VICTIMS OF THE INQUISITION.
Victims--1. Juan de Salas--2. Donna Johanna Bohorques--3. Donna
Maria Bohorques--4. Melchior Hernandez--5. Lewis Pezoa.
“_Justice and Mercy_” are the words chosen by the Romish Inquisition, as
forming the maxims of that court, in proceeding against heretics. But
the tortures inflicted falsify the profession. No court of judgment, in
any age or nation, was ever found so utterly at variance with these
principles, or conducted in a manner so manifestly opposed to equity and
humanity. A few selected cases of their tortured victims will still
further illustrate the diabolical savageness of the inquisitors: these
cases are given from the most undoubted authorities.
1. JUAN DE SALAS.--This victim was a young man, and it appears an
officer of the Inquisition in Spain. He had been charged with employing
the language of heresy, and therefore immured in the dungeon. The
Inquisition transgressed their own rules in relation to him, refusing to
hear the witnesses whom he wished to be examined in his favour. He
positively denied having used the words attributed to him; on which
account he was subjected to the torture, to compel his confession. The
particulars of his sufferings under the inquisitors, Moriz and Dr.
Alvarado, are contained in the following record, drawn up by the notary
of the Inquisition:--
“At Valladolid, on the 21st of June, 1527, the licentiate Moriz,
inquisitor, caused the licentiate Juan de Salas to appear before him.
After the reading, the said licentiate Salas declared that _he had not
said that of which he was accused_; and the said licentiate Moriz
immediately caused him to be conducted to the chamber of torture, where,
being stripped to his shirt, Salas was put by the shoulders into the
_chevalet_, where the executioner, Pedro Porras, fastened him by the
arms and legs with cords of hemp, of which he made eleven turns round
each limb. Salas, during the time that the said Pedro was tying him
thus, was several times warned to speak the truth; to which he always
replied that _he had never said what he was accused of_. He recited the
creed ‘_Quicumque vult_,’ and several times gave thanks to God and our
Lady; and, the said Salas being still tied as before mentioned, a fine
wet cloth was put over his face, and about a pint of water was poured
into his mouth and nostrils from an earthen vessel, with a hole at the
bottom, and containing about two quarts; nevertheless, Salas persisted
in denying the accusation. Then Pedro Porras tightened the cord on the
right leg, and poured a second measure of water on the face; the cords
were tightened a second time on the same leg, but Juan de Salas still
persisted in denying that he had ever said any thing of the kind; and,
although pressed to tell the truth several times, he still denied the
accusation. Then the said licentiate Moriz having declared that _the
torture was begun, but not finished_, commanded that it should cease.
The accused was withdrawn from the _chevalet_, or _rack_, at which I,
Henry Paz, was present from the beginning to the end.--_Henry Paz_,
Notary.”
Juan de Salas was condemned, notwithstanding his denial; and Llorente
makes the following remarks on the whole case of shocking injustice and
cruelty:--
“We may form an idea of the humanity of the Inquisition at Valladolid
from the definitive sentence pronounced by the licentiate Moriz and his
colleague, Dr. Alvarado, without any other formality, after they had
taken (if we may believe them) the advice of persons noted for their
learning and virtue, but without the adjournment which ought to have
preceded it, and without the concurrence of the diocesan in ordinary.
They declared that the fiscal had not entirely approved the accusation,
and that the prisoner had succeeded in destroying some of the charges;
but that, on account of the suspicion arising from the trial, Juan de
Salas was condemned to the punishment of the public _auto da fé_, in his
shirt, without a cloak, his head uncovered, and with a torch in his
hand; that he should abjure heresy publicly; and that he should pay ten
ducats of gold to the Inquisition, and fulfil his penance in the church
assigned. It is seen, by a certificate afterwards given in, that Juan de
Salas performed his _auto da fé_ on the 24th of June, 1528, and that his
father paid the fine. The trial offers no other peculiarity. This
affair, and several others of a similar nature, caused the supreme
council to publish a decree, in 1558, commanding that the torture should
not be administered without an order from the council.”
2. DONNA JOHANNA BOHORQUES.--Limborch, from Gonsalvius, gives the
following account of this noble young lady, who was really murdered by
the inquisitors in their tortures of her, about A.D. 1569.
“At the same time almost, they apprehended, in the Inquisition at
Seville, a noble lady, Johanna Bohorques, the wife of Don Francis de
Vargos, a very eminent man, and Lord of Heguera, and daughter of Peter
Garsia Xeresius, a wealthy citizen of Seville. The occasion of her
imprisonment was, her sister, Maria Bohorques, 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 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. Eight days after
her delivery they took the child from her, and on the fifteenth shut her
up close, 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 gaol, she was so shaken, and had her limbs so miserably
disjointed, that when she was laid upon her bed of rushes, it rather
increased her misery than gave her rest, so that she could not turn
herself without the most excessive pain. In this condition, as Bohorques
had it not in her power to show her any, or but very little outward
kindness, she endeavoured to comfort her mind with great tenderness. The
girl had scarcely begun to recover from her torture, when Bohorques 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
in several places; and in this manner she was brought back to prison,
just ready to expire, the blood 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 cause 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 further 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.’ And thus, after they had murdered her, by
torture, with savage cruelty, they pronounced her innocent!”
Llorente adds, “Under what an overwhelming responsibility will these
monsters appear before the tribunal of the Almighty!”
This instance of refined barbarity in the inquisitors strikingly
displays their hypocrisy as professors of the benevolent religion of
Christ, and their malignity against those who dared to listen to the
doctrines of the Scriptures, then condemned under the name of
LUTHERANISM.
3. DONNA MARIA BOHORQUES.--This lady was sister of Johanna, who had been
murdered in the Inquisition. She perished in the flames at Seville. The
account of her states, “She had completed her twenty-first year when she
was arrested on suspicion of being a Lutheran. Under the instruction of
D. Juan Gil, bishop of Tortosa, she was perfectly acquainted with the
Latin language, and had made considerable progress in Greek. She knew
the Gospel by heart, and was deeply read in those commentaries which
explain, in a Lutheran sense, the text referring to justification by
faith, good works, the sacraments, and the characteristics of the true
church.
“Donna Maria was confined in the secret prisons of the Inquisition,
where she avowed the doctrines imputed to her, defended them against the
arguments of the priests who visited her, and boldly told the
inquisitors, that instead of punishment for the creed which she held,
they would do much better to imitate her example. With regard to the
depositions of her accusers, though she allowed the principal points,
she persisted in denying some things which related to the opinions of
other individuals; and this denial gave the inquisitors an opportunity
of putting her to the rack. By this torture they only procured a
confession that her sister, Johanna Bohorques, knew her sentiments, and
had not disapproved of them; and, as she persisted in her confession of
faith, sentence was passed upon her as an obstinate heretic. In the
interval between her condemnation and the _auto da fé_, at which she was
to suffer, the inquisitors made every exertion to bring her back to the
Romish faith. They sent to her, successively, two Jesuits and two
Dominican priests, who laboured with great zeal for her conversion; but
they returned without having effected their object, full of admiration
of the talents she displayed, and regretting the obstinacy with which
she persisted in what they supposed a damnable heresy. The evening
before the _auto da fé_, two Dominicans joined in the attempt, and were
followed by several theologians of other orders. Donna Maria received
them with civility, but dissuaded them from attempting the hopeless
task. To the professions which they made of being interested in the
welfare of her soul, she answered, that she believed them to be sincere,
but that they must not suppose that she, being the party chiefly
concerned, felt a less interest in the matter than they did. She told
them, that she came to prison fully satisfied of the orthodoxy of the
creed which she held, and that she had been confirmed in her belief by
the evident futility of the arguments brought against it.
“At the stake, Don Juan Ponce de Leon, who had abjured the Lutheran
doctrines, exhorted Donna Maria to follow his example. The weakness of
this apostate for a moment overcame her, and she silenced him by
language rather of contempt than of pity. Recollecting herself, however,
she told him that the time for controversy was past, and that their
wisest plan would be, to occupy the few minutes which remained to them,
in meditating on the death of their Redeemer, in order to confirm that
faith by which alone they could be justified. All that poor Juan Ponce
de Leon gained by his apostacy was, that he was not burnt alive, but
first strangled, and then burnt. On this occasion, the attendant priest,
moved by the youth and talents of Donna Maria, offered her this milder
death, if she would merely repeat the Creed. With this offer she readily
complied; but having finished it, she began immediately to explain its
articles, according to the sense of the reformers. This confession of
faith was immediately interrupted. Donna Maria was strangled by the
executioner, and her body was afterwards reduced to ashes!”
4. MELCHIOR HERNANDEZ.--This victim was a merchant of Toledo, whence he
removed to settle, A.D. 1564, in Murcia, where he was arrested by the
officers of the Inquisition, charged with Judaism. Witnesses, known to
be his enemies, appeared against him, but their evidence was
contradictory; yet he was detained in prison. Being dangerously ill, he
demanded an audience of the inquisitors, to whom he said that he had
been present at a meeting, a year before, where the subject of
conversation was the law of Moses. Some days after, at his
re-examination, he declared that what was said at the meeting was in
jest, and he did not recollect the particulars of the conversation.
Having said to the visitor of the tribunal that the things which he had
declared, he had been induced to utter before his judges by the fear of
death, he was put to the torture, to compel him to confess what he knew
respecting certain persons; but he bore the cruel infliction without
uttering a word. On the 18th of October, 1565, he was declared, as a
Jewish heretic, to be guilty of concealment in his confession, and
condemned to be burnt. His execution was fixed for the 9th of December;
and on the 7th he was exhorted to a full confession. He replied, that he
had confessed all he knew; and the next day, being desired to prepare
for death, he declared that he had seen the persons whom he had
mentioned, and some others at the meeting; that they conversed
respecting the law of Moses, but that he regarded their communications
as mere pastime. Between this and the commencement of the _auto da fé_,
next day, he made several communications, in hope of escaping death,
giving the names of various parties as his accomplices. This disclosure
being unavailing to induce the inquisitor to suspend his execution,
Melchior stated that he had really believed, for a year, what had been
preached in the synagogue, though he had not confessed the fact, because
he thought there was no proof of heresy in the depositions of the
witnesses. His execution was suspended, and he was subjected to new
examinations, at which he made extraordinary and contradictory
statements, perplexing to his judges; three of whom voted for his
punishment and two for his reconciliation. The council decreed that
Melchior should be burnt on the 8th of June, 1567; and on each of the
three preceding days he was called up, and exhorted to declare his
accomplices. The habit of a prisoner to be burnt was put upon him, when
he declared that he could name other accomplices, and an inquisitor went
to receive his confession. He gave another synagogue, and seven other
places, with the names of fourteen persons who frequented them. This not
being deemed satisfactory, he was led, with others, to the place of
execution, where he mentioned two more houses, and twelve heretics; in a
_second_ audience, he gave seven more persons; and in a _third_
audience, two more houses, and six persons. He was again remanded, as he
hoped; but on the 23rd of June, despairing of success, he appealed to
his judges, “What more could I do than accuse myself falsely? Know that
I have never been summoned to any assembly; that I never attended any
but for the purposes of commerce.” After many audiences, he was for the
third time sentenced for execution, and he again succeeded in escaping
the fire. In five subsequent audiences he denounced various persons; but
he was declared “_still guilty of concealment, in not mentioning several
persons not less distinguished and well known than those already
denounced, and that he could not be supposed to have forgotten them_.”
Overcome by this malignant suggestion, Melchior delivered an indignant
invective against the inquisitors, and all who appeared on the trial,
and then said, “What can you do to me?--burn me? Well, then, be it so. I
cannot confess what I do not know. All that I have said of myself is
true, but what I have declared of others is entirely false. I invented
it, _because I perceived that you wished me to denounce innocent
persons; and being unacquainted with the names and quality of these
unfortunate people, I named all whom I could think of, in the hope of
finding an end to my misery. I now perceive that my situation admits of
no relief, and I therefore retract all my depositions; and now, having
fulfilled this duty, proceed to burn me as soon as you please._” The
papers relating to the trial were sent to the supreme council, which
confirmed the sentence of burning, and reprimanded the inquisitors for
the delay. Instead of submitting to this decision, the inquisitors
called Melchior again before them, representing to him that his
declarations contained many contradictions, and that, for the good of
his soul, it was necessary that he should finally make a confession,
respecting himself and all his guilty acquaintances. This artful appeal
did not shake his constancy. Melchior affirmed that they would find all
the truth in the declaration that he had made before the visitor, Senor
Ayora. It was found in this that Melchior had stated, that “_he knew
nothing of the subject on which he was examined_.” The inquisitor then
said, “How can this declaration be true, when you have several times
declared that you have attended the Jewish assemblies, believed in their
doctrines, and persevered in the belief for the space of one year, until
you were undeceived by a priest?” Melchior replied, “I spoke falsely
when I made a declaration against myself.” “But how is it,” said the
inquisitor, “that what you have confessed of yourself, and many other
things, which you now deny, are the result of the depositions of a great
many witnesses?” “I do not know,” replied Melchior, “if that is true or
false, for I have not seen the writings of the trial; but if the
witnesses have said that which is imputed to them, it was _because they
were placed in the same situation as I am_. They do not love me better
than I love myself; and I have certainly declared against myself both
truth and falsehood.” “What motive had you, then,” asked the inquisitor,
“in declaring things injurious to yourself, if they were false?”
Melchior declared, “I expected to derive great advantage from them,
because I saw that if I did not confess anything, I should be considered
as impenitent, and the truth would lead me to the scaffold. I thought
that falsehood would be most useful to me, and I found it so in two
_autos da fé_.”
Nothing was now to be expected but death, and he was desired, on the 6th
of June, 1568, to prepare for it by the next day. At two o’clock in the
morning he desired an audience with the inquisitor, who, with his
notary, went to his cell. Melchior then said to him, “That at the point
of appearing before the tribunal of the Almighty, and without any hope
of escaping from death by new delays, he thought himself bound to
declare that he had never conversed with any person on the Mosaic law;
that all he had said on this subject was founded on the wish to preserve
life, and the belief that his confessions were pleasing to the
inquisitors; that he asked pardon of the persons implicated, that God
might pardon him, and that no injury might be done to their honour and
reputation.”
Melchior Hernandez was, therefore, sacrificed to the bigotry of the
inquisitors, first being strangled and then burnt. As to his inventions
and false accusations of others, nothing can justify him; but such
endeavours to escape from the dreadful tribunal appear to be common
among the unhappy prisoners of that horrid court which knows no mercy.
5. LEWIS PEZOA.--About the year 1650, Lewis Pezoa, a new Christian, his
wife, and two sons, and one daughter, besides some relations living with
him, were all thrown into the gaol of the Inquisition in Portugal. They
were accused by some of their enemies of being Jews. Pezoa denied the
charge, and refuted it, but in vain; he demanded that his accusers might
be discovered to him, that he might convict them of falsehood. He was
condemned, as a negative heretic, to be delivered over to the secular
court to be burnt. This was made known to him fifteen days before the
sentence was pronounced by the court.
Pezoa being a man of wealth, the Duke de Cadaval knew him, and desired
to know, from his intimate friend, the Duke d’Aviera,
inquisitor-general, how he would be treated; and understanding that
unless he confessed before his going out of prison, he would not escape
the fire, because he had been convicted according to the laws of the
Inquisition, he entreated, and obtained from the inquisitor-general a
promise, that if he could persuade Pezoa to confess, even after sentence
was pronounced, and his procession in the act of faith, he should not
die, though it was contrary to the laws. Upon that solemn day,
therefore, on which the act of faith was held, he went with some of his
own friends, and some of Pezoa’s, to the Inquisition, to prevail on him,
if possible, to confess. He was led forth in the procession, wearing the
infamous attire and the mitre, indicating the sacrifice of his life. His
friends, with many tears, besought him, in the name of the Duke of
Cadaval, 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
duke would give him more than he had lost, as he obtained his life on
that condition from the inquisitor-general. But all in vain; Pezoa
continually protesting himself innocent, and that the accusation was the
contrivance of his enemies, who sought his destruction, as guilty of
crimes. 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 the approach 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 entreaties, by which they overcame
his constancy at last; 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.”
Having made confession, he was remanded to gaol. But, two years after,
he was sent to Evora, and walked in procession in another act of faith,
wearing the infamous garment, on which was painted the fire inverted,
according to the usual custom of the Portuguese Inquisition; and after
five years more, in which he was detained in the gaol of the
Inquisition, he was condemned to the galleys, as a slave, for five
years.