merely inclined to
the speculations of Copernicus; and the author
feared not to present himself at Rome, and ask licence
of the Master of the Sacred Palace to print the Dia-
logues. And by special intercession of the Grand
Duke of Tuscany he obtained it.
But no sooner did his book see the light, than the
monkhood was in an uproar; and the Congregation
were on the point of condemning the Master as a
heretic for having given the licence. To Urban they
pointed out that the Tuscan philosopher had cari-
catured the Pope himself in the person of " Simplicius,"
LEARNED MEN.
245
the Peripatetic; and His Holiness kindled into wrath
against the insolent contemner of the Apostolic Chair.
Galileo was then summoned to present himself before
the Holy Office in Rome, within the month of Octo-
ber, 1632. Thither he prepared to go, poor, old,
sickly, and appalled with thoughts of the fate of
Carnesecchi; but, overwhelmed with fear, he fell
sick, and appeared to be on the point of death already.
Nicolini, Ambassador of the Grand Duke, interceded
earnestly with the Pope for a prorogation of the cause,
and physicians certified that he was unfit to attempt
to travel from Florence to Rome. The Cardinals
treated the certificates as untrue, and insisted on his
appearance. The Grand
The Grand Duke Ferdinand, being
reminded of the perfidy of his predecessor, Cosmo I.,
towards Carnesecchi, at first refused to give him up;
but the Grand Duchess Cristina, ruled by priests,
implored her husband to gratify the Church by sur-
rendering the heretic.
-
What next happened cannot be so accurately related
as by his own pen; and I therefore translate as
closely as possible from a letter addressed by him-
self to a friend, and published from the autograph by
Tiraboschi.
"After the publication of my Dialogue, I was called
to Rome by the Congregation of the Holy Office;
arrived there on the 10th of February, 1633; was
subjected to the extreme clemency of that tribunal,
and of the Sovereign Pontiff, Urban VIII., who,
nevertheless, thought me worthy of his esteem, although
for my part I knew not how to return him the loving
Epigram and Sonnet. I was arrested in the delightful
palace of the Tuscan Ambassador. Next day the
Commissary Lancio came to see me, took me away in
his carriage, put various questions to me as we drove
on, and appeared very zealously to wish that I should
repair the offence I had given to all Italy by main-
taining this opinion of the motion of the earth; and
246
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
for all the solid and mathematical reasons I could
adduce he had no reply to give but, 'Terra autem in
æternum stabit, quia terra autem in æternum stat:
'But the earth shall stand for ever, because the earth
for ever stands as the Scripture teaches.' Thus dis-
coursing, we reached the palace of the Holy Office.
This palace lies on the western side of the magnificent
church of St. Peter. The Commissary immediately
presented me to my Lord Vitrici, the assessor, with
whom I found two Dominican friars. They civilly
intimated that I must produce my reasons in full
Congregation [of the Cardinals managing the affairs of
the Inquisition], and said that I should have oppor-
tunity of pleading for myself in the event of being
considered guilty. On the Thursday following I was
presented to the Congregation, and there endeavoured
to establish my proofs; but, unhappily for me, the
proofs were not understood; and, try what I could, it
was beyond my power to make the Congregation
understand them. With outbursts of zeal, quite irre-
levant to the matter in hand, they tried to convince
me of the scandal I had caused, and harped upon the
same passage of Scripture in proof of my offence.
Meanwhile a scriptural reason occurred to me, and I
alleged it, but with little success. I said that it
seemed to me that certain expressions occur in the
Bible that agree with ancient belief concerning astro-
nomical sciences; and that perhaps the passage in Job
(xxxvii. 18) may be of this kind, where it is said by
Elihu that the heavens are solid, and polished like a
mirror of brass. It is evident that here he speaks
according to the system of Ptolemy, which modern
philosophy and right reason demonstrate to be absurd.
And then, if so great stress is laid on the standing still
of the sun at the word of Joshua, to show that the sun
moves, it is but fair to pay some regard also to this
passage, where it is said that the heavens are many,
each one like a polished mirror. The conclusion to
me seemed very just; but it was always evaded, and
LEARNED MEN.
247
I got no other answer than a shrug of the shoulders,
the usual refuge of one whose only persuasion is that
of prejudice, or preconceived opinion.
At last, as a true Catholic, I was obliged to retract
my opinion, and by way of penalty, my Dialogue was
prohibited; and after five months I was dismissed
from Rome, and, as the pestilence was then raging in
Florence, with generous pity, the house of the dearest
friend I had in Siena, Mgr. Archbishop Piccolomini,
was appointed to be my prison; and in his most gentle-
manly conversation I experienced so great delight and
satisfaction, that here I resumed my studies, arrived at
and demonstrated most of my mechanical conclusions
concerning the resistance of solids, and some other
speculations.
"After about five months, when the pestilence had
ceased in my native place, in the beginning of Decem-
ber in the present year, 1633, His Holiness permitted
me to dwell within the narrow limits of that house I
love so well, in the freedom of the open country. I
therefore returned to the village of Ballosguardo, and
thence to Arcetri, where I still am, breathing the
salubrious air, not far from my own dear Florence.
Farewell."*
* Tiraboschi, tom. vii., lib. ii.; tom. viii., lib. ii.
248
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
ITALY.
DE DOMINIS.
•
AN Italian Archbishop, "a most crafty broker in
matters of religion," as our jocose Fuller calls him,
makes a conspicuous figure in the history of the Inqui-
sition. I shall not hastily agree with Fuller in his
estimate of this personage; but whether he was a
hypocrite or a sincere convert when he joined the
Church of England, it is indisputable that the Cardinals
displayed consummate cunning in decoying him into
their power, and persecuting him even to the grave.
In the year 1616, in the reign of James I. of
England, Marcantonio de Dominis, who had been four-
teen years Archbishop of Spalatro, in Dalmatia, in the
Venetian territory, came over to England, and pre-
sented himself in the character of a convert to the
Protestant religion. A dispassionate consideration of
his entire history will perhaps lead to the persuasion
that he was really disgusted with Romanism, shared
in the Venetian antipathy to Rome, and thought well
of the English Reformation; however defective he
may have been in that earnest and self-denying piety
which is necessary for any man to bear himself with
unwavering consistency through evil report and good
report. He had quarrelled with Pope Paul V. and the
Roman Rota on a question of money, was worsted in
the contest, abandoned the see of Spalatro, and went
into the Netherlands. Perhaps his republican associ-
ations may have for the moment disposed him to a
kindred ecclesiastical system; but he found Presby-
terianism in practice quite uncongenial with his long-
DE DOMINIS.
249
established habits and real principles, and therefore left
those congregations, and came over to London.
Incredible multitudes of people flocked to look upon
the foreign Archbishop, come over to make an offering
of his dignity in honour of the Reformation. Im-
poverished as he was by the abandonment of his
revenue in Dalmatia, it appeared right to supply his
wants; and prelates and peers, with characteristic
delicacy, presented him with gifts of high value.
"He was feasted wherever he came; and the Univer-
sities, when he visited them, addressed themselves to
him in their solemn reception, as if he himself alone
had been an university." The King rejoiced that
Rome had lost such a jewel, fallen to the crown of
England. As if to compensate at once for the defec-
tion of many English youth, tolled out of our Univer-
sities into Italy, there to learn treason and heresy at
the same time, hither came an aged and distinguished
prelate, unsought and unexpected, and worth more
than all those novices together. His Majesty con-
signed him to Archbishop Abbot for present enter-
tainment, until he could be provided with suitable
accommodation in the Church of England; and sent
him, as an earnest of royal bounty, a splendid basin
and bowl of silver. The basin, as De Dominis inter-
preted, to signify that he must wash away the filth of
the Roman Church; and the bowl, to invite him to
drink of Gospel purity
66
While at Lambeth, he assisted in the consecration
of some English bishops. Preferments followed. The
Dalmatian Archbishop received the deanery of Wind-
sor, one of the genteelest and entirest dignities of
the land," the mastership of the Savoy, and a good
parsonage in Berkshire. Fuller descants, in his
accustomed style, on the affluence and magnificence of
his new condition, and relates anecdotes to show that
the stranger was avaricious and overbearing. Perhaps
he was an ecclesiastical change by no means implies
a spiritual conversion.
250
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
De Dominis now applied himself with great diligence
to the correction and completion of works he had
begun in Italy, but could not publish there without
incurring the vengeance of his Church. "His works,
being three fair folios De Republicâ Ecclesiasticâ, gave
ample testimony to his sufficiency. Indeed, he had a
controversial head, with a strong and clear style, nor
doth a hair hang at the nib of his pen to blur his
writings with obscurity; but, first understanding
himself, he could make others understand him. His
writings are of great use for the Protestant cause.” *
Yet Fuller, who cannot speak without laughing, laughs
at him for saying that in reading, meditation, and
writing, he was almost pined away; whereas "his fat
cheeks did confute his false tongue in that expression.
Fat as his cheeks might be, he was no idle man, as
those works testify, and others written after them; in
all which he vigorously attacked the Papacy, and pro-
duced a profound sense of discomfiture at Rome.
Meanwhile, the same craft that had entangled Man-
fredi was prepared to take De Dominis, and measured
its appliances by the magnitude of the object to be
attained. Calumny is the ready missile ever launched
by the Inquisition after fugitives. Count Gundemaro,
Spanish Ambassador at the Court of London, under-
took to vilify the illustrious convert; and one day,
stung, or pretending to be stung, by a playful re-
partee that escaped his lips in an unguarded moment,
the Spaniard repaired to King James and volunteered
to detect the hypocrisy of this Italian. English
clergymen perhaps themselves not quite exempt
* One of his publications in England was a very early impres-
sion, or perhaps a reprint, of the original Italian of the History of
the Council of Trent by Fra Paolo Sarpi, of Venice. He gave
offence, however, by suppressing the name of the author, and put
a pseudonym, Pietro Soave Polano, on the title page. He prefixed
a dedication to King James. The impression is said to be very
correct. The ecclesiastical guardians of the Spanish Customs ex-
pressed their appreciation of the work by stealing it from my
luggage in Cadiz.
DE DOMINIS.
251
from the infirmity they spied in the stranger-already
began to regard with envy the aspirant after digni-
ties and emoluments which ought not, as they con-
ceived, to be conferred on an Italian; and they found
nothing more easy than to exhibit his weaknesses
under the most unfavourable aspect. They provoked
him to resent petty indignities unworthy of themselves
as Christians and gentlemen, and the more grievous
when contrasted with the headlong admiration at first
lavished on him by themselves; and, having thrown
him off his guard, reported his indiscreet expressions.
No doubt he gave utterance to feelings of disappoint-
ment, and even of disgust. Observing this, Gunde-
maro reported to his master the King of Spain that, if
the Pope would make an overture of pardon to De
Dominis, it would be readily accepted.
One of the Cardinals wrote to Gundemaro, in-
forming him that Gregory XV., mindful of old
friendship with De Dominis, forgave and forgot all
that he had written or done against the Catholic
religion, and on his return would prefer him to the
archbishopric of Salerno, worth twelve thousand
crowns yearly; and hinted the probability of a red
hat in addition. Conditions, however, were enclosed,
which De Dominis would subscribe if he accepted the
proposal. The bait was taken. He wrote his name.
Gundemaro went again to the King, and showed him
that signature in proof of the double-dealing of the
man whom he was employed to ruin. But there was
no double-dealing on part of the Archbishop; for in-
stantly on receipt of the Pope's overture, he wrote a
letter to King James, by which it appeared that Paul
V. had previously sent messages to the same effect, and
that he was allowed to imagine himself an acknow-
ledged agent for "advancing and furthering the
union of all Christian churches," a vain idea, often
encouraged by King James himself, and weakly
cherished by many prelates and clergy of the Church
of England ever since the Reformation. He therefore
252
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
asked permission to quit the kingdom, honestly
avowing correspondence with Rome in these plain
words: "If my business proceed, and be brought to a
good end, I will hope that I shall obtain Your
Majesty's good leave to depart, without any dimi-
nution of Your Majesty's unwonted favour towards
me.”
James I., who had himself carried on secret corre-
spondence with the Pope, ought not to have been too
severe on this ecclesiastic; but he treated the resig-
nation as an offence, sent a party of bishops to examine
him, and soon afterward appointed a formal Com-
mission to try him for changing his religion again,
and corresponding with the Pope. Archbishop Abbot,
who presided on that occasion, commanded De Domi-
nis, in the King's name, to quit England within
twenty days, and never to return again. "To this
he promised obedience; protesting that he would ever
justify the Church of England, as orthodox in funda-
mentals, even in the presence of the Pope, or whom-
soever, though with the loss of his life.
Distressed with misgivings, he left England, but
not until he had made an ineffectual effort to induce
the King to revoke the sentence, and allow him to
remain. Six tedious months he waited in Brussels
for a safe conduct, but none came; and at length,
desperately trusting in the friendship of Gregory XV.,
because that Pope was formerly a companion of his
own, he ventured to Rome; abandoned unjustly, as
he thought, by his too hasty English friends, and at
the same time marked as a heretic by the Inquisition.*
Bzovius, a bigoted Dominican, busy in the compila-
tion of his Annals, was lodged in the Vatican when
De Dominis returned to Rome, and took so great
interest in his history as to insert it in that work,
without any regard to the order of chronology.†
*FULLER'S Church History, book x., Cent. XVII., A.D. 1622.
COLLIER'S Ecclesiastical History, part ii., book viii.
+ Bzovii Annales Ecclesiastici, A.D. 1479. Num. 11—25.
DE DOMINIS.
253
•
avail myself of his narrative to describe more parti-
cularly the sad conclusion. According to Bzovius, the
Inquisition had cited him to appear at Rome within
six months, on hearing of his flight from Spalatro.
He was therefore, while feasted in London, a fugitive
from Rome, and no more than a fugitive, although
invited back for a bishopric and a cardinal's hat.
Still he lay under the ban of the Holy Office. His
books condemned, himself excommunicated, and de-
prived of all dignities, benefices, and offices, he was
doomed to suffer punishment according to the Canons.
But when Gundemaro intimated that he was willing
to renew his connection with Rome, it became desir-
able to keep this condemnation out of sight; and
perhaps Gregory XV., not privy to the dark scheme
of the Inquisitors, thought that he was exercising
mercy, when he welcomed back one who would
appear as a returning prodigal. The archbishopric of
Salerno was promised, but it came not, nor yet the
dignity of Cardinal. They gave him a house, indeed,
and servants, and allowances for the maintenance of a
considerable train, together with a liberal ecclesiastical
pension. He seemed so richly provided, although
not intrusted with any church or charge, that some
elder brothers complained of the excessive bounty
wasted on this prodigal, they being far more worthy.
But "it was meet that we should make merry and
be glad," said Gregory; "for this your brother
was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is
found."
Gregory died; and his successor, Urban VIII., was
not bound by promises, nor influenced by good-will.
The ecclesiastical pension and the residence were not
discontinued, but no pains were spared to criminate
him. Every word and action was watched most
searchingly. A printed paper describing him as a
penitent was in every person's hands, but a thousand
tongues pronounced him a heretic relapsed. Reports of
malicious words and contemptuous gestures attributed
254
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
to Pope Gregory's prodigal circulated everywhere.
Many took occasion to talk with him on religion; men
pretending great friendship and liberality villainously
drew him off his guard. These persons related that
he gave no signs of penitence or modesty, but seemed
like one exulting in a triumph. To one of them,
Cardinal Barberino, if Barberino told the truth, he
spoke proudly of the honour shown him by the Cardi-
nals; and this Cardinal boasted again of having made
him an ironical reply: "No wonder. For not only
with angels in heaven, but with men on earth, there
is joy over one sinner that repenteth." They said
that he was not ashamed of the errors he had abjured
on his return to Rome, and that he talked much of a
Concordat that ought to be made with Protestants.
"As if," cries Bzovius, "there could be communion
between light and darkness, or concord between Christ
and Belial." Religious, pious, and prudent men, says
the annalist, admonished him. They reminded him of
his escape from the detestable society of heretics, his
written abjuration, and a yet unfulfilled promise to
publish an elaborate confutation of his own writings.
But if ever he made such a promise, it was more than
he could be willing, perhaps than he was able, to
perform.
Still he went on talking of "that abominable
union" between the Churches of Rome and England,
and then again depreciating the authority of Councils
in general, and of the Council of Trent in particular.
All that he said might be true, but such talking was
forbidden, even to greater men than he, and therefore
the Inquisitors had all made ready to their hand.
They now interfered, arrested him, sent him to the
Castle of St. Angelo, sparing his rank, not him, from
incarceration in their own dungeons. They say that
he was intending flight when taken, but that in
St. Angelo he enjoyed every comfort, and every mark
of honour consistent with his condition as a prisoner.
After his arrest, the Inquisitors took possession of his
DE DOMINIS.
255
papers, and found writings which they described as
full of heresy, with proposals of indulgence to Pro-
testants, and a notion insisted on that the Decrees of
the Council of Trent, being mere acts of discipline,
might be revoked. And they further say that, even
within the walls of St. Angelo, he boldly persisted in
advocating the same "execrable concord;" which,
however, was just what he protested, in England, he
meant to do. Although bodily in Rome, they said,
his heart was still with the heretics. And so, indeed,
it seemed to be.
Amidst this controversy he fell sick. The Pope,
says Bzovius, treated him kindly, sent him food, and
commanded his own physicians-the very last men
whom a prisoner could wish to see-to attend on him.
A Cardinal paid him visits, and so did some officers of
the Inquisition. It is said that, in their presence, he
confessed and abjured the heresies of which he had
been guilty, gave signs of repentance, and received
the sacraments; rendering thanks to God that the
pressure of imprisonment had given him occasion to
think seriously of the salvation of his soul, and to see
the light which he had formerly been so blinded as
not to perceive. This done, he expired.
No one who has acquainted himself with the value
of evidence given by Inquisitors can attach much
credit to this account of the last hours of De Dominis.
The Romans could not believe that he had died a
natural death; and therefore, to silence all calumnious
reports, physicians of various nations, says Bzovius,
went to examine the corpse. Fuller learnt from rela-
tives of the deceased in Venice that the examiners
were four sworn physicians of the Pope, who made
some kind of inspection of the corpse, and on their
oath deposed that "no impression of violence was
visible thereupon." It was easy to assert that the
Inquisitors had not smothered or stabbed him, but an
assertion that they had not poisoned him would not,
in Italy, be so readily believed; and although the
256
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
rumour of poison was hushed, the Inquisitors were not
content with having induced people to keep silence.
They directed the body to be buried out of sight; but
they compelled four of his relatives, then in Rome, to
appear before themselves, and then invited them to
plead in justification of his religious opinions. Those
persons came, indeed, but durst not plead for him, and
thereby convict themselves; and in their silence the
Inquisitors arrived at their own conclusion.
"Then, on a day appointed (December 21st, 1624),
at early dawn, so great a multitude thronged the church
of St. Mary above Minerva, that the gates had not
only to be shut, but barricaded, and the approaches to
the place were choked with people, so that the Car-
dinals themselves could scarcely pass. The grand
nave of the building was partitioned off with boards
above the height of a tall man on both sides, from the
first pillar to the fourth. At each end of this enclosure
Swiss guards kept the entrances. Temporary gal-
leries at the sides were filled with cardinals, dig-
nitaries, and courtiers. On the right side of the chief
entrance sat the Sacred Senate, and on the left the
ministers of the Holy Inquisition, and the Prefect of
the city, with his officers. Before the pulpit was
exhibited an effigy of Mark Anthony (De Dominis),
dressed in plain black, with a clerical cap in its hand,
and a paper whereon was written his name, surname,
and former title as archbishop. There, too, was a
wooden coffin, smeared with pitch, containing the
corpse itself.
Beyond this enclosure, a crowd of
people filled all parts of the building, in order to catch
if it were but a distant sound of the ceremony that
went on within; and as the year of Jubilee was at
hand, the city was everywhere crowded with strangers
from every nation under heaven.
"A strong-voiced clerk then read aloud, in Italian,
the sentence of the Cardinal-Inquisitors, setting forth
that Mark Anthony had relapsed into heresy, incurred
all the censures and penalties in such a case de-
DE DOMINIS.
257
nounced, was degraded from all honours and bene-
fices, his memory condemned, and he cast out of the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction. His body and picture were
to be delivered to the Prefect of the city, that the due
penalties might be executed upon them, according to
the rule and practice of the Church. His writings
were to be burnt, and his goods confiscated to the
Inquisition." And it is wonderful to tell with what
attention and silence all this was heard, and with how
great apparent approbation of all it was received.
Then the civic authorities took charge of the body,
which still hung together, for the putrid flesh had not
yet forsaken the bones. It was dragged out of the
coffin, so that the skull and chest might be visible, and
the loathsome mass, together with a bundle of books,
was thrown upon a large pile of wood, and consumed
before the multitude in the Campo di Flora.* There
was no fear in those days of detection of poisoning by
post mortem chemical analysis.
Having related the last act of burning, Bzovius
adds, with an affectation of pity, "O that the fire may
not burn in hell him whom it consumed on earth;
and O that he who departed out of the way while he
was with us, and caused many to stumble at the law,
departing from us without true repentance, may find
his way to heaven, and have joy in the presence of
the angels of God!"
>
*Campo di Flora. The proper name of this place is involved
in great obscurity. Its origin is not known, and various conjec-
tures have occasioned a correspondent variety of form, which is
reflected in these pages, following the confusion of my historical
authorities. After all I decide for myself to follow Venuti, who
accepts Flora (not Fiori, nor Fiore, nor Fiora) from Plutarch, who
supposes that to have been the name of a lady admired by Pompey,
whose theatre was on the ground. Antichità di Roma, Parte II.,
Capo iii.
VOL. II.
S
258
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
ITALY.
MOLINOS AND THE QUIETISTS.
NEITHER piety nor the semblance of piety found any
indulgence on its own account. In Rome, as elsewhere,
the most flagrant violations of decency were passed over
with scarcely a rebuke, while the inexorable censors of
canonical orthodoxy visited every departure from the
legal standard with certain punishment. The history
of Molinos, father of the Mysticism of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, is perhaps the most signal
confirmation of this statement that modern times.
afford. Not for a moment confounding Quietism with
the Christianity of the Bible, which is practical and
active, we take note of the means employed to put it
down.
Miguel Molinos was a Spaniard, a native of Aragon,
of respectable family, and, if rumour may be trusted,
of Jewish or Moorish descent. He studied theology
at Pampelona, and then at Coimbra, where he was
honoured with a doctor's degree. Although ordained
priest, he never had any sort of benefice, nor was he
attached to any particular church, but lived on his
patrimony, and was as independent of ecclesiastical
control as a man in priest's orders could be. He was
of unblamable conduct, and enjoyed the reputation of
piety, and the friendship of many of the clergy, espe-
cially of Palafox, Archbishop of Seville. Having
removed from Spain to Italy, he there conciliated
general esteem, and was described as pious, candid,
modest, humble, and eminently successful in commu-
nicating his views to others. His manners were kindly
MOLINOS AND THE QUIETISTS.
259
and cheerful, and his conversation unusually spiritual,
yet quite free from affectation, and uniformly unob-
trusive. "So strong was the persuasion of his piety,"
says the Cardinal Celestino Sfondrati,* "which he
simulated most accurately, and thereby imposed on
most persons, that prelates and noble matrons resorted
to him from all quarters for the direction of their
conscience." And another of his enemies tells us that
"with fair words he deceived boys, girls, women,
nobles, princes, and even the learned, who would not
believe themselves deceived, but persisted in their sin."
Nay, "cardinals, bishops, generals of orders, princes,
counts, nobles of both sexes, merchants, and rustics, all
adored him." It is clear, then, that he must have
been an extraordinary man to sway so general and so
powerful an influence.
Yet he placed no high value on the favours of the
great, which he often found to be deceitful, but perse-
vered in his chosen studies, and laboured incessantly
for the propagation of his opinions. A book, under
the title of "Spiritual Guide," was the first-fruit of
those labours. The book soon appeared in various
languages, was repeated in many editions, and was
admired and quoted all over Europe. At first, no one
saw any heresy in the "Spiritual Guide;" and the
whole Court of Rome, including the Inquisition itself,
acquiesced in the applause universally poured on its
author. They called it an inestimable work; they
commended it as most wholesome nourishment for the
Lord's flock. It passed for a choice morsel of mystic
piety, such as devotees delighted in, and the Church
in general approved. Cardinal Petrucci, too, wrote a
work of the same kind; and, for a time, these two
men bore away the admiration of Italy. But the
Jesuits, unwilling to be second in the scale of spiritual
* This Cardinal might be called in loose modern phrase, ultra-
montane―that is to say, a thorough advocate of uncompromising
Popery. He wrote against the Four Articles of the Gallican
Clergy in 1682, and was rewarded with the Red Hat.
260
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
honours, while possessing the famous Exercises of
their founder, moved the Inquisition to scrutinise the
writings both of Molinos and Petrucci. The writings
were examined, but not condemned, and the Jesuits
were disappointed. Disappointment became for them,
as usual, the strongest stimulant to perseverance.
Father La Chaise, a Jesuit, confessor of Louis XIV.,
urged that zealot to take up the matter, trusting that
if the Inquisition again failed to do its duty, Louis
would prove himself another Innocent, and that the
Royal Senate would supply the place of the Holy
Office. In Rome, the French Cardinal D'Etrées, who
had professed himself a bosom friend of Molinos,
declared that he had only counterfeited friendship the
more certainly to detect the heresy, and avowed that
he had thus acted in pursuance of instructions from his
master. What else he did was perhaps best known to
the Inquisitors; but the effect was felt when, in May,
1685, Molinos was unexpectedly arrested. They threw
him into prison; and although he had often received
favours from Innocent XI., the favour of that Pope
now availed him nothing. His papers, chiefly con-
sisting of letters-and of these there was a great
number-were seized and examined, but no evidence
of heresy could be extracted from them. Nevertheless
he remained in prison. A taint of suspicion now
spoiled his reputation; and charges of immorality—
charges that are congenial to the popular taste, and
always credited in Popish countries, because always
The
common-supplemented charges of heresy.
reason of all this was that the Jesuits were deter-
mined to crush him, and the Inquisitors were well
pleased to be the instruments.
Molinos, now made heresiarch, could not suffer alone.
Seventy of his followers were thrown into the Minerva
at the same time, among whom were the Count and
Countess Vespiniani, and the confessor of the Prince
Borghese, with many other persons distinguished for
learning, and of high repute for piety, according to
MOLINOS AND THE QUIETISTS.
261
the new method of "Quiet." These persons, it was
said, neglected outward religion under pretence of
cultivating inward, and gave themselves to solitude
and private prayer. The Countess Vespiniani, un-
daunted even in the Inquisition, used the opportunities
allowed by the easier kind of custody usual in such
cases, to make it known that her confessor, the only
person to whom she ever divulged her private opinion
on the subject, must have broken the seal of confession,
for she now heard statements repeated by others that
could never have been made by anyone but herself.
The Roman public were irritated, and the Inquisitors
found it necessary to turn aside the tempest of
common indignation by releasing the illustrious pair.
Yet the labours of "the police of conscience" were
not relaxed; and in less than a month from the arrest
of Molinos, not fewer than two hundred Quietists were
under lock and key.
The praise of unhesitating and undistinguishing
audacity must certainly be allowed to the Holy Office.
Innocent XI. had favoured Molinos, as founder of a
more elevated fashion of devotion, and by so doing in-
curred a suspicion of heresy for himself. Consequently,
on February 13th, 1687, Commissioners of the Holy
Office went to the Pope, who submitted to be
examined by them on the points in dispute; not
as Christ's Vicar, than whom there could be none
on earth more holy, nor yet as the successor of
St. Peter, than whom there could be none more
mighty, but as plain Benedetto Odescalchi. The
secret of that inquest was not made known, but neither
was the fact of its occurrence concealed.
It was a
grand thing for the Roman Inquisition to do, and
many were the strictures pronounced in whisper on
the conduct of all parties concerned.
""
com-
Two days after their secret examination of their
lord and master, the "Sacred Congregation
mitted a circular letter to Cardinal Cibo, as Chief
Minister, for him to send to the bishops all over Italy.
262
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
They said that in various places schools, companies,
brotherhoods, or meetings, were assembled in churches,
oratories, and private houses, with the title of Spiritual
Conferences. Sometimes women only, sometimes men,
sometimes both men and women, led by spiritual
guides that were inexpert, and perhaps malicious, for-
saking the way trodden by true saints, pursued that
perilous way of prayer, quiet, and pure internal faith, as
they were pleased to call it. At first they seemed to
inculcate maxims of exquisite perfection, but at length
broke out into open heresy and abominable lewdness,
to the irreparable damage of those whom they deluded.
The bishops were therefore commanded to watch over
all new meetings, differing from such as were already
practised and approved, and to abolish such. Spi-
ritual directors (confessors) were to be content with
walking in the beaten path of Christian perfection,
without affecting any singularities. Above all, no
suspected person was to be admitted to guide nuns,
either by writing or voice; nor were such to enter
monasteries, lest they should corrupt the spouses of
the Lord with spiritual pestilence. If prudence failed
to put an end to this new mischief, the bishops were
to have recourse to justice. Meanwhile the matter
was undergoing a searching consideration in Rome,
that all Christendom might be made aware of the
errors to be avoided.
"Justice" was quickly done. On the one hand,
arrests continued, and Rome wondered at seeing per-
sons hitherto accounted far above suspicion of heresy
now plunged into the dungeons. Such was Appiani,
one of the most eminent Jesuits, whom they appre-
hended on Sunday, the 1st of April. On the other
hand, the theologians of the Holy Office were working
hard, and soon issued a Censure of nineteen articles,
said to be extracted from the writings of Molinos and
other Quietists. The Censure contributed effectually
to the suppression of the sect; but the circular to the
bishops, which ought to have been written in Latin,
MOLINOS AND THE QUIETISTS.
263
and kept quite confidential, was in Italian, and being
found in everyone's hands, aroused general indig-
nation. It was said that the Inquisitors had been
encountered with so much learning and courage by
many of their prisoners, that they were perplexed and
ashamed; and that the friends of the prisoners, gather-
ing confidence from numbers, wrote threatening letters
to the Cardinals of the Congregation, bidding them
consider well what they were doing, and assuring
their Eminences that the writers would maintain the
cause of the persecuted, and, if it came to that, would
seal it with their own blood.
After much anxiety on account of Molinos and his
fellow-sufferers, the Italian laity saw with a certain
satisfaction that the Inquisitors would content them-
selves with making the weight of their anger fall on
him alone.
On the 3rd day of September, 1687, Molinos was
brought from his prison into the church of the Minerva.
The Cardinals-Inquisitors were all there. He came in
the usual penitential habit, carrying burning tapers in
his hands, which were confined in manacles. The
process was full of the foulest accusations, very long,
and occupied several hours in the reading; the monks
employed as readers relieving one another, while the
poor handcuffed Quietist stood between servants of
the Inquisition, without the least relief, to hear the
outpouring of inquisitorial calumny. Cardinals, pre-
tending to be scandalised at some of the passages, cried
out, "Al fuoco!" "To the fire!" The vile crowd
that, as usual, filled the place, took up the cry. When
the reading was ended, Molinos expressed a wish to
speak to the people; but that was not permitted.
However, not being a penitent relapsed, he was not
gagged, and now and then affirmed his innocence in a
low voice to those who stood near him. Conscious of
innocence, he felt no shame, and therefore could not
betray any, but stood with a serene countenance,
mild, and even cheerful. Once, when the people were
264
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
shouting, "To the fire," he smiled, and observed that
they might be forgiven the uproar, as they were
keeping a holiday, and wanted entertainment. And
again he said that in himself they saw a man defamed
indeed, but penitent.
So he went through the ceremony of public penance,
abjured the propositions condemned in the written
Censure, accepted absolution, and calmly walked away
to a prison prepared for him in the Dominican monas-
tery. On separating from the ecclesiastic who had
attended him, he said, "Farewell, my father. We
shall see each other again in the day of judgment, and
then it will appear on whose side justice lies, on yours
or mine."
The sentence was, Perpetual imprisonment, a ro-
sary to be prayed over twice daily, and the Apostles'
Creed recited once, three fasting-days every week,
four confessions every year, and mass as often as his
confessor might require. From September 3rd, 1687,
to December 20th, 1696, he languished in that prison,
in sufferings unknown. The symptoms he was re-
ported to have shown during the last three months
were such as indicated the action of poison. Frequent
vomitings might have been so caused; but at seventy
years of age, and weary of life, it could not have
needed much artificial force to push him into the
grave. Inquisitors beset his death-bed, and boasted
afterwards that he had given many signs of repent-
ance. But such reports cannot be heard without
incredulity, not to say disgust. A stone was laid
upon his grave with this inscription: "HERE LIES THE
BODY OF DON MOLINOS, A GREAT HERETIC."
Again let me say that Quietism is not in harmony
with the teaching of the Gospel; but Molinos deserved
pity; and we may revere the memory of a man who,
dissatisfied with a religion of profitless externals,
sought to find within himself the fruits of an indwel-
ling Power. That clearer light which he sought for
himself and others he might have found more fully,
MOLINOS AND THE QUIETISTS.
265
and might have learned the truth as it is taught in
Holy Scripture, but for the error everywhere prevalent
around him. As for the Jesuits and the Inquisition,
the offence to them was not his Mysticism, but his
departure from their prescribed idolatry.*
Again and again we have observed the strong con-
trast constantly presented between the fiend-like
severity wreaked upon the innocent and the pious,
and the indulgence granted to the most worthless of
mankind-criminals whom the Inquisitors were com-
pelled to mark, but reluctant to punish. Cases of the
sort have not been made conspicuous in the present
history, for reasons of propriety, not to say of moral-
ity. One case, however, shall be noted now by way
of illustration; that of Giuseppe Francesco Borri, a well
known Milanese quack, whose character may at least
serve as a foil against that of the unfortunate Molinos.
The two men were contemporary; and the same
nquisitors, from first to last, were dealing with them
simultaneously.
Borri is described as a chemist, quack, and heretic.
He was a student in the Roman Seminary, where the
Jesuit masters admired him for his memory and capa-
city, although he was remarkably deficient in obe-
dience; and for lack of the most necessary of all
virtues in that place, he had to leave both the
Seminary and the Jesuits. He then abandoned him-
self to the most extravagant immoralities; and in
the year 1654 he was obliged to take refuge in a
church, the place where common criminals could find
refuge when it failed them everywhere else.
Having thus escaped the lash of justice, he affected
an extraordinary religious fervour, lamented the cor-
ruption of manners prevalent in Rome, but proclaimed
*Three Letters concerning the present State of Italy. Written in
the year 1687 [from Rome]. Being a Supplement to Dr. Burnet's
Letters. Letter i.
Christ. Eberh. Weismanni Introductio in Memorabilia Ecclesiastica
Historia Sacræ Nov. Testamenti. Pars Posterior, Sæc. xvii. Hist.
Quietismi.
266
IIISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
that the time of recovery was near, the time when
there would be but one fold on earth, with one shep-
herd, and that one the Pope. "Whosoever shall fail,"
he cried, "to enter that fold, shall be destroyed by
the Pope's armies. God has predestined me to be the
general of those armies. I am sure that they shall
want nothing. I shall quickly finish my chemical
labours by the happy production of the Philosopher's
Stone, and by that means I shall have as much gold
as is necessary for the business. I am sure of the
assistance of the angels, and especially of Michael, the
archangel. When I began to walk in the spiritual
life, I had a vision in the night, attended with an
angelical voice, which assured me that I should become
a prophet."
One
Not finding much encouragement in Rome, where
Alexander VII. did not appreciate his proffered ser-
vices, he moved away to Milan, seeking honour in his
own country. In Milan he played the devotee,
gained credit, and gathered followers, whom he
caused to perform certain spiritual exercises, binding
them by an oath of secrecy and by many vows.
was a vow of poverty, for the more certain per-
formance whereof he caused all the money that every
one had to be consigned to himself. Like others of
the same craft, he affirmed that he had received a
sword from heaven; and now proclaimed that the
Pope, holder of two swords, and no friend of his, was
to be killed, if the requisite mark were not found on
his forehead.
He taught that the blessed Virgin Mary was born
of St. Ann in the same manner as Jesus Christ our
Lord was born of Mary. He called her the only
daughter of God, conceived by the Holy Ghost; and
caused words to that effect to be added to the mass,
wherever his followers officiated.* He said that her
* The reader needs not be reminded that this idle and unscrip-
tural figment, under the management of Pius IX., is now made, in
the Church of the Inquisition, an article of faith, and enforced
under anathema like the rest.
MOLINOS AND THE QUIETISTS.
267
humanity was present in the Eucharist. He wrote a
book for the use of his followers, who held meetings
at night; but when he heard that the Inquisition had
notice of their nocturnal meetings, he hid all his
papers in a nunnery, where the Inquisitors found
them; and if the Inquisitors' report be true, which is
very likely, they were full of monstrously blasphemous
jargon. The party he had now formed were called
Evangelical Nationalists; and it was his design to
collect his forces in the great square of Milan, en-
courage the people to demand liberty, and take
possession of the city. But the Inquisition imprisoned
some of his disciples, who probably did not keep the
oath of secrecy; and, fearing the like fate, he pru-
dently absconded from the city.
After the usual formalities, the Inquisition con-
demned him for contumacy in 1659, and in 1660; and
finally burnt his effigy in the Campo Di Flora, on the
3rd of January, 1661. This gave his name accep-
tance in Germany, and then in Holland, where the
multitude thought all the better of him because Rome
condemned him. He now set himself up as a phy-
sician, able to cure all diseases; appeared with a
stately equipage, and took upon himself the title of
Excellency. But his power of healing did not answer the
expectations he had endeavoured to raise, and the tide
of popularity ebbed rapidly. In Amsterdam he be-
came a swindler-bankrupt, and fled one night, carrying
away a great many jewels and sums of money which
he had pilfered. Yet at Hamburg he was protected
by Queen Christina, and at Copenhagen by the King.
This notwithstanding, he feared imprisonment, fled
again, was taken at Goldingen, claimed by the Pope's
Nuncio, sent to Vienna, and thence to Rome; where
the Inquisition condemned him to perpetual imprison-
ment.
Borri made abjuration of his errors on the last
Sunday of October, 1672, in the church of the Minerva,
with the usual parade. Unlike Molinos, he showed
268
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
extreme terror, and fainted twice during the ceremony.
He was, indeed, conveyed to prison there to remain
for life; but the penalty was mitigated. The Duke
D'Etrées, French ambassador at Rome, brother of
the Cardinal who betrayed Molinos, had heard of this
man's eminence as a physician, and obtained leave for
him to come out of the prison to attend himself. His
treatment being successful, the ambassador engaged
the Inquisitors to let their prisoner be transferred to
the Castle of St. Angelo, where his custody was so
very easy, that he pretended to be a lodger, not a
prisoner. He might be seen in the Queen of Sweden's
carriage, visiting Her Majesty, and walking about the
city with guards. He was indulged with a convenient
suite of apartments in the Castle, consisting of three
rooms and a laboratory, and the Cardinal Cibo, Major-
domo of the Sacred Apostolic Palace, made no diffi-
culty of giving notes of admission to those who wished
to visit him. In August, 1695, this person died,
seventy-nine years of age, without any suspicion of
poison, or mark of infamy. The truth is that,
although guilty of the wildest heresy, he merited
favour as an advocate of the Pope's supremacy,
"Catholic unity," and the Immaculate Conception of
the Virgin Mary. These teachings were taken to out-
weigh the guilt of heresy on other points, including
the minor irregularities of sedition, swindling and
licentiousness, in comparison light as feathers in the
scale. The Holy Office, it is now superfluous to say,
is not second to the Company of Jesus in casuistic
skill. In balancing merits against any demerits
incurred on its own account, or on account of its
clients, that incomparably clever set can trim the
beam with a convenient discretion.
269
CHAPTER. XL.
THE JEWS.
BEFORE bringing this History to a close, I must make
a digression into two very different subjects; so dif-
ferent, indeed, that they could not be named in the
same breath, nor fitly treated in continuity.
وو
Strong as the Inquisition once was, it never had
audacity enough to declare open war against all man-
kind at once. For the sake of policy, at least, canonical
authorities accepted the principle that the Church has
no right of jurisdiction over "them that are without;
and as Jews, Mohammedans, and Heathens, either
lay entirely beyond the boundaries of Christian States,
or, if dwelling within them, had multitudes of power-
ful kinsfolk in the world who might avenge their
wrongs, the Inquisitors were careful to proceed with
caution, and not do violence to a Jew until they had
succeeded in making out a cause for it. Then this
was often done, as is clear enough from the fre-
quent mention of Jews and Judaizers in the preceding
pages. First, they would manage, by bribery, or
intimidation, or special private influence to induce or
compel a Jew or Jewess to submit to Baptism, and
then claiming the baptized person as a Christian, would
watch closely over him, and arrest, imprison, or even
burn him whenever they thought well so to do.
Perhaps the earliest recorded effort of Christians to
exercise judicial authority in respect to Jews was
made in the Council of Illiberis, in Spain, assembled
in the year 306. In that Council some rigid injunc-
tions were laid on the Christian part of the population,
in order to exclude Jews from association with them,
270
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
and bring them, when so excluded, under the dis-
tressing consequences of civil interdiction.
The Inquisition proceeded against Jews as soon as
it came into existence, under the sanction, if not the
actual direction, of the Popes. Gregory X., in a Brief
addressed to the Inquisitors of the Order of Preachers
in the year 1271, says that he has heard with troubled
heart, that not only some Jews, after being converted
from the error of Jewish blindness to the light of
Christian faith, have turned back again to their former
perfidy, but that many Christians, denying the truth
of the Catholic faith, have damnably passed over to
the Jewish rite. Therefore, as it behoved him to
meet such a damnable pestilence with proper and
immediate remedies, he commands them, within the
bounds assigned to them for making inquest against
heretics, by authority of the Apostolic See, to proceed
alike against Christians and Jews, and diligently and
solicitously to treat the former as aiders and abettors,
receivers and defenders of heretics, whenever they
find them guilty of such conduct.
It appears in the same document that one Boniface,
at Ferrara, a converted Jew, and others with him,
complained that Jews in that city had treated them
with insolence and blasphemies, and asked the Pope
for protection. Gregory commanded the Inquisitors
to keep those Jews quiet, use their discretion to pre-
vent such annoyance for the future, and, if necessary,
hand over troublesome Jews to the secular arm, which,
as we know, was the very last argument of the Church,
insuring death to the offender before sun-set.*
Time did not abate the indignation of the Ferrara
Jews, whose antipathy to Boniface kept him in per-
petual bodily fear. Eleven years later, he appealed
to Pope Nicholas III. who wrote through his Cardinal
Legate to the Inquisitor of Ferrara almost in the
words of his predecessor, Gregory X. This Inquisitor,
*Limborch quotes ad verbum from the Extravagantes, Hist.
Inquis., page 239,
THE JEWS.
271
not without reason cautious in a state where Jews
were very numerous, applied for advice to the theo-
logians of Padua, Bologna, and Ferrara, on eight
questions which he submitted for their consideration.
The correspondence took place in the year 1281.
1. A Jew was baptized and converted to the Christian
faith. He apostatised, returned to Judaism, and denied
the faith which he had accepted. Is such one subject
to the authority of the Inquisitor, and can he be laid
hold of and condemned like other heretics?
The wise men of Padua answer, that certainly he
is subject to the Inquisitor's authority, who has power
to proceed against him as a heretic. The doctors at
Ferrara say not only that he has the power, but that
it is his duty to proceed at once.
2. Can an Inquisitor proceed against persons by
whose act, pleasure, will or advice any Christian
apostatises, and denies the faith of Christ which he
had once accepted, as well as against his abettors,
receivers and defenders, whether they be Jews or not?
The Paduans answer that the Inquisition both can
proceed and ought to proceed against them as abettors,
receivers and defenders of heretics. For, although
the Church tolerates Jews in the observance of their
own rites, yet by reason of the crime thus committed
against the Church, they are to be restrained by eccle-
siastical severity, and lose their privilege if they have
abused it. So say they of Bologna, and moreover,
add that they ought to be severely punished. But
after all they advise that Jews be not put to death,
nor their blood shed; neither should they be given
over, nor left in power of the secular arm.
they can and ought to be punished with pecuniary
fines, banishment, imprisonment, and even indirect
excommunication, according to the degree of their
offence. By whatever means they have promoted
their apostasy, they should be prosecuted as abettors,
harbourers, and defenders of a heretic. But the pro-
ceedings against such persons ought not to be violent.
But
272
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
So say the Doctors at Ferrara-The Jews' money is
better than their blood.
3. If the Inquisitor has very strong reason to believe
that these persons are not telling the truth, when he is
making inquest concerning their offences, may he have
them tormented by a secular executioner, but without
effusion of blood, and proceed to inflict the canonical
penalties upon them if they are convicted, or confess?
The Paduans answer affirmatively, and the Bo-
lognese approve. The truth, say they, may be forced
from them by torture if they will not confess it, but
blood must not be shed, and it must be done by a
secular judge at the requisition of an Inquisitor, after
evidence by legitimate witnesses, and when there is
very strong reason to believe that they are guilty.
The Ferrarese agree, and would advise very strong
measures.
4. There is a Synagogue where by act, will, and
counsel of the Jews dwelling in that country, some
Christians are washed (abluti) by the Jews, in preju-
dice of sacred baptism, and by their persuasions deny the
faith. What is to be done with that Synagogue?*
The Paduans answer that that Synagogue, having
lost the privileges allowed it by the Christians, is to be
destroyed to the very foundations. The Bolognese
and Ferrarese entirely agree.
5. With reference to a man who has committed any
of the above-mentioned offences, and is gone away
beyond the limits of the territory of his "Inquisition,"
but has a house within those limits where he once
resided with his family, what is to be done?
The Paduans say that it will be sufficient to present
the edict of citation at the said house, if he is gone
away into a more foreign place, not known, so that if
he does not make his appearance within the time
appointed, proceedings may be taken against himself,
and the property he has left there, so far as that can
be lawfully done.
*See on Re-judaisation, Vol. I., page 192.
THE JEWS.
273
6. The infant child of a baptised Jew is left with a
mother who continues in Jewish blindness, the father
being absent in remote parts not known. What is to
be done with such a child?
The Paduans reply that, for the sake of the Faith,
the Church is to take that infant from its mother, or
the Ordinary of the place, or the Christian Prince in
whose dominion it is, and it must be nursed among
the faithful who are not suspected, and unless any
difficulty is thrown in the way by an opposing will,
must be baptised.
7. There is a question of one against whom it is
proved, by many lawful witnesses, that while he was
member of a Jewish Synagogue, and had to read the
Law solemnly in the presence of other Jews, according
to custom, some one objected that he was not fit to
read the Law because he had been baptised in such
or such a country, and he has himself acknowledged
and confessed that he was baptised there, but says that
he has returned to Judaism and to repentance, doing
what the Jews required of him for sinfully allowing
himself to be baptised, and has continued steadfast
and wishes henceforth to live and die a Jew.
The Paduans and Bolognese say, that a secular
judge, on receiving command from an Inquisitor, must
put him to torture, but without effusion of blood, in
order to find out the truth.
8. A man and a wife, both publicly professed them-
selves Jews, and it is legitimately proved against them
by witnesses that the parents of both were Christians,
yet both of them were baptised (as Jews converted),
and it was in this way:-The father of the husband,
who now professes himself to be a Jew, was a Jew
at first, but afterwards baptised, and so became a
Christian, married a Christian woman, by whom he
had a son, had the son baptised, and lived many years
more as a Christian. At length, a long time after-
wards, this man's father, returning to Judaism, caused
the son, of whom there is now this question, to be
VOL. II.
T
274
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
circumcised, and afterwards always lived as a Jew.
What is more, he made the mother Judaise, although
she was indeed a Christian, and she was buried in the
Jews' cemetery. Now that woman, who publicly pro-
fessed to be a Jewess, is proved to have been a Christian
before; for her mother was first known to be a Jewess,
but afterwards was made a Christian, and received a
Christian husband, but returned to Judaism after his
death, and married a Jew.
On this case the Bolognese pronounced that both the
man and the woman should be proceeded against, and
if they were unwilling to confess, the truth should be
extorted from them by torture.
But if even so they
would not confess the truth, their property should be
sold, and they kept in perpetual imprisonment, or else
delivered over to the secular arm for execution.*
Thus began the Title in the Inquisitorial Code
concerning Jews. Christian Emperors and Roman
Pontiffs had made many laws for the oppression of
God's ancient people; and military persecution, with
tumultuary violence, had been tried in vain for their
extirpation, with no other result than to prove the
truth of a prophetic sentence-"I will bless them that
bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee" (Gen.
xii. 3). Then came the Inquisition to ensnare with
guile those whom others had not been able to destroy
by force. The Acts of Councils launched against
Albigenses at Tours, and the Canons of the Lateran,
with the more systematic provision of Lucius III.,
and the voluminous instructions of Innocent III., in
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, while they sup-
plied the fundamental law of persecution of heresy,
did not suffice for an effective treatment of Judaism,
and in default of Canons the Italian priests of the last
quarter of the thirteenth century had no resort but
voluntary consultation with brethren outside the Holy
Office, and the laws against Jews which were after-
* Quoted by LIMBORCH, pp. 239-241, from CAMPEGGIO on ZAN-
CHINO de Hæreticis.
THE JEWS.
275
wards published in Rome under Pius VI., are but a
modern edition of the answers to the eight questions
put by the Inquisitor at Ferrara to his three friends in
that city, Padua and Bologna, in the year 1281.
The severity of these decisions was from time to
time increased, and the practice of Inquisitors accord-
ingly became increasingly savage. Jew and Gentile
fared alike when they fell into their hands, and the
only distinctive peculiarity in the law of the Holy
Office as regarded the former, consisted in a vexatious
and humiliating control, making him an object of
suspicion, hatred and contempt. It was taken for
granted that every Jew was an enemy of all Christians,
and an obstructor of the Inquisition. The New
Christians, compelled or drawn into an unreal pro-
fession of Christianity, were first made hypocrites,
then driven into a false position, and after all despised
and punished by those who had forced hypocrisy upon
them.
The practice of Inquisitors, which was always sub-
stantially the same, is first described in instructions of
the Council of Toulouse, in the year 1229. The
discipline to which the Jews in Rome and Italy were
subject until very recently, is fully exhibited in an
Edict of Pius VI., published a hundred years ago.
The Toulouse instructions were to the following
effect:-
When a person suspected of being a Jew was
brought before them, the Examiners were to ask his
name and surname. These being written down, they
were to ascertain the place of his birth, and also the
place where he was converted to Christianity, (and by
that "conversion," made subject to the authority of
the Church, as exercised by this Tribunal). The
first lines of a personal history were thus obtained,
and they proceeded to its completion, step by step.
Were his parents Jews, or had they been Jews?
What were their names, and where were they born?
If converted, where? Has the suspected person
276
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
brothers or sisters? If he has, what are their names,
surnames, and places of abode? Correct answers to
these questions would place every member of the
family under the eye of a familiar, unless his abode
were in a heathen or Mohammedan country, such as
Egypt or Tartary, where familiars would not be tole-
rated. Even so, the inquest could at once be ex-
tended by examination only, far beyond the family
first concerned. Relatives by affinity, as well as
kindred, must then be named,-their extraction-
birth-places-dwelling-places. Were any of them
baptized? If so, they are subjects for examination, to
be pursued and caught, if desirable and practicable.
Then comes the more searching inquiry: "Are
you a Jew or a Christian?" In either case it must
be asked, "Which of these religions do you prefer?
Which is the better of the two? In which of them do
you wish to die?" These questions plainly put might
be answered satisfctorily enough if the examiner
would be content with one explicit answer in favour
of Christianity; but as a suspected person must be
treated like a criminal in court, this is not enough,
and the examination must be carried much farther.
"Do you consider yourself bound by an oath admi-
nistered in the law of Moses, and by the word of
God?" "If any of your people, the Jews, commit
perjury, by what law are they punished, or their
wives, or their children? If any of them have been
punished, how often?" These questions may perplex,
the answers may be contradictory, and by a little
cross-questioning the victim may be soon ensnared.
So they go on.
"Has your wife been baptized ?-and your chil-
dren ?" "Are you yourself baptized? If so, when,
where, and by what name?" This is to strengthen
the evidence of identity by information of the original
Jewish name, as well as of the assumed Christian
"How many were baptized with you? What
are their names? Where are they to be found? ”
name.
THE JEWS.
277
Passing away from the witness, his blood-relations,
and his relatives by affinity, the Inquisitor has now to
make notes of a far wider scope. If any of them have
returned to Judaism, it must be known where they re-
joined the Synagogue, and by whose means they were
induced to return, or assisted in returning. "Have
those persons wives, and by what names are the
wives known?" But, coming to his own case:
"When did the ceremony of your own reconciliation
to the Synagogue take place?-and where?"
perilous disclosure will now unfold. "Who were at
the same time re-judaised?" In those days there was
much made of the public baptisms of Jews, which
often took place on a large scale; there were also
Jewish reconciliations, not performed in public, but
with great ceremony notwithstanding, and they too
were events of deep domestic interest.
A
But when the
re-judaised were caught, through the weakness or
malice of other persons, their death might be considered
certain. "Who, then, performed the ceremony of
reconciling the person or persons mentioned?" If
more than the one now in view, "Who were they?"
Perhaps conscience, or natural affection, now seals the
lips of this involuntary witness, therefore he must be
pressed to give a clue to the whole matter by answering
the question, "Who were present on that occasion?
?"
Supposing that the witness is what they would call
a Jew relapsed--although he never was a Christian in
reality, nor did he receive a real baptism, but was no
more than a Jew disguised under the mockery of a
Christian Sacrament,-he is to be questioned still more
closely
"How many years were you in Christianity ?"
"Did you go to confession ?" "Did you commu-
nicate?" "Did you believe the same as other
Christians?" "Did
"Did you marry while you were among
the Christians ?" "Had you any children by your
wife?" "Were the children baptized ?" If the wife
is involved in his offence, she, too, must suffer. If
278
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
not, she may be otherwise disposed of. As for the
children, when the Church has burnt the father, she
will perhaps adopt the children, and bid them curse
his memory. But, to himself again :-"Did you learn
the Lord's Prayer, the Hail Mary, and the Apostles'
Creed ?" * "Do you know
know any Christian that is now
Judaising?" "How do they pray by Gohyns and
Chlorus ?" + "Who holds the office of De-baptizer?
How are they de-baptized?"
To elicit matter for heavier condemnation, the
detected Jew must be questioned yet again:--" Did
you go to communion with the heart of a true
Christian?" Then, to satisfy curiosity, and open the
way for further inquisition, there are two more ques-
tions to be put:-"Have you a certificate of re-
Judaisation ?" "How do they circumcise Christians
otherwise than (children of) their own?" +
How effectually examinations so conducted brought
victims to the stake, may be seen in the reports of
Autos, especially in Spain and Portugal. I therefore
now refrain from producing any examples of Jewish
sufferers. They occur with sad frequency throughout
these volumes.
The Edict of Pius VI., very carefully compiled for
the guidance of the Congregation of the Roman and
Universal Inquisition, throws much light on the
tyrannous oppression of Jews in Rome and Italy in
times gone by. The Master of the Sacred Palace in
Rome, and the Bishops and local Inquisitors elsewhere,
were charged with the execution of the Edict, and the
enforcement of severe and crushing penalties, some
fixed and others arbitrary.
The entire mass of Rabbinical literature was to be
* They do not mention the Ten Commandments which were
taught entire in the earlier times, and constituted a part of what
was called The Catechism, but in the thirteenth century were fallen
into disuse so far as concerned children and proselytes.
†This question I cannot understand.
‡ VAISSETTE. Histoire Générale du Languedoc. Paris, 1737, tome
iii., p. 374. Interrogatoria ad Judæos.
THE JEWS.
279
suppressed. According to a Decree of the Holy Office
in 1553, no Hebrew book, whether manuscript or
printed, might be in the possession of any Jew. So far
as this Edict could be put into force, neither might
any Christian, being a friend of the Hebrews, possess
such a book, or have anything to do with it, except to
give it up to the Inquisition, or to destroy it with his
own hands. No Jew was permitted to teach or explain
the contents of such books, publicly or privately, to
Jew or to Gentile.
Hebrew books were not to be transcribed or printed,
bought or sold, by any Jew or any Christian, but
when found, sent forthwith to the nearest office of the
Inquisition. Christians helping to circulate such books
were to be very severely punished. Custom-houses
and ships were to be narrowly searched, to prevent
the introduction of Jewish writings into the States of
the Church. Couriers, postmen, carriers and conductors
of every kind were forbidden to convey a Hebrew
book by land or water.
Jews were forbidden to exercise witchcraft, or
other occult and superstitious arts, in terms which
implied that they were more addicted to follies of the
kind than the Christians of that age, which, however,
was not the case. Even the use of phylacteries was
at the same time prohibited.
At the funeral of a Jew there might be no procession,
or other public solemnity, nor any inscription over the
grave to tell whose remains were laid therein.
They were to dwell in Jewries-the Italians call
them Ghetti, and the Synagogues within the Ghetti
were never to be enlarged, nor their number increased.
When a Jew was induced to become a Christian
Catechumen, and lived out of his Ghetto, no Jew
might approach within a measured distance of the
house where he was lodged. No Hebrew might retain
in his house any such catechumen or neophyte, though
it were his own wife or child; much less might he eat,
drink, or sleep with any one of them, neither within
280
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
the Ghetto nor on the outside, nor work with any one
of them, nor visit nor speak with him, under a penalty
of fifty scudi, and to be dragged through the town
three times at a rope's end.
For a Hebrew to induce one of his own nation, who
had been forced into a profession of Christianity, to
return to the Synagogue, was a crime to be punished
with extreme severity; or to endeavour to prevent a
forced conversion, was to be accounted a crime of
equal magnitude, and punished cruelly and igno-
miniously.
Every Jew or Jewess had to wear a broad yellow
badge, in the shape of a ring, so sewed on to some part
of the garment that it could not be concealed, and
was not to be covered, either at home or abroad, nor
were any to be exempted from wearing the igno-
minious distinction by any authority whatever.
The ordinary intercourse of life, between Christian
and Jew, was prevented by distressing restrictions
upon trade. No Christian could enter a Synagogue,
except on payment of a heavy fine, nor might a Jew
invite him thither.
Neither the Christian nor the Hebrew mother was
permitted to have a midwife or a wet-nurse of the
opposite religion, under penalty of fifty scudi for the
first offence, and the same for the second, with the
addition of a flogging, which last penalty the husband
was bound to undergo if he did not himself see it
inflicted on the wife. [None but priests forbidden to
marry, could be capable of imposing such a law upon
the laity.] As for travelling, the restrictions now
imposed on Jews in Barbary are said to be lighter
than those their brethren were subjected to in the
Roman States. No mark of contempt was to be
spared in the infliction of the most savage and un-
reasonable discipline; and, after all this degradation,
the Sacred Congregation of Cardinals had none to teach
them that the Roman model of a most unchristian
Christianity was debased, far lower than the religion
THE JEWS.
281
of the Ghetto, by the methods taken for compulsory
conversion. The Rabbis, themselves, were forced to
defile their Sabbath, by causing a fixed number of
their brethren to be present at Sermons in the Churches
every Saturday, where ignorant preachers reviled what
the Jews count holy, as well as on other days appointed
both in Rome, and in other cities of the Papal terri-
tory.
The Rabbis were required to make out lists of Jews
to be sent to hear Sermons, and to give written
description of their persons, in order that the exact
number in attendance might be tested, and the ab-
sence of any be discovered. The Rabbi so employed,
and made responsible, had to pay out of his own
pocket a fine of two giulij for each absentee.
The Edict was posted up in the accustomed places
in Rome, and throughout the States of the Church,
and also in the schools within the Ghetti, where it was
to be exposed perpetually for more effectual obser-
vance, "under penalty of a hundred scudi in each
case of contravention, with corporal punishment at
discretion." It was dated at the Palace of the Holy
Roman Inquisition, on the fifth day of April, 1775.
A slightly condensed rendering of this extraordin-
ary document is given in the Appendix,* and deserves
careful perusal. It affords illustration of the Papal
policy towards the Jews, which was just to suffer them
to live, and even to exercise their religion, but to
plunge them into ignorance, destroy their self-respect,
isolate them from all Christian society, leave them to
struggle in trade against heavy restrictions on every
side, but still so to trade that their earnings might be
eventually appropriated by their persecutors, and cast
into the coffers of the Church. While thus dealt with
in the States of the Church, they were permitted to
travel into other countries, there to accumulate
* Number V. Editto sopra gli Ebrei. Roma, 1775. British
Museum. Press mark, B. L. L. 1.31. (28*). Under "Inquisition"
in the Old Catalogue.
282
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
i
wealth, but made to leave their wives and children in
the Ghetti, as hostages for their own return, bringing
back their earnings to be wasted in paying tribute for
permission to exist miserably, or extorted from them in
the shape of exorbitant fines for alleged contravention
of the laws of the Inquisition, laws chiefly made for
the very purpose of creating offences which might
prove lucrative to the Cardinal-Inquisitors.
283
CHAPTER XLI.
SUPERSTITION.
In concession to modern custom I use a gentler word.
Devil-worship would more correctly indicate the sub-
ject of the present chapter.* During my inquisitorial
readings I have constantly found mention of wizards,
and witches, astrologers, magicians, sorcerers, necro-
*Prierias, in his first chapter, speaks of the whole system of
superstition treated in his book as one of Devil-worship. He
believes Satan himself to be its visible head. Of the whole multi-
tude of its devotees, he says, Genus hoc perversissimum, cum
virorum tum mulierum præcipue, quod diabolus pro explosâ
idololatriâ mundo inferre curavit: quod equidem humani generis
inimicum diabolum colit, veneratur, adorat; non jam in sculptilibus,
aut certe ignoranter, tanquam spiritum bonum ut olim: cæterum
potius scienter, et in corpore ab ipso Satana ex ære et crasso terræ
vapore compaginato; in quo vanorum hominum sensibus sese
ingerat adorandum.
Sylvester Prierias wrote this in 1521, and printed it in Rome, no
doubt believing it. But all were not so credulous. The Cardinal
da Cunha, Inquisitor-General of Portugal, wrote a book of regula-
tions for his Inquisition in 1774, and therein propounds it as
doubtful "whether there is in the world an art, that by ways of
invocation of the said demons, by imprecations, by straight or
crooked lines, and by circles, in order to transport human bodies.
through the air, from one part of the world to another distant part,
to tame ferocious minds, to darken the sun and the stars, to make
reasonable beings sick and miserable, with languor of body, with
grief of mind, and with barbarous and cruel deaths at the pleasure
of professors of this most cruel art." Da Cunha considers the
question, and comes to practical conclusions :—
1. Such operations have never been proved, and are im-
possible.
2. The persons convicted are either impostors or superstitious.
3. If impostors, to be punished as such.
4. If superstitious, the superstition itself is an impiety, and
for this they shall be punished with stripes, or galley, or
prison, or banishment.
284
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
mancers, enchanters, diviners, cheiromancers, and
others. These all are supposed to be in compact with
the Devil, a compact which would certainly imply
heresy, and therefore they were counted fit subjects
for inquisitorial treatment, and figured largely in the
lists at Autos. They were punished with imprisonment,
flogging and other corporal inflictions, and very often
death by fire.
My work would be incomplete if I were to pass over
this class of cases in silence, yet it is so difficult to
treat the subject with any degree of clearness without
violating decency, that my treatment of it must be
confessedly incomplete. I have pondered the pages of
Prierias, Del Rio, Bordoni, Eymeric and others, and
perused many accounts scattered over the whole field
of this peculiar literature, and arrive at one or two
certain conclusions. It is evident that the Romish
theologians generally agree, in spite of a great diver-
sity of opinions on many points, that Satan and his
angels play a very considerable part in the affairs of
this world, receiving actual worship, and entering into
close compact with their votaries. A real power is
attributed to the tricks of these persons, whom they
suppose to have the fortunes and lives of others in
their hands. They say that a demon, or an evil spirit,
can perform bodily acts, and so exactly simulate
humanity that it may be impossible to distinguish by
its appearance, or by its actions and their effects,
whether it is a spirit, or a man or woman.
system of Demonology is vast and complicated. It
is a teeming source of crime. It is a poison that for
ages infected whole masses of society. It was indeed
a black art a cloak of darkness which covered with
impenetrable secrecy a world of iniquity, wherein
priests, "religious persons," and confessors, were the
most cunning actors; an art of which Inquisitors were
the most accomplished students and practitioners.
An entire volume might be filled with examples, but
they are too frivolous or too corrupt.
The
SUPERSTITION.
285
Failing, therefore, to treat the subject scientifically,
I will ask the reader to be content with two pieces of
translation, and release myself from the responsibility
of relating, on my own credit, what might seem, even
on the most direct evidence, no less incredible than
foolish.
The first, from an Italian manuscript in the British
Museum,* is an account of a capture made by the
Holy Inquisition in Leghorn, on the 9th of May,
1704, of a Priest and a Painter who persuaded each
other to commit an act of witchcraft against the two
Kings of France and Spain.
"A certain priest of Bargha, about fifty years of
age, called D. Gio. Giuliani was at one time among
the monks of Montenero, who made use of him for
saying mass and hearing confessions on an occasion of
great concourse, paying him a monthly allowance,
and his board. A few weeks ago they dismissed him.
On coming to Leghorn he made a close friendship
with one M. Etienne Ligese, who some time ago was
keeper of the White Lion, but now is Consul of the
German Nation, and who found an apartment for him
opposite his own house, over a Caffé in the Via del
Cupido, on the fourth floor, where there is a terrace
over the whole house, and furnished him with a bed, a
table, and a few other necessary articles. In company
with the said priest dwelt a painter, whom they call
Romano. On Saturday last, about one o'clock at
night, the Chief of the police was seen to pass in that
direction, with all the police force, went into the
house and seized both priest and painter. Soon after-
wards the ministers of the Holy Inquisition went in,
and surprised the two miserables, who had no time to
conceal the atrocious crime they were about, and made
a search of the chamber, as well as of the whole house
where they were lodging, and found many articles of
superstition. Among others a chalice, a paten, many
* Successione de Filippo V. alla Corona di Spagna. Tom. xv.,
Mus. Brit. 16,465. Fol. 231.
286
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
particles (crumbs of sacramental bread), a surplice, a
stole, a missal, and after all a vessel containing holy
oil. Some pieces of a dead man's bone, a napkin,
whereon were drawn circles, stars and numbers, many
Agnus Dei, a book of magic with the title Treatises of
Mark Agrippa, two figures which they say were made
of the wax of Agnus Dei, one likeness of the King of
France, and another of the King of Spain, dressed in
royal habit with sceptre and crown, and all stuck
through and through with needles. A piece of sharp
iron lay by in the form of a spit, to turn it upon and
melt it. There was also half a calabash containing
many ingredients, such as gums, herbs, bits of cord,
hairs, nails and so on. In the priest's pockets were
found two petitions signed with his own blood,
addressed to the Prince of Hell, in which he offered to
deliver himself up to him soul and body, with all his
powers and faculties, and as an unworthy priest, im-
plores him to be permitted to offend two persons at his
own pleasure, and the operation was to begin that
Saturday night. But another French painter, an
acquaintance of the Romano aforesaid, having had
some knowledge of the matter, (and was perhaps an
accomplice,) fearing that it might be discovered, had
gone of his own accord to make it known to the Holy
Inquisition, in order to escape the penalty.
very
This one was therefore kept in custody for some
days while the Capiatur was prepared, and until the
evening fixed on for the operation, when being set at
liberty, he might himself take the police to the house.
He then remained free, while the capture of the priest
and the painter was effected, and the French Consul,
meanwhile, informed of all that was going on in that
house, gave information to his court, that they might
make sure of the capture taking place as it did, and
now the trial of the priest and painter by the Holy
Inquisition is going forward. Time will tell the
whole.'
""
Readers of Cervantes have seen the story of Don
SUPERSTITION.
287
Quixote and Sancho Panza, both of them blindfold on
a wooden horse, when the knight instructs his faithful
Squire with an allusion to the licentiate Torralba
spirited away in the air by the Devil, transported from
Madrid to Rome in a night. Now the verdadero cuento
-the "true story of the novelist," strange as it may
sound, had a foundation in history, which is fully re-
lated by Llorente,* who repeats it from the written
Report in the Inquisition of Madrid.
"The Doctor Eugenio Torralba was born in the city
of Cuenca, and declared in his examination that when
fifteen years old he went to Rome, and served as page
to Don Francesco Soderini, Bishop of Volterra, who was
afterwards created Cardinal, in May, 1503. In that
capital he studied philosophy and medicine, with the
physician Scipio, and the Masters Mariana, Avanselo
and Maquera, with whom he had latterly, being himself
a physician, many debates on the immortality of the
soul, since they maintained as a physical truth the
immortality of the soul, and supported their doctrine
with such powerful reasons that, although Torralba did
not willingly cast off the religion that he had in his
heart from infancy, he became a Pyrrhonist, doubting
everything About the year 1501, being then a
physician, he contracted an intimate friendship with
Master Alfonso, an inhabitant of Rome, who, having
been a Jew, had given up the religion of Moses for
that of Mohammed, afterwards exchanged Moham-
medanism for Christianity, but last of all abandoned
that for Nature! This Alfonso told Torralba that
Jesus was mere man, and not God, and this he main-
tained with many arguments, and although Torralba
could not dare to cast away the faith received from
his parents, he still continued a Pyrrhonist, doubtful
on which side lay the truth.
"He said that one of the friends he made in Rome
was a certain Dominican friar, called Fray Pedro, who
told him one day that he had an angel for a servant, a
* Historia de la Inquisicion de España, cap. xv., art. 2.
288
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
good spirit whose name was Zechiel, so strong in his
knowledge of things hidden and future, as words
could not express, but of so peculiar a temper that far
from seeking connection with him in order to com-
municate his knowledge, he abhorred that, saying that
he wished to be free, and serve for the sake of friend-
ship the man in whom he had placed confidence, and
this he would do with full liberty to reveal his secrets
to him or not, because, if while he stubbornly refused
to do that, he was pressed with importunity, he should
retire from the society of the man who troubled him,
and not return to it again. But Fray Pedro, having
asked Torralba if he would like to take Zechiel for
friend and servant, as in that case he would beg him to
consent to be such for the sake of friendship to himself,
Torralba assured him that he would be very glad.
"Zechiel then allowed himself to be seen in form of
a fair young man clad in red, with a black mantle,
and said to Torralba, I will be thine as long as thou
livest, and will follow thee whithersoever thou goest, and
in consequence of this promise appeared to him at the
new-moons, the quarter-moons, and the full-moons,
and on other days convenient, in the same dress, but
sometimes as a pilgrim, and sometimes as a hermit.
But Zechiel never spoke to him against the Christian
religion, nor led him into any error, or any wrong
action, but rather reproved him if he saw him commit
any sin, and from time to time went to church with
him at the time of mass, by all which Torralba believed
that he was a good angel, as, if he were a bad one, he
would have conducted himself otherwise. Zechiel
always spoke to him in Latin, or in Italian, and
although he had been in Spain, France, and Turkey,
he did not use those languages. He still paid him
visits (said Torralba), at that time in the prison of the
Holy Office, but not often, and he did not reveal to
him any secret. Torralba, therefore, wished that he
would leave him, as his visits only served to disturb
his imagination and deprive him of sleep; nevertheless
SUPERSTITION.
289
he could not prevail on him to keep away, nor to cease
from saying things that troubled him.
"Torralba came to Spain about the year 1502, and
after some time, having travelled all over Italy, re-
turned to Rome and there took up his abode, enjoyed
the favour of the Cardinal of Volterra, gained the
reputation of being a good physician, and was on
friendly terms with many other cardinals. Having
read some books of cheiromancy, he studied the art
scientifically, and acquired such a knowledge of it that
some persons applied to him to foretell their fortunes
by the lines on their hands. Zechiel taught Torralba
the hidden virtue of many herbs and plants to cure
certain diseases, and Torralba, having used them with
good effect, and received the money given him for
those cures, Zechiel reproved him, saying that he
ought not to take it, as the remedy had not cost him
study nor labour.
"Torralba having been sometimes in trouble for want
of money, Zechiel one day said to him: Why art thou
sad, even if thou hast not money! and he afterwards
found six ducats in his bed, which was repeated on
several occasions, by which Torralba believed that
Zechiel had put them there, although when questioned
about it he went away without giving any answer.
"Most of the intelligence which Zechiel gave re-
lated to political affairs, as for example, being in Spain
again in the year 1510, and following the Court of
King Ferdinand the Catholic, Zechiel told him that
that Monarch would soon receive some disagreeable
intelligence, which saying Torralba immediately com-
municated to the Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros, and to
the great Captain Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordova,
and in fact the mail that very day brought tidings of
the death, in Africa, of Don Garcia de Toledo, son of
the Duke of Alva, in the unfortunate expedition
against the Moors.
"Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros, having heard that
Cardinal Volterra had gained a sight of the Angel
VOL. II.
U
290
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Zechiel, desired also to see him, and to get exact
knowledge of the nature and qualities of that spirit.
Torralba, anxious to please him, earnestly prayed
Zechiel to appear to the Cardinal Inquisitor-General
in such a human form as might please him best, but
Zechiel would not consent. To compensate for this
disappointment, the angel desired Torralba to tell
Cisneros that he would soon come to be King, a pre-
diction which was in substance fulfilled, for he was
made Sovereign-Governor of all Spain and of the Indies.
In this way Zechiel gave many announcements in
ambiguous language, and in time certain events took
place which threw light on the predictions, as, for
example, that the Valencian Cardinal Don Francisco
Remolinos would be King, and he became Viceroy of
Naples, which was as good as King, considering the
separation and distance from the sovereign. Torralba
having gone back to Rome in 1513, he there knew
from Zechiel in 1516 the death of King Ferdinand
the Catholic within the same day on which it hap-
pened, and made it known to the Cardinal Volterra
and others. Walking on the wharf of the city of
Naples with Tomás Silba of Salcedo, a native of
Cuenca, who was persuading Torralba to go with him
to certain diversions, Zechiel dissuaded him, and even
removed him at once from the company, leaving
Silba alone. It was afterwards well known that if
Torralba had gone they would have killed him, as
they had killed his fellow-countryman.
"Another time, in Rome, Zechiel gave notice that
his friend Pedro Morgano ought not to go out of the
city, or he would lose his life; and Torralba, not
being able to see his friend that day, for if he had
gone at once to look for him Morgano would have
staid at home, his dead body was found outside Rome,
cut to pieces.
"Zechiel gave notice that the Cardinal of Sienna
would come to a disastrous end, and some time after-
wards he died at the hands of the executioner, by
SUPERSTITION.
291
order of Pope Leo X., in the year 1517. Camilo
Rufini, a native of Naples, friend of Torralba, charged
him to beg Zechiel to reveal some method of winning
in a game he was very fond of, and Torralba having
consented, Zechiel taught him how to sketch a card,
showing certain strange characters in which he had to
write something like the letters M, Q, and L, and
give it to Camilo. Camilo took the card, and won a
hundred ducats. Zechiel said that he should not play
in the next quarter of the moon, or he would lose.
"Torralba, when returned to Rome in 1513, much
desired to see Tommaso di Beccara, an intimate friend
of his who lived in Venice, and Zechiel knowing of
it, took him thither and brought him back again so
quickly that persons who saw him constantly were not
aware of his absence.
"The Cardinal of Santa Cruz, Don Bernardino de
Carvajal, some time in the year 1516, requested Tor-
ralba to go with Dr. Morales, her physician, to the
house of a Spanish lady named la Rosales, because he
wished to know what truth there was in what she told
him about her seeing, every night, the ghost of a man
killed with daggers, and although Doctor Morales had
passed a night there and saw nothing when la Rosales
cried out that she saw him at that moment, he hoped
to get further information by help of Torralba. They
went both together, and about one o'clock the woman
cried out as usual. Morales saw nothing, but Torralba
observed the figure of a dead man, and another ghost
behind him, resembling a woman, and asked it, What
dost thou want here? The ghost answered, A treasure,
and vanished. When Zechiel was questioned what
this meant, he answered that a man had really been
murdered there with daggers.
"When the Catholic King died in Spain, Zechiel
told Torralba that his country would be in a state of
civil war. Torralba repeated this to Cardinal Volterra,
and to the Duke of Bejar, then living in Rome. The
Duke wrote it to the Cardinal Ximenez de Cisneros,
292
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Governor of the Kingdom, and very soon afterwards
broke out the war of the comunidades.
"In 1519 Torralba returned to Spain, in company
with Don Diego de Zuñiga, relative of the Duke of
Bejar, and of Don Antonio, Grand Prior of Castile, in
the Order of St. John, and during the journey some
very remarkable occurrences happened." As the two
were taking a walk in the town of Barcelonetta, near
Turin in Piedmont, with the Secretary Acebedo, who
had been maestre de campo (or colonel) in Italy and
Savoy, Acebedo and Zuñiga were startled, as they said,
at seeing something, they knew not what, walking
beside Torralba. Torralba told them that it was his
angel Zechiel, who had come to make him a commu-
nication. Zuñiga then expressed an extremely strong
desire to see him, but, much as he begged and prayed,
Zechiel would not condescend to show himself. When
Torralba was walking with Zuñiga, in Savoy, a certain
child was thrown into great terror on seeing a ring on
one of the doctor's fingers, with a little negro's head,
black as an agate, on which Don Diego asked if the
child was bewitched, and the other answered that the
stone had been polished on a Friday, with the blood
of a he-goat.
"When Eugenio de Torralba was in Barcelona, he
saw, in the house of the Canon Juan Garcia, a book of
Cheiromancy, with some notes in it about the best way
of winning at play. Don Diego de Zuñiga wished to
learn the way. Eugenio copied the characters, and
instructed Zuñiga that he should himself write them
on a card on a Wednesday, with bat's blood, that day
being dedicated to Mercury, and have it on him when
he was at play. The lady of the house where they
lodged having said that there was a treasure hidden
there, and Zuñiga expressing a wish to know if
that was true, Zechiel, being questioned by Torralba,
answered that there was, but that the time was not
yet come for finding it, because there were also two
spirits enchanted by the Moors, and they hindered the
discovery.
SUPERSTITION.
293
"When he was in Valladolid, in the year 1520,
Doctor Eugenio told Don Diego that he wished to
return to Rome, because he had an opportunity for
making the journey in a short time, riding on a cane
in the air, and guided by a fiery cloud; and in fact he
did return to Rome, where the Cardinal of Volterra
and the Prior of the Order of St. John begged him to
let them have his familiar spirit. Torralba made the
proposal to Zechiel, but although he pressed it
earnestly, he could not persuade him to consent.
"Afterwards, in the year 1525, his angel told him
that he would do well to return to Spain because he
might be appointed physician to the Infanta Doña
Leonor, queen widow of Portugal, afterwards queen
of France with Francis I. The doctor told this to the
Duke of Bejar, and to Don Esteban Manuel Merino
Archbishop of Bari, who was then Cardinal, and these
señores by their influence actually gained him the
appointment in the year next following. Being in
Valladolid in the beginning of April, 1527, Zechiel
announced that the Empress would be delivered of a
boy. Doctor Eugenio told it again to Don Diego de
Zuñiga and to his brother Don Pedro, then at that
court, and in fact the Empress did give birth to the
prince Philip on the twenty-second of that month.
"Finally, on the fifth of May in that same year
Zechiel communicated to Torralba that the next
morning the City of Rome would be taken by the
imperial troops, and as the doctor wished to be present
at so great an event in the city which he regarded as
almost his own, he prayed the angel to convey him
thither in time to see it. The angel consented, and
they both set out together from Valladolid on foot
about eleven o'clock at night, and at a short distance
from the city Zechiel gave Torralba a stick full of
knots, and said to him, Shut thine eyes-be not afraid
keep hold of this, and no harm will happen to thee.
But happening to open his eyes, he seemed to be so
near the sea that he could touch the water, and was
294
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
suddenly enveloped in a very dark cloud that in-
stantly became so bright that Torralba was afraid he
should be burnt, which when Zechiel observed, he
said, Do not fear the evil beast. Shutting his eyes
again, after a little time he seemed to be on the earth,
and Zechiel bade him look about and see if he could
tell where he was. The Doctor looked around,
observed the objects, knew that he was in Rome,
and answered, We are in the tower of Nova, and just
then the clock of the Castle of St. Angelo struck five,
that is to say twelve at night, Spanish time, so that
they made their journey in one hour. Torralba
walked the streets of Rome with Zechiel, and after-
wards saw the houses sacked-went into the house of
the Bishop Lopis, a German by nation, who lived in
the tower of Santa Ginia,-saw the Constable of
France, Charles de Bourbon, die,-saw the Pope
imprisoned in the Castle of St. Angelo, with all that
happened in that terrible day, and returned to Valla-
dolid in an hour and a half, where Zechiel took leave
of him with these words, Now thou oughtest to believe
whatever I tell thee. The doctor told the news, and
when confirmation of them reached the Court, and the
event exactly tallied with his account of it, Torralba,
at that time physician of the Admiral of Castilla, was
everywhere reputed to be a great and true necro-
mancer, wizard, enchanter and magician.
"These reports occasioned the delation which led
to his imprisonment in Cuenca early in the year 1528,
and when this man came out at the general public
Auto-de-Fé on the sixth day of March, 1531, after
more than three years' imprisonment, and the extract
of process was read according to custom, the Spanish
public paid more attention to this marvellous case than
to those of all the Tribunals put together in the
Autos of that year.
66
Many were the accounts sent to Madrid, and as
different one from the other as the ears and imagina-
tions of those who had heard the process read. Hence
SUPERSTITION.
295
the poetic licences of Luis Zapota in the poem of
Carlos Famoso, thirty years after the event, and the
tale of Cervantes in the person of Don Quixote, eighty
years after. But the narrations of both must be cor-
rected (says Llorente) by mine, which is taken from
the process itself, the formation of which it is right
that I should describe.
"The informer was Don Diego de Zuñiga, his
friend, who, after being quite as mad as Doctor
Eugenio, settled down, like many of his class, into a
superstitious fanatic. The two made their general
confessions with an Apostolic missionary friar, as
devoid of common sense as Don Diego Zuñiga. They
related the most trifling occurrences of their lives, and
sacrificed the lives, the honour, and the property of
their nearest relatives and friends to what they call
the law of God, as if His Divine Majesty had not
said, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice."
On the information of Zuñiga, Torralba was sent to
prison by the Inquisitors of Cuenca, and at once con-
fessed all that had been reported about the angel
Zechiel and his doings, and in due time the Inquisitors
met in order to prepare a sentence. But they could
not agree, and therefore the case was referred to the
Council of the Supreme, which decreed on the 4th of
December, 1528, that Doctor Eugenio Torralba should
be put to torture, so far as his health and age would
permit, "that he might declare what had been his
intention in receiving and keeping the spirit Zechiel
—whether he really knew that it was a bad spirit, as
one of the witnesses says he had been told,-whether
there was any pact to receive it,-if so, what the agree-
ment was,-how the receiving it was effected,-and
if then, or after, he made use of any conjurations to
invoke the spirit."
He was tortured accordingly, and made eight con-
tradictory declarations. Up to that time he had per-
sisted in saying that Zechiel was a good spirit, but
now said that, for bringing him into all that suffering,
he considered him a bad one.
296
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
"The Inquisitors," Llorente affirms, "believed the
tales told by Doctor Torralba, and having taken a
new declaration on March 6th, 1529, delayed their
sentence for a year through compassion, hoping that
so famous a necromancer might be converted, and
confess the pacts and witcheries which he had always
denied. His final answer was that he was very peni-
tent, and confessed all his faults, but that he could
not confess pacts or witcheries, for he had not com-
mitted any, and could not promise that he would
never see Zechiel again, for if he came of his own
accord, he could not help seeing him, and could only
promise that he would never call for him, nor comply
with any proposals he might make.
"Those Inquisitors of Cuenca were so foolish as to
ask Torralba what Zechiel said of the persons and
the doctrine of Martin Luther and Desiderius Erasmus.
Doctor Eugenio, who knew more sleeping than they
when they were awake, answered that Zechiel repro-
bated them both, but with the difference that he
considered Luther the worse man, and Erasmus very
clever in governing, although they held correspondence
with each other by letters. With this answer the
Inquisitors were content."
to
Final sentence being given on March 6th, 1531, the
doctor was condemned besides abjurations
penance of prison and sambenito so long as the In-
quisitor-General might please-not to speak or corres-
pond with Zechiel again-and not to listen to what he
might say of his own accord. However, the In-
quisitor-General, Cardinal Manrique, forgave him the
penance, saying that he was satisfied with his repen-
tance, and that he had already suffered enough with
four years' imprisonment.
Enough has now been written by way of example,
and it only remains to make a general observation.
While there is great diversity of opinion among
writers on the Black Arts in relation to the Inquisition,
and while the practice of Inquisitors has been very
SUPERSTITION.
297
various, one important distinction appears to have
been recognised from the earlier times until the
present, a distinction between mere and heretical
witchcraft, divination, etc. There was a question
whether diviners and the like were to be treated as
heretics, or suspected of heresy, and as such to be
subject to the Inquisitors of heresy. The answer
is thus given by Eymeric:-"Not as mere diviners,
etc., but as having contracted the guilt of heresy, they
must be regarded who render to demons the honour
of divine worship, (latria) or such worship as is
given to saints and angels (dulic), who rebaptise
children, or do things of the like kind, when it is for
the sake of divining things to come, or penetrating
the hidden secrets of the heart, which things indeed
savour of manifest heresy. And such fortune-tellers
or diviners cannot escape the judgment of the Inqui-
sitors, but are punished by the laws made against
heretics. Heretical diviners must be given over to
the secular arm." Pegna notes on this that that Sorti-
lege, etc., is heretical, in which any one denies God
and the sacraments of the Church, or used Sacramen-
tals in Sortilege or devil-worship. The two wizards
caught in Leghorn were not of the lowest sort, and
Doctor Torralba was a gentleman in his way; but the
vulgar herd of practitioners were unutterably filthy
and profane. The inferior clergy were much too fond
of acquainting themselves with their doings, which
were grossly immoral, but only became heretical when,
in secret assemblies, they caricatured the Sacraments.
of the Romish Church, and blasphemed all that is holy
in Christianity itself.
*Directorium Inquisitorum Eymerici. Venetiis, 1607. Pars II.
Quæstio xlii., De Sortilegis et Divinatoribus.
298
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XLII.
SICILY AND VENICE.
LITTLE misunderstandings between civil and eccle-
siastical authorities were but incidents natural to their
mutual relation, no worse than those lovers' quarrels
which are said to be the renewal of love, or family
disagreements at any moment hushed by the first
murmur of unfriendliness out of doors. But when,
under such disagreements, there is a latent wrong, it
will sooner or later utterly estrange the lovers or
divide the house: so it came to pass in Italy. A
sharp quarrel in Sicily, and an inveterate schism
between Rome and Venice on a question of inalienable
right, fixed an element of discontent in the heart of
Italian society that found an effectual outburst in due
time.
There is a letter among the Egerton manuscripts,"
bearing the signature of "The Prince," afterwards
Philip II. of Spain, when he had not yet attained
the seventeenth year of his age, written by him to the
Marquis of Terra Nova, Admiral and Constable of the
Kingdom of Sicily, and Counsellor of his Cæsarian
Majesty Charles V., and of the Prince himself. It is
dated Dec. 16th, 1543.
The young Prince, doubtless at the dictation of his
father, who is just now on ill terms with the Pope,
and perhaps wishes to avoid having his affairs com-
plicated by any unseasonable question with the Inqui-
sitors whom he courts and uses, addresses the Viceroy
in such words as these:-"Beloved Counsellor, you
know already what has passed concerning the whipping
which, not being well informed, while President of
* Bibl. Eg., 1506.
SICILY AND VENICE.
299
that kingdom, you gave to two familiars of the Holy
Office of the Inquisition, from which has arisen so
great disfavour and contempt towards the said Holy
Office, that it has never since been able to act with its
accustomed and due authority, but so far from it that
many persons in that kingdom have been so daring as
to cast off all restraint, and commit insults and even
assaults on the officers and Ministers of the Inquisition,
and hinder and disturb the same in the exercise of
their office. Information and complaint of this having
reached us, the Very Reverend Cardinal of Toledo, In-
quisitor-General, and the members of the Council of the
General Inquisition have consulted with His Majesty,
and it has been at length resolved that it is right and
proper that you should do penance for the said excess,
although, in consideration of your many and great
services to His Majesty, he has intimated that he
would be glad if the sentence might be moderated.
The Inquisitor-General, therefore, and the Council,
with great temperance and consideration, have ordered
the Inquisitor Góngora to speak with you and admo-
nish you to undergo the said penance, which, con-
sidering the quality of the case and the harm that
has resulted from it, may be very much less than
what you must know from report it might be."
Having been signed by the Prince, the letter was
countersigned by the Inquisitors.
It is hard to say which was the greater indignity;
the public sentence pronounced on a faithful servant
representing the person and authority of the Sovereign
in Sicily, or the contemptuous request to punish him
gently! The indignity sank deep, and no successor
of the Viceroy could forget the degradation of his
office in the person of the Marquis of Terra Nova.
Thirty-three years later, one of those successors in
the Vice-royalty, the famous Marcantonio Colonna, set
himself to wipe out the disgrace, maintained a dignified
conflict with the Inquisitors during ten years at least,
and after another period of nearly equal length, they
300
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
were compelled to pay some respect to Royal majesty,
but still had full permission to do whatever they would
with so-called heretics. A memorial to Philip II.
from the Council of the Inquisition at Madrid is
preserved in the same collection, whence I derive my
information.
For some reason which the memorialists do not
divulge, the Council of Castile thought it necessary to
remove the Inquisitors resident in Palermo, and replace
them by two others-Juan de Rojas from Valencia, and
Diego de Ahedo from Zaragoza, which they reported
to His Majesty after it was done, saying nothing about
it to the Viceroy, whom they treated with silent
disrespect. The two newly-appointed Inquisitors
came to Palermo (Oct. 1st, 1577), at a time when the
representative of royalty was absent, but fell to work
at once on their own responsibility, as if they were
masters of the whole island, making prisoners, no
doubt,* and putting into execution their provision for
"the visit" and reformation which they came to
make. While they were making ready for the terrific
visit, the Viceroy Marcantonio Colonna, whose fame
as a general and abilities as a governor ought to have
engaged their fear, even if they knew not how to
render him their honour, returned to the seat of
government, but the two Spanish Inquisitors believed
themselves above the necessity of paying him obeisance,
and went on with preparations for a day when
Palermo should keep silence in their presence, and
not a voice be lifted up with authority in public save
their own.
Some expression of his displeasure reached
their ears. He complained of their having proceeded
without first obtaining his permission to exercise a
power of life and death in the kingdom placed under
his command. In sudden haste they ran into his
presence to "satisfy him," and to impress upon him a
due sense of the value of the Holy Inquisition for
"keeping and defending his dominions." He told
comenzaron á usar sus oficios.
SICILY AND VENICE.
301
them that his soldiers defended the kingdom, and gave
them to understand very clearly that he looked upon
them and their office with very doubtful favour.
Failing thus to satisfy him of their importance, they
wrote him a letter which they intended to breathe
much humility, but its eloquence was wasted, and the
notary by whose hand they sent it brought it back
again unopened, "a thing very foreign," forsooth,
"from his office and obligation." Bent on giving
him satisfaction, and getting on good terms with him,
the Inquisitor-General himself then wrote Marcantonio,
from Madrid, a letter full of benevolence, but it pro-
duced no effect whatever, beyond giving him another
opportunity of reproving the two Spanish Inquisitors,
who had presumed to act as if there were no king over
them. Nevertheless, they persisted in doing their
own will, and wrote to the King thus haughtily
"The two Inquisitors having been ordered to take
measures for laying an embargo on the property which
Hipolyto Azeti, Jacobo Vardi, Cristobal Riva and
Company have in that kingdom, to the amount of
twenty-four thousand ducats, which they received in
this Court (Madrid) for the provision and expenses of
the Archbishop of A —, the credit of the said mer-
chants having failed, and the Ambassador having
given him information thereof from Rome, the said
Viceroy sent the two Inquisitors an injunction by two
notaries of Palermo, not to take any action in the
matter without his licence, which they call Exequatur.
This procedure of his, and the sending his injunction
by notaries not in the secret of that Inquisition, was
very extraordinary, and exceedingly prejudicial to the
action of the Holy Office; for he will pretend to do
the same in respect to other business of the Inqui-
sition, which would tend to its total hindrance and
destruction."
Meanwhile the Inquisitors, nothing daunted, went on
their way. Intending on the second Sunday of Lent
next following to publish an Edict of the Faith in the
302
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
great Church of Palermo, and believing themselves
competent to send round a crier to summon all per-
sons to be present at the publication under peril of
censure, and requiring all secular governors and
judges to render the canonical oath that they would
favour and help the Holy Office, they made a merit of
not commanding the Viceroy to be present, but
begging him to come, and afterwards complained
that although it was his duty to be there before any
one else, to assist and authorise the Act, he answered
that on that day he should be present at a Sermon
which would have to be delivered in the Monastery
of St. Francis, while it was well known that on that
day it is not usual for the Inquisitors to permit any
other Sermon to be delivered in the same city beside
the Sermon of the Edict. However, they permitted the
Sermon in the Franciscan monastery, and thither the
Viceroy went, giving rise to many observations.
Nor was this all their complaint. In the absence of
the King's representative from the Great Church, the
Inquisitors ordered their seats to be placed in a part
of the building where his ought to have been, and
hearing of this, he sent and had the seat removed,
leaving their reverences unseated in presence of the
public, which caused great scandal and confusion,
"with notable injury and disfavour to the Inquisitors."
They were believed to have appointed a multitude
of familiars in Sicily, estimated at twenty-four thou-
sand, and the Viceroy complained to the King accord-
ingly. They denied the report, and acknowledged
no more than twelve hundred and twenty-three, but
there could be no evidence produced on either side,
since the appointment of a familiar was secret, except
when circumstances favoured or allowed publicity.
Many persons, however, chose to be known as such for
the sake of the honour and privileges attached to the
office by those who gave it. One familiar the
Judges of the Stratico suspected of harbouring ban-
ditti, and sent him in custody to the Inquisition itself,
SICILY AND VENICE.
303
there to be kept until the case could be examined.
None ventured to appear as witnesses against him, but
the Viceroy, persuaded of his guilt, then took him into
his own custody, and kept him in prison for several
months. Over this case they fought. The Inquisitors
cursed and excommunicated the judges for obeying
the King, and the King commanded the clergy
to absolve the judges. Then the Inquisitors declared
themselves, as clergymen, exempt from secular juris-
diction, and the grand question of the right of Kings
and the immunity of priests was thrown open and
debated hotly on both sides.
The Alguacil, or grand jailor of the Inquisition of
Messina was imprisoned by the Viceroy because he
refused to accept an appointment in the service of the
King, on the plea that he was wanted by the Holy
Office to search ships for heretics; another servant of
the Inquisition who received the prisoners that were
brought thither, was also imprisoned, and the Inqui-
sitors were forbidden to receive any persons as their
prisoners, without permission of the Viceroy previously
asked and had, and produced in writing.
Then the Viceroy denied the right of the Inquisitors
to judge in many cases which he considered fell under
the jurisdiction of civil courts. In their appeal
against Marcantonio Colonna, they declared that
although the same claims had been often set up
against the Holy Office they had never been allowed,
but the Viceroy's of Sicily had always been compelled
to yield to the ecclesiastical authority. "And for not
having so done, the Duke of Terra Nova, who is yet
alive, and his father, when they were lieutenants of
your Majesty and Viceroys in that kingdom, and had
committed some excesses against that Inquisition of
much less importance and consideration than those
which Marcantonio has been guilty of, Your Majesty,
and his Cæsarian Majesty Don Carlos our Lord, have
been pleased to command that the said Dukes should
fulfil the penances which the Inquisitors of that kingdom
gave them, and they did so publicly."
304
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
The memorialists ask unlimited power for the Holy
Office over all persons, the Viceroy included, to do
with them as they pleased, and it does not appear that
they are rebuked for the exorbitance of their demand.
Their quarrel began in 1577 and continued until 1586
without provoking any decisive conclusion from King
Philip, whose only object was to keep both authori-
ties on the ground in hope of availing himself in every
contingency of either, or of both, without any regard
to justice on its own account. At length Marcantonio
Colonna was dismissed, and the Count of Alva put in
his place, but only one salutary result followed by the
change, in diminishing, to some extent, the encourage-
ment given to crime by the Inquisitors and their
familiars, with whom assassins, thieves, and wretches
of every variety had uniformly found asylum, and
received for their crimes absolution without limit.
But for the resistance of Viceroys and their magis-
trates, the Autos of Spain would have been equalled
in Sicily, but we do not find record of such spectacles,
not even in the reign of Philip, and but few traces
of them at any other time now remain. Only three
Autos-de-Fé at Palermo in the next century are found
on record. At the first, in 1640, a Čalvinist, a
relapsed Mussulman, and a visionary-as they describe
them—were burnt at the stake. At the second, in
1658, an Augustinian Friar, who in a fit of passion,
had slain an insolent familiar, suffered the horrid
penalty. At the third and last celebration, in 1724,
an Augustinian Friar and a Benedictine Nun, Suor
Geltrudes (a pinzóchera, or house-nun), were the
sufferers. On the same occasion twenty-six persons,
who escaped being relaxed to the secular arm, were
reconciled to the Holy Office on being sentenced to
be whipped through the town with gags on their
mouths, to be kept to hard labour, or to stand in the
pillory, according to the relative heinousness of the
imputed crimes.* It has been reported that the
* GOODWIN (ut supra, page 209 of this volume).
SICILY AND VENICE.
305
expense of burning Sister Gertrude was recovered
from her family by the payment of a yearly tax, con-
tinued until the present time; but the story has been
contradicted on good authority. In Sicily it is
regarded as incredible, and the very fact that it is so
regarded indicates a state of feeling in that island far
superior to the passive servility of the people in some
other parts of Italy and of Spain, and in colonies
where the estate of the victim has been charged for
the cost of his imprisonment and execution. The
Sicilians had not sunk so low.
In Venice, even more than in Sicily, the spirit of
national independence rose in opposition to the priest-
hood, and revolted against the tyranny of Rome, and
if the Venetian Republicans had been only as humane
as they were independent, such an institution as the
Inquisition could not have existed among them. But
there, more than anywhere else, the laity took part in
the horrid work of persecuting their fellows to death.
However, their jealousy of ecclesiastics, although it did
not in the least degree soften their nature, did operate
beneficially in keeping alive the principle of laic inde-
pendence in one portion of a Church whose peculiar
characteristic is a pretence of absolute power in the
head over all the members. The constancy with
which the Great Commercial Republic watched over
the life and liberty of its citizens when endangered by
an alien power having its chief seat in Rome, served
to encourage the people of other Italian States in that
general aspiration after liberty which has at length
resulted in the establishment of constitutional govern-
ment, with a Sovereign enthroned in the City of the
Cæsars and the Popes, and the proclamation of Reli-
gious Liberty in the very Chambers of what was once
the Holy Office.
The reader has already been reminded of the
memorable controversy between Rome and Venice,
and in the preceding pages of this volume there are
incidental notices of the conjoint action of lay and
VOL. II.
X
306
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
clerical Inquisitors, and some instances of drowning
heretics in the sea-a silent, easy, cowardly method
of putting dogmatising Lutherans to silence. All that
now remains to be done is to take note of the action
of the civil magistracy in that Republic for maintain-
ing a constitutional preponderance over this deadly
institution of the Papal Church. Fra Paolo Sarpi,
an eminent jurist, distinguished also by great eccle-
siastical knowledge, and the well-earned title of
"Theologian of the most Serene Republic,"* wrote,
at the request of the Senate, a summary of the laws
of the Republic on the Inquisition,† from which I
borrow the following statement :-
The Council of Ten, and Junta, in their Session of
November 22nd, 1551, laid it down as a fundamental
law that in all the Venetian Dominion one uniform
course of proceeding should be observed; and in a
concordat concluded between the Republic and Pope
Julius III., the following provisions were adopted,
nearly all of them having been previously settled by
the Venetian Senate or Great Council.
By ancient and public deliberation, three Senators
were deputed to be Inquisitors against heresy, to be
present at everything that was done in the office of
the Inquisition in Venice. So in all the subject cities.
there were deputed rectors who should be personally
present at the formation of processes, and at every-
thing done by Bishops, Visitors and Inquisitors in
matters of heresy. This ancient institution was con-
firmed by constant practice, and eventually by the
* A full account of him may be found in a highly interesting
biography by FRA FULGENZIO MICANZIO, bearing the title Vita del
Padre Paolo dell' Ordine de' Servi, e Teologo della Serenissima Republica
di Venezia. His baptismal name was Pietro. When he became a
Friar it was changed to Paolo. De Dominis, who edited, in the
original Italian, his History of the Council of Trent, changed it
whimsically, and offensively to Fra Paolo himself, into Pietro Soave
Polano.
† Discorso dell' origine, forma, leggi, ed uso dell' Uffizio dell' In-
quisitore nella Città o Dominio de Venetia. Del P. PAOLO dell' ordine,
etc. Venetia, MDCXXXVIII.
SICILY AND VENICE.
307
concordat now referred to. Many special provisions
made from time to time were incorporated in the
code framed for the Republic, by Fra Paolo.
In the absence of the Rectors or Rector in any
Court of Inquisition, a substitute, or substitutes,
was provided by statute, but no one employed in the
affairs of Rome could act there as a representative of
the Republic. The assistants, as these representatives
were called, were not to interfere judicially in any act
of the Tribunal concerning the sentence to be pro-
nounced on the person accused of heresy, nor take
any part in judging of the charge against him, but
was only to watch the conduct of the ecclesiastical
judges, and act or interfere in certain cases. If, for
example, "it was necessary for the honour of God,
the extirpation of heresy, and the punishment of per-
sons guilty of great wickedness, to execute promptly
the punishment determined, or to lend favour, force,
or help to the execution. Or if the ecclesiastics should
seem to be usurping temporal authority, or acting
precipitately, so as to bring disgrace upon the city,
or cause tumult in the city or the state, or disturb the
public peace, or weaken authority, or act with unjust
and manifest oppression of the subject under pretext
of punishing an offence, it would be the duty of the
Assistant to interpose, but in the most prudent and
delicate manner, so as to keep the ecclesiastic within
the bounds of justice and equity; and if this were
more than he could do, obtain a delay of the execution
of the unjust sentence, report the case to the Prince,
and await his orders. Or when a matter of great
moment was proposed or taken into deliberation by
the Ecclesiastics which the Assistants might appre-
hend to be prejudicial to the temporal authority, or
might lead to tumult, scandal, or oppression, they
should prudently and cleverly manage to gain time,
and meanwhile write to the Prince, lay before him
the reasons of their apprehension, and await his
answer. Or when they saw the ecclesiastical judges
308
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
negligent in extirpating heresy, or too slow in des-
patching cases, that the contagion might not take
root, they should prudently and dexterously urge
them to the performance of their duty, and if, with
all their endeavour, they could not succeed, give in-
formation to the Prince.
The Assistants were not to take any oath of fidelity
or secresy, or anything else, at the hands of the In-
quisitor, or other ecclesiastic, but should observe both,
for the sake of the faithfulness and secresy owing to
the Prince. For this reason also they were expected
to bring account, from time to time, of everything
that seemed to be of importance, or likely to become
so. When an Inquisitor died, fell sick, or was removed,
they were to give immediate notice to the Prince, or
to the Ambassador at Rome. They were not to admit
any new Inquisitor who did not bring letters from the
Prince.
The Assistants were to be present at every case
dealt with by the Inquisition, not only against secular
persons but also against ecclesiastics, even though
they were Regulars, and that of the same monastery as
the Inquisitor himself. This was insisted on again
and again, by the College, by the Council of Ten, and
by the Senate, and was enforced, how high soever
might be any prelate concerned. By no pretence
whatever should they allow themselves to be kept out
of the way on any such occasions, nor be induced to
fancy themselves at liberty to allow the least thing to
be said or done without their presence. Anything so
done would be null and void. They should not suffer
it to be carried into effect, but might permit a new
process to be formed in their presence. The Pope had,
indeed, desired that a case might be prepared without
their presence for dispatch elsewhere, out of the
Venetian dominions, but the Senate would not grant it.
That this rule might not be evaded, it was ordained
that in every Decree or Act the notary should insert
the names of every Bishop and Inquisitor as judges,
and the name and office of every assistant.
SICILY AND VENICE.
309
No decree or precept from any authority outside
the Venetian Dominion should be admitted, nor should
any writing received from Rome or elsewhere be
quoted, though any member of the Court might make
use of it for himself as a private document. Neither
should any cases be transferred to foreign courts, nor
any prisoners be sent to foreign prisons, without
previous application to the Prince, and his consent
obtained.
The Assistants were not to suffer anyone to be put
under arrest by the Inquisition unless it were certain
that his case was one of heresy. If the case was
doubtful or difficult, all proceedings were to be stayed
until reference was made to the Prince, and his deci-
sion obtained. Therefore they were not to allow the
Inquisitors to proceed against fortune-tellers and others
of the sort, unless heresy were mixed with the super-
stition. All cases wherein this was doubtful were to
be sent to civil courts. If mischief were said to be
done by witches, the witches were to be taken to the
civil magistrate, to answer for the mischief to him, not
to the Inquisition. The same rule was to be observed
in regard to Blasphemy. Bigamy, too, was to be
treated as a civil offence, not a heresy. The same
was said of Usury. [For all these offences we have
seen that, in other countries, multitudes were burnt.
The Inquisitors were absolutely forbidden, under
any pretext, to exercise any sort of jurisdiction upon
Jews or other unbelievers in Christianity, or upon any
Christians whatever not belonging to the Church of
Rome. Neither the Roman, nor any other foreign
Inquisitions were permitted to pursue fugitives within
the Venetian territory.
Confiscation of the property of condemned heretics
was absolutely forbidden. All their property was to
be given to the lawful heirs.
The office of Inquisition could not receive a Papal
Bull, nor any order from the Congregation of the
Roman Inquisition, whether new or old, without first
310
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
submitting it to the Prince for his approval, nor could
any prohibition of books be allowed, nor any inter-
ference with arts, or trades, or professions.
No Inquisitor might administer an oath, and if he
had a complaint against anyone he was to take his
complaint to a civil magistrate. Neither might he
issue any monition to communities or to individuals,
nor interfere with ministers of justice in the discharge
of their duties. By permission of the Assistants, how-
ever, there were certain formal notices specified in
an Act of the Senate (May 10th, 1608) which they
might publish, but not even then without permission.
Any attempt to introduce other matters was to be
prevented.
Subject to these restrictions and restraints the
Inquisition might act, and the State would help it, but
after all its jurisdiction was limited to a compara-
tively narrow circle. Within that circle its power
was repressed by the perpetual presence and jealous
authority of watchers empowered to silence every
arbitrary sentence, and report every objectionable act
or utterance. There was-No secret-No torture-
No privilege-No control from Rome*-No contempt of
No
* No control from Rome. No interference with arts or trades.
publication of Bulls. No prohibition of books. Acts to these effects
were promulgated in Venice during the years 1606-1610. But in
the year 1606, the following Edict was printed in the Vatican, and
posted on the gates of St. Peter, the gates of the Palace of the
Inquisition, and on the Campo di Flora. I translate from one of
the original sheets to show how the Court of Rome ignored all
laws except its own.
Edict of the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lords Cardinals
Inquisitors General.
Since Robert Meietti, Venetian, Printer of books, has dared, and
every day dares to print pernicious books, containing heresies, im-
pieties, and errors of various kinds, the Most Illustrious and Most
Reverend Lords Cardinals, General Inquisitors against heretical
pravity, wishing to provide lest the faithful in Christ be infected
with errors by reading them, admonish all and every one of what-
ever state condition and pre-eminence that they dare not buy
books of any kind that have ever been printed, or ever may be
printed, by the said Robert Meietti, under pain of excommunication
SICILY AND VENICE.
311
the principles of law, or if there were, no such contempt
was sanctioned by the constitution of the Court.
The mere existence of such a maimed and humiliated
Inquisition in a country which, however politically
separate from Rome, was by position and by language
part of Italy, and that retained its character of inde-
pendence for nearly a hundred years, from the time
when the horrid institution bearing the same name in
Spain and Portugal, in the Eastern and Western hemi-
spheres, and in most other parts of Italy was in fullest
vigour, until the age when its power was everywhere
waning, could not but contribute powerfully to the
establishment of the principles of constitutional secu-
lar government, and to a recognition of the maxims of
Christian truth which are now so generally admitted
into the religion and the policy of every Christian
country.
latæ sententiæ that will be incurred by the very fact, from which
they cannot be absolved until the article of death, except by the
Holy Apostolic See, and with other punishments to be inflicted at
the pleasure of the same Most Illustrious Lords. Commanding all
and every booksellers and dealers in books everywhere existing not
to buy the books aforesaid, or to sell what they have already bought,
nor in the matter of books to presume to deal, or to have any
commerce with the said Robert Meietti, under penalty of the same
excommunication and also a fine of five hundred ducats, besides
other punishments to be inflicted at the pleasure of those Most
Illustrious Lords. We will that when this edict is published in
the City it shall apply to all, as if it were personally intimated to
each one. We nevertheless enjoin on ordinaries of places, or on
Inquisitors of heretical pravity, that they cause this edict to be
published in those parts, of which printed copies also, and copies
furnished with seal of the Holy Roman Inquisition, or of any
other, or of any person constituted in ecclesiastical dignity, shall
be received with full faith everywhere, judicially or otherwise.
Rome. In the General Congregation of the Holy In-
quisition, October 30th, MDCVI. Quintilianus Adrianus, Not.
312
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
CHAPTER XLIII.
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION.
We now survey the inevitable decline of the Supreme
and Universal Inquisition towards extinction. Two
centuries, at least, have yet to pass, before its action
ceases, and during that period many crimes will be
committed, and some murders; but the zeal of In-
quisitors will be intermittent, and the incidents to
be recorded will show how, amidst the social and
religious changes of modern times, the inquisitorial
office became increasingly difficult.
Resistance was made in all directions. The irre-
pressible dissatisfaction in Sicily, and the signal results
of the old Venetian controversy, as detailed in the
preceding chapter, with the struggle between the
Court of Rome and the King and clergy in France; the
growing strength of Scriptural Christianity in Europe
and the world; the advance of constitutional principles
in legislation and in government; in short, the con-
current influences which have led to the great events
of our own day, gradually weakened the agencies, and
contracted the operations, of the Holy Office.
British influences were not inoperative. Castelvetro,
the reader may remember, was released from imprison-
ment in Venice, on the request of the British ambas-
sador, in 1612. In 1662 two devoted Quakeresses,
truly Christian ladies, were brought safely to England
in a British ship of war, after four years' imprisonment
in Malta, then under the Knights of St. John of
Jerusalem. The Maltese Inquisitor seems to have had
the use of cells in a common prison in Valetta, where
his victims were incarcerated. Those ladies, Catherine
Evans and Sarah Cheevers, were thrown into a dark
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION.
313
and pestiferous dungeon, where they must soon have
perished, if a physician had not certified that it was
impossible for them to live in such a place much
longer. Their skin became dry as parchment, the
hair fell from their heads, in consequence of extreme
heat; while the stench, with stinging of mosquitos,
and an exhausted atmosphere, induced as trying a
torture as if they had been racked. Through all their
sufferings they endured as seeing Him who is invisible,
and never ceased to commune with God in prayer,
and to preach Christ to their inexorable tormentors.
If they had been taken in Rome instead of Malta, it
is not likely that they would have escaped with life;
but the Grand Masters did in some degree restrain the
ecclesiastical authorities, in jealousy of whatever might
derogate from their own sovereignty in the island.
Other escapes might be related.
The history of Freemasonry, trifling as it may
seem, would throw some light on the conflict now
begun between this secret society of the Church of
Rome, and other societies, also secret, fighting against
it in the deepest recesses of civilised society.
Universal disgust with the absolutism of the Con-
tinental Governments encouraged the spread of prohi-
bited societies, which were spoken of under the general
designation of "Masonic lodges," and which appear
to have been, in reality, political clubs. The Inqui-
sition undertook to disperse those lodges; and some
of the "brethren" who suffered persecution in Spain
and Portugal favoured the world with narratives of
their experience in the audience-chambers and the cells.
Freemasonry entered Italy, it is said, at Florence;
and there, as in other countries, was forbidden by the
Government; while Clement XII., not without reason
jealous of another secret society set up in opposition
to his own, published a condemnatory Bull (A.D. 1738),
and, in the year following, the Cardinal-Vicar of Rome
issued an edict denouncing capital punishment of all
Freemasons detected within the Papal State. Such
314
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
an edict could scarcely be committed to the Inqui-
sitors for execution without causing many deaths.
A newly-constituted society, ramified throughout
Europe, everywhere professing to be established for
purposes of mutual benevolence, and sometimes num-
bering with its members persons of high station, who
sought admission for the sake of becoming privy to
proceedings that could not otherwise be known, and
perhaps in hope of preventing conspiracies against
themselves, could not fail to acquire considerable
influence. It would be difficult for the same man to
be a familiar of the Holy Office, and a free and
accepted Mason, and keep both conflicting secrets.
And such a confederation could not be assailed, as it
was, without bringing upon the assailants in their
lodges, inquisitorial, provincial and supreme, a certain
recoil of hatred and of well-concerted vengeance.
Control of religion, science, and politics, control of
the ruling powers, and control or extirpation of revo-
lutionary conspirators, was now attempted by the
Holy Office; but it was all too much. Endeavouring
to compass an impossibility, it was losing all. The
Inquisitors had desperately thrown themselves into a
stream of political partizanship, which, swelling into
a torrent, carried them from their footing in every
land beyond the territory of the Church.
Hoping to strengthen their cause in Naples, where
there was enough of ignorance, wickedness, and civil
despotism to serve their purpose for a time, they pro-
posed to establish a Tribunal in that city, where such
an establishment had hitherto been resisted. The
Archbishops of Naples did their best to forward the
project there. The priests were pleased at the thought
of getting so effective an instrument of oppression as
good as into their own hands, instead of having to send
away Neapolitan heretics to Rome for treatment.
The King was not unwilling to have such an instru-
ment of terror at his bidding in Naples as well as in
Madrid. The Archbishops had already begun, without
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION.
315
formal sanction, a little Inquisition on their own
responsibility, with a few consultors, a notary, and a
prison. There was even a little marble slab let into
the wall, and lettered SANTO UFIZIO. The Archbishop
volunteer Inquisitor now used his own seal, and cap-
tured and imprisoned his suspects. Four condemned
heretics were in the dungeons, and one of them had
made a solemn abjuration, almost in public. But
when, emboldened by the impunity of his predecessors,
the present chief ventured to move more openly, the
Court of Naples, in alarm, maintained that his pro-
ceedings were contrary to law. This was the question
in 1746, when the people rallied round their superiors,
and every one cried out that the horrid Inquisition
had risen up amongst them in reality, although at
first without the name. A delegate, chosen by the
inhabitants, went to the King, and represented that
the laws were trampled on; and that in return for the
royal favours bestowed from time immemorial on the
Church, the clergy gave nothing but insult. Readily
assenting to the representation of the people, the King
issued an edict annulling all the proceedings of the
Archbishop Inquisitor, and prohibiting the whole
inquisitorial apparatus. To make sure of submission,
he banished two canons, and ordered that, for the
future, the ecclesiastical court should proceed in the
ordinary way, and communicate all their causes to
the civil court; and by several articles of this kind
in the regal statute, he weakened if he did not utterly
nullify the power of the clergy over the persons of the
laity.
The Court of Rome, having calculated on making
the Neapolitan Inquisition their own, were greatly
disappointed, and thought it well to send Cardinal
Landi, Archbishop of Benevento, a personage of high
reputation for sagacity, to treat with the King for
some modification of his edict. But he could advance
no further than the city-gate. A few daring Neapo-
litans met his Eminence at the entrance, and coolly
316
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
•
offered him the alternative-to surrender his life or to
go back by the way he came. He went back, of course.
The sagacity of the Cardinal was not less quick
than the sagacity of the King. His Majesty obtained
from his subjects a free-will offering of 30,000 ducats,
in consideration of his humanity in letting the Cardinal
go, and forgiving the rudeness of the people, and
putting down the Inquisition.* The affair made a
great noise, and did much good.
When the Empress Maria Theresa, in common with
other sovereigns, abolished many dangerous eccle-
siastical privileges, she required the Archbishop and
the Inquisitor in Milan to refrain from vexatious pro-
hibition of books. She saw that it was no less absurd
than troublesome that good books were suppressed,
while demoralising and hurtful publications were
allowed free circulation; and she desired that the
Holy Office should cease from prohibitory censure.
Archbishop and Inquisitor failing to satisfy so reason-
able a desire, Her Majesty took the reins into her
own hand, and commanded that censorship of books
should thenceforth be exercised by the civil magis-
trates alone.
About the same time (February 21st, 1769) the
Duke of Parma published a decree, lamenting that a
foreign tribunal, administered by aliens and monks,
under the title of "Inquisition of the Holy Office,"
had been introduced into that State; declared that it
belonged to him alone, as protector of religion and
the Church, to provide for the conservation of sound
doctrines; and ordained that, on the death of the
Inquisitor of Parma, causes of faith should be brought
to the bishops for decision, none other presuming to
interfere therewith. But he promised to afford the
bishops the aid of the secular arm when it became
necessary to inflict capital punishment on heretics
and declared that, on the death of the Inquisitor, the
inmates of the dungeons would be his own prisoners,
* MURATORI, Annali d'Italia, anno 1746.
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION.
317
subject to the ducal jurisdiction. This theory of royal
right to put men to death for daring to obey their
conscience is bad enough; but, practically considered,
the measure of the Duke of Parma was transitional ;
and Parma, like Venice and Milan, with all the other
Italian provinces, is now happily lost in one Italy,
independent of Papal authority.
Similar measures were taken in Tuscany by the
Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo, and his ministers. The
Tuscan Inquisition was eminently hateful, on account
of iniquitous imprisonments, atrocious cruelties, and a
censorship no longer to be suffered. Good and bad
were alike the victims; and judgment was given rather
for the profit of the Court of Rome than for the refor-
mation of manners, or conservation of the faith. Every
one declared it to be utterly intolerable. The Regency,
during the minority of the Grand Duke, had appointed
a civil delegate to examine books, without the inter-
vention of an Inquisitor; and when the Inquisitors
proceeded to exercise jurisdiction over "sinners
against the Holy Office," they were commanded to
admit two lay assessors. Rome, always impatient of
legal restraints, complained of persecution. Florence
answered by producing facts to justify the necessity of
strong and sovereign restraints, at once deprived the
Inquisitors of their sbirri, or familiars, and also
abolished conventual prisons, which were, as a suc-
cession of Bulls has already been adduced to show,
branches of the Inquisition in monasteries.*
Yet now and then the Holy Office found oppor-
tunities to make itself useful. Not unfrequently it had
interposed, or professed to interpose, for checking the
licentiousness of solicitant confessors, however peccant
the Inquisitors themselves were often suspected or
accused of being. Just now, while tottering to its
fall, it is called upon to render a momentary service
to the Pope in a good cause.
Pope Clement XIV., after a long struggle, found
*BOTTA, lib. xlvii.
318
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
courage to suppress the Jesuit Society, answering to
the almost universal demand of Popedom for the ex-
tinction of a community that had everywhere become
odious. But the Jesuits, with a portion of the secular
priesthood, and their adherents, were numerous and
strong enough to do considerable mischief. In Italy
they had recourse to superstition and fanaticism. One
Sister Maria Theresa of the Heart of Jesus, in Viterbo,
in conjunction with Father Anthony-Mary Coltraro,
had established a little conspiracy for inventing and
publishing the Sister's visions and prophecies, fore-
telling all manner of evil to the Pope. Another girl,
Bernadina Renzi, and other Jesuits, full of prophecies
and visions, were also raising a great outcry against
the Pope, who, a few months after the suppression of
the company in 1771, sent the two prophetesses to
Montefiascone, where they were taken into safe keep-
ing, and strictly examined by the Inquisitors. Thence,
they were transferred to the Castle of St. Angelo in
Rome, together with several ex-Jesuits;* but Clement
XIV. did not long survive the act which made him
hateful to the Jesuits; impostures which are so generally
gainful to the church, were soon forgiven, and after a
few years Jesuits, if not Inquisitors, were for a little
while longer restored to power.
""
Ferdinand VI., King of the Two Sicilies, abolished
the Sicilian Inquisition in the year 1782, declaring that
it had been ever hateful to the people, disobedient to
the sovereign, and hostile to the laws. His Majesty
marked a confession of the Inquisitor-General, that
"the inviolable Secret is the soul of the Inquisition;
and after showing that, under that confession, it could
no longer be suffered without violation of reason and
humanity, he decreed that it was for ever abolished
and extinguished in that kingdom.†
"The Viceroy
Caraccioli entered the hall of the Holy Office in state,
* Histoire du Pontificat de Clément XIV. Par AUGUSTIN THEINER.
Paris, 1852. Tome ii., page 484.
† Cited in the Discusion del Proyecto del Decreto, sobre el Tribunal
de la Inquisicion. Cadiz, 1813, p. 33.
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION.
319
and ordered the prisoners to be set at liberty. The
ill-gotten wealth of the Office was forfeited to the
Crown. The iron cages containing human skulls were
taken down, and split asunder, in order that every
trace of the odious institution might be blotted out of
memory. The archives were ordered to be burnt, and
the ashes to be scattered to the wind. So strictly
was this order enforced, that out of an immense mass
of papers and parchments, but a single volume of
records escaped the flames. This collection of manu-
scripts, still preserved in a private library in Palermo,
contains the original acts of the Inquisition during
the persecution of the Molinists or Quietists between
1681 and 1700."*
We now approach Rome again. On his invasion of
Italy, Napoleon Bonaparte made his appearance at An-
cona on the 10th day of February, 1797, and alighted
at the palace of the Marquis Trionfi, where he sum-
moned into his presence the Vicar-General, the curates,
the chiefs of monastic orders, and the vicar of the Inqui-
sition. He received them with gravity, recommended
them to preach the gospel, and not meddle with
political affairs, at the same time assuring them that
religion should be respected and protected. He re-
proached the Vicar-General for the flight of the Cardinal
Ranuzzi, Bishop of Ancona. "The Bishop of Imola,"
"who is a Cardinal, too, has not run away,
but I did not see him as I came through. However,
he is still at his post. Bonaparte next commanded
the Vicar-General to bring back the Bishop of Ancona
at once, and shut him up in the fortress until the fugi-
tive Cardinal-Bishop should arrive. Then, turning to
the Vicar of the Holy Office, he gave him his orders.
in a single sentence: "Your tribunal is suppressed
from this moment. There shall be no more butchers."+
We have seen how the Corsican dispersed the Spanish
* GOODWIN (ut supra, p. 209 of this volume).
said he,
""
† Histoire de Pape Pie VII. Par M. le CHEVALIER ARTAUD.
Paris, 1839, chap. ii.
320
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Inquisitors on his approach to Madrid in 1808. The
French troops entered Rome in 1809; and, whatever
mischief they otherwise did, performed an act of hu-
manity in demolishing, at least in part, the prisons of
the Inquisition. It is true that when the Popes re-
turned to Rome after the fall of Bonaparte, they
revived the Inquisition in full form, if not in full force;
and we know that Leo XII. in 1825 raised another
set of prisons, equally numerous and substantial. While
those prisons were in progress, the Congregation of
Cardinals, with the Pope as their Prefect, carried on
their constant business, sitting on the days appointed,
just as their predecessors had been seated when in
the plenitude of power. But it is also true that the
ancient power was gone. For a third time, at least,
the prisons of the Roman Inquisition were broken
into after the ignominious flight of Pius IX. in 1849,
when two prisoners were found there, an aged bishop
and a nun. Many persons then in Rome reported the
event; but, instead of copying at second hand, I trans-
late a letter addressed to myself by Signor Alessandro
Gavazzi, formerly Chaplain-General to the Roman
army, in reply to some questions I had to put to him.
Under date of March 20th, 1852, he writes thus:-
"MY DEAR SIR,
"In answering your questions concerning the palace
of the Inquisition in Rome, I should say that I can
only give a few superficial and imperfect notes. So
short was the time that it remained open to the public,
so great the crowd of persons that pressed to catch a
sight of it, and so intense the horror inspired by that
accursed place, that I could not obtain a more exact
and particular impression.
"I found no instruments of torture, for they were
destroyed at the first French invasion, and because
such instruments were not used afterwards by the
modern Inquisition. I did, however, find in one of
the prisons of the second court a furnace, and the
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION.
321
remains of a woman's dress. I shall never be able
to believe that that furnace was used for the living,
it not being in such a place, or of such a kind, as
to be of service to them. Everything, on the contrary,
combines to persuade me that it was made use of for
horrible deaths, and to consume the remains of vic-
tims of inquisitorial executions. Another object of
horror I found between the great hall of judgment and
the luxurious apartment of the chief jailer, (Primo
Custode,) the Dominican friar who presides over this
diabolical establishment. This was a deep trap, a
shaft opening into the vaults under the Inquisition.
As soon as the so-called criminal had confessed his
offence, the second keeper, who is always a Domini-
can friar, sent him to the Father Commissary to receive
a relaxation of his punishment. With hope of pardon,
the confessed culprit would go towards the apartment
of the Holy Inquisitor; but in the act of setting foot
at its entrance, the trap opened, and the world of
the living heard no more of him. I examined some
of the earth found in the pit below this trap; it was
a compost of common earth, rottenness, ashes, and
human hair, fetid to the smell, and horrible to the
sight and thought of the beholder.
"But where popular fury reached its highest pitch
was in the vaults of St. Pius V. I am anxious that
you should note well that this Pope was canonized by
the Roman Church especially for his zeal against
heretics. I will now describe to you the manner how,
and the place where, those Vicars of Jesus Christ
handled the living members of Jesus Christ, and show
you how they proceeded for their healing. You de-
scend into the vaults by very narrow stairs. A narrow
corridor leads you to the several cells, which, for
smallness and for stench, are a hundred times more
horrible than the dens of lions and tigers in the
Colosseum.
"Wandering in this labyrinth of most fearful prisons,
which may be called 'graves for the living,' I came to
VOL. II.
Y
322
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
a cell full of skeletons without skulls, buried in lime.
The skulls, detached from the bodies, had been col-
lected in a hamper by the first visitors. Whose were
those skeletons? And why were they buried in that
place and in that manner? I have heard some Popish
ecclesiastics, trying to defend the Inquisition from the
charge of having condemned its victims to a secret
death, say that the palace of the Inquisition was built
on a burial-ground belonging, anciently, to a hospital
for pilgrims, and that the skeletons found were none
other than those of pilgrims who had died in that
hospital. But everything contradicts this Papistical
defence. Suppose that there had been a cemetery
there, it could not have had subterranean galleries and
cells, laid out with so great regularity; and even if there
had been such-against all probability-the remains
of bodies would have been removed on laying the
foundations of the palace, to leave the space free for
the subterranean part of the Inquisition. Besides, it
is contrary to the use of common tombs to bury the
dead by carrying them through a door at the side; for
the mouth of the sepulchre is always at the top. And,
again, it has never been the custom in Italy to bury
the dead, singly, in quick-lime; but, in time of plague,
the dead bodies have been usually laid in a grave
until it was sufficiently full, and then quick-lime has
been laid over them, to prevent pestilential exhala-
tions, by hastening the decomposition of the infected
corpses. This custom was continued some years ago
in the cemeteries of Naples, and especially in the daily
burial of the poor. Therefore the skeletons found in
the Inquisition of Rome could not belong to persons
who had died a natural death in a hospital; nor could
any one, under such a supposition, explain the mystery
of all the body being buried in lime, with exception of
the head. It remains, then, beyond doubt, that the
subterranean vault contained the victims of one of the
many secret martyrdoms of the butcherly Tribunal.
The following is a most probable opinion, if it be not
rather the history of a fact.
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION.
323
"The condemned were immersed in a bath of slaked
lime, gradually filled up to their necks. The lime, by
little and little, enclosed the sufferers, or walled them
up all alive. The torment was extreme, but slow. As
the lime rose higher and higher, the respiration of the
victims became more and more painful, because more
difficult. So that what with the suffocation of the
smoke, and the anguish of a compressed breathing,
they died in a manner most horrible and desperate.
Some time after their death, the heads would naturally
separate from the bodies, and roll away into the
hollows left by the shrinking of the lime. Any other
explanation of the fact that may be attempted will be
found improbable and unnatural.
"You may make any use of these notes of mine
that you please, since I can warrant their truth. I
wish that writers speaking of this infamous Tribunal
of the Inquisition would derive their information from
pure history, unmingled with romance; for so many
and so great are the historical atrocities of the In-
quisition, that they would more than suffice to arouse
the detestation of a thousand worlds. I know that
the Popish impostor-priests go about saying that the
Inquisition was never an ecclesiastical tribunal, but
a laic. But you will have shown the contrary in your
work; and you may also add, in order to quite un-
mask those lying preachers, that the palace of the
Inquisition at Rome is under the shadow of the palace
of the Vatican; that the keepers of the Inquisition at
Rome, are, to this day, Dominican friars; and that
the Prefect of the Inquisition at Rome is the Pope in
person.
"I have the honour to be,
"Your affectionate Servant,
"ALESSANDRO GAVAZZI."
One thing appears most clearly from this letter,
which is that between the years 1825 and 1849 those
deaths must have taken place within the palace of the
324
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Inquisition, whose traces were discovered in the depth
of that shaft near the chamber of the Father-Commis-
sary, and imbedded in lime in the subterranean cells.
Comparing this account with that of Don Pascual
Marin and other witnesses in Valencia, it is certain
that the Inquisition has put its victims to death up
a very recent time, and that those judicial murders
only ceased when it became impossible to commit them.
;"
to
The Roman Parliament which sat during the brief
reign of the triumvirs, after the flight of Pope Pius IX.
to Naples, decreed the erection of a pillar opposite the
palace of the Inquisition, to perpetuate the memory of
the destruction of that "nest of abominations; " but
before that or any other monument could be raised,
the French army besieged and took the city, and
restored the Pope; then with him came again the Holy
Office, with its Congregation of Cardinals, and Con-
gregation of the Index. Both these Congregations
resumed their accustomed action. As for the former,
it made at least one noted prisoner, Giacinto Achilli,
who was thrown into one of the old prisons on the 29th
of July, 1849; but the violence done to the building
by the Romans having made it less secure as a place
of custody, he was transferred to the Castle of St.
Angelo, which had often been used for the incarce-
ration of similar delinquents, and there he lay in close
confinement until the 19th of January, 1850; when the
Emperor of the French, yielding to many importunate
appeals, gave such orders that the French General in
Rome caused Achilli to be assisted to escape, disguised
as a soldier. In doing this the Emperor removed an
occasion of present scandal; but, not going so far as
his more powerful uncle, he left the authority of the
Congregation of Cardinals undisputed. Indeed, the
Commissary of the Holy Office was first consulted,
and induced to give consent to the abduction of the
prisoner, before even that was attempted by the
French guardians of the Papacy. The victim was let
go.
The outcry which had resounded all over
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION.
325
Europe was hushed without cost, and the injury went
without compensation. Scarcely was Achilli safe in
England when a great effort was made to cover him
with infamy, an effort which could only be successful
with simple-minded persons, too honest to conceive,
and too ill-informed to have any knowledge of the
false dealing of Inquisitors and Jesuits.*
The Roman Inquisitors had the boldness to send
over a written paper under their own signatures,
bearing the seal of St. Peter and St. Paul, with a
description of certain discreditable antecedents which
they said they had discovered in the course of profes-
sional examinations in the Holy Office, tending to
prove that the habits of their prisoner had been
licentious. In that respect it is quite conceivable that
while a member of their church he might not have
differed materially from his clerical brethren. That
singular paper was presented for evidence in a British
Court, but it did not avail to move the judicial autho-
rity to brand the fugitive, as the custom was in Rome.
>>
* Attempts were now frequent to divert attention from the whole
subject of Inquisitorial history. Some went so far as to deny that
any Inquisition existed, while others endeavoured to represent it as a
very useful institution for the correction of immorality and fanaticism.
A curious "Notification of affected sanctity
appears on a broad
sheet printed by the Roman Inquisition in 1857. It reads thus:-
"We Brother Giacinto de Ferrari, of the order of Preachers,
Master in Holy Theology, Commissary of the Holy Roman and
Universal Inquisition, etc.
"Catherine Fanelli, a girl twenty-three years of age, born in
Casalviere, in the Diocese of Sora, who has lived for many years
in the County of Sezze, having with studious inventions endeavoured
to be had in reputation as a Saint, boasting of revelations, prophecies,
ecstasies, apparitions of Jesus Christ, and of Most Holy Mary, with
other supernatural gifts and particular graces of God: and it
being evident from the acts of proceedings taken on the things
aforesaid, and from her own confession juridically taken in this
Holy Office, after her confinement therein, that they were all de-
ceptions, boastings, falsehoods, and fictions, every one of the said
visions, apparitions, revelations, marks (stimmati), and other things
reputed wonderful and particular graces of God,
"Therefore in execution of the Decree of the Holy Office of
Wednesday, the 4th February, 1857, in order that the public may
be undeceived, and to remove from everyone's mind any false
326
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
Nine years later Victor Emmanuel was made King
of Italy, and the greatest part of the Papal States be-
came part of the kingdom of United Italy; but so long
as a Pope remained sovereign in the city of Rome, so
long the Inquisition there was sure to continue in full
power.
This was made evident when the Council of
the Vatican, summoned by Pius IX., was opened by
him in December, 1869, and the Holy Office, although
extinct elsewhere in the world, gave ample proof of
its existence in the city.
A German correspondent of the "Allgemeine
Zeitung" relates that Bishops and theologians were
required to maintain the strictest secrecy about every-
thing, and the preliminary labours, as was well known,
had to be carried on under the seal of secrecy of the
Holy Office. They were sworn by the Inquisitors,
under pain of excommunication, to keep the secret, or
to suffer the direst consequences of excommunication.*
Nor in the way of repression only was the Inquisition
employed in the service of that mock council. A
Jesuit named Kleugen had been condemned by the
Holy Office for scandalous conduct in a convent. The
nuns were dispersed into other houses, and the Jesuit
belief concerning the sanctity of the said girl, We notify and
declare that the holiness of the abovesaid Catherine Fanelli is
affected and feigned, not without erroneous and immoral maxims,
and the things aforesaid have been altogether false and counter-
feit, wherefore the said girl has been condemned by the Holy
Office to twelve years' imprisonment.
"Therefore let no man dare for the future to assert or hold the
abovesaid Catherine Fanelli to be a saint for the things abovesaid,
under penalty at the pleasure of the most eminent and most
reverend Lords Cardinals, Inquisitors General.
"Given in the Chancery of the Holy Office in the Vatican on the
Sixth day of February, 1857. F. Giacinto de Ferrari de' Pri.
Commissario Generale del S. Officio.
"This was duly published Feb. 9, by the Cursitor,
affixed to the gates of S. Peter's, Palace of In-
quisition, at the corner of Campo di Flora, and
other accustomed places."
* Letters from Rome on the Council, by QUIRINUS. Reprinted from
the Allgemeine Zeitung. Preliminary History and Letter I.
DECLINE AND EXTINCTION.
327
priest was imprisoned for scandal-not heresy, which
would have been unpardonable, but for scandal, which
is venial-and having suffered durance for awhile, was
rehabilitated by their Eminences in consideration of
his merits as a theologian, and, under the same seal of
secrecy, employed to prepare the schemata, or draft
canons for the Council, in order to establish the supre-
macy and infallibility of the Pope on a firmer footing.*
This formidable Institution asserted its power with
unsparing severity in the case of an Armenian Arch-
bishop who presumed to have an opinion of his own
in some dispute about a convent. This unfortunate
prelate, with his secretary and interpreter, was con-
demned by the Inquisition to imprisonment; but, by
way of disguise, was sent to one of the Jesuit Houses
"to make the exercises," that is to say, to go through
a course of spiritual meditations, according to the
famous system of Ignatius Loyola. To escape from
imprisoment, if possible, they betook themselves to the
protection of the French Embassy, but in accordance
with instructions from Paris, whilst the former Em-
peror, Louis Napoleon, was yet in power, they were
repulsed. Then they were sheltered, for the moment,
by Rustem Bey, the Turkish Ambassador at Florence,
who was then resident in Rome, transacting business
with Cardinal Antonelli. But the Cardinal intimated
to the Turk that Catholic priests, of whatever nation,
when at Rome, were simply subjects of the Pope, and
under the jurisdiction of the Inquisition. So the
Archbishop was sent to his meditations, and no doubt
they were as lugubrious as the Director could make
them.†
No man whatever, unless he were a firm partizan
of the Pope and the Jesuits, ever felt himself safe.
There was a stringent regulation, requiring everyone
to delate to the Inquisition whomsoever he might
suspect of heresy. Nothing but the number and
Letter XXX. † Idem. Letter XXXVI.
* QUIRINUS, ut supra.
328
HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION.
influence of the opponents of the fatal dogma of infal-
libility saved them from the dungeons. Persons were
imprisoned and punished on the slightest pretence.
But the final stroke was not very long delayed.
On September 20th, 1870, that stroke which would level
the whole fabric was laid on it. On that day the
army of Italy entered Rome. The flags of all Italy
now floated on the Capitol. The Pope shut himself
up in the Vatican as if he were himself a prisoner.
On October 2nd, 1870, he was deposed from the last
vestige of a temporal sovereign by a plebiscite to that
effect. The Papal tribunals were forthwith closed,
and that of the Inquisition first of them all, amidst the
general rejoicing of the people. The lives of the
Inquisitors were spared, but their office is extinct.
APPENDIX.
IV.
INQUISITORIAL IGNORANCE.
(Vol. I. Page 286).
Don Antonio de Sotomayor, Archbishop of Damascus, and
Inquisitor-General of Spain, wrote a sort of Pastoral Letter
"to all persons of what state, condition, and quality soever
within the Spanish dominions," in the year 1640. The letter
was often reproduced under the highest sanction that could be
had, and may be found in the last Index of Books Prohibited,
or to be expurgated, published in Madrid, in the year 1790,
issued again in 1805, required to be used by all booksellers
in Spain so late as 1835, and bought from one of them by the
Author, in that year or the next. It contains the following
passage:
What is most wonderful and most hurtful is, that their
malice ❞—the malice of us heretics-" has risen to such a
height of pride, that they have not spared the Sacred Scriptures
of the Old and New Testament. Some begin their course of
impiety with mistranslations of the Divine Scriptures. They
say that these Scriptures have been badly translated, adulterated
in many places, mutilated, added to, altogether badly arranged.
They say, that in order to understand the Sacred books,
good versions are necessary. Pelican, Zuingle, Luther,
Munster, Erasmus, Castalius and others, sacrilegiously blas-
phemous, have manufactured versions. They have translated
the Greek and Hebrew Bible into various tongues, just as their
whim led them, or as their dogmas lacked support. They have
added scholia, glosses, arguments most pestilential. They have
diminished the number of books of both Testaments. Luther
and Zuingle rejected the Books of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus,
Tobit, Esther, Judith, Baruch, and Macchabees, affirming that
they are apocryphal, and of uncertain authority. Of the New
Testament, they deny the Epistle to the Hebrews, those of
St. James and St. Jude, the Second of St. Peter, and the Second
and Third of St. John. Calvin blots out the history of the
woman taken in adultery from the Gospel of St. John.
330
APPENDIX.
Musculus takes away the last chapter of the Gospel according
to St. Mark. Erasmus excludes all the Book of Revelation from
the New Testament, saying that it is not written by St. John
the Evangelist. From the first Epistle of this Saint he
endeavours to erase the celebrated testimony to the unity of
the Most Holy Trinity. The Anabaptists publish that the
whole mass of Sacred Scripture is corrupt, principally in the
Gospels and Epistles. Perhaps they would increase the number
of the Sacred Books, as will be seen by the following, which
they have brought to light:-The Protevangelium of James;
the Gospel of the Nazarenes; the Gospel of Nicodemus; the
Epistle of Paul to the Laodiceans, and others, with the
Scholia of the heretics themselves, all of them widely differing
from our Vulgate edition."
Whoever was the author of this accusation, it is artfully
drawn up. Together with the revival of letters in the fifteenth
century, there was a birth of Biblical science, and while that
science was in its infancy, the history of the Sacred Canon was
as yet unformed, and the fragmentary information contained in
the writings of early Fathers not collated critically, nor indeed
fully collected; literal facts now familiar to the youngest
student were not generally known, and even where known,
could not be clearly understood. But in the time of Sotomayor
this obscurity had passed away, except, perhaps, in the realms
of darkness yet unbroken, where no real study of the sacred
text was permitted. So compact and cautiously worded an
accusation as that which is now before us must therefore
have been written by some one who possessed abundant
information, but whose object was to conceal the truth, and
thus to cover the suggestio falsi under the suppressio veri. Our
Canon is, and always has been, the same as that of St. Jerome,
as it continues to be published by the Church of Rome, in the
Prologus Galeatus of that Father, prefixed to the authorised
editions of the Latin Vulgate, but practically set aside by the
Council of Trent, less than a century before Sotomayor. This
note of mine may be satisfactory to the general reader, but I
must apologise to the Biblical student for having said so much
as even these few lines, on so plain and elementary a matter.
APPENDIX.
331
V.
EDICT OF PIUS VI. CONCERNING THE JEWS.
(Vol. II. Page 281.)
After the customary allusion to a Pope's anxieties at the
commencement of his pontificate, and his intention to maintain
the Catholic religion untainted among the faithful, the Edict
states his determination to remove far away the peril of per-
version which might arise from too great familiarity with the
Hebrews, an object which will be accomplished by enforcing an
exact observance of the precautions taken by his glorious pre-
decessors, especially Clement XII., in an Edict dated Feb. 2,
1733, and Benedict XIV., in an Edict published Sept. 17, 1751.
The Most Eminent Cardinals Inquisitors-General having been
heard on this matter, he has commanded the new publication
of the last Edict, with some additions, in order that it may be
punctually executed in every part of his pontifical State.
Omitting technical forms and references, I give the substance
of each Article.
1. His Holiness, adhering to the Second Constitution of
Innocent IV., Impia Judæorum, ordains and commands that
the Hebrews must not by any means retain in their possession,
nor read, buy, write, copy, translate, sell, give, exchange, nor
in any other way alienate, under any pretext, title, or colour,
any book or impious manuscript, whether Talmudical or other,
that is condemned for being superstitious or cabalistic, or that
contains errors against Sacred Scripture, or the Old Testament,
or anything injurious, impious, or blasphemous, against the
sacred and holy mysteries of the Christian Faith, especially
the most Holy Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ, Mary ever
Virgin, or the Saints, or any other book of those prohibited by
Julius III., on May 29, 1554, and by Clement VIII., on Feb.
28, 1593, or in any other Apostolic Constitution or Decree,
under penalty of losing the books, with confiscation of goods,
and other corporal penalties that will be most grave, in case of
any contravention of the tenor of the Decree of the Sacred Con-
gregation of the Holy Office, published Sept. 12, 1553. Those
Rabbis, also, and abettors of the Hebrews, who retain the said
books in their libraries, or in any other place, for public or
private use, shall be liable to suffer the same penalties.
2. That no Hebrew may dare to expound, explain, or teach
the errors of the books aforesaid, whether in public or in pri-
vate, whether in or out of school, to any person whatever,
332
APPENDIX.
Christian, Jew, or teach anything else, under the same penalties
of loss of books, confiscation of goods, and other corporal and
grave penalties at discretion.
3. That no Christian printer, bookseller, or merchant, nor
any other person of whatsoever state or condition, may lend
aid or counsel to the Hebrews, to enable them to have the
said books, nor yet to write, print, copy or translate them, nor
must anyone ask permission to read nor to have them, not
only under the penalties already stated, but also under pain of
excommunication reserved to the Supreme Pontiff for remission,
and to be incurred without any other declaration than is now
given.
4. That the Hebrews may not buy nor receive any book in
the Hebrew language, nor translated from Hebrew into any
other language, either by Christian or Jew, or by any other
sent or carried, unless permission for it be first sought-if in
the city of Rome, to the Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace;
or, if in other places or cities of the State, to the Bishops or
local Inquisitors, that they may know whether they should be
allowed to receive it, and all that under penalty of a hundred
scudi, and seven years of prison, in case of contravention. Any
book that is found to contain anything contrary to the Bulls
and Apostolic Decrees, shall not be restored to the Hebrews,
but transmitted to the tribunal of the Holy Office, as also any
other book found prohibited to the Hebrews.
5. That the Hebrews may not take books out of the Custom
Houses, nor send books in, without licence of the Master of the
Sacred Palace in Rome, or of the Bishop, or local Inquisitor
elsewhere in the State, under penalty of loss of books, or fine of
a hundred scudi, and seven years' imprisonment. Christian
servants of the Custom-houses who shall co-operate for the
extraction or introduction of such books, or any other persons
aiding them therein, shall suffer the like penalties.
6. Obligation is laid on the Master of the Sacred Palace, and
on all the Bishops and Inquisitors aforesaid, to give all atten-
tion and diligence that no book be extracted or introduced
relating to the Hebrews without their express licence. They
must visit the Custom-houses and vessels that discharge books
in the seaports.
7. All Christians, and chiefly servants at the Custom-house,
couriers, postmen, carriers and conductors of every kind, by
land or water, are forbidden to convey any book by land or
water to the Hebrews, without previous licence of the Master
of the Palace, or Bishop, or local Inquisitor, to whom they
must give notice, as soon as they arrive, of every book, on peril
APPENDIX.
333
of excommunication, as above, incurred ipso facto, and other
pecuniary and corporal penalties, at discretion. Everyone to
whom any of the books aforesaid are addressed, who does not
give information thereof, is subject to the same.
8. According to the Bull of Clement VII., quoted in the
first clause of this Edict, every person of whatever degree,
state or condition, as therein related, is forbidden to grant any
indulgence, license or faculty contrary to the conditions of the
said Bull, and in case that such has been granted, it is declared
null and void.
9. The Hebrews must neither do, nor compose, nor teach any
witchcrafts, incantations, fortune-tellings, drawing of lots,
charms, or other acts that imply superstition, for finding out
things hidden, or things future, whether for Christians or for
Hebrews, under penalty of a hundred scudi, flogging, or the
galleys for life, according to the circumstances of the crimes.
The same penalties are also incurred by Christians who shall
learn from Hebrews the superstitious acts, or have recourse to
them for foolishly searching out things hidden or future.
10. Every Christian silversmith is forbidden to make for the
Hebrews any Amulet or Brevetti,* which they are accustomed
to put on their children, to preserve them from trouble by
witches, or other bad people, and especially those that have the
shape of an almond, or of a knob of wood, and on which there
are impressed Solomon's knot on one part, and the candle with
seven lights on the other,† or other like vain hieroglyphics,
for, as these are superstitiously interpreted by the Hebrews, it
is not right that Christian artificers should have anything to
do with them, and this is forbidden under penalty of twenty-
five scudi to the silversmith.
11. According to the Decrees of Oct. 8, and 23, 1625,
the Hebrews may not place, nor cause to be placed, over their
graves any stone or inscription, and therefore it is intended to
prohibit, for the future, anyone from granting license for placing
such stones or inscriptions under pain of demolition of the
sepulchres, fine of a hundred scudi, and other penalties at
discretion.
12. In carrying corpses to burial, the Hebrews must not use
any rite, ceremony, or funereal pomp, and especially they must
* Are these written charms?
+ This must be meant for a description of the Phylacteries, the one
like an almond being the phylactery for the arm, the other like a knob of
wood the phylactery for the head, with the two Shin, having together seven
strokes, and the Daleth knot answering to Solomon's knot. For an exact
description of Phylacteries, see my article in The Sunday at Home for
1870, pp. 794–797.
334
APPENDIX.
abstain from singing psalms, and carrying torches, and burning
lights through the street, under penalty of a hundred scudi, loss
of the wax, and corporal punishment, at discretion, to which the
abettors and nearest relatives of the deceased shall be subject.
But they shall only be permitted to have lights and use their
accustomed rites and funeral pomp in the Synagogue, and at
the place of burial, provided that in any of the aforesaid places
no Christian of any sex or condition be present, under the
penalties aforesaid, to be incurred as well by those who aid as
by those who permit the access of Christians, and by the
Christians who attend.
13. In pursuance of what is laid down in the Civil and
Canon Laws, and Papal Constitutions, there cannot be an
increase of Synagogues allowed inside the Ghetti, which may
not be adorned or enlarged in any way whatever, much less can
there be any others outside the Ghetti, under penalty of a
hundred scudi, prison, and other punishments most grave, etc.
14. No Hebrew of any sex, state, or condition may go to
the houses of the Catechumens, nor approach them within the
distance of thirty canne, nor to the Monastery of the Sanctissima
Annunciata, in Rome, nor send another in his stead, under the
penalty of three hundred scudi, the galleys, and other corporal
punishments at discretion.
15. No Hebrew, under any pretext, may retain in his house,
dwelling, or shop, any neophyte or catechumen, whether male
or female, although such catchumen be in the first degree of
consanguinity his relative; much less may he eat, drink,
or sleep with any one of them, neither within the Ghetti, nor
outside, nor in any other place, nor work with any of them,
nor be there in order to serve, nor visit there, nor have any
conversation there on any occasion, under the penalty of fifty
scudi, and of three tratti di corda* in public.
16. In case that the Hebrews, whether by word or promise,
or in any other way, directly or indirectly, by themselves or
others, induce, or attempt to induce Neophytes, Catechumens,
or any other persons to Judaize, they at once incur the penalties
of prison, confiscation of goods, and other penalties imposed
by the Apostolic Constitutions of Clement IV., Gregory X.,
Nicholas IV., and Gregory XI.
17. If any Hebrew of either sex dares to dissuade or hinder
in any way the conversion to the Holy See of any Hebrew, or
* Tratto di corda is a sort of punishment given to criminals, by letting
run without stopping for an instant that which is attached to the cord by
which the person is tied. Grande Dizionario dell' Abate Francesco de
Alberti di Villanova. S. V. TRATTO.
APPENDIX.
335
Catechumen, or causes it to be deferred, even for the shortest
time, he shall at once incur the penalty of galley, confiscation of
all his goods, with other, etc., etc., with express declaration
that they who render them aid, by any act, counsel, or labour,
shall be subjected to the same punishment. Hebrew women,
however, instead of the galley, shall incur the punishment of
flogging and exile, and others more heavy at discretion, ac-
cording to the circumstances of the offence.
18. The fattori or bondsmen of the Hebrews, more than any
others shall be bound to the observance of these things, and
they especially are to take care that no Hebrew Catechumen
of either sex be conveyed away secretly, concealed, or per-
verted, who has shown, shows, or is about to show a will or
inclination to become a Christian, and also that no Hebrew
that ought to be taken to the house of Catechumens according
to the pontifical decrees be assisted to escape, or concealed, not
even under the pretence that parents and relatives do not
agree to it, and when any such cases do occur, the bondsmen
shall be bound to bring back the fugitive, or otherwise let
them be mulcted with the gravatoria continua (continuous fine)
until the restitution be effected, or the return of the person
fugitive, or concealed, or perverted; and besides this, let them
be subjected to the pecuniary penalty, to imprisonment, and
other most grave punishments at discretion.
19. When any Hebrew is offered to the Church to be bap-
tized, the Hebrews must not in any way molest or injure the
person who presents, or the person who is presented, par-
ticularly while they are in the Ghetto, under most heavy pecu-
niary or corporal penalties at discretion, and let it be the
care of the Monsignore Vicegerent in Rome, and out of Rome
of the Bishops and local Inquisitors, immediately that they
have notice, or even any probable conjecture, to endeavour
with all earnestness that the person who presents for baptism,
and the person presented do not remain any longer with the
Hebrews.
20. In pursuance of Bulls of Paul IV., renewed by Pius
V., in the Constitution Romanus Pontifex, given in Rome,
May 20th, 1566, the Hebrews of both sexes ought to wear the
sign of yellow colour, by which they may be distinguished
from others, and should always have it on them, as well within
the Ghetto as outside, as well in Rome and the inhabited
places as outside. That is to say, men should wear the hat
with the badge well sewn on both sides of the flap or peak,
without any veil or scarf, except it be of the same colour; and
women should wear it on the head, openly, without putting a
336
APPENDIX.
veil or any thing else over it by which it might be hidden,
under the penalty both to man and woman of fifty scudi for
each time, and to women at discretion. The Hebrews are
therefore ordered not to wear any other hat than their own,
with the yellow badge, but if they have hats for sale, they must
carry them in their hand and not on their head. It is per-
mitted, however, that Hebrews, whether men or women, may
go without the badge aforesaid when they are actually on
a journey, provided they do not remain more than one day in
the same place, and if they do remain in it beyond one day,
they must consider themselves obliged to wear it, or pay the
penalty abovesaid.
21. By special order of the Pope it is made known that for
the future no licence shall be attended to from any tribunal,
nor from any person of whatever dignity, degree, office, or pre-
eminence, even if he be the President of Avignon, Bishop,
Majordomo of the Sacred Apostolic Palace, Cardinal Legate, or
Chamberlain of the Holy Church, for anything that he may
grant to the Hebrews, according to the provisions of the afore-
said Bull of Paul IV., under penalty to nullity of the said
licence, and the Hebrews shall be subject to the same penalties
as if no such licence had been obtained. If any subaltern
minister dares again to grant licences verbally for not wearing
the badge, he is to be punished at discretion, and be at once
deprived of his charge or office, the executors of the punishment
being forbidden to pay any regard to such licences under the
penalties due to the transgressors themselves.
22. The Hebrews may not distribute, give, present, or sell
to Christians meat of any sort that they may have killed or cause
to be killed, under penalty of a hundred scudi, or prison at dis-
cretion. The Christians, on the other hand, may not receive,
nor buy it of them, under penalty of twenty scudi, and prison
at discretion.
23. In like manner the Hebrews may not distribute, give nor
sell to the Christians unleavened bread, commonly called
Azzimelle, under penalty of fifty scudi; and on the other hand,
the Christians, under the same penalty, may not receive it from
them.
24. It having become known that Hebrews, not content to
buy milk for their own use from Christians, buy it in much
greater quantity than they need, to sell and make profit, and
trade with Christians, Hebrews are therefore forbidden, under
the same penalty, to buy more milk than is sufficient for their
own want, or to sell it or part with it in any way to Chris-
tians, although it be made into cheese, or any sort of milk-meat.
APPENDIX.
337
Christians are likewise forbidden to sell to Hebrews under the
same penalty.
25. Hebrews must not by any means be permitted to receive
by sale or contract, under any pretence or colour, by them-
selves or others, the Agnus Dei, or relics of saints, neither with
ornament nor without, nor yet crosses, chalices, pictures, figures
or images of our Lord Jesus Christ, or the Blessed Virgin, or
of saints, nor books of offices, breviaries, missals, towels or altar
furniture, or anything else relating to Divine worship, and not
even profane books in which there are any sacred pictures,
although the said things be broken or torn, or they wish to use
them only for burning, or for picking out the gold or silver,
under penalty of two hundred scudi, and galley. The Christians
that shall sell any of the abovesaid things to the Hebrews incur
the penalty of two hundred scudi only.
26. The Hebrews may not, by themselves or others, carry on
any traffic, business, bank, or society with Neophytes or cate-
chumens, under penalty of nullity of contract, and fifty scudi,
three pulls of the cart-rope (tratti di corda) in public, and others
at discretion.
27. According to the 6th Constitution of St. Pius V., and the
Decree of Alexander VII., of 10th July, 1659, they must not
have shops, stalls, magazines, or hand-carts out of the Ghetto,
and only in case of pressing need or necessity may the local
bishops grant them the requisite licences for places at small
distances from the Ghetto, but not in public places, and with
clauses that they may not pass the night there, nor have any
meetings there with Christians nor with Hebrews themselves,
but only attend to their trade, under penalty of fifty scudi, other
corporal punishment at discretion, and perpetual deprival of said
magazine, etc., etc.
28. The Hebrews must not invite, much less introduce,
Christians into their synagogues; and on the other hand it
shall never be lawful for Christians to enter there, under
penalty to each party of fifty scudi.
29. In pursuance of what is prescribed in the Body of Canon
Law, Cod. de Judæis, and in the Decree of Benedict XIV., of
Aug. 26, 1745, the Hebrews may not, either in their own
name, in the name of a Christian, or any other person, hold or
make any sales, hirings, or allotments, whether public or
private, of property of any sort, to whomsoever it may belong,
although it be the Reverend Apostolic Chamber, nor lend
name, nor give security, nor have any the least participation,
under penalty of loss of the same amount as shall be covenanted
for in the hiring or the sale, to be incurred ipso facto, with
VOL. II.
Ꮓ
338
APPENDIX.
nullity of such contracts, and other penalties at discretion.
And, therefore, it is ordained to Christians henceforth to abstain
from contracting in such matters with the Hebrews, under the
same penalty as that expressed above.
30. According to that which is ordained in the Body of
Canon Law, and in the second Constitution of Innocent VI.,
and third of Paul IV., Hebrews may not make use of Christian
midwives or wet-nurses, under penalty of a hundred scudi, and
prison at discretion. Neither may Christian women use Hebrew
midwives or wet-nurses, the Hebrew under penalty of fifty
scudi for the first time, and the second time flogging also, to
which penalties the husbands, both Hebrew and Christian,
shall be bound for their consorts.
31. According to many laws (cited in the Edict) the
Hebrews may not have Christian men-servants or women-
servants, nor be served by one of them, even for the shortest
moment of time, to cleanse the Ghetto, nor light the fire, nor
wash the clothes, nor do any servile work, under penalty of
twenty-five scudi, and corporal punishment at discretion; and
it is therefore enjoined on Christian fathers of families, and
tutors or guardians, to prohibit the child or children placed
under their charge from lending such services to the Hebrews,
otherwise proceedings will be taken against them to inflict the
arbitrary penalties.
32. According to prohibitions in Bulls of Paul IV., Pius IV.,
and Clement VIII., the Hebrews may not play, eat or drink,
or have any familiarity or conversations with Christians, nor
Christians with them in palaces, houses, vineyards, streets,
hotels, wine-houses, shops, or elsewhere; and hotel heepers,
wine-house keepers, and shop-keepers must not permit conver-
sations between Christians and Hebrews under penalty of ten
scudi to Hebrews, and prison at discretion, and to Christians ten
scudi and corporal punishment at discretion.
33. Hebrews must not dare to work in Ghetto on feast-days
commanded by the Church (Const. 3, Paul IV.), except with
closed doors, and in no way outside Ghetto, nor yet in houses
of Christians in any state or condition, under penalty of
fifty scudi, and three pulls of cart-rope at discretion, and the
same penalty of fifty scudi is to be laid on Christians who, on
such days, permit Hebrews to work in their houses. Confessors
are charged to admonish penitents seriously, and reprove those
who dare to suffer it, because of the grave scandal that it
occasions.
34. Hebrews of either sex or any age may not go in carriage
or chaise through Rome, nor out of the city, under penalty of a
APPENDIX.
339
hundred scudi, prison, and corporal punishment at discretion.
On case of a journey, however, they may go on horseback, or
in a chaise, but not otherwise.
35. No Hebrew or Christian must serve as coachman or
driver to Hebrews, except on a journey, under penalty of fifty
scudi, and three pulls of the cart-rope. Under the same
penalty no Christian may lend or give a conveyance, or lend
carriages or coaches to Hebrews of either sex, much less take
them with them in carriage or chaise.
36. No Hebrew may lodge outside Ghetto, and therefore
every one must retire into Ghetto before one o'clock at night,
and not go out in the morning before day, under penalty of
fifty scudi and three pulls of the cart-rope in public for the
men, and for the women flogging. Therefore, it is the duty of
gate-keepers not to let them go in or out of the Ghetto except
at the proper times, and not to admit Christians when the
Hebrews are shut in. And besides this, the whole body of
Hebrews are commanded to pay the gate-keepers their entire
allowance, without any abatement, and that they have nothing
else to contribute to it for any title, reason, or cause. And the
gatekeepers must take care not to receive any gift or acknow-
ledgment from the community, nor from any Hebrew in
particular, except the presents usually given at appointed times
under penalty of fifty scudi, prison at discretion, and dismissal
from their situation.
37. No Hebrew of either sex must dwell out of Ghetto, nor
be in Towns, Lands, Villages, Estates, Pasture-lands, or else-
where, under any pretence, as for change of air, and when they
have to go out even for a single day, they must get the neces-
sary license, according to a Decree of the Sacred Congregation,
6th December, 1661. The licence must express the name, sur-
name, and native place of the Hebrew, the lawful cause for
which it is granted, the time allowed, and the clauses which
order that the Hebrews wear the badge in the hat, that they
do not cohabit with Christians, not converse familiarly with
them; and on coming back, the Hebrew must return the
licence to the tribunal that gave it, under penalty of three
hundred scudi, and other arbitrary punishments for each
transgression.
38. If Hebrews wish to go to fairs, they must also get a
written licence from the local Bishop, Inquisitor, or Vicar,
without payment, and must leave the place within three days
after the holidays are over, unless they can get an extension
of the licence from the same authorities. Their licence, how-
ever, will not serve them unless they present it to the local
340
APPENDIX.
Bishop, Inquisitor, or Vicar of the place, immediately, without
the least delay, on their arrival, unless these authorities think
that, for any just reason, it should not be attended to, or should
be restricted, or their stay shortened. On return they must
give it up again, under pain of losing their goods, prison, and
corporal punishment at discretion.
*
39. Hebrews are not permitted to enter the parlours of
nunneries, or conservatories, nor speak to any persons who are
in such places, nor to enter into churches, oratories, or hospitals,
under penalty of fifty scudi, three pulls of the cart-rope in
public for men, or flogging for women.
40. If Superiors of Houses, or Monasteries of Regulars, or
Pious Places of Seculars, have occasion at any time to make
use of Hebrews for the sake of the stracciarie (rags they buy ?),
they must not permit them to enter the churches or oratories,
nor talk with any person, except it be with persons advanced
in age, who can give them good example, and instruction how
to behave themselves. Otherwise they must know that they
will have to give a strict account unto the Lord, and to the
Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office.
41. Hebrews, even though they be Rabbis, must not dress
like ecclesiastics; particularly, they must not wear a plain
collar, alla Francese, such as is worn by French Ecclesiastics,
but put on a perfectly secular dress, with a large and open
collar, under penalty, if they transgress, of ten scudi for the
first offence, twenty for the second, and in case of further con-
tumacy, prison, and corporal punishment at discretion.
42. The above regulations apply to foreign Jews of both
sexes, while in Rome, and in all the Ecclesiastical State; they
must also dwell in the Ghetto all the time, under penalty
of a hundred scudi, prison, and corporal punishment at
discretion.
43. Preaching being the most powerful and effectual method
for obtaining the conversion of the Hebrews, as collected from,
etc., etc., we order the Rabbis to pay the utmost care and use
their utmost diligence to cause to be present at the Sermon
that is made on Saturdays, or any other day of the week, that
number of men and women which, according to the different
sizes of the Ghetto is, or shall be, appointed according to the
* Conservatories.-A conservatory is a house used for the seclusion of
women, both unmarried and married, at pleasure of their parents, guar-
dians, or husbands. Parents and others may wish,-or pretend to wish,-
to keep the young women from corruption out of doors, and husbands may
think it necessary to shut up wives during their own absence from home,
in like manner, and for the same reason.
APPENDIX.
341
Constitution 92 of Gregory XIII., dated August 26, 1745, and
circular letter of April 29, 1749; and if they neglect to make
out the description of the persons, the number fixed, or to be
fixed as above, they shall incur the penalty of fifty scudi for each
time, and also for the failure of any of the persons described to
attend on the Sermon-day, he incurs the fine of two giulj for
each one.
44. Finally, His Holiness declares and commands that for
the effectual execution of all the abovesaid ordinances, trans-
gressors shall be proceeded against both ex officio and per
Inquisitionem; and that the present Edict, affixed in the accus-
tomed places, and also in the schools of the Ghetti for their
more effectual publication, (where it must always be fixed up
under penalty of a hundred scudi in case of each contravention,
and corporal punishment at discretion) binds all and each, as if
it had been personally intimated to each one.
Given at the Palace of the Holy Roman and Universal Inqui-
sition this fifth day of April, 1775.
GIOVANNI BUttelli dellA S. ROMANA ED UNIVERSALE
INQUISIZIONE NOTARO.
INDEX.
(Technical words are printed in Italics.)
ABARBANEL (Rabbi) pleads for pity
on his nation, i. 146.
Abbot of Clairvaux sent to preach
to the Albigenses, i. 7.
Abdilèhi, Moorish king of Granada,
ii. 141; sent out of Spain, 153.
Abjuration, i. 95, 359.
Absolution, i. 93.
Academy of Grillenzone, ii. 227.
Accusation, i. 82.
Acebedo (Don Fernando de) preven-
ted from holding an Auto,i. 263.
Acerba, a book written by Cecco,
the astrologer, ii. 155.
Achilli (Giacinto) imprisoned in
Rome, ii. 324.
Albaycin (Mosque of the) made a
church, i. 156.
Albert de Capitaneis, ii. 165.
Albi, i. 6.
Albigenses, i. 2, 22.
Alfaria in Zaragoza, i. 280.
Alfonso, a threefold renegade, wor-
ships Nature, ii. 287.
Alguacil mayor, i. 168.
Aliter credentes, ii. 170.
Alpujarra allotted to the Moors of
Granada, i. 141; the Moors re-
volt, 158.
Alumbrados, i. 196.
Alva, Count of, made Viceroy of
Sicily, ii. 304.
Alva (Duke of), i. 202: sails with
Carranza, 252; in treaty with
England, 259.
Amaury, founder of a sect in France,
i. 25.
Ambassador of Her Britannic Ma-
jesty might not have divine
worship in his house, i. 260.
America (Spanish), first regular In-
quisitors, ii. 17; popular fury
against them, 31.
Amida, a priest dies there from ill-
treatment, ii. 98; Synod in
Amida, ibid.
Ancient Inquisition, i. 40.
Angelo (Castle of St.), i. 252.
ANTIPOPES-Octavian, i. 2.
Benedict XIII., i. 122.
Apostolic counsellors, i. 128.
Apparitors, i. 128.
Appeals to Rome, i. 139.
Appiani, a Jesuit arrested for
Quietism, ii. 262.
Aquaviva flees for succour to Rome,
i. 258.
Aquinas (Thomas) advocates death
to heretics, i. 40.
Arabic. Versions of the Holy Scrip-
ture, i. 152; the language
studied in Granada, 153.
Aragon receives the Inquisition,
i. 135; resists, 137; appeals to
the king, 188.
Arbues (Pedro) murdered, i. 136;
his tomb and canonization, 17.
Arcetri, Galileo imprisoned there,
ii. 247.
ARCHBISHOPS—Aix, i. 18.
Ambrun, see Embrun.
Arles, i. 18.
Auch, i. 18
Bourges, Guarin, i. 7.
Canterbury, Becket, i. 2, seq.
Embrun, i. 18; John, ii. 161.
Goa, Aleixo de Menezes, ii. 96.
Granada, Hernando de Talavera,
i. 152.
""
Pedro Guerro, i. 161.
Lyons, i. 18.
Narbonne, i. 18.
Paris, Cardinal de Noailles, i. 75.
Rheims, William, i. 11.
Seville, Acebedo, i. 263.
>>
Guevara, i. 262.
344
INDEX.
ARCHBISHOPS~(continued).
Seville, Manrique, i. 159.
Palafox, ii. 258.
-
Siena, Piccolomini, ii. 247.
Spalatro, Marcantonio de Domi-
nis in England, ii. 248; his
body and writings burnt, 257.
Spoleto, i. 20.
Syracuse, i. 20.
Tarragona, Peter, i. 120.
Terracina, i. 18
Toledo, Carranza, i. 237 seq.
Toulouse,Charles de Munchal, i.71.
Zaragoza, a boy, i. 138.
Archbishops' Inquisition in Naples,
ii. 314.
Archives inquisitorial secretly de-
stroyed, ii. 150.
Army and Navy tribunal, i. 255.
Arrest,notable example of one,i. 249.
Arzamundi (Don Juan Bautista),
Lord Fiscal of Inquisition, i. 167.
Asia, emissaries from Dominic, i. 35.
Assessors, i. 128.
Astrologers and others, ii. 151.
Aubriot, Provost of Merchants, im-
prisoned at Paris in the Bastille,
ì. 68.
Audience of Torment, i. 345.
Authorities civil and ecclesiastical
disagree, i. 199.
AUTOS DE FE-Florence, ii. 181.
Goa, ii. 126.
Granada, i. 164, seq.
Lisbon, ii. 68, 69, 72.
Madrid, i. 291, seq.
Mexico, ii. 18, 19, 26.
Palermo, ii. 304.
Seville, i. 216, seq.
Valladolid, i. 210, seq.; 228, seq.
Autos de Fé, General, i. 166; Pär-
ticular, ibid.; preparations for,
203; one prevented by British
influence, 261; found impos-
sible in Spain, 318; suspended
for a time in Portugal, ii. 66.
Azevedo (Francisco de) pleads for
Jews of Portugal, ii. 67.
Azpilcueta, Carranza's advocate, i.
251.
BADGE to be worn by Jews and
Jewesses, ii. 280.
Ban of the Church, i. 25.
Bandarra, a visionary, ii. 51.
Banishment, i. 2.
Banner of the Inquisition, i. 206,
295 and at Goa, 207.
Baptisms by force, ii. 91.
Baronius at an Auto, ii. 241.
Bastille of St. Antoine, Paris, ii. 67.
Bazan (Don Fernando), i. 294.
Becket (Thomas), i. 2.
Bedell, Bishop of Kilmore, i. 271.
Beguines, i. 58.
Bellarmine leads the persecution
of the Nestorians, ii. 98; and
sanctions the work of Farinacci,
ibid.; at an Auto, 241.
Bernard, i. 2; preaches a crusade, 65.
Bible (Arabic) suppressed in Spain,
i. 152; (English) burnt in Paris,
i. 71.
Bible Society (American), their
Agent imprisoned in Madrid, i.
337.
Bigamy a civil offence, ii. 309.
Bishops Inquisitors by right in their
own dioceses, ii. 4; made
for new dioceses in India,
ii. 91.
>"
1)
complain to Council of Cas-
tile against the Inquisi-
tion, i. 70.
of Mexico fugitive, ii. 31.
BISHOPS. Albi, i. 6.
Bath, Reginald, i. 7, 9.
Cuenca, Pedro de Castro, i. 241.
Kilmore, Bedell, i. 271.
Lisieux, Arnoul, i. 3.
Mexico, Zumarraga, ii. 14.
Modena, Egidio Foscherati, ii. 194.
Paris, Pierre, i. 25.
Poictiers, Jean de Belles-mains,
i. 7.
Toulouse, Foulques, i. 6.
Volterra, Francesco Soderini, ii.
287.
Blasphemy, i. 97; not heresy, 176;
a civil offence, ii. 309.
Bononato (Fray), i. 108, n.
Book of Sentences, i. 41.
Borri (Giuseppe Francesco), a quack,
his effigy burnt, ii. 265.
Bourbon (Doña Isabel de), Infanta
of Spain, i. 334.
Bourbon (Doña Luisa María de),
i. 297.
Bourg-Dieu (Abbey of), i. 2.
Brasero, i. 295.
INDEX.
345
Brescia, people drive away Inquisi-
tors, ii. 170.
Bricaraxii in diocese of Turin, ii. 157.
Bretagne. Parliament suppresses In-
quisitorial action in France,i. 77.
British influence prevents an Auto
in Seville, i. 261.
Buchanan (Dr. Claudius) at Goa,
ii. 132.
Buchanan (Professor George) at
Coimbra, ii. 43.
Burning heretics alive; when cus-
tom began, i. 10.
Bzovius, the annalist, ii. 252.
CABBALA, an Inquisitorial defini-
tion, ii. 172, n.
Cadiz made the seat of a naval In-
quisition, i. 255.
Cages for those who shall be burnt
alive, i. 306.
Calabria, alleged heresy revives,
ii. 146.
Calificadores, i. 204.
Calimala, articles of the guild of,
ii. 140.
Calvinist sent to the galleys, ii. 192.
Campo di Flora, ii. 257, n.
Canal (Padre de la), i. 180.
Capello di Chiana defended by his
fellow citizens, ii. 144.
Caracciolo (Galeazzo, Marquis of
Vico), an Evangelical at Ge-
neva, ii. 236.
Cardinal Inquisitors silence the
press, ii. 179.
CARDINALS-Caraffa, Inquisitor at
Rome, ii. 192.
Carvajal, ii. 290.
Cibò issues a circular against
Quietists, ii. 261.
Contarini prepares a test of faith,
ii. 230.
D'Etrées, traitorous enemy of
Molinos, ii. 260.
Granville,counsellor of Charles V.,
ii. 11.
Landi of Benevento driven from
Naples, ii. 315.
Mendoza of Spain, i. 119; issues
a constitution, i. 126.
Morone imprisoned by Paul IV.,
ii. 192.
Peter of Chrysogonus, Legate in
France, i. 6, seq.
Petrucci, friend of Molinos, ii. 259.
CARDINALS (continued).
Pole reconciles England to Rome,
i. 240; with Contarini at
Modena, ii. 181.
Sfondrati (Celestino), Ultramon-
tanist, ii. 259.
Sienna, executed for conspiring
to kill the Pope, ii. 290.
Volterra, ii. 289.
William of St. Sabina burns many
Flemings, i. 11.
Ximenez de Cisneros, see Xime-
nez, s. v.
Carlos, Prince of Asturias, i. 215.
Carneiro (Melchior) Missioner to
Nestorians, ii. 91.
Carranza, Archbishop of Toledo,
i. 237.
Cartagena and Murcia, the Bishops
appeal to the king against In-
quisition, i. 270.
Cartagena in America, ii. 30.
Cartas acordadas, i. 197.
Cartilla of Inquisition at Seville,
i. 320, 339, seq.
Carvajal (Don Rodrigo Velasquez
de), Alguazil Mayor, i. 168.
Castelvetro (Lodovico), ii. 230, 231;
his nephew, 233.
Castro (Alfonso de), chaplain to
Philip II., i. 127.
Castro (Rodrigo de), Royal Messen-
ger, i. 246.
Castrum de Cordua, i. 56.
Catalonia appeals to the king, i. 188.
Cathari to be forcibly converted,i. 18.
Catholic congregation, i. 181.
Censorship of all books established
in Spain, i. 318.
Chalens (St. John) and other Eng-
lishmen sentenced to the gal-
leys, i. 267.
China, Jesuit policy, ii. 101; Popes
temporise, 115.
Christianity (Evangelical) in Spain,
i. 193.
Circumcision of Christians, ii. 278.
Citation of a fugitive, i. 336.
Civil Law, i. 1.
Civil Power in Spain, i. 184; in
Italy, ii. 141.
Clementines, i. 101.
Code inquisitorial formed gradually,
i. 79.
College (Roman) founded by Igna-
tius Loyola, ii. 192.
346
INDEX.
Commission mixed of priests and
laymen, ii. 167.
Compacts with the Devil, ii. 284.
Compurgation, see Purgation ca-
nonical.
Conci, i. 2.
Conciliator, a book on physiognomy,
ii. 153.
Concordat between Pio IX. and
Isabel II. of Spain, i. 316.
Condemned cells visited, i. 300.
Confessed, i. 122.
Confessions in the Tolosan "Sen-
tences," i. 80.
Confiscation, i. 2, 96; abolished in
Venice, ii. 209.
Confucius adored by proselytes in
China, ii. 114.
Conservatory, ii. 340.
Constantine the Great, Edicts and
Constitutions, i. 1.
Consuls in Spain, i. 289.
Consultations in Rome concerning
missions in China, ii. 102.
Consulters, i. 129.
Conventus Gallicanus, i. 5.
Converts, i. 122.
Cordova up in arms against Holy
Office, i. 178.
Coroza, i. 205, 302.
CORTES of Cadiz, i. 310, 312.
""
Castile, i. 234.
Coterelli, or brigands, i. 11.
Council Supreme of Spanish Inqui-
sition, i. 324; quarrels with
French clergy, 72.
COUNCILS, Arles, i. 38.
Avignon, i. 24.
Beziers, i. 38.
Illiberis, i. 123.
Lateran third, i. 9; fourth, i. 25;
ii. 138; fifth, ii. 171, 174.
Lumbers, i. 6.
Narbonne, i. 38.
Tarragona, i. 120.
Toulouse, i. 36, 37.
Tours, i. 3.
Trent, i. 161, ii. 186.
Verona, i. 12.
Vienna, i. 102.
Count of Flanders, i. 11.
""
Toulouse, i. 6, 7.
Courage invoked by Bruno, ii. 241.
Covarrubias (Juan de) prosecuted
after death, i. 185.
Cristina, Grand Duchess of Tus-
cany priest-ridden, ii. 245.
Cruz (Fray Luis de la), Valladolid,
i. 248.
Coverdale (Miles), in Paris, i. 71.
DA COSTA (Balthasar) labours in
vain to relieve the Jews in
Portugal, ii. 60.
Davis (Mr. Nevile), English mer-
chant banished from Seville,
i. 267.
Deacon (Richard), English Quaker
in Spain, i. 322.
Dead bodies burnt, i. 54.
Death, penalty of, i. 2.
Debaptisation, ii. 272, 278.
De Dominis (Marcantonio), ii. 249,
seq.
Defence, i. 90.
Degradation, i. 52; ii. 241.
Dejados. Their condemned propo-
sitions, i. 196.
Delator, i. 10.
Dellon in Inquisition at Goa, ii. 119.
Del Olmo quoted, i. 292.
Demonology, a source of crime, ii.
284.
Detention of an illustrious captive,
i. 250.
D'Etrées (Duke), French Ambassa-
dor at Rome, ii. 208.
Devil-worship, ii. 283.
Deza (Pedro de), Auditor of Inqui-
sition, i. 177.
Diamper, Synod of, ii. 96.
Disability, i. 99.
Divination in itself not punishable,
ii. 297.
Domingo de Guzman.
His first
Sanctioned
appearance, i. 30.
by Honorius III., 31.
Dominicans. Three Orders, i. 32.
EARTHQUAKE that ruined Lisbon,
ii. 79.
Edict repeated yearly, i. 27, 195.
Elches, i. 157.
Elijah, Nestorian Patriarch, ii. 98.
Emparedados, ii. 198.
Endowment of Spanish Inquisition,
i. 198.
Englishmen in terror of the Inquisi-
tors, i. 259.
EMPERORS-Charles V. Germany.
INDEX.
347
EMPERORS-Charles V. (cont.)
He plants the Holy Office in
Granada, i. 165. Proceeded
against by Pope Paul IV., 201.
Breaks faith with Luther ii. 1.
Employs laymen for Inquisitors,
3. Makes laws for them, 5. Issues
placards in the Netherlands,
ibid. Retreats into a monas-
tery, 10.
Abdicates, and gives
Spain to his son Philip, 11.
Founds Inquisition in Spanish
America, 13.
Frederick I., Germany, at Council
of Verona, i. 12.
Frederick II., Germany, protects
the Friars, i. 33. Is declared
an enemy of the Church, 34.
Kang-He, China, patronises the
Jesuits, ii. 114.
Empress Teresa of Austria forbids
priestly censorship of books,
ii. 316.
Ercole II., Duke of Modena, impri-
sons Lisia Fileno, ii. 229.
Erri, Commissary at Modena, ii.
231.
Este (Marquises of) declared here-
tics, ii. 151.
Español Constitucional, a Spanish
newspaper condemned, i. 325.
Euphrem (Father), ii. 131.
Evangelical doctrine is spread se-
cretly in Spain, ii. 178.
Evil Spirits. A monk professes to
have seen them, ii. 39.
Examination of Prisoner, i. 86, seq.
Extravagantes, i, 101.
Eymeric and his Directorum, i. 81.
FAGGOT-MARCH, i. 296.
Familiars, i. 33. A confraternity
of them, i. 262.
Fanelli (Catherine) declared a fana-
tic and imprisoned, ii. 325 n.
Farinacius. His Directorium, i. 71.
Fees to Holy Office, i. 161, ii. 214.
Fernandes (Manoel) Confessor to
King of Portugal, ii. 60.
Ferrer (San Vicente) disputes with
Jews, i. 122.
Ferres (Thomas), an Englishman in
dungeon at Ayamonte, i. 266.
Fiamma (Gabriello), poet and
preacher, ii. 243.
Figueyras (Doctor Francisco), a
Jew in Lisbon, ii. 78.
Filippo di Torino, governor of Ge-
noa, resists Inquisition, ii. 142.
Fines, i. 96, ii. 55.
Fiscal prosecutes for Holy Office,
i. 225 et passim.
Flanders. People kill the Coterelli,
i. 11.
Flogging, i. 99, ii. 280.
Florence, mixed commission instead
of Inquisition, ii. 168; city
ruined by Inquisition, 182.
Fraissinière, Valley of, ii. 164.
Frampton, an Englishman, i. 234.
France, frequent controversies of
Church and State, i. 67. Re-
formed congregations
dis-
persed, 71. Illicit Tribunals
of Inquisition, 77.
Freemason, i. 320.
Freemasonry, attempts to revive, i.
284.
Freemasons, ii. 313.
Freemasons' Lodge in Seville, i. 320.
French Clergy, inconsistent, i. 73.
Resist the Spanish Inquisition,
274.
Fuego revuelto, i. 205.
Fuente (Doctor Constantino Ponce
de la), burnt in effigy, i. 230.
Fugitives, i. 103.
GAG of iron, i. 220.
Galicia. Edict against trade, i. 256.
Galileo Galilei, ii. 243.
Galleys, Inquisition of the, i. 255.
Gallican Liberties, i. 72.
Gasca (Don Pedro de la), sub-dele-
gate in Valladolid, i. 198,
Gascony, i. 4; heretical preachers, 18.
Gaspar de Santa Cruz, his corpse
exhumed and burnt by his own
son, i. 138.
Gavazzi describes the Palace of the
Inquisition in Rome, ii. 320.
Geddes (Dr. Michael), his instruc-
tive notes, ii. 73.
General Sermon of Faith, i. 42.
Germany will have no Inquisition,
i. 35.
Ghetto, ii. 279.
Gibraltar, Jews and Moors excluded
by treaty, i. 286; a trouble to
the Inquisition, 326.
348
INDEX.
Gil (Doctor Juan), otherwise
Egidius, burnt in effigy, i. 230.
Gipsies debaptize their children, i.
193.
Giuliani, priest and sorcerer, ii. 285.
Goa, Tribunal first erected, ii. 90;
for a time abolished, 132; Dr.
Buchanan in Inquisitor's house.
133; Inquisitor refuses inspec-
tion, 138.
Godaldino (Antonio), ii. 231.
Good Men of Narbonne, i. 6.
Gothofredus, i. 2, n.
Granada besieged and conquered, i.
141; and Englishmen
prisoned and robbed, i. 286.
Great Junta, i. 281.
im-
Green Cross, Procession of, i. 204,
298.
Griffin (Hugh), a Welshman, perse-
cutes his countryman in
Rome, ii. 202.
an
Grillenzone, brothers, raise
academy, ii. 227.
Guerin, a friar, counsellor of King
Philip Augustus, i. 25.
Gundemaro, Spanish Ambassador
in London, intrigues against
De Dominis, ii. 250.
Gusmão (Bartolomeo), an aeronaut
imprisoned, ii. 58.
Guy and Rayner, the friars sent to
hunt heretics, i. 18.
HEBREW books prohibited and
burnt, i. 55, ii. 279.
Henri, Abbé de Clairvaux, i. 7.
Henriquez (Juan de Medina), i. 185;
his heirs appeal to the Pope,
ibid.
Herald proclaims the Auto, i. 295.
Hernando de Talavera, his character
and proceedings, i. 151 seq.;
persecuted, 176.
Holy Scriptures forbidden, i. 37,
127.
Holy See governs missioners and
Inquisitors in India, ii. 113.
Hugo de Cernon, a Waldensian, i.
48.
Huguenots, i. 69; horribly perse-
cuted, 72. Inquisition plots
their massacre, 254.
Huidobro (Don Ventura Ruiz), a
Freemason, i. 320.
Husbands to see their wives flogged,
ii. 280.
IGNATIUS, of Loyola, imprisoned
with Callistus, i. 190; insti-
gates Paul III. to establish an
universal Inquisition, ii. 177.
Immaculate Conception, i. 268, ii.
268.
Immuration, i. 44, ii. 197.
Index of books prohibited and ex-
purgated, i. 72, 284, ii. 157.
India, ecclesiastical disputes, ii. 110,
112.
Indian proselytes punished with
penances, ii. 15.
Indulgencies, i. 112 seq.
Infamy, i. 99.
Infants to be taken from their
parents, ii. 273.
Infidelity rampant in Italy, ii. 170.
Information, i. 83.
Inquiry, i. 83.
Inquisidor Mor, ii. 123.
Inquisition, an institution essen-
tial to the Church of Rome, has
no one founder, i. 14; its laws
and customs, 79 scq.
Inquisitorial action begins at Tours,
i. 3.
Inquisitors killed, ii. 138, 139, 157.
Inquisitors in flight, i. 310; itine-
rant, ii. 141.
INQUISITORS-Antonio di Brescia,
Brescia, ii. 165.
Antonio (Fra), murdered, Turin,
ii. 157.
Arbues (Pedro), murdered, Zara-
goza, i, 136.
Belna (John de), Toulouse, i. 44.
Bologna (Tommaso Maria di),
Ferrara and Modena, ii.
179.
Brolanos (Antonio Zambrana de),
Madrid, i. 300.
Carassa, Seville, i. 322.
Cordova (Pedro de), India, ii. 15.
Da Cruz (Bernardo), Coimbra, ii.37.
Del Vado (Don Francisco Esté-
van), Toledo, i. 294.
Fulcano (Alexo Diaz), India, ii.90.
Gomez (Affonso), Coimbra, ii. 37.
Góngora, Sicily, ii. 299.
Guy (Bernard), Toulouse, i. 44.
Lambert, Lombardy, ii. 156.
INDEX.
349
INQUISITORS (continued).
Lerri (Michelangelo), Modena, ii.
212.
Lucero, Cordova, i. 178.
Manso (Alonso), India, ii. 15.
Melho (Juan de), Evora, ii. 36,
and Lisbon, 37.
Morir, Valladolid, i. 189.
Pureano (Simon), Palermo,ii. 156.
Ramirez (Diego), Toledo, i. 246.
Rodezno (Juan Maria de), Gra-
nada, i. 294.
Salcedo (Juan
Seville, i. 294.
Gonzalez de),
Sanz y Munoz (Bartolomé), Cata-
lonia, i. 238.
Valenzuela y Mendoza (Alvaro),
Aragon, i. 294.
Villegas (Fernando), Cordova, i.
293.
INQUISITORS GENERAL-Anselmo, at
Genoa, ii. 142.
Adriano, Castile, i. 188.
Arce (Don Ramon de), Spain,i.309.
Barberi (Filippo de'), Sicily, i. 125.
Campillo, Spain, i. 318.
De Castro, Spain, i. 272.
Deza, Castile and Leon, i. 153.
Enguenza (Juan), Aragon, i. 180.
Erard de la Marck (Cardinal),
Netherlands, ii. 4.
Henry (Cardinal), Portugal, ii. 90.
Hulst (Van der), Netherlands, ii. 3.
Jozé (Dom), Portugal, ii. 83.
Manrique (Alonso), Castile and
Leon, i. 159.
Nithard (Father), Spain, i. 273.
Prior of the Dominicans, France,
i. 66.
Quevedo (Fray Juan), Spanish
America, ii. 15.
Selimbria (Archbishop of), Spain,
i. 288.
Silva(Fray Diego da),Portugal, ii.
34.
Sotomayor, Spain, i. 272.
Torquemada (Friar Tomas de),
Castile and Leon, i. 128.
Valdés, Spain, i. 251.
Valladares, Spain, 293.
Ximenez de Cisneros, Castilla, i.
180.
Inscription in Seville concerning
Moors, i. 259, n.
Instructions to Dominicans; first
inquisitorial code, i. 38.
Insurrection in Granada, i. 157.
Interdict laid on Genoa by Inqui-
sitor General Anselmo, ii. 142.
Inter sollicitudines, a bull for France,
ii. 59.
JAEN, Tribunal translated thence to
Granada, i. 165.
Jaime (Don), Infante of Navarre,
whipped round the church,
i. 138.
Jansenius (Cornelius), his proposi-
tions condemned at Rome, i. 74.
Jerome of Santa Fé, i. 122.
Jesuit Provincial and others dela-
ted by members of their own
Society, i. 257.
Jesuits and Inquisitors weakened
by mutual jealousy, i. 272.
Jesuits of Portugal condemned,
ii. 83.
Jew burnt alive in 1826, i. 330.
Jews not under jurisdiction of the
Church, ii. 269; Council of
Illiberis acts against thein,
ibid.; Popes proceed against
them, 270; consultation as to
measures to be taken with
them, 271: permitted to travel
and trade for the gain of their
persecutors, 281.→
Jews in Portugal, ii. 33.
Jews in Spain, i. 121, seqq., expul-
sion threatened, 144; falsely
accused of sacrilege, ibid.;
Edict of banishment, 145
preachers sent to convert, 148;
sufferings, ibid.; deportation,
149; 800,000 filed, 150.
Jozé (Dom), Inquisitor-General con-
demns the Jesuits, ii. 83.
Juan, a Morisco, tortured, i. 160.
Juan (Don) of Austria, i. 273.
Juan de Salas tortured, i. 189.
Juan Perez de Saavedra, false Nun-
cio, ii. 35.
Juana, sister of Philip II., her
treachery, i. 245.
Jubilee celebrated at Rome, with
burning a heretic, ii. 242.
Judaism in Spain; attempts to re-
vive it, i. 284.
Judaizers, many thousands burnt,
i. 133.
Judgment, mockery of the Day of,
i. 303.
350
INDEX.
Junta of thirteen to receive appeals
against Inquisition, i. 281.
Jurisdiction of Inquisitor-General
disputed by Archbishop, i. 250.
Jurisdiction, its subjects, i. 109,362.
Justicia of Aragon, i. 280; its
prison of the Manifestacion,
i. 280.
KING'S Counsellors in Supreme
Council of Spanish Inquisition,
i. 128.
Kings of Portugal sworn to obey
Inquisitors, ii. 78.
Kings of Spain sworn to favour the
Inquisition, i. 224.
KINGS-Alfonso VI. of Portugal,
ii. 55.
Alonzo of Castile rebuked for
kindness to Jews, i. 21.
Charles V. of France helps the
Inquisitors, i. 67.
Charles I. of Spain, Castile and
Aragon appeal to him, i. 187,
seq.
Charles II. of Spain banishes an
insolent Inquisitor, i. 283;
entertained with an Auto,
292.
Charles III. of Spain limits the
power of Inquisition, i. 287;
and of the Pope, 288.
Charles IV. of Spain makes
another effort at reform, i.
289.
Emanuel of Portugal exempts
New Christians from Inqui-
sition, ii. 33.
Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain,
i. 125, seq.
Ferdinand III. of Spain, i. 171.
Ferdinand V. of Spain nomi-
nates Inquisitors, i. 180; in-
sists on the regium placet on
Bulls and Briefs, i. 182; pro-
mises to restrain Aragonese
Inquisitors, and gets the
Pope to absolve him from
his vow, 183.
in
Ferdinand VI. of Two Sicilies
abolishes Inquisition
Sicily, ii. 318.
Ferdinand VII. of Spain restores
the Inquisition, i. 318.
Francis I. of France, i. 70.
George I. of England rescues an
Englishman in Spain, i. 286.
KINGS (continued.)
Henry II. of England, i. 2, 6.
Henry VIII. of England i. 70.
Henry II. of France favours the
Inquisition, i. 68.
James I. of England courts the
Pope, i. 258.
John of England humbled by the
Pope, i. 22.
John III. of Portugal exempts
New Christians from Inqui-
sition, ii. 33; withdraws the
exemption, 34.
Kalo-John of Bulgarians, i. 21.
Louis VII. of France, i. 2.
Louis IX. of France provides in-
come for Inquisitors, i. 34.
Louis XIII. of France sanctions
the Directorium of Farina-
cius, i. 71.
Louis XIV. of France in his
reign the power of Inquisi-
tors is crushed, i. 71; aban-
dons Molinos, ii. 260.
Pedro of Aragon bribed to de-
spoil heretics in his king-
dom, i. 21.
Pedro IV. of Portugal: events
in his reign, ii. 56.
Philip II. of France slaughters
the Coterelli in Flanders.i.11.
Philip Augustus of France burns
and imprisons honest men,
i. 25.
Philip IV. of France keeps In-
quisitors within bounds, i.
41; is excommunicated, 67.
Philip I. of Spain, i. 178.
Philip II. of Spain persecutes
Moriscoes, i. 161; is attacked
by Inquisitor-General, i. 201;
begs the Pope's pardon, 202 ;
directs the Inquisition, ii. 11.
Philip III. of Spain encourages
the Inquisition, i. 268; tries
to prevent emigration of New
Christians, ii. 18.
Philip IV. of Spain entertained
with an Auto at his mar-
riage, i. 269; tries to resist
the Inquisition, 271.
Philip V. of Spain refuses an
Auto at his coronation, i.
283; but makes use of the
Inquisition, ibid.; gives it
free use of Post-office, 284;
Autos in his reign, ibid.
INDEX.
351
KINGS-(continued.)
Sebastian of Portugal beaten by
the Moors in Africa, ii. 45.
Koran burnt publicly in Granada,
i. 157.
LA CHAISE (Father), a Jesuit,
ii. 260.
Lancio, commissary of Roman In-
quisition, ii. 245.
Laymen made Inquisitors, ii. 3, 306.
Laynez baffled, ii. 184.
Learned men suspected of heresy,
ii. 190.
Lebrija (Antonio de), a learned man
laments his bondage, i. 179.
Lerri's Manual of Instructions for
Italian Inquisitors, ii. 211.
Liber Sententiarum of Inquisition
of Toulouse, i. 42; published
by Philip Van Limborch, 41.
Liberality of the Venetians, ii. 309.
Libraries visited, ii. 159, 179.
Licentiousness of Inquisitors, i. 64,
183.
Life and death, power of, claimed
by the Pope, ii. 177.
Lisbon, Supreme Council formed,
ii. 35; Inquisitors and king re-
sist the Pope's authority, 37.
Lombardy friars infected with
heresy, ii. 178; an Inquisitor
killed, 138.
:
Lully (Raymund), his writings sup-
pressed, ii. 157.
Lumbers, disputation with Albi-
genses, i. 6.
Lutherans, Inquisitors begin to
trouble them, i. 192; proposi-
tions condemned, 195.
MAD woman burnt, with her sister
and three daughters, i. 235.
Madness kindly supposed, i. 289.
Madrid, supreme council, i. 128; as-
sembly to coerce Moriscoes,161;
British Ambassador not per-
mitted to have Protestant wor-
ship in his house, 260; festive
Auto of 1680, 291.
Maestrescuela, teacher of clergy, i.
181.
Malta, tribunal established there,
ii. 209; Knights of Malta quar-
rel with the Holy Office, ibid.
Mancuerda, i. 348.
Manifestacion of Zaragoza, i. 280.
Manrique, his articles against Lu-
therans, i. 195.
Manual of Inquisitors in Seville, i.
339, seq.
Manual of Instructions in Italy, ii.
211.
Marcenius, a Jesuit Provincial, is
delated and appeals to the Pope,
i. 258.
Margaret (Archduchess), Governess
of the Netherlands, ii. 4.
Marin (Pascual), witness of the
death of a Quaker at Valencia,
i. 330.
Mar Joseph, Syrian Bishop of Co-
chin, sent prisoner to Lisbon,
ii. 88.
Marrano, i. 123.
Marranos in Italy, ii. 168.
Marnio (Galeotto), ii. 162.
Martin (Isaac), imprisoned and
robbed in Spain, i. 286.
Martinez (Don Manual Alonso),
Governor of Madrid, i. 334.
Masses for deceased Inquisitors, i.
358.
Master of the Sacred Palace, ii. 278.
Mauran (Pierre), leader of Albi-
genses, i. 7, seq.
Medina (Juan Henriquez de), his
body exhumed and burnt, i. 185.
Meietti, a Venetian printer, ii. 310 n.
Mendoza (Cardinal) issues a "Con-
stitution," i. 126.
Menezes (Fray Felipe de), friend of
Carranza, i. 247.
Mexico, Guatemala and Oaxaca,
Bishops meet in Council, ii. 13.
First v. auto, 18.
Mexico, indulgences advertised by
the Inquisitors, i. 112.
Mexico, Inquisition revives, ii. 30.
Milan, Provincial Synod, ii. 210.
Military order of Inquisitors pro-
jected, i. 256.
Military persecution, i. 4.
Militia of Christ, i. 32.
Ministry of Peter to feed and to kill,
ii. 208.
Miranda (Maria), under torture, i. 227.
Missions managed by Roman In-
quisition, ii. 110.
Mobs encouraged to murder, ii. 139.
Mocenigo (Giovanni) entraps Bruno,
ii. 238.
Modena, Reformation spreads, ii.
229.
352
INDEX.
Molinos, father of the Quietists, ii.
258.
Molinos, seventy of his followers in
the Inquisition, ii. 260; two
hundred of them, 261.
Monastery (Augustinian), in Ant-
werp, ii. 8.
Monasteries and convents ruled by
Inquisition, ii. 122.
Monition before torment, i. 343.
Montanus (Reginaldus Gonsalvus),
author of a book in the Inquisi-
tion, i. 216.
Montenegro (Don Alonso de Are-
valo), knight of Calatrava, i. 294.
Moors treated perfidiously, i. 141
seq., 151, 259; sixteen thou-
sand forcibly baptized, 142.
Mora (Don Angel Herreros de), im-
prisoned by Tribunal of the
Faith, i. 331 seq.; receives
Portuguese priests into Spanish
Evangelical Church in Lisbor,
ii. 88.
Morerias, i. 160.
Moriscoes, i. 125; betrayed, 151;
banished, 158; worried, 159;
rebel, 161; expatriated, 162,163.
Moriz, a savage, i. 189.
Morone (Cardinal) imprisoned,ii.193.
Moses of Toledo (Rabbi), i. 124.
Mosques turned into Mass-houses,
i. 162.
Munebrera (Don Juan Gonzalez de)
Sub-delegate in Seville, i. 198.
Muratori, his Annals of Italy in the
Index Expurgatory, ii. 194.
Murder in the Torture-chamber, i.
222.
NAPLES refuses the Spanish Inquisi-
tion, ii. 170.
Napoleon Bonaparte suppresses the
Spanish Inquisition, i. 309;
and the Roman, ii. 319.
Naval tribunal attempted in Spain,
i. 255.
Navarre, Infante of Navarre flogged
round the church with rods, i.
138.
Neapolitans desperately resist, ii.
182.
Nestorians of Malabar, ii. 91; Car-
neiro attacks them, 92.
Netherlands, ii. 2; Inquisition first
established, 3.
Nevers, Dean of, persecuted, i. 60.
New Christians in Portugal horribly
treated, ii. 45 seq., 56; appeal
to Rome, 57.
New Christians in Spain, i. 121;
emigrate, 134.
New Christians in Spanish America,
ii. 16.
Newspaper named El Español Con-
stitucional hunted for, i. 325.
Nithard, Jesuit and Inquisitor-gene-
ral, decamps, i. 272.
Norbert (Le Père) unmasks Jesuit
imposture in the East, ii. 115.
Notices, official, of a General Auto,
i. 167, seq.
а Dominican
Novaro
(Tomás),
preacher, i. 306.
Nun, a lewd one whipped, i. 269.
O, OUR Lady of the, i. 156.
Oath taken at-coronation by the
kings of Portugal, ii. 79; an
Auto by the king of Spain, i.
305; and by the people, 306, ii.
355; and by civic officers, ibid.
Oliveyra (the Chevalier de) pleads
with the king and people of
Portugal to forsake their sins,
ii. 80; they burn his book, 82.
Oran, Inquisition set up there, i. 185.
Orders, three, of Dominicans, i. 32.
Ori (Matthew), Inquisitor-general,
watches over Ignatius of Loy-
ola, i. 69, 191; prevents pub-
lication of English Bible in
France, 69.
Ostolaza, a political prisoner, i.
339 n.
Otway (Loftus Charles, C. B.) Secre-
tary of British Legation in
Madrid, honourably mentioned,
i. 336.
Outlawry of persons accused of
heresy, i. 10.
PALACE of the Inquisition in Rome
demolished, and rebuilt by
Pius V., ii. 206.
Palafox, Bishop of Cartagena in
America appeals against Inqui-
sition, ii. 29.
Palermo, Tribunal of Inquisition in
palace and fortress of Castella-
mare, ii. 209.
Palestine, Dominican emissaries
there, i. 35.
INDEX.
353
Palmerston (Lord Viscount),
honourably mentioned, i. 335.
Panchicerichi (Bartolommeo),
а
penitent in Cathedral of
Florence, ii. 181.
Pando (Don Julian de), Vicar Apos-
tolic at Madrid, i. 333, seq.
Paris, Assemblage of clergy, i. 5;
Amaury, student in the Sor-
bonne, 25; ten persons burnt
and four imprisoned for life, ibid.
Parma, the inhabitants rise against
the Inquisition, ii. 145; the Duke
transfers the Holy Office from
the Inquisitors to Bishops, 316.
Paterini burnt alive, i. 11; to be
forcibly converted, 18; fiercely
attacked by Innocent III., 23.
Pelegrino degli Erri, commissary of
Roman Inquisition, ii. 231.
Penal code of Portugal, ii. 86.
Penance (the lighter), for blas-
phemy, i. 97.
Peña (or Pegna), annotator on Ey-
meric, i. 82.
Pendigrace, a prisoner, ii. 43.
Perez (Doctor Antonio), Councillor
of the Supreme Inquisition, i.
242; accomplice in a murder,
278; pursued by the Inquisition,
279; sheltered in Aragon and
in France, but not in England,
280, seq.
Peter of Castelnau, inquisitor, killed,
i. 29.
Petitions to the Prince of Hell,ii.286.
Philibert (John), priest, i. 49.
Philip (Don, Prince of the Asturias)
makes a forced peace between
Inquisitors and people, i. 199.
Philip II., of Spain, orders visitation
of the Inquisition, i. 210; in re-
turn from England makes a mur-
derous vow, 223; is sworn to
uphold the Inquisition, 224;
goes close to see the victims
die in the fire, 227.
Phylacteries forbidden to the Jews,
ii. 279.
Piedrahita (the devotee of), a scan-
dalous woman, i. 183; Inquisi-
tion declares her blessed, ibid.
Pietro di Albano, astrologer, ii. 153.
Petro Soave Polano, pseudonym im-
posed on Fra Paolo Sarpi, ii.
250, n.
VOL. II.
POPES-Adrian VI. makes laymen
Inquisitors, ii. 3.
A A
Alexander III. initiates conciliar
action against heretics, i. 2 seq.
Alexander IV. appoints Inquisi-
tors-General for France, i. 39,
66; is an outrageous perse-
cutor, ii. 142; forces Mar-
ranos to return to Church of
Rome, 168; and condemns the
Bishop of Calahorra, 169.
Alexander VI. receives Jews into
States of the Church, i. 149.
Benedict XI. gives a General In-
dulgence to Inquisitors, i. 41.
Benedict XII.; the Beghards
sprang up in his pontificate,
i. 108.
Boniface VIII. secret examina-
;
tion prevails in his reign,i. 80.
Calixtus III. republishes crusade
in Lombardy, ii. 161.
Clement IV.; his decree against
heretics, i. 101.
Clement V. and Council of Vienne,
i. 102; crusade in Lom-
bardy, ii. 150.
Clement VII. renews severities in
France, i. 68; allows mitiga-
tion in Spain, 159; appoints
Inquisitors for the Nether-
lands, ii. 4; breaks faith with
New Christians in Portugal,
ii. 34.
Clement VIII. breaks faith with
New Christians in Portugal,
ii. 46; imposes a new confes-
sion of faith on Orientals, 97;
requires converts to abjure
the Sabbath, ibid.
Clement IX. protects Inquisitor
Nithard, i. 273.
Clement X. moved to lay re-
straint on Inquisitors in
Portugal, ii. 57; tries to pro-
tect secular clergy against
Inquisitors in India, ii. 110.
Clement XI. issues bull Unigenitus
against Quesnel, i. 75; re-
moves Inquisitors from Car-
tagena in America, ii. 29;
prohibits a Bible printed in
London, ibid.
+
Clement XIV. uses the Inquisition
against the Jesuits, ii. 317.
Gregory IX. exhorts to kill here-
354
INDEX.
POPES-Gregory IX.-(continued.)
tics, i. 39, 65; completes
what Innocent III. began,
120; burns the Talmud, 55.
Gregory X. persecutes the Jews,
ii. 270.
Gregory XI. burns the works of
Raymund Lully, i. 55; urges
King of France to persecute,
67; urges Inquisitors against
Italians, ii. 150; suppresses
books, 157.
Gregory XIII. approves the
Directorium of Eymeric and
Peña, i. 82; takes in hand
the case of Carranza, i. 252;
is first Prefect of Congregation
of Inquisition, ii. 207.
Gregory XV.: Jesuits at Rome,
and opinion of the miracul-
ous conception of the Virgin
Mary, i. 269; is an active
persecutor, ii. 223; plays
false with De Dominis, 252.
Gregory XVI. and Jesuits revive
the Marian Controversy, i. 269.
Honorius III. sanctions the Order
of Dominicans, i. 31; and
Familiars, 33.
Honorius IV. lays an interdict on
Parma, ii. 145.
Innocent III. : described by
Matthew Paris, i. 17; sends
out itinerant Inquisitors, 18;
an encyclical to all Popedom
against heretics, 19; urges
King of Hungary to fight the
Ban of Bosnia, 20; intrigues
with Kalo-John, of Bulgaria,
against the Paterini, 21;
rebukes Pedro of Aragon for
sparing heretics; commands
King of France to destroy
Jews, and furiously attacks
the Paterini, 22, seq.; founds
the Inquisition more per-
fectly, 24; sends brief to
Archbishops of Sens against
heretics, 59; reserves cases
to himself, 60.
Innocent IV. burns the Talmud,
i..55.
Innocent VIII. commands the
civil officers of Brescia to kill
heretics, and demands troops
to massacre in Savoy, ii. 165.
POPES-(continued.)
Innocent XI. is examined by
Inquisitors, ii. 261.
•
Innocent XII. condemns Jan-
senius, and silences the
controversy, i. 74.
John XXI. or XXII. urges Inqui-
sition in Lombardy, ii. 156.
John XXII. authorisesArchbishop
of Toulouse to degrade John
Philibert, i. 52.
Julius II. protects Hernando de
Talavera, i. 177.
Leo X. dispenses Ferdinand V.,
of Spain, from his oath to
restrain Inquisitors, i. 183;
issues a bull to maintain
orthodoxy, and restrains the
press, ii. 170.
Leo XII. rebuilds the prisons in
Rome, ii. 320.
Lucius III., fugitive, i. 12; lays
foundation for a future Inqui-
sition, 14.
Nicholas III. persecutes the Jews,
ii. 270.
Nicholas IV., gives power to break
Sanctuary, i. 66; overreaches
Venice, ii. 146.
Paul II. forbids translations of the
Bible, i. 124; reserves cases
to himself for absolution, ii.
162.
Paul III. incensed against Moris-
coes, i. 161; stealthily sets
up a Supreme Inquisition at
Rome, ii. 174; abolishes
chartered privileges, 178;
keeps close watch upon the
Jews, 179; induces Charles
V. (Emperor) to establish an
Inquisition in Sicily, ibid.
Paul IV. is resisted by Parliament
of Paris, i. 68; gives a brief
against Lutherans, 194;
surrenders Carranza to the
Inquisition, 244; joy, indig-
nation, and uproar at his
death, ii. 206.
Paul V. and miraculous concep-
tion of the Virgin Mary, i.
268; connives at cruelties in
India, ii. 98; makes overtures
to De Dominis, 251.
Pius IV. authorises prosecution
of Carranza, i. 244.
INDEX.
355
POPES-(continued.)
Pius V. builds a new palace for
the Inquisition, ii. 207; first,
Supreme Inquisitor, ibid.;
promotes Bartholomew mas-
sacre, 208; causes a Syrian
bishop to be sent captive to
Rome, 94; his severity, i. 98.
Pius VI. issues an edict against
the Jews, ii. 275, Appendix V.
Pius IX. wishes to enforce prohi-
bitory rules of the Fifth
Lateran Council, ii. 172.
Sixtus IV. empowers the King of
Spain to nominate Inquisi-
tors, i.130); revokes the power,
134; favours a jester, ii. 162.
Sixtus V. espouses the cause of
Jesuits, i. 258.
Urban VIII. persecutes Galileo,
ii. 243.
Population of Spain diminished,i.163.
Portugal: the Inquisition fell in
1821, ii. 86; defective Consti-
tution and penal code, ibid.
Post-office in Spain free to Inquisi-
tion, i. 284.
Practice of Spanish and Portuguese
Inquisitions varies, ii. 75, 76.
Priego (Marquis) breaks open In-
quisition at Cordova, i. 178.
Prince of the Peace in danger, i. 289.
Printing done within the Inquisition,
i. 340.
Prisiones, or Arrests, secret, i. 357.
Prison perpetual, i. 100.
Prisons, horrible, as seen by Gavazzi,
ii. 320.
Privileges, i. 111; exorbitant, 282.
Privileges of France opposed to
Inquisition, i. 81, n.
Prize-money offered to Inquisitors,
ii. 141.
Processions at Madrid, i. 297, 304.
Property of the victims to be found
out, i. 342.
Prosecution, i. 82.
Proselytes (Moorish), i. 157.
Protestant worship in consulates, i.
289.
Protestants to be specially examined,
i. 356.
Protestant princes exert favourable
influence, ii. 39.
Protestant Reformation, ii. 190.
Purgation canonical, i. 94.
QUAKER hung in Valencia in 1826,
i. 330.
Quakeress, two imprisoned in Malta,
ii. 312
QUEENS Mary of Hungary tries to
extirpate the sect of Anabap-
tists, ii. 6.
Christina, Governess of Spain, i.
331.
of Sweden patronises a quack,
ii. 268.
Quemadero built outside Seville, i.
134; the word explained, 203,
208.
Quesnel's notes on New Testament
condemned, i. 75.
Questions "unlearned" not to be
permitted, i. 5.
Quietists, ii. 258 seq.; two hundred
of them imprisoned,
spiritual
pressed, 262.
conferences
261;
sup-
RABBINICAL Writings to be sup-
pressed, ii. 278.
Rabbis forced to defile the Sabbath,
ii. 281.
Ramé (Louis), sufferings in America
and Spain, ii. 27.
Ramirez (Don Diego), Inquisitor of
Toledo, i. 246.
Raoul, a crafty clerk, i. 25.
Raymund of Castlenau, i. 7.
Raymund, last count of Toulouse,
his statutes, i. 38; burns eighty
persons at once, 39.
Raymund Fish, i. 52, 53.
Raymund of Peñaforte, i. 120.
Rayner and Guy, the friars, i. 18.
Rebels, i. 103.
Reconciliation to the Synagogue, ii.
277.
Reconciliations, i. 301, 307.
Reformation of Inquisition pro-
jected in vain, i. 289.
Reformation of religion influenced
by Jews in Spain, i. 124.
Refreshments for Inquisitors and
friends, i. 295.
Regla (Fray Juan de), a witness
against Carranza, i. 244.
Regnault (Francis) printed English
Bible in Paris, i. 70.
Rejudaization described, i. 192; ii
278.
356
INDEX.
Relajado or Relaxado, relaxed or
given over, i. 10.
Reservations to Pope for absolution,
ii. 162,
Restrictions vexatiously laid on
Jews, ii. 280.
Revenue of Holy Office aided by
public imposts, i. 197.
Ricci (Paolo) at Modena, ii. 229.
Rocaberti hunts witches, i. 278.
Rodezno, Inquisitor of Granada, i.
294.
Roger de Beziers declared traitor,
i. 9.
Roman Congregation of supreme
and universal Inquisition, ii.
172 seq.
Roman Inquisition restored in 1849,
ii. 224; extinguished in 1870, 3
Romano, a sorcerer, ii. 285.
Romans rebel and drive away the
328.
Pope, i. 12; burn down the
Inquisition, ii. 206.
Rome in terror of the Inquisition,
ii. 183.
Ross (Young Lord) betrays his
Governor to Roman Inquisitors,
ii. 219.
Rouen, inedited precepts of this
diocese, i. 64.
Royal sanction withdrawn
by
Charles I. of Spain, i. 190.
Rule (Dr.) driven from Spain by
Queen Christina, i. 331.
SAAVEDRA, the False of Portugal,
ii. 35.
Sabbath to be abjured in India, ii. 97.
Salas (Don Ramon de), i. 289.
Salcedo (Don Juan Gonzalez de)
prepares manuals for abjura-
tions, etc., i. 294.
Saltpetre, sulphur and gunpowder,
heretics may not purchase, i. 256.
Sambenito, i. 120, 184, 205.
Saracens first victims in Sicily, i.
20.
Sardinia, emissaries there from Do-
minic, i. 35.
Sarpi (Fra Paolo), ii. 215, 306.
Satan and a nun in compact, i. 269.
Scio (Padre), his translation of the
Bible, i. 290.
Scriptures (Holy) forbidden in the
Netherlands, ii. 2.
Secret of Inquisition after Council
of Toulouse, i. 37; essential,
80; maintained by Ximenez,
184.
Secret and capricious cruelty, ii. 78.
Secular Arm, i. 105; ii. 273.
Sentences at Toulouse, i. 44; exam-
ples, 46 seq.
Sephárad, or Spain, i. 124.
Sermon on Ecclus. xlviii., i. 38.
Sermon preached at Evora, ii. 46.
Sermon of the Faith, i. 203.
Sermon of the Faith (General), i.
42.
Sermon at Zaragoza, i. 275.
Servia, emissaries there from Do-
minic, i. 35.
Seville, entrance of Inquisition, i.
131; its fall, 320.
Ships searched for heresy, i. 256.
Sext Decretals, i. 101.
Sicily, fugitives find refuge there, ii.
145; rejects Spanish Inquisi-
tion, 169; succumbs to Philip
II., ii. 183.
Simeon, Nestorian Bishop, perishes
in a Portuguese convent, ii. 195.
Simon of Montfort lays waste coun-
ty of Toulouse, i. 29, 61.
Sincerity, a digression, i. 62.
Smugglers, i. 270.
Socinianism in Italy, ii. 183, 227.
Sodomy in Portugal, ii. 81.
Solano (Don Miguel), priest of Esco,
i. 289.
Soldiers of the Faith, i. 296.
Soto (Fray Pedro de), i. 248.
Spain exempted from direct control
of Roman Congregration, ii.
178.
Spain unwillingly received Inquisi-
tion, i. 130; first act of Supreme
Council, 131.
Spanish Americans discourage In-
quisitors, ii. 19.
Sphere of Sacrobosco, ii. 155.
Spies, i. 240.
"Spontaneous" self-accusation, i.
227.
St. John, an English merchant in
Spain, i. 267.
Standard of the Holy Office, i. 295.
Strangham saved with ship and
cargo, i. 268.
Subjects of jurisdiction, i. 109.
Sufferers in Spain, number esti-
mated, i. 290.
INDEX.
357
Sultan demands freedom for the
Moors, i. 158.
Supreme Council of Portuguese In-
quisition, ii. 35.
Supreme Council of Spanish Inquisi-
tion, i. 128.
Supreme Inquisitor, Pius V., ii. 207.
Suspicion, i. 26.
Synagogue (private) in Valencia
rased to the ground, i. 175.
Synagogues not to be entered by
Christians, ii. 280.
Syria, emissaries there from Do-
minic, i. 35.
Syriac Liturgies burnt in India, and
forbidden under pain of death,
ii. 96.
Swiss summarily expel a cardinal,
ii. 210.
TARRAGONA: the Cortes yield to
accept Inquisition, i. 135; re-
monstrants treated as hin-
derers, ibid.
Temporal power of the Popes, i. 15.
Ten Commandments fallen into dis-
use, ii. 278, n.
Teresa de Jesus (Santa) threatened,
i. 257.
Terra Firma: American continent,
i. 185; put under requisition,
ii. 15.
Theatre, i. 208, 296.
Thenuxtitlan, Junta of, ii. 14.
Theodosian Code, i. 2.
Thuanus, or De Thou, describes
Carranza, i. 252.
Toca, i. 352.
Tommaso Maria di Bologna, first su-
perintendent of printers,ii. 179.
Torquemada, i. 128 seq., 135; his
treatment of the Jews, 144; is
inexorable, 147; number of his
victims, 150; fears assassina-
tion, ibid.
Torralba (Doctor Eugenio) spirited
away by the Devil, ii. 287.
Torture, i. 91 seg.; Juan de Salas,
189, 339 seq.
Toulouse, i. 4; Count of, 7; Inquisi-
tion of, 36 seq.; Council of, 36;
instructions of this Council,
ii. 275.
Trampazo, ii. 347.
Tratto di corda, ii. 23, n.
Trent, Council of, ii. 175, 186.
Triana, Castle of, i. 132.
Tribunal of the Faith, i. 330 seq.;
extinct in Spain, 338.
Turenne (Viscount of), i. 7.
Twenty privileges of France op-
posed to Inquisition, i. 81, n.
Tuscany, Ferdinand, Grand Duke,
delivers up Galileo to Inquisi-
tion, ii. 245; Pietro Leopoldo,
Grand Duke, suppresses the
Inquisition, ii. 317.
UNIVERSAL Inquisition established
in 1542 by Pope Paul III.,
ii. 174.
Urquijo, Prime Minister of Charles
IV. of Spain, i. 289.
Usury, a civil offence, ii. 309.
VALDÉS, Inquisitor-General, tries to
save a prisoner but cannot,i.229.
VALENCIA Mohammedanism sup-
pressed, i. 162.
Valentino (Bonifacio), ii. 231.
Valentino (Doctor Filippo), ii. 231.
Valladolid, the Cortes appeal, i. 107.
Vaz, Vicar-General of the Indies,
plots with Xavier to displace
the Viceroy, ii. 89.
Vecino (José) imprisoned in Madrid,
i. 257.
Venegas (Don Pedro), a Spanish
patriot, i. 237.
Venetian independence, ii. 305.
Venetian magistrates violently per-
secute, ii. 180.
Venice first Inquisitors, ii. 138;
rejects Spanish Inquisition,
170; quarrels with the Pope,
and is reconciled, 215.
Vespiniani, Count and Countess,
ii. 260.
Viceroy of Sicily, Marcantonio Co-
lonna, keeps down the Inqui-
sitors, ii. 300 seq.; is dis-
missed by Philip II., 304.
Viceroy of Sicily, Marquis of Terra
Nova, required by Prince of
Spain to suffer penance, ii. 298.
Viceroys (Spanish) in America ap-
peal against Inquisition, ii. 16.
VICTIMS: Aguiar (Antonio de),
Lisbon, ii. 69.
Albano (Pietro di), Padua,ii. 154.
Algieri (Pomponio), Rome, ii. 184.
358
INDEX.
VICTIMS (continued.)
Aranda (Pedro de), Rome, ii. 169.
Arellano (Fra Cristobal de), and
his two brothers, Seville, i.
219.
Arias (Fra Garcia de), Seville, i.
218.
Arias (Pedro Garcias de), Mexico,
ii. 26.
Ascoli (Francesco di), see Cecco.
Asuero a German so called,
Bologna, ii. 223.
Atahalla, a Nestorian bishop,
Goa, ii. 99.
Atkins (Richard), Rome, ii. 201.
Augustinian Friar, Sicily, ii. 304.
Backer (John), Antwerp, ii. 8.
Baena (Doña Isabel de), Seville,
i. 217.
Baez (Gonsalo), Valladolid, i. 214.
Beata, or female devotee, name
unknown, Seville, i. 235.
Blasquez (Juana), Valladolid, i.
214.
Bohorqués (Doña Juana de), Se-
ville, i. 223.
Bohorqués (Doña Maria de), Se-
ville, i. 223.
Bois (L'Abbé du), Rome, ii. 220.
Brook (William), Seville, i. 235.
Bruno (Giordano), Rome, ii. 233.
Burges (Mark), Lisbon, ii. 45.
Burton (Nicholas), Seville, i. 233.
Carnesecchi (Pietro), Rome, ii.
199.
Castro (Alexo de), Mexico, ii. 23.
Cazalla (Doctor Agustin), Valla-
dolid, i. 211.
Cazalla (Doña Beatriz de Vibero),
Valladolid, i. 213.
Cazalla (Francisco de Vibero),
Valladolid, i. 212.
Cazalla (Pedro de), Valladolid,
i. 226.
Cecco, (properly called Francesco
di Ascoli), Florence, ii. 154.
Cernon (Hugo de), Toulouse, i. 46.
Champ de Finistrelles (Hugo),
Turin, ii. 165.
Chaves (Francisca), Seville, i. 233.
Conceição (Maria da), Lisbon,
ii. 40.
Correa (Donha Margarida), Lis-
bon, ii. 72.
Da Costa (Antonio Tavares),
Lisbon, ii. 72.
VICTIMS-(continued.)
De Dominis (Marcantonio), Rome,
ii. 249.
Domenico (Fra), companion of
Savonarola, Florence, ii. 167.
Domenico, Piacenza, ii. 183.
Dulcino, and Margarita his wife,
Vercelli, ii. 150.
Englishman, Mexico, ii. 18.
Englishman, Rome, ii. 211.
Englishmen (Fourteen), Mexico,
ii. 27.
Enriquez (Diogo Ruiz), Lisbon,
ii. 71.
Estor (John), Lord of Bizard,
Vilvorde, ii. 9.
Estrada (Isabel de), Valladolid,
i. 213.
Ex-monk, the Hague, ii. 9.
Fabiano di Mileto (Fra Tom-
maso), Rome, ii. 196.
Fabienne (Barthélemi), Seville, i.
235.
Family of six persons, Limburg,
ii. 9.
Faunio, Florence, ii. 183.
Fernandez (Julian), Seville, i. 232.
Fernando (Fray), Seville, i. 231.
Fleming, Rome, ii. 211.
Fonseca (Don Miguel Henriques
da), Lisbon, ii. 69.
Foscherati (Egidio), Bishop of
Modena, Rome, ii. 194.
Frenchman, Mexico, iì. 18.
Gambia (Francisco), Como, ii. 183.
Garcia (Juan), Valladolid, i. 214.
Gardiner (William), Lisbon, ii.
40.
Geltrudes, Benedictine nun,
Sicily, ii. 304.
Gomez (Leonor), Seville, i. 235.
Gomez (Lucia), Seville, i. 235.
Gomez (Teresa), Seville, i. 235.
Gonzalez (Don Juan), and his two
sisters, Seville, i. 217.
Guevara (Doña Marina de),
Valladolid, i. 227.
Guirlanda (Giovanni), Venice, ii.
185.
Herrera (Perez de), Valladolid,
i. 214.
Herrezuelo (Antonio), Vallado-
lid, i. 213.
Lambert (William), Mexico, ii. 26.
Leon (Fray Juan de), Seville,
i. 220.
INDEX.
359
VICTIMS (continued.)
Lozada (Doctor Christóbal de),
Seville, i. 221.
Lutheran Student in the Roman
College, Roman Galleys, ii.
192.
Malagrida (Gabriel), a Jesuit,
Lisbon, ii. 84.
Manfredi (Fulgenzio), Rome, ii.
216.
Medina (Don Gabriel Luis de),
Lisbon, ii. 70.
Men (three), Arras, ii. 9.
Mileto (Fra Tommaso Fabiano
di), Rome, ii. 196.
Molinos (Miguel), Rome, ii. 258.
Molle (Mr. John), Rome, ii. 219.
Monk and two women, Seville,
i. 235.
Monks (two Augustinian) Ant-
werp, ii. 8.
Montalcino (Giovanni di), Rome,
ii. 183.
Morcillo, a monk of St. Isidore,
Seville, i. 221.
Morellos (Josef María), Mexico
ii. 30.
Morgan (John), Mexico, ii. 26.
Nestorians without number, Goa,
ii. 95.
Nuñez (Elvira), Seville, i. 235.
Ocampo (Don Cristóbal de),
Valladolid, i. 213.
Officers, fourteen, Vera Cruz,
ii 26.
Ortega (Doña Catalina de), Val-
ladolid, i. 214.
Padilla (Cristóbal de), Vallado-
lid, i. 213.
Paleario (Aonio), Rome, ii. 203.
Pascal (Luigi), Rome, ii. 184.
Pereire (Gaspar Lopez), Lisbon,
ii. 69.
Perez (Alfonso), Valladolid, i.
213.
Philibert (John), i. 49.
Pineda (Doctor Juan Perez de),
Seville, i. 230.
Ponce de la Fuente (Doctor Con-
stantino), Seville, i. 230.
Ramé (Louis), Mexico, ii. 26.
Ramos (Diogo), Lisbon, ii. 71.
Reyes (Gaspar de los), Mexico,
ii. 21.
Reynolds (Thomas), Rome, ii. 201.
Ricetto (Antonio), Venice, ii. 185.
VICTIMS-(continued.)
Rojas (Fra Domingo), Valladolid,
i. 226.
Roman (Catalina), Valladolid,
i. 214.
Roussière (Hippolito), Turin, ii.
165.
Ruiz (Ana), Lisbon, ii. 71.
Ruiz (Gregorio), Seville, i. 218.
Sailor, name unknown, Antwerp,
ii. 8.
Salvestro (Fra), companion of
Savonarola, Florence, ii. 167.
Sanchez (Domingo), Valladolid,
i. 226.
Sanchez (Juan), and nine others,
Valladolid, i. 226.
San Juan (Fernando de), Seville,
i. 221.
San Roman (Francisco), Valla-
dolid, i. 238.
Santa Cruz (Josef Fray de),
Mexico, ii. 22.
Savonarola (Girolamo), ii. 166.
Sebastian (Domingo), Mexico,
ii. 23.
Sega (Francesco), Venice, ii. 185.
Sagarelli (Giraldi), Parma, ii. 148.
Sequeyra (Maria Lopez da), Lis-
bon, ii. 72.
Serraon (Pedro), Lisbon, ii. 69.
Sesso (Don Carlo di), Valladolid,
i. 225.
Spinola (Francesco), Fenice, ii.185.
Tertian (Giordano), Susa, ii. 165.
Thomas -, a native of Plymouth,
Mexico, ii. 27.
Thousand (three), persons in the
valley of Frassinière, ii. 165.
Thousands uncounted in the
streets of Naples, ii. 182.
Thousands (many scores of) in
the Netherlands, ii. 10.
Tindal (William) Vilvorde, ii. 9.
Treccio (Galeazzo), in the Milan-
ese, ii. 183.
Van Esche (John), Antwerp, ii. 8.
Varaglia, a converted Capuchin,
Turin, ii. 184.
Vertelperio (Vincent), and his
wife, Toulouse, i. 49.
Vibero (Doña Leonor de), Valla-
dolid, i. 211.
Voes (Henry), Antwerp, ii. 8.
Woman not named, the Hague,
ii. 9.
360
INDEX.
1
}
VICTIMS (continued.)
Women at time of childbirth,
Holland, ii. 9.
Xuares (Ana), Mexico, ii. 24.
Zanetti (Giulio), Rome, ii. 199.
Vieyra (Antonio), Jesuit Missioner,
ii. 48, 50; revenges himself on
Inquisition, 55.
Villanueva (Don Joaquin Lorenzo),
honourably mentioned, i. 290.
Villavicencio, a spy in England,
i. 240.
Villegas, Inquisitor of Cordova,
i. 293.
Visconti (Matteo), Lord of Milan,
offends the Pope, ii 147.
Viscount of Turenne, i. 7.
Visitor of the Holy Office, i. 255.
Viterbo the Pope sends an army
thence against Capello di
Chiana, ii. 144.
Vivarrambla (Square of), scene of
the first general Auto at Gra-
nada, i. 165.
WADESWORTH, Chaplain of British
Embassy at Madrid, perverted,
i. 270.
Waldenses to be forcibly converted,
i. 18; prayers before and after
meat, 48, n.
Waldensian
Church; ineffectual
endeavour to extirpate it, ii.
161.
Waldensian Manuscript, i. 58, n.
Wellesley (Sir Henry), British Am-
bassador in Madrid resists In-
quisition, i. 329.
Wetherell (Mr. Nathan), of Seville,
i. 320, 327; he and his son John
examined, 328.
White Cross, i. 300.
:
Witchcraft its reality doubted, ii.
283; a civil offence, 309.
Witches bewitch Charles II., of
Spain, i. 278.
Witnesses, i. 84 seq.
Women: a company of them ex-
hibited as penitents in Flo-
rence, ii. 181.
Wylson (Dr. Thomas), imprisoned
at Rome; secretary of State to
Queen Elizabeth, ii. 194.
XAVIER (Francisco), implores King
of Portugal to send Inquisitors
to India, ii. 89.
Ximenez (Francisco de Cisneros),
at Court, i. 155; will not have
Bible translated, 155; his way
of making proselytes, ibid.;
provokes insurrection, 157;
protects Hernando de Talavera,
177; is made Inquisitor General
of Castile, 180; uses Inquisition
for government, 181; divides
Castile into inquisitorial pro-
vinces, 182; is Cardinal of Spain,
Governor of all royal dominions,
and Archbishop of Toledo, ibid.;
invades Africa, ibid.; his death
and his victims, 186.
YOUNG (John), an English Papist,
persecutes Englishmen in Rome,
ii. 203.
Yuste, Monastery of, ii. 10.
ZAFRA (Francisco de) burnt in effigy,
i. 217.
Zamarra, i. 205,302.
Zaragoza two Autos de Fé, i. 135;
Pedro Arbues assassinated, 136;
Secretary of Cortes imprisoned,
188; a sermon of the Faith de-
livered, 275.
Zeal alone no proof of piety, i. 62.
Zechiel name assumed by a pre-
tended angel, ii. 288.
Zegri, imprisoned and converted, i.
156.
Zitaron, ii. 198.
Zogoybi. See Abdilèhi.
Zumarraga, Bishop of Mexico, writes
to Philip II. for directions, ii.
14.
WERTHEIMER, LEA AND CO., PRINTERS, FINSBURY CIRCUS,

'
!
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
3 9015 06928 4050
ON
.ATING