144 



INQUISITION. 



Kxnnnna- 



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prisoner. 



Inquisition, faith was first suspected, or the first palpable indica- 



>.' tions of his heresy we-e perceiv.d. 



After a short delay, the prisoner is brought forth and 

 examined. It is worthy of particular observation, how- 

 ever, that no crime is ever laid to his charge : he is 

 never accused ; for, strance as it may sound in British 

 ears it is the exclusive object of the inquisitor to draw 

 from his own lips a confession of his guilt. He is first 

 required to declare, upon oath, that he will answer, sin- 

 cerely and directly, the questions which are put to 

 him. He is then asked if he knows where he is, and 

 whether he is aware that he is at present within the 

 walls of the inquisition, and why it is that men are 

 usually detained in the custody of the holy office. He 

 is then desired to recollect himself, and to run over in 

 his mind the events of his past life, and to search out 



and ascertain, whether he-may not, on some occasion, where every kind of rigour is put in practice which can 

 have said or done some one thing of another, contrary render life a burden, without any interval, or the least 

 to the purity of the Catholic faith, and the authority of alleviation, nothing is more natural than for one, con. 

 the Inquisitorial Court. If he persists in maintaining fined to such a prison, to wish, with the utmost anxie. 

 his ignorance, he is informed that every degree of ty, for the next auto tlafe, which, though a bitter re. 

 mercy is shewn towards those who confess, while the medy, is the only one tliat can afford him any prospect 

 obstinate are treated with the utmost severity; he is of relief. But even this miserable comfort is denied 



his offence is ascribed 



ing the face of a human creature excepting that of his 



keeper, or hearing the sound of any voice but his. He ^"" "V""' 



is forbidden to make the Slightest noise, even to cough 



or to stir. It were a mockery to allow him the use of 



books ; for, being shut up in total darkness, he could 



not peruse them The morning, and the evening, the 



day, the week, and the month, pass over him, in the 



same stillness and seclusion. Sometimes the prisoner 



is doomed to spend whole years in this situation ; hot 



and feverish, amidst the miasmata proceeding from his 



own body, or putrefying alive in the accumulating filth 



of his apartment, which, through weakness or disease, 



he is unable to remove. " As liberty," says the author 



of the Letters on the Inquisiliun, " is sweet upon any 



terms, and even the galleys themselves ard a paradise 



when compared with the dreary cells of the inquisition, 







soothed and threatened by turns ; 

 rather to his simplicity and the easiness of his disposi- 

 tion, than to any criminal purpose or unusual depravi- 

 ty ; he is reminded of the horrors of imprisonment, 

 its hunger, filth, and stench ; and something is said 

 about the pure air of heaven, and the blessed light 

 of the sun. The questions are then varied in every 

 possible way ; and every art of unrighteous investiga- 

 tion is tried ; and if, after all, he should still persist, 

 declaring himself ignorant of any word or action that 

 could he construed into heresy, he is told that he must 

 be carried back to his dungeon, to aid his memory by 

 reflection, to commune with his own heart, and to sub- 

 ject the resolution of a haughty spirit to the dominion 

 of conscience. 



Cells of the The ce " s ^ tne inquisition are square apartments, 

 inquisition, each side being about 1 feet in superficial measure- 

 ment. There is usually one row of them built over 

 another. The cells of the upper row are lighted by 

 means of a small iron grate placed in the cell : those of 

 the under row are sunk beneath the level of the external 

 surface, and are perfectly dark. Each apartment has 

 two doors, one exterior to the other. The inner one is 

 of a massy thickness, and faced with iron, having a 

 grate on the under part of it, and in the upper part an 

 opening, through which his victuals and other necessa- 

 ries are delivered to the prisoner. The outer door is 

 entire, without grate or opening, and, like the inner 

 one, is exceedingly strong. The walls are commonly 

 about seven or eight feet in thickness. In each apart- 

 ment there is placed a bed of rushes, together with 

 two pots of water, one to wash in, and the other for 

 drink. There is likewise a larger vessel, which is emp- 

 tied every third or fourth day. The treatment of the 

 prisoners varies according to their rank or fortune. 

 Those who are poor have half a rial for their daily sup- 

 port allowed them by the king ; out of this pittance, 

 however, the provision-buyer, or dispenser, as he is 

 called, the cook, and the jail-keeper, must all be paid ; 

 and the proportion claimed by each of these functiona- 

 ries amounts to nearly one-tenth of the whole. Dr. 

 Geddes mentions a prisoner in the Inquisition at Lis- 

 bon, who was allowed no more than three vinle.ms a- 

 day, or threepence- halfpenny of English money. 



The obitina'e heretic is consigned to the apartments 

 of the under row. There he sits upon his bed of rush- 

 e, in darkness, solitude, and silence, without ever see- 



him. The wretch sits sighing and pining away within 

 his gloomy dungeon, in expectation of the solemn day 

 when he shall be permitted to behold once more the 

 light of the sun, to breathe the fresh air, and cheer his 

 eyes with the sight of his friends and relations. The 

 long-wished-for day at length arrives ; it passes away ; 

 and the unhappy individual still remains in the same 

 doleful situation." Sometimes, however, the strength 

 of his noble mind is broken ; and worn out by unmiti- 

 gated and hopeless suffering, he belies his own con- 

 sciousness of innocence, declares himself guilty, and 

 subscribes any confession which the inquisitors may 

 choose to put into his mouth. 



There is nothing in the history of the inquisitorial The prison 

 procedure which has called forth such universal repro- et ls '" 8 C " 

 bation as the fart, that the prisoner is never confront- "'" 

 ed either with the informer or the witnesses. He is w^i/ine^ 

 not even told who they are. If the evidence is given witnesses 

 to him in writing, as is sometimes the case, it is pre- 

 pared in such a way that he can by no means learn from, 

 it, how the information against him was communicat- 

 ed, or the proof's of his delinquency have been obtain, 

 ed. The evil of these practices was long ago perceiv. 

 ed. In the beginning of the l6th century, the Moors 

 and Jews residing in Spain offered 800,000 pieces of 

 gold to Charles V., who had just succeeded his grand- 

 father Ferdinand, King of Castile, provided he would 

 introduce a law, ordaining that the names of the wit- 

 nesses in the inquisitorial courts should be regularly 

 published. Charles, who was only eighteen years of 

 age, was very stronjrly tempted to accept of the mo. 

 ney ; but Cardinal Ximenes, at that time inquisitor- 

 general, represented to the king 'that irreparable in- 

 jury would be done to the church if he permitted the 

 practice, and by reminding him of his grandfather Fer- 

 dinand, surnamed the Catholic, he prevailed upon him 

 to refuse the offer. It was this same Cardinal who ob- 

 jected to the translation of the Scriptures into the vul- 

 gar tongue, saying, " that the books of the Old and 

 New Testament ought to remain shut up in the three 

 languages which God, not without the greatest mys- 

 tery, had directed to be placed over the head of his 

 dear Son as he hung upon the cross." Cases, however, iv[ ^ eo f 

 have occurred when it was necessary that the witnes- confrontlu 

 ses should see the prisoner, in order to ascertain his 'hem wh 

 personal identity. But even in these cases, the busi- '' ' 6 n 

 ness has been so conducted, that the prisoner was ne. 6ary ' 



