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 ACCOUNT 
 
 OF TttAT 
 
 CrntimtJoiis Crtbuiial, 
 
 FOUNDED ON AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS; 
 ATD EXHiBrrnfG 
 
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 AS A MEA\S OF REFORM AXD REGESERAFIOS'. 
 
 WEITTEX AND PrSLISHED AT A TIME WHZX THE KATIONAL 
 C0NGBZ5S OF SPAIN WAS ABOUT TO DELIBERATE OX 
 THIS IMPOBTANT MEASCEE, 
 BY 
 
 D. ANTONIO PUIGBLANCH. 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE AUTHOR S ENLARGED COPY, 
 BY 
 
 WILLIAM WALTON, Esa- 
 
 VOL I. 
 
 LOXDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AXD JOT. 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW ; 
 
 AND J. BOOTH, DUKE-STREET, PORTLAND-PLACE. 
 1S16,
 
 C. Baldwin, Printer, 
 New Bridge-atreet, tondon.
 
 v.i 
 
 TO 
 
 HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS 
 
 THF. 
 
 DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, 
 
 Sfc. Sfc. 8fc. 
 
 X HE exalted manner in which Your Royal 
 Highness has ever been distinguished as the 
 active friend of humanity, and the zealous ad- 
 vocate of liberal principles in every quarter of 
 the globe, has made me desirous of obtaining 
 Your Royal Highness's patronage for the Eng- 
 lish edition of a work which most contributed 
 to overthrow the Inquisition in Spain — an oc- 
 currence more remarkable, if not so interesting, 
 as the abolition of the Slave Trade in our own 
 country ; for though the victims of the one 
 were fewer, its theory and practice were no less 
 shocking to humanity than opposed to the 
 moral acquirements of the day. 
 a 2
 
 IV DEDICATION. 
 
 No one would have rejoiced more cordially 
 than Your Royal Highness if that triumph had 
 been lasting: still the annals of the event, and 
 the means by which it was achieved, are sub- 
 jects of the deepest interest to every one, and 
 must be particularly so to Your Royal High- 
 ness. This consideration alone has induced 
 me to solicit the present honour, which, whilst 
 it confers on me an obligation, affords me the 
 opportunity of expressing the profound respect 
 and veneration with which 
 
 I am 
 
 Your Royal Highness's 
 Most obedient and humble Servant, 
 WILLIAM WALTON. 
 
 Oct. I, 18IC.
 
 TRANSLATOR'S 
 PRELIiMINARY REMARKS. 
 
 In contemplating the rapid growth of the free prin- 
 •ciples which, like a volcanic eruption, burst forth from 
 the French revolution, it was prophetically observed, 
 " that Church Power (unless some revolution auspi- 
 cious to priestcraft should replunge Europe in igno- 
 rance) would not survive the nineteenth century ; " 
 and certainly no political prediction was ever nearer 
 its acooraplisliment, when the late events in the Pen- 
 insula opened upon us. At the time Napoleon had 
 matured his plans for the invasion of Spain, that 
 country exhibited the most abject state of political 
 and religious torpor and debasement, and the people 
 had acquired a settled habit of passive obedience and 
 •slothful profligacy, from which it seemed impossible 
 to rouse them. A principle of degeneracy had spread 
 over the general face of public manners : the mass of 
 the nation, immersed in ignorance and superstition, 
 represented the picture of a people neither knowing 
 their faculties nor their wants ; and, such had been 
 the system and successful efforts of their rulers, that, 
 far from promising any thing of that courage and 
 perseverance which afterwards impelled them manfully 
 to resist the insidious invasion of an cuetny, iheir
 
 Vi PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 energies appeared to have so much crouched under 
 the dark shade of despotism, as to induce little hope 
 that their imminent danger, or the stimulus of a fo- 
 reign alliance, would be able to make them act on the 
 impulse of national resentment, or rouse them to re- 
 pel the wrongs and indignities with which they were 
 assailed. 
 
 Charles IV. a weak and inactive prince, had then 
 governed about eighteen years ; but, subservient to an 
 intriguing and dissipated wife, and guided only by a 
 corrupt and ambitious minister, his reign had been 
 distinguished by no act that could endear his name to 
 posterity, or tend to solace the reverses of fortune 
 which awaited him. On ascending the throne, he 
 found that despotic and illiberal system in force which 
 had gradually extinguished the martial spirit of the 
 nation, overturned the fi'ee principles and constitu- 
 tional charters possessed" by most of the provinces 
 prior to the reign of Philip II., and broken down the 
 bulwarks of civil freedom, so long the peculiar boast 
 of Aragon and Navarre. Unaware of that evident 
 truth, that the safeguard of a monaixh's throne is 
 founded on the love he inspires and the good he has 
 done, the preceding rulers of Spain had erected their 
 power on the ignorance of their subjects and the de- 
 gradation of the human mind ; and Charles, devoid of 
 sufficient energy or discernment to deviate from the 
 footsteps of his ancestors, was seemingly fearful of 
 placing his kingdom on a level with those which had 
 profited by the improvements of the age. Acting in 
 the fullest sense on the principle that sovereignty is of 
 divine institution and that the people possess no rights, 
 the cultivation of those arts which embellish, ennoble, 
 and preserve human life had been prevented ; the en- 
 joyment of those studies which enlarge the faculties,
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. VU 
 
 atsuage the fiercer passions, and soften the manners 
 of a nation, had been proscribed ; till at last, absurd 
 prejudices, taught in the schools and preached from 
 the pulpit, liad led the mass of the people to believe 
 that civil liberty, instead of a blessing, was a curse ; 
 and that to pronounce it8 name was a crime punish- 
 able with the severest anger of Heaven. 
 
 The remembrance of the proud days of Spain 
 seemed obliterated — enterprize and martial glory had 
 lost their attractions — the possession of the new 
 world had introduced effeminacy; riches, acquired 
 without toil and divided only among a few persons, 
 had engendered habits of luxury and corruption, 
 whilst it appeared to be the chief aim of the court and 
 nobility to forget the exalted and dignified character 
 formerly attached to the Spanish name, and to cause 
 the nation to assume no other than the supple and fri- 
 volous refinements of Italian manners introduced by 
 the queen. Hence the arts and sciences, which had 
 made so rapid a progress in other parts of Europe, 
 were stationary in Spain, or only pursued in the 
 greatest seclusion ; nor wei*e any other improvements 
 attempted than those which the caprice or passions 
 of a profligate minister thought proper to dictate. 
 Thus, whilst the retainers of the crown wallowed in 
 riches, their tenants and all the lower orders were de- 
 pressed by indigence, and debased by a total want of 
 instruction; nor did the scanty produce of their la- 
 bours seem their own, it served rather to feed the 
 pampered appetites of their lords, or to be absorbed 
 in the monastic burdens of the state. The public re- 
 venues, destined for the defence or melioration of the 
 country, were spent in ostentatious magnificence; 
 often wrested from a wretched peasantry or the 
 shackled and unprotected merchant, they were Ik-
 
 Viii PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 vished by the hand of fanatical zeal, or appropriated 
 to support the luxury of men in power. A handful 
 of privileged nobles and favourites were every thing, 
 and the people nothing. Consideration, power, with 
 enjoyments of every kind, fell to the lot of the former, 
 whilst the latter had to endure hardships, contumely, 
 and servile obedience, without being allowed to re- 
 monstrate. Neither talents, courage, nor virtue, 
 could fill up the immense distance placed between the 
 only two existing classes of the community. 
 
 Religion itself had been made subservient to politi- 
 cal purposes and base and selfish interests, or was 
 only known by the increasing profligacy of its minis- 
 ters. The legislative, executive, and judiciary powers, 
 were held by the same hand — the administration of 
 justice confided to venal minions — the judges, under 
 regal or ministerial influence and open to corruption, 
 were no longer the protectors of right and innocence 
 against unfeeling and unprincipled power ; whilst a 
 systematic plan of superstition and pious fraud had 
 poisoned all the sources of religious truth and mo- 
 lality, and tainted the general mass of society with li- 
 centiousness and vice. The preposterous union of 
 civil with ecclesiastical authority had armed the min- 
 isters of the altar with weapons of vengeance, and em- 
 powered them to enforce their precepts by appealing 
 to a penal code the most monstrous and cruel that 
 was ever invented. In brief, bent down by a long 
 series of tyrannic acts, even at the beginning of the 
 present century, Spaniards appeared as a herd of cat- 
 tle, formed only to comply with the caprices of their 
 piasters, and to supply their wants. 
 
 Nor was this state of things confined to European 
 Spain. In the discoveries of the great Columbus 
 every thing liberal was under a general interdict, and
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. IS 
 
 a similarly degraded and benighted system existed in 
 defiance of reason and reiterated remonstrances. 
 The pressure of laws the most restrictive was there 
 severely felt by the community ; the various sections 
 were compelled to endure the galling trammels of a 
 government in which the inhabitants had no share, 
 and against which they could not appeal — a govern- 
 ment wielded by men foreign to their interests and en- 
 joying the emoluments of extortionate acts, at tlie same 
 time that they were stained by every species of fraud 
 and corruption. The people were thus held submie- 
 sive to rapacious and vindictive tyrants at whose plea- 
 sure the laws were either superseded or perverted ; nor 
 did they possess any means of counteracting the dark 
 and dishonest intrigues of men sent among them for 
 the sole purpose of improving their fortunes in a 
 given period of time, and consolidating a conquest 
 vi^hich had been one continued series of indiscrimi- 
 nate war and plunder, whereby the country was 
 wrested from its ancient possessors and their descend- 
 ants. 
 
 Such was the picture exhibited b}' the Spanish mo- 
 narchy, when the ruler of France threw oft' the mask 
 of friendship, and entrapped the several members of 
 the Royal Family. The nation was without fleets, 
 armies, treasury, or arsenals ; public credit was ex- 
 tinct; a considerable debt had accunudated; the pi'ess 
 ^as broken ; the strongest fortresses were already in 
 possession of the enemy ; and, as a leading Spanish 
 state^an of the day observed, " one of the most fa- 
 tal symptoms under which the revolution of Spain 
 early appeared, and which generally gave rise to the 
 most sad prognostics respecting the issue of a resis- 
 tance to the immense power by which the country 
 was invaded, was, that the reputations of all IkkI been
 
 X PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 rendered suspicious to the nation. The private coun- 
 cil of the King, his ministers, the superior ti'ibunals, 
 the council of state, finally, every public man at that 
 time placed in the higher hierarchy of government, 
 had lost the confidence of the people." * 
 
 In such a situation, how then was it possible to 
 render the Spanish nation effective, and capable of 
 repelling the numerous armies by which it was attack- 
 ed, when, besides, its leading characters, chiefly the 
 nobles or higher orders of the clergy, had already 
 joined the enemy ? How was it possible to suspend, if 
 not remove, the deadly effects of a despotism that had 
 chilled the finest feelings of the heart, and enervated 
 the best qualities of the mind ? How was it possible 
 to find resources for the tremenduous strugffle" about 
 to ensue ? Certainly this was only to be done by re- 
 form, by reviving the fallen spirits of the nation, and 
 by giving to it a form of government legal, po- 
 pular, and substantial. Sunk from her rank in the 
 scale of nations, exhausted and invaded by a power- 
 ful foe, it was necessary for Spain to emerge from 
 the debased state into which she had been plunged, 
 and to dispel the dark gloom in which her inhabi- 
 tants had been so long enveloped. It was essential 
 to rouse and to inspire energies and confidence. 
 And was this to be done in any other way than by 
 assembling the Cortes, the ancient representative go- 
 vernment of the Country, enthusiastically revered by 
 all the least versed in the annals of Spanish history, 
 and of which the nation had only been deprived by 
 despotic and arbitrary power ? 
 
 In seeking, therefore, to re-establish the liberty and 
 independence of the nation in a legal manner, it was 
 
 * Memoria dc Azanza y O-Farrill, sobre los Iicchos que justi- 
 fican su conducta politica, ilosde Marzode 1808, hasta Abril, 1814.
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. xi 
 
 necessary to recur to the ancient legislation of the 
 realm, and to examine the fundamental statutes of 
 Aragon, Navarre, and Castile. In the grand charter 
 called the Fiiero Jusgo^ which regulates the rights of 
 the nation, king, and people, the sovereignty of the 
 lattey is expressly laid down ; and one of its principal 
 clauses ordains that the crown is elective, and that no 
 king can reign till he has been acknowledged by the 
 bishops, grandees, and people, that is, by their re- 
 presentatives. It further establishes that the laws are 
 to be enacted by the delegates of the people, con^ 
 jointly with the king, and that the latter has no au- 
 thority but in conformity to the laws. The princi- 
 palities of Aragon, Navarre, and Castile, had their 
 respective Cortes or parliaments, which made laws, 
 declared war, and granted money. These bodies 
 constituted the legislative, and the king the executive 
 authority. 
 
 In Aragon, whose institutions were freer than those 
 of Castile, the laws were anciently promulgated with 
 this remarkable heading; " The King, ly the luill of 
 the Cortes f ordains,'' &'c ; and in 1283, under Peter 
 III. it was decreed " that the king should assemble 
 the Cortes once in each year. " Another more recent 
 law enacted by John II. in 14.18, is as follows. 
 " Whereas in the' arduous cases occurring in our 
 kingdoms, the advice of our subjects and people is 
 necessary, especially of the representatives of the 
 cities, towns, and districts of our said kingdoms, 
 wherefore we ordain and command that respectino- all 
 great and arduous emergencies, Cortes shall be as- 
 sembled, and measures adopted through the counsel 
 of the three estates of the realm, as the kings our 
 predecessors did. " * 
 
 » Vide El Especulo, Ley 5, Tit. 16, Lib, ?.-Also Leves de Castilla, 
 Ley 3. Tit. 15. Part II,, et alibi.
 
 XU PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Numerous other passages of a similar nature might 
 be quoted from the fundamental statutes of the realm, 
 tending to prove that, during the prevalence of na- 
 tional calamities, or when the monarch died leaving 
 his son under age, not only custom but the laws 
 themselves prescribed that the lost authority should 
 be replaced by a meeting of the popular representa- 
 tives, the result of whose deliberations should have the 
 force of law. So sacred even in Spanish legislation 
 and history had been that same principle which placed 
 the Brunswick family on the throne of England, and 
 so well established the acknowledged axiom of the 
 chief magistrate holding his authority from the peo- 
 ple, that, in 1452, John II. of Aragon was deposed by 
 the Cortes, as well as Henry IV. of Castile in 1465, in 
 consequence of his mal-practices and administration. 
 Under the minority of John II. the Cortes of Toledo 
 deliberated whether the crown ought not to be trans- 
 ferred to his uncle Ferdinand, in which case the de- 
 puties of the nation founded themselves on the right 
 of rejecting or attainting the king, whenever he had 
 given sufficient room for such a measure. 
 
 True it is that the despotic efforts of successive 
 monarchs, as well as the ignorance of the times, had 
 shrouded the ancient usages of the realm in obscurity, 
 and its fundamental statutes were known only to the 
 learned few ; but still they existed and were on record, 
 notwithstanding the late governments had purposely 
 prohibited the perusal of the history of the Cortes, as 
 well as of every thing else that could remind the nation 
 of its primitive rights. The original constitutions oi 
 the various pi-ovinces were scarcely to be found but in 
 the secluded archives or in the works of old conmien- 
 tators, nevertheless they had not been repealed, nor 
 was there any act on the part of the people by which 
 they had been alienated or abandoned. Since the
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. Kltt 
 
 time of the Emperor Charles V. and his immediate 
 successor, they had not indeed been in actual force, 
 but oppression and arbitrary power alone had caused 
 tlieir exercise to cease. 
 
 Hence it appears that the assumption of despotic 
 power by Spanish kings evidently had grown out of 
 an abuse of authority ; if so, the people were doubt- 
 less authorized to claim that of which they had been 
 forcibly dispossessed, and to fix such limits to the 
 power exercised over them as their happiness re- 
 quired. Our own political writers have ever been 
 proud to maintain tliat, in order to prove civil obedi- 
 ence to be a moral duty and obligation on the part of 
 the subject, a compact must exist between the latter 
 and the state, as a ground for the relations of both. 
 In no other than this compact can the rights of mo- 
 narchs originate ; nor is Spain an exception to the ge- 
 neral rule, since government can only be instituted for 
 the benefit of the community and not of the indivi- 
 dual. Kings, consequently, are no other than the 
 trustees of the people, " whose rights" as Lord 
 Lansdowne observes, " are born with every man in 
 every country and exist in all alike, despotic as well 
 as free, though they may not be equally easy to re- 
 cover in all." 
 
 No further commentary is necessary to explain and 
 substantiate the particular point in view, viz. that under 
 the peculiar dilemma in which the Spanish monarchy 
 was placed at the time referred to, no form of govern- 
 ment but that of the Cortes was legal, adequate to 
 the existing emergency, capable of giving that union 
 and energy necessary to the health of the body poli- 
 tic, and of introducing a reform such as the country 
 urgently required. It is moreover clear that it was 
 conformable to the dispensations of the ancient and
 
 KIV PflfiLrMlNARl RfiMARkS 
 
 fundamental statutes of the realm, such as they ex- 
 isted in the proudest days of Spain, when the leading 
 and material parts of national legislation were enacted 
 by the general suffrage of a free people. That the 
 adoption of the measure answered the end in view, 
 as far as the circumstances of the country would 
 admit, is proved by the result of the war, and the 
 manner in which the political aspect of the country 
 was changed. The efforts of the new legislature 
 would certainly have been crowned with a much 
 larger portion of success, if its labours had been se- 
 conded by more cultivated habits and regular and 
 correct ideas on the part of the people at large ; had 
 they been supported by a national sense of subordi- 
 nation, enlightened integrity and disinterestedness; 
 and above all, aided by those characteristics arising 
 out of a discreet sj'stem of education, moral, politi- 
 cal and religious, which can only be the work of time. 
 During the short existence of the Cortes, the struc- 
 ture and symmetry of the political edifice had never- 
 theless assumed a totally different aspect, the strength 
 of the nation was invigorated, its revenues more thaii 
 doubled, a spirit of investigation and free inquiry was 
 encouraged, a better administration of justice or- 
 ganized, and, aided by good schools and the liberty 
 of the press, a proper influence and tendency would 
 rapidly have been called forth to form those habits 
 and principles of action which regenerate and give 
 power and effect to a more enlightened order of 
 things. 
 
 The new system of legislation, adopted and promul- 
 gated by the Cortes, possibly required some altera- 
 tions and improvements ; in some partial cases it might 
 have been theoretical, and the government thereby 
 established was perhaps not exactly such as it was 
 4
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. XV 
 
 desirable to attain. But, on emerging from a most 
 abject state of degradation, and amidst the din of arms 
 and revolutionary confusion, how was it possible for 
 perfect wisdom immediately to prevail ? Wisdom 
 does not dwell among ruins and tempests; and the 
 transition from despotism to liberty is never the 
 season for absolute perfection. In periods of popular 
 effervescence and national disti'ess, heightened by in- 
 furiated superstition and a degeneracy of the moral 
 faculty, it was difficult to cause the passions entirely 
 to subside, or to soothe the exasperated feelings of 
 the disappointed. It was an arduous task to restore 
 perfect order amidst the incursions of a powerful and 
 active enemy, and to introduce a protecting and fos- 
 tering system of policy on the ruins of that restrictive 
 and oppressive one which had wearied the pride and 
 patience of the people for a long series of years, when 
 many of the powerful from interest and a blinded pre- 
 judice were besides opposed to a change. A restless 
 commotion existed in Spain, though greatly moderated 
 by the general object of self-defence, and the human 
 passions can never be let loose, however partially, 
 without producing some ravages and exacerbations. 
 In the collision of parties, blind fury, moreover, is not 
 apt to discriminate or appreciate the labours of the 
 legislator, particularly if they wear the aspect of 
 novelty. 
 
 Such, in fact, is the sad lot of all nations, and if it 
 was the case in Spain, the fault cannot be attributed 
 to the Cortes. As a body, they proved themselves 
 faithful to their allies in the momentous cause in 
 which they were engaged, and to the last acted as the 
 firm advocates of the people's rights and the guardians 
 of their country's honour. They gave the first im- 
 pulse and unerring direction to those efforts, which so
 
 XVI PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 greatly contributed to the common cause; as legisla- 
 tors they have left a monument of their enlightened 
 zeal and practical capacity in the new national code 
 of laws, and if they had done no more than effect the 
 destruction of the -Inquisition, the main object at 
 present in view, most assuredly they would have de- 
 served the warmest gratitude of posterity. 
 
 If the excellence of laws, or even their comparative 
 merit, is to be known by the more beneficial effects 
 they produce on the community, may it not be asked 
 whether any contrast can be formed of the situation 
 9f Spain prior to the revolution, and the period when 
 the authority of the country was admmistered by the 
 new legislature ? The enactments of that august body 
 brought about a salutary alteration in all ranks of 
 society, and a most important improvement was soon 
 perceptible in the government as well as the people. 
 The state and general structure of society, as well as 
 the relative situations of the community at large, ac- 
 quired a new bias ; the principles of modern science 
 were introduced ; and the lower orders, hitherto pre- 
 cluded from those pursuits which sweeten and embel- 
 lish civilized life, now found the means of protection, 
 redress, and advancement ; and for the first time felt 
 that they were free members of a society governed by 
 definite laws, and no longer condemned to drag the 
 miserable existence of feudal vassals. 
 
 The people of Spain, at the time to which we allude, 
 undoubtedly considered reform as the second grand 
 object for which they were fighting: this alone ren- 
 dered their country worth defending, and it is evident 
 from subsequent events, that had they conceived the 
 most distant idea of a return to their ancient degra- 
 dation, and that as a reward for all their exertions 
 they Averc again to become the objects of incessant 
 7
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. XVU 
 
 violence, the bright and animating flame which burst 
 forth on the opening of their glorious struggle would 
 have been extinguished, and early despondence ren- 
 dered general. It was the hope and growing opera- 
 tion of this reform that then produced a greater com- 
 bination of energies ; and under the administration of 
 the Cortes Spain was fast confirming the political 
 axiom, that in human nature there is a reforming 
 principle which ultimately corrects and amends dege- 
 neracy ; and that nations often pass from a state of 
 vicious effeminacy and mental torpor to an enthusiasm 
 that gradually regenerates every virtue. 
 
 This much has been premised respecting the late 
 Spanish Cortes, in the first place, for the purpose of 
 evincina; that under the existing emergencies of the 
 country this was the only legal and efficient form of 
 government that could be resorted to; and in the 
 second, that this was the only constitutional authority 
 that could revive the ancient laws and charters, re- 
 strain future monarchs within the circle of their duties, 
 and, above all, introduce that spirit of reform and re- 
 generation so essential to the welfare of the state. How 
 great was the task that devolved upon them may be 
 inferred from the situation of the monarchy as sketch- 
 ed in the first pages of these Remarks ; but that they 
 complied with their obligations to the best of their 
 power, and to the satisfaction of their constituents, will 
 readily be acknowledged by those who marked the 
 events of Spain as they passed, and particularly by 
 the British worthies who had so ample a share in her 
 eventual liberation. 
 
 Out of a Gothic and massive system of jurispru- 
 dence, the Cortes selected and arranged a plan of 
 laws capable of difi'using as much happiness arid civil 
 liberty as the inevitable circumstances of the times 
 
 VOL. I. b
 
 Xvai PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 would admit, and, as they hoped, competent to the 
 correction of its own vices and abuses. This code 
 was placed within the reach of every individual, 
 mid he Spanish people who before had depended on 
 the will of the king or his minister, for the first time 
 were enabled to judge of the nature and tendency 
 of those laws which formed the basis of the society to 
 which they belonged. This code was enthusiastically 
 hailed by every district, town, and corporation where 
 the arms of France did not hold sway; and though in 
 the provinces its institutions were sometimes pervert- 
 eel, yet, founded on principles intrinsically just, it 
 was not th<? less entitled to veneration on this ac- 
 count, or because it partook of that imperfection in- 
 separable from the noblest contrivances of the human 
 mind, particularly when unaided by the sanction and 
 experience of time. Few countries, if any, have 
 ■VA itncssed a more unbiassed election than that which 
 brought together the late Cortes of Spain : if so, their 
 laws were, as fur as was possible, enacted by the com- 
 mon consent of the community, for the preservation 
 and felicity of the whole. They were not directed to 
 promote that proud and surly independence which 
 renders man inattentive to the wants of others, or to 
 establish that impracticable equality in situation and 
 circumstances which overturns the most endearing 
 relations of life ; but they defined the power of the 
 king and the rights of the subject, and then inculcated 
 a sense of duty and obedience to those statutes and 
 principles of subordination, in which, as individuals, 
 the enactors found their own happiness and security 
 were materially involved, whilst at the same time they 
 preserved the real dignity of tlie throne. 
 
 The new constitution of Spain undoubtedly infused 
 ajai'ger share of civil freedom than had been known
 
 OF THE TRAKSLATOlt. Xl:S 
 
 in the Peninsula for a long period of years, but this 
 was consonant to the ancient spirit of Spanish history, 
 and founded on the progressive improvements and 
 mental illumination of the age ; for, after the inter- 
 course the people had enjoyed, to have endeavoured 
 to retain them in their past dfegtadation would have 
 been similar to an attempt to shut out the broad day- 
 light, and to defeat the principal object of a revolu- 
 tion that had commenced under the most propitious 
 auspices. It was not because liberty had degenerated 
 into licentiousness in a sister kingdom, that it could 
 be concluded it was dangerous or unfit for Spaniards 
 In the mass of the people education had certainly 
 much to perform, but there was no dread of a resto- 
 ration of rio-hts givinof rise to those internal calami- 
 lies which in France were so much attributable to the 
 abuse of the press. As well might we deplore the 
 falling of the rain that fertilizes the face of nature, 
 because it frequently produces torrents and devasta- 
 tion ; or pronounce the vital principle of air to be a 
 bane, on considering the m recks and ravages of a hur^ 
 ricane or a whirlwind. No, the partial infelicity and 
 opposition to the new constitution of Spain can never 
 destroy the general principles on which it was founded; 
 and the past and present situation of the country loudly 
 proclaim that, on the whole, it was far too useful and 
 loo beneficial to have been abandoned^ unless it can be 
 proved that nations are better without,than with laws. 
 If then it seems undeniable that the Spanish Cortes, 
 in their labours for the regeneration of the State, ex- 
 ercised that moral force placed in their hands, with a 
 view not only to restrain the effervescence of sucli pas- 
 sions as ignorance and misfortune are too apt to en- 
 gender, but also to give strength and imanimity to 
 the efforts of the nation, through the introduction of 
 b 2
 
 XX. PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 a more enlightened system of policy, it may easily be 
 imagined that they were fully sensible of the religious 
 depravity which reigned among all orders, and 
 strongly convinced of the urgent necessity of a reform 
 in this particular. Religion has always been consi- 
 dered as the firmest bond of social union ; and pos- 
 sessing also a powerful influence on the manners of 
 the community at large, the laws enacted respecting 
 it must consequently be ranked among the most im- 
 portant labours of legislation. In the whole of the 
 Spanish Monarchy, little was to be found of the pe- 
 culiar characteristics of the christian religion, such as 
 it was inculcated by its first teachers. No where was 
 to be seen the genuine practice of those moral precepts, 
 naturally productive of a virtuous, uniform, and con- 
 sistent character. Nothing was to be seen of that 
 mild and animating principle which, remote from 
 worldly interests and ambition, whilst it captivates, 
 exalts and ennobles our views, fixes and strengthens 
 our conviction, and inspires pure and correct mo- 
 tives of action. 
 
 Almost in vain did we seek for that benign and 
 transcendent influence which promotes the welfare of 
 our fellow-creatures, and secures the happiness of 
 the individual as well as of society in general. A re- 
 ligion holding forth the most effectual inducements to 
 virtuous actions, and conspicuous in the earlier ages 
 of Christianity, in Spain bore along with it all those 
 baneful and horrid forms of vice with which its prac- 
 tice is dishonoured and polluted. It had been de- 
 based into pageant superstition, mental wanderings, 
 hypocrisy, fraud, and deceit, constituting rather a public 
 display of abuses which pervert, and of follies which dis- 
 grace, the human intellect. Instead of possessing cha- 
 rity as its basis, it had been supported by merciless
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. KXl 
 
 proscriptions, defended by unjust severities and into- 
 lerant enactments, taught by examples of judicial 
 wrath ; and that wise and benevolent connexion that 
 exists between the creator and the created had been 
 converted into a glaring innovation on the first prin- 
 ciples of nature, and used in a manner subversive of 
 those fundamental rules which unite men in society. 
 
 And to whom had the guardianship of this religion 
 been confided ? To the Inquisition ! 
 
 Ce sanglant tribunal, 
 
 Ce monument aflVeiix du pouvoir monacal, 
 Quel'Espagne a re9u, mais qu'ellemSmeabUorre, 
 Qui venge les autels, et qui les deshonore ; 
 Qui, tout couveit de sang, de flammes entoun', 
 Iigorj;e les mortals avec un fer sacre. 
 
 A tribunal interwoven with every thing great and 
 powerful in the state, engrafted on the strongest pre- 
 judices of the people, vested with a form and object 
 equally as awful and sacred as the reality of the reli- 
 gion it professed to defend, entrusted with unbounded 
 authority, covered with honours, and, in short, con- 
 sidered as of divine origin by a large portion of the 
 people, and as one of the firmest pillars of the state 
 by their rulers. To such a court, presided over by 
 men often seen in pursuit of every lawless indulgence, 
 every licentious practice, which the violence of dis- 
 torted imagination aided by power and opportunity 
 had been able to suggest, was the commission given 
 to compel man to a fellowship of worship by the fag- 
 got and the stake ; to sport with and insult the ge- 
 nuine feelings of the wounded mind, and to diffuse 
 dismay and submission among the multitude. 
 
 When the sincere friend of humanity, in whose 
 lieart education has engraved the horror of injustice 
 and solicitude for the happiness of mankind, casts his
 
 Xxu pheliminary UEMARKS 
 
 eyes on the crimsoned pages of the Inquisition, and 
 beholds its black code under the authentic form now 
 hiid before the British pubHc, he will be astonislicd at 
 tlie duration of such an establishment, and v ill won- 
 der that, even in Spain, it wiis not long ago levelled 
 to the ground by the rude hand of pojjular discon- 
 tent, or crushed under the just indignation of its num- 
 berless victims. The mind is lost in painful reflection, 
 on seeing this tremendous empire of terror charged 
 to superintend a religion, whose author exhorted his 
 disciples to diffuse the knowledge of his gospel and 
 extend its influence, by a bright display of its reform- 
 ing power upon themselves : nor is it possible to con- 
 ceive a greater outrage on that divine system of wor- 
 ship transmitted to us by a beneficent Creator. 
 
 That the existence of such a huge monument of 
 power and fanaticism should be considered as not 
 only inimical to civil liberty, but also preposterous in 
 the administration ot a state, was to be expected from 
 the nature and early features of the Spanish revolu- 
 tion, and the known character of some of its leaders. 
 The repeated struggles of the nation to dislodge this 
 tribunal, as well as the revolting acts it had so fre- 
 quently committed, were fresh in the memories of 
 many; arvd others were besides sensible that to make 
 man amenable to the tribunals of justice for senti- 
 ments originating in and confined to his own breast, 
 without having committed any trespass against ano- 
 ther, is a surrender of rights never contemplated in 
 the object of society. Early therefore did the de- 
 struction of the Inquisition enter into the patriotic 
 views of those who had the honour and well-being of 
 their country at heart; but, besides the hopes of re- 
 form, they were impelled by another powerful moti\ e. 
 Kvcr subservient to the will of despots (one of thq
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. XXlll 
 
 main points proved in the accompanying work) the 
 Inquisition had promptly espoused the interests of die 
 invader of Spain, and rendered itself traiterous by 
 the active maimer in which its influence was used to 
 suppress all resistance on the part of the people, as 
 may be seen by the following circular letter from the 
 Supreme Council of the Inquisition to the other 
 tribunals of the Holy Office, dated Madrid, May 6 
 1808. 
 
 '* The fatal consequences produced in Madrid by 
 the scandalous insurrection of the lower orders 
 against the troops of the emperor of the French, on 
 tlie second of the present month, loudly calls for the 
 most active vieilance of all the authorities and re- 
 spectable bodies of the nation, in order to prevent 
 the repetition of similar excesses, and to maintain in 
 all the towns that tranquillity which their own inter- 
 est dictates, as well as the hospitahty due to friendly 
 officers and soldiers who injure no one, and who have 
 hitherto given the greatest proofs of good order and 
 discipline, by rigorously punishing all Frenchmen 
 guilty of any disorders, or those Avho have illtreated 
 ♦Spaniards in their persons or property." 
 
 " It is probable that the malignity or ignorance of 
 some persons easily seduced may have caused them 
 to commit revolutionary disorders, under the mask of 
 patriotism and love to their sovereign. Consequently 
 those who are better informed ought to undeceive 
 them, and draw them out of so dangerous an error, 
 by making them sensible that tumultuary commotions, 
 far from producing the eifects of a well directed 
 loyalty, seem only to place the country in danger, 
 by breaking down the subordination which sustains 
 the fidelity of the {leople, by suppressing the senti- 
 ments of hnmanity, and destroying the confidence
 
 XXIV PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 that ought to be lodged in the government to whom 
 it actually belongs to direct patriotism in an uniform 
 manner and to give impulse to its efforts. 
 
 " No one is better able to inculcate these important 
 truths into the minds and hearts, than the ministers 
 of the religion of Jesus Christ, which breathes 
 peace and fraternity among men, together with sub" 
 mission, respect, and obedience to the constituted 
 authorities. And, as the members and ministers of 
 the Holy Office ought to be, and always have been, 
 the first to give examples to the ministers of peace, 
 Ave have believed, Gentlemen, that it accorded with 
 our ministry and duties to address the present letter to 
 you, in order that, being aware of its contents, and 
 sensible of the urgent necessity of the measure, you 
 may be enabled unanimously to concur in the preser- 
 vation of public tranquillity. You will therefore 
 cause it thus to be made known to all the subalterns of 
 your respective tribunals, and to the commissaries of 
 their districts, in order that all and each of them 
 may, on his part, contribute to so important an ob- 
 ject with all possible zeal, activity, and prudence : 
 with tjnis you will comply, and acknowledge receipt of 
 the present circular. 
 
 '^ D. CrISTOVAL Cos Y ViVEROS, 
 
 *' Secretary of the Council." 
 
 With such a document on record, coming from a 
 body possessed of the greatest influence over the 
 lower orders, and ever active as the vehicle of faction,* 
 the Cortes, in a political point of view, would have 
 
 * The leading members of ihe Inquisition, together with most of 
 the higher orders of the clergy and nobles, had early joined thestan- 
 dard of Joseph Buonaparte, whence it became impossible to assem 
 ble them as a distinct bodv or House of Lords.
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. XXV 
 
 been wanting in their professions made to the world, 
 if they had not early and deliberately turned their at- 
 tention to a subject so strongly presented to their con- 
 sideration. Under the extent of national prejudice, 
 much however was to be done before they could ven- 
 ture to make the overthrow of the Inquisition the ob- 
 ject of a legislative measure, but fortunately they 
 M'ere aided by the patriotic labours of several who by 
 their writings prepared the pubHc opinion. Among 
 these, the Inquisition Unmasked certainly holds the 
 first rank : it was the precursor of that bold but ne- 
 cessary step which was to give power and effect to the 
 new code of laws as far as regards religion ; and cer- 
 tainly its pages in an English dress, as well as the ob- 
 ject for which they were penned, will thence be duly 
 appreciated in a country that owes its prosperity and 
 happiness to those principles of civil and religious H- 
 berty which its inhabitants enjoy. 
 
 By the 12th article of the Constitution, promulgated 
 at Cadiz in March, 1812, it had been ordained, " that 
 the religion of the Spanish nation is, and ever shall 
 be, the Catholic, and that the nation protects it by 
 ■wise and just laws, and prohibits the exercise of any 
 other. Even this clause, intended to establish the unity 
 of religion as a fundamental law, to many may 
 appear as not sufficiently tolerant; but it must 
 be remembered that in Spain the hydra of prejudice 
 still possessed a most gigantic power, and that it was 
 too dangerous an experiment to attempt at once to 
 change the influence of opinions forming the principal 
 spring that actuates the political machine, and which 
 it was requisite gradually to reform without producing 
 irritation or alarm. It was essential to abate the vi- 
 rulence of religious zeal, without alienating the sen-
 
 XXVI PRELIMIXARY REMARKS 
 
 timents of the people, and leave the rest to time aiiJ 
 education. 
 
 Tlie above clause nevertheless paved the way to the 
 ulterior views of the national logishiture, and operated 
 as a prelude to the total overthrow of the Inquisition. 
 Men of influence no longer hesitated to affirm, that 
 it was unjust and absurd to inflict a civil penalty for 
 religious opinions, and that no principle of reason 
 or known law could authorize the magistrate to per- 
 secute and oppress the member of a system of wor- 
 ship which the former disapproves. In the session of 
 Dec. 8, 1812, the committee, which had been charged 
 to arrange and report on various parts of the new 
 constitution, presented to the Cortes the result of its 
 deliberations on the matter proposed for its more im- 
 mediate consideration ; viz. " whether the establish- 
 ment of the Inquisition is, or is not, conformable to the 
 political constitution of the monarchy, as sanctioned 
 by the Cortes and accepted by all the free provinces." 
 
 It would be impossible to follow the committee 
 through its report, or to convey an idea of the numer- 
 ous speeches afterwards produced on the subject on 
 both sides. Suffice it to say that the question occupied 
 the house from Dec. 8 to Feb. 5 following, when the 
 discussions ended. In this interval of time the entire 
 archives of the country were opened, and many of 
 the members busied themselves in laborious reseai'dies, 
 in order to collect materials to suit their respective 
 views. In justice to the work now oft'ered to the 
 public, it ought to be added, that almost every thing 
 material had been anticipated by our author, and that 
 both the committee and individual members found the 
 greatest facilities in a work on whose fidelity they could 
 rely. On the 22d of Feb. 1813 a decree was issucdj,
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. XXVll 
 
 of which the tliree following constitute the leading 
 articles. 
 
 1st. The Catholic, Apostolic, and Roman rclif^on 
 shall be protected by laws conformable to the consti- 
 tution. 
 
 2d. The tribunal of the Inquisition is incompati- 
 ble with the constitution. 
 
 3d. In consequence of this, the Law II, Title xxvi. 
 Part vii, is re-established in its primitive vijTour, by 
 which the Bishops and their Vicars arc empowered to 
 take cognizance of matters of the faith, conformably 
 to the sacred canons and common law, and the secu- 
 lar judges are authorized to declare and impose on he- 
 retics the penalties ascribed by the laws, or such as 
 they may hereafter ascribe. The ecclesiastical and se- 
 cular judges will therefore proceed in their respective 
 cases conformably to the constitution and the laws. 
 
 Thus ended the existence of a tribunal which in 
 Spain had lorded it over the people for more than 
 three hundred and twenty years, had been an outrage 
 to humanity, and a powerful engine of internal police 
 in the hands of despots. Thus perished a tremen- 
 dous and inconsistent power, which even in Rome* 
 no longer held sway ; and, though the triumph was 
 unfortunately short, the daring and enlightened mea- 
 sure of the Cortes will ever remain on record, as part 
 of that great attempt to rally round the sacred 
 standard of civil and religious liberty, as far as was 
 possible in a country so benighted as that over which 
 ^ley presided; and, as a meritorious act, the destruction 
 
 * It is worthy of remark that, whilst Italy was under the late 
 intluenceof France, the buildings of the various Inquisitions served 
 as conventicles to societies of free-uiasnns, w hose meetings nere 
 |jel<J in the scclutlei! part?, chitlly the Halls of Torture.
 
 XXVIU PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 of the Inquisition thence entitles them to the respect 
 of their contemporaries and the gratitude of posterity. 
 
 No sooner had king Ferdinand VII. been restored 
 to his throne, than he annulled the acts of the Cortes, 
 and re-established the Inquisition in its full powers, by 
 virtue of the following decree, copied from the Mad- 
 rid Gazette of Saturday, 23d July 1814. 
 
 " The past tumults and the war, which have desola- 
 ted all the provinces of the kingdom for the space of six 
 years — the residence therein during this period of fo- 
 reign troops consisting of many sects almost all infec- 
 ted with abhorrence and hatred to the Catholic reli- 
 gion, and the disorders these evils always bring with 
 them, together with the little care latterly taken to 
 regulate religious concerns, are circumstances which 
 have afforded wicked persons full scope to live accord- 
 ing to their free will, and also given rise to the intro- 
 duction and adoption of many pernicious opinions 
 through the same means by which they have been pro- 
 pagated in other countries " * 
 
 " Wherefore I have resolved that the Council of 
 the Inquisition, together with the other tribunals of 
 the Holy Office, shall be restored, and for the present 
 continue in the exercise of their jurisdiction, as well 
 ecclesiastical — a power granted them by the Popes at 
 the request of my august predecessors, united with that 
 vested in local prelates by virtue of their ministry — 
 as also royal, conferred upon them by successive 
 monarchs ; the said tribunals in the use of both juris- 
 dictions complying with the statutes by which they 
 were governed in 1808, as well as the laws and regu- 
 lations it had been deemed expedient to enact at various 
 
 » This alludes to the freedom of the press which existed during 
 the absence of the King.
 
 ©F THE TRANSLATOR. XXIX 
 
 times in order to prevent certain abuses and mode- 
 rate various privileges." &c. &c. 
 
 Palace, July 21, 1814. Pedro de Macanaz, 
 
 On the document from which the above is a faith- 
 ful extract of the material part, it would be unneces- 
 sary to offer any remarks, when the reader has before 
 him an authentic history of those dark and wrathful 
 daysin which this enemy of learning and of the hu- 
 man race wielded his gigantic power ; and when every 
 one with his own eyes is enabled to trace that uni- 
 form spirit of persecution which, in lines of blood, 
 has marked the fatal progress of the Inquisition in 
 Spain, from the period of its first assumption of se- 
 cular power till the recent and memorable crisis 
 when it was destroyed by the Cortes. I leave my 
 readers therefore to judge for themselves, and to form 
 their own conception of the nature of a government 
 which requires the Inquisition as its coadjutor ; and 
 against what nation the preceding decree is chiefly 
 levelled. At the time the Inquisition was re-established 
 in Spain, the happiness or misery of a large portion 
 of Europe, nay, I may say of the world, were as a 
 sacred deposit in the hands of Great Britain ; and fu- 
 ture events have yet to unfold the mystery, whether 
 governments, reposing on bases conformable to natu- 
 ral right, are not more brilliant and secure than when 
 they rest on the degradation of the human mind. It 
 was to be hoped that the nineteenth century, availing 
 itself of past experience, would never again have 
 witnessed those ridiculous and horrid scenes which 
 disgraced preceding eras, and that the sanguinary and 
 scowling storms of persecution were at an end. At a 
 iiime when even the pretensions of Rome are so much 
 4.
 
 XX^C PRELIMlNAilY REMARKS 
 
 relaxed, it was to be hoped tliat the Christian reHgloft 
 would no longer be irrigated with human blood, and 
 that even Spain would never again exhibit the afflict- 
 ing picture of mangled bodies and mutilated limbs, 
 ofiered in the way of incense to a beneficent creator. 
 
 We had reached a period when it was expected 
 that the general scale of society in all Europe woulcl 
 have assumed a form more friendly to the gentler 
 dispositions of nature, and more congenial to the 
 progress of civilization. We had arrived at a crisis 
 when princes ought to have known that they exercised 
 their power over men, and that they themselves arc 
 never so great or so secure, as when they give the 
 first examples of obedience to the same laws by which 
 they seek to govern others. An expectation in short 
 was indulged, that the future systems of government 
 would be moulded by a spirit of liberality and justice, 
 that every source of complaint and irritation would 
 be dried up, and that the rapid advances in the arts 
 and sciences, even during a long interval of war, would 
 have healed the human mind of the remainder of that 
 prejudice and immorality which tyranny and anarchy 
 had spread over so large a portion of the European 
 continent. 
 
 These hopes have in great measure been frustrated, 
 more particularly in Spain, where England might 
 liave done so much. It is a truth conclusively esta- 
 blished by every stage of the Spanish revolution, and 
 proved by the labours of the Cortes, that, after ex- 
 pelling the French, the next great object was internal 
 reform, and a wish to prevent the prodigality and 
 dissipation of succeeding governments, or, in other 
 words, to have a constitutional king. This was ma- 
 nifested by the spirit of the nation, it was due for 
 past efforts and sufferings, and if as allies we failed to
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. XXJil 
 
 aid in the attainment, we neglected to comply with a 
 duty of the highest moral obligation. It was in the 
 {Spanish people we found aid and support ; if sO) they 
 were entitlctl to all our protection. It has evei' been the 
 pride of British sovereigns, as well as the delight of 
 the people, to behold our nation revered as the great 
 and constant defender of the rights and liberties of 
 mankind : why then should Spaniards be excluded 
 from our solicitude ? We ourselves certainly live 
 under a milder system which is not likely to bring any 
 man to the stake ; but, whilst we contemplate this 
 fact with a satisfaction derived from the conciousness 
 of self-security, as members of a community that 
 has done so much for the political welfare of the world, 
 we cannot but regret the manner in which those have 
 been abandoned who so lately fought in our ranks, 
 and helped us to acquire the laurels with which the 
 heads of our heroes are adorned. Every where we 
 have negotiated for the abolition of the Slave Trade ; 
 in Portugal our influence neuti'alized inquisitorial 
 power ; in the Brazils by treaty we stipulated that the 
 Inquisition should be suppressed, and in Spain could 
 we do nothing to prevent its re-establishment ? 
 
 Much as it was to be hoped that monarchs would 
 have understood their real and substantial interests too 
 well, to allow them in the present age to renew those 
 barbarous times marked with the infoncy of civil 
 societies, when the ministers of a benignant religion 
 wei'e authorized to employ terrors founded on penal 
 sanctions, the Inquisition was nevertheless restored in 
 Spain without any known demonstration of displeasure 
 on the part of any of the Allies, or their agents; and, 
 as if the respite which had intervened had infused 
 fresh energies, its members set to woi'k with redoubled 
 vigour. Impossible as it would be for us to trace the
 
 XXXll PftELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 personal outrages committed by this tribunal since its 
 new assumption of power, wo must content ourselves 
 witli exhibiting its spirit and pursuits in conformity to 
 such official documents as we possess ; and which, 
 whilst they furnish the best possible criteria, carry 
 with them a greater degree of weight than the reports 
 of individuals unable to scrutinize acts performed 
 under the greatest secrecy ; as we thereby convert its 
 own expressions and actions into ample evidence. 
 
 The first document we deem deserving the atten- 
 tion of our readers, contains the Instructions trans- 
 mitted by the respective tribunals of European and 
 American Spain, to each of the confessors belonging 
 to their several districts, and they arc as follow : 
 
 " Among the delicate and weighty matters which 
 worthily occupy the attention of His Majesty's Coun- 
 cil of the Supreme and General Inquisition, the latter 
 is aware that its labours ought preferably to be directed 
 towards the true good and spiritual alleviation of those 
 persons who, through natural weakness, ignorance, 
 malice, or perversity of heart, may be contaminated 
 with any one or more of the heresies belonging to the 
 various nations which have occupied the Spanish soil. 
 Wherefore, availing ourselves of the opportunity af- 
 forded by the approach of the enjoined compliance 
 with the Easter precept, and being at the same time 
 desirous that all the faithful may prepare and dispose 
 themselves to fulfil this their obligation in a worthy 
 manner, the Council has resolved to transmit adequate 
 powers and instructions, in matters relating to the Holy 
 Office, to all secular as well as regular confessors ap- 
 proved by the diocesan bishop, in order that they may 
 be enabled to act towards those penitents who may have 
 fallen into any external or mixed heresy, according 
 to the manner and form adopted and established by
 
 OF *rH£ TRANSLATOR. XXxill 
 
 llie Holy Office, with advantage to the faithful, even 
 though they may have prevaricated, as long as they 
 acknov^^ledge their errors, hereby subjecting said con- 
 fessors to the following Instructions. 
 
 " First, Each one is, with the greatest efficacy, to 
 persuade the penitent to accuse himself before the said 
 confessor of all the errors or heresies into which he 
 may have fallen, without promising him the benefit of 
 absolution in any other form, assuring him of the in- 
 violable secrecy he will keep and which is kept in the 
 Holy Office, and that the smallest injury shall not 
 thence result to him ; rather that this measure will 
 serve as a means to prevent his being punished in case 
 he should be accused by any other person of the 
 errors and heresies which it behoves him to manifest, 
 and to which he otherwise stands liable. 
 
 " In the second place, in case he should consent, 
 the confessor shall take down his declaration under 
 oath to speak the truth, and the act shall" bear the 
 following heading: — ' In the town of N., on such a 
 day, month, and year, spontaneously appeared before 
 
 me the undersigned confessor (expressing 
 
 his name, age, country, and profession).' The docu- 
 ment shall then relate, in the most specific manner, 
 all his errors and their accompanying circumstances, 
 the time and place in which he may have committed 
 them, seen, or heard them committed; and, if any 
 persons were present, they are to be named, and he is 
 also to specify of them all he knows. He is then to 
 sign his declaration, if he knows how ; and, if not, 
 Jie is to make a cross, but the confessor is always to 
 sign it. 
 
 " In the third place, he (the confessor) shall cause 
 him to abjure his heresy, and absolve him by recon- 
 ciling him to the church : he shall moreover enjoin 
 
 VOL. I, c
 
 XXXIV PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 him secretly to confess all his errors, and impose on 
 him such penance as he may deem fit, which being 
 done, the whole is to be forwarded to the Holy 
 Office. 
 
 " Finally, if the most efficacious persuasions have 
 not been able to prevail on the penitent, in case he 
 should evince due signs of repentance and detestation 
 of his offences, the confessor shall absolve him from 
 excommunication in the internal form * only, explain- 
 ing this to him for his government and information. 
 As soon as the statement of all this has been drawn 
 up by the confessor, he is also to forward it to the 
 Holy Office. 
 
 " And, iu order that the whole of the above may 
 have its due and full effect, this Holy Office commu- 
 nicates the same to You, to the end that through your 
 means it may reach the knowledge of the confessors 
 of your jurisdiction and district. 
 
 " Our Lord preserve you many years, &c. Inqui- 
 sition of Seville, this 12th Februarj^, 1815. 
 
 " Dr. D. Francisco Rodriguez de Carasa. 
 
 " Dr. D. JoAgUIN DE MURCIA Y EULATE. 
 
 " Licentiate D. Jose Maria Valenzuela. 
 " By order of the Holy Office, 
 
 " Br. D. Juan Jose Verdugo, 
 " Secretary." 
 The effect, naturally produced on a community by 
 such an authorized injunction as the preceding, may 
 easily be conceived by any one the least acquainted 
 with the country in which it was intended to operate ; 
 an effect so much the greater, in consequence of the 
 dignified and. respectable agency through which its 
 
 * What is meant by this term is, that the confessor is allowed 
 to reconcile the penitent to God, but not to excmjU him from tJif 
 future prosecutions of the Holv OfRce.
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. XXXV 
 
 object was to be accomplished. In the anomailous 
 tunes in which we live, we have seen religion per- 
 verted in a variety of ways for political purposes ; we 
 liave beheld systems of espionage established under 
 all kinds of forms; we have witnessed state-police 
 under every species of refinement, still our feelings 
 and judgment were never before revolted with any 
 thing so comprehensive and insidious as the above. 
 That fraternal and kindred principle, which unites 
 members of the same family, has been sacrificed and 
 made instrumental to party views or political revenge; 
 those enchanting and social ties, which form the basis 
 of friendship, have been converted into snares laid by 
 the hand of treachery ; but we have never before seen 
 the ministers of the altar, scattered as they are among 
 their I'espective flocks for the purposes of spiritual 
 comfort, thus solemnly commissioned to act the part 
 of spies and informers, and to prepare instruments of 
 destruction for those who had approached the sacra- 
 ment of penance and disclosed to them the inmost re- 
 cesses of their heaits. A more dexterous mode of find- 
 ing out and securing victims was possibly never before 
 invented, nor a more powerful means of fascinating, 
 through the instrumentality of terror, the enfeebled 
 minds of an unlettered people. This is a plan to pro- 
 cure for the uses of government a wide register of the 
 conduct, sentiments, and actions of every enlightened 
 individual in the Spanish monarchy, since against such 
 only is the measure aimed ; of all those who have read 
 foreign books, had intercourse with persons of another 
 nation or religion, who have entered a masonic lodge, 
 or dared to think or speak of the reform their country 
 required. It is not only to provide an official re- 
 gister of their names, pi'ofessions, and places of abode, 
 b^ also to furnish a lasting and ready instrument of
 
 XXXvili rRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 preme and General Inquisition, that all the works in- 
 cluded in the present edict under alphabetical order, 
 shall be called in and delivered over to the Holy Of- 
 fice till they have been examined and qualified ; their 
 perusal or retention being prohibited under the penal- 
 ties hereafter expressed; — further declaring, as we 
 hereby do declare, that every other printed or manu- 
 script book or paper which may be comprehended on 
 any nccount whatever within the rules of the General 
 Index, is also included in the present Hst ; as in fact 
 are all calumnious ones, those which detract from the 
 good reputation of our neighbour, are injurious to 
 persons constituted in dignity, to ecclesiastical insti- 
 tutions or corporations, the Holy Office, and those 
 which in any manner encourage repubhcan and sedi- 
 tious ideas, or such as may tend to disturb public 
 and established order. For the same reason and not 
 with lighter motives than those which induced the 
 Holy Office to command by edict of Dec. 13, 1789, 
 the calling in and delivery up of all papers coming 
 from France and contiiining revolutionary ideas, the 
 same is now commanded with respect to all which may 
 already have arrived, or may hereafter arrive, pro- 
 vided in the same sentiments are expressed in any 
 manner injurious to our government, or such as may 
 authorize the intrusion and tyranny of the usurpers 
 of thrones and the enemies of the altar. 
 
 Works prohibited evenfoi- those who may he furnished 
 with licence, viz. 
 
 Breve Ensayosobre el Fanatismo. For D. B. Y. H. P.; 
 
 folleto impreso en Madrid en 1813: por teme- 
 rario, calumnioso, escandaloso, y subversivo de 
 la fe y buenas costumbres. 
 Short Essay on Fanaticism. By D. B. Y. H. P. ;
 
 OF THE TRANSLAT<:)R. XXXIX 
 
 a pamphlet printed in Madrid in 1813: owing 
 to its being rash, calumnious, scandalous, as 
 well as subversive of the faith and of good 
 manners. 
 Conversacion entre el Cura y el Botlcario de la Villa 
 de Porrifio sobre el Tribunal de la Inqnisicion; 
 folleto en 12mo. Cadiz, 1812: por contener 
 proposiciones falsas, erroneas, capciosas, inducti- 
 vas a la heregia, e injuriosas al Santo Oficio. 
 Conversation between the Curate and Apothecary 
 of the town of Porriiio, respecting the Tribunal 
 of the Inquisition; pamphlet in 12mo, Cadiz, 
 1812: because it contains propositions false, 
 erroneous, captious, propending to heresy, and 
 injurious to the Floly Office. 
 Diccionario Critico-burlesco; impreso en Cadiz y 
 reimpreso en otras partes : por contener propo- 
 siciones respectivamente falsas, impias, hereticas, 
 temerarias, erroneas, plarum auriam ofensivas, € 
 injuriosas al estado ecclesiastico secular y regular, 
 al Santo Oficio, &c. &c. 
 Critico-burlesque Dictionary ; printed in Cadiz and 
 reprinted in other parts : because it contains 
 propositions respectively false, impious, here- 
 tical, rash, erroneous, offensive to the ears of 
 the pious, and injurious to the secular and re- 
 gular orders of the church, as well as to the 
 Holy Office, &c. &c. * 
 
 ' Tills work was written by Don B. J. Gallardo, late librarian of 
 the Cortes, whose sportive genius and researches in Spanish litera- 
 ture are well known to his countrymen. The object of the compo- 
 sition is chiefly to make war against the prejudices under which the 
 people laboured ; consequently he roused all the enmity of devotees, 
 monks, and friars : but still as a proof of the reception of the work, 
 as well as of the prevailing anxiety to read every thing that could
 
 XXXViii PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 preme and General Inquisition, that all the works in- 
 cluded in the present edict under alphabetical order, 
 shall be called in and delivered over to the Holy Of- 
 /-/ ficc till they have been examined and qualified; their 
 
 \ perusal or retention being prohibited under the penal- 
 
 ^ ties hereafter expressed; — further declaring, as we 
 
 'i- hereby do declare, that every other printed or manu- 
 
 i\ script book or paper which may be comprehended on 
 
 ' any Recount v.hatever within the rules of the General 
 
 Index, is also included in the present list ; as in fact 
 are all calumnious ones, those which detract from the 
 good reputation of our neighbour, are injurious to 
 persons constituted in dignity, to ecclesiastical insti- 
 tutions or corporations, the Holy Office, and those 
 which in any manner encourage republican and sedi- 
 tious ideas, or such as may tend to disturb public 
 and established order. For the same reason and not 
 with lighter motives than those which induced the 
 Holy Office to command by edict of Dec. 13, 1789, 
 the calling in and delivery up of all papers coming 
 from France and containing revolutionary ideas, the 
 same is now commanded with respect to all which may 
 already have arrived, or may hereafter arrive, pro- 
 vided in the same sentiments are expressed in any 
 manner injurious to our government, or such as may 
 authorize the intrusion and tyranny of the usurpers 
 of thrones and the enemies of the altar. 
 
 Works prohibited even for those who may he furnished 
 with licence^ viz. 
 
 Breve Ensayosobre el Fanatismo. Por D. B. Y. H. P.; 
 
 folleto impreso en Madrid en 1813: por teme- 
 rario, calumnioso, escandaloso, y subversivo de 
 la fe y buenas costumbres. 
 Short Essay on Fanaticism. By D. B. Y. H. P. ;
 
 OP THE TRANSLATOR, XXXIX 
 
 a pamphlet printed in Madrid in 1813: owing 
 to its being rash, calumnious, scandalous, as 
 well as subversive of the faith and of good 
 manners. 
 Conversacion entre el Cura y el Boticario de la Villa 
 de Porrifio sobre el Tribunal de la Inquisicion; 
 folleto en 12mo. Cadiz, 1812: por contener 
 proposiciones falsas, eri-oneas, capciosas, inducti- 
 vas a la heregia, e injuriosas al Santo Oficio. 
 Conversation between the Curate and Apothecary 
 of the town of Porriiio, respecting the Tribunal 
 of the Inquisition; pamphlet in 12mo, Cadiz, 
 1812: because it contains propositions false, 
 erroneous, captious, propending to heresy, and 
 injurious to the Holy Office. 
 Diccionario Critico-burlesco; impreso en Cadiz y 
 reimpreso en otras partes : por contener propo- 
 siciones respectivamente falsas, impias, hereticas, 
 temerarias, erroneas, pianim aurium ofensivas, 6 
 injuriosas al estado ecclesiastico secular y regular, 
 al Santo Oficio, &c. &c. 
 Critico-burlesque Dictionary ; printed in Cadiz and 
 reprinted in other parts : because it contains 
 propositions respectively false, impious, here- 
 tical, rash, erroneous, offensive to the ears of 
 the pious, and injurious to the secular and re- 
 gular orders of the church, as well as to the 
 Holy Office, &c. &c. * 
 
 * This work was v, ritten by Don B. J. G:iIlardo, late librarian of 
 the Cortes, whose sportive genius and researches in Spanish litera- 
 ture are well known to his countrymen. The object of the compo- 
 sition is chiefly ta make war against the prejudices under which the 
 people laboured ; consequently he roused all the enmity of devotees, 
 monks, and friars : but still as a proof of tlie reception of the work, 
 as well as of the prevailing anxiety to read every thing that could
 
 Xl rilELIMlNARY REMARKS 
 
 Dictamen del Dr. Don Antonio Jose Ruiz de Padron, 
 Ministro calificado del Santo Oficio, Abad de Vi- 
 llamartin de Valdeorres, y Diputado en Cortes por 
 las Islas Canarias, que se leyo en la sesion pub- 
 lica de 18 de Enero sobre el tribunal de Inquisi- 
 cion : impreso en Cadiz aiio de 1 8 1 3, en la im- 
 prenta tormentaria, a cargo de Don Juan Do- 
 mingo Villegas. 
 Opinion of Dr, Don Antonio Jose Ruiz de Padron, 
 qualified Minister of the Holy Office, Abbot of 
 Villamartin de Valdeorres, and Deputy in the 
 Cortes for the Canary Islands, which was read 
 in the public session of Jan. 1 8, on the subject: 
 of the Inquisition : printed in Cadiz in the 
 Artillery printing office for Don Juan Domingo 
 Villegas, 
 Apendice al Dictamen de Ruiz de Padron sobre Abo- 
 licion de Inquisicion : foUeto en ^to, impreso en 
 Cadiz, aiio de 1813. 
 Appendix to the Opinion of Ruiz de Padron respect- 
 ing the Abolition of the Inquisition : pamphlet 
 in4to, printed in Cadiz in the year 1813. * 
 Dictamen del Senor Don Joaquin Lorenzo Villanueva, 
 Diputado en Cortes por Valencia, acerca de la 
 Segunda Proposicion Preliminar del Proyecto de 
 
 enlighten, it may be added that the firpt edition of 2500 copies was 
 sold in one week, and reprints were immediately issued in SjiaiR 
 and France. 
 
 * Dr. Padron, the author of the two last works, though formerly 
 a counsellor of the Inquisition was one of the most zealous advo- 
 cates for its abolition. His practical experience enabled him to 
 bring many important facts to light, and tlie veneration in which his 
 character was held made a powerful impression both on the Cortes 
 and the people. On that occasion he commenced his beautiful and 
 learned speech with the following remarkable words from the XVth 
 chapter of St. Matthew : " Omnis plantatio quam nor. pjuntavii, Pateir 
 '^fus ccekstis cradicabilur.
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. xli 
 
 Decreto sobre los Tribimales Protectores de la 
 Religion, leido en las sesiones del 20 y 21 de 
 Enero : impreso en Cadiz, en la imprenta de Don 
 Diego Garcia Campoy, aiio de 1813. 
 Opinion of Don Joaquin Lorenzo Villanueva, De- 
 puty in Cortes for Valencia, respecting the 
 Second Preliminary Project of a Decree re- 
 lating to the Tribunals destined to protect Re- 
 ligion, and read in the sessions of Jan. 20 
 and 21 : printed in Cadiz in the office of Don 
 Diego Garcia Campoy, year 1813.* 
 Dictamen del Seiior Don Francisco Serra, Presbitero, 
 Bibliotecario de la Real y Arzobispal de la 
 Ciudad de Valencia, Diputado por aquella Pro- 
 vincia, sobre el Articulo Primero del Proyecto 
 de Decreto acerca de los Tribunales Protectores 
 de la Religion, expuesto en la sesion de 25 de 
 Enero: impreso en Cadiz, ano de 1813. 
 Opinion of Don Francisco Serra, Clergyman, Libra- 
 rian to the Royal Archiepiscopal Library of the 
 City of Valencia, and Deputy for that Pro- 
 vince, respecting the First Article of a Pro- 
 ject of a Decree regarding the Tribunals des- 
 tined for the Pi'otection of Religion, and laid 
 before the Cortes in the session of Jan. 25 : 
 printed in Cadiz, year 1813. f 
 
 * This writer is an ecclesiastic of great erudition and research, 
 and peculiarly distinguisiied by his labours in the cause of reform, 
 lie is now one of the state prisoners against whom those of his own 
 cloth have most levelled their envenomed shafts. 
 
 + This venerable character was renowned for his ecclesiastical 
 science and exquisite erudition. He was profound in the dead lan- 
 guages, and till the late revolution his whole life had been spent 
 among books; but, having merited the confidence of liis fellow- 
 countrymen, he was desirous of devoting the whole of his acquire- 
 ments to the object of reform, and certainly his zeal was unabated. 
 As a model of virtue, he djed at the beginning of the late persecution.
 
 xlli PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Monumento de Gratitud al Pueblo de Cadiz, con 
 
 Motivo de disolverse las Cortes Generales y Ex- 
 
 traordinarias, por el Dr. Don Antonio Ruiz de 
 
 Padron, Diputado en Cortes por las Canarias. 
 
 Dado a luz por un Amigo del Autor. Madrid, 
 
 impi'enta de Fuentencbro, ano 1813. 
 
 Monument of Gratitude to the People of Cadiz, on 
 
 occasion of the Dissolution of the General and 
 
 Extraordinary Cortes, by Dr. Don Antonio 
 
 Ruiz de Padron, Deputy in Cortes for the 
 
 Canary Islands. Published by a Friend of the 
 
 Author. Madrid, in the office of Fuentenebro, 
 
 1813. 
 
 These last five works are prohibited, because they 
 contain propositions respectively false, erroneous, ca- 
 lumnious, heretical, sapientes hceresim, scandalous, 
 offensive to the ears of the pious, and atrociously in~ 
 jurious to the Roman Pontiffs, to kings, the clergy, 
 and the Holy Office. 
 
 Eloge Historique de Nicholas Freret: por ser un texido 
 
 de errores, mia masa de impiedades, y un extracto 
 
 de todas las heregias. 
 
 Historical Eulogium of Nicholas Freret : because 
 
 it is a tissue of errors, a mass of impieties, and 
 
 an extract of all the heresies. 
 
 Espanol Imparcial (Un) a los Uamados Liberales y 
 
 Serviles; folleto impreso en Cadiz, 1812: por 
 
 contener proposiciones respectivamente falsas, er- 
 
 roneas, temerarias, sospechosas de heregia, 6 
 
 que saben a ella, injui'iosas al clero y obispos de 
 
 Espana, a los Papas, y a su soberania temporal. 
 
 An Impartial Spaniard to those called Liberales 
 and Serviles; pamphlet printed in Cadiz, 1812:
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. xllil 
 
 because it contains propositions respectively 
 false, erroneous, rash, suspicious of heresy or 
 propending thereto, injurious to the clergy and 
 bishops of Spain, to the Popes, and to their 
 temporal sovereignty. 
 Fabulas Politicas de Don C. de B. I.ondres, 1813 : 
 por estar comprchendido en las reglas 10 y 16 del 
 Indice expurgatorio, y por ser un escrito revolu- 
 cionario e injurioso a nuestros monarcas y a las' 
 mas distinguidas clases del estado. 
 PoHtical Fables of Don C. de B. London, 1813 : 
 because this Avork is comprehended in the 10th 
 and 16th' rules of the Index of Prohibited 
 Books, and because it is a writing both revo- 
 lutionary and injurious to our monarchs and to 
 the most distinguished classes of the state. 
 Historia de una famosa Hechicera que escape de la In- 
 quisicion de Valencia, validndose de un artificio 
 el mas endiablado; impresa en Madrid, 1811: 
 por ser una satira contra el Santo Oficio, calum- 
 niosa, infamatoria, y escandalosa. 
 History of a famous Witch who escaped from the 
 Inquisition of Valencia, by availing herself of 
 a most devilish spell; printed in Madrid in 
 1811 : because it is a calumnious, defamatory, 
 and scandalous satire against the Holy Office. 
 JuicioHistorico-canonico-politico de la Autoridad de 
 las Naciones en los Bienes Eclesiasticos ; fol- 
 leto en 4to, impreso en Alicante en la imprenta de 
 Manuel Munoz, ano de 1 8 1 3 : por contener pro- 
 posiciones hereticas, sapientes hcetesim, temera- 
 rias, cismaticas e injuriosas a los sumos Pontifices 
 y a todo el clero. — 
 Historical, Canonical, and Political Observations on
 
 xliv PUELIMINARY IlEMARKS 
 
 tlic Authority of Nations over Chuicli Pro- 
 perty ; pamphlet in 4to, printed in AUcant in 
 the oflicc of Manuel Muuoz. year 1813: be- 
 cause it contauis projiositions, heretical, sapien- 
 fes hceresinif rash, schismatic, and injurious to 
 the high pontiffs and to all the clergy. 
 Soncto y Epitafios dirigidos al M. R. P. Presentado 
 Fr. Antonio Verde, Excomisario del recien- 
 extinguido Santo Oficio dc la Tnquisicion, &c.; 
 papel suelto, impreso en la ciudad de la Laguna 
 por Angel Bazzanti en 1813 : por impios, blas- 
 fenios, atrozniente injuriosos al Santo Oficio, e 
 igualmente a la Iglesia y al estado. 
 Sonnet and Epitaphs addressed to the Most Rev. 
 Father Antonio Verde, ex-commissary of the 
 recentlv extinguished Holy Office of the In- 
 quisition, &c. ; a loose tract printed in the 
 city of la Laguna, by Angel Bazzanti, in 1813 : 
 because they are impious, blasphemous, atro- 
 ciously injurious to the Holy Office, and 
 equally so to the church and state. 
 Soneto impreso en la Gran Canaria, en la impreuta 
 de la Sociedad Economica, afio de 1813, por 
 Francisco de Paula Mavina : papel suelto : por 
 impio, blasfemo, e injurioso en sumo grado a la 
 religion, al estado y al Santo Oficio. 
 Sonnet printed in the Great Canary, in the Office 
 of the Economical Society, year 1813, by 
 Francisco de Paula Mavina; a loose tract: 
 because it is impious, blasphemous, and inju- 
 rious in the highest degree to religion, the 
 state, and the Holy Office. 
 Un Militar Espaiiol residente en Francia a sus Com- 
 paneros de armas ; una hoja suelta que se dicf
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. xlv 
 
 ser impresa en Burdeos a 12 de Junio de 1815: 
 per revolucionaria, subversiva, calumniosa y a- 
 trozmente injuriosa al reyya la nacion Espanola. 
 A Spanish Soldier residing in France to his Com- 
 panions in arms; a loose sheet, said to be prin- 
 ted in Bordeaux, Jmie 12, 1813 : for being re- 
 volutionary, subversive, calumnious, and atro- 
 ciously injurious to the king and the Spanish 
 nation. 
 
 Proclama, en un pliego suelto que comienza " Espaiio- 
 les, sera possible, "&c. y acaba ^' vuestros genero- 
 sossentimientos; May 31 de 1815:" sinlugarde 
 impresion aunque parece impresa en Francia : 
 por revolucionaria, impia, escandalosa y atroz- 
 mente injuriosa al rey, a la nacion, y a las mas re- 
 spectables corporaciones de la iglesia y del estado. 
 Proclamation, in a loose sheet, beginning with 
 " Spaniards, shall it be possible, " &c., and 
 ending "your generous sentiments; May 31, 
 1815:" the place of impression is not men- 
 tioned, although it appeal's to have been printed 
 in France : because of its being revolutionary, 
 impious, scandalous, and atrociously injurious 
 to the king, the nation, and to the most re- 
 spectable corporations of the church and state. 
 
 IVorks ordered to he called In with the knowledge and 
 upprohation of His Majesty. 
 
 Abeja Espanola: periodico de Cadiz. 
 
 Spanish Bee : Cadiz periodical paper. 
 Abeja Madrileiia : periodico de Madrid. 
 
 Madrilenian Bee : Madrid periodical paper. 
 Abeja Barcelonesa : periodico de Barcelona. 
 
 Barcelonian Bee: Barcelona periodical paper.
 
 xlvi PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Abuso introducido en la Disciplina de la Iglesia, y Po- 
 testad de los Principesen su Correccion: im tomo 
 en 4 to., inipreso en esta corte, sin nombre de 
 autor. 
 Abuse introduced into the Discipline of the Church, 
 and the Power of Princes in its Correction : 
 one vol. 4to., printed in this city, without the 
 name of the author. 
 Amante de la Libertad Civil : periodico de Madrid. 
 The Lover of Civil Liberty: Madrid periodical 
 paper. 
 Amigo de las Luces : periodico de Madrid. 
 
 The Friend of Learning: Madrid periodical paper. 
 Araigo de los Frayles. 
 
 A Friend of the Friars. 
 Amigo del Pueblo ; periodico de Madrid. 
 
 The Friend of the People: Madrid periodical paper. 
 Anales de la Inquisicion de Espana ; su autor Don 
 Juan Antonio Llorente: dos tomos in 8vo, impre- 
 sos en Madrid, ano de 1812. 
 Annals of the Liquisition of Spain; written by Don 
 Juan Antonio Llorente : 2 vols. 8vo, printed 
 in Madrid, 18 J 2. 
 Anti-Lucindo : folleto impreso en Valencia. 
 
 The Anti-Lucindo: pamphlet printed in Valencia. * 
 
 * The tract bearing the above title of Anti-Luriiulo, was wiitlen 
 in answer to a periodical paper commenced in Valencia after the 
 return of Ferdinand VII. and called Liicindo. It was intended (o 
 prepare his way to the capital, as well as the minds of the people 
 for those events which have^ince happened. As a proof of the ex- 
 alted merits of the Lucindo, it may be remarked, tliat the Pope 
 was prevailed upon to issue a Bull, in which he loads its author with 
 indulgences for having so zealously defended the rights of the altar 
 and of the throng.
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. xlvu 
 
 Aviso a los Gallegos : papel impreso en Santiago en 
 la oficina de Rey. 
 Notice to the Gallicians : a tract printed in Santiago 
 in the office of Rey. 
 
 Aurora Mallorquina : periodico de aquella isla. * 
 The Aurora of Majorca : periodical paper of that 
 island. 
 Banderilla de Fuego al Filosofo Rancio, por Ingenuo 
 Tostado : papel impreso en Cadiz. 
 A Fiery Dart to the Filosofo Rancio, by Ingenuo 
 Tostado: a tract printed in Cadiz. 
 Bateria para los Frayles, 6 el Reformador de antano 
 es organo ; por A. A. C. : impreso en Valencisi, 
 ano de 1813. 
 A Battery for the Friars, or the Reformer of last year 
 come again this year; by A. A. C. : printed in 
 Valencia, 1813. 
 Bosquejo de la Revolucion de Espaua : folleto impreso 
 en Madrid, ano de 1814. 
 Sketch of the Revolution of Spain : pamphlet print- 
 ed in Madrid, 1814.. 
 Bosquejo de los Fraudes introducidos en la Religion 
 por las Pasiones de los Hombres, por M. D. B. : 
 impreso en Palma, ano de 1813. 
 Sketch of the Frauds introduced into Religion 
 through the Passions of Men, by M. D. B. : 
 printed in Palma, 1813. 
 Cabana Indiana : impresa en Valencia. 
 
 The Indian Cottage : printed in ^'alencia. t 
 
 * Tliis paper justly remarked for it5 free and correct principles was 
 edited by the unfortunate Don Isodoro AntiJlon, Beputyin the 
 Cortes for Ara^on, and who died a victim to the persecution he 
 inet with under the new .order of things. 
 
 :r This is the translation of the innocent noTcl of St. Pierre 
 known by the same name. 
 
 1
 
 Xlviii PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Campana del Lugar : periodico de Ca diz. 
 
 The Town Bell : Cadiz periodical paper. 
 Carta Gratulatoria a E. E. D. P. : impreso en Jaen, 
 ano del813. 
 Gratulatory Letter to E. E. D. P.: printed in Jaen, 
 1813. 
 
 Cartas al Amigo de la Constitucion : impresas en 
 Madrid. 
 Letters to a Friend of the Constitution: printed in 
 Madrid. 
 Cartas de un Religioso Espanol sobre el Abuso del 
 Poder: impresas en Madrid, ano 1808. 
 Letters of a Spanish Friar respecting the Abuse of 
 Power : printed in Madrid, 1 808. 
 Cartel : periodico de Santiago. 
 
 Cartel : periodical paper of Santiago. 
 Cartilla del Ciudadano Espanol ; por el Robespierre. 
 The A. B. C. of the Spanish Citizen; by the Ro- 
 bespierre. 
 Catecismo Civil. 
 
 Civil Catechism. 
 Catecismo natural del Hombre Libre. 
 
 Natural Catechism of the Free Man. 
 Catecismo Patriotico. 
 
 Patriotic Catechism. 
 Catecismo Politico arreglado a la Constitucion: im- 
 preso en Cordoba. 
 Political Catechism regulated to the Constitution: 
 printed in Cordova. 
 Catecismo Politico-constitutional: impreso en Malaga. 
 Politico-constitutional Catechism : printed in Ma- 
 laga. 
 
 Catecismo Politico-sentencioso, u Doctrina del buen
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. xliX 
 
 Ciudadano amante de su Religion, de su Pa- 
 tria, y de su Rey. 
 Politico-sententious Catechism ; or the Doctrine of 
 the good Citizen and Lover of his Religion, 
 his Country, and his King. 
 Celibatismo: papel asi titulado; impreso en Leonano 
 de 1814. 
 Celibacy: a tract so called, and printed in Leon, 1814. 
 Censor de Abusos conocidamente opuestos al Esplen- 
 dor y Gloria de Espana. 
 The Censor of Abuses evidently opposed to the 
 Splendour and Glory of Spain. 
 Centinela de la Patria. 
 
 Centinel of the Country. 
 Citateur (Le) ; par Pigault-Lebrun : el tomo 1 ° y si- 
 guientes. 
 The Quotator ; by Pigault-Lebrun : the first vol. 
 and following. 
 Ciudadano: periodic© de Madrid. 
 
 The Citizen : Madrid periodical paper. 
 Ciudadano por la Constitucion : periodico de la Co- 
 ruiia. 
 The Citizen by the Constitution ; Corunna perio- 
 dical paper. 
 Ciudadano (Un) del Reyno de Jaen a sus Compatrio- 
 tas: impreso en dicha ciudad, ano de 1813. 
 A Citizen of the Kingdom of Jaen to his fellow- 
 countrymen : printed in said city, 1813. 
 Coleccion de Docunftsntos ineditos pertenecientes a la 
 Historia Politica de nuestra Revolucion : Palma, 
 1811. 
 Collection of inedited Documents belonging to tho 
 Political History of our Revolution ; Palnia, 
 1811. 
 VOL. I, ■ d
 
 I PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Coleccion de las Felicitaciones a las Cortes por la Abo- 
 licion de la Inquisicion. 
 Collection of the Felicitations to the Cortes on the 
 Abolition of the Inquisition. 
 Conciso ; periodico de Cadiz. 
 
 Conciso : Cadiz periodical paper. 
 Concison : periodico de Cadiz. 
 
 The Big Conciso: Cadiz periodical paper. 
 Conferencia de los Liberales sobre el Papel intitulado 
 Vindicacion de la Inquisicion : impreso en Pal- 
 ma, ano de 1812. 
 Conference of the Liberales respecting ihe Tract 
 entitled " Vindication of the Inquisition" 
 printed in Palma, 1812. 
 Continuacion de la Historia de Buonaparte : folleto 
 en 4to menor; impreso en Valencia. 
 Continuation of the History of Buonaparte : pam- 
 phlet in small 4to ; printed in Valencia. 
 Copia de la Representacion del Reverendo Obispo de 
 Barbastroj dando gracias por la Abolicion de la 
 Inquisicion ; impresa en Madrid. 
 Copy of the Repx'esentation of the Reverend Bishop 
 of Barbastro, giving thanks for the Abolition 
 of the Inquisition : printed in Madrid. 
 Cuatro Verdades sobre la sabia Constitucion; Palma, 
 
 imprenta de Domingo. 
 A tew Truths respecting the wise Constitution ; 
 
 printed in Palma in the office of Domingo. 
 Cuatro Verdades utiles a la Nacion: Palma, imprenta 
 de Domingo, ano de 1810. 
 A few Truths useful to the Nation: Palma, in the of- 
 fice of Domingo, 1810. 
 Cuchilla del Terror : folleto impreso en Cadiz. 
 The Blade of Terror : pamphlet printed in Cadiz. 
 
 ^■.
 
 OF THE TKANSLATOR. Jl 
 
 ntos en Verso Castellano, por el Lie. Don Tomas 
 
 Hermenegildo de las Torres : impresosen Valencia. 
 
 Tales in Spanish Verse, by Licentiate Don Tomas 
 
 Hermenegildo de las Torres : printed in ^ a- 
 
 lencia. 
 
 Decada (La) : impresa en Cadiz. 
 
 The Decade : printed in Cadiz. 
 Defensa de las Cortes y de las Regalias de la Nac'on, 
 contra la Pastoral de los Obispos refugiado-i en 
 Mallorca : impresa en Cadiz. 
 Defence of the Cortes and of the Sovereignty of 
 the Nation, against the Pastoral Letter of the 
 Bishops who had fled to Majorca : printed in 
 Cadiz. 
 Defensa del Pedo. 
 
 Defence of the F . . t. 
 De nuestro Estado, nuestros Males, y su seguro y 
 unico Remedio, por Don Liberio Veranio y Es- 
 paiiol : folleto en 4to. impreso en Madrid aiio 
 de 1812. 
 Of our State, our Evils, and their sure and only 
 Remedy; by Don Liberio Veranio y Espariol : 
 pamphlet in 4to. printed in Madrid, 1812. 
 De que sirven los Frayles ? folleto impreso en Valencia. 
 Of what use are Friars? pamphlet printed in Va- 
 lencia. 
 Derechos de la Soberania Nacional; por J. M. Palma, 
 ano de 1810. 
 Rights of the National Sovereignty ,• by J. M. Pal- 
 ma, 1810. 
 Desengaiios Politicos : folleto en 4to. sin nombre del 
 autor ni lugar de impresion. 
 Political Undeceptions : pamphlet in 4to. without 
 the name of the author or place of impression, 
 d 2
 
 Hi PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Diario Civico y Patriotico de Santiago. 
 
 Civic and Patriotic Piary of Santiago. 
 Diario Mercantil de Cadiz. 
 
 Mercantile Diary of Cadiz. 
 Diario de Palma. 
 
 Diary of Palma. 
 Disciplina Eclesiastica Nacional: folleto impreso ei% 
 Palma. 
 National Ecclesiastical Di^ipline: pamphlet printed 
 in Palma. 
 Discurso del Dipntado de Cortes Extraordinarias, D. 
 Jose Mexia, sobre la Libertad de la Imprenta. 
 Speech of the Deputy in the Extraordinary Cortes, 
 Don Jose Mexia, respecting the Freedom of 
 the Press. 
 Discurso del Diputado de las Ordinarias, Martinez de 
 la Rosa, de 21 de Abril de 1814. 
 Speech of the Deputy of the Ordinary Cortes, 
 Martinez de la Rosa, on April 21, ISl^. 
 
 Discurso del Ciudadano Ledcsma en la Apertura de 
 las Cortes Ordinarias. 
 Speech of Citizen Lcdesma on the Opening of the 
 Ordinary Cortes. 
 Discurso de Don Lorenzo Villanueva a la Apertura de 
 la Audiencia de Valencia; impreso en dicha 
 ciudad. 
 Speech of Don Lorenzo Villanueva on the Opening 
 of the High Court of Justice of Valencia: 
 printed in the same city. 
 
 Discurso sobre la Opinion Nacional de Espana acerca 
 de la Guerra con Francia? por Don Juan Antonio 
 Llorente. 
 Speech regarding the National Opinion of Spain on
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. Uu 
 
 the subject of the War with France ; by Don 
 Juan Antonio Llorente. 
 Discurso dirigido a los Pueblos del Obispado de Leri- 
 da, por Don Jose Vidal, Canonigo Penitenciario 
 de aquella Iglesia con motivo del Concordat© de 
 Napoleon con N, M. S. P. Pio VII. 
 Speech addressed to the People of the Bishopric of 
 Lerida, by Don Jose Vidal, Penitentiary Ca- 
 non of that Church, on occasion of the Con- 
 cordat of Napoleon with Pope Pius VII. 
 Discurso del mismo Autor sobre la Licitud del Jura- 
 mento prestado al Gobierno Frances. 
 Speech of the same Author respecting the Legality 
 of the Oath taken to the French Government. 
 Discurso de Don Juan Antonio Pose, Cura parroco 
 de San Andres en el Obispado de Leon, sobre 
 la Constitucion Espaiiola. 
 Speech of Don Juan Antonio Pose, parish Curate 
 of St. Andrew's in the Bishopric of Leon, re^ 
 specting the Spanish Constitution. 
 Discusion del Proyecto de Decreto sobre el Tribunal 
 de la Inquisicion ; un tomo en 4to. Cadiz, en la 
 Imprenta Nacional, 1813. 
 Discussion on the Project of a Decree respecting 
 the Tribunal of the Inquisition : one vol. 4to. 
 Cadiz, in the National Printing-office, 1813. 
 Disertacion Teologico-canonica Apologetica contra el 
 Papel, intitulado, " Argument© sin Respuesta, 6 
 Convencimiento sin Excusa," impreso en Jaen ; 
 su Autor Don Jos6 Nucete, Prior de la Iglesia 
 mayor parroquial de Alcandete. 
 Theologico-canonical and Apologetic Dissertation 
 against a Pamphlet entitled, " Argument with- 
 out Answer, or Conviction without Excuse : " 
 printed in Jaen, and written by Don Jose Nu,
 
 liv PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 cete, Prior of the chief parochial Church of 
 Alcandete. 
 Duende (El): periodico de CMiz. 
 
 The Ghent : Cadiz periodical paper. 
 Duende de los Cafes. 
 
 The Ghost of the CofFee-Houses. (Idem.) 
 Elementos para un Diputado en Cortes. 
 Elemrnts for a Deputy in the Cortes. 
 Elogio Funebre del Dr. Don Eugenio de la Pena. 
 Funeral Oration in honour of Dr. Don Eugenio de 
 la Peria. 
 Ensayo de un Dictamen sobre la Inmunidal del Clero. 
 Essay on an Opinion respecting the Immunity of 
 the Clergy. 
 Escape de los Liberales de la Chamusquina que se les 
 preparaba. 
 Escape of the Liberales from the Trap prepared for 
 them. 
 
 Espafia Libre r periodico de Madrid. 
 
 Spain Free : Madrid periodical paper. 
 Espanol Libre. 
 
 The Free Spaniards. (Idem.) 
 
 Espejo de Serviles y Liberales^ 
 
 Mirror for the Sei*viles and Liberales. 
 
 Examen de la Censura del Diccionario Cfitico-bur- 
 lesco, por Gallardo. 
 Examination of the Censure passed on the Criticp- 
 burlesque Dictionary by Gallardo. 
 Examen Tmparcial de Serviles y Liberales. 
 
 Impartial Examination of Serviles and Liberales. 
 
 Exposicion del Ministro de Gracia y Justicia, Cano 
 Manuel, sobre Restablecimiento de Conventos. 
 Exposition of the Minister of Grace and Justice, 
 
 ^ .
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. 1? 
 
 Catio Manuel, respecting the Re-establisliment 
 of Convents. 
 Felicitacion del Ayuntamiento de Madrid a las Cortes 
 por la Abolicion de la Inquisicion : impreso en 
 Madrid. 
 Felicitation of the Municipality of Madrid to the 
 Cortes for the Abolition of the Inquisition : 
 printed in Madrid. 
 Filosofia (La) de la Guerra, traducida y anotada por 
 el C. Fel; Cadiz, 1813. 
 The Philosophy of War, translated with notes by 
 C. Fel: Cadiz, 1813. 
 Filosofo Cristiano (El) : foUeto en 4to. 
 
 The Christian Philosopher : pamphlet in 410. 
 
 Fraylada del Frayle. 
 The Friar's Act. 
 
 Fr. Lucas : comedia. 
 
 Father Luke : a comedy. 
 Gazeta de Madrid desde el 17 de Agosto hasta el 29 
 de Octubre, de 1812. 
 
 Madrid Gazette from Aug. 17 to Oct. 29, 1812. 
 Gazeta de Valencia. 
 
 Valencia Gazette. 
 Gazeta Marcial de Santiago. 
 
 Martial Gazette of Santiago. 
 Gazeta Politico-militar de la Cor una. 
 
 Politico-military Gazette of Corunna. 
 
 Idea de las Heregias del Dia : papel en verso sin nom- 
 
 bre de autor, ni lugar de imprcsion, atribuido a 
 
 un Calificador del Santo Oficio. 
 
 Idea of the Heresies of the Day : pamphlet in verse 
 
 without the name of the author or place of 
 
 impression, attributed to a qualificator of the 
 
 Holy Office.
 
 Ivi PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Impugnacion de la Doctrina Moral y Politica del re- 
 verendo Obispo de Orense. 
 Impugnation of the Moral and Political Doctrine 
 of the R. Rev. Bishop of Orense. 
 Impugnacion de las Reflexiones de Don Joaquin Mas : 
 impresas en Cadiz y Valencia. 
 Impugnation of the Reflections of Don Joaquin Masi 
 printed in Cadiz and Valencia. 
 Incompatibilidad de la Libertad Espanola con el Es- 
 tablecimiento de la Inquisicion; por Ingenuo 
 Tostado. 
 Incompatibihty of Spanish Freedom with the esta- 
 bhshment of the Inquisition; by Ingenuo 
 Tostado. 
 Informe y Pedimento Fiscal sobre el presentado por 
 los Locos ante el supremo Tribunal de la Razon : 
 por Don Andres Gomeri. 
 Attorney General's Report and Demand respecting 
 that presented by the Mad to the supreme Tri- 
 bunal of Reason, by D. Andres Gomeri. 
 Inquisicion Confundida ; Representacion hecha a las 
 Cortes por el P. M. Fr. Andres del Corral ; leida 
 en la sesion publica de 17 de Agosto de 1813, 6 
 inserta en las Gazetas de Coruna y Valladohd de 
 9 de Nov. y 3 de Oct. del mismo aiio. 
 Inquisition Confounded ; Representation made to 
 the Cortes by Rector Father Andres del Cor- 
 ral; read in the public session of Aug. 16, 1813, 
 and inserted in the Gazettes of Corunna and 
 Valladolid of Nov. 9, and Oct, 3, of same 
 year. 
 Inquisicion sin Mascara : impresa en Cadiz. 
 Inquisition Unmasked ; printed in Cadiz, 
 Inquisicion Vengada. 
 
 The Inquisition Avenged,,
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. Ivli 
 
 Insinuacion Patriotica sobre la Necesidad de extinguir 
 los Frayles, por M. N. 
 Patriotic Hint respecting the Necessity of extin- 
 guishing the Friars by M. N. 
 Insinuacion Patriotica: impresa en Palma aiio de 
 1812. 
 Patriotic Hint : printed in Pahna, 1812. 
 Instalacion de la Catedra de Constitucion de Valencia; 
 a cargo de Don Nicolas Gareli : impresa en la 
 misma ciudad, ano de 1814. 
 Installation of the Professorship of the Constitution 
 in Valencia ; by Don Nicolas Gareli : printed 
 in the same city, 1811.* 
 Instrucciones para los Representantes de Cortes ; por 
 J. C. A.: impresoen Valencia, afiode 1811. 
 Instructions for the Representatives in Cortes; by 
 J. C. A. : printed in Valencia, 1811. 
 Jansenismo, dedicado al Filosofo Rancio: un tomo en 
 4to. impreso en Cadiz. 
 Jansenism, dedicated to the Filosofo Rancio : 1 vol. 
 4to. printed in Cadiz. 
 La Luz Publica ; por el verdadero Espaiiol. 
 
 The Public Light ; by a true Spaniard. 
 Letrillas en justo Elogio de la Constitucion. 
 
 Lines in just Praise of the Constitution. 
 Loco Constitucional : periodico de Granada. 
 The Constitutional Madman : Granada periodical 
 paper. 
 Manifiesto de Don Simon Bergano y Villegas : im- 
 preso en Palma, aiio de 1813. 
 Manifest of Don Simon Bergano y Villegas : print- 
 ed in Palma, 1813. 
 
 * A professorship was erected in each university for the purpose 
 •f teaching and explaining the chief principles of public law i«« 
 Tolred in the New Constitutitn,
 
 Iviii PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Marica Constitucional ; papel en verso : impreso en 
 Madrid, anode 1814. 
 Constitutional Song : printed in Madrid, 1814. 
 Memoria Canonica sobre el Articulo de Rotas ; por 
 Don Angel Celdenio Prieto : impreso en Palnia, 
 aiio de 1812. 
 Canonical Memoir respecting the Article of Rotas; 
 by Don Angel Celdenio Prieto : printed in 
 Palraa, 1812. 
 Minerva Constitucional : periodic© de Granada. 
 Constitutional Minerva : Granada periodical pa- 
 per. 
 Noches Romananas en el Sopulcro de los Escipiones ; 
 por el Ciudadano Ledesma. 
 Roman Nights in the Tomb of the Scipios ; by 
 Citizen Ledesma. 
 Noticias Historicas de Don Gaspar Melchor de Jo- 
 vellanos ; su Autor Y. M. de A. M. : Palma, 
 aiio de 1812. 
 Historical Facts relating to Don Gaspar Melchor 
 de Jovellanos ; written by Y. M. de A. IM. : 
 Palma, 1812. 
 Observaciones Historicas y Criticas, sobre el Origen 
 del Monaquismo. 
 Historical and Critical Observations oti the origin 
 of Monasticism. 
 Observaciones y Glosas de un Patriota Audaluz a 
 una Carta inserta en el Procurador de 22 Nov. 
 de 1813. 
 Observations and Comments of ^n Andalusian 
 Patriot on a Letter inserted in the Procurator 
 of Nov. 22, 1813. 
 Observaciones sobre los Diaristas dc Espaiia ; por 
 Don Juan Antonio Llorente : Zaragoza, ano de 
 1813.
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. lix 
 
 Observations on t!ie Journalists of Spain ; by Don 
 Juan Antonio Llorente: Zaragoza, 1813. 
 
 Observador de Segura : periodico de Murcia del afio 
 de 1814. 
 Observer of Segura: Murcia periodical paper for 
 the year 181 4. 
 
 Oracion Apologetica de la Constitucion ; su Autor 
 Don Julian Gonzalez, Canonigo de la Colegiata 
 de Valpuesta : impresa en Vitoria. 
 Apologetic Oration on the Constitution ; written by 
 Don Julian Gonzalez, Canon of the Collegiate 
 Church of Valpuesta: printed in Vitoria. 
 Os Rogos de un Gallego. 
 
 The Prayers of a Gallician. 
 Patricio Vera, contestado por Dovia Dolores Espana. 
 Patrick Vera, answered by Doiia Dolores Espaiia.r 
 Patriotaen Cadiz (El) : comedia. 
 
 The Patriot in Cadiz : a comedy. 
 Patriota en las Cortes : periodico de Cadiz. 
 
 The Patriot in the Cortes : Cadiz periodical paper. 
 Patriota (El) : periodico de Madrid. 
 
 The Patriot : Madrid periodical paper. 
 Poesias Patrioticas. 
 Patriotic Poems. 
 Politica Eclesiastica ; Noticia de la Conducta del 
 Nuncio de S. S.: Palma, imprenta de Domingo, 
 aiio de 1813. 
 Ecclesiastical Policy ; Remarks on the Conduct of 
 the Pope's Nuncio: printed in Palma, in the 
 office of Domingo, 1813. 
 Politica Ecclesiastica sobre la Carta Circular del Vi- 
 cario General de Mallorca, dirigida a los Supe- 
 riores de las Ordenes Regulares con el fin de 
 procurar la Tranquilidad de los Habitantes de
 
 Ix PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 aquella Isla, interrumpida por los Predicadores 
 que convertieron la Catedra del Espiritu Santo en 
 Palestra de Subversion, e Inobediencia al Sobe- 
 rano y a las Legitimas Autoridades. Palma, 
 1813, en la imprenta de Domingo. 
 Ecclesiastical Policy respecting the Circular Letter 
 of the Vicar General of Majorca, addressed 
 to the Superiors of the regular Orders for the 
 Purpose of restoring the Tranquility of the 
 Inhabitants of the said Island, interrupted 
 throuo-h the Preachers who converted the 
 Pulpit of the Holy Ghost into an Arena of 
 Subversion and Disobedience to the Sovereign 
 and to the Legitimate Authorities : Palma, 
 1813, in the office of Domingo. 
 Politica Ecclesiastica sobre el Juramento de Obedien- 
 cia que los Obispos prestan al Papa : Palma, im- 
 prenta de Domingo, ano de 1813. 
 Ecclesiastical Pohcy respecting the Oath of Obe- 
 dience which the Bishops take to the Pope : 
 Palma, in the office of Domingo, 1813. 
 Politica Natural ; dos tomos en 4to. traducidos por 
 un ancianoy dados a luz por Pacheco; impresos 
 en Santiago en la imprenta de Montero. 
 Natural Policy; 2 vols in 4 to, translated by an old 
 man and published by Pacheco: printed in 
 Santiago in the office of Montero. 
 Proces-verbal d'Instalacion de la Loge de Vitoria; fol- 
 leto impreso en dicha Ciudad. 
 Proces-verbal of the Installation of the Free-masons' 
 Lodge of Vitoria: pamphlet printed in said city. 
 Proclama de un Labrador, inserta en el Numero 71 
 del Periodic© Politico y Mercantil deReus. 
 Proclamation of a Farmer, inserted in the 71st No. 
 of the Political and Mercantile Journal of Reus.
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. Ixi 
 
 Proclama a los Habitantes de las Orillas del Tajo: im- 
 
 presa en Cuenca, ano de ISll', en la imprenta 
 
 de la viuda de la Madrid ^ hijos. 
 
 Proclamation to the Inhabitants of the Banks of the 
 
 Tagus: printed in Cuenca, 1814-, in the office 
 
 ' of the widow Madrid and sons. 
 
 Profecia que vera puntualmente acreditada la Espana. 
 Prophecy which Spain will see punctually fulfilled. 
 
 Proyecto para extinguir la Deuda Publica ; por Juan 
 Alvarez Guerra : folleto impreso en Cadiz, 
 Project for extinguishing the Public Debt; by Juan 
 Alvarez Guerra: pamphlet printed in Cadiz. 
 
 Prospecto del Diario de Valencia ; por Don Tomas 
 Vilanova. 
 Prospectus of the Diary of Valencia, by Don Tho- 
 mas Vilanova. 
 
 Publicista (El), periodic© de Granada, numero 42 
 
 del Domingo, 13 de Dec. de 1812, y 127 dsi 
 
 Viernes, 7 de Mayo de 1813. 
 
 The Publiclste, periodical paper of Granada, No. 
 
 42 of Sunday, 13th Dec. 1812, and No. 127 of 
 
 Friday, 7th of May, 1813. 
 
 Pueblo Desengaiiado (El); Respuesta al CleroVindi- 
 cado; suautorDonFaustoFiloteo, Cura Parroco y 
 Doctor en Sagrada Teologia: impreso en Madrid, 
 imprenta de Alvarez, ano de 1813. 
 The People Undeceived; in Answer to the Vindicat- 
 ed Clergy, by Don Fausto Filoteo, Parish Cu- 
 rate and Doctor in Sacred Divinity : printed in 
 Madrid, in the office of Alvarez, year 1 813. 
 Pueblo Gallego (El) en el Tribunal de lalnquisicion. 
 The People of Galicia in the Tribunal of the In- 
 quisition.
 
 IXU PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Redactor General : periodico de Madrid, Cadiz y 
 Valencia. 
 Redactor General: periodical paper of Madrid, 
 Cadiz and Valencia. 
 Reflexiones sobre la Contribucion de Diezmos. 
 
 Reflections on the Impost of Tythes. 
 Reflexiones sobre los Puntos mas importantes en que 
 deben ocuparse las Cortes : Palma, 1810. 
 Reflections on the most important Points to be con- 
 sidered by the Cortes : Palma, 1810. 
 Reflexiones Sociales, 6 Idea para la Constitucion Es- 
 panola, que un Patriota ofrece a los Represen- 
 tantes de Cortes ; por D. J. C. A. 
 Social Reflections, or Hints for the Spanish Con- 
 stitution, offered by a Patriot to the Represen- 
 tatives in Cortes; by D. J. C. A. 
 Reforma de Regulares de Espana : Palma, imprenta 
 de Domingo, 1813. 
 Reform of the Regular Orders of Spain : Palma, 
 in the office of Domingo, 1813. 
 Reglemens de R. S. des Amis Reunis de S. Josef al 
 O. de Vitoria: impreso en lamisma ciudad. 
 Regulations of the Lodge of the United Friends 
 of St. Joseph assembled in Vitoria: printed in 
 the said city. 
 Reglas de Obedlencia para los Pueblos en Tiempo de 
 Disensiones entre las dos Potestades. 
 Rules of Obedience for the People in Times of 
 Dissensions between the two Powers. 
 Relacion de la solemne Apertura de la Catedra de 
 Constitucion en Madrid. 
 Report of the solemn Opening of the School for 
 teaching the Constitution in Madrid.
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. Ixui 
 
 Religiosas de Cambray: coraedia. 
 
 The Nuns of Cambray : a comedy. 
 Representacion a las Cortes contra el Edicto en que 
 se prohibio el Diccionario Critico-burlesco , por 
 Don Miguel Garcia de la Madrid. 
 Remonstrance to the Cortes against the Edict in 
 which the Critico-burlesque Dictionary k pro- 
 hibited ; by Don Miguel Garcia de la Madrid. 
 
 Respuesta de Gallardo a la Censura de su Diccionario. 
 Answer of Gallardo to the Censure passed on his 
 Dictionary. 
 Respuesta del P. Fr. Andres Corral a su Contempo- 
 raneo Come-pimiento y Escribe-pimiento Fr. 
 Veremundo Androminas de Cascalaliendr-^ : im- 
 preso en Valladolid por los Herraanos Santan- 
 der, alio de 1814. 
 (As the title of this work hinges upon a pun it can- 
 not be translated.) 
 Robespierre Espanol; periodicode la Isla; reimpreso 
 
 en Madrid. 
 . Spanish Robespierre ; periodical paper of La Isla: 
 
 reprinted in Madrid. 
 Roma Libre: tragedia. 
 
 Rome Free : a tragedy. 
 Seguidillas a la Entrada de la Regencia. 
 Verses on the Entry of the Regency. 
 Segunda Insinuacion Patriotica contra los Frayles de 
 Madrid. 
 Second Patriotic Hint against the Friars of Madrid. 
 Segundo Aviso a los Chisperos. 
 
 Second Advice to the Chisperos (nickname of the 
 people of Madrid). 
 
 Semanario Patriotic© ; desde el No. 1 5, periodic© de 
 Cadiz.
 
 IxiV PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Semanario Patriotico; from No. 15, a Cadiz pe- 
 riodical paper. 
 Sermon predicado el 21 de Dec. por D. Ramon 
 Ilullan, Presbitero, en la Solemnisima Fiesta 
 consagrada a N. S. del Pilar, en la Parroquia de 
 San Jayme de Mallorca, por varios Amigos y 
 Apasionados de Don Isidoro Antillon, Diputado 
 en Cortes. 
 Sermon preached on 2 1st Dec. by Don Ramon 
 Rullan, Priest, in the most solemn Feast conse- 
 crated to om* Lady of the Pilar, in the Parish 
 Church of St. James in Majorca, and published 
 by various Friends and Admirers of Don Isi- 
 dore Antillon, Deputy in Cortes. 
 
 Serviles y Liberales : comedia. 
 
 The Serviles and Liberales: a comedy. 
 Serviles y Liberales, 6 Guerra de los Papeles. 
 
 The Serviles and Liberales, or War of the Papers. 
 Sevilla libre : Palma, imprenta de Domingo. 
 
 Seville free : Palma, in the office of Domingo. 
 Si de las Niiias (El) : comedia. 
 
 The Yes of the Maids : a comedy.* 
 Sistema de la Educacion : un tomo en 8vo. 
 
 System of Education : 1 vol. in 8vo. 
 Tapaboca alGazetero de la Mancha: Palma aiio de 
 1813. 
 
 Mouthshutter to the Newsman of La Mancha: 
 Palma, 1813. 
 Telegrafo Mallorquin : periodico de Palma. 
 
 Majorca Telegraph : periodical paper of Palma. 
 Telegrafo: periodico de Santiago. 
 
 The Telegraph : periodical paper of Santiago. 
 
 • Thisisnbeantifu) Comedy filled with wit and morality, anfl 
 written b> Don L. Moratin, the only dramatie poet the Spanish 
 theatre can uuw boast.
 
 OP THE TRANSLATOR. Ixv 
 
 Teoria de las Cortes ; por el ciudadano Don Fran- 
 cisco Martinez Marina, Canonigo de San Isidro: 
 3 tomos en ito. marquilla, impresos en Madrid 
 en 1813. 
 Theory of the Cortes ; by citizen Don Francisco 
 Martinez Marina, canon of St. Isidore: 3 vols. 
 4to. large paper, printed in Madrid, 1813. 
 Traidor (El) : folleto en 4to. impreso en Madrid, aiio 
 de 1812, sin nombre de autor. 
 The Traitor : pamphlet in ito. printed in Madrid, 
 1812, without the name of the author. 
 Tribuno del Pueblo Espanol : periodic© de Cadiz y 
 Madrid. 
 Tribune of the People : periodical paper of Cadiz 
 and Madrid. 
 Triple Alianza : periodico de Cadiz. 
 
 Triple Alliance : Cadiz periodical paper, 
 Verdad (La), amargue a quien quiera. 
 
 The Truth, let it be bitter to whom it may. 
 Vieio (El) de la Capa Azul: impreso en Valencia, 
 aiio de 1811. 
 The Old Man of the Blue Cloak : printed in Va- 
 lencia. 
 Vindicacion del benemerito Patriota Argiielles. 
 
 Vindication of the deserving Patriot Arguelles, 
 Viuda de Padilla : tragedia. 
 
 The widow of Padilla : a tragedy. 
 Universal (El): periodico de Madrid. 
 
 The Universal : Madrid periodical paper. 
 Un Consejito prudente a los Liberales. 
 A little prudent Counsel to the Liberales. 
 
 ., (To be continued.) 
 TaL. I, €
 
 Ixvi PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 " Wherefore, desirous of repairing by timely ren\e- 
 dies the injury tliat may result to the faithful and to 
 the Catholic religion, from the perusal of the said 
 books, pamphlets, and papers, owing to their being 
 published and circulated in these kingdoms, we have 
 commanded that the same be prohibited and called 
 in, in order that no one may be allowed to sell, read, 
 or retain them, either printed or manuscript, in what- 
 ever impression or language they may be, under the 
 penalty of the higher excommunication latce se?itentice, 
 and a fine of two hundred ducats for the expenses of 
 the Holy Office, as well as the other penalties esta- 
 blished by law. In consequence whereof, by the te- 
 nor of these presents we exhort and require, and, if 
 necessary, by virtue of holy obedience and under the 
 said penalty of higher and pecuniary excommunica- 
 tion, we command, that from the day in which this our 
 edict shall be read and notified to you, or you may know 
 of it in any way whatsoever (we granting and allowing 
 to you the six first and successive days by way of ca- 
 nonical admonition, which term expired, the obliga- 
 tion shall be considered peremptory), that you bring, 
 exhibit, and deliver up to us, or to any of the provin- 
 cial tribunals or their commissaries residing in their 
 respective districts, all and any of the said books, 
 pamphlets, and papers, that they may forward the same 
 to us, and that you also declare those which other 
 persons may possess and hide. And on your non- 
 compliance therewith and the said term being expired, 
 all who may thus be contumacious and rebelhous in 
 not doing and complying with the aforesaid order, 
 we once for all and henceforward lodge on and pro- 
 mulgate against you and each of you the said sentence 
 of higher excommunication, and hold you as having 
 incurred the said censures and penalties; and we here-
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. IxVli 
 
 by notify to you that we will proceed against you in 
 execution of the same, and as by law we may deem fit. 
 In testimony whereof we decree and publish this our 
 edict, signed with our name, sealed with our seal, 
 and countersigned by the under secretary of His 
 Majesty and of the Council. Madrid, July 22, 1815. 
 " (Signed) Francisco Xavier, 
 
 " Bishop and Inquisitor General. 
 " Dr. Cristoval de Cos y Vivero, 
 '' Secretary to the King Our Lord, and of the Council." 
 
 Tedious as the above document may appear, it is 
 nevertheless deserving of being known and placed on 
 record, as the best possible criterion of the object and 
 occupations of the Inquisition, and also as a most 
 substantial proof of the credulous ignorance of its 
 members. Scarcely any thing published in Spain 
 during the revolution is excluded from the above list ; 
 and the invisible thunders of the Holy Tribunal are 
 not only launched against the readers and holders of 
 any of the preceding works, even though it be a mer- 
 cantile advertiser, but these same penalties are more- 
 over declared to be on the head of him who knows 
 of any of them being in the possession of another, 
 and fails to inform against him. Was ever such a 
 door ojjened for the baneful working of enmity and 
 revenge ? Under such a system can any one dwell in 
 the bosom of his family divested of alarm, suspicion, 
 and distrust ? And let me now ask, what is it these 
 Inquisitorial censures amount to? They are nearly 
 equivalent to a decree of outlawry in other countries, 
 as in the course of the present work the reader will 
 have occasion to notice. From their grasp the fa- 
 vourite of a prince cannot escape, nay even monarch s 
 have fallen under them. And can this be a proper 
 e 2
 
 iXVlll PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 penalty for his Catholic Majesty's Supreme Council 
 of the Inquisition to decree either against the "writer 
 or reader of columns, cliiefly destined to recount the 
 heroic actions of his subjects in defence of their coun- 
 try and his throne ? Can the prohibition of such a 
 sec of works conduce either to the honour or advan- 
 tage of religion ? A writer of great eminence has ob- 
 served " that to prohibit the reading of certain books, 
 is to declare the inhabitants of the country to be 
 either fools or slaves :" what then would he have said 
 if the preceding list had fallen into his hands ? Me- 
 lancholy as the reflection must be to those who, as it 
 were, once held the destinies of Spain in their own 
 hands, the Inquisition has been re-established to make 
 War against the intellectual knowledge Spain had ac- 
 quired by her late intercourse with foreigners, and to 
 bm-y civil liberty, together with the arts and sciences, 
 in the grave of a false and mistaken piety. This great 
 work is fast advancing, as may be imagined by the 
 single fact we deem it necessary to mention ; viz. that 
 during the time of the Cortes forty periodical papers 
 were regularly published in European Spain, as may 
 be seen from the preceding list, besides several others 
 therein omitted, whereas the whole have now been 
 superseded by the Gazeta de Madrid, published twice 
 a week, the Diario of tlie same place, and the Mercu- 
 rio which appears only once in each month. In ad- 
 dition to this every foreign paper is prohibited, parti- 
 cularly English ones.* 
 
 » To render the debasement of Spain still more complete, by » 
 fecent decree of Don Pedro Cevallos, public education has been 
 confided to the nuns and friars ; and the bishops are besides buried 
 in teaching the subject his duties to the king, by the publicatiHn of 
 catechisms and pastoral letters which would disgrace the ninth ces- 
 lurv.
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. Ixix 
 
 Tlie way had already been paved for the preceding 
 edict by another addressed by the Inquisitor General 
 to the respective districts of all the Spanish dominions 
 in Europe and America, the material pait of which 
 we shall also insert. 
 
 *' We Don Francisco Xavier Mier y Campillo, by 
 the grace of God and of the Holy Apostolic See, 
 Bishop of Almeria, Knight of the Royal and Distin- 
 guished Spanish Order of Charles III., Member of 
 His Majesty's Council, and Inquisitor General of his 
 Kingdoms and Lordships, 
 
 " To all the faithful inhabitants of these kingdoms, 
 health in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are all asto- 
 nished at and deplore with the greatest reason, the 
 horrid ravages caused on our soil by the barbarity 
 and fierceness of our enemies, which will be trans- 
 mitted to distant generations in the multitude of ruins 
 which strike the eye from one extreme of the king- 
 dom to the other ; but however great these evils may 
 be, as well as the desolation to which whole towns 
 have been reduced, together with numberless families 
 of all conditions and classes, we have still to deplore 
 another evil incomparably greater, with which Divine 
 Providence has punished our sins ; for, though po- 
 verty, misery, widowhood, orphanage, as well as 
 other kinds of unhappiness, justly excite pain and 
 regret, they cannot in any way be compared with 
 that we ought to feel at the loss of our holy faith, and 
 of the ineffable consolations with which, in the midst 
 of the greatest afflictions and calamities, the religion 
 of Jesus Christ upholds and comforts us. We will 
 not say that this has abandoned sad and afflicted Spain, 
 nor that its holy law and the observance of its pre- 
 cepts have disappeared from among us; thanks to the
 
 IXX PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 infinite mercies of the Lord who has punished us as a 
 father, he always preserved in his inheritance zealous 
 workmen and faithful servants who watched and la- 
 boured for the glory of his holy name and for the 
 honour of his true spouse, the Cathohc, Apostolic, 
 and Roman Church ; but we all behold with horror 
 the rapid progress of incredulity and the dreadful 
 corruption of manners which have contaminated the 
 Spanish soil, and of which the piet}' and religious 
 zeal of our forefathers would be ashamed, seeing that 
 the same errors and new and dangerous doctrines 
 which have miserably destroyed the greatest part of 
 Europe, infest their beloved country, and that the 
 youth drink, like Avater, this pestiferous venom, for 
 the very reason that it flatters their passions and 
 senses. 
 
 " The compassionate heart of our Sovereign was 
 moved, at his return from captivity, on beholding this 
 our sad situation, and with a holy zeal he excited that 
 of all ecclesiastical and secular authorities, in order 
 to extirpate so great a scandal, and, in imitation of 
 him, all the good deplore that many of their children 
 have given ear, as heathen Rome once did, to the 
 errors of all nations. 
 
 " Under circumstances unfortunately too notorious, 
 it is not strange, that all the lovers of religion should 
 turn their eyes to the Holy Tribunal of the Faith, and 
 hope, from its zeal for the purity of doctrine and 
 manners, that it will remedy, by the discharge of its 
 sacred ministry, so many evils, through the ways and 
 means granted to it by the Apostolic and Royal Au- 
 thority with which it is invested. Nothing more ur- 
 gent to the truth nor more conformable to our in- 
 stitution, for in vain should we be centinels of the 
 House of the Lord, if we were to remain asleep in
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. Ixxi 
 
 the midst of the common danger to religion mid our 
 country. God will not permit us thus basely to aban- 
 don his cause, nor to correspond so ill to the exalted 
 piety with which the King our Lord lias re-established 
 us in the weighty functions of our ministry, in which 
 we have sworn to be superior to all human respect, 
 whether it be necessary to watch, persuade, and cor- 
 rect, or whether to separate, cut, or tear down the 
 rotten members in order that they may not infect the 
 sound ones. 
 
 " But, in order to proceed in so delicate as well as 
 important and necessary an operation, we will not 
 imitate the ardent zeal of the Apostles when they 
 asked of Jesus Christ to cause fire to rain down from 
 heaven to destroy Samaria, but rather the meekness 
 of their Master and Guide, of which certainly those 
 are ignorant who wish us to commence our functions 
 with fire and sword, by anathematizing and dividing, 
 as the only remedy to save the sacred deposit of the 
 faith, and choak up the bad seed so abundantly scat- 
 tered on our soil, as well by the immoral band of Jews 
 and sectaries who have profaned it, as the unfortunate 
 liberty of writing, copying, and publishing their errors. 
 Our resolution has been very different since we have 
 mediated and carefully deliberated the matter with 
 the ministers of the Council of His Majesty, and of 
 the Supreme and General Inquisition: all having un- 
 animously agreed, that now as well as ever, modera- 
 tion, sweetness, and charity ought to shine forth as 
 forming the character of the Holy Office ; and that 
 before using the power of the sword granted to us 
 against the contumacious and rebellious, we ought to 
 attract them with sweetness, by presenting to them 
 the olive-branch, the symbol of our pacific wishes 
 towards those who go so far as to abhor peace. To
 
 Ixxii PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 this we have been moved, not only by the practice ot 
 the Church, which has frequently been indulgent and 
 mitigated the rigour of the penalties when the guilty 
 were numerous, but also by a knowledge of the cir- 
 cumstances under which seduction and deceit have 
 fatally triumphed over the simplicity, and above all, 
 the confidence by which we were actuated ; yet if the 
 hearts of many Spaniards were capable of being sur- 
 prised in moments of dai'kness and a general overthrow 
 of ideas, they will not have been hardened or ren- 
 dered insensible to the calls of religion, nor can they 
 have forgotten their former principles. 
 
 *' Wherefore, far from adopting for the present, 
 measures of severity and rigour against the guilty, 
 we have determined to grant them, as we hereby do 
 grant, a term of grace, which shall be from the date 
 of the publication of this our edict, till the last day 
 inclusive of this year, in order that all persons of both 
 sexes who unfortunately may have fallen into the crime 
 of heresy, or feel themselves guilty of any error 
 against which our Mother the Church believes and 
 teaches, or of any hidden crime whose cognizance be- 
 longs to the Holy Office, may recur to the latter and 
 discharge their consciences and abjure their errors, 
 under the security and assurance of the most inviola- 
 ble secrecy ; and on the same being done within the 
 time prefixed, accompanied by a sincere, entire, and 
 true manifestation of all they may know and remem- 
 ber against themselves as well as against others, they 
 shall be charitably received, absolved, and incorpo- 
 rated into the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church, 
 without their thereby having to apprehend the infliction 
 of the punishments ordained, nor the injury of their 
 honour, character, and reputation, and still less the 
 privation of the whole or any part of tlieir property,
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. IxxiH 
 
 since for those cases in which they ought o lose it, and 
 the same ought to be applied to the Eichequer and 
 Treasury of His Majesty, in conformity o the Jaws of 
 these Kingdoms, His Majesty using hi. natural cle- 
 mency, and preferring thespiritual felicit'of his vassals 
 to the interests of his Royal Exchequer, <xempts them 
 for the pi'esent from this penalty, and grants them 
 grace and pardon whereby they may rdain and pre- 
 serve the said property, on condition thrt they appear 
 within the time prefixed, accompaniel with the ne-* 
 cessary disposition for a true reconcilKt.on, Sec, &c. 
 »' Madrid, April 5, 1815." 
 
 The foregoing papers, which hare been selected 
 from several others of a similar staroj sufficiently 
 evince that the modern Inquisition ol Spain knows 
 little of the force contained in the sdvice of the 
 amiable Fenelon, when he recommtnled liberty of 
 conscience being given to all men, ' not as if all 
 opinions are alilce indifferent, but that t is our duty 
 patiently to permit that which God pcmits, and to 
 lead men from the deviations of error by tlie sweet 
 and gentle powers of persuasion." Wth such testi- 
 monies before him, no one besides williesitate to say, 
 that the Inquisition has been restored, ad is now used, 
 for the worst political purposes ; and hat this event 
 was no other than the prelude of the ;ost abject de- 
 gradation. The feelings of Europe j:6sibly may not 
 be revolted with public autos of th< faith, but the 
 secret halls of tortm-e already do andiave witnessed 
 the repetition of those scenes to whic they were be- 
 fore appropriated, and the solitary eel again contain 
 ^their customary occupants. 
 
 The present picture of Spain, uncr the influence 
 pf the Inquisition, is still marked wit darker colours.
 
 Ixxiv 
 
 PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 Already that aillen indolence and indifference which 
 exclude evcrj principle of activity have superseded 
 those growing energies arising out of an extension of 
 just rights, anl the people participating in the forma- 
 tion of their ovn laws. A dreary silence pervades the 
 whole commuii:y ; each one is afraid of his neigh- 
 bour, and thoigh mutually linked by nature, no con- 
 fidence prevails; every face wears the aspect of fear 
 and distrust. la the closet, in the church, and in the 
 public square, e^ery one is on his guard, and trembles 
 for the present ff the past. 
 
 If such then is the situation of Spain, and if the 
 chief coadjutoil of this fresh degradation has been the 
 restored Inquia ion, the British public must not only 
 feel sympathy br its victims, but an anxious wish 
 must also previl to know the nature and tendency of 
 that tribunal fmi an authentic source. England, only 
 eight years agcj flowed with enthusiastic ardour at the 
 sight of a who|s people rising in arms to repel an in- 
 vader, and intirt on improving the favourable cir- 
 cumstances in \l.ich they were placed, by securing to 
 themselves intenal reform. In joining the struggle, 
 Britons also hoed that the intercourse and friend- 
 ship which foUtved would hereafter be favourable to 
 liberality and fi^dom, and that, at least, cordial gra- 
 titude would be|he result of the many sacrifices they 
 had hastened tcbiake. If, however, the antecedent 
 documents are aentively noticed, they will be found 
 levelled with a ^\w to efface every moral vestige of 
 Britons from theoil of Iberia, and to excite virulent 
 animosity againsher liberators, by rousing and sanc- 
 tioning popular jjejndices of the most baneful and in- 
 hospitable kind. The main object of a glorious and 
 necessary revoluon is thence completely defeated, 
 and regardless oj those offices of national confidence
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR. IxXV 
 
 which otherwise would have resulted, that country is 
 now rendered impemous to the access of Britons 
 which lately constituted the theatre of their martial 
 gloi'ies; for what man could repose in quiet upon his 
 pillow who has heard the above inquisitorial edicts, and 
 others which we havje no room to insert, read from 
 the pulpit, and knows their execution is confided to 
 the numerous and mercenary spies with which every 
 town and village is crowded ? 
 
 Sufficient has already been said to prove that the 
 Cortes were the only constitutional body authorised 
 to adopt such a measure as the overthrow of the In- 
 quisition, as well as the many others undertaken to 
 promote the political resurrection of the country over 
 which they presided. The numerous felicitations 
 poured in on the occasion establish the fact, that the 
 general sense of the nation was in favour of the aboli- 
 tion of a tribunal that had always constituted the most 
 terrible and disgraceful feature in the ecclesiastical 
 history of Spain ; and it is some consolation to know, 
 that a large portion of the inhabitants were sensible 
 of its defects, struggled for its proscription, and that 
 even Spanish authors, of course themselves Catholics, 
 unawed by the threats of its upholders, and despising 
 the personal danger to which they were exposed, 
 dared to tear the mask from this accumulation of fraud 
 and hypocrisy which had extinguished, or at least, 
 neutralized, in the people, those sentiments of justice 
 and probity which form the basis of social order. 
 Time, the great arbiter of political calculations, has 
 yet to unfold, whether to impede the i-estoration of 
 the Inquisition in Spain would not have been an object 
 deserving of the consideration of a Protestant govern- 
 ment, and whether its accomplishment would not
 
 JxXVi PRELIMINARY REMARKS 
 
 have stood on a parallel with the humane abohtion of 
 the Slave Trade, and the glorious extinction of piracy 
 in Algiers. 
 
 Many united motives therefore concur to render 
 the work which chiefly contributed to the tempo- 
 rary overthrow of the Inquisition in Spain, accep- 
 table to British readers. No one composition on the 
 same subject is in our possession that can be deemed 
 complete and authentic, nor indeed could a Spaniard 
 have undertaken the task before the late revolution, 
 when the archives of the tribunal were for the first 
 time opened. The Inquisition Unmasked was written 
 in Cadiz, during the freedom of the press, and when 
 nearly every thing enlightened in Spain was concen- 
 trated there. Its object was to prepare the minds of 
 the people for the deliberations of the national legis- 
 lature in this respect, and it certainly had the desired 
 effect. It supplied arguments and proofs on which re- 
 liance could be placed, because they were supported by 
 authorities, unexceptionable even to the most sceptic. 
 
 The present work, whilst it constitutes a correct de- 
 tail of facts which exhibit an enormous degree of atro- 
 city, enters into the spirit of those laws and statutes by 
 which the Inquisition is governed, and developes the 
 nature as well as the extent of the ravages produced by 
 inquisitorial vengeance, as far as they can be ascertain- 
 ed, a point estabhshed by no preceding labours. It 
 displays, in chronological order, the various struggles 
 of the Spanish nation to dislodge this potent enemy 
 of their domestic peace, supported by a variety of his- 
 torical traits to which no foreigner coidd have access. 
 
 The author has preferred the form of a dissertation 
 to that of a history, because it was more congenial to 
 hi? views. He was aware that history is chiefly a de-
 
 OF THE TRANSLATOR, IxXVU 
 
 tail of facts, and its object the simple instruction of 
 the reader : consequently it was not capable of form- 
 ing the portrait of an establishment, whose nature ii 
 constituted more by its laws than the conduct of its 
 ministers. If he had treated the subject as an his- 
 torian, he would not have been able to examine the 
 system of the tribunal in a full and philosophic manner, 
 which, under existing circumstances, was indispensa- 
 bly requisite, since the partisans of the Inquisition 
 with whom he had to contend, would never have been 
 convinced, however its abuses had been discovered, if 
 the defects of its constitution had not equally been 
 placed in a light even stronger than that of noon-day. 
 History besides chiefly serves to clear up what is 
 obscure, but our author had to form correct notions 
 of what was dubious, and, after repelling the sophisms 
 of his adversaries, and undeceiving the people, to inspire 
 them with a just odium of the Inquisition by argu- 
 Jnents which bore conviction to their very minds. 
 Hence oratorial aid was occasionally necessary, and 
 this could only take place in a composition under th«f 
 form of a discourse, or academical dissertation. 
 
 If, as Britons, we beheld the downfall of the In- 
 quisition with feelings of joy, its re-estabhshment 
 must consequently now be a subject of regret ; but, 
 whilst we have occasion to lament such a gross per- 
 version of the word of God, and to shudder at the 
 cruelties of those who, with their hands red in blood, 
 pretend to be the disciples of a crucified Lord, ' our 
 interest must naturally make us anxious to possess an 
 account on which we can rely. Astonished that the 
 advocates of such a tribunal should have found au- 
 thority in the Scriptures and support in the Holy 
 f'athers, in vain have we looked over the many pieces 
 
 published on tlje subject ; some we found filled with 
 5
 
 Ixxviii PRELIMINARV REMARKS 
 
 romance, others with the sufferings of individuals, or 
 compiled from mutilated and dubious materials. No- 
 thing hitherto had given us a full and comprehensive 
 view, orexplaincd the whole fabric and component parts 
 of this Institution, because few have had the means of 
 deliberately viewing it within. It is only since various 
 recondite transactions of the Holy Office have been 
 torn down from shelves on which they had slept for 
 ages, that it has been possible to give an outline of 
 the conduct of its ministers ; or from the time that 
 in Spain some patriotic Inquisitors themselves have 
 been emulous in opening authentic records, to over- 
 turn an establishment to which they formerly be- 
 longed. 
 
 The present publication is consequently offered to 
 British readers with a greater degree of confidence 
 than usually accompanies works of the day. The 
 translation has been performed from a MS. and en- 
 larged copy of the author, with all possible fidelity, 
 but under those difficulties arising out of occasional 
 peculiarities of idiom, or the stile or construction of 
 the original, particularly in quotations from old a 
 thors, juridical terms, or such as are technical in an 
 institution with which happily we are not familiar. 
 In the original the subject is divided into Reflections, 
 but we have preferred adopting the usual denomina- 
 tion of Chapters. Two notes have been omitted, one 
 in the Vth and the other in the Vllth Chapter, owing 
 to the impossibility of giving them an adequate ver- 
 sion and their not being deemed essential. The 
 plates may be considered as the only genuine repre- 
 sentations hitherto laid before the pubhc. 
 
 W. \\\
 
 . D. O. M. 
 
 TO THE IMMORTAL MEMORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GENERAL AND EXTRAORDINARY CORTES 
 
 OF THE SPANISH NATION 
 
 DEFENDERS OF THE INDEPENDENCE 
 
 AND 
 
 FOUNDERS OF THE CIVIL LIBERTY 
 
 OF THEIR COUNTRY 
 
 THIS WORK IS DEDICATED 
 
 BY ITS AUTHOR. 
 
 ANNO MDCCCXIV.
 
 ORIGINAL PREFACE. 
 
 \yHEN I attempt radically to destroy the 
 Inquisition, I conceive I am complying with 
 one of the chief duties imposed on every 
 citizen by the united mandate of religion 
 and humanity, both hitherto so long and so 
 atrociously outraged by the existence of such 
 a tribunal. Would to God that, in exhibiting 
 the defects of its constitution, and the cor- 
 rupt practices which have emanated there- 
 from, my endeavours could answer the ex- 
 tent of my wishes, and produce an effect cor- 
 responding to the manner in which my own 
 sensibility has been excited on exploring au- 
 thentic details filled with the enormity of so 
 many vices and abuses. 
 
 Notwithstanding only four months have 
 been expended in the investigation of docu- 
 ments capable of throwing light on so ob- 
 scure a subject, I nevertheless hope to be 
 able to lay before the public such a fund of 
 
 VOL. I. f
 
 Ixxxii ORIGINAL PREFACE. 
 
 information as will be sufficient to determine 
 its opinion. During this interval, as writings 
 have not ceased to appear, either for or 
 against this establishment, the authors of the 
 latter will have furnished me with some hints 
 and reflections of which I shall not fail to 
 avail myself when I bring my arguments to 
 the test of evidence. The satisfaction I 
 should have derived from presenting them as 
 new, will be compensated by the suggestion 
 of others arising out of these same writings, 
 and which possibly would not otherwise have 
 occurred to me. Even the apologists of the 
 tribunal, whom I shall occasionally stop to 
 refute, will contribute to elucidate my asser- 
 tions; for the nature of a cause is frequently 
 also known by the manner in which its par- 
 tisans defend it. 
 
 I cannot however flatter myself with hav- 
 ing given all the necessary polish to my la- 
 bours, or therein attained more than ordinary 
 perfection ; but if it is at any time true that 
 the most humble endeavours are praisewor- 
 thy in a good cause, this is certainly the case 
 at the present juncture, when the August 
 Congress of the nation is about to dehberate 
 respecting the suppression or permanency of 
 
 4
 
 ORIGINAL PREFACE. IxXXlU 
 
 the Inquisition. The defects therefore of 
 the present work, which with some degree of 
 violence to my own feelings I lay before the 
 public in a less perfect state than I could have 
 wished, will, it is hoped, be attributed to 
 the pressure of the moment, urged as I have 
 been by my anxiety to co-operate, as much 
 as is in my power, to the happy issue of so im- 
 portant a discussion. 
 
 I am fully aware that numbers of plodding 
 writers will rise up against me, who, clinging 
 to their old prejudices, will omit nothing to 
 retard the day which at length must arrive, 
 when we shall behold this Colossus dashed to 
 the ground ; this Colossus which has ever 
 been the tutelar genius of all kinds of igno- 
 rance and vice : but their sophisms can never 
 cloud the face of truth, nor shall Ibe startled 
 by the impotent railings to which they usually 
 resort. The dogs bark, but the moon, mov- 
 ing in her celestial orbit, keeps on her majes- 
 tic course, nor does the audacity of her ene- 
 mies cause her for an instant to withhold 
 her light. 
 
 Cadiz, Oct. 15, 1811.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Translator's Dedication iii 
 
 Preliminary Remarks by the Translator v 
 
 Dedication to the Cortes Ixxix 
 
 Introduction 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 The Inquisition being an ecclesiastical Tribunal, its 
 Rigour is incompatible with the Spirit of Meek- 
 ness which ought to distinguish the Ministers of 
 the Gospel 19 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The System of Rigour adopted by this Tribunal is 
 opposed to the Doctrine of the Holy Fathers and 
 the Discipline of the Church in its most happy 
 Times 39 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Inquisition, far from contributing to the Pre- 
 servation of the true Belief, is only suited to 
 encourage Hypocrisy and excite the People to 
 Rebellion 80
 
 IxXXvi CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV, 
 The Mode of Judicial Process established in this 
 Tribunal tramples to the Ground all the Rights of 
 the Citizen 128
 
 LIST OF PLATES, 
 
 (With Directions to the Binder.) 
 
 Vignette. The Spanish Constitution aims at 
 the Destruction of Tyranny and Supersti- 
 tion, and promotes Union between Spain 
 and America Ixxix 
 
 Plate VOL. I. Page 
 
 I. Seal and Arms of the Inquisition 85 
 
 II. Form of Trial 200 
 
 III. The Culprit recognized by masked Wit- 
 nesses 225 
 
 IV. Torture of the Pulley 251 
 
 V. Torture of the Rack 252 
 
 VI. Torture by Fire 254- 
 
 VII. Culprits in penitential Garments 299 
 
 VIII. Procession preceding an Auto de Fe . . . . 321 
 
 IX. Grand Auto of the Year 1680 324 
 
 X. Burning Place, and Execution Front. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
 XI. Burning Place of Seville in 15th Century. Front.
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 VOL. I. 
 
 Page 22, note f line 5, for Abrahamae read Abrahas. 
 255, note + line 5, for a half read ii quarter. 
 259, note * line 2, for serior read verior. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 Page 25, line penult. /or Renato Polo read Reginald Pole. 
 33, line 18, for Pince rend Prince. 
 .S3, line penult. /yr Teregui re«(/"V'^regui. 
 264, line 5, for seventh rearf sixth. 
 207, line 21, /or dagger reod haKer. 
 
 331, third line from top, the paragraph beginning " In 
 the same year" to "•office" p. 334, ought to bff 
 introduced after " perpetuated," p. 3!i6. 
 3Sl,line20, /or 13th read l6lU.
 
 THE 
 
 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Under a well-constltuted government 
 ought not the doctrine and observance of 
 religion to be maintained in all their purity 
 and vigour? An affirmative answer to this 
 question is the immediate and necessary con- 
 sequence of an incontrovertible axiom in 
 politics, viz. that there never did nor can 
 exist any social union deserving of that 
 name, unless the belief of the Divinity, mani- 
 fested by an exterior worship, previously 
 secures the reciprocal confidence of the citi- 
 zens, unceasingly stimulates them to the 
 observance of the laws, and restrains their 
 individual passions within the bounds of gene- 
 ral good. To the French alone, in the dilirium 
 of a revolution which began with scandal and 
 ended in ignominy, was it reserved to doubt 
 the truth of this position. It was only amidst 
 
 VOL. I. 38
 
 2 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 
 
 the anthropophagi of the convention that a 
 Boissy d'Anglas could have boasted that he 
 had banished the respect due to the Divinity 
 ti'om the legislative code, or proved that 
 religion was foreign to social organization. 
 Unfortunate victory ! shameful triumph ! if 
 such terms can be applied to the temerity of 
 an ignorant and ferocious mind ! The neces- 
 sity, therefore, of the existence of a religion 
 in every social state is undeniable ; or rather, 
 it is amply proved by the united testimony 
 of history and experience. All nations of the 
 globe, ancient as well as modern, from the 
 enduring Spaniard to the ceremonious Chi- 
 nese, from the ungovernable Indian of Chili 
 to the secluded savage of Canada ; all are 
 filled with profound veneration at the idea of 
 a superior Being; all practise some conse- 
 crated rites to invoke his beneficence and 
 appease his anger ; all sanction their alliances 
 with his mediation ; and all, in short, are 
 possessed of religion. 
 
 And, in fact, what object could present 
 itself to the imagination more melancholy 
 than a people without a God ? To such an 
 one the bonds of good faith, of justice, as 
 w^ell as every kind of virtue, would appear as 
 vain and ridiculous phantoms. Under such a
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 constitution of things how could man value 
 the rights of others, and hold them as sacred, 
 when he did not conceive himself indebted * 
 to the supreme Being for the very existence 
 he had thence received ? The ties which bind 
 mortals to the Divinity are the true origin and 
 supreme cause of the obligations which unite 
 men to each other; if, therefore, that religion 
 which discovers and sanctions them is taken 
 away, would not the most irrefragable princi- 
 ples of morahty be rendered illusive? Besides, 
 in a numerous society of such a kind, who 
 would be able to set bounds to the torrent of 
 vices which impiety drags after it? Would 
 not disorders increase, in proportion to the 
 greater number of individuals of whom such a 
 society was composed, and to the irreconcila- 
 ble discordancy of wills which the increasing 
 divergency of interests would incessantly 
 produce ? 
 
 The atheist is a consummate egotist, who, 
 obstinately disregarding the bounds within 
 which honour and shame had placed him, 
 mechanically follows the violent impulse of 
 his own inordinate desires, has no otiier mea- 
 sure for his actions than the unlimited extent 
 of his own welfare ; and, resting his whole 
 happiness on the pleasures of the moment^ 
 B 2
 
 4 INQUISITION UNMASKED, 
 
 knows no other right than force, no other 
 courage than rashness. He is a feverish 
 invalid, who, despising the inexhaustible 
 streams of Divine goodness, for an in- 
 stant quenches his thirst out of the cup 
 which his sensual appetite presents, and 
 immediately after again thirsts. He is a 
 being insupportable to himself, detestable 
 to others, and continually exposed to be- 
 come the victim of despair or the vengeance 
 of others. And, if the outline of the man 
 destitute of religion is * thus gloomy, how 
 much more horrid must be the picture repre- 
 senting a multitude of similar beings ? An 
 association of men in which the influence of 
 this sovereign and benign virtue has no share, 
 far from being considered as a people, would 
 be rather called a herd of tigers, more savage 
 than those which dwell in caverns, because 
 they had degenerated from the nobleness of 
 their primitive nature; and because they 
 would make no other use of their liberty 
 than to tear each other to pieces. It is, con- 
 sequently, an undoubted fact that when 
 atheism severs the invisible chain which unites 
 the human race to their Creator, from that 
 moment the most holy and advantageous laws 
 remain without authority; the links which
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 bind each citizen to the other are broken j 
 and the poHtical body, after struggling with 
 a dreadful convulsion, would finally expe- 
 rience a total dissolution.* 
 
 On the contrary, how beautiful is the ap- 
 pearance of a country when religion shines 
 in its hemisphere ! Wherever this benign star 
 
 * Cicero, " De Nat. Deor." lib. i. Pietate adversus 
 Deos sublatOf fides etiam et societas humani generis, et 
 excellentissima virtus Justicia tollitur. — The literati who, 
 in detriment to true philosophy, suffer atheism to enter 
 into their hearts, even when through the effects of 
 education they should not approve of the excesses just 
 described, are not on that account more useful to society. 
 J. J. Rousseau, whose testimony, in their opinion, cannot 
 be held as suspicious, in his Emile, vol. 3, says of them 
 as follows : " Irreligion and a too philosophical spirit in 
 general attaches us to life, enervates and debases the soul, 
 concentrates all our passions in self-interest, and thus saps 
 the foundations of society. If atheism be not so sangui- 
 nary, it is less out of a love to peace than from an indif- 
 ference to virtue ; — let the world go how it will, it little con- 
 cerns these pretended sages, provided they can loll at ease 
 in their closets. Their principles do not indeed excite them 
 to slaughter mankind, but they prevent them from adding 
 to their number by corrupting the manners which tend 
 to their increase; by detaching themselves from their 
 species, and reducing all their affections to a selfish 
 egotism as fatal to population as it is to virtue. The 
 indifference of the philosopher resembles the tranquillity 
 of a state under a despotic government ; it is the tran- 
 quillity of death, and more destructive than war itself.'*
 
 6 IXQUISITION UNMASKED. 
 
 triumphantly reignSji'easoti governs with more 
 efficient authority, because thence she derives 
 her origin and power ; — there nature speaks, 
 and is more promptly heard, because religion 
 makes her voice more sonorous and pene- 
 trating; and the right of property is generally 
 more respected, because God, to whom all 
 creatures belong, by the seal of religion 
 legalises the titles which the wisdom of legis- 
 lators introduced to acquire it. Thus man, 
 under the auspices of this transcendant virtue, 
 whether he is considered in the different 
 periods of life, or viewed in the various situa- 
 tions of fortune ; whether he is contem- 
 plated as a private individual or beheld as a 
 member of the civil body ; in his actions and 
 in his person, at all times emits some rays of 
 that clear light issuing from the throne of the 
 Supreme, and participates, in some degree, 
 of the immense happiness which surrounds it. 
 Yet these benefits would in vain be sought 
 where impiety wields her iron sceptre. 
 
 The tender infant reclined on the maternal 
 bosom feasts on the milk which, by giving 
 vigour to its delicate members, is to crown 
 the yet imperfect work of generation ; and 
 smiHng quits its hold on the flowing breast, 
 whilst its lips, still bedewed with the sweetest
 
 INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 nectar, exercise the power of speech by the 
 articulations religion hastens to inspire ; which, 
 if it does not yet comprehend, its innocent 
 heart already repeats with pleasure. The 
 robust youth, whose passions like an ungo- 
 vernable horse threaten to dash him down 
 the fatal precipice, and on every side shut 
 out the road to happiness, in religion finds 
 an internal voice that gives him comfort, 
 another soul that animates his own, as well as 
 an irresistible arm that restrains and directs 
 his passions till their ferocity is at length 
 broken. The weak old man, bent down by 
 the weight of years and fast approaching to 
 the end of his career, discovers in religion 
 a staff to support his trembling steps ; and thus 
 comforted descends to the grave that he may 
 rest from the fatigues of a long journey. 
 
 Finally, every citizen, in whatever conflict 
 his country may be plunged, finds ample 
 sources of consolation in the temple of the 
 Divinity. If the venerable magistrate, pros- 
 trate before the altar, raises to the throne 
 of the God of mercies the prayers and sighs 
 of a people labouring under the ravages of a 
 desolating plague, he soon returns their joy- 
 ful and respectful homage on the re-establish- 
 ment of public health. If the city was lately
 
 8 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 
 
 pressed by a powerful enemy and filled with 
 consternation, the war-like conqueror, borne 
 in triumph amidst the martial pomp jind 
 festive acclamations of his fellow citizens and 
 the solemn canticles of the ministers of the 
 sanctuary, bows his laurel-crowned head 
 before the God of battles, and offers to him 
 the trophies due to his protection, by erecting 
 them into an eternal monument of piety and 
 gratitude. Man, in short, in whatever state 
 he may be considered, as well as in every 
 period and vicissitude of life, experiences in 
 religion an efficacious antidote against the 
 ills which oppress him, a shield that blunts 
 the darts of his enemies, and an asylum into 
 which they can never enter. In every event 
 of fortune it excites in his soul a sublimity 
 of ideas by pointing out to him the just 
 Judge, who, as an attentive spectator of his 
 conflicts, is about to reward him with his 
 inestimable approbation. Religion, also, in the 
 darkest tempest appears to man as the Iris 
 of peace, and, dissipating the dark and angry 
 storm, restores the wished-for calm, and brings 
 him to the port of safety. 
 
 In conformity, therefore, to the experience 
 of every age and nation as well as in strict 
 accord with reason, we may justly conclude.
 
 INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 that no well- organised system of legislation 
 can possibly exist capable of guaranteeing 
 the protection of the citizen, or indeed any 
 society deserving of that name, without a 
 conscience, morality, and religion ; and that 
 it is particularly the latter which abundantly 
 pours down the most inestimable benefits on 
 the political body at large, as well as on each 
 of its members. And, if religion ought to 
 form the first foundation of all civil institu- 
 tions ; if the means which are to preserve it 
 in its native purity and splendour ought to 
 go hand in hand with the laws by which it 
 is established; and finally, if in the new order 
 of things to which Providence calls a great 
 nation, one that has sworn eternal hatred to 
 despotism and its long-endured grievances, 
 the Christian and Catholic religion main- 
 tained with becoming dignity is to add lustre 
 to national improvement and liberty ; is it to 
 the Inquisition, as heretofore, that the guar- 
 dianship of such a religion ought to be con- 
 fided ? Are the governing plans on which this 
 tribunal is founded, and the method therein 
 adopted for the trial of causes, such as to 
 deserve the confidence of the Spanish people? 
 Are they conformable to the spirit of Christi- 
 anity, to the maxims «f sound policy, and the
 
 10 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 
 
 dictates of justice and equity ? and are they, 
 for fhat same reason, capable of conferring 
 honour on rehgion, as well as on the members 
 who profess it ? Does the conduct it has ob- 
 served from the period of its establishment 
 render it deservinsr of this confidence ? Most 
 assuredly no ; as we shall amply prove in the 
 subsequent reflections, which may be classed 
 under the following heads : 
 
 1st. The Inquisition being an ecclesiastical 
 tribunal, its rigour is incompatible with the 
 spirit of meekness which ought to distinguish 
 the ministers of the Gospel. 
 
 2d. The system of rigour adopted by this 
 tribunal is opposed to the doctrine of the 
 Holy Fathers, and the discipline of the Church 
 in its most happy times. 
 
 3d. The Inquisition, far from contributing 
 to the preservation of the true belief, is only 
 suited to encourage hypocrisy and excite the 
 people to rebellion. 
 
 4th. The form of trial used in this tri- 
 bunal tramples on all the rights of the 
 citizen. 
 
 5th. The Inquisition has not only ob- 
 structed the progress of science in the coun- 
 tries wherein it has been established, but has 
 also propagated pernicious errors.
 
 INTRODUCTION, 1 1 
 
 6th. This tribunal has supported the des- 
 potism of kings, and has itself exercised it. 
 
 7th. As the Inquisition owes its origin to 
 the decline of the discipline and remissness 
 of the clergy, it opposes obstacles to their 
 reform, which is indispensably necessary if 
 the nation is to prosper. 
 
 From the general results of the above 
 reflections we shall prove the necessity of 
 suppressing the Inquisition, in like manner as 
 what we have already said tends to demon- 
 strate how essential it is that religion should 
 be worthily protected. In order, however, 
 that the reader may be better prepared to 
 follow us through so vast and unknown a 
 subject, we shall prefix a short account of 
 the establishment and government of this 
 tribunal, which will greatly facilitate the other 
 points we are about to elucidate. 
 
 The tribunal of the Inquisition was esta- 
 blished in 1£04, by Pope Innocent III. a 
 monk of the order of St. Benedict, for the 
 purpose of persecuting heretics, but most 
 especially the Albigenses. I pointedly ad- 
 vert to this Pope, being a regular priest; 
 though I shall afterwards notice that it v/as 
 others who most promoted this establishment, 
 as this accords with my object in view. The
 
 12 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 
 
 criminal code of this institution is founded on 
 the laws of the Decretals, which, respecting 
 crimes of heresy, are peculiar in themselves. 
 In the course of time the cognizance of other 
 crimes was added to it, in consequence of 
 their being supposed to have some affinity 
 with, or bearing suspicion of, heresy : such as 
 heretical blasphemy, witchcraft, belief in 
 omens, confessional seduction, and even po- 
 lygamy and sodomy. It also vindicates the 
 injuiies done to its dependents, as well as any 
 attempts against the free use of its jurisdic- 
 tion, which, besides being privileged, is, at 
 the same time, spiritual and temporal, as 
 being delegated jointly from the sovereign 
 .pontiff and the king. It likewise promotes, 
 by means of civil process, and formerly by 
 ecclesiastical censures, the seizure of property 
 confiscated by itself; and delivers over con- 
 demned and excommunicated culprits to the 
 secular magistrate, in order that he may exe- 
 cute upon them the sentence of death pre- 
 scribed by the law, when they have been 
 pronounced contumacious, or have relapsed 
 a second time. 
 
 Under this plan the Inquisition was esta- 
 blished in Thoulouse, in 1229, where it was 
 first given in charge to the monks of the
 
 INTRODUCTION. IS 
 
 Cistercian order, and afterwards, in 1233, to 
 the Dominicans. Innocent IV. extended it 
 to all Italy except Naples, where its intro- 
 duction was always opposed. In Italy and 
 even in Rome itself, it soon declined, till in 
 1545, it was restored by Paul III., who cre- 
 ated the Congregation of the Inquisition com- 
 posed of Cardinals presided by the Pope. In 
 the same year, (1233) it was brought from 
 Thoulouse to Spain, by the Dominican Ray- 
 mond of Penafort ; but did not go out of the 
 kingdom of Aragon, till after its union with 
 that of Castile, when in the year 1480, it was 
 established in Seville by their Catholic Ma- 
 jesties Ferdinand and Isabella, under an au- 
 thority from Sixtus IV., of the Franciscan 
 order. Fathers John de San Martin and 
 Michael Morillo, both Dominicans, were 
 named the first inquisitors ; and in 1483, fa- 
 ther Thomas de Torquemada, confessor to the 
 queen and prior of the convent of Santa Cruz 
 de Segovia, also of the same order, was made 
 inquisitor general. It was he who, in an as- 
 sembly convened for that purpose, formed the 
 inquisitorial regulations, which are yet in force, 
 but with some variation. Portugal adopted it 
 in 1536, not through the intrigues of a false 
 Nuncio, as is generally believed, but at the
 
 14 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 
 
 request of John III., and by grant of 
 Clement VII. It was admitted into Venice, 
 though under certain limitations, in 1289, 
 and afterwards extended to Germany and 
 other European states; and latterly, in 1571, 
 Philip II. introduced it into America. At 
 present, it only exists in the monarchies 
 of Spain and Portugal ; and indeed in 
 the latter it may be considered as almost 
 abolished, since the reform it underwent 
 in 1774, during the ministry of the Marquis 
 de Pombal. 
 
 This institution has a council established at 
 court, under the title of Supreme and General 
 Inquisition, and the other provincial tribunals 
 are dependent on this council. This is com- 
 posed of a president, the Inquisitor General 
 of Spain and the Indies, who is generally a 
 bishop or archbishop, and of eight ecclesiasti- 
 cal counsellors as members, six belonging to 
 the secular clergy, of whom the youngest 
 officiates as fiscal-proctor in behalf of the 
 bench. Of the other two, one is always a 
 Dominican, according to privilege granted to 
 to that order by Philip III. ; and the other is 
 chosen by turns out of the other religious 
 orders, as regulated by Charles III. Besides 
 the above, two counsellors of Castile attend
 
 INTRODUCTION. IS 
 
 when they are called, which is only in cases 
 purely civil. Its officers and subalterns are 
 a fiscal-proctor ; two secretaries ; two, and 
 sometimes three, reporters; atreasurer,usually 
 called receiver; an accomptant; one chief, and 
 two inferior bailiffs ; and also several theolo- 
 gians called qualificators, who decide on mat- 
 ters of faith, and examine all doctrines and 
 propositions. The provincial tribunals have 
 three and sometimes four inquisitors of the 
 secular clergy; one proctor, who is always the 
 youngest of the above ; three or four secre- 
 taries of the chamber of secresy; another for 
 sequestrations and all civil matters ; a receiver 
 or treasurer; one accomptant ; one chief bail- 
 iff ; and two inferior ones ; together with other 
 dependents called commissaries and fami- 
 liars, who, scattered throughout the district 
 of each of the tribunals, serve to fulfil their 
 orders. They have also qualificators, similar 
 to those described as belonging to the su- 
 preme council, as well as counsellors, who are 
 lawyers, and are consulted on points of law ; 
 however, at present, these only are on the 
 establishments of America, and are generally 
 members of the Audiencias or high courts of 
 justice in that country.
 
 16 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 
 
 Of these tribunals there are sixteen in Spain, 
 viz. the territorial one of Madrid, also called 
 that of the court ; one in Seville, Toledo, 
 Cordova, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Valencia, 
 Santiago, Murcia, Valladolid, Cuen9a, Gra- 
 nada, Llerena, Logrono, Majorca, and the 
 Canary Islands. In America there are three, 
 viz. in Mexico, Lima, and Carthagena. 
 
 The Inquisitor General is named by the 
 King, and confirmed by the Pope ; but the 
 simple approbation of his Majesty is sufficient 
 to confer the dignity of counsellor or member 
 of the supreme council j and the inquisitors 
 themselves, without any previous consulta- 
 tion, elect their own officers and other de- 
 pendents. The diocesan bishop also sends 
 his coadjutor, or some other ecclesiastic, to 
 the tribunal within his district, as his own re- 
 presentative, who acts in the quality of as- 
 sociate judge, jointly with those named by 
 the Inquisitor General.* Such, in substance. 
 
 * For the historical facts of the above, vide Luis 
 Paramo, De Origine S. Inquisit. lib. ii. tit. ii. cap. 8, 
 n. 2. — Sousa, De Orig. Inquisit. Lusit. — Juan de Solor- 
 zano, Politica Indiana, torn. ii. lib. iv. cap. xxiv.— Fra 
 Paolo Sarpi, Discorse dell' Origine, Forma, Leggi ed Uso 
 dell' Officio della Inquisizione uella citta e Dominio di 
 
 6
 
 INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 is the origin and form of the establishment we 
 are about to consider, under the various heads 
 pointed out. 
 
 Venezia. — Fleury, Hist, Eccles. liv. vii. n. 54; and Don 
 Juan Antonio Llorente, Anales de la Inquisicion, torn, i. 
 cap. ii, n, 25 and 69. 
 
 VOL. I.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Tlie Inquisition being an eccksiasticalTribunal, 
 its Rigour is incompatible zcith the Spirit of 
 Meekness zvhich ought to distinguish the Mi- 
 nisters of the Gospel. 
 
 XF establishments, which by their nature 
 are destined to extend their influence to the 
 most remote nations and posterity in the 
 means they adopt for their preservation, can 
 never deviate from the rules under which they 
 were first formed without losing sight of 
 their primitive object, and incurring inevita- 
 ble ruin, it becomes an indubitable fact that 
 no other than measures of meekness and per" 
 suasion ought to be adopted worthily to sus- 
 tain the religion of Jesus Christ ; and that, on 
 the contrary, coercion and rigour, far from 
 contributing to its support, only render it 
 odious. Nothing is more palpable in the 
 Gospel, and other books of the New Testa- 
 ment, than the benignity therein breathed ; 
 this is the virtue that renders their language 
 c 2
 
 20 INftUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. I. 
 
 SO pleasing, that gives to the new law so much 
 lustre over the old ones, that forms one of its 
 most prominent features, and communicates 
 to it an attraction so powerful that the hu- 
 man understanding can no longer resist, when 
 it is examined with candour. 
 
 " Learn of me," said Jesus Christ, when he 
 proposed himself as a model for his disciples, 
 *« for I am meek, and humble of heart."* 
 Could he have given to the world a more 
 striking proof that meekness was the basis of 
 his religion, than by presenting himself as an 
 astonishing example of this virtue, in his own 
 sufferings on the cross ? Affixed to that ele- 
 vated instrument of pain, our great master 
 of morality, with extended arms, and as if 
 anxious that all nations of the earth, from 
 either pole, should hear his last practical 
 lesson, invokes pardon for those who crucified 
 him. And if Jesus Christ, in the face of all 
 nature, bestowed kindness on his very mur- 
 derers, and if he evinced such predilection 
 for this virtue as to seal his last farewell with 
 this lesson, and used it as a most energetic 
 epilogue to his long and painful preaching, 
 
 * S. Matth. cap. xi. v. 29. " Discite a me, quia mitts 
 sum et humilis corde'*
 
 CHAP. 1.3 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 21 
 
 must it not evidently follow that the rigour 
 practised against those who have strayed from 
 the fold is opposed to the spirit of his church ? 
 On the contrary, and in accord with his prin- 
 ciples of mildness, our Redeemer commanded 
 his apostles to shake the dust off their shoes, 
 when they were not admitted into any city ; 
 thus protesting to its inhabitants, that they 
 had, on their part, complied with their mis- 
 sion, and announcing to them the chastise- 
 ments of God for having despised his Vv'ord.* 
 On this account, when James and John sought 
 to call down fire from heaven on Samaria, as 
 a punishment for not having received them, 
 he reproved their indiscreet zeal, by ob- 
 serving that they did not know the spirit 
 which animated them, for certainly such a 
 'Spirit of vengeance was not suited to the 
 truths they were about to preach, t In order, 
 also, that it may not be understood that this 
 
 * S. Luc. cap. X. V. 10. " In qunmcumque autem 
 civitatem intraveritisy et non susceperint vos^ exeuntes in 
 platens ejus dicite : Etiam pulverem qui adhcesit nobis de 
 civitate vestra, extergimus in vos ; tanien hoc scitote quia 
 appropinquavit regnum Dei." 
 
 t S. Luc. cap. ix. v. 53. " Nescitis cujus spiritus 
 estis. Filiiis hominis non venit animas perdere, sed 
 scUvare."
 
 22 INQUISITIOM UNMASKED. [cHAP. I. 
 
 plan of meekness is confined to those who 
 have not yet embraced the faith, it ought to 
 be remarked that the punishment assigned by 
 Jesus Christ to the apostate is no other than 
 that of excluding him from the church, and 
 reputing him of the same class as the heathen 
 and publican.* 
 
 In proof of this, when some of his disciples, 
 scandalized at hearing that his body and 
 blood were real food and drink, ceased to fol- 
 low him, believing him an impostor, he neither 
 obliged them to return nor sought to retain 
 those who were left behind, but left all at full 
 liberty. Addressing himself then to St. 
 Peter, through him he asked the whole of 
 his disciples, "Do ye also wish to go away?" 
 as if he had said — it is entirely optional whe- 
 ther ye go or stay, for even if men were 
 wanting to follow me, from these stones would 
 God raise up sons to Abraham, [that is, pro- 
 fessors of his faith, t] The answer of St. Peter 
 
 * S. Matth. cap.xviii. V. 17. '^ Si autem ecclesiam non 
 audierit, sit tihi sicut ethnicus et publicanus." 
 
 f S. Jolian. cap.vi. v. 66. " Ex hoc midti discipulorum 
 ejus abieruiit retro, etjam non cum illo ambulabant. — v. 67. 
 Dixit autem ''Jesjis ad duodecim : Numquid et vos vidti:^ 
 abire ? — S. Luc. cap. iii. v. 8. Potens est Deiis dc Japidibus 
 ittis suscitare Jilios Abrahav^ce."
 
 CHAP. I.] INQUISITION UNMASKED, 23 
 
 is not less favourable to the object in view. 
 " Lord," said he, " to whom shall we go, since 
 thou hast the words of eternal life ? We be- 
 lieve and are convinced that thou art the 
 Messiah, son of the Hving God." * Can a more 
 evident testimony be given that the ministers 
 of the christian religion, if they are to follow 
 the steps of its divine /Author, ought never to 
 devise or inflict any other punishment on 
 those who, to their own perdition, stray 
 therefrom, than to make this aberration pub- 
 licly known, as a precaution to others? In 
 like manner also Christians, if they seek to 
 imitate the most faithful of the apostles, ought 
 to persevere in the faith, for no other motive 
 than the firm conviction that every thing is 
 truth which it teaches, and that in it alone 
 man finds health and refreshment. 
 
 Equal benignity is discovered in the other 
 books of the New Testament, when speaking 
 of the punishments religion inflicts on apos- 
 tates. St. Paul, writing, to Titus respecting 
 the conduct he is to observe with the heretic 
 who, after a timely warning, does not amend, 
 
 * S. Johan. cap. vi, v. 69. " Domine ad quern ibimusf 
 Verba vitce eternez habes. — v. 70- Et nos credimus et cognO' 
 vimus quia tu es Christus jilius Dei."
 
 24 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. I. 
 
 informs him that he is only to consider him as 
 a perverted character, and already condemned 
 by his own judgment ; that is, that he declare 
 him separated from the church, the benefits 
 of which he had lost by his unbelief.* Con- 
 sequently the church, in its condemnation of 
 the obstinate heretic, may and ought to 
 extend its rigour to this public exclusion, 
 amounting to an excommunication, but not 
 to any other kind of chastisement. This is 
 also confirmed by St. John when he says, 
 " He who remains not in the doctrine of Jesus 
 Christ, and relapses, has not God as his pro- 
 tector ; but he who abideth in the same hath 
 both the Father and the Son as his support. 
 And should there come any one unto you 
 not having this doctrine, receive him not into 
 your house, nor salute him, for fear you par- 
 take of his evil deeds." t And in these pas- 
 
 * Ad. Tit. cap. iii. v. 10. " Hcsreticum Jiominem post 
 xomm et seciindam correptionem devita. — v. 11. Sciens quia 
 6ubversics est, qui ejusmod^ est, et delinqidt quuni sit propria 
 judicio condemnatus." 
 
 \ S. John. Epist. ii. v. 9. " Omnis qui recedit et non 
 pennanet in docirina Christi, Deum non habet, qui permanet 
 in ductritja, hie et patrem et Jiliani habet. — v. 10. Si quis 
 renit ad vus, et hanc doctrinam non ajfiirt, nolite recipere 
 eiim in domum, nee ave dixeritis. — v. 11. Qui enini dicit 
 illi ave, comvuinicat operibus ejus malignis."
 
 CHAP. I.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 25 
 
 sages is there any other punishment men- 
 tioned against apostates than ecclesiastical 
 interdiction ? can any authority be found in 
 scripture, by which the church can inflict any 
 other ? I do not here allude to the temporal 
 power possessed by princes in states where 
 the catholic religion prevails, of restraining 
 heretics by means of corporal punishments ; 
 yet it cannot be denied that, on the part of 
 the church, man is in every sense free from 
 penal restraint, not only with regard to his 
 being forced to enter the pale thereof, but 
 also remaining therein when he has once en- 
 tered. Hence is it inferred that the authority 
 vested in an ecclesiastical tribunal to perse- 
 cute heretics by means of corporal punish- 
 ments, far from being supported by the Holy 
 Scriptures, is diametrically opposed to that 
 mildness which distinguishes them all, and so 
 strongly recommends them with their very 
 enemies. 
 
 The defenders of the Inquisition, unmind- 
 ful of the proofs just alleged, or rather, without 
 having fully weighed their merits or examined 
 the matter with due consideration, pretend to 
 find in Jesus Christ and his apostles examples 
 to authorise this rigour. Our divine Saviour, 
 say they, with a scourge drove the traders from
 
 26 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. I. 
 
 the temple who bought and sold therein.* 
 After his ascension to heaven, he also ap- 
 peared to Saul when persecuting the Chris- 
 tians, and struck him down from his horse, 
 leaving him without sight, t It really appears 
 incredible that reasons so weak as these 
 should be alleged in opposition to the testi- 
 monies and examples above quoted. Can the 
 measure resorted to by Jesus Christ against 
 those who proflined the house of prayer, and 
 which ought to have been done by those who 
 were charged with the care and good order 
 thereof, be compared to the confiscation of 
 property, perpetual imprisonment, and stigma 
 of infamy, used by the Inquisition against its 
 victims ? not to speak of the torture it also 
 inflicts, nor the punishment of death, for 
 which by its sentence it gives the signal, al- 
 though executed by the civil magistrate. 
 The argument drawn from the conversion of 
 Saul, besides amounting to no conclusiv^e evi- 
 dence in consequence of the above answer 
 being also applicable to it, if urged at all, 
 would prove that the church can exercise this 
 rigour against those who never entered into 
 
 * S. Johan. cap. ii. v. 15. 
 f Act. Apost. cap. ix. v. i.
 
 CHAP. I.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 27 
 
 its bosom, an error which our opponents 
 themselves will not admit.* 
 
 Simon Magus, add they, raises himself up 
 
 * Some of the writings which have appeared in de- 
 fence of the Inquisition give the tei-m of whip to the 
 scourge with which Christ drove from the temple those 
 who profaned it; when, according to the text, it was no 
 other than certain cords found there, and which he formed 
 into a bundle, something like a discipline. " Et quum 
 fccisset quasi Jlagelluin de Jiinicidis.^^ Great stress has 
 been laid on this occurrence by a recent author in favour 
 of the Inquisition, who observes that Jesus Christ him- 
 self, as if forgetful of his meekness, formed the whip, 
 chastised severely with his own hands, and with a shout of 
 fury that alarmed the whole people," &c; Certainly this 
 is a picture more applicable to the case of a slave-driver 
 punishing a parcel of galley-slaves with his thong, than to a 
 God-man, such as Jesus Christ is represented in the Gospel^ 
 always accompanied by benevolence and majesty. Similar 
 expressions are used by the same author respecting the 
 conversion of Saul, which, he says, " our Saviour effected 
 by punishing him severely, with a terrible fall from his 
 horse and blindness, and by obliging him to enter into the 
 church and the apostleship." Nevertheless the fall of 
 Saul cannot be called a punishment, nor was it terrible, for 
 he received no other stroke than that of light, which 
 blinded him by its greatness. Neither was it the fall or 
 blindness he experienced which obliged him to enter into 
 the church, and much less into the apostleship ; since most 
 assuredly both were effected by the appearance of Jesus 
 Christ, by the illumination of the understanding, and the 
 power of persuasion,
 
 28 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. I. 
 
 into the air by the aid of inferna) spirits, and 
 St. Peter by means of prayer, causes him to 
 fall down, by which both his legs are broken.* 
 Ananias and Sapphira lie to the Holy Ghost, 
 and die when reproached by the same apos- 
 tle. t Elymas, the false prophet, impedes the 
 fruits of the gospel, and St. Paul, by means of 
 prayer, punishes him with blindness. 1^ From 
 these prodigies it is that the enemies of meek- 
 ness deduce that corporal punishment, even 
 though it amount to death, is not opposed to 
 the spirit of religion. In answer it might be 
 retorted, let the inquisitors do as much them- 
 selves, and we shall then be convinced that 
 these arguments in the present question 
 really possess the weight it is pretended to 
 give to them. Nevertheless, how great must 
 not be the confusion experienced by a go- 
 vernment that seeks to regulate its ordinary 
 administration by acts out of the common 
 order of things ? Those who first introduced, 
 as well as they who for centuries sustained, 
 in the tribunals of Europe, the use of ordeals 
 for the discovery of truth, which they termed 
 the judgments of God, defended this practice 
 
 * Orsi. Hist. Eccles, torn. i. lib. ii. cap. xix. 
 f Act. Apost. cap. V. v. 1, &c. 
 1 Act. Apost, cap, xiii. v, 6, &c.
 
 CHAP. 1.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 29 
 
 on the trial by bitter water, established by 
 Moses in order to prove, by a miracle, the 
 crime or innocence of the woman accused of 
 adultery. If, as pretended by the apologists 
 of rigour, it is prudent and just to appeal to 
 reasons of this kind, it would follow that the 
 writers, magistrates and prelates who sup- 
 ported the above practice were correct in the 
 principle laid down. Yet, in the lapse of 
 time, knowledge and better judgment suc- 
 ceeded to ignorance and prejudice, and those 
 proofs and ordeals which till then had been 
 considered not only as reasonable, but also 
 as supported by religion and adapted to 
 strengthen the piety of the people, were pro- 
 scribed as absurd, because they answered no 
 purpose whatever j as unjust, because they 
 implicated the property, reputation, and life 
 of the innocent ; and as impious and sacri- 
 legious, because by them God was mocked, 
 and his worship dishonoured. In speaking 
 of these ordeals I ought to observe, that the 
 middle ages, in which they most prevailed, 
 was precisely the period which gave birth to 
 the Inquisition.* Besides this answer, which 
 
 * Every one the least versed in church history knows 
 how much the ordeals or trials for the investigation of
 
 30 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. I. 
 
 may be indistinctly applied to all arguments 
 founded on miraculous occurrences, it would 
 
 truth by cold and boiling water and hot iron were formerly 
 used and authorized. Even a mass was for that purpose 
 established, called the Mass of Judgment, in which, after 
 several prayers, invoking God to concur with his special 
 aid in the discovery of what was desired, those who were 
 to be tried received the communion, at which the priest 
 pronounced these words : — " Corpus hoc et sanguis Domini 
 nostri sint tibi ad probationem hodie." When the mass was 
 ended, the priest went to the spot where the trial was to 
 take place, and there blessed the water which he gave 
 them to drink, saying, — " Hcec aqua fat tibi ad proba- 
 tionem;** adding a deprecation suited to the probation 
 about to be made. It is evident that in this last ceremony 
 allusion is made to the law of jealousy, as explained in 
 Numbers, chap. 5. Thus a practice even so inconsistent 
 as this was at length considered as established by God, 
 approved by the Holy See, as well as confirmed by expe- 
 rience, and as such recommended in the ritual in the 
 following words: — *^ Hoc autem judicium creavit omni- 
 potens DeiiSf et vcrum est, et per Dominum Eugenium II. 
 Apostolicum inventum est, ut omnes Episcopi, Abbatcs, 
 Comites. sen omnes Christiani per universicm orbem id ob- 
 servare studeant ; quia a midtis probatum est et verum in- 
 ventum est*' Vide Van Spen, " Jur. Eccles." part 4, 
 tit. ix. cap. iv. 
 
 The ordeal, or a form of trial for the discovery of inno- 
 cence or guilt, was also practised in England, from the 
 time of Edward the Confessor till it was abolished by 
 Henry HI. Vide Blackstone's Commentaries, book iv, 
 chap.xxvii. — Tr.
 
 CHAP. I.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 31 
 
 Otherwise be necessary further to grant, in 
 conformity to the facts ah'eady quoted, that 
 ecclesiastics, independently of the civil 
 power, are allowed to execute the sen- 
 tence of death against those who have 
 abandoned their religion, or even against 
 persons who have simply been wanting to 
 the truth. 
 
 The object of Providence in the punish- 
 ment inflicted by the apostles is manifested 
 in Scripture, immediately after the passage re- 
 lating to the death of Ananias and Sapphira. 
 " And great fear came upon all the church, 
 and upon as many as heard these things. Of 
 the strangers, no one dared join himself to 
 the apostles ; but the people magnified 
 them :" * that is, the admiration of the doc- 
 trine announced by the apostles, and the re- 
 spect paid to their persons were the two 
 great sensations excited in the people by that 
 singular eloquence, till then unknown. The 
 same design is visible in the blindness of 
 Elymas, according to the following words : — 
 
 * Act. Apost. cap. V. V, 11, *'Et /actus est timor 
 magnus in iiniversa ecclesid, et in omnes qui audierunt hcec. 
 — V. 13. Ceterorum autem nemo audebat se conjungere illis 
 (apostolis) sed magnificabat eos populus." 
 1
 
 32 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. I. 
 
 " Then the deputy, when he saw what was 
 done, believed, being astonished at the doc- 
 trine of the Lord."* Let those who quote 
 similar passages in defence of their argu- 
 ments candidly answer, and tell us, whether it 
 was rigour that drew forth this admiration 
 and respect, or rather whether it was not the 
 power of God miraculously employed on 
 these occasions. And since the rigour of the 
 Inquisition does not possess this circumstance 
 in its favour, will the effects it produces be 
 those of admiration and respect for the doc- 
 trine of Jesus Christ and his ministers ? Will 
 not rather the whole fruit of this rigour be the 
 discredit of religion, and the odium of those 
 who in this manner defend it ? There can 
 be no doubt that the faith of Jesus Christ 
 ought to be sustained and propagated by 
 the ordinary means he himself established, 
 and that, consequently, the reasons brought 
 forward in defence of a practice so incompati- 
 ble with his meekness must ever be con- 
 sidered as frivolous and unfounded. It may 
 be replied, that the Inquisition overcomes this 
 
 ■* Act. Apost, cap.xiii.v. 12. " Tunc proconsul giiwn 
 vidisset Jactum, credidit admirans super doctrina Do- 
 mini."
 
 €HAP. I.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. $ti 
 
 objection, by the entreaty or rather protest it 
 makes to the civil magistrate, purporting that 
 it is not its intention to co-operate in the 
 death of the criminal it delivers over to him 
 for execution. How insignificant this out- 
 ward ceremony is, and it certainly merits no 
 better a name, will be seen in its proper 
 place. In the mean time, it must appear evi- 
 dent that such a precaution can be held in no 
 other light than as illusive, notwithstanding 
 the Popes thought proper to dispense with 
 this irregularity incurred by the inquisitors, 
 a dispensation which would have been en- 
 tirely unnecessary if the functions annexed 
 to this institution were not accompanied by 
 a severity little conformable to the sacer- 
 dotal ministry.* It ought not, however, 
 
 * Boniface VIII, granted a dispensation to prelates 
 exercising criminal jurisdiction, in the quality of lords over 
 vassals, in order to remove all irregularity on their part. 
 Innocent III. did the same in behalf of bishops delivering 
 over clergymen to the civil magistracy, on condition that 
 they should forthwith pray earnestly for them. Under 
 both these provisions the inquisitors suppose themselves 
 comprehended ; but Urban IV. besides granted them the 
 power mutually to absolve each other of any irregularity. 
 Pius V. extended to the inquisitors as well as to their cona- 
 missaries and counsellors, the same dispensation from irre- 
 
 VOL. I. D
 
 34 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. U 
 
 henc6 to be inferred, that these functions 
 are now less opposed than formerly to the 
 doctrine of Jesus Christ : the law may sus- 
 pend the effects which emanate from its 
 authority, but not those which arise out of 
 the nature of things. 
 
 But why dwell on. this point, when each 
 one of us in his own experience is possessed 
 of the most convincing proofs of this truth ? 
 Are the formidable ideas we from childhood 
 entertain of the Inquisition, and the terror 
 with which this tribunal has filled all Europe, 
 America, and part of Asia, the effects of its 
 meekness, or of its rigour ? Terror is the 
 term given by Mariana to the sensations pro- 
 duced in the minds of the Castilians by the 
 bloody scenes which accompanied the intro- 
 duction of the tribunal into Castile, and 
 Zurita testifies that the same was excited in 
 the breasts of the Aragonese. Sandoval 
 also asserts that, in order to terrify the 
 
 gularity, which his predecessor Paul IV, granted to those 
 who give their opinion to the Pope, in causes relating to 
 torture, mutilation of members, or capital punishment. — 
 De Verbor, signif, cap. xxvii. and De Horn, cap. ii. in 6. — 
 Pena, Ad Direct. Inquisit. part S, com, Ixii. and part 
 2, com. XX.
 
 CHAP. I.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. SS 
 
 Moors and converted Jews, it was transferred 
 by Charles V. from Jaen to Granada and 
 Fuenmayor, adding, that it was not alone 
 among the common people that the name of 
 this tribunal infused terror, but also among 
 all classes.* Were any one, ignorant of the 
 spirit of Christianity, to hear that the most 
 terrible tribunal ever known was under the 
 charge of priests, calling themselves the most 
 zealous ministers of religion, how would he 
 be induced to believe that this same religion 
 is pre-eminent for its meekness, and that its 
 author, God, in order to give us the most im- 
 pressive lessons of this virtue, became man 
 and died on a cross ? The existence of the 
 Inquisition is a calumny against the Christian 
 religion, and a scandal to public morals ; for 
 it excites in those who profess any other 
 worship, as well as in the unlettered part 
 of the faithful, mistaken notions with re- 
 gard to one of its most eminent qualities, 
 viz. meekness ; and, besides, obliges the 
 
 * Geronimo Zurita, Anales de Aragon, lib. xx. cap. 65. 
 — Juan de Mariana, Hist, de Espana, lib. xxiv. cap. xvii, 
 — D. Fr. Prudencio Sandoval, Historia del Emperador 
 Carlos V, lib. xiv. § xviii. — Antoaio de Fuenmayor, Vida 
 J HeehoB de PIo V. lib. i. 
 
 D 2
 
 {^6 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. I. 
 
 learned to stigmatize the conduct of ecclesi- 
 astics, as being incompatible with the mo- 
 deration they preach in the pulpit, and 
 which they ought mor-e forcibly to teach 
 by example. 
 
 It would argue a misconception of the 
 religion of Jesus Christ, and a complete 
 ignorance of the theory and practice of the 
 Inquisition, to maintain that any analogy 
 exists between them. To what a length this 
 tribunal has carried its violence will be fully 
 seen in the course of this dissertation. The 
 meekness of the Christian religion, sufficiently 
 proved by the arguments already adduced, 
 is thus eleo-antlv described bv a modern 
 author: " The religion of Jesus Christ," says 
 he, " has in its nature the love of order and 
 justice. It abhors the excesses in which the 
 impious (and he might have added the pa- 
 trons of the Inquisition) attempt to implicate 
 iti by confounding it with fanaticism. It 
 detests persecution, and highly reproves the 
 false zeal of those who pretend to propagate 
 and defend it by force and terror. In pro- 
 portion as it is strong and powerful, it is 
 loving and compassionate ; its irresistible 
 power being the effect of this same benevot
 
 CHAP. I.] INQUISITION UNMASKE1>. 37 
 
 lence. It disdains violent measures, for it has 
 others much more efficacious. The empire 
 of which it boasts is not that which is exer- 
 cised over the body, leaving the soul still 
 more rebellious and corrupted. It is in the 
 understanding and the heart that it delights 
 to reign, and persuasion and love are the 
 only means by which it therein establishes 
 its throne. It looks for children, and not 
 slaves. Religion does not stand in need of 
 appeals to force, since it is composed of hum- 
 ble disciples, of docile hearts, and sincere 
 adorers, actuated by a mild but powerful 
 principle which triumphs over every obstacle, 
 and converts its most cruel persecutors into 
 fervent apostles. At the same time that it is 
 firm, severe, and inexorable against sin, it is 
 full of sweetness, beneficence, and of charity 
 towards the sinner. The Christian religion 
 unceasingly repeats to its children, and above 
 all to its ministers, that the spirit of the 
 Gospel is a spirit of patience, of mildness, 
 and forbearance ; that its ministry is the mi- 
 nistry of peace, of reconciliation, and of 
 health ; and moreover, that they should never 
 forget that they are the disciples of a God 
 who died for his enemies, as well as the sue-
 
 58 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. I. 
 
 cessors of venerable men who, sealing with 
 their blood the truths of the faith, prayed 
 for their persecutors and executioners. In 
 short, religion, far from being the author and 
 accomplice of the disasters which fanaticism 
 has caused to the world, detests them with 
 more sincerity, and condemns them with 
 more firmness, than the incredulous them- 
 selves."* 
 
 * Apologie de la Religion Chretienne, printed in Paris, 
 iv year of the Republic.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The System of Rigour adopted by this Tribunal 
 is opposed to the Doctrine of the Holy Fa- 
 thers and the Discipline of the Church in 
 its most happy Times.* 
 
 It suffices to know that meekness is one of 
 the virtues that shone most in Jesus Christ 
 
 * The discipline of the Church constitutes a science 
 which most of the partisans of the Inquisition, notwith- 
 standing they are ecclesiastics, know not even by name, 
 and which others who have heard of it only take into their 
 mouths for the purposes of blasphemy. Among the latter 
 may be reckoned the authors of the periodical work called 
 EI Filosofo Rancio, and, under this title. Father Francisco 
 Alvarado, whom the inquisitorial party seem to have 
 chosen as another Hercules, not for the purpose of destroy- 
 ing the Lerna^an hydra, but to defend it with sword and 
 buckler. This Father, in his Letter I. observes that " good 
 faith, not to use another term, caused our former govern- 
 ments, under a wish to enlighten the nation, to give vogue 
 to that infinite number of novelties which the French 
 introduced among us in matters of philosophy, law, eccle- 
 siastical discipline," &c. Some writers, for the want of 
 correct information, sometimes condemn as anti-religious 
 novelties the very practices used in the Church long
 
 40 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ciIAP. II- 
 
 and his apostles, in order to remove all doubt 
 of its being equally possessed in a high 
 degree by the ancient Christians. The disci- 
 pline of the Church in the first ages was near 
 its origin, and consequently must have been 
 preserved pure, in like manner as the stream 
 is clearest when least distant from the foun- 
 tain-head. The meekness, therefore, taught 
 and practised by the legislator and promul- 
 gators of the Gospel must forcibly point out 
 to us the lenity which so much distinguished 
 the writings of the Holy Fathers. Their 
 doctrine, and the examples by which they 
 confirmed it, are additional proofs of the de- 
 
 before those were introduced which they now venerate for 
 their antiquity. Others again, better informed, and sensi- 
 ble of the weight of this observation, nevertheless assert, 
 that it is not just to revive antiquated customs, as being 
 incompatible with the political system of modern nations. 
 This is by no means at what we now aim ; yet they ought 
 never to lose sight of the flourishing ages of the Church, 
 in order that the virtues of our fathers may serve as exam- 
 ples to their children ; and they ought moreover to watch 
 that the exterior legislation of the church, notwithstanding 
 it is made suitable to the present times, does not degene- 
 rate from the spirit of the early ages. This is what is so 
 strongly inculcated in all the ecclesiastical councils, and 
 also forms the chief basis of this dissertation, in which the 
 truly new abuses introduced among us by the Inquisition 
 will I'C fully exhibited.
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 41 
 
 generation of the after ages, since such an 
 establishment as that we are about to depict 
 then found patronage and support. 
 
 St. Cyprian, pointing out the difference 
 between the sentiments which ought to ani- 
 mate the ministers of the church of Jesus 
 Christ and tliose which directed the priests 
 of the Synagogue in their conduct towards 
 the refractory, considers each profession ac- 
 cording to its nature, and states as the chief 
 reason of this difference, that in the Syna- 
 gogue every thing was material and figurative, 
 whereas in the true Church every thing is spi- 
 rit and truth. " God," says he, " commanded 
 the punishment of death to be inflicted on 
 those who refused to obey their priests, as 
 judges constituted by himself; which might be 
 advisable at a period when the circumcision 
 was carnal; but now that the circumcision is 
 spiritual, the proud and contumacious servants 
 of his house, which is the Church, ought to be 
 exterminated with a sword in like manner 
 spiritual, by their being cast out therefrom, 
 and thus deprived of life ; for the true house 
 of God is no other than one, and no one 
 unless in it obtains salvation."* 
 
 * S. Cyprian, epist. Ixii.
 
 42 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. II. 
 
 When the Fathers of the Council of Sar- 
 dica prayed Constantius to restrain the fury 
 of the Avians, who, availing themselves of 
 the influence their sect had gained over 
 the mind of that Emperor, resorted to every 
 species of persecution in order to destroy the 
 Catholics, they thus expressed themselves : 
 " We ask nothing beyond the liberty of our 
 Creed, and consequently that we be not 
 compelled to contaminate ourselves with 
 Arianism, by persecution, prisons, and tri- 
 bunals, under all the forms of terror, together 
 ■with the invention of exquisite torments, 
 being employed against us. Jesus Christ 
 taught, rather than exacted, the knowledge of 
 himself; and exciting admiration and respect 
 for the precepts of his faith by means of mira- 
 cles, he never forced any one to believe it. 
 If violence of this kind was appealed to on 
 the part of the Catholics the bishops would 
 be the first to declare against it, on the plea 
 that God being the Lord of the Universe 
 stands in need of no one, much less of a 
 heart that refuses to know him. They would 
 say, that God is not to be deceived by dis- 
 simulation, but that his grace is to be merited 
 by a true submission ; that if he commands 
 us to offer him our homage, it is not for his
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 4^ 
 
 good, but for ours ; that he cannot receive 
 any one who does not tender himself, hear 
 any but him who prays, nor mark as his own 
 any one who does not cordially profess his 
 religion. They would say, that candour is the 
 only road by which he is to be sought ; that 
 he is to be known by the diligent study of 
 the faith, and that he can love him only who 
 has charity. Finally, they would add, that his 
 good-will is obtained by filial fear, and the 
 only means of retaining it is probity."* 
 
 The maxims of mildness towards heretics 
 are inculcated by St. Chrysostom in many 
 passages of his works, particularly in the 
 following : " We ought to fight against here- 
 tics, not to throw down those who are up- 
 right, but to raise up those who are fallen ; 
 for the war which is incumbent on us is not 
 that which gives death to the living, but that 
 which restores life to the dead, seeing that our 
 arms are meekness and benignity. In this 
 contest we ought therefore to rely not so 
 much on acts as on words, for it is not the 
 heretic, but the heresy, which we persecute ; 
 and we detest not him who errs^, but the error, 
 which is the only thing we are to persecute 
 
 * S. Ililarius, lib. ad Constantlura August. 
 
 7
 
 44 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ciIAP. 11. 
 
 and extirpate. Our war is not with men, the 
 work of God, but with opinions which the 
 devil has depraved. The physician, when he 
 cures a patient, does not attack tlie body, but 
 the disorder under which it labours. In the 
 same manner deahng with heretics, we ought 
 not to injure them in person, but seek to 
 remove the error of -the understanding and 
 the evil of the heart. Finally, we ought 
 always to be disposed to submit to persecu- 
 tion, and not to persecute ; to suffer griev- 
 ances, and not to cause them. It is in 
 this manner Jesus Christ conquered, since 
 he was nailed to a cross — he did not crucify 
 others."* 
 
 St. Hilary highly extols the delicacy of the 
 Church in this particular, and even makes a 
 contrast of the state of discipline during the 
 three ages which preceded him with that of 
 his own time, when, owing to the opinions 
 of some bishops, it was verging towards that 
 decline afterwards experienced. " Above all,'* 
 says he, " it wrings the heart and causes the 
 tears to flow to behold the weakness of the 
 present generation in adopting certain absurd 
 opinions already prevailing, one of which is, 
 that men ought to patronize God by concili- 
 
 * S. Johan. Chrysost. D# S. Hiero Martyre, n.ii.
 
 CHAP. II. j INQUISITION UNMASKED; 4S 
 
 Siting the power of the age, in order by this 
 means to sustain the Church of Jesus Christ. 
 Tell me, ye bishops who are of this way of 
 thinking, of what aid did the apostles avail 
 themselves when they preached the Gospel ; 
 or to what great ones of the earth did they 
 recur in order to convert, as in fact they did, 
 almost all nations from idolatry to the wor- 
 ship of the true God ? Was it in palaces, that 
 they sought favour, when under the scourge 
 and in chains, they sang hymns in praise to 
 the Lord ? Was St. Paul perchance authorized 
 with imperial decrees when, through his great 
 labours made the object of astonishment to 
 the whole world, he allured nations to the 
 Church of Jesus Christ ? Did he find patrons 
 in a Nero, a Vespasian, or a Decius, when it 
 was their persecutions that so much fructified 
 the seed of his preaching? Did not the apos- 
 tles hold, as we now do, the keys of the king- 
 dom of Heaven, although they were obliged 
 to live by the work of their hands, and under 
 the necessity of celebrating the divine mys- 
 teries in cenatories and other solitary places, 
 travelling by sea and land through various 
 countries, visiting even villages and farms ; 
 and this in direct contravention to the de- 
 crees of the senate and Emperor ? Is it not
 
 46 INQUISITION UN^IASKED. [cHAP. II, 
 
 certain that the Gospel was then preached 
 with the greatest courage and success, and 
 that the more obstacles were opposed to its 
 effects the more did its power triumph over 
 that of tyrants ? But now what an unfor- 
 tunate reverse ! It is now pretended to sup- 
 port the divine faith by means of human 
 authority ; and whilst it is ostentatiously 
 sought to add to the name of Jesus, his power 
 is considered as diminished. The same 
 Church, that formerly through the endurance 
 of chains, persecutions, and banishment, ex- 
 tended its faith, now diffuses terror by means 
 of proscriptions and prisons, seeking to be 
 believed through the effects of force. It now 
 seeks to owe its permanency to the power of 
 those who are of its own communion, when 
 it was through the fury of those who were 
 its persecutors that it was formerly consoli- 
 dated. It now banishes the priests of those 
 same sects which anciently drove its own 
 ministers into exile. In short, that same 
 Church now seeks to be applauded by the 
 world which only by being hated of men can 
 be pleasing to her spouse. When, with such 
 scandalous abuses before me, I compare the 
 Church of the present times with that which 
 Jesus Christ confided to our ancestors, I
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 4T 
 
 cannot but exclaim that it has undergone 
 the most deplorable change." * 
 
 St. Jerome, commenting on these words 
 of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, " Recedite 
 polluti clamaverunt eis" thus observes: "Such 
 is the language of those proud shepherds who 
 take under their special care the choice of 
 the flock, and leave the weak portions thereof 
 in a neglected state, without taking care that 
 the lean sheep regain their strength, or that 
 the distempered recover from disease. Keep 
 at a distance,say they,ye who are infected, de- 
 part, disappear, nor ever dare to approach and 
 communicate with us ; your wounds are mor- 
 tal, your sores are gangrened, ye are unworthy 
 of Christian intercourse and of the Holy 
 Ghost again returning to dwell within you. 
 Conduct like this, instead of giving sight to 
 the blind, health to the invalid, and of in- 
 fusing courage and vigour into him who is 
 dismayed, occasions death, by impelling him 
 to despair. The prelates who fulfil their duty, 
 and measure the weakness of their neighbour 
 by their own, endeavour to disentangle sin- 
 ners from the snares of error by means of 
 humility and meekness, rather than by their 
 
 * l^'Hilar. lib. contra Auxentiutn.
 
 48 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. II. 
 
 harshness to precipitate them down the abyss 
 of condemnation.'* * It is indeed true that 
 St. Jerome here speaks of the charity and 
 sweetness with which all sinners ought to be 
 treated, but for the same reason he does not 
 exclude those who have sinned against the 
 faith. 
 
 The letter of St. Augustin to Donatus, 
 proconsul of Africa, deserves to be copied 
 here entire, for it clearly demonstrates what 
 was the spirit of the Church with regard to 
 the punishment of heretics at the time it was 
 written. It is as follows : " It is indeed pain- 
 ful to reflect that the Church of Africa is in 
 such a situation as to require the aid of civil 
 authorities. But, on the other hand, there 
 being, according to the apostle, no power on 
 earth which does not emanate from God, it 
 may truly be said that when ye who are in- 
 vested with dignity use it in defence of our 
 mother the holy Catholic Church, our aid is 
 then in the Lord who made heaven and earth. 
 For who, most illustrious sir and son deserving 
 of our praises, can avoid discovering amidst 
 the many ills which afflict us that, from the bril- 
 liancy of your talents and your great zeal for 
 
 * S. Hieron. Cora. inJerem. Thren, cap. iv. v.xv.
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 49 
 
 the religion of Jesus Christ, providence has 
 placed you at the head of the government in 
 order to restrain, by means of power and good- 
 will, the enemies of the Church in their wicked 
 and sacrilegious attempts ? It is my duty, 
 nevertheless, to caution you against one thing, 
 which is that your very justice makes us 
 apprehend, that as all grievances caused to 
 the Christian society by these ungrateful and 
 impious men are more criminal than those 
 done to the state, you may be induced to 
 punish them with every rigour, urged rather 
 by the enormity of their crime than bearing 
 in mind the meekness of the religion against 
 which they have sinned. Let not this be the 
 case we beseech you for the sake of Jesus 
 Christ, since we do not seek to be avenged on 
 earth; nor is it just that the persecutions we 
 suffer should make such an impression on our 
 minds as to cause us to forget the commands 
 of our Redeemer, for whose faith and name 
 we endure them, and for whom we actually 
 love our enemies and unceasingly pray for 
 them. We desire, it is true, that the severity 
 of the laws and of the judges may be em- 
 ployed for their reform, but not to deprive 
 them of life ; that the government watch 
 over their conduct, but without applying 
 
 VOL. I. E
 
 50 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. 11. 
 
 against them all the punishment they deserve ; 
 that their excesses may be restrained, but not 
 that they be placed in such a situation as to 
 prevent repentance." 
 
 " We beseech you, therefore, that when 
 any one of us shall represent to you that the 
 Church has been grievously injured, or you 
 may in any other way have learnt her afflic- 
 tions, that you do not remember that you 
 are the arbiter of life and death ; but, on the 
 contrary, that you be ever mindful of this 
 our petition. Attend, oh ! illustrious and 
 much-beloved son, to our mediation in favour 
 of the lives of those to whom we beseech 
 God to grant amendment ; for besides its 
 being the duty of us ecclesiastics never to 
 desist from the practice of overcoming evil 
 with good, it is necessary you should con- 
 sider, as from prudence we hope you will, 
 that no one, except ourselves, informs you of 
 the injuries done to the Church. For this 
 same reason, if you think of inflicting death 
 on those we denounce, you prevent us from 
 applying to your tribunal, and they will then 
 become more insolent ; since, at all events, 
 we should prefer to be sacrificed ourselves 
 rather than be instrumental to their suffering 
 capital punishment."
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 51 
 
 " I, in short, for my own part, again 
 beseech you kindly to receive this my ex- 
 hortation, or this my remonstrance and hum- 
 ble request ; and I flatter myself that I am 
 authorized to expect this favour, even though 
 you were invested with a higher dignity and 
 I no other than a private individual. Never- 
 theless cause it, as soon as possible, to be 
 made known to the Donatists that the pro- 
 clamations you issued against them, and 
 which they consider no longer in force, are 
 still in full vigour, to the end that they allow 
 the Catholics to remain quiet. As for the 
 rest, the means of rendering our exertions 
 for their conversion effectual will be by 
 restraining in such manner, through your 
 own measures, this proud and petulant sect 
 that they may never be able to boast enduring, 
 for the good cause, the vexations aimed 
 against itj since it is rather indispensably 
 necessary, when they have been convicted 
 of their crimes in your tribunal, or any other 
 inferior one, that every exertion should be 
 made to convince theiu of the truth of the 
 faith, by causing them to reform their opi- 
 nions and to contribute to the cj aversion of 
 the others. Because il cannot be denied that 
 it is a fruitless task to seek to compel a man 
 e2
 
 62 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. II. 
 
 to embrace good and withdraw from evil, 
 however great this may be, unless it is 
 through the way of persuasion."* So far St. 
 Augustin. 
 
 It is unnecessary to add more testimonies 
 from the Holy Fathers, in support of my 
 argument. Those already quoted are more 
 than sufficient to prove, that the meekness of 
 Jesus Christ towards the wayward, and as 
 practised and promulgated by the apostles, 
 was also the countersign of all the doctors of 
 the Church, who transmitted it in numerous 
 passages of their writings as an edifying lesson 
 to posterity. These writings amply testify 
 that the conduct of the ministers of the gos- 
 pel, with regard to persons straying from the 
 fold, ought to be very different to that ob- 
 served by the ancient priests towards those 
 who abandoned the law of Moses ; that the 
 most pure zeal for the Christian religion ought 
 always to be accompanied by genuine and 
 beneficent charity; that the mild empire of a 
 crucified Lord unceasingly calls for freedom 
 in favour of those who submit to it ; that the 
 acquisition of new believers, and the retention 
 of old ones, is only appreciated by the Church 
 
 * S. August. Epist. C.
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 3S 
 
 when they enter and remain in the bosom 
 thereof, by means of divine unction and per- 
 suasion ; and finally, that if at any time it 
 should be necessary to appeal to the powers 
 of the earth, in order to check the wicked in 
 their career of self-perdition, it ought only tobe 
 done when the natural defence of the church 
 requires it, or the amendment of the refrac- 
 tory, by means of a correction so moderate 
 as truly to deserve the name of paternal. 
 
 Notwithstanding, however, the words of 
 the above-mentioned Holy Fathers are so 
 clear and decisive in favour of my object 
 those of a different opinion nevertheless con- 
 ceive that their authority may also be alleged 
 in a contrary sense,* It is in St. Augustin, 
 
 • However, I here except the author of the Nuevo 
 Reflexionador, who, in his letter to the Anti-apologist of 
 the Inquisition, enraged that the latter should make use of 
 the Scriptures and Holy Fathers in order to prove that 
 the Inquisition ought to be abolished, replies to him in the 
 following words : " Are you in your right senses ? What J 
 could the sacred writers impugn an establishment with 
 which they were not even acquainted ?" Hence am I in- 
 clined to infer, that the Nuevo Reflexionador would not 
 wish to join with those of his own party when they quote 
 the Scriptures and Holy Fathers in favour of the Inqui- 
 sition, for in this case the same retort might be made. 
 How does it happen, I would ask him, that a religious
 
 54 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. II, 
 
 more particularly, they pretend to find incon- 
 trovertible proofs that the church, without 
 being wanting to the duties of mildness, may 
 avail itself of the zeal of the civil power, and 
 resort to corporal punishments, in order to 
 restrain heretics committing violence against 
 her, as well as for the purpose of obliging 
 them to seek reconciliation. It is indeed 
 true that this Holy Father confesses of him- 
 self, that being formerly of opinion that the 
 Donatists ought not to be persecuted with 
 any other arms than those of argument, the 
 examples of con versions effected by the rigour 
 of the laws as presented to him by some of 
 the bishops of Africa, were so numerous and 
 so striking, that they obliged him to alter his 
 sentiments. I am fully sensible of the force 
 of this objection, but far from being thereby 
 convinced, I believe with Bayle, Basnage, 
 
 establishment cannot be defended or impugned by argu- 
 ments taken from the sacred writers, because they were 
 anterior to its foundation ? How is it, I would again ask 
 him, that the Inquisition has been able to proceed in cases 
 of new sectaries, unless it has recurred to scripture and 
 tradition in order to decide on their doctrines ? Is it, per- 
 chance, that in its judgments it has been guided by the 
 prevailing opinions of the age, or rather by the caprice of 
 those in power ? This, undoubtedly, has been the case, 
 1)ut the timeJs now arrived for remedying the evil.
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 55 
 
 Le Clerc, Barbcyrac, and Mosheim, that, on 
 this occasion, St. Augustin rather consulted 
 the apparent utility resulting to the Church 
 from an unlimited protection on the part of 
 kings, than the true piety and justice on which 
 this protection ought to be founded. It is 
 not probable, I again say, that a man of the 
 first talents, who so openly maintained that 
 the conversion of the heart is the work of 
 the grace and goodness of God, should ever 
 wish to affirm, in the sense above argued, 
 that heretics ought to be converted by 
 means 'of fines, banishment, and capital 
 punishments. 
 
 In order, however, to destroy the argu- 
 ment which the advocates of rigour deduce 
 from this retractation of St. Augustin, and do 
 away with the imputation of party feeling 
 alleged by the above-mentioned authors 
 against him, it would suffice to examine the 
 reasons which induced him to pronounce the 
 conversion of the Donatists as sincere, and 
 which, in fact, were the only ones that 
 obliged him to change his opinion. I say the 
 only ones, because those he quotes from the 
 Old and New Testament cannot be considered 
 so much in the light of solid proofs of the 
 truth of his proposition, as amplifications and
 
 56 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. II. 
 
 embellishments of the idea it contains ; since 
 they are all equally weak, as must appear to 
 anyone who reads them with an unprejudiced 
 mind. In a word, St. Augustin makes use of 
 these proofs not as a logician but as an 
 orator, more attentive to the elegance of his 
 statement than to the weight they might add 
 to an opinion which, in his own mind, was 
 already proved by experience.* In this point 
 of view, he thus replies to the Donatist Vi- 
 centius, who had reproached him for his new 
 way of thinking. 
 
 '^ I was formerly of opinion that no one 
 ought to be compelled to return to the bosom 
 of the church, under the impression that we 
 ought not to use any other arms than words ; 
 that our contest ought to be no other than 
 argument ; and that such only ought to be 
 esteemed as a victory which is gained through 
 the force of conviction ; for otherwise those 
 would become feigned Catholics who before 
 were avowed heretics. But some of my com- 
 
 * The argijments St. Augustin takes from Scriptures, to 
 prove that it was lawful to use corporal punishments to- 
 wards heretics, in order to oblige them to return to the 
 bosom of the church, are re-produced by the apologists of 
 the Inquisition, but not in their true sense ; the chief ones, 
 however, have been answered in the preceding chapter.
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 5? 
 
 panions have since pressed me closely, not 
 with reasons but with facts, which they quoted 
 to me in great numbers, whence I have been 
 induced to adhere to their opinion. For they 
 argued with me from the example of the city 
 of my own residence, (Hippo,) which, having 
 formerly decided in favour of the heresy of 
 Donatus, was afterwards restored to the Ca- 
 tholic unity by means of the decrees of the 
 emperors ; and this so cordially, that it now 
 hates the above heresy, and even appears never 
 to have belonged to it. They quoted similar 
 examples of other cities to me in such man- 
 ner that I conceived that what is said in 
 Proverbs may also be understood in this 
 sense : give instruction to a wise man, and he 
 will be yet wiser."* 
 
 " How many of them had we not among us, 
 as I afterwards was informed, who were de- 
 sirous of being converted, from a conviction 
 of the truth of our religion; nevertheless they 
 delayed it, in order not to expose themselves to 
 the animosity of their own party ! How many 
 were withheld, not by a supposition that their 
 sect was founded in the truth, which most as- 
 suredly they left out of the question, but by 
 
 * Frov. cap. ix. v. 9,
 
 58 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. II. 
 
 a blind custom which rendered them callous, 
 so that it might be said of them, a servant will 
 not be corrected with words ; for though he 
 understand, he will not answer.* How many 
 were there not who lived persuaded that 
 among the Donatists the true Church was to 
 be found, but through no other motive than 
 a natural carelessness, which rendered them 
 dull and sluggish to find it out ! How many 
 were kept back from entering therein by the 
 calumnies of certain malevolent persons, who 
 imputed to the Catholics the introduction of 
 I know not what novelties into religion ! 
 How many, in short, who, believing it was of 
 no consequence to be a Christian in this or 
 the other sect, continued in that of Donatus, 
 because they had been therein born, and be- 
 cause there was no one to withdraw them from 
 it, and lead them to the true Church ! Hence 
 do they now rejoice with us that, in conse- 
 quence of the grievances they then suffered, 
 they were roused from the lethargy of in- 
 veterate habits, in which they would other- 
 wise infallibly have perished. It may indeed 
 be said that wiih some such measures do not 
 avail. To this I will answer, that the in- 
 
 * Prov. cap. xxix. v. 19.
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKE1>. 59 
 
 curable diseases of some ought not to cause 
 the refusal of remedies to others seeking the 
 re-establishment of their health. We ought 
 not to be foiled by the obstinate, unwilhng to 
 yield to persuasion, and of whom it is written, 
 in vain did I chastise my children, that they 
 might be well educated.* It is necessary also 
 to attend to many others of whose amend- 
 ment we bear witness, to the great consolation 
 of our heart. Finally, I agree that it would 
 be exercising a tyrannical power to terrify 
 heretics without convincing them of their 
 error ; but it is also undeniable, that their 
 inveterate habits will not suffer them to in- 
 cline to conviction, and will obstruct their 
 being led, unless it is very slowly, towards 
 the road of salvation, unless they are moved 
 by terror. "t 
 
 This is the passage of St. Augustin on 
 which the partisans of the Inquisition lay so 
 much stress, and which, from our desire to 
 throw every previous light on the question, 
 we have copied at full length. This is the 
 memorable passage which, by not being pro- 
 perly understood, caused torrents of blood to 
 flow during the dark ages, when religious 
 
 * Jerera. cap, ii. v. 30. 
 t S. August. Epist. cxiii.
 
 60 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP.II. 
 
 wars were so frequent. Wretched fate of 
 man, who seems destined to stumble on 
 error and death, where he ought to have ex- 
 pected the benefits of truth! However, if I 
 am not greatly deceived, it does not require 
 much penetration to discover the true mean- 
 ing of St. Augustin in this place, which, if 
 his words are only well considered, is the 
 same as that of the other Holy Fathers and 
 Sacred Writers, although in consequence of 
 the different circumstances of the times it is 
 presented with some degree of diversity. It 
 is, in the first place, necessary to establish, 
 that the conduct of the Donatists towards the 
 Catholics was at length rendered so. criminal, 
 and the persecutions excited against them so 
 cruel, that it became necessary to recur to the 
 protection of the laws, in order to withhold 
 men, who, impelled by a furious passion which 
 they termed religious zeal, had actually sub- 
 verted the order of society. They not only 
 forcibly re-baptized the Catholics, but they also 
 sacked and deraolislied their temples, assas- 
 sinated the clergy and bishops at the very 
 altars, burned out the eyes of others with 
 quick-lime, and even prohibited bread from 
 being sold to them in the public places. 
 Under such conflicts, how therefore can it
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 61. 
 
 appear strange for the Catholics to implore 
 the protection of government ; a protec- 
 tion which could not be denied them, even in 
 the quality of private citizens. As proof of 
 this, the first edict issued by Theodosius 
 against the Donatists, in the year 382, is 
 founded on the many acts of violence they 
 had committed, and which undoubtedly would 
 have continued, if the authorities had not ap- 
 plied an efficacious remedy.* And as it was 
 perfectly just for the Catholics to appeal to 
 the safeguard of the laws, without their being 
 for that reason accused of persecuting the 
 sectaries, contrary to the spirit of religion, 
 when personal security was their only object, 
 why might not the same be allowed to St. 
 Augustin ? 
 
 But, to pursue the argument. The Donatists 
 were the first who, refusing to abide by the 
 sentence of the bishops, before whom, at that 
 time, all differences arising among Christians 
 were carried, recurred to the emperor Con- 
 stantinus, complaining of Cecilianus, Bishop 
 of Carthage, respecting certain irregularities 
 they attributed to him, though their com- 
 plaint was attended with no other fruit than 
 
 * Vide Encyclopedie, Art. Donatistes. 
 6
 
 62 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. II. 
 
 their own punishment for not substantiating 
 the accusations preferred. What irregularity, 
 therefore, was there in the Catholics recur- 
 ring in their own defence to the very civil 
 tribunal whichj in some measure, the heretics 
 had pointed out to them ? By this testimony 
 of St. Augustin it appears, that the heretics 
 were the first who had recourse to the civil 
 authorities in order to avenge injuries arising 
 out of religious matters, a point to which 
 I particularly call the attention of the parti- 
 sans of rigour.* 
 
 This Holy Father does indeed maintain 
 that it is advisable to use some coercion 
 towards apostates, in order to induce them 
 to return to the bosom of the Church. This 
 new difficulty, however, disappears in the 
 same manner as the first, if the reasons which 
 also led him to change his opinion in this 
 particular are maturely weighed. Many of 
 the Donatists here alluded to belonged to 
 that sect, not from any system or adhesion, 
 but because they dreaded the vengeance of 
 their own sectaries if they abandoned them ; 
 an impediment which ceased from the mo- 
 
 * S. August. Epist. cxiii. n. 13. " Qtcid nobis ohjicitis" 
 says he to Vicentius and his companions, " quod vestrorum 
 ( major uin) prcesumptio primitusjecit ? 
 
 7
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 6S 
 
 ment the civil authority was on their side. 
 Others were retained undecisive, by a false 
 idea of certain practices admitted into the 
 Catholic Church, and which necessarily va- 
 nished as soon as they had received adequate 
 instruction. Others, in short, were held in 
 a profound lethargy by a sluggish spirit, 
 added to a total indifference for their own 
 well-being, from vvhich it was impossible to 
 rouse them, unless active remedies were 
 for that purpose employed. It therefore 
 results, that the Donatists, whom St. Augustin 
 affirms to have returned within the pale of 
 the Church on being put in fear by the civil 
 power, scarcely suifered any coercion what- 
 ever ; or at least it was not such as to 
 authorize the violent measures of the In- 
 quisition. 
 
 In the aforesaid passage it is, moreover, 
 manifested that the conduct of the ministers 
 of the Church towards apostates ought to 
 resemble that of a physician in the case of a 
 lethargic disease, — of a father who seeks to 
 educate his children ; that is, a moderate 
 rigour ought to be exercised against them, 
 corresponding to the object in view, which 
 is not the death of the patient, but his health 
 and happiness. It is, in fact, the persuasion
 
 64 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. II. 
 
 of the mind and the amendment of the heart 
 that St. Augustin has in view in the persecu- 
 tion of those who have wandered from the 
 faith, without which their conversion would 
 only be apparent. It is the persuasion of 
 the understanding, I again repeat, without 
 which all dominion over the will would be 
 tyrannical, which the Holy Doctor so un- 
 ceasingly inculcates ; — that same persuasion, 
 in short, by which he himself had been con- 
 verted from the sect of the Manichees to the 
 Catholic Church, was the means he wished 
 to be employed with regard to others. 
 
 However, should any one not be sufficiently- 
 convinced by the arguments just alleged, that 
 St. Augustin w^as, at all times, in favour of 
 meekness towards heretics, in the sense al- 
 luded to, let him listen to his own w^ords 
 contained in that same letter to Vincentius, 
 in which the advocates of the Inquisition 
 impute to him a change of opinion. " There 
 is no doubt," says he, " that a moderate 
 rigour, accompanied by much benevolence, 
 ought to be used towards those Christians 
 who may have erred through the seduction 
 of wicked men, because they are possibly 
 sheep of Jesus Christ which have gone astray, 
 (that is, without great malice in tlieir hearts,)
 
 pHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 65 
 
 consequently it is only necessary to collect 
 them into the fold, causing them, by banish- 
 ment and other corporal punishments, to 
 enter into themselves, to reflect on the cause 
 for which they suffer, and also to learn not 
 to give more credit to the yain opinions 
 and calumnies of man than to the Scriptures. 
 With regard, therefore, to the chastisement 
 to be inflicted on you, (speaking to the 
 heretics,) it is rather intended as a warning 
 to you than a real punishment." * The Holy 
 
 ♦ S. August, Epist. xciii. n. 10. No pains can be too 
 great in order to clear up the opinion of so great a doctor 
 of the Church, which, from being misunderstood, had 
 caused so much injury. For this reason, as well as because 
 the passage above quoted furnishes a full confirmation of 
 my text, I have thought it best to copy the original words 
 in this place : " ^ed plane in eis qui sub nomine Christi 
 errant y sediicti h perversisy ne forte eves Christi sint errant es, 
 et ad gregem taliter revocandce sinty temperafa severitas, et 
 magis consuetude servatur, ut coercitione exilioruniy atque 
 damnorum admoneantur considerare quid, quare patiariiur, 
 et discant prccponere rumoribuSy et calumniis hominum scrip- 
 turas, qiias legunt. Quis enim nostrum, . quis vestrum non 
 laudat leges ab imperatoribus datas adversus sacrificia pa- 
 ganorum ? Et certe longe ibi poena severior constituta est ; 
 illiiis quippe impietatis capitate supplicium est. De vobis 
 aufem corripiendisy atque coercendis habita ratio esty quo 
 potius admoneremini ab errore discedere, quarn pro scelere 
 spunir^mini. Potest enim Jbrtasse etiam de vobis dici, qiiod 
 VOL, I. F
 
 66 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. II. 
 
 Doctor, on the same occasion, also affirms 
 that the name of Christian, borne by every 
 one who has been baptized, is an additional 
 motive for his being treated with more 
 benignity than was used in his time towards 
 idolaters, because the same are less distant 
 from the true Church ; an opinion diametri- 
 cally opposed to that of the friends of the 
 Inquisition. It consequently becomes evi- 
 dent that the passage of St. Augustin^ on 
 which the partisans of rigour lay so much 
 stress, does not so much contain a retractation 
 as a limitation of his former opinion, in which 
 he consents to the adoption of a certain 
 degree of corporeal punishment towards here- 
 tics, inducing them by the way of correction 
 to enter into themselves. Such was the state 
 
 ait Apostolus de Judais : " Testimonium Hits perhibeo, 
 quia zclum Dei habent, sed non secundum scientiam. Igno- 
 rantes enim Dei Justitiam, et suam volentes constituerCf 
 justiticE Dei non sunt subjecti.** (Ad Rom. cap. x. v. 
 2 & 3.) He continues making a parallel between the 
 heretics and Jews, with regard to their mistaken ideas, and 
 he only excepts those who are " Scientes quid vermn sit, 
 et pro animositatc suce perversitatis contra veritate7n, etiam 
 iibi notissimam, dimicantes. Horum quippe impietas etiam 
 idololairiam forsitan stiperat. Sed quia nonjacile convinci 
 possunt (in animo namque latet hoc malum J omnes tam- 
 quam a nobis minus alieni, Icviori severitate coox'cnii'.r.'*
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 6? 
 
 of ecclesiastical discipline, with regard to the 
 treatment of apostates, at the beginning of 
 the fifth century, the period at which St. 
 Augustin wrote; a state of discipline cer- 
 tainly less brilliant than that which flourished 
 in the middle of the fourth age and during the 
 life-time of St. Hilary, but still incomparably 
 more perfect than the one which existed in 
 the succeeding ages. And shall it be just 
 for the patrons of the Inquisition to quote 
 the discipline of the fifth century in support 
 of their establishment, when the records of a 
 brighter era are equally preserved ? This tri- 
 bunal might even have been entitled to our 
 thanks, if it had not extended its rigour 
 beyond the limits prescribed by St. Augustin; 
 whose authority it is in vain to bring forward 
 in favour of such an establishment, since it 
 alone suffices to overturn it. The trial for 
 heresy approved of by this Holy Father was 
 public, and, as such, offered to the culprit all 
 the advantages publicity affords. The sen, 
 tence absolved the accused whenever he 
 solicited reconciliation ; it was only in cases 
 of obstinacy that he was condemned to a loss 
 of property or banishment, but capital punish- 
 ment was never inflicted upon him. If the 
 latter was ever pronounced against heretics 
 f2
 
 68 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. II. 
 
 for outrages committed against Catholics, 
 the bishops always interceded with the magis- 
 trates till they obtained their pardon. Thus 
 did St.Augustin himself intercede with Count 
 Marcelinus in favour of Donatists who had 
 killed a Catholic priest and mutilated ano- 
 ther ; and with equal zeal, in the preceding 
 age, did St. Chrysostom intercede with the 
 people of Constantinople and the Emperor, 
 in a discourse he pronounced in the patri- 
 archal church of that city, on behalf of Eu- 
 tropius, a patrician and consul, at that time 
 persecuted for his political and religious ex- 
 cesses.* According to the practice of those 
 very times if any bishop, forgetful of the 
 duties of his profession, attempted to punish 
 heretics with death, the others refused to hold 
 
 • S. August. Epist, cxxxiii. — This discourse of St. 
 J. Chrysostoni, which, notwithstanding it was extempore, 
 i"s a master-piece of eloquence, I have translated from 
 Greek into Spanish, and shall lay it before the public as 
 soon as its attention can be called to objects unconnected 
 with the war an^ the formation of a new constitution. To 
 this version I will add another in Latin of an inedited 
 Greek panegyric in praise of St. Peter Philoptocus, or the 
 friend of the poor, found annexed to an old parchment 
 copy of the works of the above Holy Father, with as much 
 fidelity as the injury of time will admit, and tQ each 
 I shall join the original text.
 
 CHAP. 11.] INQUISITION UNMASKED* 60 
 
 communication with him. This, in fact, hap- 
 pened to the two Spanish bishops, Idacius 
 and Ithacius, whom, for that very reason, St. 
 Ambrose and St. Martin of Tours excluded 
 from their communion.* And has the Inqui- 
 sition, perchance, acted in this manner ? If, 
 then, its system is so much opposed to that 
 practised in the Church during the time of 
 St. Augustin, on what grounds can the au- 
 thority of that Holy Father be now employed 
 in its support ? 
 
 The argument thus taken and applied from 
 the authority of the above Holy Father, and 
 which may truly be called the key-stone of 
 the arch on which the edifice of the Inqui- 
 sition had been raised, is thus completely 
 destroyed. I shall therefore omit the minor 
 texts of the other Holy Fathers, which the 
 advocates of this tribunal equally allege in 
 their own favour, inasmuch as none of them 
 present the same difficulties as the preceding, 
 and, besides, the same solution is applicable 
 to all. Neither shall I take notice of the 
 objections which may be raised from the au- 
 thorities of the writers who flourished from 
 the 6th to the 1 iJth century, the period when 
 
 * Fleury Disc, iv. sur L'Hist. Eccles. chap. xiv.
 
 70 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. II. 
 
 the Inquisition was established, for they all 
 of them experienced the twilight which pre- 
 ceded or followed the 9th and 10th centuries. 
 In fact, so great was the haste of the clergy 
 to wander from the path of the Apostles and 
 primitive Christians in this particular, and so 
 great also their deviation, that the fourth 
 council of Toledo, held so early as the year 
 633, ordained that the Jews baptized by order 
 of Sisebutus should be compelled to remain 
 within the Catholic religion, notwithstand- 
 ing it was sensible of the violence with 
 which the above ceremony had been per- 
 formed.* 
 
 An era, therefore, in which the discipline 
 of the Church had so much degenerated, it 
 cannot be expected could furnish models 
 capable of reforming that of our own time ; 
 
 * The LVI. canon, as inserted in Dist.xlv. cap. v., is 
 as follows : — " Qui autem jam pridem ad Christianitaiem 
 coacti sunt venire (sictd factum est temporibus religiosissimi 
 principis Sisebuti) quia jam constat eos sacramentis divinis 
 sociatos baptismi gratiam suscepisse^ et chrismate unctos 
 esse, et corporis et sanguinis Domini extitisse participes, 
 oportet ut Jidem quam etiamvi vel necessitate susce- 
 perunty tenere cogantur." The reason alleged by the 
 Council is very singular, viz, " Ne nomen Domini blas- 
 phemetur, et Jides quam susceperunt vilis et contemptibilis 
 habeatur." 
 
 3
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 71 
 
 nor, for the same reason, ought the opinions 
 which then prevailed to be of such weight as 
 to prevent us from now making the necessary 
 reforms. 
 
 I ought not, however, to pass over another 
 argument unnoticed, which does not so much 
 tend to arraign the truth of my position as 
 to elude the strength of the reasons on which 
 it is founded, or rather to destroy one of the 
 principal grounds of credibility the Christian 
 rehgion has in its favour. The friends of the 
 Inquisition argue that the faithful of the first 
 ages did not exhort monarchs to proceed 
 against the enemies of the Church, because 
 the cross of Christ had not been yet placed 
 on their diadems ; whereas persecution was 
 extremely frequent in those times, in which, 
 nevertheless, no other language could have 
 been adopted than that of forbearance. But, 
 add they, as circumstances altered by the 
 conversion of the Emperors to Christianity, 
 church-discipline also partook of another 
 form. By this, certainly, must be meant 
 that if the Christians of the primitive Church 
 displayed meekness and charity, even towards 
 their persecutors, it was because they had not 
 yet acquired sufficient strength to make 
 themselves feared. A chimerical evasion
 
 11 IKQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAf . \U 
 
 indeed, and as contrary to the truth of his- 
 tory as it is injurious to the memory of the 
 martyrs, whose intrepidity and serenity un- 
 der death and torments, as well as generosity 
 towards enemies, at the same time that they 
 manifest the divine character of the religion 
 they taught, also Contradict the calumny with 
 AVhich it is attempted to tarnish their heroic 
 virtues, by giving them the appearance of 
 hypocrisy and weakness. If such sentiments 
 could be supposed to have existed in the 
 ancient Christians, and if it could be argued 
 that it was their intention to put the enemies 
 of the Church to death, under a belief that 
 they thus rendered a service to the faith, I 
 do not see how the death of a martyr had 
 any thing in it more admirable than that of a 
 malefactor, nor how it could be affirmed of 
 them that they were " lambs sent among 
 wolves,*' according to the expression of Jesus 
 Christ himself, since the propensities of nature 
 cannot be disguised ; for the cub of the 
 lordly ranger of the forest, though his talons 
 are not yet grown, in his temper cannot be 
 mistaken for the offspring of a milder race. 
 At least iSt. Augustin avails himself of this 
 comparison ?igainst the Donatists, who, when 
 persecuted for their opinions, boasted of
 
 CHAP. 11.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. t^ 
 
 meekness and toleration towards the Catho- 
 lics, against whom if they did not then 
 employ their fury,. it was not so much for the 
 want of good- will as of power.=* This contra- 
 diction of principles, for such at first sight it 
 appears, is a new confirmation that the mean- 
 ing of the Holy Doctor, in the whole of his 
 letter to Vincentius, is no other than that a 
 certain degree of correction may be used 
 towards heretics. Nothing, however, can so 
 effectually destroy so absurd an answer as 
 the testimony of two celebrated writers of 
 the ages of persecution, who concur in 
 stating that the Christians were not devoid 
 of means to avenge themselves of their ene- 
 mies, if they had so wished to act, but that 
 their spirit was that of meekness as received 
 from the Apostles and their Divine Master. 
 The first of them is Tertullian, who, address- 
 ing himself to the Gentiles, uses the follow- 
 ing words : 
 
 " Whom is it we can hate, when, by the 
 principles of our religion, we are bound to 
 love even our enemies ? Whom is it we can 
 offend, who are not allowed to avenge injuries, 
 because we consider revenge as the greatest of 
 crimes? Of this benignity I call on you to bear 
 * S, August. Epist. cxiii. n, IL
 
 74 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. 11. 
 
 witness, ye magistrates, who have so often 
 aggrieved us, partly in order to fulfil the 
 laws, and partly at the instigation of your 
 own ferocious inclinations. With such inhu- 
 man treatments, say, what conspiracy plotted 
 by the Christians have ye discovered? or 
 what vengeance has been sought by men so re- 
 solved to die? And certainly it is not through 
 the deficiency of means, since torches are 
 not wanting to burn the whole city in one 
 night if we wished it. But far be from us 
 such an alienation of mind as to act as if 
 a religion which has God himself for its 
 author were to be avenged with fire lighted 
 up by the hand of man ; or that we refuse 
 to bear injuries, since by them virtue is best 
 purified. I will even add more. If it was our 
 wish to avenge ourselves as declared enemies 
 should we be deficient in armies to eflTect our 
 purpose ? It was only the other day that we 
 appeared among you, and we already fill the 
 whole empire, — the cities, islands, castles, 
 towns, villages, camps, tribes, decurions, pa- 
 lace, senate, and forum ; in short, the temples 
 alone we leave unoccupied to you. What con- 
 flict could ensue, even with unequal forces, in 
 which courage would be wanting to men who, 
 under torments, suffer themselves to be torn to
 
 CHAP. II.] maUISITION UNMASKED. 7 5 
 
 pieces with the greatest serenity, if our mili- 
 tary discipline did not enjoin us to die rather 
 than kill another ?"* 
 
 Such was the language of the Christians, 
 and such the spirit of meekness which ani- 
 mated them in the second and third ages of 
 the Church, the period when Tertullian lived. 
 This virtue, therefore, cannot be denied them 
 without a great share of levity being attri- 
 buted to this celebrated writer ; for it would 
 have been unpardonable to proclaim senti- 
 ments as being prevalent which were contrary 
 to the general opinion. These same senti- 
 ments are, besides, expressed by St. Cyprian, 
 a cotemporary author, and also confirmed by 
 St. Augustin.t 
 
 With regard to the fourth age, let us listen 
 to Lucifer, bishop of Caller, and a writer of 
 that time. Addressing himself to Constantius, 
 in the name of all the faithful, he thus ad- 
 monishes him: " Let angry waves aujd violent 
 whirlwinds be raised up against us by thy 
 order, oh! Emperor, we will still remain more 
 stedfast ; and, far from being alarmed at the 
 horrors of the storm, we shall derive fresh 
 
 * Tertul. Apolog. cap. xxxvii, 
 
 t S.Cyprian. Ad Demetrianum. — S, Augus. De Civit. 
 Dei, lib. xxii.
 
 76 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. Hi 
 
 courage in proportion as the dangers in- 
 crease ; for the Christian does not easily 
 yield to the evils by which he is assailed, but 
 rather discovers more grandeur of soul when 
 tyrants are most jealous to oppresis him. The 
 persecution increases, so does the glory of the 
 soldiers of Jesus Christ; and torments, instead 
 of drawing us from the contest, cause us 
 to return to it with fresh ardour. Thyself wilt 
 confess the trutli of this, when thou seest us 
 step forward and defend the faith with the 
 same courage throughout the whole empire; 
 neither shall we be deceived by thy detest- 
 able caresses, discouraged by thy threats, or 
 overcome by the cruelty of torments; for 
 we are fortified by that same Lord, who 
 promised to be with us even to the end of 
 the world. 
 
 *- We will therefore proceed till thou shalt 
 have destroyed our bodies, as we have hitherto 
 travelled on under the shield of Jesus Christ, 
 clothed in the armour of his piety, guided 
 by his spirit, and maintaining ourselves in- 
 flexible to every suggestion intended to make 
 us forget our own dignity. We undoubtedly 
 suffer when our bodies are exposed to tor- 
 ments, but we also teach, by our example, 
 that no violence is sufficient to wrest the wise 
 8
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 77 
 
 man from his opinion and purpose to the 
 detriment of his character ; and that it is 
 highly advantageous to suiFer for God, who 
 is truth itself. As for the rest, it concerns me 
 little whether thou causest me to die, by 
 piercing my head with a nail or my breast 
 with a lance ; my hands bound, or unbound ; 
 my face downward)*, inclined, upright, or 
 raised from the ground ; that thou command- 
 est me to be killed in my bed, my head 
 severed from my body with a sword or sabre, 
 or reclined on a block ; that thou impale me, 
 fix me in the form of a cross, or consume me 
 by a slow fire ; that thou bury me alive, hurl 
 me down a precipice, or plunge me into the 
 bottom of the sea. I care not whether my 
 body afterwards becomes a prey to the birds 
 of the air and the dogs of the field, or whe- 
 ther, in thy presence and with cruel com- 
 placency, it is torn to pieces by wild beasts 
 and devoured ; for in the end I shall be safe 
 and unhurt before God."* 
 
 Such were the sentiments of the faithful, 
 respecting their conduct to enemies of the 
 Church, in the first ages of its establishment. 
 And, let me now ask, could men who uttered 
 
 * Lucifer Calar. Moriendum esse pco Filio Dei.
 
 7S IN^QUTSITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IJ, 
 
 such language as this harbour in their breasts 
 any desire of superior power, or wish they 
 were possessed of the means to oppress ? No 
 greater absurdity could be set forth to the 
 world than to suppose that the martyrs who 
 braved all the horrors of death with such 
 great courage, in order thereby to prove the 
 divine origin of the religion they professed, 
 would have authorized persecutions under a 
 plea of that same religion ? Can any greater 
 outrage be committed against their memories 
 than to affirm that, for religious purposes, 
 the use of dungeons, torments, and execu- 
 tions, (for of such, in fact, is the Inquisition 
 composed,) could be approved of by men 
 who considered it their duty to endure them, 
 and who confidently expected that the de- 
 gree of happiness .which awaited them 
 would be proportionate to the atrocity of 
 their sufferings ? 
 
 Martyrs of religion ! Heroes of Christia- 
 nity and philosophy ! Ye gave to your own 
 age, as well as those which were to come, the 
 most irrefragable proofs that the doctrine of 
 Christ crucified enlightens the understanding 
 and inflames the heart. Ye also bore witness 
 that if the most sacred property of man con- 
 sists in his opinions, the most inviolable of all
 
 CHAP. II.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 79 
 
 is his religion. Eternal praise be to you, who 
 knew how so worthily to defend it. Eternal 
 execration be the portion of the wicked, who 
 pretend to govern the understandings of 
 others by means of force and terror. Re- 
 ceive, noble souls, the homage offered to the 
 sincerity of your sentiments, by an impugner 
 of the Inquisition, and of which its advocates 
 in vain seek to deprive you.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 The Inquisition J far from contributing to the 
 Presej^vation of the true Belief is only 
 suited to encourage Hypocrisy and excite 
 the People to Rebellion. 
 
 JiiVEN if meekness were not one of the 
 characteristic virtues of the Christian religion, 
 it nevertheless ought to be esteemed as the 
 best means of extending and preserving it in 
 all its purity. Meekness tends to aid truth 
 in her conquests j and whenever both act in 
 due concert scarcely any understanding can 
 resist their united power. He who possesses 
 the celestial gift of sweetness makes the uni- 
 verse his own, for no heart is so jealous of 
 its freedom and independence as not to be- 
 come its tributary. It is in this sense I 
 understand the happiness Jesus Christ pro- 
 mises to the " mild of heart," when he says, 
 " they shall possess the land," as a reward
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 81 
 
 for this divine quality.* The tranquillity 
 with which they enjoy the fruits of their 
 virtue is equal to the facility with which they 
 acquired it ; for there is no one so unjust as 
 to disturb it, as David, in former times, gave 
 his assurance.! Monarchs themselves, accord- 
 ing to Seneca, make their thrones more 
 secure when they found their empire on the 
 principles of mildness. 
 
 " Quisquis placide potens, 
 Dominusque vitae, servat innocuas manus, 
 Animaeque parcit, longa permansus diu 
 Felicis aevi spatia vel coelum petit, 
 Vel laeta felix nemoris Elysii loca." J 
 
 -What man of might with favour leads his land, 
 
 And of his own lifes-lord reserves his hurtless hands to good. 
 And gently doth his empire guide without the thirst of blood, 
 And spares his soul, he having long led forth the ling'ring 
 
 days 
 Of happy age, at length to heaven doth either find the ways, 
 Or joyful happy places else of fair Elysius wood. 
 
 And if this observation holds good in all 
 cases in which it is intended to conciliate the 
 
 * S. Matth. cap. v. v. 4. Beati mites, quoniam ipsi 
 possidebunt terram. 
 
 f Psalm, xxxvi, v. 11. Mansueti aiitem hcereditabunf 
 erram, et delectabuntur in multitudine pads. 
 
 X Luc. An. Seneca, Here. Furens, Act iii. v. 738. — • 
 Translation by Jasper Hey wood, 1581, black letter. 
 VOL. I. G
 
 82 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 affections and opinions of mankind in favour 
 of truth and justice, will it not have a double 
 effect in maintaining the belief of religion ? 
 It is therefore useless, or at least difficult for 
 the understanding, that is, the most inde- 
 pendent part of man, to yield to the impres- 
 sions it is attempted to excite in favour of 
 the faith, if, at the same time, its natural 
 companion, the will, is ruffled by irritation. 
 In this case the victory would be ideal, and 
 the insensate man who should flatter himself 
 with thus having obtained one, would reap 
 no other fruits from his labour than a 
 satisfaction equally vain and criminal. In 
 welcome, let the Mahometan professors of 
 divinity boast their ignominious right of 
 forcibly sustaining and propagating their 
 tenets, in default of prudence and reason ; 
 let the Arabs, who intruded into Europe, 
 ruined Greece, and trampled science under 
 their feet, establish the credibility of their 
 dogmas by means of the scimitar ; but the 
 ministers of a religion like that of Jesus 
 Christ, founded on enlightened principles 
 and requiring a rational worship, can never 
 promote its respect and defence by measures 
 of violence and rigour.* Can any enlightened 
 * Rom. cap.xii. v. 1. *' Obsecro vos,JratreSfper miseri- 
 S
 
 CHAP, III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED, 83 
 
 Spaniard be found to exist who, jealous of 
 the glory of his nation, which having at 
 length reached the happy day when the 
 chains of despotism are broken asunder and 
 the voice of truth heard among us, shall fail 
 to cry out against a tribunal that wears the 
 cross of Jesus Christ accompanied by the 
 sword of Nero as the boasted emblem of its 
 authority ? Is there any one so prejudiced as 
 not to discover, on the slightest reflection, 
 that a tribunal which presents the monstrous 
 aspect of meekness supported by terror, far 
 from doing honour to the Gospel and human 
 reason, only deserves to find a place in the 
 book of Mahometan precepts. 
 
 The coat of arms used by the Inquisition 
 is a green cross on a black field, with an 
 olive-branch on the right side and a naked 
 sword on the left ; and this motto, taken 
 from Psalm Ixxiii. v. 22, placed round : 
 " ExurgCy Domine, judica causam tuam," 
 Arise, Lord, plead thine own cause; — the 
 original text however is Dens and not Domine. 
 Whoever was the author of this motto could 
 never have read in the Gospel that God did 
 not send his son to condemn the world, but 
 
 cordiam Dei ut exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam viventem 
 sanctum Deo placentem, rationahile obsequium vestrum." 
 g2
 
 84 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IH, 
 
 to save it ; since, otherwise, he must have 
 discovered the great contradiction contained 
 in the above motto, and its entire want of 
 analogy with the doctrine whose defence is 
 alluded to.* This application is not less 
 improper than the use frequently made in 
 the same manner of the words of Galatians, 
 chap. vi. V. 14. " JVobis autem absit glori- 
 ari, nisi in cricce Dojnini nostri Jesu Christie" 
 But God forbid that I should glory, save in 
 the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ ; — since 
 St. Paul, in the same chapter, recommends 
 mildness towards those who may have erred.t 
 How could the Apostle ever have imagined 
 that his authority was, in time, to serve to 
 uphold such a system of rigour, when the 
 same was so contrary to his intentions ? And, 
 if the Inquisition has thus so wrongly inter- 
 preted the Scriptures, why should it appear 
 strange that there is so little conformity be- 
 tween the two ? I ought not, however, to 
 
 * S. Johan. cap. iii. v. l7. " Non enim misit Deus Filium 
 suum in tnundutriy ut judicet mundumy sed ut salvetur imm- 
 dus per ipstim ." 
 
 + Ad Galat. cap. vi. v. 1. " Fratres, et si prceoccupaUis 
 Juerit homo in aliquo delicto^ vos qui spirituales estis, hiijus- 
 modi instruite in spiritu ienitatis, considerans te ipstim, ne et 
 ill tenteris,"
 
 
 v^v// a ^^ (7l^zi^ y'/,-// ^v//// > ru//^/ // /•, 
 
 7 
 
 ///^: // ?r:////'^/?/:7/iy (9/^,/'r'r'/\), /Apf^e^y/y^y AA/^
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 85 
 
 forget to notice that the green colour, 
 so much in vogue with the inquisitors, 
 is also held sacred by the priests of Ma- 
 homet.* 
 
 Truth requires no foreign aid for its sup- 
 port, and the means by which it makes rapid 
 progress is to announce it with dignity. Simi- 
 lar to the stars which shine by their own 
 light, it borrows no aid to dissipate the dark- 
 ness of error, whereas the latter only gains 
 ground by dark intrigue or violent practices. 
 Truth, by merely shewing her face, gains all 
 hearts ; and her empire is so sweet as to 
 resemble the most perfect freedom. Tyrants, 
 to whom the accents of truth are unknown, 
 derive from error the grounds by which they 
 
 * Vide plate No. 1 . The original edict of the Inquisi- 
 tion from which this plate is taken, besides the mistake of 
 Domine for Deus, which of itself proves how little the 
 inquisitors handle the Bible, contains two other traits 
 of the ignorance so peculiar to this tribunal, which we 
 have conceived it our duty to correct on the present 
 occasion, since no less than three blunders occur in five 
 words. The first is an hispanism in the verb exurge, con- 
 formably to which it is by them written esurge, with s 
 instead of x, as pronounced in some provinces of Spain, 
 where the genius of the language tends to avoid double 
 and compound consonants. The second is the insertion of 
 etjudica, instead o^ judica alone, in conformity to the text, 
 by which means the sentence is greatly enervated.
 
 86 tNQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IIL 
 
 tall themselves lords over great empires, 
 when, perhaps, they rule over no other than 
 Vast wildernesses, since they cannot conciliate 
 the affections of a single heart. The heart of 
 man does not yield to base or violent means ; 
 its innate nobleness obliges it to detest every 
 thing that is surprize and coercion. Even sup- 
 posing it was at length persuaded by this 
 eloquence of tyrants, it would reach the con- 
 queror sad and dejected, and again escape 
 from his power, as soon as its trammels of 
 confinement were broken. 
 
 What then are the arms which ought to 
 be employed in the defence of the religion of 
 Jesus Christ ? Ought they to be those of 
 truth or of error ? If we were to say the 
 latter, all the examples presented in history 
 of conquest made by the faith would rise up 
 in judgment against us. No one can be 
 pointed out that has not been owing to the 
 demonstration of truth, and the moderate 
 manner in which it has been displayed. It 
 may, therefore, be affirmed without rashness 
 that the sincere conversions made by the Inqui- 
 sition have been none, or very few, from their 
 having originated in terror rather than persua- 
 sion. Inexorable punishments employed in 
 tjie support of a doctrine most assuredly must
 
 CHAP, ra.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 87 
 
 render it suspicious ; for, according to what 
 has already been laid down, it conveys the 
 idea that the understanding would not other- 
 wise embrace it, notwithstanding its natural 
 propensity to the truth. For this same reason, 
 if it were credible that this tribunal had ob- 
 tained the conversion of the many thousand 
 victims it has condemned to grievous corpo- 
 real punishments after they had been recon- 
 ciled, it would also result, that the means 
 least analogous to influence the understanding 
 and will were the best to attract man to the 
 Catholic faith ; and, consequently, that the 
 latter was not the true religion, inasmuch as 
 the arms of truth would not appear so well 
 suited to sustain and propagate it as those 
 of error. 
 
 Whatever be the intention with which we 
 apply means to obtain an object, it is evident 
 that these ought to be proportioned to the end 
 in view ; for, as all have a natural tendency 
 towards their object, we should otherwise 
 attain this by using means contrary to those 
 we at first proposed. Under this supposition, 
 when the violence employed for the attain- 
 ment of an object is diametrically opposed 
 to the means connected therewith, instead 
 of carrying us to the point in view, it would
 
 88 INftUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 lead us to the opposite one, as the nature of 
 things, in this case, would have more power 
 than the caprice of the agent. And, as the 
 conversion of a heretic consists in the change 
 effected in his ideas and sentiments with re- 
 gard to religion, and fresh ones being inspired 
 into him, whenever violence is used it will 
 only serve to make him adhere more perti- 
 naciously to his first opinions. It would really 
 be a phenomenon in the moral feelings of a 
 man who, being outraged under pretext of 
 his happiness, should not avenge himself, by 
 denying to his oppressor that satisfaction he 
 would derive from a victory. Thus would it 
 happen, that he who has sufficient courage 
 to brave death will remain unalterable, will 
 sport with the impotence and cruelty of his 
 persecutors, and run to the place of execu- 
 tion as if to a triumph. On the contrary, the 
 weak man, terrified by the idea alone of tor- 
 ments, will externally abjure his errors under 
 as many forms as may be prescribed to him, 
 and in his heart will detest the authors of 
 his oppression and perjury. The strong, in 
 these cases, support the whole weight of the 
 persecution, but the hypocrites fare best, 
 and, for that reason, will always be most 
 numerous.
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 89 
 
 Since man is a creature as noble for his 
 understanding as he is unhappy for the fa- 
 cility with which he is carried away by his 
 passions, with what circumspection ought 
 he not to treat his fellow-creatures, when he 
 is sensible of the great condescension he 
 himself requires ? The undeniable principles 
 in which we all agree are very few in number; 
 but the consequences derived from them are 
 infinite ; because the manner in which we 
 view their relations is infinitely varied. Edu- 
 cation, the beings which surround us, and a 
 thousand other causes, imperceptibly act 
 upon us, and hold powerful influence over 
 pur judgments, by modifying in numberless 
 ways our perception of objects, and present- 
 ing them perhaps under every shape but the 
 primitive and natural one. Do we not fre- 
 quently see propositions meet with contra- 
 diction when they appear to us palpably 
 clear, by merely being combated by objec- 
 tions almost as strong as the proofs on which 
 they rested ? On the other hand, the intellec- 
 tual faculty of man having no precise and 
 exact measure of the vigour with which he 
 exercises its operations, neither has he any 
 of the quantity of light he requires to call
 
 90 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAr. III. 
 
 them into action ; so that what to one man 
 appears simple and evident to another seems 
 compHcated and obscure ; and even with 
 respect to the understanding itself, it often 
 happens that that is absurd to-day which yes- 
 terday bore the aspect of truth. Conse- 
 quently, to pretend to convince others by our 
 own judgment is to endeavour that they 
 should see through our own eyes ; or rather, 
 it is to oblige them to be led on blindfolded, 
 and without any other plea than force. It is, 
 speaking of religion, to make them victims 
 of their own ingenuousness, if they have 
 the courage to confess they are not con- 
 vinced ', or of hyocrisy, if they are divested 
 of this courage, which is most commonly 
 the case. 
 
 It must therefore be deemed self-evident 
 that the system of rigour adopted by the 
 Inquisition, in order to oblige those to return 
 to the Church who have wandered therefrom, 
 besides being useless from the means being 
 inadequate to the object in view, produces a 
 contrary effect by causing them to continue 
 more obstinately firm in their primitive re- 
 solve when they appear most to give it up. 
 It equally follows. that the Cathohc religion.
 
 CHAP. HI.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 91 
 
 by being sustained by false zeal, experiences 
 real injury; for the dogmas of faith are in a 
 certain degree confounded with error when 
 they are defended with its arms ; and the 
 faithful also are mistaken for those who 
 only feign to be such, when the latter, instead 
 of being excluded from Christian communion, 
 are obliged to continue therein at the risk 
 of scandalizing the rest by that luke-warmness 
 so natural to one who acts from compulsion 
 and not conviction. 
 
 (Strange, indeed, are the contradictions dis- 
 covered in the proceedings of this tribunal. 
 It has subjected culprits to an examination 
 under torture, in order to wrest from their 
 mouths the truth with regard to their belief; 
 and, at the same time, has placed them on 
 the scaffold when they have refused to com- 
 mit a falsehood, not to act treacherously to 
 their own sentiments and to the truth. Such 
 conduct would be pardonable if a forced and 
 purely mechanical worship was pleasing to 
 the Creator ; but if it is the intention that 
 gives value to human actions, — if the prefer- 
 able worship is that of the heart, — if it is the 
 spirit of those who adore the Celestial Father 
 which makes their adoration real,— what 
 glory can result to this infinite Being by such
 
 92 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 outrages ?* How can he have been pleased 
 with those offerings made to him by the 
 Inquisition of somany unhappy victims, terri- 
 fied by its threats, or exterminated by its 
 rigour ? The priests of ancient Mexico were 
 impressed with the idea that they appeased 
 their deities by offering to them the hearts 
 of the wretched persons chosen for these 
 horrid sacrifices, torn by main force out of 
 their entrails.t And, forsooth, do not our 
 Inquisitors resemble them ? 
 
 Examples are not wanting in this tribunal 
 to confirm the inutility of all violent measures 
 
 * S. Johan. cap. iv. v. 23. " Sed venit hora et nunc est, 
 quando veri adoratores adorabunt Patrem in spiritu et 
 veritate. Nam et Pater tales guarit qui adorent eum. — 
 v.9,4>. Spiritus est Deus, et eos qui adorant eum in spiritu 
 et veritate oportet adorare." 
 
 ■\ The mode of offering sacrifice among the ancient 
 Mexicans was by placing the human victim on a large flat 
 stone or slab, which stood on the upper area of the tem- 
 ple, when the Topiltzin or high-priest dexterously opened 
 his side with a knife formed of flint, and tearing out the 
 heart, whilst yet bleeding, he offered it to the sun, and 
 afterwards threw it at the feet of the idol invoked. (Vide 
 Clavigero, book vi.) This was done under the idea that 
 the Divinity was most pleased with the offering of the 
 heart of man; and hence was it common among the 
 Mexicans to say, that a burning heart was most acceptable 
 to God.— Tk.
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 93 
 
 in matters of religion. One of them is evinced 
 in what happened, about the year 1334, with , 
 a clergyman of the name of Benanat, a resi- 
 dent of Villafranca del Panades, in the princi- 
 pality of Catalonia. Whilst a prisoner, and 
 condemned to the flames together with 
 two companions, he consented to be placed 
 on the faggots rather than retract from his 
 errors ; but when one of his sides was 
 scorched, and the pain had become so great 
 that he could no longer endure it, he cried 
 out to be removed from thence, for he was 
 ready to abjure. He was, consequently, taken 
 down, and, on abjuring, was reconciled to 
 the Church ; but, fourteen years afterwards, 
 it was discovered that he had continued un- 
 der his former erroneous maxims. Imprisoned 
 a second time, and placed on the burning 
 pile, as in consequence of his having relapsed 
 he had now no pardon to expect, he died 
 persisting in his contumacy, as most proba- 
 bly he would have done the first time if 
 that sentence had been, like the second, 
 irrevocable.* 
 
 What interesting but galling truths, what 
 just but poignant reproaches, would not 
 
 * Eymeric, Director. Inquisit. part ii, qusest. xl. n. 5; 
 part iii. n, 20i,
 
 94 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 the tribunal of the Inquisition have heard 
 from the mouths of the victims it so untimely 
 immolated to the faith if they had been al- 
 lowed to pronounce them ? Now, at least, 
 ■^e may figure to ourselves one of them 
 remonstrating, from the place of execution, 
 with the members of that tribunal^ in con- 
 formity to the very principles of the Ca- 
 tholic faith, and indeed as one of the Holy 
 Fathers might have done, under the follow-* 
 ing terms : 
 
 " What is it ye require of me, ye judges 
 who thus defend the religion of Jesus Christ? 
 Is it that I renounce my own opinion and 
 acquiesce in yours? This command might be 
 proper if it rested with myself to change my 
 understanding, in order to decide on the 
 reasons you comprehend, but which to me 
 it is not given even to perceive. When my 
 lips were to pronounce the truth ye propose 
 to me, and which till now I have not known, 
 would it depend on my own will that my 
 sentiments were not conformable to my 
 words ? Why then would ye force me to 
 mock your credulity, if ye hold my protests 
 as sincere 5 or why should I be perfidious 
 before God, and become ridiculous in your 
 eyes, if, as prudent men, ye consider thena
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 95 : 
 
 as suspicious ?* If I act with candour and 
 good faith I draw down upon me all the 
 inexorable vengeance of the law; but, by 
 making use of duplicity and dissimulation, 
 I become, in your opinion, deserving of par- 
 don. As ministers of the God of truth, how 
 is it ye think to increase his glory, by giving 
 to him as adorers the weak and perjured.^ 
 Suffer me to tell you, your conduct ought 
 to be very different with me. If I em- 
 brace error, because I am dazzled by its 
 appearances of truth, I shall be no other 
 than an impostor, and, at most, deserving of 
 your contempt ; whilst if I embrace it with 
 a full knowledge before me, I shall be a 
 madman, entitled to your pity rather than 
 your indignation."! 
 
 " Thy opinions," ye answer me, " deserve 
 punishment, because they contradict the in- 
 
 * Thus TertulHan, speaking of the persecutions which 
 the heathens raised against the Christians for their opi> 
 nions in matters of religion, in his Apologet. cap. xxvii, n.l, 
 observes : " Sed quidam dementiam existimant, quod quum 
 possintus et sacrificare in prassenti, et illcesi abire, manente 
 apud anirmim proposito, obstinationem saluti prceferamvLS. 
 Datis scilicet consilium quo vobis abutamur** 
 
 t The same TertuUian, Apolog. cap. xlix.- n. 2. " Sed 
 in hujusmodi error si utique irrisione Judicandum est^ non 
 gladiis et ignidusy crucibus et bestiis.**
 
 96 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. Ilf. 
 
 fallibility of God himself in the dogmas of 
 religion ;" but, I would ask, is it by fire and 
 sword that these dogmas are rendered more 
 credible ? If the most obvious truths become 
 obscure under the sensations of pain, will 
 those which exceed our capacity be then ren- 
 dered more perceptible ? And even granted 
 that I am unfaithful to the Divinity, is it ye 
 who are charged to avenge his cause ? May 
 it not rather be said, that it is your own 
 interests and not those of God ; a spirit of 
 faction, and not a zeal for religion, which 
 impel you to anticipate his justice ?* And if 
 the virtue most pleasing to him is charity, 
 can an holocaust be grateful to him, in which 
 ye so egregiously infringe its precepts ? Who 
 will be induced to believe that ye pity my 
 aberrations when ye hasten my ruin, which, 
 possibly, at a future time I might have 
 
 * S. Johan. Chrysos. Horail. xxix, in Matth. cap. ix. 
 V. 1, n. 3. ** Multi duni Deum vindicare videntur^ suis 
 indidgent affectibus, quum oportet omnia cum mansuetudine 
 tractare. Etenim universorum DeuSf qui fulmen vibrare 
 potest in eos qui ipsum blaspkemiis impetunty solem suum 
 oriri curat, imbres emittit, ceteraque omnia largiter sup- 
 peditat ; quern imitari nos oportet^ rogare nempe, monerCf 
 insituere, cum mansuetudine non irasci, non effcerari. Neque 
 enim ex blasphemia quid nocumenti ad Deum accedit uf. 
 til excandescas, sed qui blasphemaverit ipse vulnus accepitJ* 
 
 7 
 
 A
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 97 
 
 escaped ? How is it ye can feel an interest 
 for my salvation when ye ciit short that time 
 God had, perhaps, granted me for my con- 
 version ? Neither does it suffice that ye 
 should consider my malady as incurable, 
 since the Church, as a tender mother, never 
 despairs of the recovery of her children.* 
 If I merit death, because I object to truth 
 from not knowing it, what punishment ought 
 not ye to undergo, who, knowing it, treat it 
 with no less regard than ye do error? Confess 
 rather that it is distrust in that religion whose 
 eternal duration ye blazon forth, as promised 
 by its author, and not its belief, that impels 
 you to sustain it in a manner so foreign to 
 
 * The same S. John Chrysostom, commenting oa the 
 parable of the wheat and the tares, in his Homil. xlvi. on 
 Matth. cap. xiii. v. S'i, observes : " His autem duobus 
 ratiocinils movetur (Pater Jamilias) ad illos servos cohi- 
 hendos : primo quod frumentum nan Icuderent ; secundo quod 
 illi fhcereticij incurabili morbo laboraiitis, luituri essent. 
 Q^apropicr si vis illos puniri sine frumenii noxa, expecta 
 tempus oporttmum. Quid autem aliud sibi vidt quum dicit : 
 Ne eradicetis simid et triticum, quani hoc quod dicimus ? 
 Si arma moveatis id hcereticos occidatis, multos etiam sanc- 
 torum una occidi necesse est, vel etiam multi ex istis zizaniis 
 ut verisimile est, convertentur in frumentum. Si ergo prius. 
 illos eradicetis, fnmento etiam ventiiro noccbitis, si illos 
 qui mutari et boni effici possunt eradicetis. Non igitur 
 prohibet hcereticos reprimerc, sed occidere vetat.'' 
 
 VOL. I. H
 
 9i INQUISITION UNMASKED. £cHAP. III. 
 
 the work of God, and so much opposed to 
 the sentiments of humanity.* I may perhaps 
 havfe erred in not giving my assent to dogmas 
 it was difficult for me to understand ; but ye, 
 as ministers of a religion it is your duty to 
 uphold, discredit it by means of terror : nay, 
 ye even deny it in a solem.n manner by attri- 
 buting to it a character which only belongs 
 to sects founded by men, whereby its falsity 
 is argued. "t 
 
 " Cease then, and cease, also, ye miserably 
 deluded people, to celebrate among your- 
 selves as a triumph the punishment ye 
 
 * St. Athanasius, in some measure excusing the Catho- 
 lic bishops who, compelled by the Arians, had embraced 
 their sect, in his Hist. Arian. ad Monach, n. 33, observes : 
 " Quod si indecorum omnino Juerit, Episcopos quosdam 
 horum (damnorum) Jbrmidine sententiam mutasse, multo 
 sane indecentiuSy hominumque suce sententice diffidentium 
 est, vim inferre, ac invictos cogere. Non enim gladiis out 
 teliSf non militum manu ventas pnedicatur, sed suasione 
 et consilio, QucBuam autem ihi suasio ubi Lnperatoris 
 Jbrmido? Aiit, quodnam consilium ubi qui ahnuit exilio 
 tandem vel morte nmlctatur?^^ 
 
 I The same S. Athanasius says of the sect of Arius, 
 ibid. n. 67: " Quos verbis nequit ad suam adducere senten- 
 tiam, hos viy hos plagisy et carceribus ad se trakere nititury 
 propalamquc facit se quidvis polius, quam religionem 
 esse. Religionis quippe proprium est non cogere sed 
 persuaderey
 
 CHAP. III.3 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 99 
 
 prepare for my constancy, or, if ye choose, 
 my obstinacy, since it has even rested with 
 myself to deprive you of this exultation. At 
 least spare to the Catholic religion, if ye 
 really seek its respect and increase, the shame 
 that its victories should depend on the will 
 of its enemies.* Rather declare that it has 
 not been the rights of the Divinity, but the 
 law of the strongest, which has braced your 
 arm to vengeance ; and this not for the pur- 
 pose of doing good, but to sustain hypocrites, 
 and add to their number." — With reasonings 
 of this kind might any one of the many vic- 
 tims which have perished in the hands of 
 the Inquisition have remonstrated with his 
 judges, if the authority lavished by kings on 
 this tribunal had suifered him to utter his 
 sentiments. It is forced dissimulation then, 
 
 * Tertullian, reproaching the Roman people for the 
 pleasure with which they witnessed the execution of the 
 martyrs, in his Apologet. cap. xlix. n. 2, uses the following 
 words : " De qua iniqmtaie saevitia, non modo ccecum hoc 
 milgus exultat, sed et qicidam vestriim, quibus Javor vulgj 
 de iniquilate captatiir, gloriantur, quasi non totum quod 
 in nos potestis nostrum sit arhitrium. Certe si velim Christi- 
 anus sum ; nunc ergo me damnabis si damnari velim. 
 Quum vero quod in me potes, nisi velim, 11021 jjotesjjam meet 
 voluntatis est quod potes, non tiue potestatis." 
 H 2
 
 100 liVQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 and not the sincere conversion of the heart 
 that is produced by measures so inconsistent 
 in themselves.* 
 
 Nothing, in short, can better prove the 
 violent system on which the Inquisition is 
 founded, and, consequently, its inefficacy to 
 
 * The Author of the work entituled " The Tribunal of 
 the Holy General Inquisition of Spain vindicated from the 
 sophisms of false philosophy," speaking of the just reasons 
 the Church may or may not have to oblige the wayward 
 10 return to its bosom by means of corporal punishments, 
 and what influence this may have over the understanding, 
 thus observes: " Since all the corrections and chastisements 
 used to sustain the honour of religion have not even been 
 sufficient, would spiritual arms alone suffice for the Church 
 to triumph over the whole power of Hell ? Would persua- 
 aion of itself be sufficient to propapate truth and dissipate 
 error ? Would reasons suffice for the understanding, the 
 only means of defence and attack used in spiritual wars ? 
 What ignorance ! In the king's tribunals do we not conti- 
 nually see most severe punishments in recent executions ? 
 Do we not also meet with some cruelties in the administra- 
 tion of justice which exceed the bounds of humanity and 
 right reason ? Are the punishments inflicted by the Inqui- 
 sition different from those used by these tribunals ? Does 
 not the only difterence consist in the execution being 
 changed into other hands ? And shall a circumstance so 
 merely formal as this become an object of indignation ?" — 
 I shall refrain from making any comment on this multitude 
 of inconsistencies, for it is sufficient to present them in 
 ardei; to prove their futility.
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 101 
 
 maintain the faithful in the belief and reduce 
 
 apostates to their duty, than the frequent 
 
 disturbances it has caused among nations, 
 
 either at the time it was erected or after its 
 
 functions had commenced. It is in these 
 
 cases, that the natural repugnance which man 
 
 has to force being exercised under pretext 
 
 of religion displays all its activity. Hence 
 
 the history of this tribunal is, on the one 
 
 hand, a continued series of insurrections on 
 
 the part of nations which have either opposed 
 
 or sought to throw off its yoke ; and^, on the 
 
 other, of the assassinations of inquisitors, of 
 
 whom the aggrieved took secret vengeance 
 
 when they found it impossible totally to 
 
 emerge from their slavery. Omitting the latter 
 
 cases, as less relevant to my subject, I shall 
 
 confine myself to the mention of popular 
 
 insurrections, and only insert such as are 
 
 most deserving of notice. 
 
 In Parma, in the year 1279, after the In- 
 quisition had sent numberless persons to 
 the flames, the indignant people rose and 
 liberated a lady of rank whom its officers 
 "were one day carrying away to prison. They 
 immediately proceeded to the convent of 
 the Dominicans, who had charge of the tri- 
 bunal, sacked it, beat the friars, and turned
 
 102 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. III. 
 
 them out of the city.* In 1420, a commotion, 
 which lasted three days, broke out in Valen- 
 cia, in consequence of Alphonsus V. attempt- 
 ing to introduce the Inquisition there, when 
 the military resisted its establishment the 
 most.t Another popular commotion took 
 place in Zaragoza, in the year 1485, when 
 their Catholic Majesties Ferdinand and Isa- 
 bella established it there according to the 
 new plan of Torquemada.t The Aragonese, 
 
 * Paramo, De Grig. S.Inquisit. lib. ii. tit. ii. cap. xxx. 
 n, 13. 
 
 f Ibid. lib. ii. tit, ii. cap. ix. n. 5. 
 
 + Juan de Torquemada was the chief founder of the 
 Inquisition in Spain. He was a Dominican friar, and 
 confessor to Queen Isabella before she ascended the 
 throne. Previous to her marriage with Ferdinand he 
 had made her promise if ever she attained the crown 
 to use all her exertions to extirpate heretics and infidels. 
 On the vinion of Aragon and Castile the power of their 
 Catholic Majesties was so much increased, that they re- 
 solved to expel the Moors from Granada and the other 
 points they still held in the Peninsula. Success crowned 
 their efforts, and a considerable number of the Moors 
 were forced to cross over into Africa. Many, however, 
 remained behind, and the king and queen agreed they 
 should i-etain their property, on condition they renounced 
 their own religion. These miserable people, as well as 
 the Jews, who then abounded in Spain, were thus obliged 
 to turn Christians; but this was only in exterior form, 
 in their hearts they still clung to their ancient religion
 
 C^AP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 103 
 
 flying to arms, refused to admit a tribunal 
 of such a nature, on the plea that its judicial 
 forms were opposed to the constitution and 
 privileges of the kingdom ; and, notwith- 
 standing they were afterwards compelled to 
 consent to its erection, it was only for a given 
 time, and under certain restrictions.* Xhe 
 Catalonians did the same, when Lerida an^ 
 other episcopal cities rose up, so that tlie 
 inquisitorial establishment was not imposed 
 on Barcelona till two years afterwards.! An- 
 other insurrection likewise took place in 
 
 and rites. Torquemada, under pretext of the injury 
 religion and the state would experience from this dissimu~ 
 lation, solicited from the queen a compliance of her 
 promise. Her remonstrances had their due influence over 
 the mind of the king, and they consented to receive the 
 Inquisition into all the dependencies of their two crowns. 
 Pope Sixtus IV. issued the necessary bulls, and made 
 Torquemada a cardinal in return for his services. The 
 king and queen named him Inquisitor General, and his 
 conduct perfectly corresponded to their choice. During 
 the fourteen years he enjoyed this dignity, historians report 
 that he caused 100,000 persons to be tried, of whom 6000 
 were condemned to the flames. From this time (1684) 
 the Inquisition prospered in all Spain, and uniformly 
 followed in the rear of her conquests. — Tr. 
 
 * Zurita, Anales de Aragon, lib, xx. cap. Ixv. — Antonio 
 Perez. " Relacion del 24 de Mayo, y 24 de Sep." 
 
 t Llorente, Anales de la Inquisicion, cap.iii. n. 12.
 
 104 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. 111. 
 
 Zaragoza in the year 1590, to which the 
 Inquisition equally gave rise.* 
 
 In 1 506, whilst Father Diego Deza, who 
 had been confessor to King Ferdinand the 
 Catholic and a great favourite of his, of the 
 Dominican order, and also Archbishop of 
 Seville, filled the chair as Inquisitor General, 
 a tumult took place in Cordova, in conse- 
 quence of the proceedings of this tribunal. 
 Rodriguez Lucero, Inquisitor of that city, 
 persecuted the converted Jews in so cruel a 
 manner that the people felt for their hard- 
 ships, and rose in their behalf. So great was 
 his bitterness and fury against those unhappy 
 people that, in a boasting manner and by way 
 $)f a proverb, he used to say, " Give me a 
 Jew, and I'll render him back to thee burnt, 
 (Ddmele Judio, y dartele he quemado.y^ The 
 mob proceeded to the Inquisition with the 
 Marquis de Priego at their head, who patron- 
 ized them from being the lord of the country; 
 and, bursting open the doors, set all the pri- 
 soners at liberty, but Lucero escaped on horse- 
 back. The King, being informed of the event, 
 caused Deza to give up his office of Inqui- 
 
 * Lupercio Leonardo de Argensola, Informacion de 
 los Sucesos del Reino de Aragon, en los Anos 1590 y 
 1591, cap. XXX.
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. l05 
 
 sitor General, and conferred it on Cardinal 
 Ximenes de Cisneros, ordering him, at the 
 game time, to commence a prosecution against 
 the Inquisitor of Cordova. On the latter being 
 arrested and brought to the castle of Burgos 
 the proceedings were re-instituted, and the 
 witnesses examined of whom he was said to 
 have availed himself for the perpetration of 
 so many outrages. The sentence merely 
 deprived him of his office of Inquisitor, and 
 he was afterwards sent to fill a canonry which 
 he obtained in Seville ; but there is no doubt 
 that the recommendation of the king to 
 Cisneros powerfully contributed to his being 
 treated with this humanity, for, on naming the 
 latter as judge, his Majesty gave him an in- 
 junction to spare the honour of Deza, imd 
 consequently of the Inquisition.* 
 
 In the republic of Venice, in the valley of 
 Camonica, the territory of Brescia, in the. 
 year 1518, the inquisitors tried several persons 
 for the crime of heresy, contrary to the sti- 
 
 * Alvaro Gomez, De Rebus gestis Francisci Ximenii, 
 lib. iii. — Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, Guerra de Granada 
 contra los Moriscos, lib. i. iThe above saying of Lucero 
 appears from an ancient manuscript note, placed in the 
 margin of the said passage of Alvaro Gomez in the printed 
 copy possessed by the inquisitor and bishop of Cadiz, Don 
 Joze Escalzo Miguel,
 
 10/5 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. III. 
 
 p.ulations entered into between the Pope and 
 the Venetian government, by virtue of which 
 these causes appertained to the civil power, 
 from which circumstance serious injury arose 
 to the parties concerned. In consequence of 
 this affair a great ferment was excited among 
 the people j and the Council called Of the 
 Ten, having ordered the inquisitors to appear 
 before it for the purpose of rendering in an 
 account of their conduct, the magistrates 
 annulled the proceedings and named fresh 
 judges, and, even after this it was with the 
 greatest difficulty that the sedition was ap- 
 peased.^ 
 
 In Majorca, about the year 1525, and 
 during the war of the Comunidades,t the 
 patriots under the direction of the Bishop of 
 Elvas, who happened to be there, flocked to 
 the Inquisition with an intention to burn it 
 to the ground, undoubtedly because they 
 considered such an establishment as inimical 
 
 * Sarpi, Discorso dell' Origine, Forma, Leggi, ed Uso 
 dell' Offizio della Inquisizione &c. 
 
 f Comunidades (Communities) mean the Juntas or 
 assemblies of the deputies from each town of Castile, 
 which, on the part of the people, they represented, op- 
 posed the views of the Emperor Charles V. whence a war 
 originated between the monarch and his subjects, to which 
 the above name was given. — Tr.
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 107 
 
 to civil liberty, but the bishop of Palma, capi- 
 tal of the island, who was a royalist, arrived 
 in time and was enabled to restrain them. 
 The inquisitors, not considering themselves 
 safe, secretly fled from the island, whither 
 they did not return till the endeavours of the 
 people were frustrated by the adverse fate 
 of arms, when the commotions ceased, and 
 the ancient system of oppression was again 
 established.* 
 
 However one of the most terrible commo- 
 tions caused by the Inquisition was that of 
 Naples in 1546. I shall here extract the cir- 
 cumstantial account given of it by Bishop 
 . Sandoval, retaining, as much as I can, his 
 own words : " Don Pedro de Toledo was at 
 that time Viceroy of Naples, a man more 
 ennobled by birth than the qualities of his 
 mind. The Emperor Charles V. had ordered 
 him to create an Office of the Holy Inquisi- 
 tion there, under the same forms as those 
 adopted by their Catholic Majesties in Spain. 
 This measure was attended with great diffi- 
 culty, because the Neapolitans, as well as 
 every other nation except the Spanish, con- 
 sider this tribunal as insufferable, and more 
 
 * Paramo De Orig. S, Inquisit. lib. ii. tit. ii. cap. ii. n. 40. 
 1
 
 108 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 than rigorous. Before the Viceroy proposed 
 his determination to the council, he managed 
 to put several persons into office on whose 
 concurrence he could rely. When he thought 
 the propitious moment had arrived for bring- 
 ing forward the matter, he proposed it with 
 all possible moderation, magnifying to the 
 people the great service that w^ould thereby 
 be rendered to God and the Emperor, and 
 how much his Majesty desired it for the good 
 of the kingdom. The alteration produced in 
 the minds of every one, on hearing that it 
 was attempted to introduce the Inquisition 
 among them, was very remarkable. All cried 
 out that they would rather suffer themselves 
 to be torn to pieces than consent to a mea- 
 sure so harsh and dangerous.*' 
 
 " The Viceroy was under the necessity of 
 temporising, owing to the difficulty he met 
 with, and at iirst judged it would be impossi- 
 ble to carry the measure into execution, so 
 great was the opposition among all the 
 people, nobles as well as lower orders. But 
 afterwards, that it might not appear as if he 
 had been forced to yield, he again insisted on 
 the measure proposed, and named the in- 
 quisitors. One day, early in the morning, the 
 people assembled in the square, and in order 
 
 2
 
 CHAP, in.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 109 
 
 that no division might arise between the 
 nobles and people, which it was feared the 
 Viceroy was plotting, they formed among 
 themselves a league and termed it Union, by 
 which they bound themselves by oath to 
 favour and help each other against any person 
 whatsoever who should attempt to alter the 
 state or interfere with their liberties. Whilst 
 things were in this crisis it happened that a 
 man was carried prisoner through the streets^ 
 who cried out that they were taking him as 
 a prisoner to the Inquisition. The inhabitants 
 rushed to arms, and, taking a crucifix for 
 their standard, cried aloud, " Union in the 
 service of God and the Emperor, and courage 
 in defence of our city." The Viceroy ordered 
 a party of musketeers to advance from the 
 castle^, and directed them to kill every one 
 found under arms. At the same time the 
 three castles commenced a fire of heavy guns 
 against the city, which did the most material 
 injury to the buildings. They fought three 
 days successively, and when each party was 
 tired of slaughter a truce was agreed on, and 
 emissaries were sent to the Emperor. During 
 this commotion all the people were so in- 
 censed against the Spaniards that even the 
 smallest villages rose up against them, so
 
 110 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. Ill, 
 
 much was the whole kingdom agitated. 
 Capua, Nola, Aversa, and all the grain 
 country round, were declared in a state of 
 rebellion." 
 
 " Placidio Sancho, one of those who had 
 been sent with a report to the Emperor, at 
 length arrived at Naples, and declared that 
 it was the will of his Majesty for them to lay 
 down their arms, and, pubhshing a general 
 pardon, he executed thirty of the chiefs, 
 whom the Viceroy was particularly ordered 
 not to spare. Twenty-four galleys also ar- 
 rived, and in them 2000 Spanish troops. 
 In consequence of this the principal ring- 
 leaders fled away together with many others, 
 and the city was left half deserted. Of the 
 persons implicated in this affair, some passed 
 over to France, losing their property and 
 country for ever ; others, to the greatest 
 number, in six years* time obtained full par- 
 don. The Emperor condemned the country 
 to pay a fine of 100,000 ducats, besides the 
 expenses and damages occasioned by this 
 insurrection ; and further ordered that Naples, 
 for 40 miles round, should be entirely dis- 
 armed. The inhabitants of Naples were 
 greatly afflicted at these events, and many 
 abandoned the country, judging it an un- ,
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISlTrON UNMASKED. Ill 
 
 happy lot to remain there, notwithstanding, 
 in the opinion of every dfie, it is the most 
 agreeable residence in the world."* 
 
 So far our historian Sandoval. Who is 
 there, on beholding the evils brought upon 
 the Neapolitans by their resistance to the 
 Inquisition, and reasoning according to the 
 policy of the age, will venture to assert that 
 princes ought to be sole judges of the nature 
 and tendency of religious doctrines, and that 
 the people are implicitly bound to obey 
 their dictates ? What compact exists between 
 both, as a basis of their respective relations, 
 to authorize an assumption of power so mon- 
 strous as this? Rather may it not be said 
 that the ruin of nations is inevitable when, 
 abandoned to the caprice of him who go- 
 verns, they have no will of their own; when 
 they are divested of a constitution, or are 
 deprived of the means to cause it to be 
 respected ? Wretched however as was the 
 fate of the Neapolitans, Charles V. was never- 
 theless obliged to desist from his purpose of 
 establishing the Inquisition among them ; 
 nor was the attempt attended with any other 
 consequences than those of adding hatred to 
 
 * Sandoval, Historia del Emperador Carlos V.Hb. xxix. 
 § xxxiv.
 
 112 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 his own name, and exciting in the people 
 of Naples fresh proofs of that same horror 
 they had evinced against the tribunal in 
 time of Ferdinand the Catholic, and which 
 they again repeated during the reign of 
 Phihp ii.* 
 
 Another circumstance occurred at Rome 
 in 1559, also occasioned by the Inquisition. 
 The people hated Paul IV. for several rea- 
 sons, but principally for the great encourage- 
 ment he gave to this tribunal, which Paul III. 
 had just established. So great was the zeal 
 with which the above pontiff patronized the 
 new institution that, whilst he was yet cardi- 
 nal, he hired a house to serve as a prison, 
 secured the doors with strong locks and 
 bolts, and procured an assortment of stocks, 
 manacles, and other instruments, at his own 
 expense, notwithstanding he lived in a very 
 economical manner. On his death the people 
 rose out of gladness, cast down and broke 
 his statue, and threw the pieces into the 
 Tiber. They instantly proceeded to the 
 Inquisition, and, forcing open the doors, 
 ill-treated a Dominican friar, commissary of 
 
 * Paramo, De Orig. S. Inquisit. lib. ii. tit. ii. cap. x, 
 n. 5. — Luis Moreri, Diction. Histor. Art. Osuna, (D 
 Pedro de Giron primer Diique de.)
 
 CliAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 1]S 
 
 the tribunal, leaving him for dead ; and next 
 burnt the archives, doors, windows, and every 
 thing else they found in the building. They 
 then directed their course to the convent of 
 La Minerva, in order to plunder and burn 
 it; which they would have done, had not 
 the authority of respectable persons inter- 
 fered to restrain their fury. I ought here to 
 observe, that it was not the populace of 
 Rome that thus displayed their animosity 
 against the tribunal ; persons of the greatest 
 distinction were also its enemies, among 
 whom were several prelates and ecclesiastics, 
 who complained that Christian liberty was 
 thereby trampled upon.* 
 
 In Milan likewise, in the year 1564, an 
 insurrection took place from motives of a 
 similar nature. Pius V. proposed, and even 
 solicited, Philip II. to establish the Inqui- 
 sition in that kingdom, on the same plan 
 under which it existed in Spain. The King, 
 whether or not because he was fond of keep- 
 ing the people in subjection, or was desirous 
 of obtaining from the Pope a grant of the 
 
 * Doraenico Bernini, Istoria di tutte I'heresie, torn, iv, 
 secul. xvi. cap. vi. 
 
 VOL. I. I
 
 114 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 Cruzada and Subsidio,* as well as the revenue 
 of the mitre of Toledo to enable him to con- 
 tinue the palace and convent of the Escurial, 
 complied with his wishes ; though some per- 
 sons affirm that the first project originated 
 with Philip himself. However, as the aver- 
 sion of the Milanese to this tribunal was 
 notorious, and they had besides just lodged 
 their complaints before the Pope and the 
 King, by means of deputies sent to them, as 
 
 * CruzadUy or Crusade, was formerly a military expedi- 
 tion promoted by the Pope against infidels by granting 
 indulgences to those who therein enlisted. By this means 
 numbers flocked to the holy wars, wearing a cross on 
 their clothes, whence they were called cross-bearers. 
 Notwithstanding these romantic wars have long ceased, 
 the Pope's bulls are still issued and in force in Spain, by 
 which certain other indulgences and dispensations are 
 now granted ; and, as each individual is in great measure 
 bound to purchase one annually, the price of which is 
 fixed according to rank, their sale in Spain and America 
 produces a large revenue, for the receipt of which a parti- 
 cular court is established, over which a Commissary General 
 presides. Subsidio, also called Esciisado, was an impost 
 granted originally by Pius V. to Philip II., and since con- 
 tinued to the kings of Spain, by which they were allowed 
 to appropriate to themselves the tythes of the largest 
 estate of each parish throughout all the Spanish domi- 
 nions. This fund was also originally intended against 
 infidels. — Tr.
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 115 
 
 ■well as before the Council of Trent, through 
 the medium of their own bishops, it was 
 judged advisable for some artifice to be used 
 for its introduction. The means adopted 
 were, that the archbishop of Milan, a dignity 
 at that time held by Cardinal Charles Barro- 
 meus, should arm all his dependants, in order 
 that the people might be thus accustomed 
 to see an ecclesiastical court among them 
 on a royal footing. I ought not to omit men- 
 tioning that the prelates of Lombardy also 
 laid a remonstrance before the Pope, pointing 
 out to him the great power the said establish- 
 ment would give to Philip in those states, 
 influenced as they were by an apprehension 
 that if it was allowed there it would soon 
 be brought into all Italy: and they also made 
 a representation to the archbishop, reminding 
 him how much his authority would be cur- 
 tailed ; but all their efforts were without effect. 
 As soon as the senate observed these mi- 
 nisters in the city with their arms, they seized 
 one of them, and disarming him in the pre- 
 sence of his master, they proceeded to inflict 
 the torture upon him. The cardinal received 
 this act of justice performed on the person of 
 his servant as an outrage committed against 
 his dignity, and ordered (though he was Dot 
 i2
 
 116 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. Ill, 
 
 obeyed) the magistrates of the city, including 
 the Duke de Albuquerque, its governor, to 
 appear before him ; fulminating at the same 
 time excommunications out against them. 
 In the mean time the people took up arms, 
 protesting they would never endure so tyran- 
 nical a yoke as that of the Inquisition. They 
 cried out, that if it was tolerated in Spain, it 
 was owing to the converted Jews and Moors, 
 who abounded there ; but, as this was not 
 the case in Milan, such an establishment was 
 an insult to a Catholic kingdom like theirs. 
 King Philip, being informed of the difficulties 
 attending the execution of his project, gave 
 it up altogether; by which means he pre- 
 vented a great contention which the above 
 affair was about to produce in the Council 
 of Trent.* Referring to this commotion in 
 Milan, the inquisitor Luis del Paramo con- 
 fesses that it was common for countries to 
 rise up when attempts were made to intro- 
 duce the Inquisition into them.t 
 
 * Luis Cabrera de Cordoba, Vida de Don Felipe II. 
 lib. vii. cap. xii. 
 
 t These are his words : " Mediolanense vulgus, tit com- 
 muniter Jit, commoveri ac obstrepere ccepit, paidatim ad 
 arma concurritur, universaque civitas valde tumultuata 
 est." De Orig. Inquisit. lib. ii. tit. ii. cap. xxx. n. 20.
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 117 
 
 Finally, every one is aware that the Low 
 Countries rebelled against Spain in conse- 
 quence of the same king Philip persisting to 
 give activity to the Inquisition, which had 
 been established there by his father Charles 
 v., though it had remained in a state of 
 suspense, owing to the opposition of the 
 inhabitants ; and also to introduce it into 
 Brabant, where it had hitherto been impossi- 
 ble to effect its erection.* In the year 1567, 
 he consequently sent inquisitor Alonso del 
 Canto to superintend its organization, under 
 
 * In 1550 Charles V. issued a decree for the establish- 
 ment of the Inquisition in the Low Countries ; but his sister 
 Mary, queen of Hungary, then governess of these pro- 
 vinces, feared the consequences of its being carried into 
 execution. The measure therefore was not carried into 
 effect till his son Philip II. came into power. The Low 
 Countries then contained a number of learned divines 
 who sought a reform in the Church, and had also become an 
 asylum for various sects. The States remonstrated against 
 the establishment, but Philip would be obeyed. The people 
 at length broke out into open resistance, and commenced 
 a revolution, the longest as well as the most obstinate and 
 heroic that was ever known. The war lasted 60 years, 
 was filled with numerous traits of valour and suffering, and 
 eventually ended in favour of the people. The Inquisition 
 consequently was the original cause of these horrors, 
 and of the great loss that thence ensued to the Spanish 
 crown.— =Tr.
 
 lis INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. III. 
 
 the rigorous form the institution had assumed 
 through the efforts of Torquemada. The 
 Flemish, who till then had lived under a 
 constitution somewhat liberal, and therefore 
 trembled at the bare name of the Inquisi- 
 tion, seeing their privileges trampled to the 
 ground, and their remonstrances disregarded, 
 appealed to force as the only refuge left them. 
 All orders of society, from the hardy rustic 
 to the highest nobles and clergy, rose up 
 against the establishment with an enthusiasm 
 only equalled by the implacable hatred with 
 which they detested so monstrous an institu- 
 tion. They considered it contrary to divine 
 and human laws, more cruel than the greatest 
 tyrants of history, and an infernal invention 
 intended to build up the fortunes of a few 
 wretches, insatiable in avarice and ambition, 
 out of the spoils of honourable families and 
 at the expense of public happiness. They 
 next proceeded to form a regular con- 
 spiracy, binding themselves to each other's 
 aid and defence, and calling down the anger 
 of God and man if they laid down their 
 arms before they had completely secured 
 their liberty. 
 
 The Duke of Alva, Don Fernando Alvarez 
 de Toledo, a good soldier but a sanguinary
 
 CHAP, in.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 119 
 
 character, proceeded fo suppress this rebel- 
 lion at the head of an army chiefly composed 
 of veterans. The people, inexperienced in 
 the art of war and badly equipped, were 
 overthrown in the first onsets, being unable 
 to withstand the impetuosity and guard 
 against the stratagems of the Spanish general. 
 But neither these misfortunes, nor the atro- 
 cious punishment inflicted by the duke on 
 Counts Egmont and Horn, as well as on the 
 other persons of distinction whom he ordered 
 to be beheaded ; nor the consternation he 
 spread throughout all the provinces by con- 
 demning thousands of citizens to the sword, 
 gallows, and flames, were able to induce the 
 people to submit to the Inquisition ; nor did 
 this parade of violence produce any other 
 effect than to confirm the idea they already 
 entertained of its cruelty. Daily irritated still 
 more, misfortunes only added to the courage 
 of the insurgents, and they acquired new 
 energies when the heavy chains which the 
 conquered had to endure rushed upon their 
 minds. The result of the inconsiderate and 
 oppressive plans of the Spanish govern- 
 ment was the dismemberment of the Seven 
 Provinces which afterwards constituted the 
 republic of Holland, by which means the then
 
 120 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 colossal power of Spain was so greatly dimi- 
 nished and the national character tarnished. 
 
 But, in a political point of view, it is not 
 this loss alone to the Spanish monarchy that 
 calls for our particular attention, when we 
 examine the insurrection excited in the Low 
 Countries through a detestation of the Inqui- 
 sition. It is besides necessary to advert that, 
 about the same time, this tribunal, refusing 
 to allow the Moors of the kingdom of Gra- 
 nada to retain the Arabic language, dress, 
 and other usages received from their ances- 
 tors, (things so difficult to wrest from a 
 prejudiced people) had the impolicy to ha- 
 rass them in such a manner as at length to 
 force them into a general insurrection. In 
 consequence of this, Philip II. had to divide 
 his forces, and was unable to disengage a 
 sufficient strength to insure the pacification of 
 the Low Countries, whereby the flame ac- 
 quired so strong and wide a spread that it 
 was afterwards impossible to extinguish it. 
 By these events, religion also suffered the 
 most material injury, as well with regard to 
 the inhabitants of the above states as those 
 ofGranadaj for the first, justly scandalized at 
 the unfeeling and violent spirit which actu- 
 ated the Inquisition, galled by the ill-treats 
 
 1
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 121 
 
 merit they had experienced from the army, 
 and confounding under the same idea the 
 names of Spain, Catholic religion, and Inqui- 
 sition, gave greater latitude to all kinds of 
 sects, which from that time acquired higher 
 credit and authority. On the other hand, 
 many of the Moors of Granada who survived 
 the field of battle were compelled to forsake 
 the land of their forefathers and cross over 
 to Africa, where those who were Christians 
 in their hearts were obliged again to embrace 
 the faith of Mahomet as a refuge from further 
 persecution.* 
 
 Pius V. was also the promoter of the above 
 expedition against the Low Countries, by 
 admonishing the King of Spain not to suffer 
 the Catholic religion to meet with any injury 
 in the above provinces, telling him that he 
 ought rather to go there in person to punish 
 the seditious. In like manner he encouraged 
 their governess, Margaret of Austria, by offer- 
 ing her money and whatever else was within 
 his reach, assuring her that the matter was 
 of such great moment that, according to his 
 own words, he would not hesitate to risk his 
 
 * Famian Estrada, De Bello Belgico, Decacl. I. lib. ii. 
 & V. — Guldo Bentivoglio, Relazioni di Fiandra, part. i. 
 Jib. ii,— Hurtado de Mendoza, Guerra de Granada, lib, i.
 
 122 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. III. 
 
 diadem upon it. On occasion of the victo- 
 ries of the Duke of Alva over the rebels, 
 the Pope sent him a hat and sword, deco- 
 rating him with these insignias as a defender 
 of the faith. It then appeared that the ex- 
 treme ardour of Pius Y, which so much 
 indisposed him with the people when he was 
 a simple inquisitor, was by no means miti- 
 gated, but rather increased, after his accession 
 to the Pontificate. Whoever, on the one 
 hand, reflects on this circumstance, and, on 
 the other, directs his attention, not so much 
 to Philip II. whose exertions in favour of 
 the Inquisition beyond doubt originated 
 merely in political views, but rather to 
 Charles V., whose religious zeal has been so 
 much extolled, will readily admit that in the 
 16th century there existed a mania and rage 
 in favour of this tribunal. Nothing is a 
 stronger proof of this, at least w^ith regard 
 to the latter prince, than the regret he 
 expressed, duriijg his retirement among the 
 monks belonging to the convent of Juste, 
 of having kept his word to Luther, to whom 
 he had promised a safe passage to the diet of 
 Worms ; alleging that such promises ought 
 not to be kept with heretics, but that the 
 injury done to God ought to be avenged, 
 
 4
 
 CHAP. IIlJ INQUISITION UNMASKED. 12S 
 
 and a timely stop put to the eyil by causing 
 them to die. For this same reason he en- 
 joined the inquisitors not to be indulgent 
 towards heretics, but in cases of impeni- 
 tence to deliver them over to the flames, 
 for no good could be expected from them.* 
 
 Should there be any one in the present 
 day of this same way of thinking, I would 
 ask him, what Charles V. would have gained 
 by destroying Luther, particularly as it must 
 have been done by the greatest possible out- 
 rage on honour and good faith? Undoubt- 
 edly the same as the Emperor Sigismund 
 obtained by the death of John Huss, who, 
 after being condemned by the Council of 
 Constance, was cast into the flames, notwith- 
 standing passports and a safe conveyance 
 had been formally granted to him, when the 
 result was, that out of his ashes a civil war 
 arose. The truth of my assumption is strongly 
 confirmed by the observations of Legate 
 Contarini ; who, writing at that time to Pope 
 Paul III. and the college of Cardinals res- 
 pecting the state of Lutheranism in Germany, 
 observes, that even when all the heads were 
 to die or be converted, persons of distinction 
 
 • Sandoval Historia del Emperador Carlos v. lib. xxxii. 
 § ix.
 
 124 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. HI. 
 
 as well as the common people would not 
 change their sentiments, in consequence of 
 interested motives and the habits of contra- 
 diction.* When those disturbances first took 
 place they might have been easily calmed, if 
 the rights of the altar and of the throne had 
 been better understood, and if the Catholics 
 had acted with more moderation and the 
 sectaries with less precipitation. But, as the 
 evil was not then remedied, will it be just to 
 continue to add irritation to it ? 
 
 Such have been the enterprises of the In- 
 quisition and such its victories, as well with 
 regard to individuals whose wills it has sought 
 to overcome, as entire nations when threat- 
 ened with its iron sway. Yet, how many of 
 its crimsoned pages are we obliged to pass 
 over without notice ! To exasperate and 
 embitter the mind by inspiring it at the same 
 time with duplicity ; to carry dread and ter- 
 ror throughout the land ; to spread turbulence 
 among nations and misery among families, 
 are the fruits which have been gathered from 
 this baneful tree, from the very time it was 
 first planted. Introduced and alternately 
 expelled by force, oppression has been its 
 motto in every country where its head was 
 * Valcarce Desenganos filosoficos^ torn. iv. cap. iv. § v.
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 125 
 
 reared, and execration the companion of its 
 growth. In all times as well as in all ages, 
 without even excepting Italy and Rome 
 itself, the higher as well as lowest classes, 
 the most indifferent secular as well as the 
 zealous prelate, all have opposed to this 
 institution, notwithstanding it was the work 
 of the Popes, a firm and decided resistance. 
 All have equally shuddered at its approach, 
 and all have uniformly dreaded the destructive 
 influence of its poisonous shade. And after 
 the numerous testimonies of odium to this 
 tribunal exhibited in the pages of history, 
 and after the uniform sentiments of whole 
 nations tending to confirm its reprobation, 
 shall any one yet venture to assert that its co- 
 operation is the best defence of true religion, 
 and the most adequate means of bringing 
 back the wayward to the path they had for- 
 saken ? Even if this institution had no other 
 argument against it than the horror in which 
 it has always been held, would not this alone 
 be sufficient to convince us that a religion 
 essentially mild, as is that of Jesus Christ, 
 and instituted to captivate the whole universe 
 by the attractions of truth, far from progress- 
 ing under its influence, can only be attended 
 with disaffection and contrariety ?
 
 126 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. III. 
 
 It may, however, be objected, that popular 
 commotions prove nothing against the Inqui- 
 sition, since they equally existed against the 
 apostles, and were excited for the purpose of 
 counteracting the effects of their preaching ; 
 such, for example, were those of Ephesus 
 and of Jerusalem against St. Paul.* A most 
 material difference, however, will be dis- 
 covered in the two cases, if they are only 
 impartially examined. The apostles pro- 
 mulgated the gospel by leaving the liberty of 
 the people to admit or reject it entirely un- 
 controlled, and without availing themselves 
 of any other means than beneficence and per- 
 suasion. The interruption, consequently, of 
 public tranquillity did not result from the 
 doctrine they preached, but from the machi- 
 nations of individuals interested in its perse- 
 cution ; more especially of the sectarian 
 priests. Thus was it that the commotion of 
 Ephesus was occasioned by the silversmiths 
 who worked for the temple of Diana, because 
 they discovered that through the prevalence 
 of the new religion they would lose all their 
 customary profits; and that of Jerusalem 
 was promoted by the High Priest of the Sy- 
 nagogue and his ministers. For this reason, 
 
 * Act. Apost. cap. xix. v. 23, and cap. xxi. v, 27, &c. 
 
 «
 
 CHAP. III.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 127 
 
 in none of the commotions which the Scrip- 
 ture says originated in the preaching of the 
 Gospel, do we find any of those horrid symp- 
 toms which uniformly accompany the insur- 
 rections of the multitude when impelled by 
 a sense of outrage. The contrary has been 
 the case with regard to the Inquisition ; this 
 inexorable tribunal, from its nature as well as 
 the terror by which it is distinguished, has 
 introduced alarm and dismay into every 
 country where a spark of public spirit yet 
 remained, and where the love of liberty had 
 not become totally extinct. 
 
 Of the hypocrisy, as far as regards that 
 false devotion which has so much thriven 
 under the shadow of this tribunal, and which, 
 properly speaking, is the effect of ignorance, 
 we shall speak when we come to consider 
 the war which the Inquisition has always 
 carried on against the sciences.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The Mode of Judicial Process established in 
 this Tribunal tramples to the Ground all 
 the Rights of the Citizen. 
 
 vJF no avail would be the wisest laws es- 
 tablished for the order and government of 
 society, if the latter is divested of the autho- 
 rity and necessary force to promote their 
 exact fulfilment ; and since men have sub- 
 mitted to public power in order to enjoy 
 under its protection the benefits of which 
 they would otherwise be deprived, the hope 
 of these benefits and the dread of losing them 
 will always be a strong means of restraining 
 mankind within the bounds of duty. The 
 primary instincts of man are rather of a dis- 
 orderly nature, and it is reflection only that 
 leads us to sacrifice our passions to the in- 
 terests of public order. Hence then have 
 hope and fear always been considered as the 
 principal bases on which social establishments 
 rest, and the chief links by which human 
 society is held together. Therefore, whilst
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 129 
 
 the laws of economy give impulse to the first 
 of these passions^ by leading the citizen to 
 seek his own happiness, and causing him to 
 promote that of the political body, criminal 
 legislation derives advantages from the second, 
 by threatening those with punishment who 
 should attempt to disturb the quiet of the 
 rest. Nevertheless, neither the punishments 
 assigned to crimes nor their prompt execution 
 will ever suffice to maintain public tranquil- 
 lity, if the avenues leading to Courts of Jus- 
 tice are not closed against the arbitrariness 
 of Judges and the machinations of calumny, 
 and unless the law afford an equal remedy 
 to all. Punishments would, otherwise, be as 
 much dreaded by the innocent as the guilty ; 
 and even were they only inflicted on the de- 
 linquent, they would not answer the purpose 
 for which they were instituted, since the jus- 
 tice of the punishment would be equally as 
 dubious as the existence itself of the crime. 
 In this case, man in society, far from ex- 
 periencing that complacency which the laws 
 inspire when they insure his protection, 
 would be dismayed at the apprehension of 
 being unjustly condemned; criminal legisla- 
 tion, consequently, ought to combine the 
 
 VOL. I. K
 
 130 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 dread of him wlio transgresses the law with 
 the security of him who thereby regulates his 
 actions. In a word, that tribunal can only 
 be called just in which the delinquent does 
 not hope to go unpunished, the innocent 
 fears no injury, and the judges are deprived 
 of every means of acting in an arbitrary 
 manner. 
 
 In conformity to these principles, what 
 idea are we to form of the Inquisition ? Does 
 the plan on which it is founded exclude all 
 the inconveniences just enumerated ? Un- 
 fortunately it rather possesses all these, as 
 well as many others. The mode of conduct- 
 ing the criminal process, viz. that part of the 
 legislation which ought to be most simple and 
 clear, in this tribunal is a confused labyrinth, 
 from the mazes and windings of which the 
 honour and life of the accused can scarcely 
 be extricated. An impossibility, almost ab- 
 solute on the part of the culprits to substan- 
 tiate the justice of their cause, and a facility 
 almost boundless on the part of the Inquisi- 
 tion to aggrieve them, are the two principal 
 hinges on which its judicial examinations 
 turn in criminal cases. Like an abortion, 
 which it in fact is, of the ignorance and fana- 
 
 2
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 131 
 
 ticism of the middle ages, its judicial forms 
 in no way differ from the impurity of its 
 origin ; and its code is an assemblage of all 
 kinds of barbarous legislations, till even ille- 
 gality is therein reduced to system. A tribu- 
 nal which, regardless of every thing man 
 holds sacred, such as good faith and respect to 
 the Divinity, forces him to utter the sentiments 
 of his heart in order that they may serve as a 
 motive of condemnation — a tribunal which, 
 surrounded by darkness, rests the issue of the 
 most important affairs of which it takes cog- 
 nizance on the impenetrable secrecy of its 
 proceedings — a tribunal, in short, which fears 
 no one on earth, for to no one is it answer- 
 able, not even to public opinion, whose cen- 
 sure tyrants themselves have not escaped, of 
 what horrors must it not be capable, what 
 monsters must it not harbour in its bosom ? 
 It is therefore no longer a subject of wonder 
 that such a multitude of enormous crimes 
 have been committed by this tribunal, and 
 rendered its name so odious— crimes so much 
 the more revolting and abominable, because 
 they have been committed under the sanction 
 of religion. 
 
 What I have already said in the preceding 
 chapters to impartial minds might suffice to 
 K 2
 
 1S"2 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IV. 
 
 convince them of the defects and oppressive 
 system of this inexorable institution; but 
 there are others so blinded by prejudice as 
 only to be moved by positive facts laid before 
 them. Yet I am fully aware of the necessity 
 of strong arguments, such as are founded on 
 historical records, in order to strike the 
 senses and undeceive a certain class of men, 
 in whom, from the strength of prior impres- 
 sions fortified by custom, the imagination 
 holds despotic empire. It will consequently 
 be, in great measure, facts that will hence- 
 forward be presented ; and in the first place I 
 shall proceed to examine the plan on which 
 this tribunal is founded, and its method of 
 carrying on judicial process. This task is 
 the less painful, because it will in a certain 
 degree evince that the obliquity of this insti- 
 tution has emanated not so much from the 
 excesses of its ministers as the defective ele- 
 ments of which it is composed, and the pecu- 
 liar essence of its form of government. It 
 will, besides, tend to point out the merits of 
 some, who, notwithstanding the difficulties of 
 their vicious ministry, have conducted them- 
 selves therein with probity. And, as it is not 
 my wish to wound the feelings of any one, 
 particularly of persons who from their cha-
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 133 
 
 racter are worthy of the greatest veneration, 
 I will speak with all that confidence and free- 
 dom which a good cause inspires ; but my 
 attacks will be directed against the establish- 
 ment, and not against the members of which 
 it is composed. In like manner, in pointing 
 out the practices which are now no longer in 
 use, I shall do full justice to the comparative 
 moderation by which of late years its affairs 
 have been conducted ; or rather I will trace 
 the philosophy of our own age, whose lights, 
 noswithstanding every effort to exclude them, 
 have been able to penetrate into the gloomy 
 precincts and dreary abodes of this Gothic 
 establishment. 
 
 Authority of this Tribunal, under which 
 Title are comprehended the Judges and their 
 Jurisdiction. 
 
 Judges are those who, under another name, 
 are called Inquisitors. Of these it is only 
 necessary to advert that the canon law re- 
 quires in them the age of forty years, not- 
 withstanding they only exercise part of the 
 episcopal ministry, for which that of thirty 
 suffices. Undoubtedly the popes prescribed 
 this more advanced age in the inquisitors, 
 
 4
 
 134 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. lY. 
 
 because they foresaw how easy it would be 
 for them to abuse the authority confided to 
 their charge, unless they were possessed of 
 discretion and divested of the impetuosity of 
 youth.* The same assumption makes it 
 likely that the errors of this tribunal have, in 
 general, rather originated in the want of 
 talent in its members, than in a decided in- 
 tention to act wrong. Indeed the idea com- 
 monly entertained of their abilities has not 
 been very advantageous ; nor is there a foreign 
 author, out of the many who have declaimed 
 against the Inquisition, that has failed to at- 
 tribute to them this same defect. The fol- 
 lowing testimonies will tend to substantiate 
 my charge. 
 
 With regard to the inquisitors of Italy, 
 John Calderini positively asserts the fact, and 
 exhorts them to take counsel of experienced 
 men, as most of them are ignorant of the 
 principles and practice of public law j adding, 
 
 * De haeret. cap; Nolentes in Clement. " Nolentes,'* 
 says the Decretal, " splendorem solitum negotii Jtdei, per 
 actus indiscretos et improbos quoriimvis Jnquisitormn hcere- 
 liccE pravitatis quad tenebrod fumi caligine obscurariy sta- 
 tuimus nullis ex nunc, nisi qui quadragesitmtm istatis 
 annum attigerinty qfficium Inquisitionis prcedictcs committi 
 Ingtiisitorilius.'^
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 1 35 
 
 that Otherwise they would be in danger of 
 absolving the guilty and condemning the in- 
 nocent.* Judges v/ho are unacquainted with 
 the principles of right and the precepts of the 
 canon law, I make no hesitation to say, can- 
 not know their obligations, or be fitted to sit 
 on the bench. Respecting those of Portugal, 
 Tavernier furnishes us with proofs, in what 
 he relates of a capuchin friar of the name of 
 Ephraim de Nevers, who about the year 
 1600, was a prisoner in the Inquisition of 
 Goa. When he was set at liberty, notwith- 
 standing his great virtue and reserve, he could 
 not refrain from complaining that no incon- 
 venience he experienced was so great as that 
 of seeing his fate in the hands of such ideot 
 judges. Dr. Dellon affirms that he noticed 
 this circumstance some years afterwards, 
 when he was a prisoner in the same Inquisi- 
 tion. t Hence do the Portuguese noblemen 
 say, when they wish to joke about the back- 
 
 * Johan. Calderini, Tractatus de Haereticis, cap. vi. n. I. 
 '' Quia Tnquisitores ut plurimwn sunt juris ignari, et pos- 
 sent Jaciliter sio decipi ut absolverent condemnanduniy vel 
 damnarent Jhrsitan absolvendum, debent circa occurrentia 
 processus communicarc consilia peritorum injure. 
 
 + Dellon, Relation de I'Inquisition de Goa, chap, xxviii".
 
 136 INaUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 wardness of their children at college, that 
 they will put them into the post of inquisitors 
 or canons.* 
 
 Relating to the inquisitors of Spain, we 
 have the testimony of the two Attorney Ge- 
 nerals belonging to the Councils of Castile 
 and of the Indies, Don Melchor Macanaz 
 and Don Martin de Miraval, (nor is this the 
 only one of this kind I could quote,) who, 
 in compliance with the orders of Philip V. to 
 draw up a report respecting the Inquisition 
 and the means of its reform, make use of the 
 following words : " Notwithsanding it usually 
 occcurs that in this tribunal there are many 
 learned men, still it has happened that not a 
 few, devoid of both learning and experience, 
 have given rise to many repeated and gross 
 blunders, which in former times, as well as at 
 present, would have required that restrictions 
 should be placed upon them."t Another 
 
 * Narrativa da Perseguigao de Hippolito Joseph da 
 Costa, written by himself, torn. i. 
 
 f Consulta de los Fiscales de Castilla y Indias tocante 
 alas Materias de Inquisicion, part i. art. h This is a large 
 quarto work containing 357 leaves, and now before me, in 
 the hand-writing of Macanaz, and signed by himself at 
 Montalvan, in France, Feb. 16, 1720.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 137 
 
 proof of this is found in the upper colleges of 
 Spain, which are now extinguished. It is pub- 
 lic and notorious that every one who crossed 
 their threshold expected a rich prebend or a 
 good gown at the end of his literary career, 
 even when his progress had not been great. 
 But if there was any one of so little talent, 
 that according to the vulgar saying, he 
 wanted common sense, the dignity of Inqui- 
 sitor of the Faith was obtained for him ; so 
 much so, that in this very acceptation the 
 two following verses of the hymn Pange Lin- 
 gua^ sung in the prayers of Corpus Christi., 
 passed into a proverb among the collegiates. 
 
 PrcBstet Fides supplementum 
 Sensuum defectui. 
 
 What our weak senses can*t descry. 
 Let stronger faith the want supply. 
 
 I am fully sensible, as were the two Attor- 
 ney Generals above named, that the Inquisi- 
 tion has possessed some men celebrated for 
 their learning as well as their virtue. Such 
 among others, and without going out of 
 Spain, have been the two Inquisitor Generals 
 Ximenez de Cisneros and Sarmiento Valla- 
 dares; but this will merely argue that the 
 stigma of ignorance attached to the body at
 
 13S INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IV. 
 
 large ought not equally to extend to all its in- 
 dividual members. Neither does it prove that 
 the tribunal has failed to persecute literary 
 characters because some few of its chiefs have 
 patronised them, as Sr. Sandoval y Roxas did 
 Cervantes, Espinel, and Salas Barbadillo; 
 and Cisneros still more by the foundation of 
 an university. It is, besides, necessary to 
 advert that many of its judges, even when 
 sensible of the defects of their institution and 
 convinced of its abuses, have been under the 
 necessity of temporising, not to clash with 
 the prejudices of their companions ; for as 
 prejudices are extremely dangerous in matters 
 of religion, they are considerably more so 
 in a despotic tribunal, whose members are ne- 
 cessarily tyrants and slaves one of the other. 
 The same may be said of the quaUficators and 
 counsellors ; for when the court, through 
 mistake has sought the report of any one di- 
 vested of prejudice, the latter has been 
 obliged to adapt his language to the palate of 
 his employers, or otherwise he exposed him- 
 self to their anger as a promoter of heresy, of 
 which several examples will be brought for- 
 ward in the course of this work. In short, 
 nothing is more frequent than for man to 
 give himself up to indolence when nothing
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 139 
 
 Stimulates hiiii to labour, and this has cer- 
 tainly happened with the inquisitors. For 
 this reason, even supposing that when they 
 entered on the functions of their office they 
 were possessed of sufficient learning, it is to 
 be feared they might lose it in the course of 
 time. And, indeed, what was there to oblige 
 them to retain it, when they were fully 
 persuaded that their sentences, whatever 
 they might be, would be received as so many 
 oracles j and that no one could approach to 
 examine them without incurring their ana- 
 themas, and becoming an object of their 
 fury ? * 
 
 * Even the common people, amidst the illusion in which 
 they lived under the yoke of this tribunal, at length became 
 sensible of the great ignorance that prevailed in its dark 
 conclaves. This is proved by the following saying, to be 
 met with in the mouths of every one. 
 
 Preg. Que cosa es Inqnisicion ? 
 
 Resp. Un santo Christo, dos candeleros, y tres majaderos. 
 
 Quest, "What constitutes an Inquisition ? 
 
 Answ. One crucifix, two candlesticks, and three blockheads ; 
 
 alluding to the form and parade of its sittings, and the 
 number of judges present thereat. The same common 
 people of Spain also agree on this point with the nobIe§ of 
 Portugal, as above alluded to, in placing the canons and 
 inquisitors on the same scale, as may be seen from the fol- 
 lowing adage — Bienaventurados los tontosy porque ellos
 
 140 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Although it is true that the canon law pre- 
 scribes for inquisitors the age before stated, I 
 ought not to omit mentioning that persons of 
 a much lesser age have been invested with 
 this dignity, either through a proper dispen- 
 sation or abuse, without any other restriction 
 than that of not holding a vote till after the 
 age of thirty, and in the mean time acting as 
 proctors on behalf of the court. I also con- 
 ceive it necessary to state that the judge 
 named by the diocesan bishop as his repre- 
 sentative, besides being allowed only to con- 
 cur in two acts, enjoys a consideration in- 
 finitely inferior to that of his companions; for 
 instead of alternating with them in the order 
 of seniority, the least that could be granted to 
 him, he takes the lowest seat and signs the 
 last of all.* The reason of this is, that the 
 
 seran canonigos. — Blessed are the fools, for they shall be 
 canons. 
 
 * Thus is it laid down in the Compilation of the Instruc- 
 tions of the Office of the Holy Inquisition, done in Toledo, 
 in the year 1561, also comprising those of the year I^Si. 
 They are inserted by D. Jose de Covarrubias, in the ap- 
 pendix of his work entitled " Maximas sobre recursos de 
 fuerza y proteccion.*' The same is also ordained in 
 various parts of the work entitled " Order generally ob- 
 served in the Holy Office of the Inquisition, respecting the 
 form of process in causes instituted therein, in conformity
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKBD. 141 
 
 judges chosen by the Inquisitor General con- 
 sider themselves as deputies from the Pope j 
 but let this be as it may, the measure proves 
 the representation to be extremely trifling, 
 and by no means decorous to the episcopal 
 character. In consequence of this, some 
 bishops, as if disdaining to send their co- 
 adjutor, have commissioned a lay-person, or 
 
 to what has been enacted by the ancient as well as modern 
 instructions. Compiled by Paul Garcia, Secretary to the 
 Council of the Holy and General Inquisition, Madrid 
 1622.** The copy of which I make use, besides the mar- 
 ginal notes of the author, contains other MS. ones by 
 Don Antonio Galvez, Secretary to the tribunal of Madrid, 
 which place he held about the end of the last century. 
 The same may also be observed in the work used as the 
 manual of the Italian inquisitors, called Sacro Arsenale 
 Ovvero prattica dell' UfSzio della Santa Inquisizione, by 
 Father Eliseo Massini, a Dominican and inquisitor of Bo- 
 logna, part viii. The copy of which I am possessed was 
 printed in Rome, 1730, and contains some rules of Father 
 Thomas Menghini, also an inquisitor, as well as various an- 
 notations by Dr. John Pasqualone, proctor of the Supreme 
 Inquisition of the above city. Finally, the same is likewise 
 ordained by the Instructions of the Portuguese tribunal for 
 1640, called Regimento do Santo Officio da Inquisi9ao 
 dos Reynos de Portugal, ordenado por Mandado do lUus- 
 trissimo e Excellentissimo Senhor Bispo, Dom Francisco 
 de Castro, Inquisidor Geral do Conselho de Estado de S. 
 Mag. Impreso nos Estaos (in the palace of the Inquisition) 
 por Manuel da Silva.
 
 142 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 delegated their powers to the senior inquisi- 
 tor. The latter, in my opinion is what all 
 prelates ought to do who have a due sense of 
 their own dignity, when they do not person- 
 ally claim their own rights, which most 
 assuredly would most contribute to their 
 honour. 
 
 Finally, the inquisitors and other de- 
 pendants of the Inquisition, before they are 
 admitted to their respective offices, are sub- 
 jected to what are called proofs of the purity 
 of their descent ; by which they are compelled 
 to prove, by the examination of their gene- 
 alogy, that they do not descend from con- 
 verted Jews or Moors, nor from ancestors 
 v;ho have incurred any inquisitorial censure. 
 By this absurd practice, which has also been 
 extended to the military orders as well as to 
 some monastic ones, and even to colleges and 
 other establishments, the conversion of here- 
 tics and infidels, instead of being promoted, 
 has been changed into a title of infamy, and 
 has created frequent disputes among families. 
 This practice is both absurd and contra- 
 dictory ; because, as the report of the candi- 
 date has only to ascend to the fourth degree, 
 his origin still remains uncertain; and because 
 the same is exacted from a mere bailiff of the
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 14S 
 
 tribunal, and not from bishops, nor even pa- 
 triarchs or primates, whose influence in the go- 
 vernment of the Church is infinitely greater.* 
 Jurisdiction relates to persons, places, and 
 matters. With regard to persons^ it may be 
 said that the jurisdiction of the Inquisition 
 resides in the Supreme Council thereof; for 
 that of the provincial courts is merely pre- 
 carious, nor can they be called courts of 
 justice, without a degree of impropriety. I 
 say this because, if they are only closely 
 examined, it will be found that they have no 
 other than permanent commissions, at least, 
 in matters of moment, since they are not 
 authorized to commence any such, and much 
 less to terminate one, without the concurrence 
 of the Supreme Council, whom they are bound 
 to consult before any sentence is executed, 
 and from whose verdict they cannot deviate. 
 On the other hand, the Supreme Council, 
 even granting that it has an undoubted right 
 
 * The inutility and inconvenience of these proofs are 
 fully pointed out by Father Augustin Salucio, who wrote 
 about the beginning of the reign of Phillip III. in his " Dis- 
 curso acerca de la Justicia y buen Gobierno do Espaila, en 
 los Estatutos de Limpieza de Sangre, y si conviene o no 
 alguna Limitacion en ellos." Published in 1785, in the 
 Scmanario Erudito, vol. xv.
 
 144 INQUISITION UNMASKIJD. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 to a decisive vote, a point by no means agreed 
 on, if the effects are only examined, ought 
 rather to be called an assembly with a con- 
 sultative voice, than an effective tribunal, 
 from the powers of the Inquisitor General 
 being so ample, or rather so exorbitant, that 
 they in great measure paralyze its authority. 
 According to these powers, the Inquisitor 
 General, as well with regard to the Supreme 
 Council as the other inferior courts, can pre- 
 vent cognizance being taken of any particu- 
 lar matter, he may also order any process to 
 be stopped ; and, besides, bring before him- 
 self any cause in whatever stage it may be in ; 
 this, at least, is the existing practice. He 
 can futher modify and alter all sentences 
 of condemnation, in the terms and in the 
 manner he may judge proper, even when 
 they have received the authority of judgment, 
 except the sentence which delivers the cul- 
 prit over to the civil authorities; undoubtedly, 
 because as this is pronounced among the 
 ceremonies of the Auto de Fe, and ought to 
 be executed actu contmuo, to revoke it were 
 to make the arbitrary measure too flagrant 
 and public* Finally, he even possesses the 
 character of legislator, inasmuch as he is 
 * Pefia, ad Director. Inquisit. part iii. com. xliv. n. IQ*.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 145 
 
 authorized to interpret the canon law in 
 matters relating to the government of the 
 court; a prerogative which in the Churchj 
 the same as in society that of enacting laws, 
 belongs to the legislative power.* 
 
 It is therefore evident that the jurisdiction 
 of the disti'ict courts, properly speaking, is 
 vested in the Supreme Council, and that the 
 authority of the latter is again absorbed by 
 the Inquisitor General. It also follows, that 
 the authority granted by law to a bishop in 
 the Inquisition of his own diocese is not real 
 but only apparent, since the vote of his re- 
 presentative possesses no other value than 
 that given to it by the Supreme Council or 
 the Inquisitor General. Consequently this 
 institution has stripped the bishops of one of 
 their principal rights, or more correctly 
 speaking, it embarrasses them in one of their 
 chief obligations, which is, to watch over the 
 preservation of the faith. This objection is 
 by no means answered by the Inquisitor Ge- 
 neral being sometimes a bishop himself, for 
 besides its being possible that he be not pos- 
 sessed of that dignity, of which there are many 
 
 * Eyraeric Director, Inquisit. part iii. quaest. Ixxxv. 
 " Q.uando occurrit dubium circa leges ef- statuta contra 
 hcereticosy possimt inqiiisitores illud interpretari.''^ 
 
 VOL. I. I.;
 
 146 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 examples on record, a dioacesan bishop, when 
 treating of the exercise of one of the most 
 august functions of his ministry, neither can 
 nor ought to abide by the verdict of a strange 
 judge, in whose nomination he had not in- 
 tervened. Neither can it be said that the 
 rights of the bishops are secured by its being 
 argued that they are not prevented from 
 taking cognizance of the crime of heresy in 
 their own ordinary tribunals, at the same time 
 the Inquisition is acting thereon, since it is 
 the sentence of the latter that will always 
 prevail ; and in Rome, whenever the bishops 
 have made an appeal in which the Holy Office 
 was implicated, it has always been usual for 
 the preference to be given to the latter. 
 
 The jurisdiction of this tribunal extends to 
 all classes of persons excepting bishops, 
 whom it denounces to the pope, when it be- 
 lieves they have incurred the charge of 
 heresy.* In America the inquisitors were 
 restrained from taking cognizance of the 
 crimes of Indians ; since to have subjected 
 the natives of that country to a tribunal of 
 this nature in their rude and unlettered state, 
 
 * De Haeret. cap. Inquisitor, in 6, conformable to this 
 regulation is another of the Council of Trent, Sess. xxiv. 
 cap. V.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 147 
 
 would have been to sacrifice them in an in- 
 human manner. Hence their causes of 
 heresy were committed to the care of the 
 bishops, in the same manner as their offences 
 of witchcraft were confided to the secular 
 judges.* With regard to the places where 
 the influence of this tribunal can reach, it 
 happens that a person persecuted in one 
 kingdom can be equally so in another where 
 an Inquisition is established, whenever the 
 first makes an application, a measure that, 
 in all probability^ would not be neglected. 
 Neither will the tribunal fail to avail itself of 
 kingly mediation, if this be considered ne- 
 cessary, in order to seize on and wrest the 
 culprit from another country, under the plea 
 of high treason, as it did with the Spanish 
 protestant, Francisco de Roman, who having 
 been arrested by com.mand of Charles V. in 
 Ratisbon, for disobedience to his orders, was 
 conveyed to the Inquisition of Valladolid and 
 delivered over to the flames.t 
 
 * Solorzano, Politica Indiana, torn. ii. iib. iv. cap. xxiv, 
 n. 18. 
 
 f D. Juan Antonio Pellicer, *' Ensayo de una Bi- 
 
 blioteca de Traductores Espafioles," Art. Encina. Pope 
 
 Innocent VIII. by bull dated April 3, 1487, commanded 
 
 all Catholic kings and princes, when applied to by an 
 
 l2
 
 148 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 As to the causes which come within the 
 judicial notice of this court, it must be allowed 
 that the crimes of polygamy, witchcraft, so- 
 domy, and even of confessional seduction, 
 ought to be considered as foreign to its com- 
 petency, to which heresy alone ought to 
 belong. On this point I shall merely observe, 
 that the Inquisition has arrogated to itself 
 the cognizance of the other crimes from 
 principles of self-accord ; or from that pro- 
 pensity generally found in all privileged 
 courts, particularly in the ecclesiastical ones, 
 to draw into their own hands as many matters 
 as they possibly can. Certainly the suspicion 
 of heresy attributed by the Inquisition to a 
 person married more than once is devoid of 
 all foundation, when he might have been led 
 into this crime by a thousand impelling 
 causes, without trespassing against the faith.* 
 
 Inquisitor General or any of his delegates, for the 
 arrest and delivery of any fugitive, to cause the same to be 
 arrested and delivered up, Llorente, Anales de la Inquisi- 
 cion, torn. i. cap. iv. n. 6. 
 
 * Charles III. by royal decree of Feb. 5, 1770, com- 
 manded the inquisitors to confine themselves within the 
 limits of their jurisdiction, taking cognizance of the crimes 
 of heresy and apostasy alone, and not to interfere with the 
 king's courts by proceeding in cases of polygamy. In con- 
 sequence of this, the-Supreme Council of tlie Inquisition laid
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 349 
 
 With regard to witchcraft, I am persuaded, 
 and will hereafter prove the fact, that the 
 Inquisition in former times powerfully con- 
 tributed to spread an opinion among the 
 common people that many persons really 
 practised this art. Indeed how could this be 
 otherwise, when they beheld a tribunal that 
 filled them with so much respect, and to 
 which they attributed the perspicacity of the 
 lynx, so seriously employed in persecuting 
 them? But thanks to the declamations of 
 certain philosophers, the Inquisition, now- 
 a-days, has fewer opportunities of parading 
 its zeal against witches and charms, and the 
 nation has also less occasion for laughter and 
 grief. Strange as it is, we have nevertheless 
 
 a remonstrance before the king, when his Majesty declared 
 that the ordinary ecclesiastical jurisdiction might likewise 
 take cognizance of the above-mentioned crime, in conse- 
 quence of the deception practised on the parish curate who 
 assisted at the second marriage. He also granted permission 
 for the Inquisition to prefer charges in this case, but only 
 when unbelief with regard to the Sacrament has been pre- 
 viously proved; for if, under the possibility of its existence, 
 (the very reason alleged by the decree,) the tribunal should 
 arrest the person of any one, it brings upon him the stigma 
 of infamy, unless he should appear fully to have deserved 
 it. With regard to the excessive extension of ecclesiasti- 
 cal jurisdiction on grounds purely specious, vide Domingo 
 Cavalario, Institut. Jur. Canon, part iii. cap. ii. ^12. 
 2
 
 150 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 yet to mention another species of crime of 
 which this tribunal Hkewise takes cognizance, 
 a crime which, however opposed to nature, 
 has not the smallest affinity with heresy. No 
 one better than those who have been called 
 to the ministry of the altar, and are sensible 
 of the purity it requires, will be able to 
 declare whether it would not have been more 
 adviseable to have waved all judicial inter- 
 ference with an offence which reduces the 
 perpretator to a rank inferior to brutes. In 
 a word, the Inquisition not only punishes as 
 a crime against the faith any aid given to 
 culprits, whether it may have been on the 
 part of respectable characters, or originated 
 in friendship or affinity, but also imposes 
 punishment on those who censure its acts, 
 even when a love of truth and good order 
 had been the sole instigation.* 
 
 In conformity to this regulation, when 
 Aonius Paleario, formerly professor of the 
 Greek and Latin languages in Sienna, Lucca, 
 and Milan, censured the rigorous persecu- 
 tions of this tribunal against Lutherans, as 
 well as every man of talent, he was imprisoned 
 by the order of Pius V. and carried to Rome, 
 where, according to some, he was burnt afte^' 
 * Bull " Si de protegendis," of 1st April, 1569.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 151 
 
 having been hanged, and according to others, 
 burnt alive.* Without entering into the 
 other charges which might be alleged against 
 such a proceeding, I shall merely observe 
 that if the above was a crime, Clement XIV. 
 must equally be considered as guilty, since 
 writing to a Protestant minister he expresses 
 his sorrow at the times when such things oc- 
 curred, to which times he gives the term of 
 " stormy, when each one," as he observes, 
 " borne away by his own impetuosity, had 
 deviated from the rules of Christian modera- 
 tion. No one regrets more than myself,'* 
 adds he, " the injury we experienced in the 
 last century: the spirit of persecution is ex- 
 tremely odious to me.f* What a difference 
 between one century and the other, as well 
 as between the talent and greatness of soul of 
 Ganganelli compared with many of the popes 
 who preceded him ! 
 
 Notwithstanding at first sight this tribunal 
 appears to be exclusively destined to act and 
 give sentence in criminal cases, it has never- 
 theless been frequently occupied in matters 
 purely civil. This, in some measure, has ori- 
 
 * Diction. Hist. Art. Palearius ; vide also the preface 
 annexed to the Amsterdam edition of his works, 1690, 
 f Clement XIV. letter cix.
 
 15a INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 ginated in the sequestrations and confiscations 
 of property to which criminal matters give 
 rise ; as well as in that active and passive privi- 
 lege enjoyed by the inquisitors and their de- 
 pendants in all kinds of suits, by which they 
 are authorized to bring the latter into their 
 own court, and cite before them any individual 
 whatever. In pecuniary matters it is not to be 
 wondered that the defendant is often obliged 
 to appear before the Inquisition, and as it were 
 at the mercy of the plaintiff, from such little 
 consideration being paid to any one arraigned 
 before it, and because the well-known princi- 
 ple of right which is founded on humanity 
 and justice, viz. that the accused under a pa- 
 rity of circumstances ought to be favoured, has 
 little or no weight with the judges. Finally, 
 it is only necessary to remark that, although 
 formerly the civil suits in the Inquisition 
 were conducted in nearly the same manner 
 ^s the criminal ones, and consequently ex- 
 perienced the same illegalities, at present 
 they undergo the same forms practised in the 
 other courts of justice. 
 
 FORM OF PROCESS. 
 
 The judge proceeds by virtue of his office, 
 or at the suit of the party. In the first case
 
 Chap. IV.] inquisition unmasked. 153 
 
 it is called by Inquisition, or Judicial Inquest ; 
 and in the second, by Denunciation and Se- 
 cret Impeachmeyit . Of these three modes of 
 proceeding, the two first only are in use in 
 this tribunal, viz. Inquisition and Denun- 
 ciation. 
 
 By Inquisition or Judicial Inquest. — 
 When I observe that the Inquisition was es- 
 tablished in the 13th century, I mean as a 
 regular and ordinarj'- tribunal, with a fixed 
 residence, on the basis it now stands ; for, 
 taken in its full scope and under the various 
 forms it has assumed, it is evident that its 
 origin must be of a much more remote date, 
 since it commenced about the period when 
 the secular power for the first time sent out 
 searchers after heretics, in order to deliver 
 them over to the magistrates for punishment. 
 This period was about the 4th century, when 
 the discipline of the Church began to de- 
 clinCj and the first record in which the term 
 Inquisition occurs, signifying the search or 
 judicial inquest made for those who after 
 being baptized dissented from the Catholics 
 in matters of faith, was a law of Theodosius 
 promulgated in 382*. From the period of 
 
 * Codex Teodosian. lib. xvi. li. 28, 29, and 40.-- Justi- 
 nian re-assembled the contents of these laws in his code
 
 154 
 
 INQUISITION 0NMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 this law and others of a similar tenor, ap- 
 plauded, and possibly dictated, by some 
 bishops, and afterwards confirmed by succes- 
 sive monarchs ; the history of the Church is 
 filled with blemishes, which considerably take 
 from its splendour. 
 
 The 8th century more especially furnishes 
 us with convincing proofs how much man 
 may be deceived by a mistaken zeal for reli- 
 gion, or rather by a desire of revenge against 
 those who in this particular are of a dif- 
 
 ** De Hasret." leg. iv. in the following words : " Manichceos 
 ten Mariichctas, et Donatistas meritissima severitate perse- 
 quimur. Huic itaque hominum generi nihil ex moribus, 
 nihil ex legihus commune sit crcm ceteris. Ac primum 
 quidcm volumus esse publicum crimen, quia quod in religionem 
 divinam committunt, in omnium Jertur injuriam. Non 
 donandi non emendi, non postremo contrahendi cuiquam. 
 convicto relinquimus Jacidiatem. In mortem quoque inqui' 
 sitio extendatur. Nam si in criminibus majestatis licet ttie- 
 moriam accusare defuncti, non immeriio et hie debet subire 
 tale judicium. Ergo et suprema illius scriptura irrita sity 
 sive codicillo, sive epistola, sive quolibet alio genere reli- 
 querit voluntatem, qui Manichceus Jidsse convincitur." 
 All heretics were comprehended under these penalties, 
 even when their opinions were only proved by weak argu- 
 ments, as may be seen by law ii. of the same code, in the 
 following words, " Hcereticorum autem vocabulo continentur, 
 et latis adversus eos sanctionibus succumbere debent qui vel 
 levi argumento a judicio Catholicce religionis, et tramite 
 detectijiierint deviare.**
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 155 
 
 ferent opinion. Charlemagne, more inhuman 
 towards Pagans in France than Sisebutus 
 towards Jews in Spain, gave a perfectly new 
 appearance to the Inquisition, which strength- 
 ening itself by degrees from the time of 
 Theodosius to that of Frederic II., at length 
 destroyed the happiness of the people among 
 whom it was established. That prince, after 
 conquering Saxony, not content with forcing 
 the inhabitants to embrace Christianity, and 
 finding that many returned to the worship of 
 their gods, deputed searchers deserving of 
 the name of inquisitors, to go through the 
 country and put all such to death. They 
 formed an association founded on certain 
 statutes, to the observance of which they 
 bound themselves by oath, without their 
 power having any other restrictions than those 
 of their own pleasure ; for they were autho- 
 rized^ not as formerly to seize heretics and 
 bring them before the competent tribunals, 
 but to judge them themselves in a summary 
 manner, and even to make away with them by 
 means of public or private executions, with- 
 out any responsibility being attached to them. 
 In order to strike their blow more effectually 
 and with greater security, these assassins, and 
 most assuredly they merit no better a name.
 
 1.16 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 adopted a certain alphabet and signs by 
 which they were known to each other, but 
 which were occult to every one else. Such 
 were the steps pursued by this strange tribu- 
 nal from the time of its origin, till Pope Inno- 
 cent III. and Frederic II. gave it the form 
 under which it has since continued.* I think 
 that no one, on reading that in ancient times 
 the inquisitors were formed into a secret soci- 
 ety to whose statutes they were bound by oath, 
 and that they had an alphabet and particular 
 signs for the purpose of knowing each other, 
 will fail to think of the order of Free Masons; 
 nor is this the only point of affinity I observe 
 between the two institutions. 
 
 As soon as the tribunal was erected into a 
 regular and permanent court, the process of 
 inquisition was changed into that of denun- 
 ciation ; notwithstanding, however, it still re- 
 tains in its practice vestiges of what it origin- 
 
 * Paramo, De Orig. S. Inquisit. lib. ii. cap, xxv. n. 1. 
 
 *' Leges denique secretas, et notas occultas et jm'anientijbr- 
 mam eis prcescripsit (Carolus M.) quibiis in judicando et 
 puniendo juste procederetitf sibique mutuo noti alios laterent^ 
 et necessarium in te)-ra Saxonica judicium perpetuo conserva' 
 rent. Alphabetis ctiam certis inter se utebantur ad 
 tempus." It is here meant by the latter words, that they 
 changed the alphabets from time to time, in order to ren» 
 tier their interpretation the more difficult.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 157 
 
 ally was, which evidently prove that the spirit 
 by which it is actuated is the same now as in 
 former times, in like manner as its denomi- 
 nation is also unchanged. As such I consi- 
 der the two edicts, one called " Of the 
 Faith," and the other " Of Grace." The 
 first is read every year on one Sunday of 
 Lent, during the performance of divine office, 
 in all towns where a tribunal is held, and in 
 it a general injunction is laid to denounce 
 every one who may have sinned against the 
 faith within the space of six days. The se- 
 cond is issued with great pomp and parade 
 by the inquisitors on their establishment in 
 any city, or when they go on a circuit ; and 
 by it those are invited to give information 
 against themselves who may be under any 
 apprehensions of being denounced by others, 
 for which a term of thirty or forty days is 
 given, and pardon offered on condition of 
 their compliance within the time prefixed, 
 otherwise the delinquents are threatened with 
 the confiscation of their property and the 
 other penalties of the law.* 
 
 Undoubtedly a plan of such a nature is of 
 all others the best adapted, not so much to 
 
 * Instrucciones de Sevilla, de 29 de Noviembre de ] 484'j 
 i ili.
 
 158 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 excite in the people a servile respect towards 
 the Inquisition, as to fill them with selfish and 
 malevolent principles, and form society into a 
 horde of trembling and abject wretches. By 
 these two edicts the prejudices and mutual 
 odium of two individuals become the common 
 cause of this tribunal, and the vilest passions 
 of human nature, through its recommenda- 
 tion and influence, acquire the highest degree 
 of authority. Hence did it happen that, in 
 the first years in which these edicts were is- 
 sued in the provinces of Andalusia, our an- 
 cestors were in such haste to become their 
 own accusers, that from the year 1481 to 
 1520, no less than 30,000 persons informed 
 against themselves.* And in truth, under, 
 such dilemma, who would not prefer to un- 
 dergo a momentary, although undue and re- 
 pugnant humiliation, to remain for ever under 
 the stigma of defamation ? Or rather, who was 
 there that did not endeavour to call to mind 
 every thing he had said during the whole 
 period of his life ; the expressions of his 
 countenance on hearing a conversation, or 
 even his silence, for fear this might have ren- 
 dered him suspicious, when he was aware 
 
 * Paramo, De Grig. S. Inquisit. lib. ii. tit. ii. cap, iv. 
 n. 12.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 153 
 
 that by presenting himself voluntarily he 
 escaped all molestation, whilst through any 
 inculpable forgetfulness he brought ruin on 
 himself and family. Even thus, every one 
 who escaped might be considered fortunate ; 
 since, according to the ordinances of Portu- 
 gal, the invitation of the inquisitors, as well in 
 their circuits as at all times, was a mere lure, 
 as they were able to throw the self-in- 
 former into a dungeon if they choose, under 
 pretext of his not having confessed all he was 
 obligated to do.* This same was experienced 
 by Marc Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of 
 Spalatro, who having embraced the Protestant 
 religion passed over to England; he after- 
 wards returned to Rome, whither he had been 
 invited by the Pope and the Inquisition, both 
 of whom had offered him pardon. He never- 
 theless died in prison, as is generally under- 
 
 * The above Ordinances, lib. ii. tit. ii. n. 4-. contain the 
 following words : Parescendo aos inquisidores que a pessoa 
 que se appresentou nao faz inteira e verdadeira confissao 
 de sus culpas, sera reteada em uma caza fora do carcere, 
 e se vera seu processo em meza pelos inquisidores, e to- 
 mandose nelle assento que seja preza asi se executara, e 
 ainda que satisfa9a logo depois de preza nao ficara go- 
 zando do previlegio de apprezentado, posto que em sett 
 despacho se podera ter a isso algum respeito.'* — The 
 term processo, is here taken for the declaration or con- 
 4
 
 160 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Stood, through the effects of poison adminis- 
 tered to him by his own relations, in order to 
 spare him and themselves the shame of his 
 being brought out in an Auto of the Faith.* 
 There is, however, still another reason why 
 so great a number of persons stepped for- 
 ward, on the re-establishment of the Inquisi- 
 tion under the new shades of ferocity added to 
 it by Torquemada, in order to accuse them- 
 selves of crimes which in all probability they 
 never dreamed of committing, and this is, 
 the strong sensations caused by the alarming 
 spectacle of the frequent punishments at that 
 time inflicted ; since there is no sacrifice too 
 great for man when agitated with terror. 
 Hence at no time and in no place have so 
 n^any witches been seen as in the duchy of 
 Lorrain in the 14tli century, when they 
 were persecuted in the most inexorable man- 
 ner, and the alienation of mind caused by the 
 terror of punishment in some persons was so 
 great, that they confessed crimes which they 
 
 fession made by the culprit against vvliom there is no 
 testimony or denunciation alleged, since it had been thus 
 previously laid down in n. 2. " E nao havendo contra a 
 tal pessoa testemunhas posto que a noticia procedesse de 
 sua propria confissao," &c. 
 
 * Diction. Histor. art. Dominis.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 161 
 
 never could have committed, even if they 
 had wished it ; crimes which, as soon as the 
 prejudices of the common people were dissi- 
 pated, and their persecutions at an end, have 
 entirely ceased.* In like manner in Italy, 
 when the Inquisition was re-established, he- 
 retics sprung up in every quarter ; because 
 the ignorant upstarts of those days, elated 
 with their learning and devotion, conceived 
 that in every man who was not entirely of 
 their own way of thinking they saw a Cal- 
 vinist or a Lutheran, just as those of the 
 present age behold no others than Jansenists 
 and unbelievers. Princes and princesses, 
 entire colleges, priests, friars, bishops, and 
 even cardinals, were then metamorphosed into 
 sectaries. Paul IV. himself, who by the pro- 
 tection he gave to this institution, might be 
 considered as the principal author of so many 
 extravagancies, was satisfied with a compro- 
 mise on the part of Cardinal Polo when 
 accused of Lutheranism, and of whose cause 
 he was personally taking cognizance, con- 
 senting that the papers drawn up by the 
 Cardinal in his own defence should be burnt, 
 and the affair buried in oblivion ; fearful that 
 if they were published he would be in a worse 
 * Feijoo, Teatro Critico, torn. u. disc, v, n. 58, &c. 
 VOL. I. M
 
 l62 IKQUTSITION UNMASKED. [CHAF. IV. 
 
 plight than the accused. But this frenisy 
 did not stop here; it even became necessary 
 to fill up many of the places of the Inquisition 
 with laymen, for it was discovered that num- 
 bers of the ecclesiastical inquisitors were 
 themselves heretics.* 
 
 In combating the vulgar errQr respecting 
 witches Feijoo observes ** that it frequently 
 happens that persons of a lively imagination, 
 but devoid of courage, on contemplating any 
 enormous crime whilst under the influence of 
 terror, particularly if the town has been dis- 
 turbed and the police under alarm, experience 
 such a strange perturbation of the brain, that 
 this receives the most unaccountable and 
 chimerical impressions. The horror of crime 
 and the severity of punishment disorder the 
 animal spirits so much, that the dread of in- 
 curring blame drives the imagination to fear 
 the actual commission ; and from profoundly 
 meditating this as possible, the mind at length 
 comes to the actual transition of being con- 
 vinced of guilt. The strong apprehension of 
 
 * Bernini, Istor. di Tutte L'heresie/ torn. iv. secol. xv'u 
 cap. vii. These are his words : '< Qiiesta risoluzione in 
 servirsi di secolari fii presa, perche non solo molti vescovi e 
 vicarii e Jratri e preti, ma anco molti dell* istessi inquisi' 
 tori erano heretici.**
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 163 
 
 the idea which, at the beginning was only 
 considered as abstract, imprints itself so deep 
 and under so lively a form as to render its 
 real existence no longer dubious. The blind 
 imagination rushes on those objects which the 
 terrified will seeks to avoid, in like manner as 
 the head strikes the very spot from which the 
 feet attempted to wander ; or, as the anxious 
 wish of one travelling over a precipice not to 
 fall perturbates him so much that he can no 
 longer keep on his feet. For this reason it 
 is,*' adds our author in a sporting tone," that 
 I venerate that most discreet lentitude with 
 which the holy tribunal of the Inquisition 
 proceeds in its resolutions." Besides the ob- 
 stacles which the malice and ignorance of 
 men oppose to the examination of truth, in 
 the crimes judged by that tribunal the most 
 to be feared is that a fool may pass for a real 
 delinquent. Heresy, blasphemy, and supersti- 
 tious rites are certainly horrid crimes; but in 
 them it is still easier for the exterior act to 
 proceed from the depravation of the under- 
 standing, than from the perversion of the 
 will.* 
 
 ♦ Feijoo, Teatfo Cntico, torn. ii. disc. v. n. 58, &c. As 
 this author, from having carefully examined the matter, was 
 well aware that the persons condemned by the InquisitioB 
 m2
 
 i64f INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CIIAP. IV. 
 
 How great, therefore, must have been the 
 terror infused into the minds of the people 
 by the first appearance of the Inquisition at 
 Seville 1 and how alarming must have been 
 the perturbation of the mind, when even 
 such strong symptoms were visible in the 
 very persons who introduced it, and were the 
 
 for witchcraft amounted to many thousands, he could 
 hardly allude to its lentitude and discretion injudicial pro- 
 ceedings, unless he meant that lentitude which it ought to 
 have had, and not that which in reality it possessed. He 
 only who is unaware of the irony of Feijoo, can doubt the 
 keen manner in which he criticises the proceedings of the 
 tribunal in the passage above quoted; nor can it be denied 
 that he exhorts its members to act with more circum- 
 spection, a circumstance that must appear obvious to every 
 one who considers how much this wise man laboured to 
 diminish the evils ignorance causes to humanity. In the 
 style of this criticism we discover others in several of our 
 classical writers who combated the abuses of their own 
 time, of which I shall make mention as they occur. Their 
 opinions with regard to the Inquisition, although disguised 
 with the enigmas of fable and tempered with jests, are too 
 palpable for me to omit doing justice to their judgment in 
 this particular, and thus strengthen my own assertions by 
 the weight of their authority. I shall be happy in mani- 
 festing to the whole world that, notwithstanding the 
 tyranny of this tribunal, persons have not been wanting 
 in Spain, who, while they sheltered themselves from its 
 vengeance, nevertheless impugned it in such a manner as 
 to deserve the gratitude of posterity.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 16^ 
 
 depositaries of its authority ! Let the multi- 
 tude of those who by its means hastened to 
 be reconciled to the Church no longer be 
 quoted as a proof of the utility of this tribu- 
 nal ; for it is to be conjectured that they 
 rather sought to elude its resentful rage than 
 lay aside their errors, if in reality they had 
 any. The objections against a general inqui- 
 sition or search are too clear not to have been 
 known to legislators ; for this reason it has 
 been banished from all codes, whenever super- 
 stition and despotism have had no interest in 
 sanctioning them. Indeed, as long as crimes 
 are so hidden as to produce no external effect, 
 equity prescribes the belief of their non-ex- 
 istence, for in this case it is the same as if they 
 really did not exist ; otherwise the magistrate 
 would be in continual search of delinquents 
 on whom to vent his rage and vainly display 
 his power, and not of vices, in order to effect 
 their reform. Hence when a law containing 
 a renewal of that of Theodosius already men- 
 tioned, yet aggravating it with capital punish- 
 ment, was about to be published in Africa 
 against heretics, St. Augustin and other 
 zealous bishops of his time represented to the 
 government the evils that would thereby 
 1
 
 166 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 ensue. However the importunate suggestions 
 of others who were in favour of Inquisitions 
 prevailed over the remonstrances of these 
 prelates, and the publication of the law was 
 carried into effect ; but when the evil conse- 
 quences predicted by St. Augustin came to 
 be verified, Pope Gregory the Great some 
 years afterwards solicited its revocation, and 
 obtained it.* But of this I will adduce fur- 
 ther proofs: the Emperor Trajan, notwith- 
 standing the system of intolerance he adopted 
 against Christians, and his orders to punish 
 them whenever accused, forbade that any 
 search or inquisition should be made after 
 them, reprobating this measure as cruel.t 
 How different has been the conduct of the 
 Inquisition with regard to sects ! It is cer- 
 tainly a melancholy circumstance that nations 
 possessed of the Gospel, and consequently in 
 no heed of learning from the excellent 
 treatises of morality handed down to us by 
 
 . * Van-Spen, Jur. Ecclesiast. part iii. tit. iv. cap, iv.-'— 
 S. Gregor. M. Rcgistr. Epistol. lib. v, epist. viii. 
 
 f Pliny, lib. x, epist. xcviii. — TertuUian, in his Apologet. 
 cap. ii. considers the measure of Trajan as contradictory, 
 possibl}^ because he w&s not kware of the political reasons 
 of the Emperor.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UJS^-MASKED. 167 
 
 the heathens, should still in their conduct, 
 have so many examples worthy of their imi- 
 tation among them ! 
 
 It would be impossible to view in any 
 other light than as barbarous an institution 
 which, besides ordering and authorizing an 
 odious search or inquisition, has made this 
 even its chief motto, and out of it formed its 
 very appellation. No better name can be 
 bestowed on the Enquesta, a species of crimf- 
 nal court used formerly in Aragon, and which 
 as well in the origin as the signification of the 
 term is nearly allied to the Inquisition. This 
 court excluded from the protection of the laws 
 any citizen who might have exchanged this 
 title for that of a servant of the king, and en- 
 tirely subjected him to the caprice of his lord. 
 Thus has it happened that one of the 
 king's household was called up to the palace 
 seemingly for business connected with his 
 duty, and perhaps an hour afterwards was 
 •seen a corpse slung on a beast of burden and 
 carried before his own house to be buried.* 
 The Enquesta was possibly quicker in dis- 
 patch than the Inquisition, but the latter has 
 «urpassed it in ferocity. 
 
 * Antonio P^rez, Relacion deJ 24 de Mayo.
 
 168 inquisition unmasked. [chap. iv. 
 
 By Denunciation and Secret Impeach- 
 ment. — This is the most usual mode of pro- 
 ceeding ill the Inquisition, in preference to 
 that of accusation. The reason is obvious : 
 the denunciator or simple informer does not 
 bind himself to prove the charge he prefers, 
 and is under no apprehension of punishment, 
 unless calumny is the result; whilst the 
 accuser obliges himself to follow up the suit 
 to its issue, subjecting himself to the penalties 
 of retaliation, or the others prescribed by the 
 law against those who are unable to prove the 
 crime they have alleged. Why then should 
 any one pretend to lodge an accusation in 
 the proper forms, when the Inquisition was 
 always ready to admit an informer? The 
 operation of accusation is, however, included 
 in that of denunciation, at least with regard 
 to its effects, and when the whole process is 
 well considered, it will be found that even 
 the agency of inquisition or search is equally 
 blended therewith. To oblige the faithful to 
 lodge information against any expression that 
 may sound ill, besides the secret emissaries of 
 the tribunal, is to create as many spies as 
 there are members in society. To oblige 
 those who live under the same roof and eat
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 169 
 
 at the same table, to discover crimes which 
 could not be pryed out but by resorting to 
 the most atrocious felony, is to carry es- 
 pionage to a most unexampled height of fury. 
 In short to oblige persons to inform against 
 themselves, in order that their names may be 
 eternally inscribed on the infamous records 
 of the Inquisition, is to wield superstition and 
 tyranny in such a manner that it alone was 
 capable of inventing. 
 
 It has been established among theologians 
 that he who proffers an heretical proposition, 
 although it may have been heard by and is 
 known to no one, is not less subject to the 
 excommunication reserved to the inquisitors 
 than if he had pronounced it in public ; for 
 notwithstanding it is true, add they, that the 
 Church in quality of a visible association 
 does not judge secret offences, the case in 
 question is rendered so per accideris, and not 
 per se. Confessors know better than myself 
 that some penitents, refusing to appear before 
 the Inquisition for the purpose of obtaining 
 the absolution of the censure incurred, have 
 deferred sacramental confession to the hour 
 of death, when all reserve ceases. Either 
 this was because they could not persuade 
 themselves that the external jurisdiction of
 
 170 maUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 the Church extended so far, or else they 
 wished not to expose themselves to have their 
 names some day or other publicly stained 
 with so foul a blot, as has now happened by 
 the irruption of the French into the kingdom, 
 who have taken out all the documents they 
 could find in the Inquisition, and distributed 
 them to every one who wished to pick them 
 up. I have nothing more to add on this 
 head, except that the tribunal of penance is 
 not that which has least suffered from the 
 tribunal of the Inquisition, nor under less 
 titles.* 
 
 * The obligation which even those are under, whose 
 crimes are hidden, of soliciting from the inquisitors a dis- 
 pensation from ecclesiastical censures, and the necessity 
 of the intervention of the notary in the granting of it is 
 acknowledged, though with a certain degree of doubt, by 
 Ignacio Lupo de Bergamo, in his work entitled " Nova 
 Lux in edictum S. Inquisit," part i. lib. viii. art. iv. dilF. ii. 
 This same is, however, enjoined by the Initructions of the 
 Inqusition of Seville for 14'S4', the fouth article ordaining 
 as follows: — " Those persons who, under the duration ■of 
 the edict of grace, or at any time afterwards, may appear 
 and express a wish to be reconciled, shall present their 
 confessions in writing to the inquisitors, whilst the court is 
 sitting, certified by the notary and two witnesses, or three 
 of the officers belonging to the same, or else other respect- 
 able persons." — That the delinquents here alluded to are 
 comprehended under this general rule is fully proved by
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 171 
 
 It cannot be denied that the discovery of 
 crimes made to a magistrate for the purpose 
 of punishment in conformity to the laws, has 
 ever been held as an imprescriptible right of 
 the citizen by the most celebrated nations of 
 the universe, viz. the Hebrews, Egyptians^ 
 Greeks, and Romans. More especially among 
 the latter, and in the most flourishing times 
 of the republic, this proceeding far from 
 being deemed dishonourable, was held in the 
 light of a service done to the country, and 
 considered as the firmest support of liberty. 
 For this reason many illustrious personages 
 appeared then in the forum in the character 
 of accusers; this was even the avenue that 
 led to merit and celebrity. Thus Cicero 
 owed to the office of accuser great part of his 
 glory ; and Cato, who had been accused 
 
 the fifth article, in which they are exempted from the same, 
 but only as far as regards public abjuration. The Ordi- 
 nances of the Portuguese Inquisition, lib. ii, tit. i. n. 13. 
 enjoin all confessors to use every exertion in order to in- 
 duce secret heretics to make a personal avowal ; yet it is 
 nevertheless true, that the same Instructions empower 
 confessors to absolve them in case they persist in refusing 
 to appear, a practice which lately has been received among 
 us, from its having been necessary for the tribunal to make 
 the most of the penitent.
 
 172 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 forty-four times, and as many times absolved, 
 deemed it glorious to his grey hairs to be- 
 come an accuser. But it is necessary to 
 recollect that theirs was not a denunciation ; 
 it was a true and formal accusation, and in 
 this sense the impeacher, no less than the 
 impeached, submitted to the penalties res- 
 pectively imposed by the law. By this means, 
 among the above nations public tranquil^ 
 lity and private security were conciliated, 
 both having for tlieir basis the mutual vi- 
 gilance of the citizens, and the severity 
 of the punishments ordained against the 
 calumniator. 
 
 To this well-equilibrated plan of accusation 
 the Roman laws still added certain restric- 
 tions, which were the more laudable because 
 they prevented calumny rather than punished 
 it. They denied the right of accusing to all 
 persons suspiciorus for the weakness of their 
 sex, the want of age, the lowness of cha- 
 racter, known bad faith, or their prepon- 
 derance. In like manner also, for reasons 
 equally just, they did not suffer members of 
 the same family to accuse each other. " The 
 law," says Filangieri, " beheld a suspicious 
 accuser in the man who does not respect the 
 
 £f
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 173 
 
 sacred ties of blood or the obligations 
 derived from gratitude.*'* An accuser of this 
 nature would have been covered with the 
 confusion and contempt of the tribunal itself, 
 even before he had received the stigma of 
 public opinion. Besides, if the laws have 
 established prescription in civil cases in order 
 to avoid uncertainty in the dominion of 
 things, with how much greater reason ought 
 they not to establish it in criminal accusa- 
 tions, in favour of liberty, honour, and the 
 life of a citizen ? Criminal accusations had a 
 determined duration, for which there was a 
 motive not less just than the former. Time, 
 which buries facts in oblivion, still more 
 quickly effaces from the memory their ac- 
 companying circumstances, and consequently 
 deprives the accused of the means of his own 
 justification, leaving to the calumniator, by 
 an inverse ratio, fresh opportunities of dis- 
 guising his falsehoods. In conformity to this 
 the accusation not only became extinct by 
 the death of the culprit, but also by the lapse 
 of twenty years in some offences, and of less 
 in others. 
 
 The Inquisition does not however act in 
 
 * Filangieri, " Delia Scienza della Legislazione," lib. 
 iii. part i. cap. ii.
 
 174 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 this manner'; for, taking rather from the simple 
 denunciation ^vhatever is favourable to the 
 informer, and from the rigorous accusation 
 what is contrary to the culprit^ it has created 
 a new judicial process which it is impossible 
 to class or define. In it the rancour and ven- 
 geance of those who traced it seem emui- 
 lously to shine, and it is difficult to discern 
 whether their blows are most levelled against 
 the rights of justice or of humanity; for who 
 can defend himself against calumny when 
 stimulated by the law, and accompanied 
 with almost a certain hope of impunity? 
 This bane of society, by means of secrecy, is 
 converted into an arm that wounds at an 
 immense distance. 
 
 The informer, although he may have acted 
 inconsiderately, besides being exempt from 
 punishment, in consequence of the sophistry 
 that the impeachment is directed to produce 
 the amendment and not the punishment of 
 the accused, is a treacherous enemy who 
 strikes in an unguarded moment when he 
 proceeds with bad faith, since the accused 
 is never informed of his name, in order that 
 he may be enabled to state his objections and 
 exceptions ; rights which are conformable to 
 nature, to the good order of society, and
 
 CHAP. IV.] INaUISITION UNMASKED. 175 
 
 which the Inquisition alone has dared to 
 refuse. On the other hand, a wide field is 
 not only left open to informers to establish 
 and carry on their malevolent and false 
 criminations, but they are even invited and 
 compelled to become accusers. What then 
 is the check which this tribunal places on 
 the informer? Certainly no other than the 
 prudence of the judges, which is the same 
 as to say their arbitrariness.* 
 
 With regard to restrictions, none are to 
 be expected in a denunciation actually com- 
 manded and ordained by the tribunal; for 
 even insensible beings would be compelled 
 to inform, if it was in their power, or else 
 
 * Popes Alexander IV., Urban IV., and Clement IV,, 
 granted three years' indulgence to every one who may 
 give aid to the inquisitors, and consequently to every 
 •ecret informer. — Eymeric, Director. Inquisit. part iii. 
 quaest. cxxviii. Pius V. moreover enacted, that no regular 
 prelate, either by way of chastisement or penance, shall 
 be allowed, for any fault whatever, to trouble any secret 
 informer, being one of his subjects, during the period of 
 five years from the date of his information laid, unless the 
 Inquisition should agree thereto, for which purpose he is 
 previously to consult it. — Lupo de Bergamo, Nova Luk 
 in edict. S. Inquisit. part. i. lib. iv. difF. ix. art. iv. The 
 penalty against the negligent and tardy, according to 
 several pontifical decrees, is excommunication, and their 
 being considered as abettors of heretics. 
 
 6
 
 176 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 incur the penalty of the highest excommuni- 
 cation. Unable to extend its jurisdiction 
 over the physical order, for the purpose of 
 carrying its scrutinies into effect, it overturns 
 the moral order of things by silencing the 
 dictates of reason, and stifling the purest sen- 
 timents of humanity. At the same time that 
 it attaches infinite importance to a word, and 
 deems the persecution and death of him who 
 uttered it as the only means of preserving 
 religion and the state, it eagerly grasps at 
 any instrument however weak it may be, any 
 slight surmise, although it may have the 
 strongest presumptions of right against it, 
 and holds them in the light of props to the 
 edifice it endeavours to sustain. Not only 
 females and striplings under age, on whose 
 judgment little reliance can be placed, but 
 the infamous, those who are pronounced 
 banes of society, and even the perjured, who 
 are publicly known to disregard the sacred 
 solemnity of an oath, are all admitted, and 
 even enjoined, to lodge informations before 
 this tribunal, without any other restriction 
 than being bound to swear that they have 
 been induced to this measure by no other 
 impulse than a zeal for the faith and the 
 dread of punishment. The Inquisition does
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 177 
 
 not stop here. It believes, or feigns to be- 
 lieve, that the excommunicated, the heretic 
 himself, nay, even the infidel, takes a true 
 interest in religion when he subscribes to an 
 impeachment and is admitted.* Legislators 
 who thus unblushingly trampled on the rights 
 of justice could not be expected to pay any 
 regard to the tender ties of domestic piety. 
 Among us therefore one brother is not secure 
 against another ; the mother is rendered sus- 
 picious to her own children ; and the spouse, 
 or father of a family, busied in daily labour 
 to provide sustenance for the objects of his 
 tender love, in all of them has a continual 
 spy, because it is thus the pharisaical inqui- 
 sitor ordains.t 
 
 Whilst the Pharisees were extremely scru- 
 pulous in matters of religion, they at the 
 same time omitted other virtues without 
 which this becomes mere hypocrisy. Those 
 very persons who punctually paid tithes on 
 mint, anise, and cummin, — who compassed 
 both sea and land to gain one proselyte to 
 
 * De Haeret. cap. Accusal, in. 6. What is said in 
 this decretal of the witness is also to be understood of the 
 secret informer ; for in fact he acts both parts. — Eymeric, 
 Director. Inquisit. part ii. cap. xiii. et part. iii. n. 68. 
 
 t Eymeric, Director. Inquisit. part ii. cap. Ixx, 
 VOL. I, N
 
 17S INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP.IV. 
 
 the Synagogue, and persecuted Christ and 
 his Apostles as innovators of the faith, — did 
 not hesitate to affirm that the succours which 
 a son owes to his parents are better employed 
 when offered to the ministers of worship. 
 Such were their ideas of the obligations by 
 which they were bound to the very persons 
 who had given them birth.* This, however, 
 was not the opinion of St. Paul, although 
 he had been a pharisee ; nor would many of 
 the prelates of the church have been of this 
 way of thinking if they had remembered that 
 they also were apostles. The above great 
 expounder of the Gospel observed: " If any 
 provide not for his own, especially those of 
 his own house, he hath denied the faith, and 
 is worse than an infidel." t Since then St. 
 Paul considers the neglect of our own as a 
 crime of which the religious man is incapable, 
 what would he have said of him who, under 
 pretext of religion, brings upon them infamy 
 and death? In short, the little regard paid 
 by this tribunal to the love by which kindred 
 persons are united is clearly manifested by 
 
 * S. Matth. cap. xv. v. 5. 
 
 t Ad Timoth. I. cap. v. v. 8. " Si quis autem suomm, 
 et maxime domesticorum curam non habet, Jidetn iisgavii, 
 ei est ivfideli deterior.'"
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 179 
 
 the Instructions of the Portuguese Inquisi- 
 tion. By them no notice is taken of a culprit 
 secreting an accomplice who is his relation 
 in a transversal degree, or even a stranger, 
 but he is forbidden to secrete his parents, his 
 children, or his wife ! * 
 
 Finally, the death of the accused is not a 
 barrier against the fury of the Inquisition, or 
 the grave an asylum against its inexorable 
 persecutions. The memory of him who died 
 upright in the opinions of all is pursued with 
 malignity, even a century after he had ceased 
 to exist, if after that lapse of time any one 
 seeks to avenge himself, or takes an interest 
 in his defamation. His bones are dug out of 
 his grave and burnt, unless already mouldered 
 into dust; whilst his property is wrested from 
 its present possessors, whatever be the title 
 
 * Regimento do Santo Officio de Portugal, lib. iii. 
 tit. iv. n. 1. " Quando o reo que confesson as culpas de 
 heresia per que foy prezo estever diminuto em sua con- 
 fissao e a diminui5ao for em complicidade que esteja 
 le^timamente provada com algum seu ascendente ou 
 descendente, ou com marido ou molher, nao Ihe sera a 
 confissao recebida ; e por quanto se dpve ter per simulada 
 sera relaxado a curia secular ; e si a complicidade for de 
 pessoa parenta sua no primeiro grao transversal ficar^ 
 em arbirio dos inquisidores haberse de I'ecebir ou nao 
 «er recebida «uB confissao." 
 
 N 2
 
 180 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IV. 
 
 by which they have acquired it, becoming 
 subject to confiscation from the moment the 
 deceased committed a delinquency. In this 
 particular, we Spaniards may complain of 
 the Inquisition as the Romans did of Do- 
 mitian, and even with greater reason ; since, 
 by the confiocation of inheritances under 
 the most frivolous pretexts, no security 
 exists in the testaments of the deceased, 
 neither have the heirs or legatees been 
 allowed to enjoy their privileges, nor have 
 the slaves who had been manumitted by the 
 testator known whether they were really free 
 or not.* In former times at least these spoli- 
 ation laws only lasted as long as the life of the 
 tyrant, which fortunately was always short, 
 and the reputation of the deceased was un- 
 hurt ; but under this tribunal the possession 
 of property does not enjoy the rights of pre- 
 scription till after forty years, but the me- 
 mory of its original possessor never.t 
 
 From these premises it must result that 
 the exhibition of crimes made to the Inqui- 
 sition is very different from that usually made 
 in the tribunals of the nations of antiquity, 
 and extremely opposed to the duties of 
 
 * Plin. Paneg. cap. xxxiv. Suetonius Domitian. cap. xii. 
 t Eymeric, Director Inquisit. part iii. qucBSi, Ixiii. 
 4
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 181 
 
 society. The heinousness of this practice will 
 still appear in stronger colours, if it is only 
 compared with that obsei-ved by the Church 
 in this particular during its happier times. 
 Our own Council of Elvira ordered that 
 communion should be refused to informers 
 till the end of their lives, if any one had 
 been put to death or banished in conse- 
 quence of their impeachments.* Above all, 
 the cruelty with which this tribunal has pro- 
 moted denunciations, and the facility with 
 ivhich these have been etTected, is evidently 
 opposed to what our Saviour ordains through 
 St. Matthew, viz. that every practicable means 
 are to be employed in order to induce him 
 who has erred to enter into himself before 
 he is cited before a tribunal.t Even among 
 the Jews, whose legislation was so heavy a 
 yoke that they were scarcely able to bear 
 its galling weight, a propensity to denuncia- 
 tion was held as extremely odious, and as 
 
 * Canon. Ixxiii. 
 
 ■[ S. Matth. cap xvlii. v. 15. " Si autem peccaverit in 
 tefrater tuus, vade, et corripe eum inter te, et ipsum solum : 
 si te audierit lucratiis erisfratrem tuum" — v. 16. " <S'/ aidem 
 te non audierit, adhibe tecum adhuc unumy vel duos, ut in ore 
 duorum vel trium te'otium stet omne verbum."—-y. 17. " Quod 
 si non audierit eos, die ecclesia : si autem ecdesiam non 
 audierit, sit tibi sicut ethnicus et fublicanus**
 
 182 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IT. 
 
 such condemned in the Leviticus.* Trajan, 
 the Spaniard, of whose moderation I spoke 
 in treating of the process of inquisition or 
 search, is not less deserving of praise with 
 regard to denunciations. At the same time 
 that he preserved to the people the liberty 
 of accusing, combining with it the difficulty 
 
 * Levit. cap. xix. v. 16. *' Non eris criminator, nee SU' 
 surro in populo. Non stabis contra sanguinem proximi tuL 
 Ego Dominus.'* — v. 17. " Non oderisjratretn tuum in corde 
 tuo, sed publice argue euniyne habeas super illo peccatum.^' — 
 V. 18. *' Non qiicsras uUionem, nee mentor eris injuria 
 civium tuorum. Diliges proximum tuum sicut te ipsum. Ego 
 Dominus.'^ These are the words of the Vulgate, which 
 partly differs from the Hebrew original, to which the 
 Septuagint and the other ancient versions are more 
 conformable. The original, in verse 16, is as follows: 
 ^»3T "j^n k"? Thou shalt not go about the place as a 
 trader, (that is carrying tales from one place to another.) 
 Thou shalt not incline to accuse any one for injury that 
 may deserve capital punishment. I the Lord forbid it to 
 thee. — V. 17. Far from conducting thyself towards thy 
 neighbour in so odious a manner, n»3n nairr remon- 
 strate with him, endeavouring to make him feel the force 
 of reason, for otherwise thou wilt be guilty of sin. — v. 18. 
 itDD «^ Thou shalt not go about like him who seeks 
 revenge, prying out the conduct of thy fellow citizens, 
 but rather thou shalt love hm as thyself. I the Lord 
 command this to thee. Rabbi Ben-Maimon also under- 
 stands this passage in the same sense of secret denun- 
 ciation, in his book entitled nptn n», treatise n^V'^ ma^rt 
 cap. vii. n. 1, 2, & 3.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 183 
 
 of calumniation, he chastised informers with 
 extraordinary severity. By the first being 
 condemned to the block, and the second to 
 the gallows, the Roman people rejoiced to 
 see avenged the cruel alarms by which they 
 were formerly agitated, and that they had no 
 longer any thing to fear but the law.* 
 
 The manner in which the Inquisition com- 
 mences its principal prosecutions being such 
 as we have just described, the apologists of 
 this institution argue in its defence that, as 
 heresy is a privileged crime and stands on a 
 parallel with high treason, it ought not to be 
 subject to the same regulations as other 
 offences. They further add, that it is of urgent 
 necessity to keep the denunciator secret, for 
 otherwise his person and reputation would 
 be endangered ; and in that case no one 
 would step forward to denounce, whereby a 
 crime of the deepest dye would remain with- 
 out condign punishment. Thus is it that the 
 most certain and fixed maxims of criminal 
 legislation are confounded, and the rights of 
 the citizen trampled to the ground, under 
 the pretext of zeal for the glory of God and 
 the good of society ! Those who argue in 
 this manner do not advert, that this is the 
 * Pliny, Paneg. cap. xxxiv et xxxvi.
 
 184 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 very same objection Tiberius alleged to the 
 senate when Rome was more than ever 
 infested with informers, and the senate re- 
 quired of him to deprive them of the fourth 
 part of the property confiscated through their 
 means. The Emperor, filled with rage on 
 hearing such a proposal, replied, that the 
 empire would be infallibly lost if any inno- 
 vation was allowed with regard to denuncia- 
 tions; for that in such a case it would be 
 better to throw down the laws altogether, 
 since they would be of no avail as long 
 as this stimulus to watch over them was 
 wanting. 
 
 In relating this passage, filled with asto- 
 nishment Tacitus thus exclaims : " In this 
 manner were men encouraged with rewards, 
 who in fact are the ruin of the state, and 
 whose wickedness is such that no infliction 
 is sufficient to punish it.'* * When the tyrants 
 of Rome, according to the same Tacitus, 
 declared all transgression against the law to 
 be a crime of high treason, — when, according 
 to Suetonius, they punished as such any irre- 
 verence committed against their statues, — 
 in a word, when, according to Pliny, they 
 pronounced every man guilty of high treason 
 * Tacitus, Annal. lib. ir. cap. xxx.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 185 
 
 whom they wished to ruin, — then secret im- 
 formers became necessary; for without them, 
 not the majesty of the empire, but the lives 
 of those who had usurped it, would have 
 been endangered. Thus did it principally 
 happen during the time of the Dictator 
 Scylla, and the Emperors Augustus, Nero, 
 and Caligula, when secret impeachments 
 were extremely frequent: but under the 
 government of other more humane princes, 
 who had the generosity to share with the 
 people the rights of which they had been 
 stripped, no other than accusations under- 
 taken and carried on with good faith met 
 with encouragement; denunciation was ex- 
 ploded, and informers exterminated. And, 
 since the Inquisition has adopted this prac- 
 tice, after the pattern of tyrants, can it 
 thereby contribute to the safety of the state, 
 and maintain the dignity of religion? * 
 
 * Tacitus, Annal, lib. iii. cap. xxxviii. — Suetonius, 
 Neron. cap. Iii. — Pliny, Paneg. cap. xlii. — Don Bias Osto- 
 laza, in his pamphlet entitled " Letter on the Establish- 
 ment of the Tribunal of the Inquisition," addressing 
 himself to his reader, by whom he feigns to have been 
 consulted, uses the following words : *' But it is extremely 
 odious, you tell me, to force every citizen to denounce 
 what ma}' be contrary to religion. Do you perchance 
 believe that this is an invention of the inquisitors ? Is it
 
 1S6 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IT. 
 
 Summary Impeachment. — When tlie in- 
 quisitors are of opinion that the information 
 lodged furnishes sufficient grounds to pro- 
 ceed against the person impeached, they 
 prepare a summary statement of the crime, 
 in order by virtue of the same to effect the 
 arrest. For this purpose the informer and the 
 witnesses are heard ; and, on their ratifying 
 their first report in the presence of two or 
 
 not true that the Apostle enjoined the Romans to guard 
 against those who stirred up dissensiong in order to pervert 
 the faith handed down to us ?" The passage quoted by 
 this writer is the following : " Rogo aidcm vos, Jratres, ut 
 observetis eos qui dissensiones et qffiendicida prcBter doctrinam 
 quam vos didicistis Jaciunty et declinate ab illis. Ad Rom. 
 cap. xvi. V, 17. — But, let me ask, does the Apostle here 
 say that the faithful ought, or not, to denounce heretics ? 
 Is it the same to exhort them to be on their guard respect- 
 ing their doctrine as to oblige them to lodge secret infor- 
 mations against them ? " Well-cemented republics," he 
 adds, " command every citizen to denounce instigators 
 of novelties, traitors to their country, and disturbers of 
 the public tranquillity. And does not the national belief 
 deserve equal consideration ?" — As this last objection 
 exactly coincides with that of Tiberius, for I suppose it 
 must allude to an approval of secret informations, the 
 main point here in dispute, the same answer may also 
 be applied to it ; yet we ought besides particularly to bear 
 in mind how enormous that preponderance is which 
 despotism attains by the union of superstition, to what it 
 becomes when accompanied by false policy alone.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 1 87 
 
 more respectable persons, silence is imposed 
 upon them by the same oath under which 
 their declaration was made. If the person 
 about to be arrested has resided in various 
 towns, it is customary to send to the tribunals 
 of their district letters of scrutiny, (called 
 de Recorreccion,) in order to discover whe- 
 ther any charge can be therein found to add 
 to the process.* 
 
 In the crime of heresy, the propositions 
 
 of which information has been lodged then 
 
 pass to the qualificators or skilful men, who 
 
 therein give their opinions and motives ; and 
 
 although at first sight this would appear the 
 
 safest way for the judges to proceed rightly, 
 
 in general it only serves to add to their 
 
 confusion, and to endanger still more the 
 
 application of justice. This is because 
 
 each qualificator or censor gives his opinion 
 
 under a separate form ; and the judges, 
 
 especially in Spain where they are usually 
 
 jurists, being unable to appreciate the reasons 
 
 on which this is founded, sometimes decide 
 
 in favour of the report that has most votes, 
 
 and at others adhere to the judgment of the 
 
 * D. Juan Antonio Rodrigalvarcz, Apuntes sobre la 
 Inquisicion. MS. the original of* which I possess. — Regi- 
 rnento do Santo Officio de Portugal, lib. i. tit. iii. n. 32.
 
 188 INftUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 qualificator held in the highest repute, or to 
 the opinion of another who condemns the 
 propositions ; believing him, for this reason, 
 more favourable to the faith. In all probabi- 
 lity, if the trials which have been carried on 
 in the Inquisition could only be examined, 
 very few of them would be exempt from the 
 same censure that was passed on the cele- 
 brated cause of the Proto-notary of Aragon, 
 Geronimo de Villanueva, about the year 1647, 
 when the appeal was carried to Rome. On 
 this occasion the Pope wrote to the Inquisi- 
 tor General himself, stating " that so much 
 discordancy was visible not only in the opini- 
 ons of the qualificators and counsellors, but 
 also in the votes of the judges, that he was 
 really astonished."* But, as every thing in 
 this tribunal is enveloped in the most impe- 
 netrable darkness, it has followed that affairs 
 which, if they had been carried on in a public 
 manner, by their irregularity would have 
 brought on the inquisitors the odium of the 
 
 * This fact is found at more length in the manuscript 
 opinion of the proctors of the royal council, Don Pedro 
 Rodriguez de Campomanes and Don Jose Monino, respect- 
 ing the prohibition of books, it being the same which 
 gave rise to the royal order published on this subject 
 in \76S,
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 189 
 
 people, rather than excited their respect and 
 esteem ; since the interminable duration 
 which accompanied the affairs was rather 
 attributed to their complication and import- 
 ance than the real effect of the ignorance 
 with which they were managed. 
 
 Arrest. — The summary impeachment be- 
 ing concluded, it is laid before the Supreme 
 Council, and its approbation being obtained, 
 the arrest is carried into execution.* This is 
 given in charge to the high bailiff, who exe- 
 cutes his commission by carrying with him a 
 competent number of ministers, taking the 
 necessary precautions to surprise the culprit, 
 which is generally done at night. The law 
 prescribes that the receiver and notary of 
 sequestrations should also be present at the 
 arrest, for in this tribunal confiscation forms 
 an essential part of the process.! The party 
 then sets out, and dread and consternation 
 seize on the culprit and his family. The 
 thunderbolt launched from the black and 
 
 * Notwithstanding the Compilation of Instructions, 
 n. 5, regulates that recurrence shall be had to the council 
 only in cases of a difference of opinion and causes of great 
 entity, it is nevertheless customary to consult it respecting 
 all decrees of arrest. 
 
 t Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 6.
 
 190 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 angry cloud strikes not with such alarm 
 as the sound of " Deliver yourself up a 
 
 PRISONER TO THE INQUISITION ! " (Dc'Se V. 
 
 preso por la Inquiaicion.) Astonished and 
 trembling, the unwary citizen hears the dismal 
 voice, a thousand different affections at once 
 seize upon his panic-struck frame — he re- 
 mains perplexed and motionless. His life in 
 danger, his deserted wife and orphan chil- 
 dren, eternal infamy, the only patrimony 
 that now awaits his bereft family, are all ideas 
 which rush upon his mind — he is at once 
 agitated by an agony of dilemma and despair. 
 The burning tear scarcely glistens on his 
 Hvid cheek, the accents of woe die on his 
 lips, and amidst the alarm and desolation of 
 his family, and the confusion and pity of his 
 neighbours, he is borne away to dungeons, 
 whose damp and bare walls can alone witness 
 the anguish of his mind. 
 
 It is foreign to my purpose to examine ir^ 
 this place whether it was through chance or 
 design that edifices of such ancient and gloomy 
 structure that their sight alone caused terror, 
 were originally fixed upon to be the tribunals 
 and prisons of the Inquisition. The palace 
 of the Counts of Barcelona in the most ele- 
 vated part of the city, where the castle 
 1
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 191 
 
 formerly stood; the Aljalferia, or ancient pa- 
 lace of the Moorish Kings, flanked with towers 
 and situated without the walls of Zaragoza ; 
 and the old Roman fortress which stood at 
 the head of the bridge over the Guadalquivir 
 at Seville, were the first terrific haunts appro- 
 priated to the use of the Inquisition. In one 
 of these edifices, whose black and furrowed 
 walls announce the melancholy gloom that 
 reigns within ; massive piles, which have long 
 withstood the injuries of time, and for ages 
 witnessed the rising and setting of the sun 
 without receiving comfort from its beams; 
 sable and rugged structures, on which whole 
 generations have looked with terror and dis- 
 may — in one of these edifices in short, which, 
 immoveable amidst the lapse time, and whence 
 when the prisoner comes forth he can reveal 
 nothing, present the tremendous image of eter- 
 nity, was usually confined the father of a family, 
 perhaps his amiable wife or tender daughter, 
 the exemplary priest, or peaceful scholar; and 
 in the mean time his house was bathed in 
 tears and filled with desolation. Venerable 
 matrons and timid damsels have been hurried 
 from their homes, and, ignorant of the cause 
 of their misfortune, have awakened from the 
 frenzy of the brain, and found themselves
 
 192 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IV. 
 
 here alone and helpless in a solitary cell. 
 Here the manly youth, torn from his bewail- 
 ing kindred, and often wrested from ties still 
 more endearing, pines amidst damp seehi'^ion 
 and chill despair, and vainly invokes the 
 names of objects which so lately thrilled him 
 with pleasure. The dripping vaults Fe-echo 
 the sighs of the aged father, no longer 
 encircled by the fond endearments of a i nu- 
 merous progeny; all, in short, are condemned 
 to drag existence amidst a death-like silence, 
 and, as it were, immured from the sight of 
 their weeping relatives. 
 
 Such are the afflicted inhabitants of the 
 awful cells of the Inquisition, awaiting the 
 tardy but inexorable sentence that is to de- 
 cide their fate. Haply some may escape ; 
 again they may behold the light of day ; 
 perhaps innocence may triumph over ran- 
 cour, malice, and fanaticism ; but where are 
 they to look for redress for what they have 
 suffered, when even the privilege of com- 
 plaining is denied them ? What a train of 
 melancholy ideas rush to the imagination of 
 him who contemplates the secrets of the 
 Inquisition, and fathoms the malice of which 
 it is capable ! What sensible man, to speak 
 without disguise, and it is certainly time now
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 19S 
 
 to be candid, can fail to impute all kinds of 
 disorders to an institution of this nature, not- 
 withstanding its artifices to hide them from 
 the eye of the public and the research of the 
 historian ? 
 
 Under the veil of secrecy it is as easy to 
 hide all kinds of crimes in a tribunal, as it is 
 robberies and assassinations under the cloak 
 of night ; nevertheless the founders of the 
 Inquisition have always considered secrecy 
 as one of the chief attributes of its establish- 
 ment. It is not merely on the culprits who 
 have the good fortune to escape out of its 
 claws alive that silence under the heaviest pe- 
 nalties is imposed; the inquisitors also, as well 
 as their dependants, in the most frivolous mat- 
 ters are equally held to privacy, because every 
 thing is considered of the greatest interest.* 
 The officers of the highest hierarchy commu- 
 nicate nothing of what they are engaged in 
 to their subalterns nor to the diocesan bishop, 
 unless it is those matters in the execution of 
 which the latter has to interfere, nor are 
 any of them allowed to speak of the same 
 without the precincts of the tribunal. t The 
 denunciator knows nothing of the witnesses, 
 
 * Regimento do Santo Officio, lib. i. tit. i. n. 7. 
 t Ibid, tit.iii. n.lO, 
 TOL. I. G
 
 194 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 nor the latter of the former, nor indeed one 
 of another ; and if perchance they should 
 know any thing of each other, among them- 
 selves as well as elsewhere they are bound 
 to observe the most profound silence.* The 
 culprits brought forth in an Auto have no 
 knowledge of their companions till they see 
 them in the procession or on the platform j 
 and those who remain in the prisons are 
 ignorant of the destiny that awaits the 
 former.! In short, that no trace of what is 
 passing within the walls of the tribunal may 
 appear in public, the commissaries and other 
 persons to whom the court addresses official 
 letters are bound to return them with their 
 Answers written in the margin, and even the 
 bailiff delivers back his order of arrest.1^ 
 
 When the accused has evaded persecution 
 by a. timely flight, he is publicly cited and 
 declared excommunicated in case he does 
 not appear within the time assigned. If he 
 should not surrender himself up within the 
 term of a year he is a condemned as a con- 
 
 * This practice is consequent to the oath of secrecy 
 which all are bound to take when their declarations are 
 first set down. 
 
 t Ibid. lib. ii. tit. xxii. n. 17. 
 
 t IbicL lib. i. tit, iii. n. 35, & tit. xiii. n. 11.
 
 CHAP. IV.3 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 195 
 
 tumacious heretic, and in the mean time his 
 suit is cai'ried on.* This abuse of judicial 
 power, extending to the condemnation of the 
 absent, is not indeed pecuHar to the Inqui- 
 sition, but the grounded dread of appearing 
 before this tribunal more than before any 
 other most assuredlj is. It was in the decline 
 of the Roman empire that the custom was 
 introduced, not only of punishing as a rebel 
 the person who should not appear to the 
 citation of the judge, (the most that ought 
 to be done in a case of this kind) but also 
 of condemning him as guilty of the oifence 
 that had given rise to his prosecution. This, 
 measure was certainly as contrary to equity 
 as that of the Hebrews and ancient Romans 
 was just and reasonable, which forbade the 
 condemnation of the absent for the crime 
 imputed to him, without his being first heard 
 in his own defence ; but it was not easy for 
 the Inquisition, uniformly propending to the 
 worst, to rise above the vices of the age that 
 gave it birth ; and for this reason it followed 
 the torrent of general corruption. Thus when 
 the devoted victim, alarmed at the dangers 
 to which his innocence was exposed, has fled 
 in search of that safety he could not hope to 
 * Instrucciones de Sevilla de 14'84', § 19- 
 02
 
 196 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 find in the sanctuary of justice, the inquisi- 
 tors, stigmatizing his prudence with the name 
 of rebellion, consider him as the perpetrator 
 of the crime of which he is accused ; and, 
 pronouncing against him the same sentence 
 prescribed for the real culprit, avenge them- 
 selves on his effigy, since they are unable to im- 
 brue their hands in the blood of his person.* 
 
 I have before asserted that this mode 
 of proceeding against the absentee was not 
 peculiar ta the Inquisition. Indeed it is not 
 in the manner just described ; nevertheless 
 its laws authorize the inquisitors not only to 
 condemn him before the expiration of the 
 year, by virtue of the reasons alleged by the 
 proctor, but also to condemn him without 
 the formality of process, a thing never heard 
 of in any other tribunal.! The same punish- 
 
 * De Hceret. cap. Ut Inquisit. ^ Prohibemus, in 6- 
 ■f Instrucciones de Sevilla de HS^, § 19. In this 
 article three modes of proceeding against the absent are 
 ordained, the one according to the chap. " Cum contuma- 
 cia De Heeret." in 6, which is the one already explained ; 
 the other is by condemning him from the moment the 
 crime is proved, without any other delay ; and the third, 
 according to the original words, is as follows : " That if in 
 the scrutinies performed any presumption of heresy results 
 against the absentee, (notwithstanding the crime does not 
 appear completely proved,) the inquisitors may issue and
 
 i,nAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 3 97 
 
 ment as that which awaits the absent refusing 
 to appear is also decreed by the Inquisition 
 against any one escaping from its cruel en- 
 durance, as well as against the wretched 
 victim who, either frantic at the miseries into 
 which he is plunged, or worn out by delay 
 and despair, finds means to put an end to 
 his own existence. Both are treated as if 
 they had been convicted of being apostates 
 to the faith, and the whole penalties of the 
 law inflicted upon them.* 
 
 In the Inquisition the prisoners are usually 
 confined in separate cells, in order to avoid 
 among other inconveniences that of their 
 mutually concerting to scale the walls. How- 
 ever, in order to prevent those fatal occur- 
 rences to which solitary confinement is so 
 often subject, and have therein been so 
 
 post up their edict against the said suspected absentee, 
 commanding him within a certain time to appear in his 
 own defence and purge away his said error in a canonical 
 manner ; at the same time enjoining, that in case he does 
 not appear in his own defence and purge away his crime, 
 they will hold him as a convicted person." It also adds, 
 " And notwithstanding this form of process is somewhat 
 rigorous, it is nevertheless founded in right." Here 
 however we have no other process or proof, unless it is 
 that one who is suspected of heresy refuses to appear. 
 * Eymeric, Director. Inquisit, part iii, qucest. Ixiii.
 
 Ids INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cilAP. IV. 
 
 frequent, no other furniture is allowed in 
 the cell of the prisoner than a wooden bed- 
 stead, clamped down or built in masonry ; 
 B. table, one chair, and sometimes none. 
 Formerly no books were permitted for pas- 
 time, not even the breviary to ecclesiastics 
 for the compliance of their duties. The 
 object of the Inquisition in these privations 
 was that, by the spirit of the prisoner being 
 in continual struggle with the uncertainty of 
 his fate, he might become weary, and confess 
 the crime for which he had been confined. 
 With regard to victuals, the prisoners do not 
 fare so badly, whether they are rich or poor> 
 as the confiscated property of the first affords 
 abundant means. 
 
 Interlocutory Investigation. — As soon 
 as the person of the accused is secured his 
 declaration is taken down, and this is called 
 investigation. It is the common practice of 
 these courts first to question him respecting 
 the perpetrator of the offence, but in general 
 terms, in order to avoid all anticipation and 
 surprise. Respecting his crime he is interro- 
 gated in a special manner, and the whole is 
 preceded by an oath to speak the truth. 
 With a similar view it is forbidden to allege 
 against him any of the charges resulting from
 
 C»AP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 199 
 
 the process already formed, leaving him to 
 discover all spontaneously. This formality, 
 if we except the oath which, in such cases, 
 amounts to a gross abuse, contributes to 
 shorten the causes of those culprits who, by 
 at once confessing, submit to the punishment 
 deserved; and also, in cases of denial, by 
 comparing the declaration of the prisoner 
 with the impeachment of the informer and 
 testimony of the witnesses, this measure tends 
 to promote the discovery of the truth and the 
 sincerity or duplicity of the parties. I again 
 repeat that it is an abuse of judicial power 
 to oblige a culprit, by means of an oath, to 
 acknowledge a crime for which he is perhaps 
 to suffer the capital punishment awarded by 
 the law. This proposition which, a hundred 
 years ago, would have been condemned as 
 heretical and subversive of public order, is 
 now generally received as a political dogma. 
 And, in truth, if we establish as a firm prin- 
 ciple that laws are not instituted for heroes, 
 who does not see that it argues a great 
 inconsistency to expect the culprit will avow 
 himself guilty when his life rests on his 
 denial ? The custom therefore of tendering 
 an oath to extort the avowal of the party 
 concerned in criminal matters has been a
 
 200 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 measure as anti-religious as it was anti-politi- 
 cal ; and its result has been no other than to 
 depreciate and debilitate a bond so respecta- 
 ble and efficacious in society, and at last to 
 bring it into almost total disrepute. Let us 
 now proceed to see the practice of the Inqui- 
 sition in this particular. 
 
 The culprit being carried before the tri- 
 bunal, the judges, clothed in all the parade 
 of terror suitable to their character, tender 
 to him the oath whereby he swears to speak 
 the truth to all that may be asked of him.* 
 This practice, considering the nature of the 
 interrogatory to which he is subjected in 
 this tribunal, will be found to possess conse- 
 
 * Corapilacion de Instrucclones, n. 13 & 20. The fierce 
 aspect of the judges is enjoined by Massini, Prattica della 
 Santa Inquisizione, part x. avvert. cliv. under the follow- 
 ing words : " II giudice mentra esamina i rei dee mostrarsi 
 nel volto piuttosto rigido e terribile che piacevole." — 
 Notwithstanding it is now nearly three centuries since the 
 Inquisition among us has been entrusted to the secular 
 clergy, as the institution is under such great obligations 
 to the Dominicans who were its judges and legislators in. 
 the time of its barbarism, and as the latter, both in Spaia 
 and Italy, have nevertheless partly sat as judges and have 
 afterwards obtained a seat in the Council of the Supreme, 
 I have considered it but just that this circumstance, as 
 well as their difference of dress, should appear in the 
 plates representing the tribunal. Vide Plate II.

 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 201 
 
 quences infinitely greater than in any other. 
 The culprit is obliged to declare his whole 
 genealogy and descent, notwithstanding the 
 court through other channels carries on the 
 same scrutiny; and is obligated to make 
 known whether any of his ancestors, in a 
 direct or transversal line, or his brothers, 
 wife, children, or indeed himself, have at any 
 time previous been arraigned before the tri- 
 bunal, and penanced by it.* One of the 
 objects of the Inquisition in this preliminary 
 inquiry is to get at a clue that may tend to 
 implicate the accused in a stronger manner ; 
 for, as already observed, there is no proof 
 however small or remote that is not grasped 
 at, provided only it serves to aggravate his 
 criminality. Another motive is to obtain 
 possession of the property he may have 
 inherited, by declaring the right of succes- 
 sion as null and void, to the evident destruc- 
 tion of perhaps many families. 
 
 In conformity to this the inquisitors com- 
 pel all Jewish apostates, as well as all other 
 offenders subject to sequestration, to declare 
 on oath the names of all their relatives ; and 
 besides, whether they at any time testated, 
 
 * Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. H. — Ordetx depra- 
 eesar, fol. 9,
 
 202 INaUlSITlON UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 and before what notary.* According to the 
 same rule, and under the same oath, the 
 culprit is further bound to make known 
 every item of property he possesses, so that 
 nothing escapes confiscation. This is ren- 
 dered the more complete by the pardon of 
 his life being granted to him the first time 
 he falls into the fangs of the Inquisition ; but 
 of which he is pronounced unworthy if he 
 should in the smallest degree be wanting to 
 the truth. And, although it is true that the 
 relapsed is also under the obligation of exhi- 
 biting his property, notwithstanding he is 
 divested of every hope of pardon, it is never- 
 theless clear that, as the second spoliation 
 follows on the heels of the former one, the 
 gains are generally much less.t The obliga- 
 tion imposed by the tribunal on the culprit 
 who has before been condemned to do 
 penance, and by which he is bound to de- 
 clare whether this really was the case, is 
 
 * Orden de Procesar, fol. 9, note ms. "In cases of 
 conyerted piactisers of Judaism, and in others from wlvich 
 sequestration of property may result, it is proper that, 
 besides the names of the relatives, it should be stated 
 whether the culprit has made a will, and before whom, as 
 this may serve a great number of purposes." 
 
 t Vide Relation de I'Inquisition de Goa, chap. xix. 
 
 4
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 203 
 
 certainly extremely singular ; as, by this cir- 
 cumstance, he is proved to be a relapse, 
 whence that mercy is denied to him which 
 otherwise would have been granted if the 
 fact had not been known. By this means a 
 culprit may be carried to execution for the 
 crime of false repentance, (Jicta pcenitentia); 
 of the existence of which offence the smallest 
 traces would not have been found in the 
 Inquisition, if the prisoner had not been 
 forced to declare the circumstance by virtue 
 of the oath imposed upon him, contrary to 
 all reason, and according to an abuse of 
 power which makes humanity shudder. 
 
 In like manner, the court requires of the 
 prisoner an exact account of his whole life ; 
 and, in case the witnesses incidentally depose 
 respecting any other crime foreign to its 
 competency, this is nevertheless produced 
 by the proctor in the accusation by way of 
 presumptive evidence, and consequently the 
 culprit is forced to confess it, or else he runs 
 the risk of his denial and perjury producing 
 an unfavourable influence on the issue of his 
 trial.* He is further enjoined to avow what 
 his intention was in proffering the proposition 
 for which he has been arrested, or the sense 
 * Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. IS.
 
 204 INQUISITION UN3IASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 he attached to it in his own mind : in a 
 word, he is compelled to furnish his judges 
 with proofs whereby to condemn him, and 
 such as he alone could disclose.* Whilst 
 canonists and theologians have uniformly 
 agreed that God alone could have commanded 
 the exhibition of offences to the priest in the 
 sacrament of penance, from its great repug- 
 nance to the self-love of man, we here see 
 that the popes, by pressing still harder on 
 the culprit, have introduced it in a great 
 measure into the Inquisition, with this aggra- 
 vating difference, that sacramental confession 
 is from man to man, and ends in absolution 
 or secret suspension therefrom ; whereas in 
 this tribunal the confession terminates in a 
 reconciliation more or less public, always 
 accompanied with infamy, or in a condemna- 
 tion to die on the scaffold. Since therefore 
 the oath is profaned by compelhng the cul- 
 prit to depose against himself in criminal 
 matters, in consequence of the imminent 
 
 * This is to such a degree true, that wlien tlie oath 
 does not suffice to compel the culprit to declare his inten- 
 tion, or rather when the culprit does not make his declara- 
 tion according to the pleasure of the inquisitors, the laws 
 of the tribunal command that the torture shall be admi- 
 nistered to him. Orden de Procesar, fol. 27. 
 5
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 20S 
 
 danger of his being wanting to the truth, 
 how much greater is not this profanation 
 in the Inquisition, where the arduous posi- 
 tion of the prisoner is infinitely greater and 
 more dangerous than in any other tribunal 
 whatever ? 
 
 Another remarkable peculiarity in this 
 court is that the judges, when they call the 
 prisoner to give in his declaration, hide from 
 him the offence respecting which he is to 
 make confession. He is, in the first place, 
 ordered to state for what reason he has been 
 brought to the Inquisition ; if he dissembles, 
 or is really ignorant of the motive, he is sent 
 back to his prison ; and this ceremony is 
 performed as often as three times, with some 
 interval between each.*= In all of them the 
 judges do not cease exhorting him, after a 
 renewal of the oath has been performed, to 
 manifest for the security of his conscience 
 every thing he may have said or done against 
 the faith, against the free exercise of the 
 tribunal, or the honour of its ministers.! 
 
 * Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 15. 
 
 t Orden de Procesar, fol. l*. " He is admonished t« 
 speak the truth if he has done or said, or been seen to do or 
 say, any thing that may be injurious to the faith or contrary
 
 206 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IT. 
 
 The idea all this presents is, that the court 
 wishes the prisoner to confess under a hope 
 of being treated with greater kindness ; but 
 without dreading the charge of temerity, and 
 judging only from the strict nature of the 
 process, I may venture to attribute to such 
 a practice the highest refinement of the in- 
 quisitorial test. At least it will not be denied 
 that the prisoner is compelled to scrutinize 
 every act and period of his life, till at last 
 he hits on the cause of his impeachment. 
 
 Scarcely recovered from the surprise caused 
 by his arrest, and appalled by the contrast 
 his imagination forms of the many and secret 
 steps previously taken, compared with the 
 state of security in which he lately lived, 
 from that moment the prisoner begins to 
 despair, and, hopeless and dismayed, he al- 
 ready beholds the torment that awaits him. 
 Bewildered, as in the mazes of a labyrinth, 
 wherever he turns his eyes some fresh object 
 increases his pain and adds to his anguish. 
 Under the undoubted supposition that, in this 
 abode of wretchedness, the appearances of 
 the most officious charity conceal acts of 
 insidious cruelty, he beholds no one who is 
 
 to the free exercise of the Holy Office." MS, note, *' Or 
 contrary to the honour of its ministers."
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 20t 
 
 not an enemy, and hears nothing that is not 
 directed to his ruin. Secluded from every 
 species of intercourse, if his keeper says any 
 thing unconnected with the service of his 
 person, it is to assure him that it will be 
 much in his favour to confess according to 
 the pleasure of the inquisitors.* If an attor- 
 ney is allowed him, it is after he has been 
 sworn to use every exertion to induce his 
 client to confess, and that he will abandon 
 his defence from the moment he discovers 
 his guilt. Thus is it that the prisoner has 
 more to fear from his own advocate than 
 from the proctor of his enemies.t If, seeking 
 that consolation in God which he cannot 
 find in man, he should solicit the sacrament 
 
 * This is expressly forbidden by the ordinances of the 
 Inquisition of Portugal, nevertheless constant pi-actice 
 has been opposed to this prohibition, as is proved by what 
 occurred to Dellon in the Inquisition of Goa, (Relation 
 de la dite Inquisition, chap, iv.) and Don Hipolito Jose 
 da Costa in that of Lisbon, (Narrativa da Perseguigao, 
 torn, i.) 
 
 t Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 23. " The attor- 
 ney is bound as a Christian to admonish him to confess the 
 truth, and, if he is guilty, to sue for penance. Orden de 
 Procesar, fol. 16. Again, " The advocate swears that, 
 if the culprit has not justice on his side, he will undeceive 
 him and keep secrecy."
 
 208 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 of penance, either a confessor is refused 
 him, or, if he is allowed one, it is not for the 
 purposes of absolution, since of this he is 
 deemed unworthy as long as he persists in 
 not exhibiting to the court the crime of 
 which he is accused; but that he may co-ope- 
 rate with the rest in promoting his con- 
 demnation by exhortations of a similar 
 nature, and by revealing what the prisoner 
 may have confided to him either before or 
 after confession.* Finally, the inquisitors, 
 
 * Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 71. " If he 
 ask for a confessor, a qualified and confidential person, 
 shall be given him, who shall previously make oath that he 
 will keep secrecy ; and, if the penitent in his confession 
 sliould reveal any thing to him to be conveyed out of the 
 prison, that he will not accept the charge nor be the 
 bearer of any such communication. And if he should 
 confide the same to him out of the time of confession, 
 that he will also reveal it to the inquisitors, who shall 
 advise and instruct the said confessor how he is to act 
 towards the penitent, signifying to him that, since he is 
 imprisoned for being a heretic, if he does not manifest 
 his crime in a judicial manner, being guilty, he cannot be 
 absolved. And, with regard to the rest, it is left to the 
 conscience of the confessor, who is to be learned," &c. 
 The good qualities which the tribunal requires in the 
 confessor are understood by merely saying that he must 
 possess its confidence. Massini, Prattica della S. Inqui- 
 sizione, part x. avvert. Ixi. Regiraento do S. Officio de 
 Portugal, lib. i, tit. iii. n. 29.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED; 209 
 
 soaietimes with a complacent aspect, and at 
 others in a demure and rigid tone, emulously 
 urge him during the whole of the trial to 
 acknowledge having been a defaulter in the 
 manner laid to his charge. They affect to 
 feel a paternal solicitude for him, as if a 
 father, even when he were as zealous for the 
 pubHc good as a Junius Brutus or a Manlius 
 Torquatus, could seek the condemnation of 
 iiis own son when his crime was not legally 
 established ; and, by one of those strange 
 contradictions so common to the Inquisition, 
 in order to prove his delinquency, they 
 endeavour to avail themselves of the res- 
 pect for God and his saints which they 
 suppose in him at the same time that they 
 treat him as a mortal enemy to the Di- 
 vinity. No people take the name of God 
 so much into their mouths as the Jews in 
 their engagements and the Gipsies in their 
 contracts.* 
 
 * The Order of Process, fol. 10, commands the in- 
 quisitors to urge the culprit to the confession of his 
 crime under the following form: " In reverence of God 
 ©ur Lord, and of his glorious and blessed mother our 
 Lady the Virgin Mary, admonishing him to examine his 
 memory, and to speak the entire truth of all he should 
 feel himself guilty or may know of in other persons being 
 equally so, (we see the inquisitors do not forget the 
 
 VOL. I. P
 
 210 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Who then follows up the defence of the 
 prisoner when he has been abandoned by his 
 attorney? Is he to be judged as one con- 
 victed because his advocate has forsaken 
 him? I find no regulations laid down for 
 this peculiar case, and in reality they would 
 have been of no service, since in fact the 
 granting to the prisoner the means of defence 
 is merely nominal. What the laws of the 
 Inquisition prescribe respecting the confessor 
 is not less monstrous. Theologians teach, 
 that the seducing confessor commits a sacri- 
 lege, whether his attempts have been imme- 
 diately before or after the performance of 
 his duty, because so vile a proceeding tends 
 to render the sacrament odious. The same 
 theologians would do well to inform the 
 world whether that part of the practice and 
 €M)nduct of the Inquisition we have just 
 described is regular and proper. Did any 
 confessor ever prostitute his ministry so as 
 to become the instrument of an intrigue so 
 
 scrutinies it is their duty to perform !) for by so doing 
 he will unburden his conscience as a Catholic Christian 
 and save his soul, and his cause will be dispatched with 
 all possible brevity and mercy." The same is likewise 
 •ordained, in almost the same words, by the Regimento 
 do S. Officio de Portugal, lib, ii, tit. iv. n. 9.
 
 CHAP. ly.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 211 
 
 abominably wicked as the above ? This cir- 
 cumstance in former times, when inquisitorial 
 zeal was in its zenith, would not have been a 
 matter of astonishment, since the very per- 
 jsons who drew up the above Regulation 
 were themselves confessors ; but it is unac- 
 countable that such a practice should have 
 survived the barbarous age in which it was 
 invented. With regard to the present time, 
 and the influence which of late years this tri- 
 bunal has held over the secrecy of confession, 
 I shall quote the testimony of one who had 
 powerful reasons to be well-acquainted with 
 it. This is Don Juan Antonio Rodrigalvarez, 
 late canon of the royal church of St. Isidore 
 of Madrid, and afterwards titular archdeacon 
 of the cathedral of Cuen9a. This worthy 
 person, well known in Castile not less for 
 his firmness of character and austerity of life 
 than his science and ardent desire of reform 
 in ecclesiastical discipline, and who lately 
 died in the town of Canete, flying from the 
 incursions of the French, was also funda- 
 mentally acquainted with the actual state 
 of the Inquisition, by whom he had been 
 often consulted as an experienced con- 
 fessor. In his memorandums on this sub- 
 ject addressed to a friend in this city, 
 
 p2
 
 J12 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ciIAP. IV. 
 
 Speaking of denunciation he makes use of 
 the following words : " The infraction of 
 every right and principle in this tribunal still 
 goes further ; for though secrecy is the very 
 soul of all its proceedings, that of sacramental 
 confession is nevertheless not respected by 
 it, in consequence of the declarations it fre- 
 quently requires of confessors relating to 
 their penitents." 
 
 Let it not however be objected to me, 
 that this confession imposed by the Inquisi- 
 tion on its prisoners has a model among the 
 Scriptures in the case of Joshua against 
 Achan, when the latter had secreted a rich 
 garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and 
 a wedge of gold, out of the booty of the city 
 of Ai, in direct contravention to the com- 
 mands of God on this occasion. Joshua 
 exhorted him to give glory to God and 
 openly confess the truth, and then cast him 
 into the flames by virtue of his avowal, toge- 
 ther with all his booty and property.* This 
 is one of those extraordinary events which 
 abound in the annals of the Hebrew nation, 
 and, of course, cannot serve as an example 
 for others. The same also may be said of all 
 other arguments taken from their civil as 
 * Joshua, chap, viii, v, 19.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 213 
 
 well as criminal legislation, since it cannot 
 be denied that both have now ceased ; and 
 it will further be readily acknowledged that 
 they were instituted for a people of a charac- 
 ter little analogous to the Spanish, and that 
 those times were very different to our own. 
 Besides, can a nation that, during its infancy 
 in Memphis under Pharoah, was no other 
 than a horde of slaves, — that in Jerusalem, 
 under David and Solomon its two most 
 famous kings, was held in abject subjection, — - 
 and that, since its dispersion, has lost all 
 reasonable hopes of liberty, serve as a model 
 to a people holding in its own hands the 
 means of freedom ? If this were the case, 
 of what avail would be the labours of the 
 National Congress to give us a constitution, 
 when it would suffice to enact the political 
 regulations of the Pentateuch and command 
 their observance ? In the civil code, among 
 other things, we should then see the power 
 of the father extend to the sale of his chil- 
 dren ; in the criminal one we should behold 
 the talion-law revived with the mutilation of 
 members ; and in the usages of war the ab- 
 solute power of the conqueror over his fallen 
 foe would be again introduced. It is high 
 time for those who appeal to the Old Testa-
 
 214 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 merit for authorities in support of the rioourS 
 of the Inquisition to be undeceived. Any 
 liberal law found among the Hebrews may 
 safely be adopted as a model, since we are 
 now in search of a system of which liberality 
 is to be the basis ; but we have nothing to do 
 with their bloody laws, when we seek to loosen 
 rather than to wind up the springs of abject 
 prejudice and degradation, and are on the 
 eve of breaking asunder the trammels of de- 
 basement and slavery. 
 
 Finally, the judge, before he closes the 
 summary proceeding, requires of the prisoner 
 to declare whether he is the author of the 
 offence alleged, a process usually called 
 taking down his declaration, whether he con- 
 fesses ingenuously or not, or whether he 
 persists in absolute silence. Whenever the 
 latter takes place, all the penalty of the law 
 is inflicted upon him the same as if he had 
 avowed his offence, whereas he ought only 
 to be punished for his obstinacy. This cus- 
 tom, although extremely unjust, has been 
 generally observed in our other courts, and 
 the Inquisition has followed tlieir example, 
 but with a considerable excess of rigour, 
 according to what we have already shown, 
 as well by an anticipation of time, as by
 
 CHAP. IV.] INaUlSITION UNMASKED. 215 
 
 the strenuous manner in which it wrests an 
 avowal from the prisoner. 
 
 Plenary Judgment. — The declaration, or 
 as it may be called the confession of the 
 culprit, which ends the whole summary judg- 
 ment and corresponds to a cross-examination 
 in civil cases, is the link that unites it with 
 the plenary judgment, and also forms the 
 whole basis of the process. When sufficient 
 evidence appears from the first stage of the 
 proceeding to act against the accused, and 
 detain his person, the cause is instituted in 
 the second with all due formality. To this 
 effect, a proctor is named to act in behalf of 
 the public, as well as an advocate to plead 
 for the prisoner. The proofs are then sub- 
 stantiated, and the exceptions examined with 
 the greatest scrupulosity. In short, all the 
 apparent importance is given to the matter 
 which it ought in reality to possess, when 
 the punishment or impunity of a delinquent 
 is the object in view, and the well-being or 
 misfortune of the innocent is to be the result. 
 It is indeed true, that the Inquisition has 
 adopted the form of a plenary judgment; 
 but, as the court is already prejudiced against 
 the prisoner from the time of his arrest, this 
 has been adopted merely for the purpose of
 
 216 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV* 
 
 condemning him a second time, and not for 
 the protection of his innocence. With regard 
 to the utihty that might result to him from 
 this revision of his case, the latter proceed- 
 ing is in fact as summary as the first; because 
 in it there is no obligation to adhere to any. 
 determined forms, but merely to observe 
 what natural right prescribes, that is in the 
 terms understood by the inquisitors, since 
 this alone gives legality to the sentence.* In 
 a word, all anomaly even when in contraven- 
 tion to justice, as long as it possesses the 
 slightest colouring of reason, is authorised by 
 this tribunal, and even sanctified under a plea 
 of what is called its being done in behalf of 
 the faith. Lastly, that nothing may be want- 
 ing to complete this disorganization, each 
 provincial Inquisition has its own peculiar 
 usages and regulations, nor would it be pos- 
 sible in this place exactly to describe their 
 respective modes of process.t 
 
 The court however proceeds in a more 
 
 * Paramo, De Ordin. Judiciar. S. Offic. quaest. iv, 
 n.43. 
 
 + Pena, Ad Director. Inquisit. com. xcvii. " Statuen- 
 dum est" he say?;, " non esse privatas Tnquisitionum quaruvi' 
 libet sanctiones inspiciendas, quibus scepe ex causa id cavetiiVy 
 quod jure communif et communibus doctoruni dictis videtur 
 (idversum**
 
 i^HAP.IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 217 
 
 solemn and formal manner in the second 
 judgment, which improperly, and for the 
 mere purpose of misleading the unwary, has 
 been called plenary ; for it only differs from 
 the first, inasmuch as by this the prisoner, 
 is sentenced to be detained without being 
 allowed to plead, by virtue only of the 
 declaration of the accuser and witnesses ; 
 whereas in the other, although he is allowed 
 to plead, the principal exceptions he might 
 allege in his own favour are either withdrawn 
 or invalidated when perhaps they might 
 suffice to liberate him from suffering. This 
 unjust mode of proceeding is founded on that 
 axiom of right, or rather that fatal para- 
 dox invented by flattery and sanctioned by 
 tyranny, viz. that slight proofs are sufficient 
 in crimes of great atrocity, and that in taking 
 cognizance thereof the judge may exceed the 
 common limits of the law. The Inquisition 
 therefore availing itself of this rule, and 
 besides mistaking the sin or offence com- 
 mitted against God for the crime or injury 
 done to society, not only punishes the here- 
 tical dogmatist, but also avenges itself on 
 any one who may have slipped into an un- 
 guarded expression in the least opposed to 
 any article of the faith. Thus a fault easily
 
 218 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IV, 
 
 committed, or, if not, easily supposed so, and 
 arising only out of indiscretion, is punished 
 as the most enormous crime ; that is, as the 
 crime of one who with mature deliberation 
 should propose to destroy both religion and 
 the state ; as a crime, in short, whose per- 
 petration is scarcely possible, and for whose 
 detection a concurrence of greater proofs 
 is necessary than for that of an ordinary 
 offence. At the same time that Paramo 
 wishes that, owing to the enormity of heresy, 
 the second judgment of the Inquisition 
 should be held in the light of a summary 
 one, he confesses, when quoting the Chapter 
 Litteras De Praesumpt. and also Pefia, that 
 the proofs of a crime ought to be the greater 
 in proportion to its gravity.* It is by no 
 means strange that the expositors of this 
 form of legislation should fall into contra- 
 dictions when its principles are continually 
 clashing with each other. 
 
 Beccaria, speaking on this subject, observes 
 that, " if the gravity of crimes ought to be 
 rated according to the dignity of the person 
 offended, without any regard to the good or 
 evil of society, an irreverence done to the 
 
 * Paramo, De Inquisit. in Caus. Fidei, lib. iii. qusest. 
 vl n, 90.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKBD. 219 
 
 Supreme Being ought to be punished with 
 greater rigour than the assassination of the 
 first magistrate of the nation, by the superior 
 nature of the person offended acting as an 
 infinite counterpoise to the difference of the 
 offence. The falsity however of this opinion 
 must immediately strike any one who impar- 
 tially examines the relations which exist 
 between man and man as well as between 
 man and God. The first are relations of 
 equality, of common utility arising out of the 
 equihbrium of the passions and of individual 
 interests, which constitutes the fundamental 
 basis of human justice. The second are rela- 
 tions of dependence on the part of created 
 beings towards a perfect and creative one, 
 who reserved to himself the right of legis- 
 lating and judging, since he alone without an 
 abuse of power can apply those punishments 
 he himself has estabhshed for those who con- 
 travene his eternal will. Besides, if the atro- 
 ciousness of the sin, considered as an offence 
 against the divine goodness, depends on the 
 inscrutable malice of the heart, what human 
 authority can measure out the penalty that 
 is due? On the other hand, the acknow- 
 ledgement of error and the repentance of 
 the heart bring down upon the sinner the
 
 220 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 consolations of a God, at all times disposed 
 to mercy and pardon. Would not man there- 
 fore thus be in danger of punishing him whom 
 God had pardoned, and of pardoning him 
 •who deserved punishment ?"* In conformity 
 to this we are therefore to conclude that the 
 true and only measure of crimes, as well as of 
 the civil punishments corresponding to them, 
 is the injury they do to society; and that 
 ignorance and cruel superstition alone could 
 have raised an expression to the level of the 
 most atrocious crime that can be committed 
 against it. 
 
 PROOFS. 
 
 These are of three kinds ; viz. by instru- 
 ments or writings, by witnesses, and by the 
 confession of the prisoner. The latter is 
 again subdivided into voluntary, and that 
 wrested from him by means of the torture. 
 All of these have been in use in the Inqui- 
 sition. 
 
 By Instruments or Writings. — It being 
 a fundamental principle laid down in this 
 tribunal that the prisoner is not to hide any- 
 thing that may tend to elucidate his crime 
 and its accompanying circumstances, a private 
 * Beccaria, Dei delitti e delle Pene, § vii.
 
 \ 
 
 (^HAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 221 
 
 instrumental proof, such as a letter or writing 
 of the party, thence becomes a document of 
 as much validity as a notarial deed ; nor is it 
 necessary for the writing to be legally proved, 
 since it would be impossible for the party not 
 to acknowledge it. From the same principle 
 it follows that he is bound to denounce any 
 such papers to the inquisitors, and even to 
 find and put them into their hands, if this 
 should be necessary to promote his condemna- 
 tion. He is further compelled to translate 
 them when the language in which they are 
 written is unknown to the court, and to in- 
 terpret and comment upon them when the 
 sense is so obscure as not to be understood 
 from a simple reading. Consequently the 
 prisoner is thus forced to become his own 
 accuser, and held to give in his sentence pre- 
 pared to judges who are bound by no form^ 
 or in other words, he is obliged to offer him- 
 self up as a victim on the altar of the most 
 despotic power, erected into a divinity. 
 
 By Witnesses. — He who has heard or 
 been present at a criminal act or saying con* 
 stitutes a proper channel to furnish the judge 
 with a knowledge of the offence, and of the 
 person by whom it was committed ; however, 
 at no time has his bare declaration been held
 
 222 INaUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 as sufficient to proceed to the sentence, at least 
 as far as regards the whole penalty. Error 
 and rancour are vices too common in men 
 for the security of the citizen to depend on 
 the testimony of a single person, and even 
 the Inquisition has been obliged partly to 
 respect this axiom of political justice. But 
 this is not the case when the evidence of 
 .two witnesses has been obtained; for although 
 it may happen that both are mistaken, or 
 both impelled by sinister motives, neverthe- 
 less when they are examined separately, and 
 agree in the material points of the fact, it is 
 not easy for them to be wanting to the truth, 
 to which they must adhere with the greatest 
 nicety, if they wish to accord between them- 
 selves. This is the reason why legislator* 
 have required at least the evidence of two 
 concurring witnesses to establish the proofs 
 of a criminal accusation, and have rejected 
 the testimony of persons suspected of interest, 
 bribery, or of enmity, an exception always 
 attended to in civil cases, and yet not easily 
 proved. 
 
 From what has already been said respect- 
 ing secret accusations and accusers, it is easy 
 to form a correct idea of the nature of the 
 system adopted by tlie Inquisition with regard
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 223 
 
 to witnesses. It is therefore only necessary 
 to remark that it excludes no one from giving 
 evidence, in the same manner as no one is 
 excluded or even dispensed from denuncia- 
 tion. 
 
 In order to establish the full proof, although 
 two concurring witnesses are requisite be- 
 sides the denunciator, those who do not con- 
 cur but depose respecting different acts of 
 heresy are sufficient for the infliction of the 
 extraordinary penalty, and even for the abju- 
 ration and the infamy which accompanies it.* 
 The suppression of the names of the witnesses 
 permitted by the decretals, only when it was 
 apprehended that injury might result to them 
 owing to the culprits being persons of power, 
 has been converted into a general rule by 
 the inquisitors, and has even been extended 
 to all kinds of causes.* Notwithstanding this 
 
 * Massini, Prattica della S. Inquisizione, part x. Avvert. 
 Ixxxix. " Benche i testimoni singular! non provano I'eresia 
 ad efFetto di condannare il reo con pena ordinaria, sono 
 pero bastevoli a cagionare che se gl'lniponga qualque 
 straordinaria pena o penitenza ed anco la purgazione 
 canonica." 
 
 + Instrucciones de Sevilla del aiio US*, § 16. The 
 Order of Process, fol. 17, contains -these words, " In 
 causes which are not of heresy and contain no suspicions 
 thereof, some variation usually occurs ; but the parties
 
 .224- INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 measure is so fraught with danger, the tribu- 
 nal has considered it so necessary to its own 
 ends, that in Germany at a time when the 
 treasury was exhausted, the converted Jews 
 offered Charles V. the sum of 800,000 
 crowns of gold if he would consent to 
 regulate this practice by the usages of the 
 other courts of justice. This proposal was 
 rejected by the prince in condescension to 
 the Inquisitor General, Cisneros, who repre- 
 sented to him the great inconveniences that 
 would arise from such a change.* We ought 
 not to be astonished at such a line of conduct. 
 Whoever contemplates the scientific produc- 
 tions and the conduct of our literary charac- 
 ters of the 16th century, at the same time that 
 he acknowledges their really great learning 
 compared with the state of science in those 
 days, will not fail to discover in most of theiii 
 a certain tincture of superstition, from which 
 even the above distinguished Cardinal was not 
 altogether free. The prisoner consequently 
 never knows who is his accuser, nor who are 
 the witnesses to support his impeachment, 
 for the court takes the utmost precaution to 
 
 are not cited to see the oath adniinistered, and the names 
 of the witnesses are kept secret." 
 
 * Paramo, De Grig. S. Inqiuj.t. lib. ii. tit. iii. cap.ii. n. 9. 
 
 7
 
 CHAP. IV*] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 225 
 
 keep him in the dark. He is thus deprived 
 of every means of being confronted with his 
 adversaries, in those weighty cases in which 
 all other courts would consider this measure 
 as absolutely necessary. It is only when 
 any doubt has arisen respecting the identity 
 of his person that the witnesses view him 
 from a secret place where they cannot be 
 seen, which operation is called per rimulas ; 
 or else they are brought before him with 
 masks on their faces and covered with cloaks 
 from head to foot.* (Vide Plate III.) 
 
 " * Massini, Prattica della S. Inquisizlone, part ii. In 
 Italy the confronting with various witnesses v/as usually 
 performed in distinct acts, and the culprit was placed 
 in a circle with other persons, to see whether they hit upon 
 hira. This last measure, also used in other tribunals, is 
 strongly recommended by Massini; but in my opinion 
 there is no necessity for it in the case in question. It 
 might be requisite when the inquisitors doubted whether 
 the culprit was known to the witnesses, but here the doubt 
 is whether the latter tells a falsehood when he denies 
 being the person the former affirms he is. The regulation 
 of the Portuguese Inquisition (lib. ii. tit. iii.n. 7.) is more 
 correct, since dispensing with both these formalities, it only 
 requires that the witnesses be not known to each other; 
 and this end is answered by their being placed in the 
 position represented in the above plate. The Spanish 
 Order of Process, fol. 26, simply says that the culprits are 
 not to be confronted with the witnesses. 
 VOL. I. Q
 
 226 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 The great importance the Inquisition has 
 always attached to the secrecy of the wit- 
 nesses has induced it to resort to certain 
 fictions, as indecorous to religion as they are 
 dishonourable and unprincipled. In the sum- 
 ming up of the proofs when the accomplice- 
 witnesses vary in their declarations and be- 
 come perjured, this circumstance is com- 
 pletely hidden from the prisoner, who is 
 thereby deprived of the opportunity of can- 
 vassing and rejecting their testimony, as 
 undeserving of credit.* According to the 
 same rule, not only the names of the accuser 
 and witnesses are kept hidden from him, as 
 well as the day and determined spot where 
 the crime was committed, (the year, month, 
 and town being all that is disclosed,) but eveo 
 the circumstance in which he and one of the 
 witnesses were concerned is totally disfigured 
 to him, so as to lead him inevitably into error, 
 unless he is well acquainted with the secrets 
 of the Inquisition. Thus when the witness 
 declares that the prisoner, in a certain confi- 
 dential conversation held with him, made use 
 
 * Orden de Procesar, fol. 4, MS, note. " It is always 
 iDConvenient for the culprit to know that the witness has 
 prejured himself, for which reason it is usual not to inform 
 him of it.'*
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 227 
 
 of this or that expression, the inquisitors, 
 accommodating the declaration to their own 
 whim, roundly tell him that the witness heard 
 him repeat this same proposition to another 
 person, feigning that the conversation took 
 place between three or more persons ; for in 
 fact the expression amounts to this accord- 
 ing to the common way of speaking, from 
 which no tribunal ought to deviate, much less 
 in summing up the proofs, unless its object 
 is to authorize fraud and deceit.* This irre- 
 gularity in the Inquisition is the more re- 
 markable, because its original instructions 
 prescribe, as a most essential point, that the 
 
 * Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 32. " In the 
 notification the month and year in which the witnesses 
 make their depositions are to be inserted, but if any in- 
 convenience should result from inserting the exact day, it 
 may be omitted, as the month and year will -Suffice, and 
 this is frequently done with witnesses belonging to the 
 prison. In like manner the notification is to mention 
 the place and time where and when the crime was com- 
 mitted, because it relates to the defence of the culprit; 
 but the exact spot shall not be disclosed to him. And it 
 is to be observed that, although the witness may depose in 
 the first person, by saying that what he testifies of the cul- 
 prit occurred to him personally, in the notification the 
 whole shall be put down in the third, stating that he indi- 
 vidually saw and heard what took place between the 
 culprit and a certain person." 
 q2
 
 228 INaUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 declarations of the witnesses shall be given 
 to the prisoner in the most literal manner 
 possible, which proves that it has not always 
 acted wrong from a principle of ignorance. 
 
 I omit making mention of the other mode 
 used by the tribunal in examining the per- 
 sons rejected by the prisoner, although they 
 do not enter into the number of the wit- 
 nesses, which is done in order to cover the 
 latter in a better manner ; neither is it neces- 
 cessary to say any thing of the custom of 
 examining witnesses against the persons ex- 
 cepted by the party.* I also omit noticing 
 that the court even hides the circumstance of 
 the death of those witnesses whom the prisoner 
 may have named in his defence, in case they 
 have died ; and disfigures by various ways 
 that of their not having been found, when he 
 had named them to prove his objections to 
 the persons whom he presumes are his ene- 
 mies.t What is most worthy of attention is 
 the extreme difficulty to which he is exposed 
 
 * Orden de Procesar, fol. 25. According to the author 
 of the MS. notes, the Supreme Council of the Inquisition 
 prohibited this abuse by an order of the 26th May, 1706 ; 
 hut the iniquisjtors took no notice of this, since he speaks 
 of the practice as being current, and quotes the above 
 order as if astonished at its contravention. 
 
 t Urdende Procesar, fol. 25,
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 229 
 
 in the establishment of his counter evidence, 
 or those means he may have of proving that 
 on the day and at the hour when the wit- 
 nesses affirm he committed the crime he 
 was at a different place from the one they 
 assert. This difficulty amounts to an impos- 
 sibility when they accuse him of having 
 committed the crime within the prison, since 
 the notification is made out under a date of a 
 month previous to his confinement ; and in 
 Portugal the antedate went as far back as five 
 or six months, and the charge did not specify 
 the town but only the bishopric, if the culprit 
 did not before live in the same town.* 
 
 The reason the inquisitors give for so sin- 
 gular a procedure is that otherwise, as from 
 the time of his confinement he had only held 
 
 * Compilacion de Instrucciones, as above quoted. 
 Regimento do Santo Officio de Portugal, lib. ii. tit. ix. n. 3. 
 " Havendo alguma testemunha deposto contra o reo de 
 culpa commettida no carcere do Santo Officio se Ihe fara 
 publicagao della tomando o tempo cinco o seis mezes atras 
 de sua prisao dizendo se que de tan to tempo a esta parte." 
 And in lib. i. tit. vi. n. 23, we find these words : " E se as 
 culpas forem commettidas no carcere nao sendo o reo 
 morador na cidade nem havendo noticia certa que veyo a 
 ella no tal tempo, dira (o promoter) que a culpa se com- 
 metteo no arcebispado ou bispado em que rezide o Santo 
 Officio."
 
 230 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 intercourse with a certain number of persons, 
 he would be enabled to devise the authors of 
 the accusation. But, is it possible that they 
 do not discover that according to this rule 
 they are obliged to state the period when the 
 culprit committed the offence under an anti- 
 cipation of several years, when during all this 
 time he has been a prisoner ; and that they 
 must thus only express the kingdom when he 
 is transferred from one province to another, 
 or even Europe alone, or any other quarter 
 of the globe, when, on being claimed, he is 
 conducted from one kingdom to another ; 
 and even the whole globe itself, if, as it pos- 
 sibly may happen, he is conveyed from one 
 of the four quarters to another. So certain 
 is it that man if he once loses the proper 
 equilibrium, no longer able to guide his 
 steps, is precipitated from one abyss to 
 another. The law, therefore, by which the 
 Inquisition hides from the accused the names 
 of his ad\'ersaries, thus neutralizing or de- 
 priving him of the means of defence, and 
 leaving him no other grounds than conjec- 
 ture, must be pronounced barbarous in its 
 substance as well as in its mode of application. 
 , It was in consequence of this unaccount- 
 able law that about the middle of the 16th
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 231 
 
 century the venerable professor Juan de 
 Avila was nearly sacrificed. This virtuous 
 man was usually called the Apostle of Anda- 
 lusia, and it was to his preaching and advice 
 that many of the persons then distinguished 
 among us by their virtues were so much in- 
 debted. Among these may be named Igna- 
 tius of Loyola, Francis de Borja, John of 
 God, Peter of Alcantara, and Teresa of 
 Jesus, as well as the venerable Luis of Gra- 
 nada, who also received from him lessons of 
 sacred eloquence. He was accused of teach- 
 ing various errors in his sermons, one of 
 which was, that he closed the gates of heaven 
 against the rich, and he was consequently 
 seized by the Inquisition of Seville. Being 
 near his condemnation, the inquisitors told 
 him that his affair was now in the hands of 
 God, meaning by this that his case was entirely 
 hopeless; asking him at the same time and 
 in the usual manner whethet- he suspected 
 any one of bearing enmity against him. The 
 tranquillity of mind, on the one hand, with 
 which he answered them, that those might be 
 his enemies who were offended with the 
 truths of the gospel, and that his cause was 
 never better than when in the hands of God 5 
 iind on the other, the great veneration in
 
 232 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 which he was held throughout the whole 
 kingdom, obliged the judges to make fresh 
 and more minute investigations respecting 
 his accusers and witnesses. By this means, 
 and in an extraordinary manner, they ob- 
 tained possession of a letter in which one of 
 the latter exhorted a witness to keep firm to 
 his declaration, in terms giving to understand 
 that the accusation had been malicious. 
 Thus did the venerable Avila escape ship- 
 wreck, when another innocent man, divested 
 of the same favourable circumstances, would 
 have infallibly perished.* But however much 
 this zealous priest might have sought to 
 heighten the difficulty of a rich man entering 
 into the kingdom of heaven, could he have 
 used any thing stronger than the text of the 
 Gospel, where Christ compares this same diffi- 
 culty to that of a camel passing through the 
 eye of a needle, even when by the word 
 camel or J^StDJl (gctvila) as he must have pro- 
 nounced it speaking in Chaldean, we are to 
 understand, as appears ought to be the case, 
 the rope made of the twisted hairs of that 
 animal ? This evinces how easily calumny 
 may catch hold of a word, and that even 
 
 * Vide the Life of said Professor Avila, at the beginning 
 t)f his works, book i. chap, vi.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 23S 
 
 supposing in tribunals silence is observed in 
 other matters, in affairs of so delicate a nature 
 as this publicity is indispensably necessary. 
 
 And if this really is the case, what motives 
 could have given rise to the introduction of 
 so scandalous a practice into the Inquisition, 
 as well as its retention for so long a period of 
 time ? Has the necessity of maintaining 
 religion been the plea ? Nothing could be 
 more favourable to its enemies, and nothing 
 could furnish them with more powerful arms 
 to attack and discredit it than such a neces- 
 sity if it were certain. Or has it been the 
 indemnity of the accuser and witnesses ? A 
 society whose laws are not sufficient for the 
 protection of its members, and in which the 
 latter are more powerful than the sovereign, 
 is not deserving of that name. Or has the 
 motive been a dread of the stigma attached to 
 secret accusers ? The man who is justified 
 by the law in private cannot be held as cri- 
 minal before the public. How numerous 
 have been the errors, and how great the evils 
 which have arisen out of a false zeal for reli- 
 gion ! The Inquisition, far from being ser- 
 viceable to it by its mysterious proceedings, 
 has rather resembled a second tribunal of 
 Caiphas, in which Christ, as head of the
 
 'is* INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 Church, has suffered in his members what in 
 the latter he endured in his person. And in 
 truth, can any situation be imagined more 
 like that of our Redeemer in the house of 
 the above pontiff, when those his execu- 
 tioners, after binding his eyes, struck, and 
 then told him to guess who gave the blow, 
 than the condition of an innocent man stand- 
 ing before the tribunal of the Inquisition ?* 
 
 * S. Matth. cap. xxvi. v. 68. " The Holy Tribunal," 
 says the Filosofo Rancio, in his letter ii., " amply com- 
 pensates to the culprits the injury they experience in being 
 deprived of the defence they might establish by being 
 allowed to state exceptions against the informer and wit- 
 nesses. In the first place by the court ascertaining the 
 character and reputation of the latter, and its searching 
 out if they have against the culprit any probable cause of 
 ill-. will." Before we proceed any further, I do not deny 
 that the court will endeavour to find out what reputation 
 the informer and witnesses enjoy in society, and I even 
 think it is easy for it to ascertain the point ; but will it be 
 equally easy to scrutinize with certainty, or even suspect, 
 the odium or clashing of interests which possibly exist be- 
 tween two persons, perhaps the greatest friends in their 
 exterior ? — The Filosofo Rancio adds, " in the second 
 place, it makes up to the culprits this injury, by not pro- 
 ceeding to a personal arrest till the informers and witnesses 
 have confirmed their depositions before two or more per- 
 sons of respectability, and under all the precautions whicli 
 human prudence will admit of in order to prevent decep- 
 tion and surprise." — And I would ask, 0£ what service^
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 235 
 
 By Voluntary Confession. — I call the 
 confession made by the prisoner at the in- 
 stance or through the suggestions of the 
 
 would be two or more persons collected together in order 
 to restrain or intimidate the calumniator who, before he 
 resolved on the ruin of his rival, was aware he had to 
 appear before some one ? And who will believe that this 
 tribunal will take all the precautions dictated by prudence, 
 when it disregards those which rigorous justice prescribes, 
 and the universal consent of nations has confirmed. It is 
 unnecessary to seek subterfuges and invent sophisms in 
 order to defend a proceeding so absurd as that of the In- 
 quisition in this particular. This is a blemish it would be 
 impossible to hide or wipe away. All the exertions the 
 court may take upon itself in favovir of the culprit will 
 never make up for those of the culprit himself, of his ad- 
 vocate acting in his name, and even those which his 
 relations and friends might perform for him. The Filosofo 
 then subjoins, " In the third place, it makes this injury 
 up to them by combining and putting in practice the most 
 severe penalties against calumniators." It would first be 
 neeessary for the court to ascertain that they were of this 
 stamp, and this is the precise point of difficulty ; for it is 
 clear that by the combination of punishment calumny is 
 not always avoided, since the Inquisition itself confesses 
 having had to punish it. How many of these calumnies 
 must not have occurred before this tribunal, but how seldom 
 have the punishments taken place ? He thus concludes, 
 *' In the fourth jind last place, this injury is compensated 
 by an extraordinary value being attached to whatever ex- 
 ception the culprit may insinuate when he hits upon and 
 guesses the names of the informers against him." Well
 
 '236 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IV. 
 
 judge voluntary or spontaneous notwith- 
 standing it partakes in a certain degree of 
 moral coercion, in order to distinguish it 
 from that which is obtained by means of the 
 torture. These suggestions, from combining 
 in them threats, and acting as a restraint on 
 the will, have uniformly been reprobated by 
 all codes except that of the Inquisition, 
 which from the beginning to the end of the 
 cause points out the confession of the pri- 
 soner as the only means of safely extricating 
 himself from his dilemma, or at least of suf- 
 fering less. But this is not the only injustice 
 he has to experience ; there is another and a 
 still more remarkable one arising out of a 
 deviation from the truth on the part of a tri- 
 bunal that styles itself " Of the Faith." In 
 order to prove this it will suffice to select 
 
 then the exceptions alleged by the culprit when he guesses 
 who the informers are, can be of such a nature as to be 
 esteemed of an extraordinary value ? Yet the innocent 
 man under the pressure of persecution, who may not have 
 talent to hit upon his persecutor, in this tribunal becomes 
 the victim of his own dullness ! The want of penetration 
 consequently is another crime punishable therein. Most 
 assuredly this is a novelty to me, for I had hitherto believed 
 that it was not the simple man but the one possessed of 
 talents whom the Inquisition has usually selected for the 
 object of its fury.
 
 (CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 237 
 
 two of the ten stratagems used for this pur- 
 pose, gilded over as they are by the name of 
 precautions, as may be seen in the Directory 
 of the Inquisitors, written about the middle 
 of the 14th century, by the Dominican Ni- 
 cholas Eymeric, Chief Inquisitor to the 
 Crown of Aragon ; a masterly work, whose 
 authority in the Inquisition may be compared 
 to that of the Decree of Gratian in the other 
 ecclesiastical courts : a work in short which 
 has served as a model for all the regulations 
 which have been in force in Spain, Italy, and 
 Portugalj and as authority for all who have 
 written on the subject. 
 
 First Stratagem. — " When the prisoner 
 has been impeached of the crime of heresy, 
 but not convicted, and he obstinately persists 
 in his denial, let the inquisitor take the pro- 
 ceedings into his hands, or any other file of 
 papers, and looking them over in his presence 
 let him feign to have discovered the offence 
 fully established therein, and that he is de- 
 sirous he should at once make his confession. 
 The Inquisitor sl^all then say to the prisoner, 
 as if in astonishment ' And is it possible that 
 you should still deny what I have here before 
 my own eyes ?* He shall then seem as if he 
 read, and to the end that the prisoner may
 
 238 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 know no better, he shall fold down the leaf, 
 and after reading some moments longer, he 
 shall say to him ' It is just as I have said, 
 why therefore do you deny it, when you see 
 I know the whole matter V* In all this the 
 author directs the judge not to enter too 
 minutely into the particulars of the fact for 
 fear of his erring in any of the circumstances^ 
 and lest the prisoner should discover the 
 fiction.* 
 
 Second Stratagem. — " When the inquisi- 
 tor has an opportunity, he shall manage so as 
 
 * Eymeric, Director. Inquisitor, part iii. n. 102. " Si vi' 
 
 deat inquisitor hcereticum, vel delatum nolle detegere verita- 
 tem, et scit eumper testes non esse convictum, et secundum in- 
 dicia videtur eidem esse vermn quod deponitur contra euniy 
 accipiat processtim^ et revolvat euin, et post dicat ei : Clarum 
 est quod non dicis verum, et quod ita fuit sicut dico ego : di- 
 cas ergo veritatem 7iegofii dare, sic ut ille credat se convictum 
 esse, et sic apparere in processu. Vel teneat in manu tenant 
 cedulam seu scripturam, et quando delatus sen hcereticus in- 
 terrogatus negahit hoc vel illud, inquisitor quasi admirans di- 
 cat ei : Et quomodo tu potes negare ? Nonne clarum est mihi? 
 Et tunc legat in cedida sua, et pervertat earn, et post dicid : 
 Ego diceham vcrum. Dicas postquam vides me scire. Ca- 
 veat tamen inquisitor quod non tantum descendat ad specient 
 dicendo se scire negotium, quod hcereticus cognoscat quod ipse 
 ignorat ; sed stet in genere dicendo : Bene scitur ubi Juisti^ 
 et cum quo, et quo tempore, et quid dixisti ; et tangat sibi ali- 
 quod certum, quod scit ita esse ; de aliis autem in genere 
 loquatur." 
 
 5
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED, ' 233 
 
 to introduce to the conversation of the pri- 
 soner some one of his accomplices, or any 
 other converted heretic, who shall feign that 
 he still persists in his heresy, telling him that 
 he had abjured for the sole purpose of es- 
 caping punishment by deceiving the inquisi- 
 tors. Having thus gained his confidence, he 
 shall go into his cell some day after dinner, 
 and keeping up the conversation till night, 
 shall remain with him under pretext of 
 its being too late for him to return home. 
 He shall then urge the prisoner to tell him 
 all the particulars of his past life, having 
 first told him the whole of his own ; and in 
 the mean time spies shall be kept in hearing 
 at the door, as well as a notary, in order to 
 certify what may be said within."* Thus is 
 
 * Eymeric, Director, Inquisit. part iii. n. 107. " Haieat 
 inquisitor unum de complicibusy seu alium vere ad Jidem 
 conversum, et de quo bcjie confidere possit illi capto non 
 ingratum, et permittat ilium hitrarcy et Jaciat quod ille 
 loquatur sibi ; et si opus Jiient Ji7igat se de secta sua adhuc 
 esse, sed metu abjurasse, vel veritatem iiiquisitori prodidisse, 
 Et quum hcereticus captus confiderit in eo, intret quodam sero 
 protrahendo locutiones cum eodem, et tandem Jingat nimis esse 
 tar de pro recessu, et remaneat in car cere cum eodem, et de node 
 pariter colloquantur, et dicant sibi mutuo quce commiserunt, 
 illo, qui superintravit, inducente ad hoc captutn ; et tunc sit 
 ordinatum, quod stent extra carcerem in loco congruo explo'
 
 240 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 it, and with so little shame, that Inquisitor 
 Eymeric explains himself. 
 
 That the Inquisition, in order to criminate 
 its enemy and obtain possession of his pro- 
 perty, should be thus wanting to the truth in 
 some points which reciprocal confidence and 
 justice ordain us to respect, — that it should 
 seek to authorize by public faith an act in 
 which the minister to whom the same is 
 entrusted only intervenes out of doors and 
 without seeing the persons to whose conver- 
 sation he is to certify, — is not so astonishing 
 when human frailty is considered ; but that 
 religion should be formally belied, and this 
 by a regulation for that purpose enacted, is 
 a sacrilege almost unheard of. Whilst the 
 panegyrists of this institution, who boast of 
 being theologians, extricate themselves from 
 from this dilemma, the liberal and philoso- 
 phical ought to rejoice to see that every thing 
 hitherto w^ritten against it is not only true 
 but also moderate, notwithstanding its advo- 
 cates attribute all to a spirit of heresy and 
 libertinism. Don Manuel Abad y Lasierra, 
 the last Inquisitor General but one, and also 
 Archbishop of Selimbria, a person by no 
 
 rantesy eos aiiscultantesy et verba colUgenteSj et si opus Jiierity 
 notarius cum eisdem.^*
 
 «HAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 241 
 
 means prejudiced, and for that reason not 
 liked among those of his own cloth, speaking 
 of the ease with which an innocent may be 
 entrapped in the snares of this tribunal, 
 used to say that he had never feared the In- 
 quisition till he had been made Inquisitor Ge- 
 neral. What therefore must have been the 
 nature of this tribunal in all its force and. 
 vigour, when such was the idea of it whilst 
 now in a state of decrepitude ! 
 
 What justice or humanity therefore can be 
 expected from a tribunal which so basely and 
 systematically tramples on both ? Can its 
 sentiments of religion be called true, when 
 their profanation is thus sacrilegiously autho- 
 rized ? Is there any one yet so blind as not 
 to discover that an institution in which such 
 iniquitous acts are ordered and executed 
 must be the work of fanaticism ? Methinks 
 I see this monster, this proud and haughty 
 rival of religion, its head tressed with ser- 
 pents, its eyes red and fiery, its lips covered 
 with bloody froth, and muttering words indi- 
 cative of the rage that devours its entrails, 
 with one hand raising the wood of the cross as 
 if to assemble the nations of the earth, but in 
 reality to feed the flame of discord which it 
 carries in the other. Such methinks I behoM 
 
 VOL. I. R
 
 242 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 it, as on the dark and dismal day when the 
 Inquisition was established in Tholouse, and 
 calliner on all the violent and obdurate feelinss 
 of the heart as its inseparable companions : 
 methinks I hear it issue the same orders that 
 Tasso's Pluto gave to his infernal satellites 
 when he opposed the conquest of the Holy 
 Land by the Christians. 
 
 ** Ma perche plu v' indugio ? Itene, o miei 
 Fidi consorti, o niia potenza e forze. 
 Ite veloci, ed opprimete i rei, 
 Pria che '1 lor poter piu si rinforze, 
 Pria che tutt' arda il regno degli Ebrei, 
 Questa fiamma crescente omai s'ammorze; 
 Fra loro entrate, e in ultimo lor danno 
 Or la forza s'adropri, ed or I'inganno." 
 
 But wherefore thus your well-known zeal detain ? 
 Go faithful peers and partners of my reign. 
 My pride and strength ! our hated foes oppress, 
 And crush their empire ere its pow'r increase ; 
 Haste (ere destruction end Judaea's name) 
 And quench the fury of this growing flame; 
 Mix in their councils, fraud and force employ, 
 With ev'ry art industrious to destroy. 
 
 The same reasons might also be alleged by 
 the partisans of the Inquisition in favour 
 of their conduct, as were used in defence 
 of his own by Hidraotes, the Mussulman
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 24S 
 
 magician, when executing the designs of 
 Pluto. 
 
 Per la fe — il tutto lice * 
 
 For the faith — all things are lawful. 
 
 Confession exacted by means of Tor- 
 ture. — When I reflect on the use of tortures 
 formerly admitted into almost all tribunals, in 
 order to extort from culprits the confession 
 of their crime, or, in other words, to oblige 
 them to pronounce their own sentence of 
 condemnation, I am inclined to forgive those 
 public writers who have doubted whether 
 men have gained or lost most by uniting 
 in society. Savage must have been the man 
 who first projected, and still more so who 
 dared propose, among civilized nations the 
 adoption of a judicial test so cruel and falla- 
 cious as this. Had we not ourselves reached 
 those unfortunate times in which this abomi- 
 nable practice was still in use, we should 
 scarcely have believed it had ever existed j 
 nor will it be credited by future ages, not- 
 withstanding it is attested by history, and 
 sealed in the blotted annals of our national 
 legislation. But it is a fact which the living 
 themselves have witnessed : the torture has 
 
 * Torquato Tasso, '* La Gerusaleme Liberata/' cant. iv. 
 stanza 16. 
 
 r2
 
 244 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. JV. 
 
 been in practice in our own tribunals, and the 
 plaintive cries extorted by pain have been 
 taken for the accents of undisguised truth. 
 We ourselves have been exposed to the 
 rigour of this most vile and atrocious of all 
 inventions. 
 
 Yet since the ordeal by torture is now 
 condemned in every quarter where human 
 blood is valued, and where justice, through 
 the aid of science, has again returned to the 
 right path, from which it had been drawn by 
 our too servile imitation of the ancients ; it 
 would be to no purpose to accumulate fresh 
 reasons to prove its iniquity and want of 
 efficacy. Among the ancients nevertheless 
 some are to be found who cried out against it, 
 so that instead of common prejudice it was 
 rather sustained by that fatal spirit of servile 
 imitation which upholds every thing bad, es- 
 pecially when recommended by the sanction 
 of a legislator. Maturely ought a law to be 
 considered before it is admitted into the code, 
 above all in criminal matters.* Confining 
 myself therefore to my more immediate 
 
 * The use of the torture was impugned, though in a cur- 
 sory manner, by Cicero, Quintilian, St. Augustin, and 
 Ulpianus. Several of our own authors have also reproved 
 it, and for this reason their names ought to be remembered
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 245^ 
 
 object, it will suffice to say, that the acts of 
 other tribunals, intended to wrest from the 
 mouth of the culprit the confession of his 
 offence by means of the torture, have not 
 been less unwarrantable and tyrannical in 
 general than those of the Inquisition in par- 
 ticular, applied, as they have been, under 
 pretext of changing his opinion through the 
 medium of coercion. Both seem to have 
 been ignorant of the true impulse of the 
 human heart, and have clearly proved 
 that the passions by which they were ani- 
 mated were of all others least adapted to 
 promote public happiness. It was only 
 among slaves, and amidst the ignorance and 
 ferocity of the primitive ages, that the torture 
 could have been tolerated ; when by a shame- 
 ful degradation of the human species, men 
 were scarcely held in any other light than as 
 beasts ; nor could it ever have been extended 
 to the citizen but where the power of the 
 Caesars had no barriers to its lawless and un- 
 bridled scope. 
 
 Since then the torture may be considered 
 as the double effort of barbarity and despot- 
 
 with gratitude. Among them are Luis Vives, in the ] 6th 
 century ; and in the last, Father Feijoo, and nlso Don Jose 
 de Acevedo and Don Manuel de Lardizabal.
 
 246 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 ism leagued against suffering humanity, it 
 may easily be concluded that it was received 
 with open arms by the Inquisition. Tena- 
 cious in its system of oppression and ven- 
 geance, no other tribunal has surpassed it 
 in severity, whether we consider the quality 
 of its torments or their duration. No form 
 of judicial excruciation, in fact, has been too 
 much for it : on the contrary, all the other 
 tribunals in the midst of their horrors and 
 ignominy might have furnished it with lessons 
 of sensibility. It is not my intention in this 
 place to describe any other kinds of torments 
 than those in usual practice, and which, for 
 this reason, are recorded by the authors who 
 have explained the mode of process used in 
 this institution. The matter is too painful 
 and too disagreeable to admit of any other 
 than the most necessary details ; nor shall I 
 heighten the subject by any forced colour- 
 ings, since the simple narrative of the facts 
 alone must make the writer and the reader 
 equally shudder. I ought however to pre^ 
 mise, that no deprecation or protest in favour 
 of the culprit precedes the torture, as is the 
 case before his final execution ; nor, as in 
 the latter stage, is its infliction given in 
 charge to the civil magistracy, but executed
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 247 
 
 by the inquisitors themselves. During the 
 operation, the bishop of the diocess jointly 
 presides with them, he being on this occa- 
 sion called upon to exercise this first act of 
 his jurisdiction.* 
 
 I call this the first act of jurisdiction exer- 
 cised by the diocesan, because in fact the 
 Inquisition does not require his presence 
 during all the process of the summary judg- 
 ment ; as if in matters of faith he possessed 
 no jurisdiction whatever, notwitstanding the 
 issue of the cause entirely depends on 
 the grounds established in the preliminary 
 proceedings. He is for the first time invited 
 to assist at the sentence of the torture and 
 its infliction ; and why all this ? Such an 
 infringement in appearance might be held as 
 just and reasonable, but its result has been 
 to degrade and vilify the episcopal authority 
 still more. In Spain it was formerly sufficient 
 for one or two inquisitors to be present at 
 the administration of the torture, as has 
 always been the case in Italy, and it even 
 appears that some of them, whose feelings 
 beyond doubt would not allow them to 
 behold with their eyes what they had not 
 hesitated to order and authorize by their 
 * Cooipilacion de Instrucciones, n. 48.
 
 248 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV'. 
 
 signatures, gave this commission to another ; 
 but it was afterwards regulated that at least 
 two inquisitors were to assist thereat besides 
 the delegate of the diocesan bishop.* How- 
 ever as nothing evinces in a stronger manner 
 the idea the inquisitors themselves had of 
 the atrocity of the torture, and the danger 
 thereby incurred by the culprit, than the 
 very form of the inflictive sentence, it may 
 be proper to insert it in this place in its 
 exact words. 
 
 SENTENCE OF THE TORTURE. 
 
 . " Christi nomine invocato. We hereby or- 
 dain, after due examination made of the 
 proceedings of said trial, as well as of the 
 inferences and suspicions which thence result 
 against the said N., that we ought and hereby 
 do condemn him to be interrogated under 
 the torture/' (some judges here expressed 
 the kind it was to be) " on which we com- 
 mand that he be placed, and thereon remain 
 for such time as to us may appear fit, in 
 order that he may declare the truth of what 
 is attested and alleged against him, under 
 the protest we now nuike against him ; that 
 if during the said torture he should die, 
 * Compilaciou cle Instrucciones, n. 48.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 249 
 
 should be maimed, or any effusion of blood 
 or mutilation of members should thence 
 ensue, the blame and charge thereof shall 
 rest on himself, and not on us, for having 
 refused to confess the truth. And by this 
 our sentence we decree and command the 
 same to be done, by virtue of, and in con- 
 formity to, the tenor of these presents.'* — 
 (Here follow the signatures of the judges, 
 &c.*) 
 
 When the culprit was of opinion that the 
 inferences against him did not amount to a 
 semi-plenary proof, such as was requisite 
 for the sentence of the torture, he was 
 allowed to appeal to the Council of the 
 Supreme ; and also to remonstrate with the 
 inquisitors themselves, whenever any infirm- 
 ity or the delicacy of his constitution made 
 him unable to endure it. In the first case 
 the appeal was granted when sufficient rea- 
 sons had been alleged, but the original 
 proceedings were forwarded to the Council 
 under the greatest reserve. In the second, 
 an examination of physicians is ordained, 
 and, on the culprit's statement being found 
 correct, a lighter torture was substituted for 
 the ordinary one, or this was administered 
 * Orden de Procesar, fol. 28. 
 1
 
 250 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IV. 
 
 with less rigour. But would the inquisitors 
 readily admit of an appeal against a measure 
 which they themselves had instituted ? Sel- 
 dom indeed, or never, was the prisoner able 
 to establish his plea so as to obtain the 
 benefit of an appeal; since, in order to refuse 
 it, nothing more was necessary than for the 
 judges to be satisfied that their measure was 
 correct.* Even in Portugal the proctor was 
 allowed to appeal if he believed that the 
 latter acted with too much indulgence.t 
 
 Three kinds of torture have been generally 
 used by the Inquisition, viz. the pulley, rack, 
 and fire. As sad and loud lamentations ac- 
 companied the sharpness of pain, the victim 
 was conducted to a retired apartment, called 
 the Hall of Torture, and usually situated 
 under ground^ in order that his cries might 
 not interrupt the silence which reigned 
 throughout the other parts of the building. 
 Here the court assembled, and the judges 
 
 * The Compilation of Instructions, n, 50, uses the 
 following words : " In case the inquisitors are satisfied 
 with the legal appearances of guilt resulting from the 
 proceedings the sentence of torture becomes justified, 
 the appeal is deemed frivolous, and they are to proceed 
 to its execution without any loss of time." 
 
 t Regimento do Santo Officio de Portugal, lib. ii. 
 tit. xiv. n. 3.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED, 251 
 
 being seated, together with their secretary, 
 again questioned the prisoner respecting 
 his crime, which if he still persisted to 
 deny they proceeded to the execution of 
 the sentence. 
 
 This first torture was performed by fixing 
 a pulley to the roof of the hall, with a strong 
 hempen or grass rope passed through it. 
 The executioners then seized the culprit, 
 and leaving him naked to his drawers, put 
 shackles on his feet, and suspended weights 
 of 100 pounds to his ancles. His hands were 
 then bound behind his back, and the rope 
 from the pulley strongly fastened to his 
 wrists. In this situation he was raised about 
 the height of a man from the ground, and 
 in the mean time the judges coldly admo- 
 nished him to reveal the truth. In this posi- 
 tion as far as twelve stripes were sometimes 
 inflicted on him, according to the inferences 
 and weight of the offence. He was then 
 suffered to fall suddenly, but in such manner 
 that neither his feet nor the weiglits reached 
 the ground, in order to render the shock of 
 his body the greater.* (Vide Plate IV.) 
 
 * Orden de Procesar, fol. 29. — Suarez de Paz, Praxis, 
 torn, i. part v. cap. iii. — The statement or report which 
 the secretary is to draw out, according to the marginal 
 " 4
 
 252 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 The torture of the rack, (vide Plate V.) 
 also called that of water and ropes, and the 
 one most commonly used, was inflicted by 
 stretching the victim, naked as before, on his 
 back along a wooden horse or hollow bench 
 with sticks across, like a ladder, and prepared 
 for the purpose. To this his feet, hands, and 
 head were strongly bound, in such manner as 
 to leave him no room to move. In this atti- 
 tude he experienced eight strong contortions 
 in his limbs, viz. two on the fleshy parts of 
 the arm above the elbow, and two below, 
 one on each thigh, and also on the legs. 
 He was besides obliged to swallow seven 
 pints of water, slowly dropped into his mouth 
 on a piece of silk or ribbon which, by the 
 pressure of the water, glided down his throat, 
 so as to produce all the horrid sensations of a 
 person who is drowning.* At other times his 
 
 note of the Order of Process, is the following: " He shall 
 set down in what manner they ordered the culprit to be 
 stripped naked, how they put irons on his legs, as well as 
 the weight or weights ; and the same shall also specify in 
 what manner he was raised up, how many times, and the 
 length of time he was suspended at each." 
 
 * Orden de Procesar, fol 29. — Suarez de Paz, Praxis, 
 torn. i. cap. v. part iii. — The statement to be drawn up, 
 according to a marginal note of said Order of Process, is as 
 follows : « He shall set down in what manner they ordered

 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 253 
 
 face was covered with a thin piece of linen, 
 through which the water ran into his mouth 
 and nostrils, and prevented him from breath- 
 ing. Of such a form did the Inquisition of 
 Valladolid make use, in 1528, towards Licen- 
 tiate Juan Salas, physician, of that city.* 
 
 For the torture by fire the prisoner was 
 placed with his legs naked in the stocks, the 
 soles of his feet were then well-greased with 
 lard, and a blazing chafing-dish applied to 
 them, by the heat of which they became per- 
 fectly fried. When his complaints of the pain 
 were loudest a board was placed between his 
 feet and the fire, and he was again com- 
 manded to confess ; but this was taken away 
 if he persisted in his obstinacy. This species 
 of torture was deemed the most cruel of all ; 
 but this, as well as the others, were indis- 
 
 his arms to be bound, the number of turns given to the 
 rope, how they ordered him to be extended on the horse, 
 and to have his legs, head, and arms bound, and in what 
 manner this was done ; how they commanded and appUed 
 the screws, how these were tightened, and whether against 
 the leg, thigh, arms, &c. He shall further write down 
 what was said on each of these occasions ; and how 
 the piece of silk was put into his throat, how many 
 jars of water were poured down, and what each one 
 contained." 
 
 * Llorente, Anales de la Inquisicion, cap. xvi. n. 119.
 
 254 INTQUISITION- UNMASKED. [cHAP. JV. 
 
 tinctly applied to persons of both sexes, at 
 the will of the judges, according to the cir- 
 cumstances of the crime and the strength of 
 the dehnquent.* (Vide Plate VI.) 
 
 The torture by fire, however, does not 
 appear to have been much in use except in 
 Italy, and this when the culprit was lame, 
 or through any other impediment prevented 
 from being suspended by the pulley. In the 
 latter countries also other lesser tortures were 
 used with persons unable to withstand those 
 already described. Such were that of the 
 dice, of the canes, and of the rods. For 
 the first, the prisoner was extended on the 
 ground, and two pieces of iron shaped like 
 a die, but concave on one side, were placed 
 on the heel of his right foot, then bound fast 
 on with a rope, which was pulled tight Avith 
 a screw. That of the canes was performed 
 by a hard piece being put between each 
 
 * Massini, Prattica della Santa Inqviisizione, part vi. 
 The statement to be written down, according to this 
 inquisitor, is as follows : " Qui reus sic siippositus (IoY' 
 ■tnento hujiismodi) nudatis pedibus illisqiie lardo porcino 
 inundis, et in cippis juxta ignem validum retentis, quum 
 stetissit per spatium — ; in dido tormento tacitiis, ccepitpostea 
 alta voce vociferando dicere " Oi me!'' SfCy—et quum vidcretur 
 magnum dolorem sentirCy D.D. mandaverunt apponi tabu-
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 255 
 
 finger, bound, and then screwed as above. 
 That of the rods was inflicted on boys who 
 had passed their ninth year, but had not 
 yet reached the age of puberty, by binding 
 them to a post, and then flogging them with 
 rods.* 
 
 The duration of the torture, by a bull of 
 Paul III., could not exceed an hour j and if 
 in the Inquisition of Italy it was not usual 
 for it to last so long, in that of Spain, which 
 has always boasted of surpassing all others in 
 zeal for the faith, it was prolonged to an hour 
 and a quarter.! The sufferer, through the in- 
 tensity of pain, was sometimes left senseless, 
 for w^hich case a physician was always in 
 attendance to inform the court whether the 
 paroxysm was real or feigned ; and according 
 to his opinion the torture was continued or 
 suspended.^ When the victim remained firm 
 
 * Massini, Prattica delia Santa Inquisizione, part vi. 
 
 t Orden de Procesar, fol. 28, note MS. « In the Inqui- 
 sition the torture is generally administered in the morning. 
 Letter of the Supreme Council, of 23d Sept. 1671, to the 
 tribunal of Llerena, in tlie case of Ann Lopez. It is usual 
 for it to last an hour and a half." 
 
 J The statement or report made on this occasion, ac- 
 cording t© Massini, Prattica della S. Inquisizione, part vi, 
 is as follows : " Qui reus sic depositus^ et super sede lignea 
 accomnodatus, quum licet pluries interrogatus, commotus.
 
 256 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 in his denial, and overcame the pangs in- 
 flicted on him, — or when, after confessing 
 under them, he refused to ratify his confes- 
 sion within twenty-four hours afterwards, — 
 he has been forced to undergo as far as three 
 tortures with only one day*s interval between 
 each.* Thus, whilst his imagination was still 
 filled with the dreadful idea of his past suffer- 
 ings, which the Compilation of Instructions 
 itself calls agony, his limbs stiff and sore, and 
 his strength debilitated, he was called upon 
 to give fresh proofs of his constancy, and 
 again endure the horrid spectacle, as well as 
 the repetition of excruciating pangs ; tending 
 to rend his whole frame to pieces. t 
 
 The persons charged to inflict these cruel 
 operations were generally the servants of the 
 
 et quassafus responsxim non daret, nee in animum recliret, 
 immo semimortui imaginem prce &e ferret, D.D. mandaverimt 
 in ejus Jaciem aquam frigidam guttatim inspergi, vel ejus 
 Ji'ontem, et tempora, et nares, et guttur aceto rosacea made' 
 fieri, vel nares ipsiits sidphwe, ant peiiis lineis accensis 
 siifficmigari,'' Sfc. 
 
 * Massini, Prattica della S. Inquisizione, part. vi. 
 + Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 49. By them it is 
 forbidden to suggest any answer to the culprits, and only 
 to command them to speak the truth, •' because under 
 such an agony," these are the precise words, " they say 
 any thing they are reminded of.'*
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 257 
 
 gaoler, as may be seen from the regulations 
 of the Inquisition of Portugal, as well as the 
 executioner and public cryer.* However as 
 this institution was formerly under the charge 
 of the Dominicans, and of late years also in 
 Italy, it is probable that the lay-brothers 
 were selected to inflict the torture ; parti- 
 cularly as the Inquisition was usually con- 
 tiguous to their convents, with which they 
 communicated by a secret door and passage. 
 I am the more induced to believe this cir- 
 cumstance, owing to the great secrecy 
 with which the inquisitors carried every 
 thing on. and because by services of this 
 nature the lay-brothers, far from being dis- 
 honoured, considered they were doing acts 
 acceptable to God. At least this must have 
 been the case with regard to those culprits 
 who were ecclesiastics ; since Pena, on the 
 authority of Simancas, says that they are 
 to be tortured by persons of their own 
 profession, and that it was only when 
 those of the latter description could not 
 be found willing and capable of doing it 
 that seculars were to be called in.t In the 
 
 * Regimento do Santo Officio de Portugal, lib. ii, 
 tit. xiv. n. 2. 
 
 t Pena, Ad Director, part iii. com. xc. These are his 
 VOL. I. S
 
 258 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 vocabulary of these canonists what is it 
 they could have understood by ecclesias-- 
 tical meekness? 
 
 When neither persuasions, threats, nor arti- 
 fices were sufficient to force the culprit, truly 
 or falsely, to confess his delinquency, the 
 inquisitors thus recurred to the torture, mix- 
 ing even this deception with severity; for, 
 besides threatening the prisoner to make his 
 pangs last for an indefinite period of time, 
 in order to inspire him with greater terror, 
 they made him believe, after he had borne 
 them for the usual and fixed period, that 
 they only suspended their continuation be- 
 cause it was late, or for some other similar 
 reason ; they protesting at the same time 
 that they did not deem him sufficiently tor- 
 tured.* By this protest they avoided giving 
 
 words : " Clerici 7ion dehent torqueri a tortore laico, nisi 
 Jbrte clerici non possint inveiiiri, qui id facere velint, out 
 sciant.'* 
 
 * The statement or report which the secretary is to 
 draw up at the conclusion of the torture, according to the 
 Order of Process, fol, 25, is under the following form : 
 " And then the inquisitors and diocesan bishop agreed 
 that, in consequence of its being late, as well as for other 
 reasons, they suspended for the present the said torture, 
 under a protest that they had not sufficiently tortured the 
 «ulprit, and that, if he did not reveal the truth, thej
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 259 
 
 a second Sentence when they returned to 
 inflict the torture afresh, since they consi- 
 dered it as a continuation of the preceding 
 one ; by which means they were able to 
 torment the victim as often as they thought 
 proper, without formally coming to the 
 second torture. So indecent and iniquitous 
 did this conduct of the Inquisition appear 
 to Martin del Rio that, notwithstanding his 
 great prejudices in favour of the institution, 
 he reproves it in the strongest manner by 
 observing, that it seemed to him " to be 
 rather the work of cunning than of truth, 
 and rather the invention of cruelty than of jus- 
 tice.'* " It is indecorous," he adds, " to refine 
 cruelty by such tricks. Of what avail is it to 
 give the name of continuation to what in 
 reality is a reiteration ? And what a most 
 terrible thing is it not, to prolong a torture 
 for several days ? Let similar deceptions be 
 no longer seen in judges who call themselves 
 pious." * Finally, the Supreme Council was 
 
 reserved to themselves the right of continuing it when 
 it should seem proper to them; — and it was thus or- 
 dered," &c. 
 
 * Martin Delrio, Disquisition. Magicar. lib. v. sect, ix, 
 ''' Videtitr mihi" he says, " ccdlidior quam serior, (this 
 protest) d crudelior q^uam cequior. Nee cnini decct,^^ he 
 
 S 2
 
 260 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 at last moved by the cries of humanity, and 
 prohibited a repetition of the torture unless 
 a fresh consultation or sentence of the court 
 preceded.* 
 
 Thus, whilst the unfortunate victim, melted 
 in tears at the sight of the horrors by which 
 he is surrounded, bewails his miserable fate,— 
 or, phrenzied with the force of fury, in vain 
 calls all nature to his aid, and invokes the 
 name of its author ; whilst his passions are 
 alternately irritated and then depressed into- 
 a desponding calm, — at one time protesting 
 his innocence and next calling down impre- 
 cations on his tormentors' heads; in short, 
 whilst his body is shaken by the most violent 
 convulsions, and his soul racked, f.r&t by the 
 dread of the sentence that awaits his con- 
 fession, and then by the protracted intensity 
 of the pain he has still to endure if he per- 
 sists in his denial, — his inexorable judges, 
 unmoved by such a scene, with the coldest 
 
 adds, ** hnjzismodi verhoruyn captiuncuUs scevitiam intenderr. 
 Quid prodest vocare continuationem, quod revera est iteratio? 
 Quum durum etiam est per coniinuatos dies quastionem 
 exercere! Absint a pits judicibus h(jusmodi commmita." 
 
 * Orden de Procesar, fol. 28. note MS.— The Letter 
 of the Council to which this note refers is of the 26th 
 October, 1633.
 
 OHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 261 
 
 -cruelty mix their orders with his cries and 
 lamentations ; at one time addressing them- 
 selves to him to exhort him to reveal, and 
 next to their officers to remind them of their 
 duty. In the mean time^ \yith the same 
 serenity, the secretary pens down every sigh, 
 groan, and execration, which the force of the 
 torment obliges the wretched and frantic vic- 
 tim to utter.* This minute statement of every 
 thing the person tortured said or did usually 
 began from the very moment the tribunal 
 was formed in the subterraneous vault, and 
 the preparations were ready. Thus in the pro- 
 ceedings against Salas, above quoted, the 
 report says that whilst enduring the torture 
 he repeated the creed of St. Athanasius, 
 (therein ignorantly called a psalm) and that 
 he continued to give thants to God and to 
 the Virgin. 
 
 The legislators who originally authorized 
 this mode of trial at least had the equity to 
 pronounce all inferences of guilt as thereby 
 
 * Orden de Processar, fol. 29. — Massini, Prattica della 
 Santa Inquisizione, part vi. " E procureranno,'' he says, 
 •** i giudici che il notaro scriva non solamente tutte le 
 reposte del reo, moa anco tutti i ragionamenti e moti che 
 fara e tutte le parole ch'egli proferira ne' tormenti, anzi 
 tutti i suspiri, tutte le grida, tutti i lamenti e le lagrime 
 che mandera."
 
 262 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 wiped away, and dismissed the sufferer who 
 persevered throughout in his denial ; but the 
 Inquisition condemned him to perpetual im- 
 prisonment ; and when this was out of use,, 
 in consequence of the number of persons 
 penanced, it sent him to the galleys for four 
 or six years.* Consequently the unfortunate 
 culprit, perhaps wholly innocent, often en- 
 tirely disabled by the writhings of his muscles 
 and the dislocation of his bones, caused by 
 the shocks of the pulley, — crippled by the 
 compression of his breast and other accidents 
 of the rack, or maimed by the contraction of 
 his nerves through the operation of fire, — 
 was after all this obliged to endure the 
 infamv of beincr mixed and confounded with 
 the vilest wretches. 
 
 The Inquisition has uniformly adopted the 
 vices of all other tribunals, and even added 
 lo them ; but in the torture it has astonish- 
 ingly surpassed them in rigour and cruelty. 
 In the first place it originally invented new 
 modes of inflicting it, respecting which, on 
 
 * Compilacion de Instrucciones, n, 54. Mention is 
 tliere made of this extraordinary punishment; the Supreme 
 Council designated the one I have just pointed out by a 
 resolution of 29th March, 1608.— Orden de Procesar, 
 iol.30, note MS.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 263 
 
 several complaints being made, a prohibitory 
 article was framed under a project of reformj 
 as we shall hereafter have occasion to notice. 
 In the second, not content with obliging the 
 culprit to confess his crime and reveal his 
 accomplices, it also forced him to manifest 
 his very intention ; so that, when he had 
 confessed every thing that could enter into 
 the cognizance of a court, he was again 
 subjected to the pangs of the torture, till 
 he had declared himself to be as bad before 
 men as his judges supposed he was before 
 God.* But there was another practice still 
 more inhuman. Whenever the culprit, from 
 an impulse of repentance, at once confessed 
 his intention and revealed his accomplices, 
 the torture was nevertheless inflicted on him 
 
 * Orden de Processar, fol. 27, " Torture is to be 
 applied upon him, whether it is for things he has done or 
 said, or on account of his intention, in case he should 
 deny it, or for secreting accomplices." — Massini also, in 
 his Prattica della Santa Inquisizione, part vi. " Si el reo 
 a sua istanza deposto della tortura confesserd iljatto, dovra 
 anco successivamente interrogarsi sopra VintenzionCy e ne- 
 gando esso la mala credulita si esorti a confessar la verita ; 
 e persistendo si minacci che di nuovo sera alzato in tortura, 
 e perseverando pure nella negativa, in ogni modo sijaccia 
 di nuovo alzarcy e nella tortura s'interroghi sopra I'inten- 
 zione, et il tutto si eseguira,'" Sfc. — Regimen to do S. OfBcio 
 de Portugal, lib. ii. tit. vii. n. 1.
 
 264 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 in case any of the latter denied being such, 
 in order to see whether he persisted in his 
 declaration ; nor was his ready confession 
 and repentance of any avail, since he was 
 equally put to the torture after confession, 
 the same as if he had persisted in his denial.* 
 In this particular the Inquisition, with regard 
 to the citizen, has imitated the conduct of 
 the old Roman magistrates towards slaves; 
 who gave no credit to their testimony in 
 judicial cases unless their declarations were 
 made under the anguish of the torture, con- 
 ceiving that in no other manner they could 
 speak the truth ; a conduct so horrid, and at 
 the same time so heinous, that the most san- 
 guinary of the Emperors dared not to adopt 
 it, not even those who were most opposed 
 to the rights and liberties of the people. 
 
 It will not be improper to observe, that 
 this tribunal, as it rather sought criminals 
 than crimes, lost no opportunity of impli- 
 cating the accuser and witnesses in the same 
 cause, even so far as to interrogate them 
 under the torture, when they did not declare 
 enough^ or were caught in any contradiction. t 
 If this circumstance, as well as that of the 
 
 * Massini, Prattica della Santa Inquisizione, part vi, 
 f Ibid, part x,
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 265 
 
 Inquisition searching out the particulars of 
 the lives and habits of all of them, had only 
 been known to the people, most assuredly 
 there would not have been so many denun- 
 ciators. This would have been a most 
 excellent lenitive to appease the qualms of 
 conscience of many devotees ; who, seeing 
 the dangers that awaited them, would here 
 have found an outlet to their scruples and 
 doubts which the strongest arguments could 
 not have produced ; and they would then 
 have learnt to conciliate the authority of the 
 law with charity towards their neighbour and 
 safety to themselves. But these, as well as 
 other points which, if they had only been 
 known, would have prevented many and 
 great acts of injustice, the Inquisition took 
 good care to keep perfectly secret, whilst 
 at the same time it celebrated its excom- 
 munications with the ringing of bells. 
 
 Besides the evidence, by writings, by 
 witnesses, and by the free or constrained 
 confession of the culprit, on all which the 
 fiscaj-proctor founds his accusations j in for- 
 mer times another species of proof was like- 
 wise made use of, to which the name of 
 Compurgation was given. This consisted in 
 compelling the prisoner to justify his conduct
 
 266 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. lY. 
 
 and clear the suspicions against him, by 
 obtaining the testimony of persons of res- 
 pectabihty and probity; who, in greater or 
 lesser number, affirmed under oath that they 
 believed him to be a true Catholic, and, for 
 that reason, free from the suspicions of heresy 
 imputed to him. It suffices to know that in 
 this tribunal another species of trial was 
 practised, for us to fear that it was also a 
 new source of injustice. Such, in fact, the 
 process of Compurgation was ; for any one 
 was subjected to it against whose belief the 
 smallest rumour had been circulated, even 
 when this had arisen out of the worst of 
 characters, and proved to have been dissemi- 
 nated by his enemies.* But this was not the 
 worst. When a person thus defamed was 
 unable to find suitable testimony in his 
 favour, possibly in consequence of the dan- 
 gers accompanying such a proceeding in the 
 Inquisition, he was condemned as a contu- 
 macious heretic. To this doctrine, although 
 taken from the Directory of the inquisitors, 
 its commentator Peiia was by no means 
 reconciled ; because he considered it too ar- 
 bitrary and cruel. Eymeric, however, founds 
 it on certain decretals, but whether correctly 
 * Eymeric, Director. Inquisitor, part ii. quaest. Ivii.
 
 ClIAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 26? 
 
 or not I am unprepared to say; nor is it 
 necessary to ascertain the point, since, for 
 my object, it is sufficient to know, that 
 whenever the canon-law fails in its harshness 
 against heretics, or against catholics accused 
 of being such, in those cases, the Inquisi- 
 tion makes up the deficiency by its own 
 interpretations.* 
 
 DEFENCE OF THE CULPRIT. 
 
 If the excess with which a tribunal urges 
 the evidence adduced against a culprit ar- 
 gues a want of interest in his defence, it 
 cannot be denied that the means of vin- 
 dication granted by the Inquisition were 
 extremely small. Besides this circumstance 
 being notorious therein, as well as that of 
 hiding from him the witnesses, there were 
 others highly deserving of notice, which 
 powerfully tended to confirm the same truth. 
 Such was that of selecting an attorney for 
 the prisoner who was not possessed of his 
 confidence, with whom he was not allowed 
 to communicate unless before witnesses, as 
 well as before a notary, who was to certify 
 
 * Eymeric, Director. Inquisitor, part iii. n. 1^5. — Peiiaj 
 com. xxxviii.
 
 ^68 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 all the particulars of his conferences. Such 
 was that of the prisoner's attorney not being 
 permitted to consult with any person respect- 
 ing doubts that might occur to him, or to 
 take a copy or memorandum of the proceed- 
 ings, or even to speak of them out of the 
 court. Such, in short, was that of with- 
 holding from the prisoner a copy of the 
 proceedings and of his defence ; by which 
 he was denied the consolation of knowing, 
 before his sentence was carried into effect, 
 whether the exceptions and arguments pro- 
 duced on his behalf had been duly stated 
 and considered, or whether any thing sub- 
 stantial had been omitted.* Above all, the 
 
 * Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 35. " No oppor- 
 tunity shall at any time be given for the prisoner to com- 
 municate with his advocate or any other person, unless it 
 is in presence of the inquisitors and the notary, who 
 may certify to what passed." — n, 36. " The advocates are 
 not to retain any copy of the statement of accusation, file 
 of proceedings, nor of the exceptions made against the 
 witnesses ; on the contrary, they are bound to return all 
 to the inquisitors." — Orden de Procesar, fol. 26. " It Avas 
 reported to him, that the defence he had solicited, and 
 which it was possible and proper to make, had been 
 received ; and for this reason, if he was desirous to con- 
 clude, he could do it, and that if he wished any thing 
 further he was to say it." Added in the margin : " It 
 is not proper to read the defence to him, nox to givp
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 269 
 
 injustice of the Inquisition has been glaring 
 and unpardonable in three cardinal points, 
 which constitute the defence of the accused ; 
 such are the recusation of the judges, the 
 appeal, and the intervention of the civil 
 power. Let us briefly examine each of 
 these points in a separate manner. 
 
 Recusation of the Judges. — Whenever the 
 culprit has substantial reasons to apprehend 
 that any or all of his judges are liable to be 
 biassed by any hatred or resentment against 
 him, the laws grant him the faculty of recur- 
 ring to a superior court, in order to claim the 
 nomination of others of whose probity no 
 fears can be entertained. It is indeed true 
 that this practice exists in the Inquisition, 
 but it is enforced with the greatest difficulty 
 and only in very extraordinary cases, because 
 the inquisitors conceive they have a right to 
 be considered so upright and prudent as 
 scarcely to admit of being recused.* With- 
 
 him an official copy of the same, although he may 
 require it." 
 
 * Paramo, De Ordine Judiciar. S. Offic. lib. iii. Quasst, 
 ir. n. 55. " Tamen/uec (motives of complaint) nonproce- 
 dunt, nee habent locum regulariter in inquisitoribiis Jidei^ 
 quum hi velut suspecti recusari non possint; is enim (in' 
 quisitorj gravissimtis, cBquissimus^ probatissimus, et pruden- 
 tissimus eligi prcESumiticr.'*
 
 270 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 out entering into the reasons these judges 
 may have to boast of being better men than 
 those of other tribunals, it is undeniable 
 that the culprit would gain little by recusing 
 them, since the summary judgment previously 
 substantiated by them and by virtue of which 
 he had been arrested is, if we may so call it, 
 the prototype of, or what gives the tone to, 
 the final sentence. 
 
 Appeal. — If in any tribunal powerful 
 reasons can be found for granting to the 
 culprit, condemned in the first instance, an 
 appeal to a superior court, it is most un- 
 doubtedly in the Inquisition. The illegality 
 which in this species of trial abounds on 
 every side calls aloud for many judges to in- 
 terfere in the ruin of the unfortunate, under 
 a hope that humanity may effect in them 
 what justice had not performed in those who 
 orginally traced out this institution. Never- 
 theless the canon-law is explicitly opposed to 
 an appeal, nor is any other known in this 
 tribunal, unless relating to the sentence of 
 torture, and even in this a palpable contra- 
 diction is discovered ; * since if sufficient 
 reasons have been found for the appeal in the 
 
 * De Haeret. cap. ut Inquisition, in vi. — ^Eymeric, Di- 
 reccor. Inquisitor, part iii. Quasst. cxvii*
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 271 
 
 irreparable injury resulting from the torture, 
 why is the prisoner denied the same remedy 
 with respect to the conclusion of his cause, 
 when the evil that threatens him is so much 
 the greater ? It ought not to be said that it 
 is the Supreme Council which properly con- 
 demns or absolves by confirming or amending 
 the sentence of the provincial courts, because 
 this is very far from being an appeal. To see 
 whether they have or have not followed the 
 regular forms of this unmeaning process, and 
 whether the same have been scrupulously ob- 
 served, that is, the governing rules thereof with 
 all their vices, is the usual occupation of the 
 Supreme Council j but carefully to examine 
 the qualities of the witnesses, to sift out the 
 proceedings of the whole cause, to ascertain 
 whether any exceptions alleged by tlie pri- 
 soner have had all their due weight ; in short, 
 to find out whether all his pleas and argu- 
 ments have been justly considered is not the 
 business of the Supreme Council, nor can the 
 culprit expect it. The reason they allege 
 for the refusal of an appeal respecting the 
 final sentence is not more satisfactory thafl 
 that whereby they object to the recusation of 
 the judges, purporting that it ought only to 
 be granted for the defence of innocence and
 
 272 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. I>V 
 
 not of guilt, as if it were an established point 
 that in the Inquisition the culprit was unable 
 to meet with any grievance, and that he ne- 
 cessarily must have trespassed.* To fill up 
 the measure of iniquity in this particulnr 
 nothing was wanting but to grant to the fiscal- 
 proctor that same appeal which was refused 
 to the culprit for his own defence, in order 
 to make his oppression the more complete ; 
 and in fact this was granted by the regula- 
 tions of the Portuguese Inquisition. t 
 
 Appellatory Remonstrance to the Civil 
 Fozver. — I here principally allude to the ap- 
 
 * " Fuit enimy says Paramo, De Ord. Judiciar. lib. ii?, 
 Qua?st.iv. n.58. " appeUationis reniedium institiitum adprcesi- 
 dium innoceyitice, non ad defensioneni iniquitatis ; quod utique 
 ohtinet injavoremjidei, et in odium liccrcticoriim ne judicium 
 protrahatur, et quia quce sententia mature et pensato prcece- 
 denti judicio Jertur, non debet per iniquas calurmiiantium 
 versutias retractari" 
 
 t Regimento do Santo Ofieio de Portugal, lib. ii. tit, 
 xxi. n. 1. The words are as follow : " Das senten9as que 
 OS inquisldores darem nos processos que se despachao na 
 mesa do S. Officio, ou sejao definitivas ou interlocutorias, 
 podera o promotor appellar parao conselho geral allegando 
 por escrito as razoens com que pretende raostrar por parte 
 da justi^a que Ihe he feito aggravo ; e isto havera lugar 
 nao so nas senten9as dadas em processos que nao ouverem 
 de hir ao conselho, mas tambem naquelles que per bem 
 deste Regimento la devem de hir."
 
 CHAP. IV*] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 2?^ 
 
 pellatory complaint and remonstrance to the 
 superior, which belongs to every culprit, on 
 account of grievances experienced in pro- 
 ceedings instituted against him. In like 
 manner as every citizen makes a just sacrifice 
 of part of his liberty, as ordained by the laws, 
 so in return has he a right to expect from 
 them a ready and infallible protection. And 
 who more deserving of this than a prisoner, 
 perhaps innocent, yet exposed to all the 
 dangers of a criminal prosecution ? In a 
 situation so critical, government owes him 
 not only the aid to which by justice he is 
 entitled;, but also the shelter which compas- 
 sion would moreover inspire. This is the 
 origin of appellatory remonstrances to the 
 superior magistrate, more especially to re- 
 strain ecclesiastical power ; and this general 
 and obvious check in society thence becomes 
 one of the strongest links of civil allegiance, 
 and of that moral obligation we attach to it. 
 By this means also the forsaken or injured 
 culprit avails himself of the power of the 
 social body against the encroachments of the 
 subaltern magistrate, who profaning the sa- 
 cred character with which he has been in- 
 vested, plots the perdition of the unfortunate, 
 and tramples on his rights without shame or 
 
 VOL. I. T
 
 274 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 remorse. This check on arbitrary power in 
 all cases of judicial process therefore consti- 
 tutes the chief anchor that secures the safety 
 and tranquillity of society, without which 
 the citizen would be continually exposed 
 to dangers and inquietude, and experience 
 none of the advantages of social intercourse. 
 Since then this right is so sacred and 
 important, can it be supposed that it has 
 been respected by the Inquisition ? Has 
 the person therein aggrieved any means of 
 laying his wrongs at the foot of the throne ? 
 No! the bereft subject has nothing left 
 ■within his reach but heroic resignation and 
 despair.* 
 
 * Covarrubias, Maximas sobre recursos de fuerza, tit. 
 xxxii, " I command," says the king in a royal order of 
 March 10, 1553, speaking to the magistrates, " that 
 henceforward, in no matter or matters, cause or causes, 
 civil or criminal, of whatsoever kind or condition they may 
 be, and which may be agitated before the inquisitors or 
 judges of property, neither you nor any of you interfere in 
 the way of appeal from grievances or by remonstrance ; and 
 that on no account whatever you take cognizance of the 
 acts or grant writs against the inquisitors or judges of pro- 
 perty ; since if any person or persons, town or corporations, 
 should feel themselves aggrieved they can have recourse 
 to the judges of our Council of the Supreme and General 
 Inquisition/'
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 275 
 
 FINAL SENTENCE. 
 I give this term to the sentence in which 
 the inquisitorial process ends, and not that of 
 definitive, as is usual in other tribunals, be- 
 cause in this it is not so.* However the 
 culprit may clear himself from imputed guilt, 
 it is sufficient for his name to have sounded 
 within those fatal walls for his cause to remain 
 open for ever, since it only terminates by his 
 complete condemnation, or that of his ac- 
 cusers if the calumny has been such as not to 
 admit of an evasion.t It is the custom of 
 this tribunal never to absolve any one in a 
 simple manner against whom proceedings 
 have been once instituted, but only at most to 
 declare him absolved of the immediate charge 
 preferred, by suspending the sentence and 
 reserving to itself the right of continuing the 
 process whenever fresh proofs may be brought 
 forward. This method of acting in the In- 
 quisition would be less odious if it did not 
 impose a penalty on the culprit on account of 
 mere suspicions: but constant in the practice 
 of showing him the least possible favour, it 
 does not terminate the process, in order to be 
 
 * Orden de Procesar, foL ^S. 
 f Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 54. 
 T3
 
 276 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cttAP. IV. 
 
 the more ready to continue it when another 
 opportunity offers, and at the same time con- 
 demns the culprit as if in fact his trial had 
 regularly closed. Hence has arisen that 
 diversity of abjurations to which the arraigned 
 is held when he is reconciled to the Church, 
 and which, in the terms of the Inquisition, 
 are called the abjurations de levi, de vehemaiti, 
 and de formali. To one of the two first of 
 these forms every one indicted for heresy is 
 obliged to submit, according to the degree of 
 suspicion attached to his case, and the latter 
 is imposed on all those who by the proceed- 
 ings instituted appear to have sinned against 
 the faith. I ought here to premise that re- 
 conciliation is granted to the culprit under a 
 conditional form, which is, " that he has 
 been converted from purity of heart and not 
 through a feigned faith, and that he has con- 
 fessed the truth, and hidden nothingrespecting 
 himself or any other person, alive or dead.* 
 If there were no other proof of the little merit 
 to be attached to the conquests made by this 
 institution for the Church, is not the distrust 
 manifested in this single particular sufficient 
 to convince us of their inefBcacy. 
 
 Besides the stigma of infamy incurred, the 
 
 * Orden de Procesar, fol. S3.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 277 
 
 culprit accused of heresy, whether this results 
 from the proceedings instituted or is only 
 founded on suspicion, is always punished ac- 
 cording to the gravity of his crime by a fine 
 or loss of his property, by flogging, hard 
 labour, or solitary confinement, which for- 
 merly was perpetual, and these punishments 
 have even extended to death inflicted by fire, 
 in which the civil magistrate interferes as the 
 person charged with the execution. What 
 rigid censures ought not to be passed on most 
 of these punishments ! In them how much 
 has the Inquisition deviated from the spirit 
 of Christianity ! How flagrantly has it not 
 trampled on the rights of society and of 
 man ! The infamy of the culprit transmitted 
 to his innocent children, confiscation, trans- 
 forming a judicial process of the most delicate 
 nature into a lucrative speculation — imprison- 
 ment for life, by which the death of the citizen 
 is prolonged to an indefinite period of time, 
 are all ideas which excite sentiments of in- 
 dignation in the contemplative mind. What 
 contradiction do we not at once discover 
 between this terrific power which the priests 
 of the most amiable of religions have bor- 
 rowed, or rather mendicated, from princes, 
 and the native character with which itsj
 
 278 INGLUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 founder originally adorned it. But as my 
 object is conciseness, I shall direct my parti- 
 cular attention to the sentence of death, 
 which the inquisitors comprehend under the 
 title of " delivery over to the civil magis- 
 tracy.'* This takes place with the formal 
 heretic persisting in his error, to which class 
 is also reduced the diminuto, that is, he who 
 does not confess all they believe he ought to 
 confess; with the penitent, but relapsed 
 heretic; with the heretic convicted but re- 
 fusing to confess, that is, when from the 
 proceedings any one is proved to have fallen 
 into heresy but refuses to conform to the 
 sentence pronounced against him, rather 
 protesting that he has ever believed and is 
 ready to confess all the articles of faith ; with 
 the absent, condemned of rebellion ; and 
 lastly with the deceased heretic, whether he 
 died before or after the process was instituted 
 against him. 
 
 I ought here to observe that the pardon of 
 life, which the tribunal once grants to the 
 heretic, undergoes exceptions in many cases, 
 such as when he denied the Trinity, the In- 
 carnation of the Word, the Divinity of Jesus 
 Christ, or the Purity of the Virgin Mary, or 
 when he celebrated mass or heard sacramental
 
 tJHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 279 
 
 confession, not being a priest ; that he is not 
 only considered as a relapse who before ab- 
 jured de formali, but also he who abjured de 
 vehementi ; in short that it rests on the plea- 
 sure of the inquisitors to grant or deny this 
 pardon.* The bishop of the diocese also 
 assists at this sentence, thus exercising his 
 second and last act of jurisdiction, and the 
 form is as follows. 
 
 SENTENCE OF THE DELIVERY OVER TO THE 
 CIVIL MAGISTRACY. 
 
 " Christ i nomine invocato. We resolve, after 
 due examination made of the proceedings and 
 merits of the present case, that the said fiscal- 
 proctor has fully and duly proved his accusa- 
 tion, in the form and manner he was bound 
 
 * Massini Prattica della S, Inquisizione, part x. av- 
 vert. xliii. Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 41. On the 
 latter point the instructions of the Inquisition of Seville for 
 the year 1484, § 12, prescribe that the iniquisitors ought 
 once to receive the repentant heretic to penance, " ex- 
 cepting, if after examining the form of his confession, and 
 duly weighing other circumstances depending on their 
 will, it should- appear to them that his conversion and re- 
 conciliation are feigned and not real, and they do not 
 conceive any good hope of his return to the Church, for 
 in such case they are to declare him to be an impenitent 
 heretic, and deliver him over to the secular magistrate,'*
 
 280 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IV. 
 
 SO to do. Wherefore, we decree and ordain 
 that his object has been fully established, in 
 consequence of which we ought and do 
 delare that the said N. has been, and is an 
 apostate heretic, a defaulter and abettor of 
 heretics, (when he is a relapse the words are 
 * a feigned, deceptious abettor, and impeni- 
 tent relapse,*) and that he has thereby fallen 
 into and incurred the sentence of grievous 
 excommunication, to which he is liable, as 
 well as of the confiscation and loss of all his 
 property, the same which we order to be ap- 
 plied and hereby do apply to the Exchequer 
 of His Majesty, and in his name to the 
 Receiver thereof, from the day and time he 
 began to commit the said crimes of heresy, 
 the declaration of which we reserve to our- 
 selves ; and that we ought to deliver over 
 and hereby do deliver over the person of the 
 said N. to justice and to the civil magistrate, 
 especially to N. mayor of this city, or to his 
 marshal in said office, whom we affectionately 
 beseech and enjoin, as in the best form of 
 right we are able, to deal tenderly and com- 
 passionately with him. And wc further 
 declare the sons and daughters of the said N. 
 and his grandchildren in the male line to be 
 unfit and incapable, and we hereby disable
 
 CHAP. IV.l INQUISITION UNMASKED. 28t 
 
 "" f 
 
 them from holding or obtaining any dignities, 
 benefices, or offices, as well ecclesiastical as 
 secular, or any public or honourable employ- 
 ments ; and also from using or carrying 
 about their persons any gold, silver, pearls, 
 precious stones, coral, silk, camlet, or fine 
 cloth ; from riding on horseback, wearing 
 arms, or using or possessing any of those other 
 things which by common right the laws 
 and regulations of these kingdoms, as well as 
 the instructions and forms of the Holy Office, 
 are prohibited to all such disabled persons. 
 And by this our definitive sentence we ac- 
 cordingly judge and decide, and in and by 
 these presents order, the same to be exe- 
 cuted."* Here follow the date and sig- 
 natures. 
 
 In the above form we have the protest or 
 intercession which the Inquisition and its 
 advocates seek to bring forward as a proof 
 of its mildness, and which, in the first part of 
 this essay I asserted was a mere ceremony, 
 promising to prove the same in another part 
 of ray work ; this shall be at the end of the 
 present division of my subject, when I have 
 established the necessary premises in order 
 
 * Orden de Procesar, fol. 31,
 
 t82 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 to convey a complete idea of the hypocrisy 
 of this practice, greater even than its futility 
 and ridiculousness. As it is now time to 
 speak of the punishment of death, which the 
 culprit undergoes when condemned by this 
 tribunal to be delivered up to the secular 
 power; I shall not consider it so much in 
 itself as in the atrocity by which it is accom- 
 panied. Rome, whose warlike inhabitants, 
 from genius as well as constitution, beheld 
 the blood of their fellow-creatures flow 
 with the greatest insensibility — Rome, whose 
 ladies, no less hard of heart than lascivious of 
 mind, seated in the amphitheatre required of 
 the gladiators already pierced with mortal 
 wounds that they should still fall to the 
 ground in a graceful posture — Rome, in 
 short, familiar with all kinds of capital punish- 
 ments, knew no one greater than the flames, 
 since this more than any other, by instantly 
 reducing the members into their last ele- 
 ments, also saddens the spirit, and Alls the 
 imagination with the keenest horror. Such js 
 it represented by Tertullian, as the sad specta- 
 tor of such heart-rending scenes, after he had 
 compared it with decapitation^ crucifixion, 
 and the condemnation to be devoured by
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 283 
 
 wild beasts.* The Inquisition nevertheless 
 has ever preferred this to all other modes of 
 capital punishment inflicted by the forms of 
 law. Thus while tlie Gospel passing through 
 ages and nations like a benign dew has 
 spread sweetness over their laws and customs, 
 this fatal tribunal, advancing with equal steps 
 and by the favour of princes, in its turn and 
 as it were by reprisal, has committed the 
 same cruelties as the enemies of religion, 
 favoured as they also were by kingly pro- 
 tection ; and in the vengeful fires in which 
 so many martyrs triumphed, it has lighted up 
 those torches with which it has sacrificed so 
 many victims to superstition. 
 
 The conduct of the Inquisition towards the 
 convicted but not confessed culprit is one 
 of the points most worthy of observation. 
 In this particular it may be affirmed that it 
 compels the miserable persons who fall under 
 its power to drink of the bitter cup to the 
 very dregs, by clashing in the most contra- 
 dictory and scandalous manner with the 
 principles of the Catholic religion which it so 
 improperly seeks to defend. Against the 
 
 * Tertullian, Ad Martyras, lib. vii. cap. iv. n. 1. — Time- 
 bit forsitan caro gladium gravem, ,et crucem excelsam, et 
 rabiem besiiariim, et siwimam igniiim pcenam" 
 
 4
 
 284 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 culprit in the above-mentioned case it applies 
 the same penalty as if he denied all the 
 dogmas of the faith, and without any other 
 reason than that of his holding the sentence 
 as unqualified, as if this was not often the 
 case not only in this tribunal, but also in 
 others in which the mode of proceeding is 
 incomparably more regular. Of no avail is 
 it to the unfortunate victim to protest his 
 firm belief, and solemnly profess, each of the 
 articles of faith ; it suffices to argue that the 
 Inquisition has been surprised by the craft of 
 a calumniator, or in any other manner to 
 deny having deserved its sentence of con- 
 demnation, for the tribunal to pronounce him 
 a heretic, and punish him as if he was an 
 apostate to his religion. On this score also 
 Trajan was more moderate towards culprits 
 accused of Christianity, since he pronounced 
 the accusation which existed against them 
 as null, whenever they were ready to sacrifice 
 to the idols.* 
 
 But to come to the point at once, the In- 
 quisition ordains the same species of capital 
 punishment against him who does not vene- 
 rate the infallibility of its sentences, as against 
 the man who denies that the Church is 
 
 * Plin. lib. X. epist. xcviii.
 
 CliAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 285 
 
 infallible in her dogmatical decisions. In 
 conformity to these ideas, the culprit who 
 seeks not to be wanting to the truth by 
 confessing crimes he has not committed, in 
 this tribunal is not only delivered over to the 
 flames, but also deprived of spiritual succour 
 by sacramental confession being refused him, 
 which in those fearful moments the Church 
 even allows to the most hardened highway- 
 man. It only permits the prisoner to have a 
 confessor for the purposes of absolution, 
 when in contravention to his own safety and 
 the welfare of his own family, he commits a 
 falsehood, by approving as merited the sen- 
 tence of condemnation pronounced against 
 him ; that is, it merely grants him absolution 
 in the right of penance, at a time when no 
 confessor can in fact absolve him. Can any 
 other more evident and convincing proof be 
 given of the opposition of this tribunal to the 
 true principles of religion ? I must either be 
 deluded, and read in the books of the Inqui- 
 tion what they do not really contain, or I 
 must naturally conclude that the evidence of 
 this demonstration is sufficient to convince 
 the most obdurate. 
 
 Unfortunately this doctrine is but too 
 pointed and manifest in all the works which
 
 286 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. lY. 
 
 serve as a code or commentary to the judicial 
 proceedings of this institution. The Beter- 
 rensian and Narbonensian synods, assembled 
 during the greatest effervescence of inquisi- 
 torial zeal ; the instructions of the tribunal 
 of Toledo and also of Seville ; a declaration 
 of the Congregation of La Rota, as well as 
 every other work relating to the institution 
 and published by inquisitors themselves, to- 
 gether with its history amidst the multitude 
 of sacrifices of this kind it presents, tend all to 
 prove that this has been the exact practice 
 uniformly observed in this particular.* Some 
 persons have attributed it to policy on the 
 part of the Inquisition, in order always to 
 have the credit either of being compassionate, 
 by alleviating the punishment of him who 
 confesses, or of being just, b}^ severely 
 punishing him who refuses to confess. Others, 
 however, have thought that it has rather been 
 ■with a view to enjoy the confiscated pro- 
 perty more securely from public censure, by 
 the guilty in some measure authorizing the 
 confiscation, in the act of acknowledging 
 themselves such. For my own part, without 
 entirely disregarding these two imputations, 
 I attribute this inconsistency to the contra- 
 
 * Vide Pena Ad Director. Inquisitor, part iii. n.21I.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 287 
 
 riety of prii^ -iples by which it is governed, 
 being at one time a tribunal of internal and 
 next of external jurisdiction, as well also as a 
 mixture of ecclesiastical and civil elements. 
 The fact is that the popes, by dictating laws 
 for its government, and the iniquisitors, by 
 commenting on and putting them into exe- 
 cution, have at length got into an endless 
 maze of perplexity ; and indeed this was to 
 be expected from the windings and turnings, 
 as well as the tricks, so remarkable in the 
 judicial proceedings of this court. 
 
 But if the aggravated outrages committed 
 by this tribunal against the living, through its 
 vicious method of judicial process, cannot 
 fail to revolt the feelings of every sensible ■ 
 man, how much must he not be shocked at 
 its conduct towards the dead ? With regard 
 to the first, it may in some measure be said 
 that they are allowed to establish their de- 
 fence, at least by their pleas being partly if 
 not entirely heard ; but to institute a crimi- 
 nal suit against one already deceased, by 
 forming a rigorous accusation against him, 
 and this not on facts accompanied by perma- 
 nent vestiges, but on words carried away by 
 the winds nearly as soon as they were articu- 
 lated, or perhaps on thoughts containing no
 
 288 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Other harm than the malevolent interpreta- 
 tion attached to them ; to expose his bones 
 to the light of the sun as an object of derision 
 and horror, after the earth, the common 
 mother of all mortals, had received him into 
 her bosom, without any one being found in 
 his defence, unless some solitary relation or 
 advocate only slightly acquainted with his 
 rights, is certainly to disregard the most 
 obvious impressions of the heart, and to spurn 
 at the most commendable laws of humanity. 
 Samuel bitterly reprehended Saul for disturb- 
 ing the quiet he enjoyed in the region of 
 shades, when he consulted him by means of 
 a prophetess respecting the issue of a battle 
 in which he was engaged ; what then would 
 have not been his complaint, if his bones had 
 been dug up to be made an object of con- 
 tempt ? * The peaceful envoys who, after a 
 most bloody action, were sent to ^neas by 
 the king of Latium, soliciting permission to 
 bury their dead, alleged no other reason in 
 support of their demand than the immunity 
 which the living ought to grant to the dead. 
 
 " Nullum cum victis certamen, et asthere cassis." 
 
 ViRG. i^N. l.xi. V. 102. 
 
 * Reges, lib. i. cap. xxviii. v. 15. Dixit autem Samuel 
 ad Said; Quarc inquietasti me ut suscitarer?*'
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 289 
 
 If therefore he, who has already paid to 
 nature this last and most arduous tribute, 
 merited such pity and respect from those 
 nations which considered it impious to re- 
 fuse him burial, would they have approved 
 of his being disinterred for the detestable 
 purpose of reeking vengeance on his earthly 
 remains ? 
 
 It may perhaps be retorted that we are 
 here to understand persons guilty of high 
 treason, with whom every pious consideration 
 ceases. Granted that this is the case, and how- 
 ever absurd it may appear, let us suppose that 
 the punishment executed against the delin- 
 quent, who has neither feet on which to stand 
 in his own defence, nor tongue to use in his 
 own justification, is an emanation of the fun- 
 damental compacts of society, yet will it be 
 proper for the ministers of religion to be the 
 f depositaries of a jurisprudence so terrible, 
 which with its iron rod reaches beyond 
 the bounds separating time from eternity ? 
 Ulysses, grown old amidst the din of arms, 
 lays down the fierceness of his profession and 
 intercedes with Agamemnon, chief of the 
 Grecian army at the siege of Troy, for permis- 
 sion to bury Ajax, guilty of high treason, and 
 his personal enemy: it sufficed to behold him 
 
 VOL, I. u
 
 190 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 in the arms of death for the hoary warrior to 
 step forward to fulfil this office of benefi- 
 cence and generosity with his own hands. 
 The tender affections of that venerable sol- 
 dier at such an interesting moment could 
 alone be worthily expressed by Sophocles 
 in his own majestic strains, of whose beauty 
 and grandeur I do not wish to deprive my 
 reader. 
 
 Vljjs. 
 
 Agam. 
 
 Uli/s. 
 
 Agani. 
 
 Ulys. 
 
 Agam. 
 
 Viys. 
 
 Agam. 
 
 IJbjs. 
 
 Toy UVCftt, ToVOi TTphi B'lW 
 
 Mr, tPi^5 ccB-oiTrrcv a^' cc'dXyviTK^ (iaXuf. 
 MvjO'^ ill fi'M tn f/iYtd'a.f/jZc, vtKr,iroi.Ta 
 Tea-otii fjuurat aia-Tt ray ^iH/iv tthtuv. 
 
 ' Eyjwy' if/yKTov) d" ijvix.' wv y/nnTv xaXo'j. 
 
 'H^S? (tu ouMuc, t'^^s ^'. nfXii^ci ^ccn7i j 
 
 'Avaycci wn f/js ray vsxfov B-K^rrav sun j 
 
 ^Eyuye, kxi ya^ oivroi h^x^' «^a^«;. ^ 
 
 fc'oi'II. 'A/«c ^«o-r4y. V, 1355, (I'C. 
 
 Vlyss. 
 
 Then, by the Gods 1 beg, permit him not 
 To be cast out unpitied, unintomb'd — 
 Nor is it Ajax but the Gods you violate, 
 And trample on their laws. Hovve'er we hate 
 The brave when living, none offend the dead. 
 
 Agam. Dost thou defend him then, Ulysses ? 
 
 XJlyss. Yes; 
 
 I hated, whilst 'twas generous to hate. 
 
 Amm. Hast thou not cause to tread on, to insult him >
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 291 
 
 Ulyss. Oh king, forbear this triumph ! 'Tis not well. 
 
 Amni. Art thou so foud then of a foe when dead ? 
 
 Ulijss. Friendship and enmity by turns we prove. 
 
 Agam. Thou counsell'st then I should permit his burial ? 
 
 Ulyss. Yes ; I remember I myself must die. 
 
 If Uiysses could not bear to see burial 
 denied to the body of Ajax, how much less 
 vvoidd he have suffered it to be taken out of 
 its last resting place, and converted into an 
 object of scorn and public derision ? These 
 most humane sentiments are applauded, as 
 if inspired by wisdom, in the chorus of 
 the ancient dramas, in which the voice of 
 reason or the general opinion were always 
 expressed. 
 
 Ghor. Whoe'er, Ulysses, says thou art not wise 
 Only discovers that he is not so. 
 
 Let those who find nothing in the Inqui- 
 sition derogatory to the religion of a God 
 crucified for the love of men deny, if they 
 dare, that the ideas here expressed as pre- 
 cepts to the Athenian people are not more 
 analogous to this same religion than those 
 inculcated to catholic nations by the practice 
 u 2
 
 292 I-VQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 of this tribunal. Let them declare, whether 
 the feeling and elegant Sophocles, writing 
 near five-hundred years before the preaching 
 of the Gospel, and notwithstanding he wa3 
 a heathen, does not prove that he v/as in 
 greater accord with its meekness than the 
 priests of that same Gospel, conducting 
 themselves as they do in the manner above 
 described in the Inquisition. 
 
 Soon after the establishment of the tri- 
 bunal at Seville the practice was introduced 
 of suspending the causes of the deceased, 
 as well as those of the living, till fresh proofs 
 appeared, whenever those already adduced 
 were not sufficient to condemn them ; and 
 in the mean time the children of the parties 
 were not allowed to marry or form establish- 
 ments, in consequence of their property 
 being within- the grasp of the law.* The 
 disabilities imposed on the children and 
 grandchildren of every one condemned, or 
 subjected to public penance, extend to holy 
 orders, and to the employments and offices 
 of judges, justices of the peace, governors 
 of castles and prisons, bailiffs, aldermen, 
 
 ^ This is deduced from the fourth section of the 
 Instructions of the Inquisition of Avila for the year 
 1498, in which this is prohibited.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 29S 
 
 jurists, inspectors, sewers, public weighers, 
 notaries, lawyers, attornies, secretaries, ac- 
 comptants, chancellors, treasurers, physicians, 
 surgeons, bleeders, apothecaries, brokers, and 
 even traders.* 
 
 AUTOS DE FE. 
 
 An auto de fe, properly speaking, is the 
 file of proceedings on which the inquisitors 
 pronounce sentence against persons tried 
 and convicted ; but as it has been usual 
 for this to be done with great parade and 
 pompous solemnity, it is now generally un- 
 derstood to signify the solemn act or form 
 under which the same is pronounced. Of 
 these there are two kinds, viz. particular and 
 general. The particular one, which is also 
 called Autillo, or little auto, is either cele- 
 brated in a church, indistinctly in pre- 
 sence of the people, or in the sessions-hall 
 of the court, with the doors closed and with- 
 out the attendance of any other persons than 
 those invited, generally the dependents of 
 the Inquisition, or other select persons. The 
 general auto has usually been celebrated in 
 
 * Instructions of the Inquisition of Valladolid, done 
 tiere Oct. 7, 1488, n. 11.
 
 294 INQUISITION UNMASKED. |_CHAi'. IV. 
 
 some large and capacious church, or in the 
 principal square of the city. The first of 
 these autos takes place when the culprits are 
 few, and the second, consequently, when they 
 are numerous. In the general auto care is 
 taken that it shall include persons convicted 
 of different crimes, so as to render the spec- 
 tacle more varied ; and, for this purpose, they 
 are detained in the prisons though their trials 
 are ended. Great care is also taken that 
 among those condemned to death there be 
 some relapsed persons, or others whom re- 
 pentance cannot save from the flames ; for, 
 if all could be pardoned by abjuring their 
 errors, the court would run the risk of having 
 the exhibition spoiled at the best part. Great 
 care is also taken that no prisoner makes his 
 appearance maimed or bruised by the tor- 
 ture ; for which reason that of the pulley 
 is inflicted on no one unless fifteen days 
 can intervene before the auto de fe is to 
 take place ; and, in that case, the rack is 
 preferred.* 
 
 * Regimento do Santo Officio cle Portugal, lib. ii. 
 tit. xiv. n. 6. " Sendo neccssario dar trato esperto nos 
 quinze dias antes do auto, por nao Iiirem os prezos 
 a elle mostrando os sinais do tormento Iho darao no 
 potro."
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 295 
 
 In one or the other of these autos the 
 culprits come forth ; and when they are secu- 
 lars they are dressed in the usual manner, 
 though modestly, but when they are clergy- 
 men they are habited in their cassock with- 
 out a girdle. Friars are dressed in the same 
 manner as the clergymen, and the nuns in 
 plain clothes ; and all have their heads un- 
 covered when they are held to abjure de 
 laBvi.* When they are pronounced guilty 
 of higher crimes they also wear insignias, 
 partly emblematic of penance, but at the 
 same time tending to bring ridicule upon 
 them. These are the sanbenito, the corozdy 
 the rope round the neck, and the yellow wax 
 candle, not lighted, held in the hand, but 
 which is lighted after the ceremony of recon- 
 ciliation has been performed. The sanbenito 
 is a penitential garment or tunic of yellow 
 linen or cloth reaching down to the knees, 
 and on it is painted the picture of the person 
 who wears it, burning in flames, with several 
 figures of dragons and devils in the act of 
 fanning them. This is what is worn by the 
 individual who is to be executed as an im- 
 penitent ; but when he is a reconciled relapse 
 he bears the same flames without the figures. 
 * Regimento do Santo Officio, lib. iii. tit. ii. n. 5 and 6.
 
 5296 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 The term sanbenito is taken from the French 
 one of sac benit.* Those who only do penance, 
 instead of either, wear a cross of an oblique 
 form, or in the shape of that of St. Andrew, 
 made out of red cloth, when they are con- 
 victed of formal heresy ; but there is only one 
 arm to the cross if the suspicions have only 
 been pronounced vehemently strong and not 
 fully established.t In Portugal, when one of 
 the impenitents is converted before being 
 brought out to the auto de fe, the sanbenito 
 or penitential garment is then painted with 
 the flames downwards, there called fogo 
 revolto, as a sign that the wearer has freed 
 himself from their voracity. 
 
 This garment was afterwards placed in 
 the parish-church of the person who had 
 borne it to the place of execution, or worn 
 it in the way of penance, in order that to 
 him it might serve as an eternal opprobrium, 
 and a trophy to the Inquisition. t However 
 
 * Fleury, Institution au Droit Ecclesiastic, chap. x. 
 
 f Llorente, Anales de la Inquisicion, cap. xi. n. 9. 
 
 4: Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 81. "It is clear 
 and manifest that all the sanbenitos of condemned per- 
 sons, dead or alive, present or absent, are placed in the 
 churches of the towns where they have resided and been 
 parishioners at the time of their arrest, death, or flight : 
 and the same is also done with those of the reconciled
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 29? 
 
 in latter times the hanging up of the san- 
 benitos was dispensed with^ and only a board 
 with all the particulars stuck up ; but, in 
 consequence of several disturbances taking 
 place among persons whose family names 
 were thus exposed, the Inquisitor General, 
 Don Felipe Bertran, gave orders that they 
 should be every where removed. They 
 were accordingly taken down in some places; 
 but, as many still remain suspended, it is 
 clear that the order was not properly obeyed. 
 Among them how many culprits have had their 
 names thus exposed though deserving of our 
 veneration for their virtues! I here particularly 
 allude to the convicted who have not con- 
 fessed ; most of whom must have been mar- 
 tyrs to the truth j for it is not easy that a 
 
 who have fulfilled their penances and laid them aside, 
 although they may have only worn them during the -time 
 they were on the platform whilst their sentences were read 
 to them, all which is to be inviolably observed. And the 
 inquisitors are further enjoined to see the said sanbenitos 
 hung up and renewed, particularly in the districts they 
 may visit, in order that the remembrance of heretics and 
 their descendants may always be preserved; and on the same 
 the time of the condemnation of each is to be inserted, 
 specifying whether their crimes appertained to Jews or 
 Moors, or the new heresies of Martin Luther and his 
 followers."
 
 298 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 man who is bad, and convicted and con- 
 demned as such, should wish to die on a 
 scaffold when he is able to save his life by 
 confessing the charge preferred against him. 
 Let those banners of infamy be at once torn 
 away from the sight of the people, since 
 they dishonour the temples whose w^alls they 
 cover more than the condemned persons 
 whose names they bear. 
 
 The coroza is a pasteboard cap, three feet 
 high and ending in a point. On it are like- 
 wise painted crosses, flames, and devils ; 
 which are varied according to circumstances. 
 In Languedoc, when the Inquisition was 
 founded, the sanbenito and coroza formed 
 one single piece, which was a tunic with a 
 cowl or hood.* In America it has been cus- 
 tomary to add a long twisted tail to the 
 corozas or caps worn by dogmatizers or by 
 teachers of the law of Moses, in order to 
 denote the crookedness or sophisms of their 
 doctrines.! The persons also condemned to 
 death, instead of a candle, carry a wooden 
 cross painted green. Blasphemers are always 
 brought out with a gag on their mouths ; 
 
 * Llorente, Anales de la Inquisicion, cap. xi. n. 8. 
 t Fray Juan de Torqueniada, Monarquia Indiana, 
 lib. xix. cap. xxix, 
 5
 
 iiiiliii
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 299 
 
 and in general a quantity of these arti- 
 cles are kept in reserve, in case any of 
 the other prisoners should become out- 
 rageous, and insult the tribunal, or perhaps 
 attempt to reveal what is wished to be kept 
 silent. (Vide Plate VII.) 
 
 With regard to the forms of a private 
 auto, nothing particular occurs that is not 
 to be found in the general one. In one of 
 these autos the Inquisition of Coimbra, in 
 the year 1667, brought out the celebrated 
 Jesuit Antonio Vieira, after he had endured 
 an imprisonment of two years and three 
 months. " As his doctrines/* says the histo- 
 rian who wrote his life, " touched on new 
 interpretations of the Scriptures, as well as 
 opinions different from the sense of some of 
 the Holy Fathers, and also certain points of 
 the faith ; he greatly alarmed the most up- 
 right ministers of the tribunal. At this time 
 (that is in 1665, when he was arrested) many 
 propositions of his had already been laid 
 before the Pope without the author's know- 
 ledge, and examined by two quahficators 
 who had interpreted them in their own way. 
 These same propositions had been extracted 
 from a letter Vieira had written from the 
 Maranon (in Spanish America) to the con-
 
 300 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 fessor of the Queen Mother, and they were 
 afterwards condemned in Rome ; but, besides 
 these, secret information was also laid of seve- 
 ral others, and he was consequently arrested 
 by the Holy Office." — The charges preferred 
 against him could not have amounted to any 
 great heresies ; since the culprit was brought 
 out without any candle in his hand, nor was 
 he compelled to abjure even de IcE'vi ; never- 
 theless, the reading of the proceedings lasted 
 more than two hours.* It may be proper to 
 remark, that the bad taste which then 
 reigned among preachers caused them to 
 adopt the fashion of wishing to shine as acute 
 men, by risking propositions to all appear- 
 ance heretical, and proving them by a 
 thousand subtilties. Vieira, who, as his 
 sermons prove, was not exempt from this 
 contagion, was not however the most tainted 
 with it, since he criticises and reproves it 
 in his companions ; but as in the pulpit, the 
 same as in his writings, he bore away the 
 palm of merit, his rivals resorted to this 
 means in order to supplant him, thus verify- 
 ing the truth of the old proverb, Quien es tit 
 e7iemigo ? El de tu ojicio. — Two of a trade 
 can never agree. 
 * Andres clc Barros, Vida do P. Antonio Vieyra, § clxix.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 301 
 
 In like manner, in the year 1778, Don 
 Pablo Olavide, Mayor of Seville and Super- 
 intendant of the Colony of Carolina, es- 
 tablished by Charles III. in La Sierra 
 Morena, was brought out, after two years 
 imprisonment, in a private auto performed 
 in the Inquisition of Madrid. Having ut- 
 tered I know not what propositions contrary 
 to the faith, or at least as such they were 
 reputed, a secret information was lodged 
 against him by a German capuchin, who had 
 come as chaplain to the German colonists. 
 It is uncertain whether the friar was impelled 
 to this ,^ct by virtue of his ministry, qr in 
 order to gain the good-will of certain owners 
 of flocks who were opposed to the new settle- 
 ment, in consequence of their deriving more 
 advantage from this uncultivated tract being 
 left for pasture. It is most presumable that 
 the latter was the motive rather than the first, 
 for the good friar was certainly given to 
 intrigue, as was afterwards proved by certain 
 commotions he stirred up in Carolina, for 
 which reason he was banished the kingdom. 
 About two hundred persons attended the auto 
 of Olavide, who presented himself in his own 
 proper dress, wearing the cross of Santiago, 
 of which order he was. a member. Among
 
 302 IN'QUISITION UNMASKED. [ CHAP. IV. 
 
 Other charges preferred against him by the 
 tribunal, he was accused of having said that 
 Peter Lombard and the other scholastics 
 who followed him had filled theology with 
 subtilties ; of having treated those statutes of 
 the Carthusians as absurd and inhuman which 
 permitted the members of that order to eat 
 all kinds of fish even the most rich and ex- 
 pensive, but forbade them when sick from 
 eating meat and broth, however great their 
 illness ; of condemning the number of bells 
 contained in some churches, and the manner 
 of ringing them, as opposed to the police of 
 nations ; finally, of having made exertions, 
 w^hilst his trial was pending, in order to 
 ascertain the state of its progress. The punish- 
 ment was reduced to the confiscation of his 
 property and his being banished from Madrid 
 and the royal residences, as well as from 
 Lima his native country, and also from 
 Seville. He was further declared incapable 
 of obtaining any public employments, and 
 besides condemned for eight years to the 
 seclusion of a convent; his sentence not 
 being rendered more rigorous in consequence 
 of the court of Rome having interceded in his 
 favour. 
 
 A sentence like this, in which the judges
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. SOS 
 
 included among the list of heresies (since 
 such was the accusation against Olavide) 
 propositions of the nature just described, 
 must certainly rather have inspired disdain 
 than compunction in so literary a cha- 
 racter. Thus did it happen that on the first 
 opportunity he broke his arrest and passed 
 over to France. During his residence there 
 the revolution burst forth, and he had to 
 share in its ravages, being thrown into prison 
 under the confusion of Robespierre ; this, 
 added to the inconveniences of an advanced 
 age and a sickly habit, made him desirous of 
 returning to Spain. In order to attain this, he 
 sought to repair his reputation, and conse- 
 quently wrote a work entitled, " El Evan- 
 gelio en triunfo, 6 Historia de un Filosofo 
 desefiganado.^' (The Gospel in Triumph ; or 
 the History of the Philosopher undeceived.) 
 Permission was granted him to return, on 
 condition of his appearing before the inquisi*. 
 tor-general on his arrival, which in fact he 
 did, in order to receive the penance Ihe in- 
 quisitor might think proper to impose upon 
 him : the latter, however, was satisfied with 
 his docility and his labours in defence of 
 religion. Olavide passed the remainder of his 
 life in Baeza, spending, in favour of all kind
 
 304 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 of needy persons, particularly poor widows, 
 the greatest part of the pension assigned him 
 by the king. 
 
 The general auto de fe, considering the 
 great pomp with which it is celebrated, may 
 in some measure be styled a splendid and 
 august exhibition suited to inspire the com- 
 mon people with a most respectful admiration 
 of the tribunal. In order to know that 
 it unites two of the grandest ideas that ever 
 occupied the human mind, it suffices to say 
 that it is intended as an imitation of the 
 Roman triumph and an anticipated represen- 
 tation of the last judgment. To be convinced 
 of the truth of this observation, if we had not 
 the testimony of the Inquisition itself, which 
 has always made this a particular boast, the 
 ceremonies adopted for the purpose would 
 not allow us to doubt the fact. That pomp 
 is well known with which the generals and 
 emperors of ancient Rome celebrated their 
 victories by entering what was called the 
 triumphal gate, and going up to the Capitol 
 for the purpose of giving thanks to the Divi- 
 nity. After the conqueror had harangued 
 the people and soldiers, distributing among 
 them presents and part of the spoils, the 
 procession moved onwards, accompanied
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 305 
 
 by the sounds of martial music j next fol- 
 lowed the bulls which were to be sacriliced, 
 ornamented with ribboiis and garlands of 
 riowers, or with gilded horns ; behind them 
 came the trophies gained from the enemy, 
 and the effigies of the cities and nations con- 
 quered, eacli one with its name written in 
 large characters ; then followed the eaptive 
 kings and captains loaded with chains, their 
 heads shorn as a mark of slavery, and accom- 
 panied by the officers of the army and musi- 
 cians of all instruments, when the whole 
 procession was closed by a buffi^on, who 
 humbled the conquered with his jests and 
 exalted the conqueror. Finally, the latter 
 made his appearance crowned with laurel and 
 bearing in his right hand a branch of the same, 
 an ivory sceptre in his left, and seated on 
 an ivory car ornamented with gold and drawn 
 sometimes by white horses, and at others 
 by elephants, tigers, or lions ; the car was 
 followed by the senate and the troops, and in 
 this form the procession arrived at the temple 
 where the sacrifice was solemnized ; the 
 whole feast then ended in a magnificent ban- 
 quet which the hero of the triumph gave to 
 those who had accompanied him. 
 
 These are as near as possible the forms and 
 vol.. I. X
 
 a06 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 ceremonies of a general auto, as will be seen, 
 by its description ; and consequently the sen- 
 sation caused on the minds of the people was 
 equally strong, since the formidable appear- 
 ance of the judgment therein represented, 
 and the tragic death of those who have been 
 sentenced, amply make up for the greater 
 brilliancy and magnificence of the triumph. 
 The writers belonging to the Inquisition call 
 this a horrid spectacle, and capable of striking 
 terror and dismay into the minds of every 
 otie. It is not therefore to be wondered at that 
 the inquisitors hold the people in a state of 
 infatuation and terror, by causing themselves 
 to be more dreaded than the civil authority 
 itself, notwithstanding the latter commu- 
 nicated to them so enormous a power.* 
 Unfortunately the tragedies of this kind 
 were too frequently repeated from the latter 
 end of the 15th to that of the 17th century 
 for us not to be possessed of exact accounts 
 of them ; and these, instead of offering to the 
 eyes of posterity so many victories of the 
 
 * Paramo, De Ordin. Judiciar. S. Offic. lib. iil. quaest. 
 iv. n. 36, makes use of the following words: " Certe futuri 
 judicii imaginem referunt (the autos of the faith) pr^sertim 
 in ditionibus Hispaniarum ubi horrenduiriy ac tremendum 
 spectaculiim ad hoc paratur**
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. S07 
 
 Inquisition, as it had foolishly dreamt, rather 
 make it the object of abhorrence to future 
 ages. 
 
 Among all the autos de fe we have on 
 record, no one is so memorable as that which 
 was celebrated in Madrid, in the year 1680, 
 in the presence of Charles II., his spouse, 
 and mother : a ceremony certainly worthy of 
 being compared with the triumph of Paulus 
 Emilius, the most striking that was ever 
 known. At that time foreign papers made 
 mention of it, in order to give some idea of 
 the barbarity of our ancestors. This auto 
 has always been selected by travellers as 
 well as historians who have had occasion to 
 treat of the Spanish Inquisition, as the most 
 rare specimen that can be held up to 
 curiosity ; and a painting of it by Francisco 
 Rizzi is still preserved in the palace of the 
 Buen Retiro, and serves as a monument of 
 shame to those kings who made so bad a use 
 of their power. This painting is perfectly con- 
 formable to the description given of the auto 
 by Jose del Olmo, an eye-witness, familiar 
 and also bailiff of the supreme court of Inqui- 
 sition, and who consequently must have had 
 no small share in the execution of the whole.* 
 
 * Relacion Historica del Auto general de la Fe queae ce- 
 X 2
 
 308 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ciIAP. lY. 
 
 On the Inquisition coat of arms which the 
 author places as a frontispiece to liis work, in 
 the back ground he adds two trumpets cross- 
 ing each other, and then inserts this motto, 
 formed out of the 4th and 7th verses of 
 psalms xlv. and ciii. " Sonucrimt et turbata 
 sunt gentes ; a voce toiiitrui tui formidabuntJ'* 
 This is another argument tending to prove 
 the spirit of terror by w'hich this tribunal is 
 actuated, a defect v»hich its dependants, from 
 the judges down to the meanest officers, not- 
 withstanding their protests of meekness and 
 mercy have been unable to hide. If possible 
 something still more remarkable is to be 
 noticed in the coat of arms affixed to the 
 description of the auto of the faith which 
 occurred in Cordova, Dec. 5, 1 745. On it is 
 represented a pair of shackles placed horizon- 
 tally on the body of the cross, forming 
 another by the long irons being placed trans* 
 versely, a sword to the right, and a palm as 
 
 lebro en Madrid este ano de 1680, con asistencia del Rey, 
 N. S. Carlos II. de la lleyna N. Sra. y de la reyna madre. 
 Siendo laquisidor General el Excelentisimo Sexier Don 
 Diego Sarmiento de Valladares, dcdicada a la S. C. M. del 
 Rey N. S. For Jose del Olmo, alcaide y familiar del S. 
 Oficio, ayuda de la Furriela de S. M. y raaestro mayor del 
 Bueii Retiro y Villa de Madrid.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 309 
 
 the symbol of triumph, instead of the olive, 
 to the left. From the description of the 
 above auto, by Olmo, I shall therefore pro- 
 ceed to extract the sketch I am about to 
 present to my readers, referring at the same 
 time to some particulars of other autos 
 which may be deemed most worthy of notice. 
 Several trials being ended in the Inquisi- 
 tion of Toledo, and among them some of 
 great importance, the Inquisitor General 
 Don Diego Sarmiento de Valladares, Bishop 
 of Placencia, and late Member of the Council 
 of Government during the minority of the 
 King, judged that this would be an excellent 
 opportunity of securing to himself the good- 
 will of his master, by affouiing him the en- 
 tertainment of an auto de fe on a large 
 scale. Charles II., who possessed few of the 
 requisites for a monarch, and had besides 
 been educated in superstitious credulitv, 
 gladly accepted the offer, and approved of 
 the ceremony being performed at Madrid, in 
 order that it might be attended with all pos- 
 sible pomp and parade. The Inquisitor Ge- 
 neral, together with the Supreme Council of 
 the Inquisition, made the necessary arrange- 
 ments and communicated his Majesty's orders 
 not only to the tribunal of Toledo but also to 
 6
 
 ,'510 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV- 
 
 those of Madrid and other parts of the king- 
 dom, commanding tiicm to accelerate all the 
 causes pending therein, in order that the 
 number of criminals might be the greater. 
 Sunday, 30th of June, a day on which the 
 Church celebrates the commemoration of vSt. 
 Paul, was fixed upon, as Olmo says, " in 
 order that on that day this great triumph of 
 the Catholic faith might also be celebrated,"* 
 as if St. Paul could have triumphed over his 
 enemies by bringing them forward in public 
 autos de fe. And as the multitude of spec- 
 tators likewise contributes to the display and 
 parade of so grand an exhibition, it was 
 solemnly proclaimed by the public crier a 
 month before the time, that k, on the 30th of 
 May, the day of St. Ferdinand, on which also 
 the Ascension was kept. In this manner 
 the people were invited to attend, and, as a 
 stronger inducement, the indulgences granted 
 by the popes on these occasions were also 
 announced.! The following is the form of 
 the public notification then used. 
 
 " Be it known to all the inhabitants and 
 dwellers in this city of Madrid, the court of 
 his Majesty present and residing therein, that 
 the Holy Office of the Inquisition and king- 
 
 * Olmo, n. 7. ^ IWd. n. ?5.
 
 CHAF, W.J INQUISITION UNMASKED. 31 1 
 
 dom of Toledo celebrates a public auto of 
 the faith in the large square of this said 
 city on Sunday, SOth June of this present 
 year ; and that those graces and indulgences 
 will be granted which the popes have enacted 
 for all those who may accompany and aid in 
 the said auto. This same is ordered to be 
 proclaimed for the information of every 
 one." * 
 
 In the mean time the Inquisitor General 
 named various committees, composed of per- 
 sons belonging to the Supreme Councils and 
 other tribunals, in order that they might 
 make the necessary arrangements for so great 
 a solemnity. 
 
 Let us pay particular attention to this cus- 
 tom of performing these autos on Sundays, 
 a circumstance which alone would argue the 
 great contrariety of ideas so remarkable in 
 this tribunal. Among all nations the day des- 
 tined to return thanks to the Sovereign Maker 
 of all things, as a remembrance of his omnipo- 
 tence, is held as a day of rejoicing, on which 
 it behoves us to abstain from every thing that 
 may tend to disturb it, and indeed all servile 
 occupations ought to be avoided. It is on this 
 account that all kinds of work are suspended, 
 * Olmo, n. 109.
 
 312 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [ciIAP. IV. 
 
 and for much greater reason ought the exe- 
 cution of public punishments to be withheld. 
 Thus the the Hebrews, at the same time that 
 they were forbidden to practise all manual 
 labour, were ordered to remove the dead 
 bodies from the church porches before the 
 sabbath commenced ; and even among us 
 the civil courts never proceed to give sen- 
 tence in any cas-^s of trial, and much less to 
 execute capital punishments on days conse- 
 crated by religion. The [nquisition alone is 
 an exception to this general rule : b}^ order 
 of this arrogant tribunal the civil magistrate, 
 putting on that obduracy to which on similar 
 days he had been a stranger, imbues his 
 hands in human blood, and profanes the 
 solemn period of religious joy. It may per- 
 haps be answered that these executions are 
 performed in the service and behalf of 
 religion ; if so, bloody punishments are the 
 offerings the Inquisition makes in honour 
 of a meek and divine system of faith and 
 worship. 
 
 Orders were consequently issued for a 
 large stage or platform to be erected in the 
 principal square, and in the mean time two 
 hundred and fifty artisans were enlisted into 
 the service of the Inquisition, under the title
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED, S13 
 
 of soldiers of the ftiith, for the purpose of 
 guarding and securing the criniinals. They 
 practised the exercise of their arms, as well 
 as the parts they were to act in this glorious 
 triumph. Eighty-five persons also solicited 
 and obtained the place of familiars to the 
 Holy Office, among whom w^ere grandees 
 and the highest titles of Castile, together 
 with other noblemen who, on account of the 
 notoriety of their rank and the shortness of 
 the time, received a dispensation from the 
 Inquisitor General exempting them from 
 going through the requisite proofs of the 
 purity of their lineage. 
 
 On the approach of the appointed day the 
 inhabitants of the neighbouring cities and 
 towns thronged to assist at this auto of the 
 faith; and numbers of commissaries, fami- 
 liars, and otiier persons employed by the 
 Holy Office likewise o eked up to town, 
 bringing with them the various prisoners. 
 On the 28th of June a preparatory ceremony 
 of the auto was performed by way of re- 
 hearsal, in which the soldiers of the faith 
 paraded in good order ; marching out by the 
 gate of Alcala, where they took up a quantity 
 of fligots purposely prepared, and carried 
 them through the streets in a kind of proces-
 
 314 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 sion, each bearing one as far as the outside 
 of the gate of Fuencarral, the spot which had 
 been nnuked out as the burning-place. They 
 passed by the palace, and the king taking 
 from the hands of the Captain an ornamented 
 fagot expressly arranged, shewed it to the 
 queen, and ordered it in his name to be cast 
 first into the flames, thus imitating the ex- 
 ample of St. Ferdinand, who, on a similar 
 occasion, carried the wood on his own 
 shoulders. 
 
 . On the following afternoon the procession 
 of the two crosses was performed : that is, 
 of the green cross, as the insignia of the 
 Inquisition, which was placed on the stage 
 covered with a black transparent veil ; and 
 also of the white cross, which was deposited 
 on a raised pedestal above the burning- 
 place. Thus did this triumph commence, 
 which we may truly call sacro-profane, on 
 account of its mixture of religious and civil 
 ceremonies, and its being divided into two 
 parts, in which the religion of Jesus Christ 
 and the Inquisition mutually triumphed. 
 The procession of the crosses came out of 
 the church of the college of Dofia Maria 
 de Aragon, and proceeded to the principal 
 square: the white cross came first, carried
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 315 
 
 by the two congregations of St. Peter the 
 Martyr belonging to Toledo and Madrid ; 
 and the green one followed, borne by the 
 Duke de Medina Celi and the Dominicans, 
 accompanied by the other religious communi- 
 ties and a multitude of persons belonging to 
 the tribunal with lighted candles in their hands. 
 The musicians of the royal chapel sung the 
 psalm of the Miserere. The soldiers of the 
 faith also formed part of the procession, firing 
 salutes on their arrival at determined places. 
 The green cross being placed on the altar, 
 the Dominicans remained watching it and at 
 midnight sang matins, which being ended 
 these were followed by masses performed 
 without any interruption till six in the morn- 
 ing ; and, as before noticed, the united con- 
 gregations of St. Peter the Martyr, having 
 placed the white cross on a pedestal on the 
 north side of the burning-place, a guard of 
 the soldiers of the faith remained to take 
 care of it. So far may properly be called the 
 triumph of religion. 
 
 As soon as the procession was over and 
 night had come on, the prisoners, who till 
 then were scattered about in the houses of 
 the familiars, on account of their numbers, as 
 well as to avoid their communicating with
 
 SI 6 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 each other, were all collected into the secret 
 prisons of the Supreme Tribunal of the city 
 of Madrid. The respective sentences were 
 notified to those condemned for execution, 
 in order that they might prepare for death ; 
 and in case any of the persons convicted of 
 contumacy might wish to be converted, the 
 court remained sitting the wliole night to 
 give them hearing, and in fact two women 
 were converted. The notification of the 
 sentence was couched in the following words : 
 " Brother, your cause has been seen by and 
 submitted to very learned persons, men of 
 great letters and science, and your crimes 
 have been found to be of so grievous and 
 black a nature that for the purposes of 
 punishment and example, it has been deter- 
 mined and ordained that to-morrow you shall 
 die. Prepare and make ready for death, and 
 that you may do this in a fit manner, two 
 clergymen remain here to attend you."* 
 
 At length arrived the day announced by 
 the Inquisition and so impatiently expected 
 by the common people, who are the more 
 pleased with bloody spectacles because of 
 their imaginations being less susceptible of 
 delicate impressions. At three in the morn- 
 * Olmo, n. 29.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 317 
 
 ing the clothes and sanbenitos in which they 
 were to appear were delivered out to the 
 culprits, and their breakfasts were also 
 handed to them. At seven the procession 
 began to move in the following order. The 
 soldiers of the faith came first and cleared the 
 way; next followed the cross of the parish of 
 St. Martin covered with black, and accompa- 
 nied by twelve priests clothed in surplices and 
 a clergyman with a pluvial cope; then came 
 the prisoners to the number of one hundred 
 and twenty, 72 of whom were v/omen, and 48 
 men ; some came forth in effigy and the re- 
 mainder in person. First in the order of 
 procession were the effigies of those con- 
 demned persons who had died or made their 
 escape, and amounting in all to thirty-four ; 
 their names were inscribed in large letters on 
 the breast of their effigies, and those who had 
 been condemned to be burned, besides the 
 coroza or cap on their heads, had flames 
 represented on their dress ; and some bore 
 boxes in their hands, containing the bones of 
 their corresponding originals. In the anto 
 of the faith celebrated at Goa in the year 
 1676, the effigies were carried upright and 
 fixed on long poles, and the boxes containing
 
 318 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 the bones were borne behind each.* The 
 above were followed by eleven sentenced to 
 do penance, having undergone an abjuration 
 de IcEviy and among them the impostors and 
 polygamists wore the coroza, and some of 
 them ropes on their necks containing as 
 many knots as they had been condemned to 
 receive hundreds of lashes. Next came 54 
 who had been reconciled, the most guilty 
 wearing a sanbenito with only one branch, 
 and carrying in their hands, as did also the 
 above, a yellow candle unlighted. Lastly 
 came 21 prisoners condemned to death, each 
 with his coroza and sanbenito corresponding 
 to the nature of his crime, and the mos^ of 
 them with gags on their mouths : they were 
 accompanied by numerous familiars of the 
 Inquisition in the character of patrons, and 
 were besides each attended by two friars, 
 who comforted the penitent and exhorted 
 the obdurate. The whole of this part of the 
 procession was closed by the high bailiff of 
 Toledo and his attendants. The description 
 does not say what the latter bore in their 
 hands, but in the Auto celebrated in Mexico, 
 in the year 1659, they carried a small wooden 
 * Relation de I'lnquisltion ds Goa, chap, xxxii.
 
 CHAP* IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 319 
 
 cross.* Behind the effigy of each culprit 
 were also conveyed boxes containing their 
 books, when any had been seized with them, 
 for the purpose of also being cast into the 
 flames.t The courts of the Inquisition fol- 
 lowed immediately after, preceded by the 
 secretaries of those of Toledo and Madrid, 
 with a great number of commissaries and 
 familiars ; among whom walked the two 
 Stewards of the congregations of St. Petdl' 
 Martyr, carrying the sentences of the crimi- 
 nals inclosed in two precious caskets. So far 
 the procession on foot. 
 
 Next, on horseback, paraded the sheriffs 
 and other ministers of the city, together with 
 the chief bailiffs of the Madrid Inquisition.. 
 Then came a long string of familiars, on 
 horses richly and variously caparisoned, 
 wearing the habit of the Inquisition over 
 their own dress, the proper insignia on 
 their breasts, and staffs raised in their hands. 
 In succession followed a great number of 
 ecclesiastical ministers ; such as notaries, 
 commissaries, and qualificators, all bearing 
 the same insignia, and mounted on mules 
 
 * Rodrigo Ruiz de Zepeda, Relacion del Auto de la 
 ^e celebrado en Mexico, a 19 de Nov. de 1659. 
 t Regiraento do Santo Officio, lib. ii. tit. xxii. n. 9. 
 5
 
 520 INQUISITION UXIVIASKED. f CHAP. IV. 
 
 with black trappings. Behind them went 
 the corporation of Madrid, preceded by the 
 mayor and followed by the fiscal-proctor of 
 the tribunal of Toledo, who carried the 
 standard of the faith of red damask with the 
 arms of the Inquisition and of the king, ac- 
 companied by the proctor of the Royal 
 Council and the oldest groom of the house- 
 hold. Next came the inquisitors of the 
 tribunals of Toledo and Madrid, paired oft' 
 with the king's grooms, and afterwards the 
 Supreme Council of the Inquisition accom- 
 panied by the Royal Council and Board of 
 Castile. Lastly came the Inquisitor General, 
 placed on the right hand of the president of 
 the council, an office at that time filled by 
 the bishop of Avila. The Inquisitor General 
 was dressed in a camail and mantelet, and 
 seated on a superb bay horse with purple 
 saddle and housings, ornamented with rib- 
 bons and fringe of the same colour, and 
 attended by twelve servants in livery. He 
 was accompanied by an escort of fifty hal- 
 berdiers dressed in black satin with silver 
 galloons and lace, white and black feathers 
 in their hats, and commanded by the Marquis 
 dc Pobar as protector of the Inquisition of 
 Toledo J who, making up for that rich show
 
 \^ 
 
 NJ
 
 €HAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 321 
 
 and parade which was unfit for the nituation 
 of the Inquisitor General, was mounted on 
 a grey horse, wearing a saddle of massive 
 silver with white and green furniture con- 
 formable to his livery. He was clothed in a 
 suit of black silk embroidered in silver, with 
 diamond buttons, cockade, and insignia, and 
 attended by eighteen livery servants. The 
 whole of the procession was closed with the 
 state sedan-chair and coach belonging to 
 the Inquisitor General, together with other 
 coaches in which were his chaplains and 
 pages. " This triumphant procession,'* says 
 Olmo, " was performed with wonderful 
 silence ; and though all the houses, squares, 
 and streets, were crowded by an immense 
 concourse of people drawn together from a 
 motive of pious curiosity, scarcely one voice 
 was heard louder than another."* Vide 
 Plate VIII. 
 
 The stage had been erected on the side of 
 the large square, facing the east, being one 
 hundred and ninety feet in length, one hun- 
 dred in breadth, and thirteen in height, 
 forming a parallelogram with a surface of 
 nineteen thousand square feet. The ascent 
 to the stage was by two spacious flights of 
 * Olmo, n. 154. 
 VOL. I. Y
 
 322 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 steps, placed in front at the two extremities. 
 On the two sides, and facing each other, 
 were constructed two flights of seats, of a 
 length equal to the width of the stage, — the 
 upper ones being nearly on a level with the 
 second story of the houses of the square. 
 The royal family occupied the centre angle 
 of the theatre, and saw the whole cere- 
 mony from a balcony of one of the principal 
 houses j and the attendants belonging to the 
 palace, together with the ambassadors of 
 foreign powers, were seated in the con- 
 tiguous ones. On the flight of seats situated 
 to the right of the king the constituted 
 authorities took their places ; viz. the corpo- 
 ration of Madrid with several grandees and 
 titled characters ; the councils j and, on the 
 highest part, the Inquisitor General on a 
 throne. The raised seats on the left were 
 appropriated to the prisoners, who occupied 
 the highest in proportion as their crimes 
 were most grievous. In Mexico this part of 
 the stage was usually semi-circular, sa as to 
 form a more showy appearance, and rising 
 in the form of a cupola or half-moon.* On 
 
 * This appears from the account given of the auto of 
 15Q6, by Fray Juan ,de Torquenaada, in his Monarquia 
 Indiana, lib.xix.cap, xxix.-^The same was also practised-
 
 CHAP. IV.3 INQUISITION UNMASKED. 82S 
 
 the plane of the stage, a small distance from 
 the centre, near the seats occupied by the tri- 
 bunal and facing that of the king, an altar had 
 been constructed with a pulpit on the Gospel 
 side, leaving room for two inclosed areas 
 which were formed by balustrades placed 
 one before the other. In that nearest his 
 majesty the royal guard was posted ; and in 
 the furthest one, ranging aside the altar, 
 were seated the families of the inquisitors'; 
 and those who could not find room there 
 were accommodated on other benches placed 
 under the breast-work, which ran from one 
 stair-case to the other, and crowned the whole 
 front of the theatre. 
 
 In the open space, ranging in the centre, 
 a raised platform was constructed, and on it 
 two bars, latticed round in the form of tri- 
 bunes, where the prisoners remained standing 
 whilst the recorders seated at two desks read 
 their sentences to them. The whole was 
 covered with a large awning to break the 
 force of the sun, thus forming in the square 
 a theatre sufficiently large for the conve- 
 nience of such an immense concourse of 
 people; who, in addition to the stage, occu- 
 
 in the auto celebrated in 1649. Vide Diario de Mexico 
 of 6th April, ISOT- 
 
 Y2
 
 S24 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 pied all the balconies of the four fronts of the 
 buildings, as well as the remaining part of 
 the square. Such was the exterior form of 
 the theatre, which was besides adorned with 
 rich carpets and hangings of crimson damask. 
 Vide Plate IX. 
 
 In the cavities or hollow parts under the 
 raised seats several apartments were fitted up 
 as prisons, and courts in which the culprits 
 might be heard ; and also as rooms intended 
 for the use of the preacher and officiating 
 priest, in case any thing might happen to 
 him during so long a ceremony. Places were 
 likewise prepared as offices and refectory; 
 where refreshments were provided for the 
 inquisitors, as well as the other guests who 
 might wish to partake of them. 
 
 '* This grand piece of machinery," says 
 our historian, " was finished on Friday the 
 28th of June, having only been commenced 
 on the preceding 23d." " It appeared," 
 adds he, " that God moved the hearts of the 
 workmen, so as to overcome the great 
 difficulties which occurred in the execution ; 
 a circumstance strongly indicated by sixteen 
 master-builders, with their workmen, tools, 
 and materials, coming in unsolicited to offer 
 their services to the overseer of the works j
 
 rbl.Z.X,u!e 3zn-

 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 825 
 
 and all persevered with such fervent zeal and 
 constancy that, without reserving to them- 
 selves the customary hours for rest, and 
 taking only the necessary time for food, they 
 returned to their labour with such joy and 
 delight that, explaining the cause of their 
 ardour, they exclaimed in the following man- 
 ner : ' Long live the faith of Jesus Christ ; 
 all shall be ready at the time prescribed; and, 
 if timber should be wanting, we would gladly 
 take our houses to pieces for a purpose so 
 holy as this.* "* The activity and zeal thus 
 evinced by the people will appear still more 
 astonishing if we reflect, that at no former 
 period had the apathy of the nation been 
 greater, or the decline of the Spanish empire 
 more rapid. 
 
 On the arrival of the procession at the thea- 
 tre the prisoners ascended by the staircase 
 nearest their destined seats ; but, before occu- 
 pying them, they were all paraded round the 
 stage, in order that their Majesties, who were 
 already seated in their balcony, might have 
 the satisfaction of viewing them near. The 
 tribunals and persons invited then proceeded 
 to take their respective seats, and the Inqui« 
 sitor General ascended his throne. Before the 
 * Olmo, n. 33 & 34,
 
 g26 
 
 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 commencement of the mass his excellency, 
 clothed in his pontifical robes, approached 
 the balcony of his Majesty, and ascending 
 to it by six steps from the level of the s age, 
 tendered to him the oath usually taken 
 by kings on such occasions. Its form is 
 as follows : 
 
 " Your Majesty swears and promises on 
 your royal faith and word that, as a true 
 Catholic king chosen by the hand of God, you 
 will with all your power defend the Catholic 
 faith which our holy mother the apostolic 
 Church of Rome holds and believes, as well 
 as the preservation and increase thereof; and 
 will persecute, and command to be perse- 
 cuted, all heretics and apostates opposed to 
 the same ; and that you will give, and com- 
 mand to be given, to the Holy Office of the 
 Inquisition, and also to the ministers thereof, 
 all aid and protection, in order that heretics, 
 disturbers of our Christian religion, may be 
 seized and punished conformably to the laws 
 and holy canons, without any omission on. 
 the part of your majesty or exception in 
 favour of any person of whatsoever quality 
 lie may be," &c.* 
 
 Let it be here observed, that the Inqui- 
 
 * Olrao, n. 169.
 
 eHAP. 17.] INQUII5ITI0N UNMASKED. S27 
 
 sition requires of the king that he afford 
 to its ministers all aid and protection, in 
 order that heretics may be seized and pu- 
 nished, not only in conformity to the canons 
 but also agreeably to civil law. Nothing 
 more is said of the ceremony which accom- 
 panied the oath on this occasion. In the 
 auto celebrated in Valladolid on the 8th of 
 October, 1559, at which Philip II. was 
 present, the Inquisitor General, an office at 
 that time held by Don Fernando de Valdes, 
 rising up, demanded of the king to continue 
 bestowing his aid on the tribunal in these 
 words : " Domine adjiwa nos,'^ (Lord, con- 
 tinue to help us) when the King, also in a 
 standing posture, grasped his sword and 
 unsheathed part of it, thus testifying his 
 readiness at all times to aid the tribunal ; 
 a pledge which, unfortunately for humanity 
 and without any advantage to religion, he 
 more than faithfully fulfilled.* 
 
 Mass being commenced and the Gospel 
 ended, the oldest secretary of the tribunal 
 of Toledo read from the pulpit the form of 
 the oath taken by the mayor of the city of 
 Madrid, as well as by all the people. In 
 
 * Diego de Colmenares, Historia de Segovia, cap. xlii. 
 ^ iii.
 
 528 
 
 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. lY, 
 
 other autos it has likewise been customary 
 to read to the people, translated into Spanish, 
 the bull Si de protegendis, issued by Pius V. 
 against those who obstruct the free use of 
 the Inquisition or interfere with its mini- 
 sters. A sermon was then preached in the 
 gerundian* style by a Dominican friar, quali- 
 ficator of the Supreme Council of the Inqui- 
 sition and preacher to the king. The text 
 was taken from the favourite verse of the 
 Inquisition, " Edurge, Domitie, judica cau- 
 sain tucmi.'* In the exordium the preacher 
 com.pares this tribunal, because of judging 
 its culprits in secret and condemning them 
 in public, to that of God in his particular 
 as well as universal judgment. He then 
 inculcated the obligation imposed on kings 
 to defend the faith; and, without establishing 
 any particular point, after lamenting and 
 complaining of the alienation of mind to 
 which human reason is exposed, he pro- 
 ceeded to refute, with trivial arguments, the 
 
 * Father Isla wrote a work to ridicule pompous and 
 affected preaching, by exhibiting the life and studies of 
 one of these bombastic pulpit-orators, whom he calls 
 Father Gerund, and hence the above term is taken. 
 Barretti translated the first volume of this work into 
 English.— Tr.
 
 CHAP, IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 329 
 
 doctrines of the Jews, heretics, and Maho- 
 metans ; for of these three classes were the 
 prisoners on the stage. In his epilogue he 
 felicitated the Spanish monarchy on the 
 purity of its belief, and promising to it 
 abundant prosperity, he ended by the fol- 
 lowing apostrophe to the tribunal of the 
 Inquisition : 
 
 " And thou, oh ! most holy Tribunal of 
 the Faith, for boundless ages may*st thou be 
 preserved, so as to keep us firm and pure in 
 the same faith, and promote the punishment 
 of the enemies of God. Of thee can I say 
 what the Holy Spirit said of the Church : 
 *' Pulchra es, arnica mea, siciit tabernacula 
 Cedar, et sicut pelles SalomonisJ* (Thou art 
 fair, my love, as the tents of Kedar, as the 
 sightly skins of Solomon.) 
 
 " But what parallels, similies, or com- 
 parisons are these ? What praise, or what 
 heightened contrast, can that be which com- 
 pares a delicate female, an unequalled beauty, 
 to the tents of Kedar and the spotted skins 
 of Solomon ? Saint Jerome discovered the 
 mystery, and says, that the people of Kedar 
 being fond of the chase therein took great 
 delight; and, for this purpose, had always 
 their tents pitched in the field; on which.
 
 330 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 in order to prove the valour of their arms, 
 they spread the skins of the animals killed in 
 the chase, and hung up the heads of the wild 
 beasts they had slain. And the said people 
 of Kedar were so proud and boastful of these 
 their trophies that they prized them as their 
 greatest ornaments ; this was the greatest 
 beauty of their tents, to this the Holy Spirit 
 compares the beauty of the Church, and this 
 is also to-day the glory of the holy Tribunal 
 of the Faith of Toledo : Sicut tahernacula 
 Cedar i sicut pelles Salomonis. To have killed 
 these horrid wild-beasts and enemies of God 
 whom we now behold on this theatre, some 
 by taking life from their errors, reconciling 
 them to our holy faith, and inspiring them 
 with contrition for their faults ; others by 
 condemning them through their obduracy to 
 the flames, (here the orator openly and with- 
 out any disguise confesses that the Inquisition 
 condemns to the flames) where, losing their 
 corporeal lives, their obstinate souls will im- 
 mediately go to burn in hell ; by this means 
 God will be avenged of his greatest enemies, 
 dread will follow these examples, the Holy 
 Tribunal will remain triumphant, and we 
 ourselves more strongly confirmed and rooted 
 in the faith j which, accompanied by grace
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. S31 
 
 and good works, will be the surest pledge 
 of glory," &;c.* 
 
 The above extract will be sufficient to 
 convey an idea of the rantings of this extra- 
 vagant piece, and at the same time to mani- 
 fest the spirit of the tribunal in the words of 
 Us own orator. In it may chiefly be seen the 
 ostentatious language adopted and the dis- 
 dain with which tlie culprits are treated. The 
 tribunal was well aware that no one of them, 
 even of those who were without gags on their 
 mou^^hs, would have dared to make answer; 
 or at least that he would soon have been 
 silenced had he ventured so far. Such a 
 string of incoherences, nevertheless, deserved 
 a refutation similar to the one drawn up for 
 another sermon preached by the archbishop 
 of Cranganor at the auto of the faith cele- 
 brated at Lisbon, in the year 1705, when 
 several Jews were brought forth. This re^ 
 futation was composed by a Jewish writer 
 from a place where he was no longer exposed 
 to danger. In it, after inserting the sermon 
 in its original Portuguese, and remarking the 
 petulant tone in which it is written, he 
 demonstrates the groundless charge alleged 
 against them of having adulterated the 
 * 01mo,n.l37.
 
 832 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Scriptures, the little knowledge of Hebrew 
 literature usually possessed by those Chris- 
 tians who, from their state and character, 
 ought not to be ignorant of it ; and the un- 
 fair manner in which they distort various 
 passages of the said Scriptures, as well as 
 various sentences of the Rabbins, and then 
 adds: " I appeal to the learned and un- 
 prejudiced men living in countries wherein 
 it is not necessary to circumscribe one's 
 ideas to a set of ignorant inquisitors, and 
 ask whether such language is not more befit- 
 ting to a theatre than a pulpit ? They call us 
 blind because we refuse to submit our reason 
 to an ill-founded allegory ; yet what ought 
 those people to be called who take part of a 
 chapter or verse without noticing the other 
 part which exhibits the genuine sense ? Does 
 the preacher conceive that he can thus pro- 
 duce conviction in the mind of any Jew ? 
 far from it, he fortifies him in his belief. 
 But instead of our acting as the Inquisition 
 does, which prohibits all works tending to 
 attack the Catholic religion, we reprint those 
 written against ours ; and we explain them 
 to our children, in order that they may be 
 satisfied of the truth of our reasons and 
 the fallacy of the others, and see to what 
 7
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 3S3 
 
 a number of artifices they are obliged to 
 r^cur." * 
 
 As soon as the sermon was ended they 
 proceeded to the reading of the trials and 
 sentences, beginning with those which had 
 the greatest weight of guilt, viz. the persons 
 who had been condemned to die. The sen- 
 tences were read at full length ; but the 
 parts of the accusations containing least in- 
 terest were suppressed. This part of the 
 ceremony, during which one man and a 
 woman were converted, was not concluded 
 till four in the afternoon ; when those con- 
 demned to death were delivered over to the 
 civil magistrates ; and, whilst the latter pro- 
 ceeded on to the place of execution and 
 met their final end, the reading of the pro- 
 ceedings continued, as well as the abjurations 
 of those who had been reconciled. The 
 description of the Mexico auto of the faith 
 exhibits in a practical case the ceremony 
 by which deceased ecclesiastics are degraded, 
 
 * Respuesta al Sermon predicado por el Arzobispo de 
 Cranganor en el Auto de Fe celebrado en Lisboa en 6 de 
 Setiembre de 1705, por el Autor de las Noticias reconditas 
 de la Inquisicion. The place where the work was pub- 
 lished is not mentioned, but it appears to have been in 
 London.
 
 334 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 and is in the following words: " What 
 moved most pity and compassion was the 
 unhappy case of the priest Don Jose Brunon 
 de Vertiz, (guilty of various heresies, he 
 having died in the prison in a state of im- 
 penitence) whose effigy, the sentence being 
 read, v/as stripped of its clerical robes by the 
 oldest curate of the cathedral, Don Jacinto 
 de la Serna, and afterwards clothed in a secu- 
 lar dress. He then cast it to the ground and 
 kicked it, as one deprived of so holy a state. 
 The ministers of civil justice then placed on 
 the effigy all the insignias of one condemned, 
 in order to deliver it over, together with the 
 corresponding bones, to the flames. 
 
 The mass, though not sung, lasted till 
 half past nine at night, and with it ended 
 the grand exhibition of the large square ; 
 when those who had been absolved returned 
 to the prisons of the Inquisition. I conceive 
 it to be understood that the stage was illumi- 
 nated whenever night came on before the 
 tribunal had ended the procession of the 
 green cross, or whilst the mass of the auto 
 of the faith was performing. In Mexico the 
 cross arriving just at the approach of night, 
 the latter, according to the description, was 
 converted into the most clear day, through
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 385 
 
 the number of torches and other lights 
 blazing in such abundance that the theatre 
 presented the appearance of a starry heaven. 
 The patient constancy with which Charles II. 
 assisted at the above celebration of the auto 
 is really astonishing ; for, though the cere- 
 mony was so extremely long, he never quitted 
 the balcony once, not even to partake of any 
 refreshment ; nay the time appeared to him 
 so short that, when all was over, he asked 
 if any thing remained to be performed, and 
 whether he should return. 
 
 With regard to the preparations made by 
 the inquisitors for refreshments, the above 
 author adds, " that as the auto de fe was to 
 last the whole day, and was expected to be 
 extremely laborious and fatiguing to the 
 ministers of this holy tribunal, in consequence 
 of its length, it was arranged, in case any one 
 assisting at the ceremony should require nou- 
 rishment or refreshment during such a number 
 of hours and the oppressive heat of the sun, 
 that commissaries should be named to pro- 
 vide food and drink for the officers and 
 ministers of the holy office who had come 
 from afar, as well as for the congregations of 
 Madrid and Toledo, and the other persons 
 employed on that day in the ceremony.
 
 336 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 TIlis was done with such care and prudence 
 that not only sufficient refreshment was pro- 
 vided for the ministers, but also for every 
 one else. The treasurers of the Inquisition, 
 and proportionably the ministers of the con- 
 gregation of St. Peter, contributed liberally 
 towards so considerable an expense."* The 
 banquet given by the Viceroy at the auto 
 of Mexico, in the year 1659, was not less 
 splendid and costly. 
 
 The prisoners personally condemned to 
 death amounted to nineteen ; thirteen men 
 and six women, principally of the Jewish 
 persuasion. They were conducted to the 
 gate of Fuencarral mounted on mules with 
 packsaddles, preceded by thirty-two effigies, 
 two being left behind belonging to recon- 
 ciled persons who had died in prison. Of 
 those personally condemned for execution, 
 eleven were im penitents ; viz. eight obdu- 
 rates, and three convicted but refusing to 
 confess ; ')f whom five were converted on 
 the road> so thar, six were burnt alive in 
 addition to thirteen who had been previously 
 hung, 
 
 Tiie burning place was sixty feet square 
 and seven high; and consequently sufficiently 
 * Olmo, n. 18.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INaUISITION UNMASKED. 337 
 
 capacious when twenty stakes with their 
 corresponding rings had been fixed thereon, 
 conformably to the orders given by the in- 
 quisitors to the civil magistrates for adequate 
 justice to be done. Some were previously 
 strangled, and the others at once thrown 
 into the fire, " without its being necessary," 
 as Olmo observes, " to excite horror or recur 
 to violence by making use of any other more 
 improper and bloody process." This is, if 
 I understand right, that it was not necessary 
 for the officers to cast them into the flames. 
 Nevertheless the executioners, impelled by 
 their indiscreet zeal for the faith, attempted 
 to exceed their orders with regard to some of 
 the malefactors ; but the latter denied them 
 this satisfaction by throwing themselves of 
 their own accord into the flames. Our histo- 
 rian, adverting to this incident, and well 
 aware how much the Inquisition, or at least 
 religion, must have been foiled by such an 
 occurrence, thus expresses himself: " Unwary 
 persons may perhaps be staggered at some of 
 the prisoners throwing themselves into the fire, 
 as if true valour was the same as a foolish bru- 
 tality and culpable disregard of life, followed 
 by eternal condemnation."* More objections 
 * Olmo, n. 191. 
 VOL. I. Z
 
 S38 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 arise on this subject than would easily be dis- 
 covered at first sight j but of this we shall 
 speak in another place. (Vide Plate X.) 
 
 The ministers then cast the bodies of those 
 who had been hung into the fire, together 
 with the effigies and bones of the deceased, 
 adding more fuel till all was converted into 
 ashes j which was about nine in the morning. 
 It may be most necessary to advert, that the 
 death of the prisoners was officially witnessed 
 by one of the secretaries of the tribunal, in 
 order to certify to their execution.* Two 
 days afterwards six of those who had been 
 condemned to do penance were flogged. 
 Among them was one woman 5 and another 
 was held up to public shame. 
 
 Such was the form and solemnity of this 
 auto de fe, the largest and most splendid 
 ever known, if we consider the concurrence 
 of circumstances which attended it ; such as 
 the great number of prisoners and the variety 
 of their punishments, as well as its having 
 been presided over by three tribunals of the 
 Inquisition j one of which was the Supreme 
 Council, together with the Inquisitor General; 
 and attended by all the king's court and 
 grandees. Such, in short, has been the 
 * Olmo, n. 147.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 3S9 
 
 method observed by this tribunal in the 
 exercise of its judicature j and it only re* 
 mains for m.e to add, as I have already 
 noticed, that the prisoners not conducted to 
 the stake have an oath imposed upon them, 
 and are placed under excommunication and 
 other arbitrary restrictions to observe an 
 eternal silence respecting every thing that 
 has happened, or that they may have seen or 
 heard during their imprisonment.* I ought 
 also to add, that the houses wherein dogma- 
 tisers have held their meetings are pulled 
 down to the ground.t This was done in 
 
 * Compilacion de Instrucciones, n, 58. — Orden de Pro- 
 cesar, fol. 37. 
 
 t Constitutiones Innocent! IV. contra haereticos, in- 
 serted by Eymeric in his Directory, towards the end. — 
 A tribunal so monstrous as the Inquisition has always 
 been could not escape the penetration of the immortal 
 author of Don Quixote, nor was it possible for him to 
 abstain from employing some of his labours in order to 
 hold it up to ridicule. Thus do we find him impugning 
 this establishment, not in a slight and hasty manner, but 
 at considerable length and in his usual tone ; and though I 
 am not av/are of any one having before pointed out this 
 coincidence, I hope there is no one who, comparing the 
 description given by him with the one just sketched, will 
 fail to be convinced of the truth of my observation. As 
 beyond doubt this was the most interesting, though at the 
 same time the most dangerous point of all those which 
 Z2
 
 840 INQUISITION UNMASKED, [CHAP. IV. 
 
 Valladolid with the dwelling of Agustin 
 Cazalla, a canon of Salamanca and preacher 
 
 form the objects of his criticism, he was induced to reserve 
 it for the last part of his labours, where it might serve, if 
 we may be allowed the expression, as a species of finish ; 
 since, by placing it there, the favourable reception the first 
 part of his work had received from the public might dimi* 
 nish the danger to which he would otherwise be exposed. 
 Cervantes (part ii. chap. Ixii.) referring to the enchanted 
 head in possession of Don Antonio Moreno of Barcelona, 
 at that time Don Quixote's host, commences by pointing 
 out the ignorance of the Inquisitors, whom he expressly 
 names, and describes as being possessed of the same cre- 
 dulity as the common people themselves, though apparently 
 indicating the reverse, since it became necessary for Don 
 Antonio to explain the secret of the whole machinery, in 
 order to prevent the consequences of an information being 
 lodged against him. The text is thus : " It was divulged 
 all over the city that Don Antonio kept an enchanted head 
 in his house, which answered to every one who interro- 
 gated it, and fearing least it should come to the ears of the 
 watchful centinels of our faith, on explaining the whole 
 mystery to the gentlemen of the Inquisition, they ordered 
 him to break it in pieces and not suffer it to be used any 
 more, for fear the ignorant vulgar should be scandalized,'* 
 After this pointed remark, our author proceeds to con- 
 sider the tribunid of the Inquisition in itself, commencing 
 by its exterior parade, such as the unexpected and silent 
 arrest of the culprits represented in that of Don Quixote 
 and Sancho by the servants of the Duke ; also the auto de 
 fe under the allegory of the feigned funeral of Altisidora, 
 one of his damsels, and which was celebrated in the court-
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 341 
 
 to Charles V., who was burnt for being a 
 Lutheran j and also in Coimbra with the house 
 
 yard of the Duke's house ; this being an adventure that 
 may be considered as the most curious and important of 
 any contained in his history, in consequence of the abuses 
 therein criticised being at the same time the greatest. 
 This arrest is thus described in chap. Ixviii. : " At the 
 decline of afternoon they (Don Quixote and his Squire) 
 discovered as many as ten men on horseback and four or 
 five on foot, advancing towards them. Don Quixote's 
 heart was struck with surprise, and Sancho's with fear, 
 for the party coming up bore lances and targets, and pro- 
 ceeded onwards in very warlike array, * * * The 
 horsemen came up, and couching their lances, without 
 speaking a single word surrounded Don Quixote and pre- 
 sented their arms to his back and breast, threatening to 
 kill him. One of those on foot, putting his finger on his 
 mouth as a signal for him to be silent, seized bold on 
 Rozinante's bridle, and drew him out of the road, the 
 others on foot driving Sancho and Dapple before them ; 
 when all keeping a marvellous silence followed tlie steps 
 of the conductor of Don Quixote, who several times had a 
 mind to ask whither they were carrying him, or what they 
 wanted; but no sooner did he begin to move his lips than 
 they threatened to close them with their weapons, and the 
 same also befel Sancho." 
 
 He then proceeds to display the very same idea that the 
 Inquisition practically manifests in the manner of effecting 
 its arrests, which is, to treat all prisoners as it would 
 monsters of iniquity whose crimes were compli''"ly 
 proved. " The night closed," he says, " they men' ■ 
 their pace, and the prisoners* fears increased the :>) ■
 
 342 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP, ^. 
 
 of Antonio Homem, canon of the cathedral 
 church and professor of the canon-law in tha 
 
 when they heard their keepers from time to time call 
 out to them : Get on, ye Troglodytes ; hold your peace. 
 Barbarians; endure, ye Anthropophagi; complain not, ye 
 ScythianB; open not your eyes, ye murdering Poly- 
 phemuses, ye butcherly lions ; and other such names as 
 these, with which they tormented the ears of the miserable 
 master and man. Sancho went along saying to himself* 
 I do not like these names at all, this is winnowing our cora 
 by a bad wind indeed ; all our ills come upon us together, 
 like kicks to a cur ; and would to God what this unfor- 
 tunate adventure threatens may end in no worse fare! 
 Don Quixote went along wrapt up in astonishment, unable 
 to conjecture, however he reasoned with himself, what 
 could be the meaning of all these names, from which ho 
 was only able to conclude, that no good was to be ex- 
 pected, but much harm to be feared," — He in fact 
 expresses how dreadful this tribunal is for him who falls 
 into its hands, notwithstanding the epithets of Holy, and 
 Uie other vain and outward forms it seeks to affect. He 
 then says, *' Near an hour after night-fall they arrived at 
 a castle, which Don Quixote soon knew was the Duke's, 
 where he had so lately been. God help me, says he, as 
 soon as he recognised the place, what can be the meaning 
 of this ? Most assuredly in this house, all is courtesy and 
 good usage ; but to the vanquished, good is turned into 
 evil, and bad into worse." 
 
 He then passes on to describe the auto de fe, (chap. 
 Ixix.) first pourtraying the entry of the prisoners with 
 their escort into the main square. " The horsemen 
 alighted, and aided by those on foot, taking 3ancho and
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 348 
 
 university of that city, who was burnt 
 on account of practising Jewish rites ; and 
 
 Don Quixote bodily and forcibly up, they carried them 
 into the court-yard, round which were burning nearly an 
 hundred torches placed in stands, and more than five 
 hundred lights about the galleries of the court, insomuch, 
 that in spite of the night which had rather a dark appear- 
 ance, the want of day Avas hardly felt." He then proceeds 
 to describe the order and appearance of the square, the 
 distribution of seats for those who attended the auto, de- 
 lineating before all, and as a principal object, the altar of 
 the green cross, in the following words : " In the middle 
 of the court was raised a tomb about two yards above the 
 ground, covered all over with a large canopy of black 
 velvet, round which, on its steps, were burning tapers of 
 white wax in more than an hundred silver candlesticks ; 
 and on the top of the tomb was seen the corpse of so 
 beautiful a damsel, that her beauty made death itself ap- 
 pear beautiful, &c." He then describes the place which 
 the tribunal occupied, with all the appendages of royalty, 
 together with the magistrates in attendance. " On one 
 side of the court was placed a theatre, with two chairs, on 
 which were seated two personages, (whom, as we shall 
 afterwards find, were the two judges of the infernal re- 
 gions, Minos and Rhadamanthus) who by the crowns they 
 had on their heads and sceptres in their hands, gave sign$ 
 of being kings, either real or feigned. • * * Two great 
 personages, with a numerous attendance, next ascended 
 the theatre, whom Don Quixote presently knew to be the 
 Duke and Duchess, his late hosts, and they took their 
 seats in two richly ornamented chairs, near to those who 
 had the appearance of kings.'*
 
 344 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 near both inscriptions were affixed, which 
 still subsist. 
 
 He likewise depicts the raised seats occupied by the 
 culprits, the dress in which the inquisitors bring them 
 forth ; as well as the harshness with which they are treated 
 when they do not conduct themselves with due submission. 
 — " On the (opposite) side of the theatre, to which the 
 ascent was by steps, stood two other chairs, on which 
 those who brought in the prisoners placed Don Quixote 
 and Sancho. All this was done with profound silence, 
 and the prisoners were given to understand that they were 
 in like manner to hold their tongues. * * * At this 
 juncture an officer crossed the stage, and coming up to 
 Sancho, threw over him a garment of black buckram, 
 painted all over with flames of fire, and taking off his cap, 
 placed on his head a caroza or tall pasteboard mitre, after 
 the fashion of those worn by persons condemned to do 
 penance hy the Holy OtBce, bidding him in his ear not to 
 unsew his lips, for if he did they would clap a gag in his 
 mouth, or kill him." The criticism that next follows is 
 converted into open satire, levelled at the cruel sport 
 which, added to terror, the Inquisition excites in the 
 people, by presenting to them the hapless culprits in 
 ludicrous dresses covered with puerile hieroglyphics, 
 whilst they are led to the place of execution or condemned 
 to a painful state of suffering. — " Sancho viewed himself 
 from top to toe, he saw himself blazing in flames, but as 
 they did not burn him he did not care a farthing. He 
 took off his mitre, saw it painted all over with devils ; he 
 put it on again saying within himself, It's well enough yet, 
 for those neither burn me, nor these carry me away. Don 
 Quixote also surveyed himself all over, and though fee/ had
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 345 
 
 It is high time for us to examine the 
 vahie attached to the protest, deprecation, 
 
 suspended his senses, he could not help smiling at seeing 
 Sancho's figure." In order to complete the picture he 
 likewise alludes to the mass and sermon. — '• And now, 
 seemingly from under the tomb, issued a low and pleasing 
 sound of flutes, which not being interrupted by any human 
 voice, for Silence herself kept silence there, the music 
 sounded both soft and amorous. Then on a sudden, and 
 near the cushion of the seemingly dead body, appeared a 
 beautiful youth, clothed in a Roman habit, who, to the 
 sound of a harp played by himself, in a most sweet and 
 clear voice sung the two following stanzas." 
 
 So far Cervantes has considered the Inquisition according 
 to its outward appearances : in what follows he contemplates 
 its object, and censures the great contrariety so remark- 
 able in the means it employs to attain its ends. This defect 
 is the most glaring in the torments administered, since by 
 these it wrests confession from the culprits, under a 
 belief that the faith would thus revive in them. He pro- 
 ceeds in these terms : " One of the supposed kings then 
 exclaimed, Oh Rhadamanthus ! who with me judgest in 
 the dark caverns of Pluto, since thou knowest all that is 
 determined in the inscrutable destinies of fate about this 
 damsel returning to life, speak, and declare it instantly, 
 that the happiness we expect from her revival may not be 
 delayed. Scarcely had Minos, judge and companion 
 of Rhadamanthus, spoken these words, when Rhada* 
 manthus rising up, said: Come on ye officers of this 
 household, high and low, great and small, repair here one 
 after another and fillip Sancho*s face with four-and-twenty 
 twtches, and his arms and sides with twelve pinches and
 
 S46 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 or whatever else it may be called, which the 
 inquisitors make on delivering the prisoners 
 
 six pricks of a pin, for in the performance of this cere- 
 mony consists the restoration of Altisidora. On hearing 
 this Sancho Panza broke silence and said : I vow to God 
 I will no more let my face be filliped, or my flesh handled, 
 than I'll turn Turk. Body of me ! what has handling my 
 face to do with the resurrection of this damsel ! * * * 
 Altisidora dies of some disorder God pleased to send her, 
 and she is now to be brought to life again by giving me 
 four-and-twenty twitches, by turning my body into a pin- 
 cushion, and pinching my arms black and blue." After 
 this he points out the despotic tone with which the inqui- 
 sitors check those who reproach them for their falsity of 
 opinions, or the inconsistencies of their mode of judicial 
 process. — " Thou shalt die then, cried Rhadamanthus, in 
 a loud voice ; relent, tiger ; humble thyself, thou proud 
 Nimrod ; endure and be silent, for no impossibilities are 
 demanded of thee, and do not meddle thyself in examining 
 the difficulties of this business. Thou shalt be twitched, 
 thou shalt see thyself pricked, and thou shalt groan under 
 thy pinches. Come on then, I say, officers, comply with 
 my commands ; if not, on the faith of an honest man, you 
 shall see what you were born to." 
 
 Cervantes afterwards laughs at the fatuity of the judges 
 themselves, and others of their class, who, when the cul- 
 prit, in despair and worn out with sufferings, in order to 
 rid himself of their importunities and ill-treatment con- 
 fesses himself guilty, rejoice among each other the same 
 as if they had really obtained his conversion. These are 
 his words: ** What he (Sancho) could not bear was the 
 pricking of the pins, and so up he started from his seat,
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. S47 
 
 over to the civil magistracy for execution. 
 I am not ignorant that, after the discipline 
 
 peevish with being jaded, and seizing hold of a lighted 
 torch that was near him, he laid about his executioners, 
 saying, Avaunt, ye infernal ministers, for I am not made 
 of brass to be insensible to such extraordinary torments. 
 Upon this AUisidora, who could not help being tired with 
 lying so long on her back, turned over on her side, which 
 the by-standers perceiving, almost all with one voice cried 
 out — Altisidora is alive ! Altisidora lives ! &c." He then 
 speaks of the lashes to which those were usually con- 
 demned who escaped from the flames by means of a forced 
 confession. — " As soon as Don Quixote saw Altisidora 
 stir he went and knelt down before Sancho, saying to him : 
 Now is the time, dear son of my bowels rather than my 
 squire, to give thyself some of those lashes to which thou 
 standest pledged, in order to procure the disenchantment 
 of Dulcinea. This, I repeat, is the time, now that thy 
 virtue is seasoned and efficacious enough to operate the 
 good expected from thee. To which Sancho answered : 
 This seems to me to be reel upon reel, and not honey 
 upon fritters. It would be well enough that after 
 twitches, pinches, and pin-prickings, lashes were also to 
 follow. You have nothing more to do than to take a large 
 stone, tie it round my neck, and at once fling me into a 
 well. &c." Following up the same strain, our author 
 next turns his attention to the imaginary triumphs of the 
 Inquisition, and in a tone of ridicule he observes : " By 
 this time Altisidora had seated herself upright on the 
 tomb, and at the same instant the trumpets sounded, ac- 
 companied by flutes, and the voices of all cried aloud, 
 long live Altisidora! long live Altisidora! &c." He
 
 348 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 of the church had decHned, custom retained 
 certain formahties by which, if its ancient 
 
 then concludes by alluding to the sanbenitos or penitential 
 garments, with which, like so many spoils, the Inquisition 
 has decorated the temples. " The Duke ordered it to be 
 taken ofFhim (the penitential mitre from Sancho), his cap 
 to be returned, and that they should put on him his own 
 doublet, instead of the garment of flames. Sancho re- 
 quested ^the Duke to allow him to keep the mitre and 
 frock, as he was desirous of carrying them home to his 
 own country, in token and memory of so unheard of an 
 adventure." 
 
 It is therefore no longer dubious that in the above part 
 of his work Cervantes writes a complete, and not very 
 disguised, satire on the proceedings of the Inquisition, It 
 is not possible for his intention to have been any other, 
 when, in spite of the terror its name inspires, he thence 
 derives the idea of a farce, (for this fable deserves no better 
 a name) the leading parts of which are performed by two 
 as ridiculous personages, as the most playful imagination 
 could possibly invent. But our incomparable writer is not 
 even content with these jeers ; he still carries them on as 
 far as his waggishness could venture. Thus does he make 
 Sancho (chap. Ixxiii.), after rigging out his ass with the 
 sanbenito and coroza, or the penitential garments he had 
 hoarded up from the Duke's, enter into his native village 
 quite proud, and bearing as it were in triumph what the 
 Inquisition calls its trophies. — " They (Don Quixote and 
 Sancho) proceeded on their way, and at the entrance of 
 the village, on a little lawn, they met the curate and bache- 
 lor Carrasco, reciting their prayers. Now be it known 
 that Sancho Panza had thrown over Dapple and over hia
 
 CaAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 34^ 
 
 rigour is not maintained, appearances are at 
 least saved. But on this account it would 
 
 bundle of arms, instead of a sumpter-cloth, the buckram 
 tunic painted with flames of fire, which he had worn at the 
 Duke's castle the night of Altisidora's revival. He like- 
 wise fixed the mitre on Dapple's head; insomuch that 
 never was an ass so well metamorphosed and adorned 
 before. They were soon recognised both by the curate and 
 bachelor, who met them with open arms, Don Quixote 
 alighted and embraced them closely ; and the boys, who 
 are like lynxes and never behind-hand, spied the ass's 
 mitre, and flocked to view him, saying to one another. 
 Come, boys, and you shall see Sancho Panza's ass finer 
 than Minso, and Don Quixote's beast leaner now than 
 ever," I do not see what more could be said or desired. 
 If, notwithstanding all this, any one should deny that 
 Cervantes intended to criticise the Inquisition, it would 
 also be necessary for him to deny that the " History of 
 Don Quixote " contains any burlesque whatever; in which 
 case, contrary to the great and merited reputation it has 
 acquired, this work would be equally as devoid of meaning 
 as those of chivalry therein satirized. It is consequently 
 undeniable that he impugns the Inquisition, by thus drawing 
 its picture, as he flatters himself, (in chap.lxx.) " with all 
 its paraphernalia, so well and so like life, that there is 
 but little difference between that and the truth." It is 
 besides clear, that he takes particular pains to represent 
 the inquisitors, amidst their studied gravity and parade, 
 as ignorant and despicable as the culprits could wish, by 
 introducing for this purpose Cid Hamete Benengeli, 
 whom he considers as the first historian of Don Quixote, 
 and who affirms, " that in his opinion, the mockers were 
 M mad the mocked."
 
 350 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 not be the less absurd to pretend that this 
 supplies the place of the efficacious inter- 
 cession of the ancient bishops in favour of 
 condemned persons ; or that the want of 
 lenity is atoned by a sterile or rather irriso- 
 rious deprecation like that of the inquisitors. 
 Besides being ridiculous, it is also fruitless ; 
 since, being directed to a magistrate who has 
 no power to deviate from the law by a tri- 
 bunal awing and threatening him if he does 
 not comply therewith, it is, properly speak- 
 To what has been ah-eady said we have only to 
 add one short observation, v/hich strongly confirms all we 
 have here established. This is, that Cervantes was pos- 
 sibly induced to satirise the tribunal of the Inquisition, 
 owing to the vanity of a dull competitor he had in Avel- 
 laneda to whom he pointedly alludes in his prologue, 
 (part ii.) and boastingly tells us was a minister of the Holy 
 Office; undoubtedly for no other purpose than by way of 
 a jibe. For this reason our author, who in other parts of 
 his work appears peevish with the Inquisition, at the con- 
 clusion covers it with ridicule, either by treating the 
 establishment with contempt, or causipg Altisidora, from 
 the funeral monument on which she was laid, to behold 
 the devil in the infernal regions playing at tennis with 
 the said minister's book. Thus do we find Cervantes 
 taking leave of his own work by proclaiming his victory 
 over the Inquisition, as one of the greatest abuses he 
 had attempted to criticise ; and over its minister above 
 named, as the most envious and fastidious of all his 
 enemies.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. S51 
 
 ing, a wicked mockery of the culprit and an 
 insult to suffering humanity. We may even 
 add more. The inquisitors cannot sincerely 
 intercede for a convict without acting con- 
 trary to the canons, which under the penalty 
 of excommunication, as well as of all other 
 censures within their reach, urge that heretics 
 should be soon and unavoidably punished. 
 Innocent IV. in the short space of three 
 years, from 1252 to 125.5, issued six bulls 
 commanding the inquisitors to watch over 
 the exact observance of the edict of Frederick 
 II. which imposes capital punishment on 
 heretics, inserting it entire in one of his 
 own decrees, in order that no one might 
 plead ignorance as an excuse. And, as if the 
 cruel intolerance of the Roman see was not 
 sufficiently known by such repeated regula- 
 tions, the same was afterwards inculcated 
 under similar penalties by Alexander IV. in 
 1258, Clement IV. in 126S, and Innocent 
 VIII. in I486.* 
 
 Besides this, let the form under which the 
 convicts are delivered over to the civil ma- 
 gistrate be what it may, it is the intention of 
 the Inquisition to command that they should 
 
 * " Litterse Apostolicse pro Officio S. InquisitionJs,'* 
 placed at the end of the Directory of Eymeric*
 
 352 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV. 
 
 be executed without delay, as may be seen 
 not only from the oath it exacts of kings 
 amidst the solemnities of an auto de fe, but 
 also by that tendered to the magistrates of 
 every city and town where the tribunal is 
 instituted. It is as follows : " We swear 
 and bind ourselves that, whenever we shall 
 be commanded by you the said inquisitors, 
 or any of you, to execute any sentence or 
 sentences against the persons of the said 
 (heretics and their believers, receivers, and 
 abettors) without any delay we will do and 
 comply with the same in the way and manner 
 prescribed by the sacred canons, and the 
 laws which treat on this subject.'* * 
 
 It ought not however to be supposed that 
 this exaction of an oath is reduced to a sim- 
 ple mandate ; it besides implies the threat of 
 a penalty equal to what is suffered by those 
 who impede the free exercise of the tribunal. 
 This may be seen by the following regulation 
 contained in the ordinances of the Portuguese 
 Inquisition : " If any person, of whatsoever 
 rank or pre-eminence he may be, should 
 make any statute, decree, or constitution, 
 obstructing the jurisdiction of the Holy 
 Office the inquisitors shall oblige him? hy 
 * Ordeu de Procesar, fol. 74?. 
 4
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 353 
 
 means of ecclesiastical censures, to revoke 
 the same ; which if he should refuse to do, 
 they shall proceed against him as an impeder 
 of the ministry of this tribunal, and condemn 
 him to the penalties imposed by the apos- 
 tolical briefs. They shall, in like manner, 
 proceed against such ministers of justice 
 as refuse to execute the sentences of those 
 condemned by the Holy Office, in conformity 
 to the brief of Leo X.'* * On the other hand, 
 the inquisitors, as we have already shown, 
 send one of their secretaries to accompany 
 the convicts to the burning-place, in order 
 to promote the execution of the sentence by 
 means of their presence. What then can be 
 the meaning of this deprecation used by the 
 
 "'. * Regimento do Santo Officio do anno 1640, lib. iii. tit. 
 xxi. n. 5 e 6. " Fazendo alguraa pessoa de qualquer estado 
 e preeminencia que seja estatuto, decreto ou constitui9ao 
 que impida a jurisdic9ao do Santo Officio, os inquisidores 
 a obrigarao eom censuras a que os revoque, e nao o 
 querendo fazer, se procedera contra ella como contra 
 impediente do ministerio do Santo Officio, e sera con- 
 denada nas penas impostas neste cazo pelos breves 
 apostolicos. E bem assi se procedera contra os miuistros 
 de justiga que nao quizerem dar a execu9ao as senten9as 
 dos condenados pelo Santo Officio seguD a forma do breve 
 de Leao X." 
 
 vox. I. 2 A
 
 354 INaUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 inquisitors ? What can be its object, unless 
 it is to cover this relaxation from ancient 
 discipline, as well as this theological deception, 
 Avith an hypocritical and mean disguise ? Is 
 this in reality any thing else than to turn 
 the meekness of the Gospel into a farcical 
 virtue ? Let the friends of the Inquisition 
 explain what hypocrisy is, if this does not 
 deserve the name. 
 
 It was natural to expect that so absurd 
 a practice would not remain unnoticed, or 
 fail to become an object of reproach against 
 the Catholic church on the part of the Pro- 
 testants, ever ready to stickle at her defects. 
 Hence therefore do they derive an argument 
 which, our own celebrated writer Alphonso 
 de Castro, archbishop-elect of Santiago and 
 one of the fathers of the Council of Trent, 
 upholding the penalty of delivery over to 
 the civil magistrate as just, endeavours to 
 refute. " The Lutherans pretend," says he, 
 *' that the bishops and inquisitors, by deliver- 
 ing up culprits to the civil magistrate, act 
 like the priests of the Jews, who, being the 
 real cause of the death of our Saviour, 
 answered Pilate, when urging them to judge 
 him according to their own law, that this did 
 not allow them to kill any one." This is
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. B55 
 
 in substance the objection which the above 
 author pretends to satisfy in the following 
 words : " Blinded by a spirit of opposition 
 and malignity, the Protestants are deceived 
 in this as well as in other points. The Phari- 
 sees and priests of the Synagogue killed 
 Christ by their tongues when they were un- 
 able to do it with their hands, bringing upon 
 him death in a thousand forms. The ecclesi- 
 astical judges however proceed in a very 
 different manner ; for, after condemning the 
 heretic, they declare him no longer subject 
 to their jurisdiction, since by his crime he 
 had separated from the Church, and become 
 subject to the lay power alone. Besides, 
 when they deliver him over to the secular 
 arm they do not demand that his life be 
 taken away, nor affirm that he is guilty of 
 death ; so that, if the magistrate were to 
 refuse to take his life away, they do not on 
 this account oblige, or in any manner solicit, 
 him to do it ; but, on the contrary, they 
 beseech him not to punish the victim with 
 the penalty of blood. And, as this is most 
 certain and notorious to the whol6 Christian 
 world, it is astonishing that the assurance 
 and unbridled calumny of the Lutherans 
 should reach to such a pitch as to compare 
 2 a2
 
 356 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CIIAP. IV. 
 
 Catholic priests to those of the Jews, when 
 the difference between them could not possi- 
 bly be greater." * 
 
 No one, however prejudiced he may be 
 in favour of the Inquisition, will be satisfied 
 "with this answer, or consider the difficulty 
 as overcome ; since, besides the inaccuracy 
 with which this author explains himself, and 
 the little knowledge he manifests respecting 
 the usages of the tribunal, it is evident that 
 he never once took into consideration the 
 decrees of the popes already quoted. Not 
 that I here wish to confirm the comparison 
 above made between the protest of the Inqui- 
 sitors and the criminal conduct of the priests 
 who promoted the death of Christ in the 
 tribunal of Pilate : I am fully aware that 
 such a proposition constitutes one of the 
 articles of John Huss, condemned by the 
 Council of Constance ; with whose decision 
 I am the more ready to accord, inasmuch as 
 I have already asserted that in the Inquisition 
 all the judges have not been indistinctly bad. 
 Nevertheless I must candidly insist that the 
 argumentative reasons with which I proved 
 the frivolity and hypocrisy of the deprecation 
 
 * Alfonso de Castro, De justa hsereticorum punit. lib. ii. 
 pap. xiii.
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 357 
 
 above alluded to are still the same, and retain 
 their whole force and vigour.* 
 
 * The xiv. article of John Huss contauis these words : 
 *' Doctores ponenteSy quod aliquis per censuram emendaiiduSy 
 si corrigi noluerit,judicio sesculari est tradendus, pro certo 
 sequiintur in hoc Pontijices, Scribas. et Pharisceos, qui 
 Christum nolentem eis ohedire in omnibus, dicentes : 
 Nobis non licet inierficere quemquam, ipsum sceculari judicio 
 iradidenmt, eo quod tales sunt homicides graviores quam 
 Pilatus.'* Sess. xv. There can be no doubt that this 
 proposition, in the terms in which it is conceived, con- 
 tains an error. If Alphonso de Castro, notwithstanding 
 his great science and his treating the subject in a masterly 
 manner as well as at full length, was so unsuccessful in 
 conciliating the delivery up of the culprit made by the 
 inquisitors with the meekness of the gospel, will their 
 modern apologists be able to do it better ? The Journal 
 of Santiago, called El Sensato, of 5th Dec. 1811, speaking 
 on this subject, makes use of the following words : " The 
 pseudo-politicians use their utmost exertions, in order to 
 attain their baneful ends. They give the title of tragi- 
 comic to the serious act by which the inquisitors deliver 
 over the culprit to the secular arm, and in which they 
 protest they do not seek or demand his life, but ask that 
 all possible indulgence may be used with him. This 
 protest or deprecation, although it is not sufficiently effica- 
 cious to absolve him from the penalty of death, at least 
 suffices to manifest the most pious intention of the Church, 
 which has always refused to hold any influence in matters 
 of blood. But the object of modern innovators is to de- 
 ceive the common people by invectives and calumnies, 
 for the purpose of introducing novelties, and abolishin<f
 
 358 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IV, 
 
 In conformity to this truth, which, in my 
 Opinion, is placed beyond all doubt, before 
 
 useful and pious establishments." Who it is that seeks to 
 deceive the multitude, or who rather labours to enlighten 
 them, will readily be acknowledged by every one sensible 
 of the difference between merely talking and presenting 
 irrefragable proofs for the examination of truth, which 
 must be deemed the only way of judging right. The 
 author of the Impartial Report respecting the tribunal of 
 the Inquisition, ( Dictanien Imparcial acerca del Tribunal de 
 la Inqiiisicion ) assures us on his word that the protest 
 alludied to is sincere, and that to suspect the contrary 
 would, in his opinion, be rashness. So great is the confi- 
 dence with which this assertion is made, as well as the 
 impartiality of which its author boasts, that it would be 
 impossible to disbelieve him, if we were not furnished with 
 ■trong demonstrations founded on facts so positive, and 
 authorities so entirely conclusive, that they can neither be 
 denied nor questioned. 
 
 The author of the Vindication of the Inquisition is not 
 more successful in his explanations than the two preceding. 
 " It is a gross and calumnious error," says he, ** to sup- 
 pose that the tribunal is the executor of the terrible 
 punishment of death and burning inflicted on heretics : 
 it has never decreed or caused it to be executed. It was 
 indeed aware that it irremissibly sent them to endure those 
 tremendous punishments, but what has it done in this 
 particular more than all ecclesiastical tribunals have and 
 ought to do towards those who by the canons are to be 
 cast down, degraded, and delivered over to the secular 
 arm ? " That such a surrendry up of the culprit also 
 exists in other ecclesiastical tribunals would argue na
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 359 
 
 I terminate the present chapter, I wish the 
 reader to observe three particular points. 
 First, — That with regard to the protest made 
 by the inquisitors, on delivering up the cul- 
 prit to be cast into the flames, their partisans 
 have hitherto made no answer, nor is it in 
 their power to adduce any thing in justifi- 
 cation of the fact; consequently, as it is 
 no other than a play of words, the atro- 
 cious idea such execution involves ought to 
 
 more than that this disorder has not been so peculiar to 
 the Inquisition as to prevent its being equally extended 
 to them. In the beginning it would have been very easy 
 to avoid all this, and it is so even yet. If civil jurisdiction 
 had never been granted to tlie clergy, which in fact ought 
 to have been the case, as no necessity of their arresting 
 any one would then have existed, so also would they have 
 been spared the sad alternative of delivering over victims 
 to the civil magistrate for execution, and not placed in the 
 awkward predicament of seriously or ridiculously inter- 
 ceding for them. But even pre-supposing this concession, 
 there is still a great disparity between one and the other 
 case. The Inquisition, as 1 have just testified, positively 
 commands that the culprit shall be executed, and the 
 marshal to whom they are delivered up will take good care 
 to obey its orders, for he is well aware that otherwise, besides 
 being excommunicated, he will himself be immediately 
 arrested and punished for his default, as an abettor of 
 heretics ; which certainly does not occur in any other 
 ecclesiastical tribunal whatever. 
 3
 
 tiGO INQUISITION UNMASKED. [cHAP. IV. 
 
 fall on those pontiffs, as principal agents, 
 who ordained, and next on the inquisitors, 
 as secondary ones, who have executed it. 
 Secondly, — That when it is attempted to 
 combat a prejudice so deeply rooted in the 
 people as is that which favours the Inqui- 
 sition, he who heartily wishes to understand 
 the subject ought never to trust to any author 
 interested in the duration of the establish- 
 ment, however great his influence, or the 
 reputation for science and virtue he may 
 enjoy ; on the contrary, it would be proper 
 for him to ascertain the point himself, by 
 fathoming the whole matter, and even exa- 
 mining the grounds of the above opinion. 
 Thirdly, — That those who seek palliatives, 
 in order to conceal the ulcers of the Church, 
 far from rendering her any service, rather 
 do her a serious injury, for it is only by dis- 
 covering and applying to them the necessary 
 remedies that they can be healed. 
 
 I conceive that I have now sufficiently 
 proved that the Inquisition, in its relations 
 as a tribunal, as well as in the laws by which 
 it is governed, tramples to the ground the 
 rights of the citizen, by violating in substance 
 and in manner the common rules and prin- 
 ciples of justice. A code suggested and 
 7
 
 CHAP. IV.] INQUISITION UNMASKED. 361 
 
 framed by fanaticism and error — a want of 
 learning almost general among the indivi- 
 duals of whom it is composed, accompanied 
 by an omnigenous faculty of committing 
 irregularities — together with the tyrannical 
 oppression with which the innocent man is 
 therein treated when merely indicted for 
 heresy, are all deduclble from the premises 
 established, and come in as incontrovertible 
 arguments to prove the truth of my assertion. 
 Busied rather in forming unhappy victims 
 than in extirpating crimes, this institution 
 has spared no pains, however contrary to 
 reason and even to religion, as long as it 
 was able to flatter its pride and feed its 
 ferocity. Secret accusation and calumny 
 encouraged without any regard to friendship 
 or domestic piety ; the name of the Supreme 
 Being invoked with the greatest rashness 
 in order to wring from the culprit a con- 
 fession which must necessarily carry him 
 to the scaffold ; mean cavils, perfidious incite- 
 ments, and even gross falsehood, employed 
 for the same purpose and with the same 
 iniquity, — have all entered into the com- 
 plicated system of the Inquisition, and 
 constituted its chief essence and delight. 
 Impervious prisons, secured with double bolts
 
 362 INQUISITION UNMASKED. [CHAP. IT, 
 
 and secluded from all communication; re- 
 fined and overwhelming torments authorised, 
 and even administered, with unheard-of cru- 
 elty, by judges who call themselves the 
 ministers of the God of peace ; citizens, 
 who had already paid the debt of nature, 
 insulted in their memory, and their moulder- 
 ing remnants of mortality dug out to public 
 scorn ; whole generations condemned to 
 mendicity and infamy, even before they had 
 commenced their existence; blazing piles 
 of fagots, enkindled by the breath of im- 
 placable vengeance hidden under the parade 
 of charity ; — Such have been the component 
 parts which have formed the plan, and such 
 the deeds, of this formidable and bloody 
 tribunal. And can that government be called 
 just or beneficent which suifers the Inqui- 
 sition to rankle in its bosom ? 
 
 END OF VOL. I. 
 
 C. Baldwin, Printer, 
 New Bridg€-«treet, London.