416 
PAR 
deity Siva. Hindoos of fome fe£ts give this name execu¬ 
tively to Brahma, the fupreme ruler : others apply it to 
the deity whom they more particularly worffiip. In one 
of the Puranas, Lechemi is invoked under the name of 
Paramaifwarya-rupini, meaning “ with the countenance 
of Paramefwara.” 
PARAM'ETER, f. A conftant right line in each of 
the three conic feftions; called alfo Icitus refium. —In the 
parabola, the rectangle of the parameter, and an abfeiffa, 
is equal to the fquare of the correfpondent femi-ordinate; 
in an ellipfis and hyperbola, the parameter is a third pro¬ 
portional to a conjugate, and tranfverfe axis. Chambers .— 
See Conic Sections. 
PARAMITH'IA, a town of Greece, in Albania, 
with about 9000 inhabitants, according to Dr. Holland. 
PARA'MO (Luiz de), a native of Borox, in the dio- 
cefe of Toledo, archdeacon and canon of Leon, and af¬ 
terwards inquifitor in Sicily, is author of a molt extra¬ 
ordinary work, entitled “ De Origine et Progreffu Officii 
Sanftte Inquifitionis, ejufque Dignitate et Utilitate,” 
which was undertaken under the patronage of D. Gafpar 
de Quiroga, then archbilhop of Toledo, and inquifitor- 
general; and which was pronounced by Nicholas Anto¬ 
nio to be a -work full of various learning. It was printed 
in folio at Madrid in 1598, and afterwards at Antwerp 
in x6i4;and acopy ofthefirft edition is in Dr. Williams’s 
Library in Red-crofs-ltreet, London. Mr. Southey, in the 
General Biography, has given an analyfis of this book, 
from whofe account we ffiall give a few extracts, to ffiovv 
the inquifitor’s mode of reafoning. 
Paramo begins by proving God to have been the firlt 
inquifitor, who convifts Adam and Eve of herefy, infide¬ 
lity, apoltacy, and blafphemy. God cited Adam, other- 
wife the procefs would have been null. On Adam’s ap¬ 
pearance, he made inquifition into the crime. The man 
acetified his wife, and then the judge queltioned her: 
he did not examine the ferpent, becaufe of his obltinacy. 
The examinations were fiecret and feparate, that there 
might be no collufive lying. He calls no witnefles; and 
affirms that confidence and confeffion are as a thoufand 
witnefles, and fave the judge all the trouble, except that 
of condemning. The whole, he fays, was done fiecretly, 
that it might be a precedent for.the holy office ; and fo 
clofely does this holy office obfierve the precedent, that 
they make the drefs of penitent offenders after the very 
pattern of the clothes which God made for Adam and 
Eve, and confificate all the property of a heretic, becaufe 
Adam and Eve were turned out of paradifie. The author 
then goes on to fliow that Abraham was an inquifitor; fo 
were David and Solomon. Zimri, who flew his mailer, 
was of the holy office ; fo was Elijah. Elilha and Jehu 
alfo are among the heroes of perfiecution ; and Nebu¬ 
chadnezzar molt unexpectedly proves to be an inquifitor 
alfo. Under the Gofpel, Chrift was the firlt inquifitor: 
for the lice who devoured Herod, and the rulers who 
fpoiled the Jews, only executed the fentences of death 
and confifcation which he had pronounced. James and 
John thought the Samaritans fliould be deltroyed by fire : 
“ here,” fays Paramo, “ is the natural and ordained pu- 
nilhment of heretics ! fire ! the Samaritans were the he¬ 
retics of thofe days, and all the apoltles were lawful in- 
quifitors!” 
Such is his theory : let us now pafs on to the practice ; 
and here Paramo mult be admitted to be an unexception¬ 
able authority. He was an inquifitor himfelf; he wrote 
under the aufpices of the inquifitor-general ; and his 
book, with all the paffports of the inquifition affixed to 
it, was printed at Madrid. The great work of defolation 
began at Guadaloupe in 1485. One heretical monk, and 
fifty-two Judaizers, as they are called, of both fexes, were 
then burnt alive, with the bodies of fix-and-forty dug 
from their graves, and the effigies of twenty-five, wdio 
had happily effected their efcape. How many were 
doomed to lighter punilhment is not dated ; they are 
faid to have been innumerable. The lighted of them 
PAR 
was to wear a drefs which was a warning to all Catholics 
to Ihun them; to be, both they and their pofierity for 
ever, excluded from all offices of trud and honour, and 
prohibited from all ornaments and even neatnefs of drefs, 
on pain of death. This was the lighted punilhment. 
All profeffed Jews were ordered to leave the kingdom 
within a month : at the expiration of that time drift 
fearch was made, and about two thoufand burnt in dif¬ 
ferent parts of the country, to diffufe terror. As the in- 
quifitors were exercifing this office under the immediate 
eye of their great goddefs of Guadaloupe, they were 
very defirous that Ihe fliould tedify her approbation by a 
miracle. Dr. Francifco Sancho de la Fuente, one of the 
three prefidents, recorded fixty which were vouchfiafed. 
upon this occafion, and then defided from the vain at¬ 
tempt at keeping pace with them. By the year 1520, 
above four thoufand perfons had been burnt alive in the 
diocefe of Seville, and above thirty thoufand defipoiled 
of all that they had, and condemned to perpetual infa¬ 
my, they and their children after them, from generation 
to generation, for ever and ever ! The whole number of 
perfons in that diocefe executed, made infamous, and 
driven into exile, exceeded 100,000; and in the city of Se¬ 
ville three thoufand houfes were left defolate. 
A third of the confifcated property went to the royal 
treafury, a third to the extraordinary expenfes of the 
faith (among which it is to be prefumed fuel was inclu¬ 
ded), and a third to the inquifition. “ Inftigated by the 
devil, there were fome,” he fays, “who remonftrated 
with Hernando, and more particularly with Ifabel, upon 
the ruin and defolation which they were bringing upon 
their kingdom ; Ifabel replied, that the deftruftion of 
herefy was more important than all other confiderations.” 
Appeals were made to the avarice of thefe worthy col¬ 
leagues in catholicifm and empire, and large fums offered 
for toleration or individual immunity. Torquemada, 
the grand inquifitor, was fearful how this might influence 
them ; he entered the palace, and, taking a crucifix from 
under his habit, exclaimed, “Behold the image of our 
crucified Redeemer, whom Judas fold to his enemies for 
thirty pieces of filver : if ye approve that bargain, fell 
him now fora higher price; I abdicate my office ! this 
ffiall not be imputed to me ! you fliall render the account 
of your bargain to God !” 
Paramo himfelf was one of the moll favage practical 
inquifitors that ever exifted. He fays, that in the courfe 
of a hundred and fifty years, the inquifition had burnt 
30,000 witches : and he claims great part of the merit 
for himfelf, faying he had punifned very many of them. 
PARAMO'RES, a fmall ifland in the Atlantic, near the 
coaft of Virginia. Lat. 37.36. N. Ion. 75.44. W. 
PARAMON'DRA. See Pyromachus. 
PAR'AMOUNT, adj. \_par and monter, Fr.] Superior; 
having the higheft jurifdiftion : as, lord paramount, the 
chief of the feignory : with to. —Leagues within the ftate 
are ever pernicious to monarchies; for they raife an ob¬ 
ligation, paramount to obligation of fovereignty, and make 
the king, tanquam unus ex nobis. Bacon. —The dog- 
matift’s opinioned affurance is paramount to argument. 
Glanville. — Mankind, feeing the apoftles poffefled of a 
power plainly paramount to the powers of all the known 
beings, whether angels or demons, could not queftion 
their being infpired by God. Wejl on the Refurrettion .— 
Eminent; of the higheft: order.—John-a-Chamber was 
hanged upon a gibbet raifed a ftage higher in the midft of 
a fquare gallows, as a traitor paramount ; and a number 
of his chief accomplices were hanged upon the lower 
ftory round him. Bacon. 
PAR'AMOUNT, f. The chief : 
In order came the grand infernal peers; 
Midft came their mighty paramount. Milton. 
Paramount, in our law, fignifies “the fupreme lord 
of the fee, of lands, tenements, and hereditaments.” 
There may be a tenant to a lord who holdeth himfelf 
of 
