THE 
MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 
Pew Series. 
Vou. II. NOVEMBER, 1826. [No.11.:' 
INQUISITION OF sSPAIN.* 
Tue History of the Spanish Inquisition by Llorente has been pub- 
lished some years, and has been acknowledged as distinguished for 
authenticity. But it is a voluminous work; it contains, many details 
unsuitable to the general eye; a considerable quantity of matter not 
directly important to the subject; and exhibits throughout a want of 
that arrangement which is indispensable in a work intended for popular 
knowledge. 
The public are now presented with a volume, containing all the sub- 
stantial matter of Llorente’s history, with some which had escaped his 
research, arranged in a natural method, and divested of all that rendered 
the original repulsive. ; 
Of the accuracy of Llorente’s history there can be no doubt. The 
writer had the most complete opportunities of knowledge—opportunities 
which could have been possessed by scarcely any other writer alive, and 
which, if they had been possessed by others, could have been made 
available at no other time. The breaking-up of the Spanish Holy Office 
by the French, and the confirmation of their act by the Cortes, had 
removed the fears under which any Spaniard must have previously 
written; and we are entitled to look upon this development of the 
proceedings of this most terrible of all tribunals as among the chief 
advantages to be derived from the struggle of freedom in Spain against 
the old despotism. ‘Llorente thus explains the grounds of his authority : 
—‘“ Being myself the secretary of the Inquisition at Madrid during the 
years 1789, 1790, and 1791, I have.the firmest confidence of my being 
able to give to the world a true code of the secret laws by which the 
interior of the Inquisition was governed—of those laws which were veiled 
by mystery from all mankind, excepting those men to whom the know- 
* The History of the Inquisition of Spain, from the time of its Establishment to 
Reign of Ferdinand the Seventh. Composed from the original Documents of 
the Archives of the Supreme Council, and from those of subordinate Tribunals of the 
Holy Office, Abridged and ‘translated from the original Work of D. Jean ANTOINE 
Liorente, formerly Secretary of the Inquisition, &ec.—London, Whittaker. 1826; 
l vol. Svo. pp. 582. ) 
_M.M. New Series.—Vot. II. No. 11, 30 
