The salaries of the inquisitors and officers are differently paid in different countries.
In Spain there are fixed salaries for the inquisitors, and other ministers of the holy office, which are paid them at stated times out of the forfeited effects.
“Every inquisitor hath annually allowed him 60,000, which is now increased to an hundred thousand pieces, every one of which is worth two of those brass pieces of money, which they commonly call Albi. The judges of the forfeited effects have each of them 30,000. The promoter fiscal as many. The scribe or notary the same. The executor 60,000. The receiver as many. The messenger 20,000. The door-keeper 10,000. The physician 5,000. These salaries may be increased at the pleasure of the inquisitor general, and are to be paid by the receiver at the fixed times; which if he neglects to do, he may be deprived of his office by the inquisitors.
“The assessors and counsellors have no stipend, but must give their advice gratis, when the inquisitors desire it, as some lawyers affirm; and though they may receive a salary freely offered them, yet they cannot demand it, because all Christians are bound to support and defend the affair of the Catholic faith. However, these assessors, who are the eyes of the judges in every cause, even though it be spiritual, justly receive a salary for their service and labour: for many things are justly received, which it would be injustice to demand.
“Those advocates who defend the causes of the poor, have a stipend out of the treasury, which is usually very small, though honourable. But if the criminals are not poor, the advocates are paid out of their effects.”
It is also provided in Spain, by many constitutions, that inquisitors, who receive gifts, incur the sentence of excommunication, and are deprived of their office, and fined double the value of what they take. However, as the author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa informs us, the inquisitors know how to amass vast riches, by two methods. When the effects of the prisoners, after confiscation, are sold by the cryer, the inquisitors, notwithstanding the interdict to the contrary, usually send one of their domestics, who bids a low price for such things as his master wants, being pretty secure that nobody else will out-bid them; and by this means they buy very valuable things for half price, or less. Besides this, the inquisitors have a right to demand the payment of the expences, and other necessary charges they have been at, when, and in what sums they please, whenever the money arising from the confiscations is carried into the royal treasury; without ever giving any reason, or any one’s daring to ask them for what purposes they employ it.
Gonsalvius Montanus also tells us, in his Arts of the Spanish Inquisition, cap. 10. that the inquisitors are sometimes prevailed with to use their prisoners a little more kindly, by some pretty presents made by their friends and relations. But this matter must be dextrously managed, that so the inquisitor may not refuse the offer. The first thing, therefore, is, to bribe one of his servants; in which there is no difficulty, provided it be done privately. When the inquisitors themselves are tampered with, they generally answer, that holy tribunal is incorrupt, and suffers no manner of gifts whatsoever to be received. But they have generally, amongst their attendance, some child of their brother or sister; or, at least, a servant that they greatly esteem, and who is to be highly respected, and who only sees the inquisitor refuse the presents offered to him. This servant comes to the prisoner’s friend, and privately points out to him the relation of the lord inquisitor. This is giving him to understand, unless the person be a stock, that though before he in vain attempted to corrupt the integrity of this holy tribunal, he may by this conveyance prevail upon the inquisitor, though he would refuse to accept the same present when more openly offered him.
The first and principal crime is heresy. Three things are required to make any one properly an heretic. 1. That he hath been baptized. 2. That he err in his understanding in matters relating to the faith, i. e. differ in those points which are determined by a general council, or the pope, as necessary to be believed, or enjoined as an apostolic tradition. 3. Obstinacy of will; as when any one persists in his error, after being informed by a judge of the faith that the opinion he holds is contrary to the determination of the church, and will not renounce it at the command of such a judge, by abjuring it, and giving suitable satisfaction. This crime is so widely extended by the doctors of the Romish church, that they esteem every thing as heresy, that is contrary to any received opinion in the church, though it be merely philosophical, and hath no manner of foundation in the scripture.
The punishments ordained against heretics are many, and most grievous. The first is excommunication; by which heretics are driven from the church, and expelled the company of all Christians. The ceremony of it is thus: when the bishop pronounces the anathema, twelve priests stand round him, and hold lighted torches in their hands, which they throw down on the ground, and tread under foot at the conclusion of the excommunication; after which a letter is sent to the proper parishes, containing the names of the excommunicated persons, and the reason of their sentence. Persons thus excommunicated, are deprived of all ecclesiastical benefices and dignities, and are not to receive Christian burial.
Being excommunicated, all their effects are forfeited, all donations by them are null and void, and even portions paid to children must be revoked, and all legacies to wives forfeited. The treasury of the inquisition devours all. The consequence of this is, that the children of heretics are absolutely disinherited; excepting only when a child accuses his heretical parents. Heretics are also deprived of their natural power over their children, and of that civil power they have over their servants; so that slaves and servants are, ipso facto, freed from servitude the moment their masters fall into heresy. Subjects are also freed from obedience to heretical princes and magistrates, and absolved from their oaths of allegiance. In a word, heretics lose all right and property in every thing that they have. Hence proceeds the maxim, “that faith is not to be kept with heretics,” because it ought never to be given them; and because the keeping it is against the public good, the salvation of souls, and contrary, as they say, to the laws of God and man. Farther, all places of refuge, which are open to malefactors, and the worst of villains, are denied to heretics. Another punishment is imprisonment; or if they cannot be apprehended, they are put under the ban; so that any one, by his own private authority, may seize, plunder, and kill him as an enemy, or robber. The last penalty is death, the most terrible one that can be inflicted, viz. the being burnt to death. Such as are obstinate and impenitent, are to be burnt alive; others are to be first strangled, and then burnt.
Heretics are distinguished into open and secret. Open heretics are such, who publicly avow somewhat contrary to the Catholic faith, or which is condemned as such by the sentence of the inquisitors. Secret heretics are such who err in their mind, but have not shewn it outwardly by word or deed; and these are excommunicated ipso jure; or who by word or writing have discovered the heresy of their heart with secrecy and craft; and such are liable to all the punishments of heretics.
Again, heretics are either affirmative or negative. Affirmative heretics are such who err in their minds as to matters of faith; and who by word or deed shew that they are obstinate in their wills, and openly confess it before the inquisitor. Negative heretics are such, who being according to the laws of the inquisition convicted of some heresy before an inquisitor, yet will not confess it; constantly declaring that they profess the Catholic faith, and detest heretical pravity; or who owning heretical words or actions, deny the heretical intention; or who refuse to discover all their accomplices. Such are generally put to the torture.
Again, heretics are either impenitent or penitent. An impenitent is one who, being convicted of heresy, or having confessed it before an inquisitor, will not obey his judge, when he commands him to forsake his heresy and abjure it, but obstinately perseveres in his error; or who having confessed through fear of punishment, yet afterwards asserts his innocence, or doth not observe the penance enjoined him. Penitents are those who, being admonished by the inquisitor, abjure their error, and give suitable satisfaction, as the bishop or inquisitor enjoins them; either of their own accord, or upon any particular inquisition made after them. Such who return of their own accord, are treated with greater mildness; but the other enjoined a very severe penance. But they will by no means receive such who do not return till after frequent admonition, or till fear of death; or who endeavour any ways to persuade others to heresy, especially kings and queens, or the sons and daughters of princes.
Next to heretics are the believers of heretics, and such who receive, defend, and favour them; who by word or deed declare their belief of an heretic’s error, who knowingly take them into their houses and other places, and thus conceal them from the hands of the church, or give them notice to make their escape, or vindicate them on their trial, or hinder the procedure of the office of the inquisition; or who, being magistrates, refuse to extirpate them, or to apprehend and keep them in custody, or to punish them when given over to them by the inquisitors; or who being prelates or inquisitors, neglect to have safe prisons, and faithful jailkeepers, or to apprehend, torture, or punish heretics. These, ipso facto, incur excommunication; and if they remain under it a year, are to be punished as heretics. And finally, such who visit them privately, whilst in custody, and whisper with them, and give them food; or who lament their apprehension or death, or who complain they are unjustly condemned, or who look with a bitter countenance on their prosecutors, or who gather up the bones of heretics after they are burnt; these are all favourers of heresy, and are ipso jure excommunicated.
Such also who hinder the office of the inquisition are subject to this tribunal. This may be done by rescuing persons taken up for heresy from prison, or by wounding any of the witnesses against them; or by using threatenings, and terrifying words; or by hindering process, judgment, or sentence; or if a temporal lord ordains that no one shall take cognizance of heresy but himself, and that no one shall be accused but before his tribunal, nor any bear arms but those of his own household. The punishment of this is excommunication; which, if they continue under a year, they must either abjure, or be delivered over as heretics to the secular arm. Sometimes their whole dominions are put under interdict, and given to him who can first conquer them.
Yea, they extend this affair sometimes so far, that all manner of offences committed against any one that belongs to the inquisitors, though they have no relation to the faith, are punished in the same manner as though the office of the inquisition had been hindered by them, or the inquisitor himself had received some grievous injury. Reginald Gonsalvius[259] gives us a remarkable instance of this, which happened in the former age at Seville. The bishop of Terragone, chief inquisitor at Seville, went one summer for his diversion to some pleasant gardens situate by the sea side, with all his inquisitory family, and walked out, according to his custom, with his episcopal attendance. A child of the gardener, two or three years old at most, accidentally sat playing upon the side of a pond in the garden, where my lord bishop was taking his pleasure. One of the boys that attended his lordship, snatched out of the hand of the gardener’s child a reed, with which he was playing, and made him cry. The gardener hearing his child, comes to the place; and when he found out the occasion of his crying, was angry, and bad the inquisitor’s servant restore the reed to him. And upon his refusal, and insolently contemning the countryman, he snatched it away; and as the boy held it fast, the gardener slightly hurt his hand by the sharp husk of the reed, in pulling it from him. The wound was far from being mortal, or from endangering the loss of any part, and so could not deserve a severe punishment. It was no more than a scratch of the skin, a mere childish wound, as one may imagine by the cause of it. However, the inquisitor’s boy came to his master, who was walking near the place, to complain about his wound; upon which the inquisitor orders the gardener to be taken up, and thrown into the inquisitory jail, and kept him there for nine months in very heavy irons; by which he received such damage in his circumstances, which were at best but mean, as the poor man could not easily recover; his children and wife, in the mean while, being ready to perish for hunger; and all because he did not pay deference enough to the inquisitor’s boy, as a member of the holy tribunal. At nine months end they dismissed him from jail, and would have persuaded him that they dealt much more mercifully with him than his crime deserved.
Again, there are other persons who are only suspected of heresy. This suspicion is threefold; light, vehement, or violent. A light suspicion arises from a person’s frequenting conventicles, and in his behaviour differing from the common conversation of the faithful. A vehement suspicion of heresy, is a person’s not appearing when called to answer upon any article of the faith; hindering the inquisition, giving council or assistance to heretics; or advising them to conceal the truth, or who knowingly accompany, visit, or receive them; or who are convicted of perjury or lying, in a cause of the faith; or who give ecclesiastical burial to heretics, or their favourers, or bury them in church yards with psalms and prayers; or who preserve the ashes, bones, garments, and the like, of buried heretics; or who think ill of some doctrine or order of the church, such as the power of the pope, the religion of the monks, the rites of the sacrament, and the like; or who persist in their excommunication for two years; such persons give such suspicions as are sufficient to put them to the torture. A violent suspicion arises from such external words and actions by which it may be effectually, and almost always concluded, that he who says or doth them is an heretic; such as the receiving the communion from heretics, and the like. Of these different kinds of suspicions the punishment is different. A person lightly suspected is enjoined canonical purgation, or may be made to abjure. One vehemently suspected may be commanded a general abjuration of all heresies; after which, if he relapses into his former heresy, or associates with, and favours heretics, he is delivered over to the secular power as a relapse. One violently suspected, is to be condemned as an heretic. If he confesses and abjures, he may be admitted to penance; but if he doth not confess, and will not abjure, he is to be delivered over to the secular court, and burnt.
And as some persons are suspected, others are defamed for heresy; such who are spoken against by common report, or such against whom there is legal proof before a bishop that they are spoken against upon account of heresy. And to this two witnesses suffice, though they have had their information from different persons, and though they do not agree as to time and place, and the causes of their knowledge; and though the person accused as defamed, can prove himself to be of good reputation. The punishment of one thus defamed is canonical purgation, and some other ordinary penalty.
Again, other persons are relapsed; such who after having been convicted, either by the evidence of the fact, or their own confession, or legal witnesses, have publicly abjured their heresy, and are convicted of falling into the same again, or into any different heresy, or into a violent suspicion of heresy, and who accompany, visit, and favour heretics; or who are found to be perjured after abjuration, or who after abjuration and purgation do not perform the penance enjoined them. But there is this difference between the last, and the former relapsed persons; that the former are left without mercy to the secular arm; whereas it is in the inquisitor’s pleasure to deliver the latter to secular judgment, or not.
Those also who read and keep prohibited books are subject to the tribunal of the inquisition. Pope Pius V. by a bull excommunicated, amongst others, all who should knowingly read, keep in their houses, print, or in any wise defend, for any cause, publicly or privately, under any pretence or colour, prohibited books, without the authority of the apostolic see. If any one brings heretical books into any Catholic countries, he is not only excommunicated, but his goods confiscated, and himself whipped, if he be of mean condition; but if he is of the better sort, he is banished at the pleasure of the inquisitor. If there arises any vehement suspicion of heresy, from any one’s reading, keeping, defending, or printing the books of heretics, he may be put to the torture to discover the truth. If any of the clergy read or keep prohibited books, they are vehemently suspected; and may be deprived of the active and passive voice, suspended from divine services, deprived of the offices of reading, preaching, &c. and be enjoined fastings, pilgrimages, and the like.
The inquisitors also take cognizance of those who marry several wives at once, because they are presumed to think wrong of the sacrament of matrimony. If upon examination any one affirms it lawful for a christian man to have several wives at once, he is taken for a formal heretic, and is to be punished as such. If he denies any heretical intention, he must be put to the torture; that the inquisitors may know what his mind is, and whether he married two wives out of any erroneous opinion concerning the sacrament of matrimony, or through lust, or carnal concupiscence. All such persons are suspected of heresy, and must abjure as such, and may be condemned to the gallies.
If any one celebrates mass, or hears confession, and gives absolution, not being in priest’s orders, he is vehemently suspected of heresy; and must abjure as such, and then be delivered over to the secular arm, to be punished with death. Raynald gives us an instance of one who said he was a bishop, though he had not the pope’s bull, and as such consecrated priests. The story is this: “James the priest, a false Minorite, born in the dutchy of Juliers, forged the pope’s bull, and declared in the Netherlands that he was a bishop; and although he had not been ordained a bishop, he consecrated priests by a false ceremony in several dioceses of Germany and the Low Countries. At length he was convicted of his wickedness, and the magistrates of Utrecht thought fit, not to condemn him to the flames, that he might be quickly consumed, but to be gradually burnt by boiling water, that so they might conquer his obstinacy, because he most impudently refused to acknowledge his crime. But being gradually let down into the boiling cauldron, and overcome with the extremity of the pain, he detested his wickedness, and prayed that he might receive a milder punishment. His judges being moved with compassion, ordered him to be taken out of the boiling cauldron, and then to be beheaded.”
Those also who solicit women or boys to dishonourable actions in the sacramental confession, are subject to this tribunal. Pius IV. published a bull against them; and when this bull was first brought into Spain, all persons were commanded by a public edict, solemnly published throughout all the churches of the archbishopric of Seville, that whosoever knew or had heard of any monks or clergymen who had abused the sacrament of confession to these crimes, or had in any manner acted in this vile manner at confession with their wives or daughters, they should discover them within thirty days to the holy tribunal; and very grievous censures were annexed to such as should neglect or contemn it. When the decree was published, so large a number of women went to the palace of the inquisitors in the city of Seville only, to make their discoveries of these most wicked confessors, that twenty secretaries, with as many inquisitors, were not sufficient to take the depositions of the witnesses. The lords inquisitors being thus overwhelmed with the multitude of affairs, assigned another thirty days for the witnesses; and when this was not sufficient, they were forced to appoint the same number a third and a fourth time. For as to women of reputation, and others of higher condition, every time was not proper for them to apply to the inquisitors. On one hand, their conscience forced them to a discovery through a superstitious fear of the censures and excommunication; and on the other hand, their regard to their husbands, whom they were afraid to offend, by giving them any ill suspicion of their chastity, kept them at home; and therefore veiling their faces, after the Spanish custom, they went to the lords inquisitors, when, and as privately as they could. Very few, however, with all their prudence and craft, could escape the diligent observation of their husbands at the time of discovery, and hereby possessed their minds with the deepest jealousy. However, after so many had been informed against before the inquisitors, that holy tribunal, contrary to all men’s expectations, put a stop to the affair, and commanded all those crimes which were proved by legal evidence, to be buried in eternal oblivion.
It is required that this solicitation be made in the act of sacramental confession; and such confessors are vehemently suspected, and must abjure as such, and be enjoined fastings and prayers, and may be condemned to the gallies, or perpetual imprisonment; must be suspended from hearing confessions, and deprived of their benefices, dignities and the like.
Yea, sometimes, according to the heinousness of the offence, a more grievous punishment is inflicted. “The Venetians ordered one of them to be burnt alive, by command of the pope. He had been father confessor to some nuns in the dominions of Venice, and had got twelve of them with child; amongst whom the abbess and two others had children in one year. As he was confessing them, he agreed with them about the place, manner, and time of lying with them. All were filled with admiration and astonishment, taking the man for a perfect saint, he had so great a shew of sanctity in his very face.” Epist. ad Belgas, Cent. 1. Ep. 66. p. 345. & Ep. 63. p. 316.
In Portugal also the crime of sodomy belongs to the tribunal of the inquisition. By the laws of that kingdom sodomites are punished with death, and confiscation of all their effects; and their children and grandchildren become infamous. After the natural death of a sodomite, if the crime hath not been proved, they cannot proceed against him, neither as to the crime, nor confiscation of effects, although the crime can be proved by legal witnesses; because crimes, which are not particularly excepted, of which sodomy is one, are extinguished by the death of the delinquent. Nor do they proceed against a dead sodomite, nor confiscate his effects, although he hath been convicted, or confessed when he was alive. If such a one takes sanctuary in a church, he cannot be taken out of it.
If we compare these things with the punishments of heretics, it will appear that the crime of sodomy in the kingdom of Portugal is esteemed a much smaller one than that of heresy, because sodomites enjoy privileges which are denied to heretics. And yet it may happen, that a truly pious man, who fears God, and is most careful of his eternal salvation, may be accounted an heretic by the Portuguese inquisitors; whereas, a sodomite cannot but be the vilest of men. But it is not at all strange, that by the laws of that tribunal Barabbas should be released, and Christ crucified.
Blasphemers also, who deny God, or their belief in him, or the virginity of our Lady, are subject to the inquisitors, and punished in the following manner. If the blasphemy be very heinous, and the blasphemer a mean person, he is made to wear an infamous mitre, hath his tongue tied, and pinched with an iron or wooden gag, is carried forth as a public spectacle without his cloak, whipped with scourges, and banished. But if he be a person of better condition, or noble, he is brought forth without the mitre, thrust for a time into a monastery, and punished with a fine. In smaller blasphemies they are dealt with more gently, at the pleasure of the inquisitors, viz. the blasphemer is condemned to stand, during divine service, upon some holiday or other, with his head naked, without his cloak and shoes, his feet naked, a cord tied round him, and holding a burning wax-taper in his hands. Sometimes also they squeeze his tongue with a piece of wood. After divine service is over his sentence is read, by which he is enjoined fastings, and a fine.
This punishment, however, doth not take place as to a clergyman. For if a clergyman was to appear without his shoes, and with an halter about his neck, and thus stand at the gates of the church before the people, the clerical order, and the ministry of the clergy would suffer disgrace; and it would become a wonder, and evil example to the laity, if the blaspheming clergy were thus exposed.
In these cases the inquisitors mostly act according to their own pleasure, who have an ample power of judging according to the nature and heinousness of the crimes. A certain person who had a quarrel with a clergyman of Ecya, a city in Spain, accidentally said, in the hearing of others, that he could not believe that God would come down into the hands of so profligate an adulterer. The vicar of the ordinary fined him for the speech. But the clergyman, not contented with this revenge, afterwards accused him of blasphemy at the tribunal of the inquisitors at Seville. Nor did the fine to which he was before condemned by the ordinary, prevent his being taken up by command of the inquisitors, imprisoned for a whole year, brought out in triumph without cloak or hat, carrying a wax candle in his hand, his tongue gagged with a wooden gag, thus to punish his blasphemy; and being forced to abjure, as lightly suspected, he was fined a second time.
Fortune-tellers, who look into the palms of the hands, such who exercise divination by lots, and use candles and holy water to discover stolen goods, if they deny any heretical intention, may be tortured to discover it; and if found guilty, are excommunicated, whipped, banished, and subject to other punishments. If any pretend to foretel the mysteries of faith by the stars, or the life or death of the pope, or his kindred, they may be punished with death, and confiscation of goods. With these fortune-tellers are joined witches; who are reported to deny the faith, and make a compact with the devil. These poor wretches are miserably tortured to force them to confess, and then burnt. The inquisitors, within the space of 150 years, burnt 30,000 of them.
Finally, the Jews are also severely handled by this tribunal. The inquisition, indeed, is not designed to compel the Jews to turn Christians, but is introduced against those who, being converted from Judaism to Christianity, return again to the principles they have forsaken; or who deny matters of faith common to them and Christians; or if they invoke devils, or sacrifice to them; or if they speak heretical blasphemies, or pervert a Christian from the faith, or hinder infidels from being converted; or knowingly receive an heretic, or keep heretical books, or deride the host or the cross; or keep Christian nurses, and the like. But the inquisition is levelled principally against those, who having professed Christianity, and been baptized, turn again to Judaism. When suspected they are liable to the torture, may be compelled to abjure, fined, imprisoned, whipped, or burnt, according to the nature of their errors, or heretical actions.
It now remains that I give some account of what relates to the execution of the inquisitorial office.
When the inquisitor is first constituted by the pope, he must present himself to the king, or other temporal lord of those territories in which he is to act, and deliver his apostolic commission, and demand full protection for himself and officers, in all matters belonging to their office. He must also shew his commission to the archbishops and bishops of the dioceses in which he is sent. Finally, he takes an oath from the civil officers, that they will defend the faith, and obey the inquisitor with all their might; and this oath they may compel them to take, under pain of excommunication, and all the punishments which attend it.
After this, the inquisitor appoints a sermon to be preached on a certain day, all other sermons being suspended; at which, four of each religion must be present, and in which he commends the Catholic faith, and exhorts the people to extirpate heretical pravity. When the sermon is ended, he admonishes them to discover to himself all persons who are erroneous, and have said or done any thing against the faith; and then orders monitory letters to be read from the pulpit, by which all persons, of whatsoever condition, clergy or laity, are commanded, under pain of excommunication, to discover to the inquisitors within six or twelve days following any heretic, or person suspected of heresy, which they know. These monitory letters are called, “An edict of the faith.” When these letters are read, he promises, in the pope’s name, indulgencies for three years to all who assist him in reducing heretics, or who discover to him any such; or person defamed, and suspected of heresy; or who, in any other case, bear true witness before him in an act of faith. And finally, he assigns a time of grace to all heretics, &c. viz. the month following; promising them, that if within that space they come freely to him, before they are accused or apprehended, and voluntarily discover their guilt, and ask pardon, they shall obtain pardon and mercy; viz. freedom from death, imprisonment, banishment, and confiscation of effects.
From this obligation to accuse heretics, no persons, of whatsoever dignity or degree, are exempted; brother must accuse brother, the wife her husband, the husband his wife, the son his father, when heretical, or suspected of heresy; the edict obliges all; and neither kings nor princes, nor nearest relations are exempted.
Joan, the daughter of the emperor Charles V. was cited by the inquisitors to be interrogated before them, against a certain person, concerning some things relating to the faith. She consulted her father, who advised her to make her deposition without any delay (lest she should incur excommunication) not only against others, but even against himself, if she knew him to be blameable in the least matter. Joan obeyed this command of her father, and immediately deposed before Ferdinand Valdez, archbishop of Seville, at that time bishop and inquisitor general.
Lewis de Carvajal, although governor and captain general of the province of Tampico and Pamico, was forced to walk out in public penance, because he did not denounce four women, who were secretly Jews, and to whom he was uncle; and though a little before he had the honourable title of president, he was forced to hear his ignominious sentence publicly, was for ever deprived of all offices under the king, reduced to the lowest misery, and through grief and weariness of his life, soon went the way of all flesh.
If any person comes in within the appointed time to accuse himself, he is asked, how long he hath continued in his errors, and from whom he learnt them? whether he hath had, and read any heretical or suspected books? what they were, from whom he had them, and what he hath done with them? Other questions are added concerning his accomplices in heresies, that he may tell the names of all those heretics, or persons suspected of heresy, whom he knows. He is farther asked, whether he hath ever been inquisited, processed, or accused or denounced in any tribunal, or before any judge, on account of the aforesaid errors, or other things relating to heresy? He is also admonished simply to tell the whole truth which he knows, as well of himself as of others; because, if he is afterwards found deceitfully to have concealed any thing, he is judged as one whose confession is imperfect, and as impenitent, and feignedly converted. Finally, he is interrogated, whether he repents of these errors and heresies into which he hath fallen? and whether he is ready to abjure, curse, and detest them, and all other heresies whatsoever, that exalt themselves against the holy apostolic and Roman church, and to live for the future catholicly, according to the faith of the church of Rome, and devoutly to fulfil the salutary penance enjoined him?
However, such as come thus voluntarily, are far from escaping all punishment, but are either treated kindly at the pleasure of the inquisitor, according to the quality of their persons and crimes, or else condemned to pay a fine, or give alms, or some such works of charity. But if they wait till they are accused, denounced, cited or apprehended, or suffer the time of grace to slip over, they are pronounced unworthy of such favours.
And in this case many foolishly deceive themselves with a false opinion, believing, that because favour is promised to such who appear voluntarily, they shall be free from all punishment; because they are only saved from the more terrible ones, it being left to the pleasure of the inquisitors to inflict some penitential punishment on them, according to the nature of their crime, as will appear from the following instance. “There was at the city of Cadiz a certain foreigner, who yet had lived in Spain for twenty years; who, according to a common superstition, dwelt in a desart in a certain chapel, upon the account of religion. Hearing in his chapel of the great number of those who were taken up every day at Seville by the inquisitors, for what they call the Lutheran heresies; having heard also of the decree of the inquisitors, by which he was commanded, under the terrors of excommunication, immediately to discover to the inquisition whatsoever he knew of those things, either as to others or himself; the poor stupid hermit comes to Seville, goes to the inquisitors and accuses himself, because he thought the said inquisitors would use singular clemency towards those who thus betrayed themselves. His crime was, that whereas being about twenty years before this at Genoa, and hearing a certain brother of his disputing about a man’s justification by faith in Christ, of purgatory, and other things of the like nature, he did not wholly condemn them, though he never thought of them afterwards. He therefore acknowledged his crime, and came to ask mercy. When the lords inquisitors had received his confession, they commanded the poor hermit to jail; where, after a long confinement, he was brought out in public procession, and was sentenced to wear the sanbenito, to three years imprisonment, and the forfeiture of his effects.”
Sometimes also they use a certain stratagem to draw persons to a voluntary appearance before the inquisitors. “When they have apprehended any remarkable person, who hath been the teacher of others, or who they know hath been resorted to by many others, upon account of his doctrine and learning, as being a teacher and preacher of great repute; it is usual with them to cause a report to be spread amongst the people, by their familiars, that being grievously tortured, he had discovered several of those that had adhered to him, suborning some persons out of the neighbouring prisons to assert that they heard his cries amidst his tortures, in order to give the greater credit to the report. These reports are spread for this reason, that such who have attended on his instructions, or have been any ways familiar with him, may in time go to the holy tribunal, confess their fault, and implore mercy, before they are sent for, or apprehended. By this means they impose on many, who, if they had waited for their summons, had never been summoned at all. Or if it should have happened that they had been summoned, would not have been dealt with more severely than they generally are, who trust to the inquisitors promises.”
If any person is accused by another, the accuser is interrogated, “How long he hath known N. against whom he denounces? likewise, how he came to know him? Again, whether he observed that the aforesaid N. was suspected of matters relating to the faith from his words, or his actions? Likewise, how often he had seen the said N. do or say those things for which he thought him an heretic, or suspected of heresy? Likewise, at what time, and in the presence of whom the aforesaid N. did or said those things of which he is denounced? Likewise, whether the aforesaid N. hath had any accomplices in the aforesaid crimes, or any writings belonging to the offences denounced? Likewise, to what end and purpose the aforesaid things were done or said by the aforesaid N. whether seriously, or in jest? If it appears that there was a long interval of time between the commission of the crimes denounced, and the making the denunciation, the inquisitor interrogates the denouncer, why he deferred so long to come to the holy office, and did not depose before, especially if he knew that he incurred the penalty of excommunication by such omission?” He is moreover asked, “Whether he knows any thing farther of N. which concerns the holy office, or of any other person? Likewise, whether he hath at any time had any cause of hatred or enmity with the aforesaid N. and whence it proceeded? With what zeal, and with what intention he comes to the holy office, and to make denunciation? Whether he hath denounced through any passion of mind, ill will, hatred, or subornation? And he is admonished ingenuously to tell the truth.” He is especially interrogated how he came by his knowledge, because on that principally the truth and weight of the testimony depends.
When the denunciation is received; first, it must be read over to the denouncer, that he may add, take away, or alter as he pleases. Secondly, he must subscribe to his deposition; or if he cannot write, he must at least put under it the sign of the cross. Thirdly, he must take an oath of secrecy.
After this, the witnesses are called on. And in this affair all persons, even such as are not allowed in other tribunals, are admitted. Persons excommunicated, heretics, Jews, and infidels, wives, sons and daughters, and domestics, are allowed as witnesses against those accused of heresy, but never for them: those who are perjured and infamous, whores, bawds, those under the ban, usurers, bastards, common blasphemers, gamesters, persons actually drunk, stage-players, prize-fighters, apostates, traitors, even all without exception, besides mortal enemies.
When the witnesses are summoned, first they take an oath upon the scriptures to speak the truth. After this he is asked by the inquisitor, whether he knows, or can guess the cause of his citation and present examination? If he says yes, he is interrogated how he knew it? If he says no, he is interrogated, whether he hath known, or doth know now any one or more heretics, or persons suspected of heresy, or at least is able to name any such? Whether he knows N.? What was the occasion of his acquaintance with him? How long he hath known him? Whether he hath been used to converse with him? Whether he hath heard at any time any thing from the said N. concerning the Catholic religion? Whether ever he was in such a place with the said N. and whether the said N. did or said there such and such heretical things, or favouring of heresy? Who were present when N. did or said the aforesaid things? How often he saw them said or done, and on what occasion, and how? Whether the said N. spoke the aforesaid things in jest, or without thinking, or through a slip of his tongue, or as relating the heresies of some other person or persons? Whether he said any thing which ought not to have been said, through hatred or love, or omitted and concealed somewhat that ought to have been explained? He is farther admonished to tell the single truth, because, if he is detected of speaking falsely, he will be made to suffer the penalties, not only of perjury, but of favouring heresy.
After this, one of the proctors of the court demands that the criminal be taken up, and the inquisitor subscribes an order for this purpose. When he is apprehended, he must be well guarded, put in irons, and delivered to the jailkeeper of the inquisition.
When the criminal is put in jail, he is brought before the inquisitor. The place where he appears before the inquisitor, is called by the Portuguese the table of the holy office. At the farther end of it there is placed a crucifix, raised up almost as high as the ceiling. In the middle of the room there is a table. At that end which is nearest the crucifix, sits the secretary or notary of the inquisition. The criminal is brought in by the beadle, with his head, arms and feet naked, and is followed by one of the keepers. When they come to the chamber of audience, the beadle enters first, makes a profound reverence before the inquisitor, and then withdraws. After this, the criminal enters alone, who is ordered to sit down on a bench at the other end of the table, over against the secretary. The inquisitor sits on his right hand. On the table near the criminal lies a missal, or book of the gospels; and he is ordered to lay his hand on one of them, and to swear that he will declare the truth, and keep secrecy.
After taking this oath, of declaring the truth both of himself and others, the inquisitor interrogates him of divers matters. As, whether he knows why he was taken up, or hath been informed of it by any one or more persons? Where, when, and how he was apprehended? If he says that he knows nothing of it, he is asked, whether he cannot guess at the reason? whether he knows in what prisons he is detained? and upon what account men are imprisoned there? If he says he cannot guess at the cause of his imprisonment, but knows that he is in the prisons of the holy office, where heretics and persons suspected of heresy are confined, he is told, that since he knows persons are confined there for their profanation of religion, he ought to conclude that he also is confined for the same reason; and must therefore declare what he believes to be the cause of his own apprehension and confinement in the prisons of the holy office. If he says he cannot imagine what it should be, before he is asked any other questions, he receives a gentle admonition, and is put in mind of the lenity of the holy office towards those who confess without forcing, and of the rigour of justice used towards those who are obstinate. They also compare other tribunals with the holy office, and remind him, that in others the confession of the crime draws after it immediate execution and punishment; but that in the court of the inquisition, those who confess and are penitent, are treated with greater gentleness. After this, he is admonished in writing, and told, that the ministers of the holy office never take up any one, or are used to apprehend any one without a just cause; and that therefore they earnestly beseech him, and command and enjoin him, exactly to recollect and diligently to consider his actions, to examine his conscience, and purge it from all those offences and errors it labours under, and for which he is informed against.
After this he is asked, what race he comes of? Who were his parents and ancestors? that hereby he may declare all his family. Whether any one of them was at any time taken up by the holy office, and enjoined penance? This they are especially asked, who descend from Jews, Mahometans, and sectaries. Where he was brought up? In what places he hath dwelt? Whether he ever changed his country? Why he did so, and went into another place? With whom he conversed in the aforesaid places; who were his friends, and with whom he was intimate? Whether he ever conversed with any of his acquaintance about matters of religion, or heard them speak about religion? In what place, and when, and how often, and of what things or matters they conversed?
He is moreover asked, of what profession he is, and what employment of life he follows? Whether he be rich or poor? What returns he hath, and what the expences of his living? Then he is commanded to give an account of his life, and to declare what he hath done from his childhood, even to this time. And that he may declare all this, he is asked, in what places or cities he studied, and what studies he followed? Who were his masters? whose names he must tell. What arts he learnt? What books he hath had and read? and whether he hath now any books treating of religion, and what? Whether ever he hath been examined and cited, or sued, or processed before any other tribunal, or the tribunal of the holy inquisition, and for what causes; and whether he was absolved or condemned, by what judge, and in what year? Whether ever he was excommunicated, and for what cause? Whether he was afterwards absolved or condemned, and for what reason? Whether he hath every year sacramentally confessed his sins, how often, and in what church? Then he is commanded to give the names of his confessors, and of those from whom he hath received the eucharist; and especially for the ten years last past, and more. What orations or holy prayers he recites? Whether he hath any enemies? whose names he must tell, and the reasons of their enmity.
If the criminal is persuaded by these, or by more or less such interrogatories, openly to confess the truth, his cause is finished, because it is immediately known what will be the issue of it.
But if after all these interrogatories the prisoner persists in the negative, and says he doth not know why he is cited or sent to prison, the inquisitor replies, that since it appears from his own words, that he will not discover the truth, and that there is no proof of his having such enmities with any person, or that there are no such causes of hatred as he alledges, by which others could, or ought to be induced slanderously, and falsely to inform against him, that therefore there arises the stronger suspicion, that the depositions against him in the holy office are true. And therefore he is beseeched and abjured, by the bowels of mercy of Christ Jesus, to consider better and better, and ingenuously to confess the truth, and to declare whether he hath erred in words or deeds, in the aforesaid matter relating to the faith, and the holy office, or rendered himself suspected to others.
If by such general interrogatories the inquisitor cannot draw from the prisoner a confession of the crime of which he is accused, he comes to particular interrogatories, which relate to the matter itself, or the crimes or heresies for which the criminal was denounced. For instance, if he was accused for denying purgatory, then one, two, or three days after his first examination, he is again interrogated by the inquisitor, whether he hath any thing, and what to say, besides what he said in his other examination? Whether he hath thought better of the matter, and can recollect the cause of his imprisonment, and former examination, or hath at least any suspicion who could accuse him to the holy office, and of what matters? Whether he hath heard any one discoursing of paradise, purgatory, and hell? What he heard concerning that matter? Who they were, that he heard speaking, or disputing of those things? Whether he ever discoursed of them? What he hath believed, and doth now believe about purgatory? If he answers, that his faith concerning it hath been right, and denies any ill belief, but that he believes as holy mother church believes and teaches, he is ordered to say what the holy Roman mother church doth think and believe concerning this article.
If the prisoner knows the reason of his being apprehended, and openly confesses every thing of which he hath been accused to the inquisitor, he is commended, and encouraged to hope for a speedy deliverance. If he confesses some things, but cannot guess at others, he is commended for taking up the purpose of accusing himself, and exhorted by the bowels of mercy of Jesus Christ to proceed, and ingenuously to confess every thing else of which he is accused; that so he may experience that kindness and mercy, which this tribunal uses towards those who manifest a real repentance of their crimes by a sincere and voluntary confession.
In these examinations the inquisitors use the greatest artifice, to draw from the prisoners confessions of those crimes of which they are accused; promising them favour, if they will confess the truth. And by these flattering assurances they sometimes overcome the minds of more unwary persons; and when they have obtained the designed end, immediately forget them all. Of this Gonsalvius[260] gives us a remarkable instance. “In the first fire that was blown up at Seville, anno 1558, or 1559, amongst many others who were taken up, there was a certain pious matron with her two virgin daughters, and her niece by her sister, who was married. As they endured those tortures of all kinds, with a truly manlike constancy, by which they endeavoured to make them perfidiously betray their brethren in Christ, and especially to accuse one another, the inquisitor at length commanded one of the daughters to be sent for to audience. There he discoursed with her alone for a considerable time, in order to comfort her, as indeed she needed it. When the discourse was ended, the girl was remanded to her prison. Some days after he acted the same part again, causing her to be brought before him several days towards the evening, detaining her for a considerable while; sometimes telling her how much he was grieved for her afflictions, and then intermixing familiarly enough other pleasant and agreeable things. All this, as the event shewed, had only this tendency, that after he had persuaded the poor simple girl, that he was really, and with a fatherly affection concerned for her calamity, and would consult as a father what might be for her benefit and salvation, and that of her mother and sisters, she might wholly throw herself into his protection. After some days spent in such familiar discourses, during which he pretended to mourn with her over her calamity, and to shew himself affected with her miseries, and to give her all the proof of his good will, in order, as far as he could, to remove them; when he knew he had deceived the girl, he begins to persuade her to discover what she knew of herself, her mother, sisters, and aunts who were not yet apprehended, promising upon oath, that if she would faithfully discover to him all that she knew of that affair, he would find out a method to relieve her from all her misfortunes, and to send them all back again to their houses. The girl, who had no very great penetration, being thus allured by the promises and persuasions of the father of the faith, begins to tell him some things relating to the holy doctrine she had been taught, and about which they used to confer with one another. When the inquisitor had now got hold of the thread, he dextrously endeavoured to find his way throughout the whole labyrinth; oftentimes calling the girl to audience, that what she had deposed might be taken down in a legal manner; always persuading her, this would be the only just means to put an end to all her evils. In the last audience he renews to her all his promises, by which he had before assured her of her liberty, and the like. But when the poor girl expected the performance of them, the said inquisitor, with his followers, finding the success of his craftiness, by which he had in part drawn out of the girl, what before they could not extort from her by torments, determined to put her to the torture again, to force out of her what they thought she had yet concealed. Accordingly she was made to suffer the most cruel part of it, even the rack, and the torture by water; till at last they had squeezed out of her, as with a press, both the heresies and accusations of persons they had been hunting after. For, through the extremity of her torture, she accused her mother and sisters, and several others, who were afterwards taken up and tortured, and burnt alive in the same fire with the girl.”
But if they do not succeed neither with this way, the inquisitor permits some person or other, who is not unacceptable to the prisoner, to go to him, and converse with him; and if it be needful to feign himself still one of his own sect, but that he abjured through fear, and discovered the truth to the inquisitor. When he finds that the prisoner confides in him, he comes to him again late in the evening, keeps on a discourse with him, at length pretending it is too late to go away, and that therefore he will stay with him all night in the prison, that they may converse together, and the prisoner may be persuaded by the other’s discourse to confess to one another what they have committed. In the mean while there are persons standing at a proper place without the jail, to hear and to take notice of their words; who, when there is need, are attended by a notary.
Or else the person who thus treacherously draws out any thing, according to his desire, from his fellow-prisoners, prays the jail-keeper, when according to custom he is visiting his prisoners, to desire that he may have an audience. And when he goes out of his jail to give an account of his office, he discovers not only what he heard from any of the prisoners, but also how they received the doctrine proposed to them; whether with a chearful or angry countenance, and the like; if they refused to give them an answer, and what they themselves think of them. And the accusations of such a wretch they look on as the best and most unexceptionable evidence, although the person be otherwise one of no manner of worth, credit, or regard.
They who have been lately in the prison of the inquisition in Spain and Portugal, tell us of another method they make use of to draw a confession from the prisoners, viz. The inquisitor suborns a certain person to go and speak to the prisoner, and to tell him he comes of himself, and of his own accord, and to exhort him to tell the inquisitor the truth, because he is a merciful man, and such fine tales. This is now particularly the custom in Spain and Portugal, as to those they call the new Christians. If the prisoner affirms himself to be a Catholic, and denies that he is a Jew, and is not convicted by a sufficient number of witnesses, they suborn one to persuade him to confess. If he protests himself innocent, the other replies, that he also hath been in jail, and that his protesting his innocence signified nothing. What, had you rather dwell for ever in jail, and render your life miserable, by being ever parted from your wife and children, than redeem your freedom, by confessing the crime? By this, and other like things, the prisoners are oftentimes persuaded to confess not only real, but fictitious crimes. And when their constancy is thus almost overcome, the inquisitor commands them to be brought before him, that they may make him a confession of their faults.
After these examinations, if the prisoner persists in the negative, he is admitted to his defence, and hath an advocate or proctor appointed him, but such only as the inquisitors allow him; and who, as soon as ever they know the prisoners are criminal, bind themselves by oath to throw up their defence. A copy of the accusation is usually given to the prisoner, to which he must answer article by article; and likewise a copy of the proofs, but not of the names of the witnesses, nor any circumstances by which they may discover who they are, for fear the witnesses should be in danger if known.
After the process is thus carried on, it is finished in this manner: Either by absolution, if the prisoner be found really innocent, or the accusation against him not fully proved. Not that they pronounce such person free from heresy, but only declare that nothing is legally proved against him, on account of which he ought to be pronounced an heretic, or suspected of heresy; and that therefore he is wholly released from his present trial and inquisition. But if, notwithstanding this, he should afterwards be accused of the same crime, he may be again judged and condemned for it; and this absolution will stand him in no stead.
If the party accused is found to be only defamed for heresy, and not convicted of heresy by any legal proofs, he is not absolved, but enjoined canonical purgation. The manner of the purgation is this: the party accused must produce several witnesses, good and Catholic men, who must swear by God, and the four holy gospels of God, that they firmly believe he hath not been an heretic, or believer of their errors; and that he hath sworn the truth, in denying it upon oath. If he fails in his purgation, i. e. cannot procure such a number of purgers as he is enjoined, he is esteemed as convict, and condemned as an heretic.
If the person accused is not found guilty by his own confession, or proper witnesses; yet if he cannot make his innocence appear plainly to the inquisitor, or if he is caught contradicting himself, or faultering, or trembling, or sweating, or pale, or crying; or if there be half proof of his crime, he is put to the question or torture. And this liberty the inquisitors sometimes shamefully abuse, by torturing the most innocent persons; as appears by the following instance.
“[261]A noble lady, Joan Bohorquia, the wife of Francis Varquius, a very eminent man, and lord of Higuera, and daughter of Peter Garsia Xeresius, a wealthy citizen of Seville, was apprehended, and put into the inquisition at Seville. The occasion of her imprisonment was, that her sister, Mary Bohorquia, a young lady of eminent piety, who was afterwards burnt for her pious confession, had declared in her torture that she had several times conversed with her sister concerning her own doctrine. When she was first imprisoned, she was about six months gone with child; upon which account she was not so straitly confined, nor used with that cruelty which the other prisoners were treated with, out of regard to the infant she carried in her. Eight days after her delivery they took the child from her, and on the fifteenth shut her close up, and made her undergo the fate of the other prisoners, and began to manage her cause with their usual arts and rigour. In so dreadful a calamity she had only this comfort, that a certain pious young woman, who was afterwards burnt for her religion by the inquisitors, was allowed her for her companion. This young creature was, on a certain day, carried out to her torture, and being returned from it into her jail, she was so shaken, and had all her limbs so miserably disjointed, that when she laid upon her bed of rushes, it rather encreased her misery than gave her rest, so that she could not turn herself without the most excessive pain. In this condition, as Bohorquia had it not in her power to shew her any, or but very little outward kindness, she endeavoured to comfort her mind with great tenderness. The girl had scarce began to recover from her torture, when Bohorquia was carried out to the same exercise, and was tortured with such diabolical cruelty upon the rack, that the rope pierced and cut into the very bones of her arms, thighs, and legs; and in this manner she was brought back to prison, just ready to expire, the blood immediately running out of her mouth in great plenty. Undoubtedly they had burst her bowels, insomuch that the eighth day after her torture she died. And when after all they could not procure sufficient evidence to condemn her, though sought after and procured by all their inquisitorial arts; yet, as the accused person was born in that place, where they were obliged to give some account of the affair to the people, and indeed could not by any means dissemble it; in the first act of triumph appointed after her death, they commanded her sentence to be pronounced in these words: because this lady died in prison (without doubt suppressing the causes of it) and was found to be innocent upon inspecting and diligently examining her cause, therefore the holy tribunal pronounces her free from all charges brought against her by the fiscal, and absolving her from any farther process, doth restore her both as to her innocence and reputation; and commands all her effects, which had been confiscated to be restored to those to whom they of right belonged, &c. And thus, after they had murdered her by torture, with savage cruelty, they pronounced her innocent.”
After the sentence of torture is pronounced, the officers prepare themselves to inflict it. “[262]The place of torture in the Spanish inquisition is generally an under-ground and very dark room, to which one enters through several doors. There is a tribunal erected in it, in which the inquisitor, inspector, and secretary sit. When the candles are lighted, and the person to be tortured brought in, the executioner, who was waiting for him, makes a very astonishing and dreadful appearance. He is covered all over with a black linen garment down to his feet, and tied close to his body. His head and face are all hid with a long black cowl, only two little holes being left in it for him to see through. All this is intended to strike the miserable wretch with greater terror in mind and body, when he sees himself going to be tortured by the hands of one who thus looks like the very devil.”
The degrees of torture formerly used, were principally three: first, by stripping and binding. Secondly, by being hoisted on the rack. Thirdly, squassation.
This stripping is performed without any regard to humanity or honour, not only to men, but to women and virgins, though the most virtuous and chaste, of whom they have sometimes many in their prisons. For they cause them to be stripped, even to their very shifts; which they afterwards take off, and then put on them straight linen drawers, and then make their arms naked quite up to their shoulders. As to squassation, it is thus performed: the prisoner hath his hands bound behind his back, and weights tied to his feet, and then he is drawn up on high, till his head reaches the very pully. He is kept hanging in this manner for some time, that by the greatness of the weight hanging at his feet, all his joints and limbs may be dreadfully stretched; and on a sudden he is let down with a jirk, by the slacking the rope, but kept from coming quite to the ground; by which terrible shake his arms and legs are all disjointed, whereby he is put to the most exquisite pain; the shock which he receives by the sudden stop of his fall, and the weight at his feet, stretching his whole body more intensely and cruelly.
The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa tells us,[263] that the torture now practised in the Portuguese inquisition is exceeding cruel. “In the months of November and December, I heard every day in the morning the cries and groans of those who were put to the question, which is so very cruel, that I have seen several of both sexes who have been ever after lame. In this tribunal they regard neither age nor sex, nor condition of persons, but all without distinction are tortured, when it is for the interest of this tribunal.”
The method of torturing, and the degree of tortures now used in the Spanish inquisition, will be well understood from the history of Isaac Orobio, a Jew, and doctor of physic, who was accused to the inquisition as a Jew, by a certain Moor his servant, who had by his order before this been whipped for thieving; and four years after this he was again accused by a certain enemy of his for another fact, which would have proved him a Jew. But Orobio obstinately denied that he was one. I will here give the account of his torture, as I had it from his own mouth. After three whole years which he had been in jail, and several examinations, and the discovery of the crimes to him of which he was accused, in order to his confession, and his constant denial of them, he was at length carried out of his jail, and through several turnings brought to the place of torture. This was towards the evening. It was a large under-ground room, arched, and the walls covered with black hangings. The candlesticks were fastened to the wall, and the whole room enlightened with candles placed in them. At one end of it there was an inclosed place like a closet, where the inquisitor and notary sat at a table; so that the place seemed to him as the very mansion of death, every thing appearing so terrible and awful. Here the inquisitor again admonished him to confess the truth, before his torments began. When he answered he had told the truth, the inquisitor gravely protested, that since he was so obstinate as to suffer the torture, the holy office would be innocent, if he should shed his blood, or even expire in his torments. When he had said this, they put a linen garment over his body, and drew it so very close on each side, as almost squeezed him to death. When he was almost dying, they slackened at once the sides of the garment; and after he began to breathe again, the sudden alteration put him to the most grievous anguish and pain. When he had overcome this torture, the same admonition was repeated, that he would confess the truth, in order to prevent farther torment. And as he persisted in his denial, they tied his thumbs so very tight with small cords, as made the extremities of them greatly swell, and caused the blood to spurt out from under his nails. After this he was placed with his back against a wall, and fixed upon a little bench. Into the wall were fastened little iron pullies, through which there were ropes drawn, and tied round his body in several places, and especially his arms and legs. The executioner drawing these ropes with great violence, fastened his body with them to the wall; so that his hands and feet, and especially his fingers and toes being bound so straitly with them, put him to the most exquisite pain, and seemed to him just as though he had been dissolving in flames. In the midst of these torments, the torturer, of a sudden, drew the bench from under him, so that the miserable wretch hung by the cords without any thing to support him, and by the weight of his body drew the knots yet much closer. After this a new kind of torture succeeded. There was an instrument like a small ladder, made of two upright pieces of wood, and five cross ones sharpened before. This the torturer placed over against him, and by a certain proper motion struck it with great violence against both his shins; so that he received upon each of them at once five violent strokes, which put him to such intolerable anguish that he fainted away. After he came to himself, they inflicted on him the last torture. The torturer tied ropes about Orobio’s wrists, and then put those ropes about his own back, which was covered with leather to prevent his hurting himself. Then falling backwards, and putting his feet up against the wall, he drew them with all his might, till they cut through Orobio’s flesh even to the very bones; and this torture was repeated thrice, the ropes being tied about his arms about the distance of two fingers breadth from the former wound, and drawn with the same violence. But it happened, that as the ropes were drawing the second time, they slid into the first wound; which caused so great an effusion of blood, that he seemed to be dying. Upon this the physician and surgeon, who are always ready, were sent for out of a neighbouring apartment, to ask their advice, whether the torture could be continued without danger of death, lest the ecclesiastical judges should be guilty of an irregularity, if the criminal should die in his torments. They, who were far from being enemies to Orobio, answered that he had strength enough to endure the rest of the torture, and hereby preserved him from having the tortures he had already endured repeated on him, because his sentence was, that he should suffer them all at one time, one after another. So that if at any time they are forced to leave off through fear of death, all the tortures, even those already suffered, must be successively inflicted to satisfy the sentence. Upon this the torture was repeated the third time, and then it ended. After this he was bound up in his own clothes, and carried back to his prison, and was scarce healed of his wounds in seventy days. And inasmuch as he made no confession under his torture, he was condemned, not as one convicted, but suspected of Judaism, to wear for two whole years the infamous habit called Sambenito, and after that term to perpetual banishment from the kingdom of Seville.
Ernestus Eremundus Frisius,[264] in his History of the Low Country Disturbances, gives us an account from Gonsalvius, of another kind of torture. There is a wooden bench, which they call the wooden horse, made hollow like a trough, so as to contain a man lying on his back at full length; about the middle of which there is a round bar laid across, upon which the back of the person is placed, so that he lies upon the bar instead of being let into the bottom of the trough, with his feet much higher than his head. As he is lying in this posture, his arms, thighs, and shins are tied round with small cords or strings, which being drawn with screws at proper distances from each other, cut into the very bones, so as to be no longer discerned.[265] Besides this,[266] the torturer throws over his mouth and nostrils a thin cloth, so that he is scarce able to breathe through them; and in the mean while a small stream of water like a thread, not drop by drop, falls from on high, upon the mouth of the person lying in this miserable condition, and so easily sinks down the thin cloth to the bottom of his throat; so that there is no possibility of breathing, his mouth being stopped with water, and his nostrils with the cloth; so that the poor wretch is in the same agony as persons ready to die, and breathing out their last. When this cloth is drawn out of his throat, as it often is, that he may answer to the questions, it is all wet with water and blood, and is like pulling his bowels through his mouth. There is also another kind of torture peculiar to this tribunal, which they call the fire. They order a large iron chafin-dish full of lighted charcoal to be brought in, and held close to the soles of the tortured person’s feet, greased over with lard, so that the heat of the fire may more quickly pierce through them.
This is inquisition by torture, when there is only half full proof of their crime. However, at other times torments are sometimes inflicted upon persons condemned to death, as a punishment preceding that of death. Of this we have a remarkable instance in William Lithgow, an Englishman, who, as he tells us in his travels, was taken up as a spy in Mallagom, a city of Spain, and was exposed to the most cruel torments upon the wooden horse. But when nothing could be extorted from him, he was delivered to the inquisition as an heretic, because his journal abounded with blasphemies against the pope and the Virgin Mary. When he confessed himself a Protestant before the inquisitor, he was admonished to convert himself to the Roman church, and was allowed eight days to deliberate on it. In the mean while the inquisitor and Jesuits came to him often, sometimes wheedling him, sometimes threatening and reproaching him, and sometimes arguing with him. At length they endeavoured to overcome his constancy by kind assurances and promises; but all in vain. And therefore as he was immoveably fixed, he was condemned, in the beginning of Lent, to sutler the night following eleven most cruel torments; and after Easter to be carried privately to Granada, there to be burnt at midnight, and his ashes to be scattered into the air. When night came on his fetters were taken off, then he was stripped naked, put upon his knees, and his hands lifted up by force; after which opening his mouth with iron instruments, they filled his belly with water till it came out of his jaws. Then they tied a rope hard about his neck, and in this condition rolled him seven times the whole length of the room, till he was almost quite strangled. After this they tied a small cord about both his great toes, and hung him up thereby with his head towards the ground, and then cut the rope about his neck, letting him remain in this condition till all the water discharged itself out of his mouth; so that he was laid on the ground as just dead, and had his irons put on him again. But beyond all expectation, and by a very singular accident, he was delivered out of jail, escaped death, and fortunately sailed home to England. But this method of torturing doth not belong to this place, where we are treating only of the inquisition of a crime not yet fully proved.