If when the person is decently tortured he confesses nothing, he is allowed to go away free; and if he demands of his judges that he be cleared by sentence, they cannot deny it him; and they pronounce, that having diligently examined the merits of the process, they find nothing of the crime of which he was accused legally proved against him.
But if, when under the question, he confesses, it is written in the process; after which he is carried to another place, where he hath no view of the tortures, and there his confession made during his torments is read over to him, and he is interrogated several times, till the confession be made. But here Gonsalvius observes,[267]that when the prisoner is carried to audience, they make him pass by the door of the room where the torture is inflicted, where the executioner shews himself on the purpose to be seen in that shape of a devil I have described before; that as he passes by, he may, by seeing him, be forced to feel, as it were over again, his past torments.
If there be very strong evidence against the criminal, if new proofs arise, if the crime objected to him be very heinous, and the discoveries against him undoubted; if he wasnot sufficiently tortured before, he may be tortured again, but then only “when his mind and body are able to endure it.”
If he doth not persist in his first confession, and is not sufficiently tortured, he may be put to the torture again; not by way of repetition, but continuation of it.
But if he persists in his confession, owns his fault, and asks pardon of the church, he is condemned as guilty of heresy by his own confession, but as penitent. But if he obstinately persists in heresy, he is condemned, and delivered over to the secular arm to be punished with death. If he confesses any thing by torture, he must be forced to abjure it.
When a person accused of heresy is found to be only slightly suspected of it, he is considered either as suspected publicly or privately. If he is publicly suspected, this was formerly the manner of his abjuration. On the preceding Lord’s day the inquisitor proclaims, that on such a day he will make a sermon concerning the faith, commanding all to be present at it. When the day comes, the person to abjure is brought to the church, in which the council hath determined that he shall make his abjuration. There he is placed upon a scaffold, erected near the altar, in the midst of the people, and is not allowed to sit, but stands on it, that all may see him, bare-headed, and with the keepers standing round him. The sermon being made on the mass, to the people and clergy there present, the inquisitor says publicly, that the person there placed on the scaffold is suspected from such and such appearances and actions, of the heresy that hath been refuted in the public sermon; and that therefore it is fit that he should purge himself from it, by abjuring it, as one slightly suspected. Having said this, a book of the gospels is placed before him, on which laying his hands, he abjures his heresy. In this oath he not only swears that he holds that faith which the Roman church believes, but also that he abjures every heresy that extols itself against the holy Roman and apostolic church: and particularly the heresy of which he was slightly suspected, naming that heresy:and that if he shall do any of the aforesaid things for the future, he willingly submits to the penalties appointed by law to one who thus abjures, and is ready to undergo every penance, as well for the things he hath said and done, as for those concerning which he is deservedly suspected of heresy, which they shall lay on him; and that with all his power he will endeavour to fulfil it.
If he hath not been publicly suspected, he abjures privately after the same manner in the episcopal palace, or inquisitor’s hall.
If he is vehemently suspected, he is placed in like manner upon a scaffold; and after he hath taken his oath upon the gospels, his abjuration is delivered him in writing, to read before all the people, if he can. If he cannot read, the notary, or some religious, or clergyman reads it by sentences, pausing between each till the other hath repeated it after him; and so on, till the whole abjuration is gone through. In this abjuration he submits himself to the punishments due to relapses, if he ever after falls into the heresy he hath abjured. After the abjuration is made, the bishop admonishes him, that if ever hereafter he doth, or says any thing by which it can be proved, that he hath fallen into the heresy he hath abjured, he will be delivered over to the secular court without mercy. Then he injoins him penance, and commands him to observe it; adding this threatening, that otherwise he will become a relapse, and may, and ought to be judged as an impenitent. However, suspected persons, whether it be slightly or vehemently, are not condemned to wear crosses, nor to perpetual imprisonment, because these are the punishments of penitent heretics; though sometimes they are ordered to wear for a while the Sambenito, according to the nature of their offence. Ordinarily they are injoined to stand on certain holy days in the gates of such and such churches, holding a burning taper of such a weight in their hands, and to go a certain pilgrimage; sometimes also they are imprisoned for a while, and afterwards disposed of as is thought proper.
Gonsalvius gives us some instances of these punishments.[268]“There was at Seville a certain poor man, who daily maintained himself and his family by the sweat of his brow. A certain parson detained his wife from him by violence, neither the inquisition nor any other tribunal punishing this heinous injury. As the poor man was one day talking about purgatory, with some other persons of his own circumstances, he happened to say, rather out of rustic simplicity than any certain design, that he truly had enough of purgatory already, by the rascally parson’s violently detaining from him his wife. This speech was reported to the good parson, and gave him a handle to double the poor man’s injury, by accusing him to the inquisitors, as having a false opinion concerning purgatory. And this the holy tribunal thought more worthy of punishment than the parson’s wickedness. The poor wretch was taken up for this trifling speech, kept in the inquisitor’s jail for two whole years, and at length being brought in procession, was condemned to wear the Sambenito for three years in a private jail; and when they were expired, to be dismissed, or kept longer in prison, as the lords inquisitors should think fit. Neither did they spare the poor creature any thing of his little substance, though they did his wife to the parson, but adjudged all the remains of what he had after his long imprisonment to the exchequer of the inquisition.
“[269]In the same procession there was also brought forth a reputable citizen of Seville, as being suspected of Lutheranism, without his cloak and his hat, and carrying a wax taper in his hand, after having exhausted his purse of 100 ducats towards the expences of the holy tribunal, and a year’s imprisonment in the jail of the inquisition, and having abjured as one vehemently suspected; only because he was found to have said, that those immoderate expences (and on these accounts the Spaniards are prodigiously extravagant) whichwere laid out in erecting those large paper or linen buildings, which the common people corruptly call monuments, to the honour of Christ now in heaven, upon Holy Thursday; and also those which were expended on the festival of Corpus Christi, would be more acceptable to God, if they were laid out upon poor persons, or in placing out to good persons poor orphan girls. Two young students[270]added to the number in that procession. One because he had written in his pocketbook some verses made by a nameless author, so artificially, as that the same words might be interpreted so as to contain the highest commendation of, or reflection upon Luther. Upon this account only, after two year’s imprisonment, he was brought forth in procession, without his hat and cloak, carrying a wax taper; after which he was banished for three years from the whole country of Seville, made to abjure as lightly suspected, and punished with a fine. The other underwent the same censure, only for transcribing the verses for their artful composition, excepting only that he commuted his banishment for 100 ducats towards the expences of the holy tribunal.”
If any one informed against, confesses on oath his heresy, but declares that he will abjure and return to the church, he must publicly abjure in the church before all the people. There is placed before him the book of the gospels; he puts off his hat, falls on his knees, and putting his hand on the book, reads his abjuration. And from this none, though otherwise privileged, are excepted. After this abjuration they are absolved from excommunication, and reconciled to the church; but are injoined various punishments, or wholesome penances by the inquisitors at pleasure. What the punishments of religious persons are, may be seen from the two following instances.
Friar Marcellus de Pratis, a religious of the order of the Minors, was condemned in Sicily by the inquisition (becausehe had rashly feigned himself a saint, impeccable, confirmed in grace, and had pronounced other scandalous and rash propositions) to the gallies for three years, to be banished for two more into such a convent of his own religion as should be assigned him, with this addition; that he should fast every Friday on bread and water, eat upon the ground in the refectory, walk without his hat, and sit in the lowest place in the choir and refectory, and be perpetually deprived of his active and passive vote, and of the faculty of hearing any persons confessions whatsoever.
One Mary of the Annunciation, prioress of the monastery of the Annunciation at Lisbon, a maid of thirty-two years old, had pretended that the wounds of Christ, by the special grace and privilege of God were imprinted on her, and shewed thirty-two wounds made on her head, representing the marks of those which were made by our Saviour’s crown of thorns, and blood sprinkled on her hands like a rose, the middle of which was like a triangle, and shewed the holes of the nails narrower on one side than the other. The same were to be seen in her feet. Her side appeared as though it had been laid open by the blow of a lance. When all these things were openly shewn, it was wonderful to see how they raised the admiration and devotion of serious and holy men, and withal surprized and deceived them; for she did not suffer those pretended wounds to be seen otherwise than by command of her confessor. And that absent persons might have a great veneration for her, she affirmed, that on Thursdays she put into the wounds a small cloth, which received the impression of five wounds in form of a cross, that in the middle being the largest. Upon which these cloths were sent, with the greatest veneration, through the infinite devotion of the faithful, to the pope, and to almost all the most venerable and religious persons of the whole world. And as Paramus then had the administration of the causes of faith in the kingdom of Sicily, he saw several of those cloths, and the picture of that woman drawn to the life; and a book written by a person of great authority concerning her life, sanctity, andmiracles. Yea, Pope Gregory XIII. himself determined to write letters to that wretched creature, to exhort her thereby to persist with constancy in her course, and to perfect what she had begun. At last the imposture was found out, that the marks of the wounds were not real, but made with red lead; and that the woman’s design was, when she had gained authority and credit enough, by her pretended sanctity, to recover the kingdom of Portugal to its former state, which had legally fallen under the power of Philip II. Upon this the following sentence was pronounced against her by the inquisitors of Lisbon, December 8, anno 1588. First, she was commanded to pass the rest of her life shut up in a convent of another order, that was assigned to her without the city of Lisbon. Likewise, that from the day of pronouncing the sentence, she should not receive the sacrament of the eucharist for the space of five years, three Easters, and the hour of death excepted; or unless it were necessary to obtain any jubilee, that should in the mean while be granted by the pope. Likewise, that on all Wednesdays and Fridays of the whole year, when the religious women of that convent held a chapter, she should be whipped, whilst the psalm, “Have mercy on me O God,” was reciting. Likewise, that she should not sit down at table at the time of refreshment, but should eat publicly on the pavement, all being forbidden to eat any thing she left. She was also obliged to throw herself down at the door of the refectory, that the nuns might tread on her as they came in and went out. Likewise, that she should perpetually observe the ecclesiastical fast, and never more be created an abbess, nor be chosen to any other office in the convent where she had dwelt, and that she should be always subject to the lowest of them all. Likewise, that she should never be allowed to converse with any nun without leave of the abbess. Likewise, that all the rags marked with drops of blood, which she had given out, her spurious relics, and her effigies describing her, should be every where delivered to the holy inquisition; or if in any place there was no tribunal of the inquisition, to the prelate, or any other person appointed. Likewise, that sheshould never cover her head with the sacred veil; and that every Wednesday and Friday of the whole year she should abstain from meat, and live only on bread and water; and that as often as she came into the refectory, she should pronounce her crime with a loud voice in the presence of all the nuns.
Michael Piedrola also took upon himself for many years the name of a prophet, boasted of dreams and revelations, and affirmed they were revealed to him by a divine voice. Being convicted of so great a crime, he abjured de levi, was for ever forbid the reading of the Bible, and other holy books, deprived of paper and ink, prohibited from writing or receiving letters, unless such only as related to his private affairs; denied the liberty of disputing about the holy Scripture, as well in writing as in discourse; and finally, commanded to be thrown into jail, and there pass the remainder of his life.
Another punishment of heretics who abjure, is the confiscation of all their effects. And this confiscation is made with such rigour, that the inquisition orders the exchequer to seize on not only the effects of the persons condemned, but also all others administered by them, although it evidently appears that they belong to others. The inquisition at Seville gives a remarkable instance of this kind.
“Nicholas Burton, an Englishman, a person remarkable for his piety, was apprehended by the inquisition of Seville, and afterwards burnt for his immoveable perseverance in the confession of his faith, and detestation of their impiety. When he was first seized, all his effects and merchandizes, upon account of which he came to Spain,werewere, according to the custom of the inquisition, sequestered. Amongst these were many other merchandizes, which were consigned to him as factor, according to the custom of merchants, by another English merchant dwelling in London. This merchant, upon hearing that his factor was imprisoned, and his effects seized on, sent one John Frontom, as his attorney into Spain, with proper instruments to recover his goods. His attorney accordingly went to Seville; and having laid before the holy tribunalthe instruments, and all other necessary writings, demanded, that the goods should be delivered to him. The lords answered that the affair must be managed in writing, and that he must choose himself an advocate (undoubtedly to prolong the suit) and out of their great goodness appointed him one, to draw up for him his petitions, and all other instruments which were to be offered to the holy tribunal; for every one of which they exorbitantly took from him eight reals, although he received no more advantage from them, than if they had never been drawn at all. Frontom waited for three or four whole months, twice every day, viz. in the morning, and after dinner, at the gates of the inquisitor’s palace, praying and beseeching, on his bended knees, the lords inquisitors, that his affair might be expedited; and especially the Lord Bishop of Tarraco, who was then chief inquisitor at Seville, that he, in virtue of his supreme authority, would command his effects to be restored to him. But the prey was too large and rich to be easily recovered. After he had spent four whole months in fruitless prayers and intreaties, he was answered, that there was need of some other writings from England, more ample than those he had brought before, in order to the recovery of the effects. Upon this the Englishman immediately returns to London, and procures the instruments of fuller credit which they demanded, comes back with them to Seville, and laid them before the holy tribunal. The lords put off his answer, pretending they were hindered by more important affairs. They repeated this answer to him every day, and so put him off for four whole months longer. When his money was almost spent, and he still continued earnestly to press the dispatch of his affair, they referred him to the bishop. The bishop, when consulted, said he was but one, and that the expediting the matter belonged also to the other inquisitors; and by thus shifting the fault from one to the other, there was no appearance of an end of the suit. But at length being overcome by his importunity, they fixed on a certain day to dispatch him. And the dispatch was this: the licentiate Gascus, one of the inquisitors, a man well skilled in the frauds of the inquisition, commandshim to come to him after dinner. The Englishman was pleased with this message, and went to him about evening, believing that they began to think in good earnest of restoring him his effects, and carrying him to Mr. Burton the prisoner, in order to make up the account; having heard the inquisitors often say, though he did not know their real meaning, that it was necessary that he and the prisoner should confer together. When he came, they commanded the jail-keeper to clap him up in such a particular prison, which they named to him. The poor Englishman believed at first that he was to be brought to Burton to settle the account; but soon found himself a prisoner in a dark dungeon, contrary to his expectation, and that he had quite mistaken the matter. After three or four days they brought him to an audience; and when the Englishman demanded that the inquisitors should restore his effects to him, they well knowing that it would agree perfectly with their usual arts, without any other preface, command him to recite his Ave Mary. He simply repeated it after this manner: ‘Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is Jesus the fruit of thy womb. Amen.’ All was taken down in writing, and without mentioning a word about the restoring his effects (for there was no need of it) they commanded him back to his jail, and commenced an action against him for an heretic, because he had not repeated the Ave Mary according to the manner of the church of Rome, and had left off in a suspected place, and ought to have added, ‘Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners;’ by omitting which conclusion, he plainly discovered that he did not approve the intercession of the saints. And thus at last, upon this righteous pretence, he was detained a prisoner many days. After this he was brought forth in procession, wearing an habit; all his principal’s goods for which he had been suing being confiscated, and he himself condemned to a year’s imprisonment.”
Besides this confiscation of effects, they enjoin them wholesome penances; such as fastings, prayers, alms, the frequentuse of the sacraments of penance, and the eucharist; and, finally, pilgrimages to certain places.
Some penances arehonoraryhonorary, attended with infamy to those who do them. Such are, walking in procession without shoes, in their breeches and shirt, and to receive therein public discipline by the bishop or priest; to be expelled the church, and to stand before the gates of the great church upon solemn days, in the time of mass, with naked feet, and wearing upon their cloak an halter about their neck. At this time they only stand before the gates of the church, with a lighted candle in their hand, during the time of solemn mass on some holy day, as the bell is ringing to church.
Besides these, they now use the punishment of banishment, of beating, and whipping with scourges or rods. Sometimes they are condemned to fines, excluded as infamous from all public offices, prohibited from wearing silver or gold, precious garments and ornaments, and from riding on horses or mules with trappings, as nobles do.
But the most usual punishment of all, is their wearing crosses upon their penitential garments, which is now frequently enjoined penitents in Spain and Portugal. And this is far from being a small punishment; because such persons are exposed to the scoffs and insults of all, which they are obliged to swallow, though the most cruel in themselves, and offered by the vilest of mankind; for by these crosses they are marked to all persons for heresy, or, as it is now in Spain and Portugal, for Judaism: and being thus marked, thethey arethey areavoided by all, and are almost excluded from all human society.
This garment was formerly of a black and bluish colour, like a monk’s cloak, made without a cowl; and the crosses put on them were strait, having one arm long, and the other across, after this manner †. Sometimes, according to the heinousness of the offence, there were two arms across, after this manner ‡. But now in Spain this garment is of a yellow colour, and the crosses put on it are oblique, after themanner of St. Andrew’s cross, in this form X, and are of a red colour. This cloak the Italians call “Abitello,” the Spaniards “Sant Benito,” as though it was “Sacco Benito,” i. e. the blessed sackcloth, because it is fit for penance, by which we are blessed and saved. But Simancas says it is the habit of St. Benedict.
Finally, the most grievous punishment is the being condemned to perpetual imprisonment, there to do wholesome penance with the bread of grief and the water of affliction. This is usually enjoined on the believers of heretics, and such as are difficultly brought to repentance; or who have a long while denied the truth during the trial, or have perjured themselves.
Besides this condemnation to perpetual imprisonment, such persons are also enjoined other penances, viz. sometimes to stand in the habit marked with the cross at the door of such a church, such a time, and so long, viz. on the four principal festivals of the glorious Virgin Mary, of such a church; or on such and such festivals, at the gates of such and such churches. Sometimes before they are shut up in prison they are publicly exposed, viz. being clothed with the habit of the crosses, they are placed upon an high ladder in the gate of some church, that they may be plainly seen by all; where they must stand till dinner time; after which they must be carried, clothed in the same habit, to the same place, at the first ringing to vespers, and there stand till sun-set; and these spectacles are usually repeated on several Sundays and festivals in several churches, which are particularly specified in their sentence. But if they break prison, or do not otherwise fulfil the penances enjoined them, they are condemned as impenitents, and as under the guilt of their former crimes; and and if they fall again into the hands of the inquisitors, they are delivered over as impenitents to the secular court, unless they humbly ask pardon, and profess that they will obey the commands of the inquisitors.
However, if persons remain impenitent till after sentence is pronounced, there is no farther place for pardon. And yet there is one instance of Stephana de Proaudo, extant in thebook of the sentences of the Thoulouse inquisition, who, being judged an heretic the day before, and left as an heretic to the secular court (from whence it appears that it was not then usual for those who were left to the secular court to be burnt the same day on which the sentence is pronounced, as is now practised in Spain and Portugal) seeing on the following day, viz. Monday, that the fire in which she was to be burnt was made ready, said on that very day, that she was willing to be converted to the Catholic faith, and to return to the ecclesiastical unity. And when it was doubted whether she spoke this feignedly or sincerely, or through fear of death, and was answered, that the time of mercy was elapsed, and that she should think of the salvation of her soul, and fully discover whatsoever she knew of herself or others concerning the fact of heresy, which she promised to say and do, and that she would die in the faith of the holy church of Rome; upon this the inquisitor and vicars of the bishop of Tholouse called a council on the following Tuesday, and at length it was concluded, that on the following Sunday she should confess the faith of the church of Rome, recant her errors, and be carried back to prison, where it would be proved whether her conversion was real or pretended; and so strictly kept, that she might not be able to infect others with her errors. Emerick[271]also gives us an instance at Barcelona, in Catalonia, of three heretics, impenitent, but not relapsed, who were delivered over to the secular arm. And when one of them, who was a priest, was put in the fire, and one of his sides somewhat burnt, he cried to be taken out of it, because he would abjure and repent. And he was taken out accordingly. But he was afterwards found always to have continued in his heresy, and to have infected many, and would not be converted; and was therefore turned over again, as impenitent and relapsed, to the secular arm, and burnt.
The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa,[272]gives us another instance of a very rich new Christian, whosename was Lewis Pezoa, who, with his whole family, had been accused of secret Judaism, by some of his enemies; and who, with his wife, two sons and one daughter, and some other relations that lived with him, were all thrown into the jail of the inquisition. He denied the crime of which he was accused, and well refuted it; and demanded that the witnesses who had deposed against him might be discovered to him, that he might convict them of falsehood. But he could obtain nothing, and was condemned as a negative, to be delivered over to the arm of the secular court; which sentence was made known to him fifteen days before it was pronounced. The Duke of Cadaval, an intimate friend of the Duke d’Aveira, inquisitor general, had made strict inquiry how his affair was like to turn. And understanding by the inquisitor general, that unless he confessed before his going out of prison he could not escape the fire, because he had been legally convicted, he continued to entreat the inquisitor general, till he had obtained a promise from him, that if he could persuade Pezoa to confess, even after sentence pronounced, and his procession in the act of faith, he should not die, though it was contrary to the laws and customs of an act of faith. Upon that solemn day therefore, on which the act of faith was to be held, he went with some of his own friends, and some that were Pezoa’s, to the gate of the inquisition, to prevail with him, if possible, to confess. He came out in the procession, wearing the infamous Samarre, and on his head the Caroch, or infamous mitre. His friends, with many tears, besought him in the name of the Duke de Cadoval, and by all that was dear to him, that he would preserve his life; and intimated to him, that if he would confess and repent, the said duke had obtained his life from the inquisitor general, and would give him more than he had lost. But all in vain; Pezoa continually protesting himself innocent, and that the crime itself was falsely invented by his enemies, who sought his destruction. When the procession was ended, and the act of faith almost finished, the sentences of those who were condemned to certain penances having been read, and on theapproach of evening the sentences of those who were to be delivered over to the secular court being begun to be read, his friends repeated their intreaties, by which at last they overcame his constancy, so that desiring an audience, and rising up that he might be heard, he said, “Come then, let us go and confess the crimes I am falsely accused of, and thereby gratify the desires of my friends.” And having confessed his crime, he was remanded to jail. Two years after he was sent to Evora, and in the act of faith walked in procession, wearing the Samarre, on which was painted the fire inverted, according to the usual custom of the Portuguese inquisition; and after five years more that he was detained in the jail of the inquisition, he was condemned to the gallies for five years.
If the person accused is found a relapse by his own confession, he cannot escape death, even though he is penitent. If he be in holy orders, he is first degraded. After sentence is pronounced against him, he is delivered to the secular arm, with this clause added to his sentence by the inquisitors: “Nevertheless, we earnestly beseech the said secular arm, that he will moderate his sentence against you, so as to prevent the effusion of blood, or danger of death:” Thus adding hypocrisy and insult to their devilish barbarity.
If the person accused be an impenitent heretick, but not relapsed, he is kept in chains in close imprisonment, that he may not escape, or infect others; and in the mean while all methods must be used for his conversion. They send clergymen to instruct him, and to put him in mind of the pains of hell-fire. If this will not do, they keep him in chains for a year or more, in a close, hard jail, that his constancy may be overcome by the misery of his imprisonment. If this doth not move him, they use him in a little kinder manner, and promise him mercy, if he will repent. If they cannot thus prevail with him, they suffer his wife and children, and little ones, and his other relations, to come to him, and break his constancy. But if after all he persists in his heresy, he is burnt alive.
If the person accused be found guilty of heresy by theevidence of the fact, or legal witnesses, and yet doth not confess, but persists in the negative; after having been kept in jail for a year, he must be delivered over to the secular arm. So that if it should happen that he is accused by false witnesses, and is really innocent, the miserable wretch, though falsely condemned, is delivered to the power of the secular court, to be burnt alive; nor is it lawful for him, without the commission of mortal sin, as the Roman doctors think, to save his life, by falsely confessing a crime he hath not committed; and therefore it is the duty of the divines and confessors, who comfort such a negative, and attend on him to his punishment, to persuade him to discover the truth; but to caution him by all means not to acknowledge a crime he hath not committed, to avoid temporal death; and to put him in remembrance, that if he patiently endures this injury and punishment, he will be crowned as a martyr.
It is however evident, if the practice of the Portugal inquisition be considered, that the inquisitors are not so very solicitous about the eternal salvation of those they condemn, as they are to consult their own honour by the criminals confessions even of false crimes. Of this we have a remarkable instance, of a noble Portugueze, descended from the race of the new Christians, who was accused of Judaism. But as he did most firmly deny the crime objected to him, nothing was omitted that might persuade him to a confession of it; for he was not only promised his life, but the restitution of all his effects, if he would confess, and threatened with a cruel death if he persisted in the negative. But when all this was to no purpose, the inquisitor general, who had some respect for him, endeavoured to overcome his constancy by wheedling, and other arguments; but when he constantly refused to confess himself guilty of a crime he had not committed, the inquisitor general being at last provoked by his firmness, said, “What then do you mean? Do you think that we will suffer ourselves to be charged with alie?”lie?”And having said this, he went off. When the act of faith drew near, the sentence of death was pronounced against him, and a confessor allowedhim to prepare him for death. But at last he sunk under the fear of his approaching dreadful punishment, and by confessing on the very day of the act of faith the crime falsely fastened on him, he escaped death; but all his estate was confiscated, and he himself condemned for five years to the gallies.
If the person accused is a fugitive, after waiting for his appearance a competent time, he is cited to appear on such a day in the cathedral of such a diocese, and the citation fixed on the gates of the church. If he doth not appear, he is complained of for contumacy, and accused in form. When this is done, and the crime appears, sentence is pronounced against the criminal; and if the information against him be for heresy, he is declared an obstinate heretic, and left as such to the secular arm. This sentence is pronounced before all the people, and the statue or image of the absent person publicly produced, and carried in procession; on which is a superscription, containing his name and surname; which statue is delivered to the secular power, and by him burnt. Thus Luther’s statue was burnt, together with his books, at the command of Pope Leo X. by the Bishop of Ascoli.
The inquisitors also proceed against the dead. If there be full proof against him of having been an heretic, his memory is declared infamous, and his heirs, and other possessors, deprived of his effects; and finally, his bones dug out of their grave, and publicly burnt. Thus Wickliff’s body and bones were ordered to be dug up and burnt, by the council of Constance: Bucer and Fagius, by Cardinal Pool, at Cambridge; and the wife of Peter Martyr, by Brookes, Bishop of Gloucester, at Oxford; whose body they buried in a dunghill. And thus Mark Antony de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato, was condemned after his death for heresy; and the inquisitors agreed that the same punishments should be executed upon his dead body, as would have been on himself had he been alive.
Having taken this resolution, the twenty-first day of December, anno 1624, was appointed for the pronouncing sentence. Early in the morning of it, so vast a multitude hadgot together to St. Mary supra Minervam, where they generally give these religious shews, that they were forced not only to shut up, but to guard the gates with armed men; and the great area before the church was so prodigiously thronged, that there was scarce room for the cardinals themselves to pass. The middle aisle of the church, from the first to the fourth pillar, was boarded in, with boards above the height of a tall man. At the upper and lower end of it there were gates, guarded by Switzers. On each side there were scaffolds, running the whole length of the inclosure; in which were seats for the cardinals and other prelates, and other conveniences, to receive the courtiers and other noblemen standing or sitting. On the right hand, coming in, the sacred council presided; on the left hand were placed the inferior officers of the holy inquisition, the governor of the city, and his officials. Before the pulpit was to be seen the picture of Mark Anthony, drawn in colours, covered with a black common garment, holding a clergyman’s cap in his hand, with his name, sirname, and archiepiscopal dignity, which formerly he had borne, inscribed upon it, together with a wooden chest bedaubed with pitch, in which the dead body was inclosed. The rest of the church was filled with citizens, and a great many foreigners; the number of whom was at that time larger, because the jubilee that was at hand had brought them from all parts to the city, that they might be present at the opening of the sacred gates.
Things being thus disposed, a certain parson mounted the pulpit, and with a shrill voice, which rung through all the parts of the spacious church, and in the vulgar language, that the common people might understand him, read over a summary of the process, and the sentence by which the cardinals inquisitors general, specially deputed for the affair by the pope,pronouncedpronouncedMark Anthony, as a relapse into heresy, to have incurred all the censures and penalties appointed to relapsed heretics by the sacred canons, and papal constitutions; and declared him to be deprived of all honours, prerogatives, and ecclesiastical dignities, condemned his memory,and cast him out of the ecclesiastical court, delivered over his dead body and effigies into the power of the governor of the city, that he might inflict on it the punishment due, according to the rule and practice of the church. And finally, they commanded his impious and heretical writings to be publicly burnt, and declared all his effects to be forfeited to the exchequer of the holy inquisition. After this sentence was read, the governor of the city and his officers threw the corpse, effigies, and aforesaid writings into a cart, and carried them into the Campo Fiore, a great multitude of people following after. When they came there, the dead body, which as yet in all its members was whole and entire, was raised out of the chest as far as the bottom of the breast, and shewn from on high to the vast concourse of people that stood round about; and was afterwards, with the effigies and bundle of his books, thrown into the pile prepared for the purpose, and there burnt.
And finally, in order to beget in the common people a greater abhorrence of the crime of heresy, they usually pull down and level with the ground the houses or dwellings in which heretics hold their conventicles, the ground on which they stood being sprinkled over with salt, and certain curses and imprecations uttered over it. And that there may be a perpetual monument of its infamy, a pillar or stone, four or five feet high, is erected in the said ground, with large characters on it, containing the name and owner of the house, shewing the reason of its demolition, and the reign of what pope, emperor or king, the matter was transacted.
The whole of this horrid affair is concluded by what they call “An Act of Faith;” which is performed after this manner. When the inquisitor is determined to pronounce the sentences of certain criminals, he fixes on some Lord’s-day or festival to perform this solemnity. But they take care that it be not Advent Sunday, or in Lent, or a very solemn day, such as the Nativity of our Lord, Easter, and the like; because it is not decent that the sermons on those days should be suspended, but that every one should go to his own parish church. A certain Sunday or festival therefore being appointed,the parsons of all the churches of that city or place, in which this solemnity is to be performed, do, by command of the bishop and inquisitor, when they have done preaching, publicly intimate to the clergy and people, that the inquisitor will, in such a church, hold a general sermon concerning the faith; and they promise, in the name of the pope, the usual indulgence of forty days, to all who will come and see, and hear the things which are there to be transacted. They take care to give the same notice in the houses of those religious, who commonly preach the word of God; and that their superiors should be told, that because the inquisitor will in such a church make a general sermon concerning the faith, therefore he suspends all other sermons, that every superior may send four or two friars, as he thinks fit, to be present at the sermon, and the pronouncing the sentences. This solemnity was formerly called “A general Sermon concerning the Faith;” but it is now called, “An Act of Faith.” And in this, great numbers of persons, sometimes one or two hundred, are brought forth in public procession to various kinds of penances and punishments, all wearing the most horriblehabitshabits. They choose festivals for this solemnity, because then there is a greater confluence of people gathered together to see the torments and punishments of the criminals, that from hence they may learn to fear, and be kept from the commission of evil. And indeed, as this act of faith is now celebrated in Spain and Portugal, the solemnity is truly an horrible and tremendous spectacle, in which every thing is designedly made use of that may strike terror; for this reason, as they say, that they may hereby give some representation and image of the future judgment.
If any one, whether an impenitent or relapsed heretic is to be delivered to the secular court, the bishop and inquisitor give notice to the principal magistrate of the secular court, that he must come such a day and hour with his attendants to such a street or place, to receive a certain heretic or relapsed person out of their court, whom they will deliver to him: and that he must give public notice the same day, or the daybefore in the morning, by the crier, throughout the city, in all the usual places and streets, that on such a day and hour, and in such a place, the inquisitor will make a sermon for the faith; and that the bishop and inquisitor will condemn a certain heretic or relapse, by delivering him to the secular court.
In most of the tribunals of the inquisition, especially in Spain, it is a remarkable custom they use, viz. on the day before the acts of faith, solemnly to carry a bush to the place of the fire, with the flames of which they are consumed, who deserve the punishment of being burnt. This is not without its mysteries; for the burning, and not consuming bush, signifies the indefectible splendour of the church, which burns, and is not consumed; and besides this, it signifies mercy towards the penitent, and severity towards the froward and obstinate. And farther, it represents how the inquisitors defend the vineyard of the church, wounding with the thorns of the bush, and burning up with flames all who endeavour to bring heresies into the harvest of the Lord’s field. And finally, it points out the obstinacy and frowardness of heretics, which must rather be broken and bent, like a rugged and stubborn bush; and that as the thorns and prickles of the bush tear the garments of those who pass by, so also do the heretics rend the seamless coat of Christ.
Besides, the day before the criminals are brought out of jail to the public act of faith, they part with their hair and their beard; by which the inquisitors represent, that heretics return to that condition in which they were born, viz. becoming the children of wrath.
All things being thus prepared to celebrate this act of faith, all the prisoners, on that very day which is appointed for the celebration of it are clothed with that habit which they must wear in the public procession. But the custom in this matter is not altogether the same in all the inquisitions. In that of Goa, the jail-keepers, about midnight, go into the cells of the prisoners, bringing a burning lamp to each of them, and a black garment striped with white lines; and also a pair of breeches, which reach down to their ankles; both which theyorder them to put on. The black habit is given them in token of grief and repentance. About two o’clock the keepers return, and carry the prisoners into a long gallery, where they are all placed In a certain order against the wall, no one of them being permitted to speak a word, or mutter, or move; so that they stand immoveable, like statues, nor is there the least motion of any one of their members to be seen, except of their eyes. All these are such as have confessed their fault, and have declared themselves willing to return by penance to the bosom of the church of Rome. To every one of these is given a habit to put over their black garment. Penitent heretics, or such as are vehemently suspected, receive the blessed sackcloth, commonly called the Sambenito; which, as we have before related, is of a saffron colour, and on which there is put the cross of St. Andrew, of a red colour, on the back and on the breast. Vile and abject persons are made to wear the infamous mitre for more outrageous blasphemies, which carries in it a representation of infamy, denoting that they are as it were bankrupts of heavenly riches. The same mitre also is put on Polygamists, who are hereby shewn to have joined themselves to two churches; and finally, such as are convicted of magic; but what is signified hereby as to them, I have not been able to discover. The others, whose offences are slighter, have no other garment besides the black one. Every one hath given him an extinguished taper, and a rope about their neck; which rope and extinguished taper have their signification, as we shall afterwards shew. The women are placed in a separate gallery from the men, and are there cloathed with the black habit, and kept till they are brought forth in public procession.
As to those who are designed for the fire, viz. such as have confessed their heresy, and are impenitent, and negatives, viz. such who are convicted by a sufficient number of witnesses, and yet deny their crime, and finally such as are relapsed, they are all carried into a room separate from the others. Their dress is different from that of the others. They are however, clothed with the sackcloth, or kind of mantle, whichsome call the Sambenito, others the Samarra or Samaretta. And though it be of the same make as the Sambenito is, yet it hath different marks, is of a black colour, hath flames painted on it, and sometimes the condemned heretic himself, painted to the life, in the midst of the flames. Sometimes also they paint on it devils thrusting the poor heretic into hell. Other things may also be put on it; and all this is done, that persons may be deterred from heresy by this horrible spectacle.
As to those, who after sentence pronounced, do at length confess their crime, and convert themselves, before they go out of jail, they are, if not relapses, clothed with the Samarra, on which the fire is painted, sending the flames downward, which the Portugueze call Fogo revolto; as though you should say, the fire inverted. Besides this, they have paper mitres put on them, made in the shape of a cone; on which also devils and flames are painted, which the Spaniards and Portugueze call in their language Carocha. All of them being thus clothed, according to the nature of their crime, are allowed to sit down on the ground, waiting for fresh orders. Those of them who are to be burnt, are carried into a neighbouring apartment, where they have confessors always with them, to prepare them for death, and convert them to the faith of the church of Rome.
About four o’clock the officers give bread and figs to all of them, that they may somewhat satisfy their hunger during the celebration of the act of faith. About sun-rising, the great bell of the cathedral church tolls; by which, as the usual signal of an act of faith, all persons are gathered together to this miserable spectacle. The more reputable and principal men of the city meet at the house of the inquisition, and are as it were the sureties of the criminals, one of them walking by the side of each criminal in the procession, which they think is no small honour to them. Matters being thus prepared, the inquisitor places himself near the gate of the house of the inquisition, attended by the notary of the holy office. Here he reads over in order the names of all the criminals; beginning with those whose offences are least, and ending with thosewhose crimes are greatest. The criminals march out each in their order, with naked feet, and wearing the habit that was put on them in jail. As every one goes out, the notary reads the name of his surety, who walks by his side in the procession. The Dominican monks march first; who have this honour granted them, because Dominick, the founder of their order, was also the inventor of the inquisition. The banner of the holy office is carried before them; in which the image of Dominick is curiously wrought in needle-work, holding a sword in one hand, and in the other a branch of olive, with these words “justice and mercy.” Then follow the criminals with their sureties. When all those whose crimes are too slight to be punished with death, are gone out into procession, then comes the crucifix; after which follow those who are led out to the punishment of death. The crucifix being in the midst of these, hath its face turned to those who walk before, to denote the mercy of the holy office to those who are saved from the death they had deserved; and the back part of it to those who come after, to denote that they have no grace or mercy to expect: for all things in this office are mysterious. Finally, they carry out the statues of those who have died in heresy, habited in the Samarra; and also the bones dug out of the graves, shut up in black chests, upon which devils and flames are painted all over, that they may be burnt to ashes.
[273]When they have thus marched round the principal streets of the city, that all may behold them, they at lengthenter the church, where the sermon concerning the faith is to be preached. At Goa this is usually the church of the Dominicans,and sometimes that of the Franciscans. The great altar is covered over with cloth, upon which are placed six silver candlesticks, with burning tapers. On each side of it is erected something like a throne; that on the right hand for the inquisitor and his counsellors; that on the left for the viceroy and his officers. Over against the great altar there is another lesser one, on which several missals are placed; and from thence even to the gate of the church is made a long gallery, three feet wide, full of seats, in which the criminals are placed, with their sureties, in the order in which they enter the church; so that those who enter first, and have offended least, are nearest the altar.
After this comes in the inquisitor, surrounded with his colleagues, and places himself on the right hand throne; and then the viceroy, with his attendants, seats himself on the throne on the left hand. The crucifix is put on the altar in the midst of the six candlesticks. Then the sermon is preached concerning the faith, and the office of the inquisition. This honour is generally given to the Dominicans. The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa tells us, that in the act of faith, in which he walked in procession, cloathed with the Sambenito, the provincial of the Augustines preached the sermon, which lasted half an hour, and treated of the inquisition, which he compared to Noah’s ark; but said it was preferable to Noah’s ark in this, because that the animals which entered it came out of it after the flood with the same brutal nature they carried in; whereas the inquisition so far changes the persons who are detained in it, that though they enter cruel as wolves, and fierce as lions, they come out of it meek as lambs.
When the sermon is ended, two readers, one after another, mount the same pulpit, and with a loud voice publicly read over the sentences of all the criminals, and the punishment to which they are condemned. He whose sentence is to be read over, is brought by an officer into the middle of the gallery, holding an extinguished taper in his hand, and there stands till his sentence is read through; and because all thecriminals are supposed to have incurred the greater excommunication, when any one’s sentence is read over, he is brought to the foot of the altar, where, upon his knees, and his hands placed on the missale, he waits till so many are brought there, as there are missals upon the altar. Then the reader for some time defers the reading of the sentences; and after he hath admonished those who are kneeling at the altar, that they should recite with him with their heart and mouth the confession of faith he is to read over to them, he reads it with a loud voice; and when it is ended, they all take their former places. Then the reader reads over the sentences of the rest, and the same order is observed till all the sentences are gone through.
When the sentences of all those, who are freed from the punishment of death by the mercy of the office, are read through, the inquisitor rises from his throne, puts on his sacred vestments, and being attended with about twenty priests, comes down into the middle of the church, and there saying over some solemn prayers,[274]which may be seen[275]in the Book of the Sentences of the Thoulouse Inquisition, he absolves them all from the excommunication they were under, giving each of them a blow by the hands of those priests who attend him.
Farther, when the inquisitors absolve and reconcile penitents at an act of faith, they make use of rods, to admonishthem, that by heresy they have fallen from the favour of God into his anger and fury. Hence Paramus[276]advises such penitents to consider, with how great indulgence they are treated, because they are only whipped on the shoulders; that they may go away, and being mindful of the divine fury, may take heed not to relapse for the future. The rod also points out the judiciary power which the inquisitors exercise over impious heretics, and those who are suspected of heresy; because a rod is the measure by which any one’s deserts are measured, and therefore penitents are whipped with rods according to the nature of their offence, whereby their faults are weighed and measured. Farther, the inquisitors use rods, because, as a rod at the beginning is in its nature flexible, tender and soft, but at last hard, blunt and stiff, so the inquisitors are soft and tender, whilst penitents offending through frailty and ignorance, reconcile themselves; but if heretics do afterwards suffer themselves to be overcome by wickedness, and fall again into the crimes they have committed, then they whip them, and strike them severely, even to the burning of the fire. And, finally, they use rods to establish and support the weak in the faith; because rods are a very apt instrument to support and confirm the lame and weak.
The penitents carry in their hands extinguished wax tapers, whilst the inquisitors reconcile them; to intimate, that the light of the faith hath been altogether extinguished in their minds by the sin of heresy and infidelity. These tapers are made of wax, whereby heretics profess (Risum teneatis) that their hearts have been so melted, through the heat of Concupiscence, as to receive various sects; and that as wax grows hard by moisture, but melts by dryness and warmth, so they being hardened by the moisture of carnal delights, have remained in infidelity, but are melted as wax, and converted by the dryness and heat of tribulation and penance enjoined them. And finally, the cotton of the taper, and the wax of whichit is made, and the fire with which it is lighted after absolution, shadow forth that the heretics have denied faith, hope, and charity. But when the tapers are lighted after their reconciliation, this signifies that they profess they will demonstrate, by the light of good works, the faith which they have recovered.
Farther, those who are reconciled are sprinkled with holy water and hyssop, in token, that being brought out of the power of darkness, and having turned the eyes of their minds to the true light of the faith, they are to remain free from all the snares and calumnies of the devil, that they may serve God with greater freedom.
Farther, he who hath offended against the Catholic faith which he had professed, hath a rope tied round his neck, to signify, that the inward parts of such a person being possessed by the craftiness of the devil, have been given to such sins, of which his outward parts being tied with ropes, give a very evident sign and proof. And though they are reconciled after abjuration of their heresy, yet they walk with a rope tied about their necks; that they may come out as witnesses against themselves, and may be examples to others, that they may turn their eyes to the inward spots of the mind.
During this action, every one of the prisoners eats the bread and figs in the church, which were given them by the officers of the inquisition in jail.
When this ceremony is performed, the inquisitor goes back to his place; after which the sentences of those who are appointed to death are read over; the conclusion of which is, that the inquisition can shew them no favour, upon account of their being relapsed, or impenitent, and that therefore it delivers them over to the arm of the secular court, which they earnestly intreat so to moderate their punishment, as to prevent the effusion of blood, and danger of death. When those last words are read, one of the officers of the holy office gives each of them a blow on the breast, by which he signifies that they are left by the inquisition; upon which one of the officers of secular justice comes to them and claims them. If any ofthem are in holy orders, they are degraded, and deprived of all their orders, before they are delivered to the secular arm. After this they read the sentences against the dead. At last these miserable wretches are brought to the secular judge, to hear the sentence of death; and when they come before him, they are severally asked in what religion they desire to die? Their crime is never inquired into; because it is not the office of the secular magistrate to ask, whether those, who are condemned by the inquisition, are criminal? He is to presuppose them guilty, and his duty is to inflict the punishment appointed by law upon those who commit such crimes, of which they are pronounced guilty by the inquisition. When they have answered this one single question, they are soon after tied to a stake, round about which there is placed a pile of wood. Those who answer that they will die Catholics, are first strangled; but those who say they will die Jews or heretics, are burnt alive.[277]As these are leading out to punishment, the rest are carried back without any order, by their sureties,to the jail of the inquisition. This is the celebration of an act of faith in Portugal; or rather in that part of India which is subject to the Portugueze, as a Frenchman hath described it in his History of the Inquisition at Goa, who himself walked in procession at an act of faith, wearing the infamous Sambenito,and who accurately observed and described all the circumstances of it.
The method of celebrating an act of faith in Spain, issomewhat different. For whereas at Goa the banner, which they carry before the procession hath the picture of Dominick wrought in it, Paramus says, that in Spain the cross is the banner of the inquisition, which is carried before them; and tediously tells us of several mysteries signified by the cross, of which I will here give a short summary.
The cross is the beginning and end of all acts of the inquisition; and by it is represented, that the tribunal of the inquisition is a representation of that supreme and final tribunal, in which the sign of the cross shall appear before the Lord Christ, coming to the judgement of the world with great majesty and glory. Farther, it denotes the war which the inquisition wages against heretics, and the victory which they gain over the enemies of the orthodox faith; because the inquisitors are appointed the conquerors of heretical pravity, and captains for the defence of religion, who keep watch at the castle of the inquisition for the Christian faith, repair it when going to ruin, restore it when tumbled down, and preserve it when restored in its ancient, flourishing and vigorous state.
The inquisition uses a green cross, that it may be more conveniently distinguished from those crosses of other colours, which are used by the Christian commonwealth; and especially that it may be shadowed out, that all things usually signified by greenness, belong to the inquisition. For instance, greenness denotes stability and eternity; it is a grateful, pleasant, and attractive colour to the eyes, and finally is a sign of victory and triumph. Hereby is shadowed forth, that the inquisitors of heretical pravity vigilantly preserve the stability of the church; and that heretics are attracted by the green cross, so that they cannot escape the judgment of this tribunal, and by beholding it are brought to the tender bosom of mother church, and drawn to repentance, and the sincerity of the faith.
The banner of the inquisition hath a green cross in a field sable, adorned on the right hand with a branch of green olive, and brandishing on the left a drawn sword, with this motto round about the scutcheon, “Exsurge, Domine, & judicacausam tuam; Psal. lxxiv. 22. Arise, O Lord, and plead thy own cause.” The branch of green olive denotes the same as the green cross. But the branch of olive is on the right hand of the cross, and the sword on the left, to shew that in the inquisition mercy is mixed with justice; and the meaning of this mixture they derive from the ark of the tabernacle, in which, together with the tables, there was the rod and the manna, the rod of severity, and the manna of sweetness; as though the rod of Aaron which blossomed, was the rod with which judges command criminals to be whipped. The branch of olive at the right hand, signifies that nothing ought to be so strictly regarded by the inquisitors as mercy and clemency, which the olive most wonderfully shadows forth, which hath branches always green, and which endures storms much longer than any other trees, and if buried under water, is not so soon destroyed, nor doth so easily lose its verdure. The drawn sword brandishing on the left, points out that the inquisitors, after having tried in vain all methods of mercy, do then as it were unwillingly come to the use and drawing of the sword, which was given by God for the punishment of offenders. The field of sable, in the midst of which the green cross is placed, intimates the repentance of the criminals, and the sorrow they conceive on account of their sins; which, however, the green mitigates with the hope of pardon.
The motto round the scutcheon, “Exsurge Domine,” &c. marks out that the inquisitors, in expectation of the coming of the Lord, do in the mean while punish the wicked, that they may deter others, and defend the good.
But besides these things, there are other differences between the celebration of an act of faith in India and Spain. Gonsalvius tells us,[278]this solemn procession began in this manner at Seville. “In the first place went some school-boys, brought out of a certain college in which boys were taught, which they commonly call the house of teaching, who strikean awe upon others by their habit, singing, and order, in which they are kept by certain clergymen cloathed in surplices. They walk along singing the litanies of the saints, repeating them alternately, the chorus alternately answering,[279]“Ora pro nobis.” After these follow the prisoners themselves, commonly called penitentials, disposed as it were into several classes in this order. Next after the children walk those who are convicted of lesser faults. The tokens of their guilt are usually unlighted candles, halters about their necks, wooden bits, and paper mitres. They walk with their heads uncovered, that the mitre may not be concealed; and after the manner of slaves, without their cloak. Those who excel others in birth, or riches, follow after those who are meaner. Next to these march those who are cloathed with the Sambenito’s, or military mantles, marked across with the red cross; the same order being observed as above, according to the distinction of the persons. Those who are defiled in holy orders, as they are superior in dignity, so also are they in their place or rank in the procession. After these comes the third and last class, viz. of those who are appointed for the fire. Every prisoner is attended by two armed familiars, for his safe custody, one on each side of him; besides which, those who are to die have two monks or theatins, as they call them, walking by them. The whole council of the city, consisting of the alguazils, jurors, the judges of twenty-four degrees, the great officers of the court, the regent and viceroy himself, or his deputy, who are followed by a great number of nobility on horseback, immediately follow the classes of the prisoners, who,accordingaccordingto the custom of a triumph, ought certainly to march first. After these comes the ecclesiastical order, the clergy, beneficed persons, and curates walking first. Next after them walk the whole chapter of the principal church, which they commonly call the cabild of the greater church. Then the abbots and priors of the monks orders, with theirattendants. All these walk before the holy tribunal to do honour to it, because, on that day, it openly triumphs. Between these and the next after there is a space left empty, in which the fiscal of the inquisition, who hath had no small share in gaining that victory to the holy tribunal, walks as standard-bearer in truly military pomp, displaying and opening the standard made of red damask silk. This standard is most curiously embroidered, having on one side of it the arms of that pope who granted the inquisition, with his name written at large; and on the other those of King Ferdinand, who first brought it into Spain. Every thing in it is wrought with silk, gold, and purple. Upon the very point of this banner is fastened a silver crucifix washed over with gold, of great value; to which the superstitious multitude pay a peculiar veneration, for this reason only, because it belongs to the inquisition. At length come the fathers of the faith themselves, with a slow pace, and profound gravity, truly triumphing, as becomes the principal generals of that victory. After them come all the familiars of the holy inquisition on horseback. Then an innumerable company of the common people and mob, without any order or character. In this pomp they march from the jail of the inquisition to the high and magnificent scaffold, which is built of wood, in the noblest and most capacious street of the city, for shewing the penitents to public view, and for hearing their sentences. On this scaffold they make them sit in the same order as they marched. There is also another scaffold almost as large as the former, over against it, in which is erected the tribunal of the lords inquisitors; where they sit in their inquisitorial, and almost divine majesty, attended with all that grandeur in which they came.”
The king (if present) the queen and the whole court, and also the legates, and all the nobility of Spain, generally honour this solemnity with their presence. The seat of the inquisitor general is like a tribunal, raised above the king’s. When all are seated in their places, they begin withcelebratingcelebratingmass; but when the priest who officiates is come to about themiddle of the service, he leaves the altar, and goes back to his proper place. Then the supreme inquisitor comes down from the scaffold, robed in all his ornaments; and making his reverences before the altar, ascends by several steps to the king, attended by some of the officers of the inquisition, who carry the crucifix and gospels, and the book in which is contained the oath, by which the king obliges himself to protect the Catholic faith, to the extirpation of heresies, and the defence of the inquisition. The king standing bare-headed, having on one side of him the constable of Castile, or one of the grandees of Spain, who holds up the sword of state, swears that he will keep the oath, which is publicly read over to him, by one of the members of the royal council; and remains in the same posture, till the supreme inquisitor goes back to his place. After this one of the secretaries of the inquisition goes into a desk, reads over the like oath, and takes it from the council, and the whole assembly. Then all the several sentences are read over, and the solemnity sometimes lasts till nine o’clock in the evening.
Criminals penitent and reconciled, and brought out in public procession, are carried back to their former jails in the holy office the same day in which the sentences are pronounced against them, and the day following are brought to an audience of the inquisitors, and are admonished of those things which are enjoined them by their sentences, and how grievously they will be punished, unless they humbly do the penances assigned them. After this, they send every one to the place to which his sentence ordered him. Those who are condemned to the gallies, are sent to the jails of the secular judges. Some are whipped through the principal streets of the city, and sometimes receive two hundred lashes. Others wear the infamous Sambenito; some every day, others must appear in them only sundays and holy days. But in these things every one observes the custom of his own inquisition. In the inquisition at Goa this is the method. Before the prisoners are dismissed, they are carried from jail to some other house, where they are every day instructed in the doctrinesand rites of the Church of Rome; and when they are dismissed, every one hath a writing given him, containing the penances enjoined them; to which is added a command, that every one shall exactly keep secret every thing he hath seen, said or heard, and all the transactions relating to him, whether at the table, or in other places of the holy office. And to this secrecy every prisoner binds himself by a solemn oath.
The day after this solemnity also, the effigies of those condemned to death, painted to the life, are carried to the dominican’s church, and there hung up to be viewed by all. The custom in this matter is described by Ludovicus a Paramo.[280]“There is another monument of infamy, which, though vulgarly called by the Spaniards Sambenito, yet is not a garment, but a cloth affixed to the walls of the churches for perpetual infamy in the parishes where they lived. On this cloth is written the name and surname of the criminal, and the business he carried on is also expressed. If he discovers any farther, they add another little piece to the cloth to prevent doubt, describing his country, and oftentimes also the parents and grandfathers of the condemned person.
“In some of these cloths may be read who were the parents of the criminals, of what race they were; whether they were married, or if married women, whose wives they were; whether lately recovered to the Christian religion, from the Jewish law and Mahometan sect. Finally, the cause of their penance is declared according to the nature of their crime, viz. that he was an arch-heretic, a dogmatist, a declared heretic, an heretical apostate, a feigned penitent, negative and obstinate, an impenitent and relapsed heretic, a Lutheran, Anabaptist, Calvinist, Martianist heretic, even though they died before condemnation. Besides this inscription, there is also painted the mark which is usually put on living penitents, as is above explained. In the ancient cloths, which have not yet been repaired, one may see an upright cross. Besidesthese already mentioned, other things may be seen in them; for in some the person and crime is omitted, and this one word only written without the picture, ‘Combustus,’ burnt. On the clothes of such as are reconciled, this word only, without any cross or mark, ‘Reconciliatus,’ reconciled. Sometimes the date of the year is wanting. Sometimes the flames are painted without any inscription, so that the criminal cannot possibly be known. However, these monuments of infamy and disgrace are not to be fixed up to render those infamous, who are reconciled during the time of indulgence and grace. For as it was agreed with them, that they should not wear such infamous habits, nor be cloathed with them during the time of their reconciliation, it would be contrary to reason and justice to hang them up, because it would be wholly to destroy the favour granted them. This constitution is observed in all the kingdoms and dominions of the King of Spain, except in Sicily; where, in the year 1543, when the licentiate Cervera was inquisitor there, there was a very great commotion at Palermo, when the people rose against the holy inquisition, and tore off the infamous cloths from the walls of the church dedicated to St. Dominic, with so great a fury and rage, that they could never, to this day, fix them up again upon the walls either of that, or any other church.”