INQUISITION. 



145 



r)'*:r-. of 



ver able to discover who the witnesses were. The 

 usual n ethod has been to introduce the prisoner into 

 the company of several other persons in the same 

 dress with himself, and to permit the informer, or the 

 witnesses, to inspect the whole party, through a small 

 opening, or crevice in the door. And though it has 

 sometimes happened that they have mistaken the 

 guilty individual, and made a wrong choice, even 

 after repeated trials, yet such is the nature of these 

 courts, and so necessary is it that informations, of 

 whatever description, should be communicated, that 

 those false accusers, and deliberate and perjured de- 

 stroyers of the innocent and the unwary, have been al- 

 lowed to escape with little more than a very gentle re- 

 buke. 



It is no unfrequent occurrence, that while the pri- 

 soner refuses to confess, and remain* in his dungeon, 

 the inquisitor affects to be displeased with his obstinacy, 

 and condemns him to the torture. Rut fit it of all, at- 

 tempts are made to frighten him in various ways. The 

 instruments of torture are shewn him at a dis'anre. 

 He i* led, by many windings, and through a succession 

 ef doors, into a large room, feebly lighted, where the 

 executioner is point* d out to him, covered with a 1>! i. k 

 linen garment, which reaches down to his feet, and 

 having a long cowl of the same colour drawn over his 

 bead and face. This extraordinary figure carries in bis 

 hand an iron collar, or a whip, or tome other in*tru- 

 a>t of torture, and he appear* to stare in solemn still- 

 ness at the prisoner, through two small opening*, which 

 re made for that purpose in the cowl. < All thi," 

 says Gonaalvius, i intended to strike the miserable 

 wretch with greater terror, when he M** himself alxMit 

 to be tortured by the bands of one, who thus looks like 

 the very <1. 



The degree* of torture formerly in n*e were five in 

 number. They were inflicted in tuccewion, and have 

 been described at length by Julius Clarus. I. I he 

 threatening of the torture, t. The step* taken when 

 c^Mting the prisoner to the place of torture. 3. The 



torture by stri 



and binding. 4. Elevation upon 



the rack or pulley. 5. Sqnaaaatiim, or the sudden pre- 

 cipitation, and sudden suspension of the body. To these 

 may be added, the iron slipper, the colt, or wooden 

 hone, the thumb- screws, and various others. The 

 nmmn of the severity is indicated by the terms in 

 which the orders of the in<|ui*itnrs are expressed. 

 If it is amid, " let the prisoner be interrogated by 

 torture," be is merely hoisted up upun the nine, 

 but does not undergo the squassation If the order 

 bears, " let him be tortured." he rout undergo the 

 aquassation once, being first interrogated as he i hang- 

 ing upun the con! and engine If it is said, " let him 

 be writ tortured,- he must suffer two aquaseation*. If 

 the expression is, " let him be severely tortured," it 

 it understood of three iqitsaeatiiaii. inflicted at three 

 diaerrat times within the space of an hour. If, " very 

 severely,' done with twi.tm^. and weights 

 suspended from the feet of the prisoner ; and if, very 

 severely, even unto death," the cr n im- 



danger. Should the pn-omr, through thi- 

 ef human nature, or the extremity ..f thr 

 suffering, be farced to conic**, hii confeiion i* in-tant- 

 ly taken down by the notary ; and if he adheres to it 

 at his next examination, which commonly takes place 

 in twenty-four hours after the infection of the torture, 

 and, at the same time, acknowledge* hit guilt 

 condemned, it is' true, as heretic upon his own ego* 

 \ot.xjj. 



fession, but is represented as penitent, and restored to Inquisition. 

 the bosom of the church ; though not without under- "*" "Y" 1 ' 

 goin<j certain punishments, more or less severe, and 

 certain painful varieties of penance. But, should he 

 either retract his confession, or persist in his heresy, 

 be is delivered over to the secular power, and is burnt 

 alive at the next auto da ft. 



The punishments inflicted by the Inquisition may Punish- 

 be regarded as of two sorts, punishments not issuing menu in- 

 in death, and punishments which have that issue. ^'jjj,' 

 L'ncler the first of these heads are comprehended the ^'Jo'".' 1 ' 

 ecclesiastical punishments, such as penance, excom- 

 munication, interdict, and the deprivation of clerical 

 offices and dignities ; and under this head too, are in- 

 cluded the confiscation of goods, the disinheriting of 

 children ; for no child, though himself a Catholic, can 

 inherit the property of u father dying in heresy; the 

 low of all right to obedience on the part of kings and 

 other feudal superiors, and a corresponding loss of right 

 t<> the fulfilment of oaths and obligations, on the part 

 of subjects ; imprisonment in monasteries or in jails, 

 whipping, the gallies, and the l>ann of the empire, or 

 diffidation. Under the second head, or that of punish- 

 ments issuing in death, there are only two instances, 

 M/. -trangling at the slake, and death by fire. These 

 imliiii < n may easily be comprehended in a short ac- 

 count of the " auto da fir." For the severity of the 

 latter class of punishments, Simancas gives what is 

 called by Limborch, " a merry reason." " \Ve must 

 not contend with heretics," says he " by Scripture, as 

 by that, our victory will be uncertain and doubtful." 

 GMfckl lnt'ilnt tit 59. sect. ii. 



In the procession of the " auto Jafe," the monks of Proctwion 

 the order nf >t Dominic, walk firrt.' These carry the 

 standard of the Inqui-itin. liearing on the one side, 

 the picture of Dominic himself, curiously wrought in 

 needle- work, and on the other, the figure of the cross, 

 between those of an olive branch and a naked sword, 

 with the motto " jmt'iiia ei mitfricordia." Immediate- 

 ly after the Dominicans comes the penitents, dressed 

 in black coats, without sleeves, barefooted, and with 

 wax-candle* in tlirir hands. Among these, the princi- 

 pal offender* wear the infamous habit exiled the tam- 

 teiio. Next come the penitents, who have narrowly 

 escaped the puin-lirm tit of di nth ; and these have 

 upon their garments or benitoes, but 

 with the IH.IIII- of the names turned downwards, im- 

 porting that they have been saved, " yet so as by fire.'' 

 Next come the negative, and the relapsed, the wretches 

 who are doomed to the stake ; thr-e also have flame* 

 upon their habits, but pointing upward. After the 

 negative and the relapsed, come the guilty and im- 

 prmtent, or th<*e who have been convicted of heresy, 

 ami who persist in it ; and these, beside* the flames 

 pointing upward*, have " their picture (drawn for that 

 purpose a few days before^ upon their breast.-, with 

 dog*, serpents, and devils, all with open mouths, paint- 

 ed about it" 1'his part of the procession is closed by 

 a number of individuals carrying the figures of those 

 who have died in heresy, or large chests, painted black, 

 and marked with serpents and devils, containing their 

 bones dug out of the grave, in order that they may be 

 reduced to ashes. A troop of familiars on hor-vliack, 

 I'o .low the prisoners; and after these come the oub- 

 iu.jin-it.ir-, and other functionaries of the Holy 

 < >!!ire. upon mules ; and, last of all, comes the Inqui- 

 M tor- General himself, in a rich dress, mounted upon * 

 white hone, and attended by all the nobility who are 

 T 



