112 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



Maliometanism to Christianity, dnd their descendants, for they were wealthy, 

 and the inquisitors were thus tempted to stain their hands in their blood. 

 Deza and his successors, having affixed to the flower of the Andalusian knights 

 the odious name of Marranns (sAvine), persecuted them to the death as 

 heretics and rebels. As a pretext for thus turning their arms against their 

 brethren, they accused them of a mere external adhesion to Christianity, while 

 they secretly entertained a predilection for Islamism : and to this charge false 

 witnesses could always be induced to swear. The rich Jews, also, who had 

 adopted Christianity, soon learned that nothing Avas to be gained by abjuring 

 the religion of their fjithers. 



Emboldened by these successes, the agents of the Inquisition sought to 

 prostrate all barriers to their sway whether they were erected by clerical 

 or worldly authorities. At first the use of the rack and torture was only 

 alloAved once, but soon it was applied several times, under pretence that the 

 renewed infliction of torture was but a continuation of tlie former one. If 

 a victim confessed all that was charged against him, and underwent the 

 full penance imposed, then the tribunal, according to its own rules, should 

 give up the prosecution, and be contented with a considerable fine. But in 

 such cases the vindictive and covetous spirit of Deza, Lucero, and others, 

 not satisfied with so mild a punishment, instituted a new charge, accusing 

 their victims of having confessed insincerely, and declaring them false peni- 

 tents. This crime they had to expiate at the stake, or in perpetual confine- 

 ment. In either case the property of the condemned was confiscated for the 

 benefit of the Inquisition. 



By such machinations as these the authority of the Inquisition became 

 almost unlimited, and princes themselves could not escape its grasp. Who- 

 ever fell under suspicion was summoned three times to attend his trial. If 

 he failed to appear, his absence was construed into a tacit confession of 

 guilt ; he was excommunicated, and condemned to pay a heavy fine. 

 Very rarely did an accused escape, for the fiimiliars of the Inquisition, 

 the Brotherhood of the Cruciata, and the Ilermandad, a company of 

 police soldiers, appointed by the Council of Castile to guard the 

 safety of the public highways, persecuted relentlessly whoever had been 

 marked by the inquisitorial tribunal. Nobody dared to oppose the arrest 

 of an accused. He was considered proscribed ; his own relatives and 

 friends forsook him ; he found no place of refuge ; no public services he 

 might have rendered, no rank, however exalted, could protect him ; no 

 testimony of his innocence from friends or relatives was adm.itted ; the 

 unfortunate victim was doomed even before the commencement of the 

 trial. Stripped of everything valuable about his person, the helpless 

 wretch Avas throAvn into prison. The horrible prisons of the Inquisition 

 consisted of subterranean vaulted passages, about ten feet high, and 

 branching ofl" into numerous sniall cells, surrounded with Avails about five 

 feet in thickness, and entirely Avithout light. Any Avord uttered by the 

 captive, except in reply to a question, Avas punished Avith merciless scourging. 

 At his trial he did not learn Avho Avitnessed against him ; no proof of 

 their testimony Avas asked of the Avitnesses ; . their uprightness and 

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