ACTS OF FAITH OF THE INQUISITION.
The _Auto da Fé_--Act of Faith at Madrid--Act of Faith at
Lisbon--Testimony of Rev. Mr. Wilcox.
The _auto da fé_, or _act of faith_, in the Romish church, is a grand
ceremony performed by the Inquisition, for the punishment of heretics,
and the absolution of those who have been declared innocent. It is
usually contrived to fall on great festivals of the church, that the
whole procedure may strike the spectators with the utmost awe. The _auto
da fé_ may be called _the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy_. It is
a kind of gaol delivery, as often as a competent number of prisoners in
the Inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary
or extorted confession, or on the testimony of certain witnesses. The
process is generally as follows:--
In the morning, the prisoners are brought into a great hall, where they
put on certain habits, which are to be worn in the procession, and from
which they know their doom. The procession is led forth by Dominican
friars, after whom come the penitents, being all in black coats without
sleeves, and bare-footed, with wax candles in their hands. These are
followed by those penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt, and
who, over their black coats, have flames painted, with their points
turned downwards. Next come the _negative_ and _relapsed_, who are
doomed to be burnt, having flames on their habits pointing upwards.
After these come such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of
Rome, who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their pictures painted
on their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, as in a fury. Each
prisoner is attended by a familiar of the Inquisition; and those to be
burnt, have also a Jesuit on each hand urging them to abjure. After the
prisoners, there follow a troop of familiars on horseback, and then the
inquisitors and other officers of the court, on mules: last of all, the
inquisitor-general on a white horse, led by two men with black hats and
green hatbands.
On the occasion, a scaffold is erected large enough for two or three
thousand persons; at one end of which are the prisoners, at the other
the inquisitors. After a sermon, made of encomiums on the Inquisition,
and invectives against heretics, a priest ascends a desk near the
scaffold, and having taken the abjuration of the penitents, he recites
the final sentence of those who are to be put to death, and delivers
them to the secular arm, earnestly beseeching the authorities not to
touch their blood, nor to put their lives in danger! The prisoners,
being thus in the hands of the civil magistrate, are presently loaded
with chains, and carried first to the secular gaol, and thence, in an
hour or two, brought before the civil judge; who, after asking in what
religion they intend to die, pronounces sentence on such as declare they
die in the communion of the church of Rome, that they shall be first
strangled, and then burnt to ashes! or such as die in any other faith,
that they be burnt alive! Both are immediately carried to a place of
execution, where there are as many stakes set up as there are prisoners
to be burnt, with fuel of dried furze. The stakes for the professed, or
such as reject the Romish faith, are about four yards high, having a
small board near the top for the prisoner to be seated on. The negative
and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed mount their
stakes by a ladder, and the Jesuits, after several repeated exhortations
to be reconciled to the church, retire, telling them that they leave
them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow to receive their
souls, and carry them to the flames of hell. On this, a great shout is
raised, the cry being “Let the dogs’ beards be made;” that is done by
thrusting flaming furzes, fastened on long poles, against their faces,
till they are scorched, and every feature destroyed; and this is
accompanied with the loudest exclamations of savage joy. At last, fire
is set to the furze at the bottom of the stake, over which the victim
is, chained so high that the flame can scarcely reach the seat, and the
sufferer is thus made to endure a roasting. There cannot be a more
lamentable spectacle; the sufferers cry out, as long as they are able,
“Pity, for the love of God!” or such-like appeals for mercy and
sympathy; yet it is beheld, by both sexes of the superstitious populace,
with transports of joy and satisfaction, illustrating the genuine spirit
of Popery.
ACT OF FAITH AT MADRID, A.D. 1680.
Spain and Portugal, more than any other countries, have been governed on
the principles of Popery. To learn its true genius, we must look at the
horrid ceremony of burning dissenters, under the designation of
heretics. The following account relates to the act of faith celebrated
in honour of Charles II., on the occasion of his public entry into
Madrid, after his marriage, A.D. 1680.
Charles II., of Spain, was born A.D. 1662, and ascended the throne at
nearly the age of four years, October 7, 1665. In February, 1680, he
married Maria Louise of Orleans. This was publicly celebrated under the
direction of the priesthood, with all possible magnificence at Madrid,
and an _act of faith_ by the Inquisition, May 3, 1680.
A month before the general execution, the officers of the Inquisition,
preceded by their standard, rode with great solemnity from the palace of
the Holy Office to the open square, where, in the presence of crowds of
people, they proclaimed, by sound of trumpet and kettle-drums, that on
that day month, an act of faith, or general execution of the heretics,
would be exhibited. The proclamation being over, extensive preparations
were made for the dreadful solemnities, under pretence that the horrid
sacrifice was in honour of the blessed Jesus and his religion, the
Gospel of peace. Previous to this bloody solemnity, a scaffold, fifty
feet long, was erected in the great square, and raised to the same
height, with a balcony upon it with seats for the king and queen and
royal family. At the end, and along the sides, seats were placed, as an
amphitheatre, in view of the king, for the council of the Inquisition.
On one side, under a splendid canopy, a rostrum was elevated for the
grand-inquisitor; and at the opposite side was an elevated platform, on
which the prisoners were required to stand. In the centre of the
scaffold were erected two enclosures, or cages, open at the top,
enclosing the prisoners while sentence of death was pronounced on them.
Three pulpits also were erected, two of which were for the use of those
who read the sentence, and the third for the preacher; and, lastly, an
altar was erected near the rostrum, where the several counsellors sat.
The seats, on which their Catholic majesties sat, were ranged so that
the queen was at the king’s left hand, and on the right the
queen-mother. The rest of the whole scaffold was filled with the ladies
of honour of both queens; balconies were likewise erected for the
foreign ambassadors, and for the lords and ladies of the court, and
scaffolds also for the people.
On the solemn day, a month after the proclamation, the ceremony opened
in the following order. The march was preceded by a hundred
coal-merchants, armed with pikes and muskets, indicating their being
under obligation to furnish fuel for the burning of the criminals. These
were followed by Dominican friars, before whom a white cross was
carried. Behind them came the Duke of Mendini Celi, carrying the
standard of the Inquisition, a privilege hereditary in his family. The
standard was of red damask, on one side of which was represented a drawn
sword in a crown of laurels, and the arms of Spain on the other. Then
was brought forward a green cross, covered with black crape, which was
followed by several grandees and other persons of quality, familiars of
the Inquisition, wearing black cloaks, marked with black and white
crosses, edged with gold wire. The march was closed by fifty halbardiers
or guards, belonging to the Inquisition, clothed with black and white
garments, and commanded by the Marquis of Ponar, hereditary protector of
the Inquisition in the province of Toledo.
The procession having marched in this order before the palace, proceeded
to the square, when the standard and the green cross were placed on the
scaffold, where none but the Dominicans remained, the rest having
retired. These Dominican friars had spent the night in chanting psalms,
and several masses were celebrated on the altar from day-break until six
in the morning. About an hour after, the king, the queen, and the
queen-mother, with all the royal family, the lords, ladies and officers
of the court, made their appearance, and at eight o’clock ascended the
scaffold. The coal-merchants placed themselves on the left of the king’s
balcony, and his guards stood on the right. Afterwards came thirty men
carrying images of pasteboard, as large as life, some representing those
who had died in prison, and whose bones were brought in chests, with
flames painted on them, and the rest those who had escaped and were
outlawed.
These figures were placed at one end of the amphitheatre, and then came
twelve men and women with ropes about their necks, torches in their
hands, and pasteboard caps on their heads, three feet high, on which
were written their crimes. These were followed by fifty others, having
also torches in their hands, and clothed with yellow great coats, on
which were crosses of St. Andrew X., behind and before. These were Jews,
who had repented of their crimes, and desired to be admitted into the
church as believers in Jesus Christ. Next came twenty Jews of both
sexes, who had relapsed thrice into their former errors, and were
condemned to the flames. Those who had given some tokens of repentance
were to be strangled before they were burnt; but the rest, for having
persisted in their errors, were to be burnt alive. These last wore linen
garments, with devils and flames painted on them, and caps after the
same manner. Five or six among them, who were more obstinate than the
rest, were gagged, to prevent their uttering what the Roman Catholics
call blasphemous tenets.
Such as were condemned to die, were surrounded each by four Dominicans
and two familiars of the Inquisition. These unhappy creatures passed, in
the manner above related, under the king of Spain’s balcony, and after
having walked round the scaffold, were placed in the amphitheatre that
stood on the left, and each of them surrounded by the monks and
familiars who had attended them. Some of the grandees of Spain were
among these familiars, and they, consistently with their usual national
pride, seated themselves on high benches erected for the purpose. The
clergy of St. Martin’s parish, coming forward, placed themselves near
the altar; the officers of the supreme council of the Inquisition, the
inquisitor, and several other persons of distinction, both regulars and
seculars, all on horseback, with great solemnity, arrived afterwards,
and placed themselves on the right hand of the amphitheatre, and on both
sides of the rostrum in which the grand-inquisitor was to seat himself.
The grand-inquisitor came last, dressed in a purple habit, accompanied
by the president of the council of Castile, and several other officers,
who, on this occasion, would have been reckoned among the number of
heretics, had they not become the more than obsequious slaves of the
priests.
Then they began to celebrate mass; in the midst of which, the priest who
officiated went down from the altar and seated himself in a chair, which
had been placed for him. The grand-inquisitor came down from his seat,
and having saluted the altar, and put the mitre on his head, he advanced
towards the king’s balcony. Then he went up the steps that stood at the
end of the balcony, with several officers, who carried the cross and
Gospels, and a book containing the oath by which the kings of Spain
obliged themselves to protect the Catholic faith, to extirpate heretics,
and to support the holy Inquisition to the utmost of their power.
The king, standing up bareheaded, having on one side of him a grandee of
Spain, holding the royal sword with the point upward, swore to observe
the oath which a counsellor of the Inquisition had just read to him. The
king continued in this posture till such time as the grand-inquisitor
was returned back to his seat, where he took off his pontifical
vestments. Then one of the secretaries of the Inquisition ascended a
pulpit appointed for that purpose, and read an oath to the same purport,
which he administered to all the grandees who were then present; and
this part of the ceremony was followed by that of a Dominican going up
into the pulpit, and delivering a sermon full of flattery in praise of
the Inquisition.
About two o’clock in the afternoon they began to read the sentences of
the condemned criminals; and they began with those who had died in
prison, or who had been outlawed. Their figures in pasteboard were
carried up to the little scaffold, and put into the cages, and then they
read the sentences to each of the criminals who were alive, and they
were, one by one, put into the cages, in order that every person present
might know them. There were, in all, twenty persons, of both sexes,
condemned to the flames; and of these, six men and two women could not
be prevailed on either to confess or repent of their errors. A young
woman was remanded to prison because she had always made the strongest
protestations of her innocence, and therefore they thought it would be
proper to re-examine the evidence that had been produced against her.
Lastly, they read the sentences of those who had been found guilty of
bigamy, or witchcraft, with several other crimes, and this lasted till
about nine in the evening, when mass was finished.
Mass being finished, the grand-inquisitor, clothed in his pontifical
vestments, pronounced a solemn absolution on all those who would repent;
and then, the king being withdrawn, the criminals who had been condemned
to be burnt, were delivered over to the civil power, and, being mounted
upon asses, were carried in this manner through the gate called
Foncural. About three hundred paces from it they were chained to stakes,
and executed a little after midnight. Those who persisted in their
errors were burnt alive; but such as repented, were first strangled
before the fire was lighted. Those condemned to lesser punishments were
remanded to prison, and the inquisitors returned home to their palace!
To us, in our enlightened times, it must appear very astonishing, that
proceedings so inhuman and shocking could be witnessed and sanctioned by
a great monarch and his mighty nobles. Yet these outrages continued, but
not without complaints against the Inquisition from some of the
nobility and statesmen, so that no less than 9,216 victims of that court
are reckoned in the reign of Charles II., from A.D. 1666 to A.D. 1700:
of these, 1,728 were burnt to death; 576 were burnt in effigy; and 6,912
were subjected to severe penances, in Spain.
ACT OF FAITH AT LISBON, A.D. 1682.
Dr. Michael Geddes, an eminent English divine, and chaplain to the
factory at Lisbon for several years, until he was apprehended by the
Inquisition in 1686, when he was interdicted from officiating in his
ministerial capacity, and returned to England, witnessed an _auto da
fé_, in 1682, and he describes it as follows:--
“In the morning of the day, the prisoners are all brought into a great
hall, where they have the habits put on they are to wear in the
procession, which begins to come out of the Inquisition about nine of
the clock in the morning. The first in the procession are the Dominican
friars, who carry the standard of the Inquisition, which on the one side
hath their founder Dominic’s picture, and on the other side, a cross
between an olive leaf and a sword, with this motto, _Justitia et
Misericordia_. Next after the Dominicans come the penitents, some with
_benitos_, some without, according to the nature of their crimes; they
are all in black coats without sleeves, and bare-footed, with a wax
candle in their hand. Next come the penitents who have narrowly escaped
being burnt, who, over their black coat, have flames painted, with
their points turned downwards, to signify their having been saved, but
so as by fire: this habit is called by the Portuguese _fuego revolto_,
or flames turned upside down. Next come the negative and relapsed, that
are to be burnt, with flames upon their habit, pointing upward; and next
come those who profess doctrines contrary to the faith of the Roman
church, and who, besides flames on their habit, pointing upward, have
their picture, which is drawn two or three days before, upon their
breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, all with open mouths, painted
upon it. Pequa, a famous Spanish inquisitor, calls this procession,
_Horrendum ac tremendum spectaculem_; and so it is in truth, there being
some things in the looks of all the prisoners, besides those that are to
be burnt, that is ghastly and disconsolate, beyond what can be imagined;
and in the eyes and countenance of those that are to be burnt, there is
something that looks fierce and eager.
“The prisoners that are to be burnt alive besides a familiar, which all
the rest have, have a Jesuit on each hand of them, who are continually
preaching to them to abjure their heresies; but if they offer to speak
anything in defence of the doctrine, for professing which they are going
to suffer death, they are immediately gagged, and not suffered to speak
a word more. This I saw done to a prisoner presently after he came out
of the gates of the Inquisition, upon his having looked up to the sun,
which he had not seen before for several years, and cried out in
rapture, ‘How is it possible for people to behold that glorious body,
to worship any being but Him that created it?’ After the prisoners come
a troop of familiars on horseback, and after them the inquisitors, and
other officers of the court, upon mules, and last of all comes the
inquisitor-general, upon a white horse, led by two men, with a black hat
and a green hatband, and attended by all the nobles that are employed as
familiars in the procession.
“In the _Terceiro de Paco_, which may be as far from the Inquisition as
Whitehall is from Temple Bar, there is a scaffold erected, which may
hold two or three thousand people; at the one end sit the inquisitors,
and at the other end the prisoners, and in the same order as they walked
in the procession, those that are to be burnt being seated on the
highest benches behind the rest, and which may be ten feet above the
floor of the scaffold. After some prayers, and a sermon, which is made
up of encomiums on the Inquisition, and invectives against heretics, a
secular priest ascends a desk, which stands near the middle of the
scaffold, and who, having first taken all the abjurations of the
penitents, who kneel before him, one by one, in the same order as they
walked in the procession, at last he recites the final sentence of the
Inquisition upon those who are to be put to death, in the words
following:--
“‘We, the inquisitors of heretical pravity, having, with the concurrence
of the most illustrious _N._, lord archbishop of Lisbon, or of his
deputy, _M._, called on the name of his Lord Jesus Christ, and of His
glorious mother, the Virgin Mary, and sitting on our tribunal, and
judging with the holy Gospels lying before us, that so our judgment
might be in the sight of God, and our eyes might behold what is just in
all matters between the magnific Doctor _N._, advocate-fiscal, on the
one part, and you, _N._, now before us, on the other; we have ordained
that in this place, and on this day, you should receive your definitive
sentence. We do, therefore, by this our sentence, put in writing,
define, pronounce, declare, and sentence thee, _N._, of the city of
Lisbon, to be a convicted, confessing, affirmative, and professed
heretic, and to be delivered by us as such to the secular arm; and we,
by this sentence, do cast thee out of the ecclesiastical court, as a
convicted, confessing, affirmative, and professed heretic, and we do
leave and deliver thee to the secular arm, and to the power of the
secular court, but at the same time do _most earnestly beseech that
court so to moderate its sentence as not to touch thy blood, or to put
thy life in any danger_.’
“Is there in all history,” asks Dr. Geddes, “an instance of so gross and
confident a mockery of God and the world as this of the inquisitors,
earnestly beseeching the civil magistrates not to put the heretic they
have condemned and delivered to them to death? For were they in earnest
when they make their solemn petition to the secular magistrates, why do
they bring their prisoners out of the Inquisition, and deliver them to
those magistrates, in coats painted over with flames? Why do they teach
that all heretics, above all other malefactors, ought to be punished
with death? And why do they never resent the secular magistrates having
so little regard to their earnest and joint petition as never to fail to
burn all the heretics which are delivered to them by the Inquisition,
within an hour or two after they have them in their hands? And why, in
Rome, where the supreme civil and ecclesiastical authority are lodged in
the same person, is this petition of the Inquisition, which is made
there as well as in other places, never granted? Certainly, not to take
any notice of the old canon, which forbids the clergy to have any hand
in the blood of any person whatsoever, would be a much less dishonour to
the Inquisition, than to pretend to go on observing that canon, by
making a petition which is known to be so contrary to their principles
and desires.
“The prisoners are no sooner in the hands of the civil magistrate than
they are loaded with chains, and before the eyes of the inquisitors;
and, being first carried to the secular gaols, are within an hour or two
brought thence before the lord chief-justice, who, without knowing any
thing of their particular crimes, or of the evidence that was against
them, asks them, one by one, _in what religion do they intend to die?_
If they answer that they will die in the communion of the Roman church,
they are condemned by him to be _carried forth to the place of
execution, and there to be first strangled, and then burnt to ashes_.
But if they say that they will die in the Protestant or any other faith
that is contrary to the Roman, they are sentenced by him to be _carried
to the place of execution, and there to be burnt alive_. At the place of
execution, which, at Lisbon, is in the Ribera, there are so many stakes
set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with a good quantity of dry
furze about them. The stakes of _the professed_, as the inquisitors call
them, may be about four yards high, and have a small board whereon the
prisoner is to be seated, within half a yard of their top. The negative
and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed go up a
ladder between the two Jesuits, who have attended them all day, and when
they are come even with the fore-mentioned board, they turn about to the
people, and the Jesuits do spend near a quarter of an hour in exhorting
the professed to be reconciled to the church of Rome; which, if the
professed refuse to be, the Jesuits come down, and the executioner
ascends, and, having turned the professed off the ladder upon the seat,
and chained their bodies close to the stake, he leaves them, and the
Jesuits go up to them a second time, to renew their exhortation to them,
and at parting tell them that they leave them to the devil, who is
standing at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry them with him
into the flames of hell-fire, so soon as they are out of their bodies.
Upon this a great shout is raised, and as soon as the Jesuits are off
the ladder, the cry is, ‘_Let the dogs’ beards be made! Let the dogs’
beards be made!_’ which is done by thrusting of flaming furzes, fastened
to a long pole, against their faces; and this inhumanity is commonly
continued until their faces are burned to a coal, and is always
accompanied with such acclamations of joy as are not to be heard on any
other occasion; a bull fight or a farce being but dull entertainments to
the using of a professed heretic thus inhumanly.
“The beards of the professed having been thus made, as they call it in
jollity, fire is set to the furze which is at the bottom of the stake,
and above which the professed are chained so high that the top of the
flame seldom reacheth higher than the seat they sit upon; and if there
happen to be a wind, and to which that place is much exposed, it seldom
reacheth so high as their knees; so that though there be a calm, the
professed are commonly dead in half an hour after the furze is set on
fire; yet, if it prove windy, they are not after that dead in an hour
and a half, or two hours, and so are really roasted, and not burnt to
death. But though out of hell there cannot be a more lamentable
spectacle than this, being joined with the sufferers, so long as they
are able to speak, crying out, ‘_Misericordia, por amos de Dios_’
(_Mercy, for the love of God_,) yet it is beheld by people of both sexes
and of all ages with such transports of joy and satisfaction, as are not
on any other occasion to be met with. And that the reader may not think
that this inhuman joy may be the effect of a natural cruelty that is in
those people’s disposition, and not of the spirit of their religion, he
may rest assured that all public malefactors, besides heretics, have
their violent deaths nowhere more tenderly lamented than among the same
people, and even when there is nothing in the manner of their deaths
that appears inhuman or cruel.
“Within a few days after the execution, the pictures of all that have
been burnt, and which were taken off their breasts when they were
brought to the stake, are hung up in St. Domingo’s church, whose west
end, though very high, is all covered over with such trophies of the
Inquisition, hung up there in honour to Dominic, who, to fulfil his
mother’s dream, was the first inventor of that court. Dominic’s mother,
when she was about to be delivered, having dreamed that she was
delivered, not of a human creature, but of a fierce dog, with a burning
torch in his mouth!”
Enormities of cruel bigotry so truly shocking might well require to be
authenticated by the most unquestionable testimony. This has been given.
That of the Rev. Mr. Wilcox, chaplain to the English factory of Lisbon
in the reign of Queen Anne, and afterwards Bishop of Rochester, wrote in
reply to the inquiry of Bishop Burnet, confirming the statements of Dr.
Geddes, June 15, 1706. Part of his letter is as follows:--
“My Lord,--In obedience to your lordship’s commands of the 10th ultimo,
I have here sent all that was printed concerning the last _auto da fé._
I saw the whole process, which is agreeable to what is published by
Limborch and others upon that subject. Of the five persons condemned,
there were but four burnt; Antonio Tavances, by an unusual reprieve,
being saved after the procession. Heytor Dias and Maria Pinteyra were
burnt alive, and the other two first strangled. The execution was very
cruel. The woman was alive in the flames half an hour, and the man above
an hour. The present king and his brothers were seated at a window so
near as to be addressed, for a considerable time, in very moving terms,
by the man as he was burning. But though the favour he begged was only a
few more faggots, yet he was not able to obtain it. Those who are burnt
alive here are seated on a bench twelve feet high, fastened to a pole,
and above six feet higher than the faggots. The wind being a little
fresh, the man’s hinder parts were perfectly wasted; and as he turned
himself, his ribs opened before he left speaking, the fire being
recruited as it wasted, to keep him just in the same degree of heat. But
all entreaties could not procure him a larger allowance of wood to
shorten his misery and dispatch him!”