MINISTERS OF THE INQUISITION.
Inquisition in
Spain--Inquisitors--Vicars--Counsellors--Promoters-Fiscal--Notaries--
Treasurer--Executor--Familiars--Cross-Bearers--Visitors--Privileges--
Jurisdiction--Prohibition of books--Prison-keepers.
Spain, Portugal, and Rome have been most notorious for cruelty, by means
of the dreaded court of inquisition. The “Holy Office,” in those
countries, has been the most extended, and the most complete in its
arrangements; its ministers, therefore, have been most numerous. The
number of officers in the Spanish Inquisition has been reckoned at about
_three thousand_, and its expense to the country about _one million of
pounds_ sterling per annum!
District courts were formed in many places, of which it is said, “In
every province of Spain there ought to be two or three inquisitors, one
judge of the forfeited effects, one executor, three notaries, one keeper
of the prison, one messenger, one door-keeper, and one physician.
Besides these, assessors, skilful counsellors, familiars and others,”
were appointed for the service of this court. These require some notice,
the better to understand the character of the Inquisition.
1. INQUISITORS APOSTOLIC.--These are the chief officers, delegates from
the Pope, for the special service of judging heretics. Their rank is
exalted in the papacy, as each has the title of “lord,” and every
inquisitor is styled “most reverend.” One among those in Spain was
president of the Inquisition, and was called “inquisitor-major,” or
“inquisitor-general.” The Romish cardinals, also, were
inquisitors-general.
2. VICARS.--These are appointed by the inquisitors, to serve as their
substitutes in case of absence or sickness, and these exercise all the
power of their principals, in receiving accusations, and arresting those
who may be accused.
3. COUNSELLORS.--These were skilful lawyers, appointed to advise and
assist the inquisitors, who were generally ignorant of legal forms. They
were sworn to secrecy.
4. PROMOTER-FISCAL.--This officer also is a lawyer, whose business is to
examine the depositions of witnesses, to give information against
criminals, to demand their imprisonment, and to frame their indictment
against them. He was a kind of counsellor for the Holy Office.
5. NOTARIES.--These officers were short-hand writers, whose duty was to
attend the examinations of the prisoners, to note down everything they
said, their behaviour, and even change of countenance, while questioned
by the inquisitors. They are required to be skilful in different
languages; as the prisoners may be French, German, or Italian, before a
Spanish Inquisition.
6. TREASURER.--This officer is called, in Spain, the _receiver-general_
of the effects and property of the prisoners: in Rome he is called,
_treasurer of the Holy Office_. He takes charge of all the effects of
the prisoners, letting or selling their lands and houses; so that
immense property falls into his hands.
7. EXECUTOR.--This officer is the head of the police attached to the
Inquisition; and he directs the mode of the apprehension of accused
persons.
8. OFFICIALS.--These are assistants to the executor, or police officers,
who pursue and apprehend the persons accused before the inquisitors.
9. FAMILIARS.--These are armed police officers, or soldiers of the
Inquisition. They are called _familiars_, or belonging to the
inquisitor’s family.
10. CROSS-BEARERS.--These also are soldiers, a kind of militia, trained
and armed for the defence of the Inquisition, and for the vigorous
pursuit of offenders. They are favoured with many privileges, including
a “plenary remission of all their sins,” to encourage them in the
service of the Inquisition. Soldiers having, however, become less
needful, these officers have generally been transformed into an order of
monks of St. Dominic, with constitutions confirmed by the Pope.
11. VISITORS.--These were magistrates appointed to inspect all the
provinces of the inquisitors, and to report the state of the
institutions to the inquisitor-general. They are commonly commissioned
as occasions seem to require investigation.
12. PRIVILEGES OF INQUISITORS.--Extraordinary are the privileges granted
to inquisitors; so that “no delegate of the apostolic see, or
sub-delegate under him, no conservator, or executor, deputed by the
Pope, shall be able to publish the sentence of excommunication,
suspension, or interdict against them, or their notaries, whilst they
are engaged in the prosecution of their duty, without the special
command of the holy see.” The inquisitors only, and not the bishops, can
publish edicts against heretics. In like manner, the inquisitors, and no
others, can absolve from excommunication for heresy; and persons under
the interdict by the inquisitor, cannot be absolved by the ordinary, or
any other person, without the command of the Pope, except in the article
of death.
13. JURISDICTION OF THE INQUISITION.--This is so ample, that few
persons are excepted from it; because the inquisitors being judges
delegated by the Pope in the cause of the faith, that all heresy may be
extirpated, power is given to them against all sorts of persons, except
bishops and legates of the Pope. They may proceed against priests and
clergy generally; and laymen without distinction, infected, suspected,
or defamed of heresy, not excepting princes and kings. Even treaties
with, or the power of, sovereigns, the inquisitors have set at nought,
if they would yield to the assumed authority. Of this we have a
remarkable instance in the king of Portugal, where Thomas Maynard was
English consul. He was arrested and imprisoned at Lisbon, as having
spoken against the Romish religion. When Oliver Cromwell was advised of
the fact, the protector sent an express to the deputy, Mr. Meadows, to
go to the king and demand his immediate release; but the sovereign
professed that he had no power to grant the favour, as he had no
authority over the Inquisition. But Cromwell sent new instructions,
requiring from the king his instant liberation, or he declared war
against the Inquisition. The terrified inquisitors offered the consul
his liberty, which he accepted only on being brought forth honourably
and in public by the Inquisition. This was at once granted, and Mr.
Maynard continued unmolested, during the reigns of Charles II. and James
II., well-known at Lisbon.
14. PROHIBITION OF BOOKS.--From time to time lists of books have been
published by the Popes, as forbidden to be read, and these have
especially included the Holy Scriptures, as fatal to the pretensions of
the papal hierarchy and the Inquisition. One of the rules of the “Index”
of prohibited books, regarding the Bible, says, “Since it is plain by
experience, that if the Sacred Writings are permitted everywhere, and
without difference, to be read in the vulgar tongue, men, through their
harshness, will receive more harm than good. Let the bishop or
inquisitor determine, with the parish priest or confessor, to whom to
permit the reading of the Bible, translated by Catholic authors in the
vulgar tongue.” This rule against the Bible is observed in all Catholic
countries, especially in Spain, where the inquisitors published their
prohibition, with a particular stress upon the Scriptures, “with all
parts of them, either printed or manuscript, with all summaries and
abridgments, although historical, of the said Bible, in the vulgar
tongue.”
15. KEEPERS OF THE PRISONS OF THE INQUISITION.--Some bishops in the
Romish church have prisons for the custody of offenders of their laws.
But such places were usually placed under the care of inquisitors as
their keepers. Every person imprisoned is first accused by some one,
generally by two persons, who has heard him utter or suspects him of
holding opinions that are deemed heretical. This accusation being
received, the promoter-fiscal demands before the inquisitors that such
person may be imprisoned and brought to trial. A warrant is then issued,
subscribed by the inquisitors, and given to the officer, who proceeds to
arrest the person and lodge him in gaol. This gaol, though a horrid
place, is called, in Spain and Portugal, _Santa-casa_, or _Holy-house_.
In Portugal, all the prisoners, men and women, without any regard to
birth or rank, are shaved, the first or second day of imprisonment.
Every prisoner has two pots of water daily, one to wash and the other to
drink, and a besom to cleanse his cell; a mat of rushes to lie on; and a
larger vessel for other uses, with a cover to put over it, which is
changed every four days.
How intolerant and cruel the inquisitors and keepers were, in the
sixteenth century, may be learned from two cases: the first was relating
to some English persons who put into the port of Cadiz. The familiars of
the Inquisition searched the vessel on account of religion. They seized
several on board, as they manifested evangelical piety, and they were
thrown into gaol. Among these was a child, about ten or twelve years of
age, son of a rich gentleman, owner of the ship and part of the cargo.
The pretence was, that he had in his hands the Book of Psalms in
English. The ship and cargo were confiscated, and the child was
imprisoned at Seville, where he lay six or eight months, and became very
ill through cruel treatment. The lords inquisitors being informed of his
illness, and hoping to profit by his father’s reputed wealth, removed
him to the Cardinal Hospital. But he lost the use of his legs. The
gaoler often observed him lifting up his eyes to heaven and praying for
help; so that he reported him as “already grown a great little heretic!”
Through the cruel treatment in the prison, he died in the hospital of
the Inquisition!
Another case, about the same period, will illustrate the cruelties of
the Inquisition. Peter ab Herera, keeper of the tower of Triada, the
prison of the Inquisition, had in charge a good matron, and, with her,
two daughters, but kept in different cells. They bemoaned their
separation, and entreated the keeper to suffer them to be together for a
quarter of an hour, that they might have the satisfaction of embracing
each other. Moved with compassion for them he granted their request; and
after they had indulged their mutual affection for half an hour, he
locked them up again in their solitary cells. A few days after, they
were examined by torture, and the keeper, fearing that through the
severity of their torments they might discover his lenity to the lords
inquisitors, went to the holy tribunal and declared what he had done;
but they, instead of commending his humanity, regarded him as guilty of
a crime, and immediately ordered him into gaol, and to torture. After a
year of suffering he was brought out of prison, with a halter round his
neck, and led in a public procession, punished with a _hundred_ lashes,
and condemned to the galleys as a slave, for six years. He became insane
through ill treatment, and attempting the life of the alguazil he was
sentenced to four years additional slavery in the galleys! Dreadful as
these are, they are far from being the most affecting examples of
cruelty in the Inquisition.
16. TERRORS OF THE INQUISITION.--No words can express the dread of the
people regarding the tribunal of the inquisitors. They regard the
prisoners as lost. So little hope have they of the release of those
arrested, that as soon as they are imprisoned, their friends put on
mourning, and speak of them as dead, not daring to petition for their
pardon, lest they also should be brought in as accomplices, and become
themselves victims of the Inquisition!