SPAIN. 



639 



picion ; the Romans, under Tiberius, were less to be pitied than the Spaniards, under Ferdinand 

 and Torquemada. It is a satisfaction, however, to know, that the fanatic monk felt deeply what 

 he had deserved from tlie people. He lived in constant fear of death ; he had always on his 

 table a unicorn's horn, to detect the presence of poison ; and when he moved, he was sur- 

 rounded by guards. He passed IS years as Inquisitor-general ; caused 10,220 persons to ba 

 burned, and 97,371, to be otherwise punished, and their estates confiscated. 



The prisons of the inquisition were so damp, that the mats and cloths soon decayed. The 

 prisoners were literally crammed in them ; those who came forth were walking skeletons, while 

 others confessed all they were charged with, to escape from such confinement by death. 



In the chamber of torment^ every person accused, who refused to confess, received his trial. 

 This was deep under the ground, and lighted by two flickering flambeaux, which, with their 

 unsteady light increased the gloom of the dungeons. The inquisitors and executioners were 

 clothed in long robes of sackcloth, and their faces were covered with hoods of the same, hav- 

 ing holes cut for tlie eyes. The poor sufferer could not even look up in a human face, for a 

 vain search after mercy in its lineaments. The refusal to confess was the signal for the torture. 

 This was applied in three ways, by the cord, by fire, and by water. In the first mode, the 

 hands were tied behind the back of the prisoner, by means of a cord passed over a pulley above 

 his head. He was raised by the cord as high as the roof, where he was permitted to hang for 

 some time, when the rope was suddenly relaxed, and he fell within a foot and a half of the 

 ground. This dislocated all the joints, and the cord entered to the sinews. This punishment 

 was renewed every hour, till the sufferer was left without strength or motion ; when he was 

 remanded to his cell, to die or to revive for a punishment more horrible. In the second trial, 

 the patient was stretched and lied on a wooden spout so contrived as to bend his back and 

 raise his feet above his head ; this much impeded respiration. The executioner then 

 introduced at the bottom of the throat a piece of fine linen, a part of which covered the nostrils ; 

 poured water into the mouth and nose, and left it to filter so slowly, that an hour passed before 

 the sufferer could swallow a drop, alihough it trickled constantly. There was no interval for 

 respiration. He attempted constantly to swallow, hoping to give passage to a little air, which 

 the linen constantly prevented. The linen was often, when taken from the throat, stained with 

 the blood of vessels ruptured in this attempt to breathe. Besides this, at every moment a 

 powerful arm turned a lever, and made the cords on the arms and legs penetrate even to the 

 bones. Fire was the next means employed to make the accused criminate himself. The feet 

 were rubbed with oil and lard, and placed before the fire till they were so roasted, that the bones 

 and sinews appeared. Death was a relief, and confession gratified the inquisitors at last. Few 

 of the tortured ever returned to tell the hideous secrets of their prison. 



The condemned were executed at an Auto da fe, an Act of Faith, which was both general 

 and particular. The former took place on great occasions, as the accession of a Prince, his 

 marriage, or the birth of an Infanta. This was reserved as an offering worthy to be presented 

 to a king. A balcony of great extent was erected, in which the seat of the grand inquisitor 

 was placed above that of the king, who was surrounded by grandees and ladies of the court. 



There was a long procession, ecclesiastic and lay, in which the prisoners came last, many of 

 whom were gagged. The condemned were shut up in a pen, and each one knelt as his sen- 

 tence was read. The grand inquisitor then surrendered all who were to be executed, to the 

 secular arm, and they were conducted to the place of burning, or Quemndero. Here there 

 were as many funeral piles as victims. Napoleon suppressed the inquisition, and Ferdinand 

 revived it. But public opinion had, even in Spain, become too strong for it to exist. In 

 1820, when the popular outbreak restored the constitution, the people everywhere rose against 

 the inquisition, forced the gates, delivered the prisoners, and demolished the dungeons and in- 

 struments of torture. The institution is now at an end in Spain. From 1481 to 1820, the 

 number of persons burned alive was 34,658, and the number of others condemned to the galleys 

 or imprisonment, 288,214. 



The dead are buried in Spain In the dress of a Franciscan or Dominican, with the hands 

 holding a crucifix ; children under seven years old are supposed to be taken at once to heaven, 

 and their funerals are celebrated like joyful events, witli festivity and the ringing of bells. 



19. Government. Spain was long an absolute monarchy, in which the power of the king, 

 had no limits but the slender banier that public opinion could, in a country without education 

 or a press, interpose. The evils of this kind of government have, in Spain, been peculiarly 

 aggravated by the individual character of the monarchs. Th^' title of Most Catholic Majesty 



