THE SPANISH INQUISITION AS AN ALIENIST. 295 



ance of the worshipers, and they were forthwith brought before 

 the Inquisitor General, Andre's Pacheco. Apparently his experi- 

 ence of the Toledo Inquisition in the previous affair had not been 

 satisfactory, for he at once himself undertook the preliminaries 

 of the case, and hastily organized for its trial in Madrid a tri- 

 bunal which sat in extemporized quarters in the convent of the 

 Barefooted Carmelites. The documents concerning Guevara are 

 not accessible, but those of the trial of Perrault present to us an- 

 other aspect of the dealings of the Inquisition with insanity. 



Friday was busily occupied with the examination of witnesses, 

 and at 10 P. M. Perrault was brought before the inquisitor. He 

 was still defiant, and told his story without hesitation or conceal- 

 ment. He was about forty years old, born at Angers, of Catholic 

 parents. Brought up in strict orthodoxy, he had, until within a 

 fortnight, always been a good Catholic, regular in his attendance 

 on confession, communion, and mass. For twelve years he had 

 wandered around Spain as a peddler of needles, thimbles, and 

 such small wares, till a fortnight before at Talavera, while in the 

 street seeking customers, a sudden revelation from God showed 

 him that there was only one God, the Creator ; that Christ was 

 an impostor, who had properly expiated on the cross the blas- 

 phemy of calling himself the Son of God, and that what the peo- 

 ple adored was idolatry and an offence to the Almighty. From 

 that time this idea was ever present to him, on the road and in 

 the house. God impelled him to do what he had done, and to 

 come to Madrid for the purpose, so that the act should be more 

 conspicuous. He had left his saddle-bags at Getafd, a village a 

 few leagues distant, on Tuesday, July 2d, and had come with his 

 mule to Madrid. There he first looked up a French paper and 

 fruit seller named Domingo Diaz, of whom he inquired the address 

 of his brother, Pierre Perrault, an embroiderer living in Madrid. 

 He found him, and told him of the revelation and his consequent 

 intention, when Pierre earnestly reasoned with him, telling him 

 that it was a suggestion of the devil, and that he would denounce 

 him to the Inquisition if he were not his brother. The next morn- 

 ing Pierre came to him with an Italian, a tailor ; they bought 

 some food, crossed the bridge of Toledo, breakfasted by the road- 

 side, and Rene' agreed to return to Getaf 4. After parting he trav- 

 eled half a league on his mule ; he chanced to overtake a man 

 going thither, by whom he sent word to his host to forward his 

 saddle-bags to Madrid, and he turned back to the city. To render 

 his act more symbolical, he resolved to postpone it until Friday, 

 so he had a day and a half on his hands. These he spent in seeing 

 the sights of the capital, and he mentioned his disappointment on 

 going to the theatre and finding there was no performance. On 

 Friday morning, at breakfast, he abstained from his customary 



