MODERN VICTIMS OF THE INQUISITION.
Galileo--Dr. Orobio de Castro--Count of Olavides--A Beata--Joseph da
Costa.
“Popery is unchangeable.” Such is the profession of its greatest
advocates. They declare that “the Holy Roman Catholic Apostolic Church”
is ever the same in its divine foundation, its principles of faith, and
its ecclesiastical order. But history, as we have seen, records a long
series of changes in its doctrines and institutions, adapted to the
varying policy of its hierarchy, which is antichristian; and the
advancement of society in knowledge and religion has compelled the
observance of far more respect than formerly to the dictates of
humanity. Hence the abolition of the horrid custom of publicly burning
men for their religious opinions. The spirit of intolerance and bigotry,
however, is essential to Romanism, as a system of priestly claims; but
even this spirit has been restrained, as will appear from the following
examples of its modern victims.
1. GALILEO TORTURED IN THE INQUISITION.--Galileo Galilei, son of a
Florentine nobleman, was born A.D. 1564. He became a famous
mathematician and astronomer at Pisa and Padua, and by his newly
invented telescope he made valuable discoveries, so that, A.D. 1615, he
taught that the sun, not the earth, is the centre of our system. This
was considered by the Pope and cardinals a heresy, and he was seized by
the Inquisition, and condemned as a heretic. He recanted, and was
released under promise not to offend again; but being confident in the
correctness of his science, he published, A.D. 1632, his “Dialogues on
the Ptolemaic and Copernican System of the World,” when he was again
arrested and condemned by that court to imprisonment for life, while his
books were burnt, as if science could injure religon. Torture in the
prison compelled him to sign the following abjuration; and, lest his
death should endanger the Inquisition, he was banished to Florence. “I,
Galileus, son of the late Vincentius Galileus, a Florentine, aged
_seventy_, being here personally upon my trial, and on my knees
before you, the most eminent and reverend the lord cardinals,
inquisitors-general of the universal Christian commonwealth against
heretical pravity, having before my eyes the most Holy Gospels, which I
touch with my proper hands, do swear that I always have believed, and do
now believe, and by the help of God hereafter will believe all that
which the holy Catholic and apostolic Roman church doth hold, preach,
and teach. But because, after I had been juridically enjoined and
commanded by this Holy Office, that I should wholly forsake that false
opinion, which holds that the sun is the centre, and immoveable; and
that I should not hold, defend, nor by any manner, neither by word or
writing, teach the aforesaid false doctrine; and after it was notified
to me that the aforesaid doctrine was contrary to the Holy Scripture, I
have written and printed a book, in which I treat of the said doctrine
already condemned, and produce reasons of great force in favour of it,
without giving any answer to them, I am, therefore, judged by the Holy
Office as vehemently suspected of heresy, _viz._, that I have held and
believed that the sun is the centre of the world, and immoveable, and
that the earth is not the centre, but moves.
“Being, therefore, willing to remove from the minds of your eminences,
and of every Catholic Christian, this vehement suspicion legally
conceived against me, I do, with a sincere heart and faith impressed,
abjure, curse, and detest the abovesaid errors and heresies, and, in
general, every other error and sect contrary to the aforesaid holy
church; and I swear, that for the future I will never more say or
assert, either by word or writing, anything to give occasion for the
like suspicion; but that if I know any heretic, or person suspected of
heresy, I will inform against him to this Holy Office, or to the
inquisitor or ordinary of the place in which I shall be. Moreover, I
swear and promise that I will fulfil and wholly observe all the penances
which are, or shall be, enjoined me by this Holy Office. But if, what
God forbid, it shall happen that I should act contrary, by any words of
mine, to my promises, protestations, and oaths, I do subject myself to
all the penalties and punishments which have been ordained and published
against such offenders by the sacred canons and other constitutions
general and particular. So help me God and His Holy Gospels, which I
touch with my own proper hands.
“I, the abovesaid Galileus Galilei, have abjured, sworn, promised, and
obliged myself as above; and in testimony of these things have
subscribed, with my own proper hand, this present writing of my
abjuration, and have repeated it word for word at Rome, in the convent
of Minerva.
“I, Galileus Galilei, have abjured as above, with my own proper hand.”
July 22nd, 1633.
Galileo, indignant against his oppressors for compelling him to swear to
an error, as he rose from his knees, said, “It still moves!” His
tortures left him afflicted, but he lived seven years, and died in
January, A.D. 1642.
2. DR. BALTHASAR OROBIO DE CASTRO.--Limborch gives the following account
“of the method of torturing, and the degree of tortures now used in the
Spanish Inquisition,” as he received it from Dr. Orobio de Castro, a
Jew, about A.D. 1680. This eminent man was born at Seville, and became
professor of metaphysics at Salamanca and at Seville, where he was
accused to the Inquisition, as of the Jewish religion. This accusation
was made by his servant, a Moor, who had before been convicted, and
whipped by his order, for thieving; and afterwards, he was again accused
before that tribunal by a certain enemy for another fact, which would
have proved him to be a Jew. But Orobio obstinately denied his Jewish
opinions, and he was, therefore, immured in the gaol of the Inquisition.
“I will here give the account of his torture,” says Limborch, “as I had
it from his own mouth. After three whole years which he had been in
gaol, and several examinations, and the discovery of his crimes to him
of which he was accused, in order to his confession, and his constant
denial of them, he was at length carried out of his gaol, and through
several turnings brought to the place of torture, towards the evening.
This was a large under-ground room, arched roof, and the walls covered
with black hangings. The candlesticks were fastened to the wall, and the
whole room enlightened with candles placed in them. At one end of it
there was an enclosed place like a closet, where the inquisitor and
notary sat at a table, so that the place seemed to him as the very
mansion of death, every thing appearing so terrible and awful. Here the
inquisitor again admonished him to confess the truth, before his
torments began. When he answered he had told the truth, the inquisitor
gravely protested, that since he was so obstinate as to suffer the
torture, the Holy Office would be innocent, if he should shed his blood,
or even expire in his torments. When he had said this, they put a linen
garment over his body, and drew it so very close on each side, as almost
squeezed him to death. When he was almost dying, they slackened the
sides of the garment, and after he began to breathe again, the sudden
alteration put him to the most grievous anguish and pain. When he had
overcome this torture, the same admonition was repeated, that he would
confess the truth in order to prevent further torment. And as he
persisted in his denial, they tied his thumbs so very tight with small
cords, as made the extremities of them to swell, and caused the blood to
spurt out from under his nails. After this, he was placed with his back
against a wall, and fixed upon a bench. Into the wall were fastened
little iron pulleys, through which there were ropes drawn, and tied
round his body, in several places, and especially his arms and legs. The
executioners, drawing these ropes with great violence, fastened his body
with them to the wall, so that his hands and feet, and especially his
fingers and toes, being bound so straitly with them, put him to the
most exquisite pain, and seemed to him just as though he had been
dissolving in flames. In the midst of these torments the torturer, on a
sudden, drew the bench from under him, so that the miserable wretch hung
by the cords without anything to support him, and by the weight of his
body drew the knots yet much closer. After this, a new kind of torture
succeeded. There was one instrument like a small ladder, made of two
upright pieces of wood, and five cross ones sharpened before. This the
torturer placed over against him, and by a certain proper motion struck
it with great violence against both his shins, so that he received upon
each of them at once five violent strokes, which put him to such
intolerable anguish that he fainted away. After he came to himself, they
inflicted upon him the last torture. The torturer tied ropes about the
wrists of Orobio, and then put the ropes about his own back, which was
covered with leather to prevent his hurting himself. Then falling
backwards, and putting his feet up against the wall, he drew them with
all his might, till they cut through Orobio’s flesh, even to the very
bones; and this torture was repeated thrice, the ropes being tied about
the distance of two fingers’ breadth from the former wound, and drawn
with the same violence. But it happened, that as the ropes were drawing
the second time, they slid into the first wound, which caused so great
an effusion of blood that he seemed to be dying. Upon this the physician
and surgeon, who are always ready, were sent for out of a neighbouring
apartment, to ask their advice, if the torture could be continued
without danger of death, lest the ecclesiastical judges should be guilty
of an irregularity if the criminal should die in his torments. They, who
were far from being enemies to Orobio, answered, that he had strength
enough to endure the rest of the torture; and hereby preserved him from
having the tortures that he had already endured, repeated on him;
because his sentence was, that he should suffer them all at one time,
one after another, so that, if at any time they are forced to leave off
through fear of death, all the tortures that have already been suffered
must be successively inflicted, to satisfy the sentence of the
inquisitors. Upon this decision of the physician, the torture was
repeated the third time, and then ended. After this he was bound up in
his own clothes, and carried back to his prison; and he was scarcely
healed of his wounds in seventy days. And inasmuch as he made no
confession under his torture, he was condemned, not as one convicted,
but suspected of Judaism, to wear, for two whole years, the infamous
habit called _San-benito_, and after that term to perpetual banishment
from the kingdom of Seville. On regaining his liberty he settled at
Amsterdam, professed himself a Jew, and was circumcised, taking the name
of Isaac, and died A.D. 1687.”
3. COUNT D’OLAVIDES.--Don Paul, Count d’Olavides, was an extraordinary
person. He undertook the fertilising Sierra Morena, or the Black
Mountain, on which he planted colonies of Germans. These being
Protestants, he was apprehended as a heretic, A.D. 1776. Limborch says,
“The victim which marks this period was the celebrated Olavides, whose
arrest suspended the progress of colonisation in the Sierra Morena. This
incident was derived from the same causes which contributed to the
removal of his protector (d’Aranda). With a similar spirit of
free-thinking, which he imbibed from the fashionable philosophers of the
day, he was equally offended by the obstacles which he experienced in
his beneficial designs, from the prejudices and institutions of Spain.
As most of the colonists were Protestants, he resisted all endeavours
for their conversion, and opposed the attempt to enforce their
attendance on the rites of the Catholic worship. Having established a
law to permit no monks in the vicinity of the settlement, he obtained an
order for the removal of a convent, and built his own house on the site.
He frequently indulged himself in expressions of ridicule against the
idleness and licentiousness of the monks, and spoke with too great
freedom of the depopulation and other mischiefs occasioned by the
celibacy of the clergy.
“Olavides’ imprudence awakened the jealousy of the Spanish church. His
conduct was closely scrutinised; his works and actions were noted and
exaggerated; and a formal accusation was preferred against him for
heresy, before that tribunal which is considered as the bulwark of
religion. The removal of his protector gave full scope to the
machinations of his enemies. He was summoned to Madrid, under the
pretence of rendering an account of the establishment under his care.
Apprised of his danger, he made some ineffectual attempts to obtain the
royal protection, and to soothe the guardians of the faith; but after a
residence of a twelvemonth in the capital, he was suddenly arrested, and
conveyed to the prisons of the Inquisition; his papers were seized, and
his effects sequestrated.” After two years of impenetrable seclusion,
his process was closed, and his sentence was publicly announced. We give
an account of this ceremony in the words of an eye-witness:--
“The _autos da fé_ are still celebrated at the tribunal of the
Inquisition, with more or less publicity, according to the impressions
intended to be made. A great number of persons, of all ranks, civil,
military, and ecclesiastical, were invited, I should rather say
summoned, to attend at the Holy Office, at eight o’clock in the morning,
on the 24th of the last month. They were all totally ignorant of the
reason of their being called on. After waiting some time, in an
apartment destined for their reception, they were admitted to the
tribunal--a long, darkish room, with the windows near the ceiling, and
furnished with a crucifix, under a black canopy; a table, with two
chairs for the inquisitors; a stool for the prisoner; two chairs for his
guards; and benches for the spectators. The familiars of the
Inquisition, Abrantes, Mora, and others, grandees of Spain, attended as
servants, without hats or swords.
“Olavides soon appeared, attended by his brothers in black, his looks
quite cast down, his hands closed together, and holding a green taper.
His dress was an olive-coloured coat, white canvas breeches, and thread
stockings, and his hair was combed back into a bag. He was seated on the
stool prepared for him. The secretaries then read, during three hours,
the accustomed accusations and proceedings against him. They consisted
of above one hundred articles, such as his possession of free books,
loose pictures, letters of recommendation from Voltaire, his having
neglected some external duties of devotion, uttering hasty expressions,
his inattention to images, together with every particular of his life,
birth, and education, were all noted. It concluded with declaring him
guilty of heresy. At that moment he fainted away, but was brought to the
recovery of his senses, that he might hear the sentence pronounced
against him. It was no less than this:--Deprivation of all his offices,
incapacity of holding any hereafter, or of receiving any royal favour,
confiscation of his property, banishment to thirty leagues from Madrid,
from all places of royal residence, from Seville, the new colony, and
Lima, the place of his birth; prohibition from riding on horseback, or
wearing gold, silver, or silk; and eight years’ confinement and monastic
discipline in a convent. From respect to St. Jago, his wearing the cross
of that order was not mentioned, and he was excused from putting on the
_San-benito_.
“The sentence being read, he was led to the table, where, on his knees,
he recanted his errors, and acknowledged his implicit belief in the
articles of the Roman Catholic faith. Four priests in surplices, and
with wands in their hands, then came in. They repeatedly laid their
wands across his shoulders while a _Miserére_ was sung. He then withdrew
from the inquisition.
“However rigorous this punishment may appear, yet it is mild when
compared with the severity with which the Inquisition formerly visited
similar offences. Nothing less than the personal interference of the
monarch himself, and the clemency of the grand-inquisitor, could
probably have prevented a repetition of those dreadful scenes which have
rendered this formidable tribunal an object of universal horror; for the
confessor, and many of the subordinate members, insisted on the
necessity of an _auto da fé_, in which Olavides would have been
infallibly committed to the flames.”
Olavides made his escape from the convent in which he had been confined,
and retired to France. There he wrote a book, entitled, “The Gospel
Triumphant; or, the Converted Philosopher,” for which he obtained pardon
and permission to return to Spain.
4. SUFFERINGS OF A BEATA.--_Beatas_, or _blessed females_, are devotees
in the Romish church. One of this class, a lady of extraordinary piety
and courage, perished at the stake of the Inquisition in Seville, about
the year 1780. She had adopted the principles of Michael de Molinos, a
Romish priest, of a noble family in Spain, founder of the _Quietists_.
They placed religion in spiritual feeling, in opposition to ceremonies,
deducing his principles from the Scriptures. Molinos having published a
book, entitled “Spiritual Guide,” at Rome, A.D. 1675, he was imprisoned
in the Inquisition, condemned as a heretic, and died under torture.
In a “Letter to the Spanish Inquisition,” about 1810, the writer says of
this lady:--“The confinement of the Beata lasted three or four years,
during which time there was scarcely a graduate of any order, who did
not, in turn, undertake the conversion of the heretic. The assessors to
the inquisitors exhausted the syllogistic art, but hardened as she was,
she would not yield to their powerful arguments and authorities. The
poor wretch was not aware of her danger in not being convinced, and the
cause was drawing towards a conclusion. This arrived, and she insisted
in arguing. The tribunal declared her an obstinate heretic, and
appointed a time for the _auto da fé_. Scarce an inhabitant of Seville
but went to see this solemn act. It lasted from the early part of the
morning until night. The criminal was conducted, gagged, and mounted on
an ass, in the midst of divines, who endeavoured to subdue her obstinacy
by new arguments, and vie with the multitude in stunning her with
repeated shouts of _Viva la fé_ (long live the faith). Her cause was
read from the pulpit, in the principal church of the Dominicans,
intermixed with obscenities expressed in the grossest terms. Nothing now
remained but to deliver her up to the secular judge, that she might be
punished with death. A retraction, previous to this act, might have
saved her life, but the unfortunate fanatic persisted in not making it,
and was delivered up. The approaching punishment, and depression of
spirits, occasioned by the fatigues of the day, made her desist from
her obstinacy when it was too late. She was converted, to the
satisfaction of the monks who were present; but the punishment could not
even be deferred. She alone obtained as a favour to be burnt after
death; and was _strangled_ in the evening, amidst the tears of all
devout souls, who admired the pious artifice by which this opportunity
was taken of sending her to heaven, to prevent her falling again into
heresy.”
“You will have no difficulty,” says the writer, “in persuading yourself,
that this happened only _thirty years_ ago. But remember, that the same
laws now exist in all their force, and that it is scarce a year since
the famous _Quemadero_, [the pile on which criminals are burnt,] where
this scene was represented, was destroyed at Seville, because it stood
in the way of the fortifications which were erecting against the French.
A _Quemadero_, on which many thousands have perished, and which,
doubtless owing to the frequent call for it, was constructed of solid
materials, unlike other scaffolds, which are erected merely as occasion
requires. Imagine to yourself that the greater part of the people are
still disposed to look quietly on the repetition of such scenes; and
tell me then, whether the Inquisition can be viewed in the light in
which you place it?
“The time has gone by, it is true, when these scenes were exhibited
daily; when the victims groaned in subterraneous dungeons, and made the
hall of the tribunal resound at night with the cries which torture
wrung from them; the time has passed, though not long since. It has
passed, though it depends on the will of three men to restore it. It has
passed:--then why all this declamation? Leave this question to those,
who, forced by the circumstances of the times to conceal their
inclinations and their opinions, clothe themselves in sheep-skins,
anxiously awaiting the day when they may wreak their vengeance on those
who have constrained them to show a mildness and forbearance. You
strangers, who have lately visited Spain, have no means of forming a
correct idea of the slow and endless oppression which this tribunal
occasions, even in its actual state of slumber.”
5. JOSEPH DA COSTA, PEREIRA FURTADO DE MENDONIA.--Da Costa was a native
of _Colonia da Sacramenta_, on the river La Plata; but he suffered from
the Inquisition in Portugal. In his “Narrative,” he says, “Three or four
days had elapsed, after my arrival at Lisbon from England, in July,
1802, when a magistrate abruptly entered my apartments, and telling me
who he was, informed me that he had orders to seize all my papers, and
to conduct me to prison, where I was to be rigorously kept aloof from
all communication. I doubted whether he were the person he represented
himself to be, not only on account of his unpolished manners, but also
because he had neither his official staff, nor any other sign of power;
and though I knew that this was an error of essential consequence in a
magistrate, that it justified me in impugning his authority, and
considering him as a mere intruder upon the sacred asylum of my abode,
I invited him civilly to sit down, and entreated that he would show me
the order he pretended to possess, or tell me by whose authority it had
been issued. He then showed me a letter from the intendant-general of
police, which directed my imprisonment, the seizure of my papers, and
that endeavours should be made to find, upon or about me, some masonical
decorations. The motive of this proceeding, as stated in the _order_,
was, that I had been to England without a previous passport.
“When I had read this fatal note, all the sorrowful consequences of an
imprisonment rushed upon my mind, sensible that the fury of my
persecutor would know no limits. I had sufficient coolness, however, to
represent to this myrmidon of justice, that the harsh treatment of the
intendant-general, without having any previous information of my case,
was not a little surprising, since, so far from having gone to England
without a passport, I had previously procured one from his Royal
Highness the Prince Regard, which leave I had solicited, in consequence
of being employed in the royal service as one of the literary directors
of the royal printing-office, and my not deeming it proper to leave the
kingdom without my sovereign’s permission; that I had not only obtained
leave of absence, in writing, from the secretary of state’s office, and
procured a formal passport from the minister of foreign affairs, but
that the minister of finance had charged me, by the sovereign’s command,
to transact some business relative to the royal service in London; and
that, in proof of this, I could show him the official letters, some of
which were directed to me in Lisbon, before my departure, and others
were forwarded to London after my arrival in that city. I pleaded,
therefore, my right to expect that the intendant-general of police
should have been informed of all this, before he proceeded against me
with such severity, or alleged, as a cause of his proceedings against
me, that I had gone to England without a passport.
“The corregidor, willing to show me that there had been no precipitation
in his way of proceeding, accused me of rashness for thinking that so
excellent a magistrate as the intendant-general, whose probity was equal
to his knowledge and learning, would have proceeded in a case of such
importance without mature deliberation; and he showed me another letter.
In this he was ordered by the intendant of police to take care of every
thing that I might have brought from England belonging to the royal
service, such as a collection of books I had purchased for the public
library of Lisbon, some instruments directed to be made in England, and
some books and other things belonging to the royal printing-office.
“The reading of this second letter produced in me sentiments at variance
with those which I had entertained of the first; for, if the idea of the
misfortunes I was about to suffer had impressed my mind with a natural
dejection, I now reflected on the meanness of the souls that could
prescribe orders so manifestly contradictory. This reflection inspired
me with such a contempt for the orders, and for those who had sanctioned
and were to carry them into execution, that the recollection of it
proved no small consolation to me during my troubles.
“Enclosed, then, in a solitary cell, in the prison called Limoeiro,
without any other company than that of sorrowful thoughts, labouring
under uncertainty as to my fate, and sustaining every possible
inconvenience attendant on such prisons, I remained for eight days;
until one night the gaoler came to my dungeon, and told me that he had
orders to take me before the corregidor, my judge, who wished to proceed
in the necessary interrogatories, preparatory to my trial. I appeared
before the judge, in a small room of the gaol; when I requested him to
order that I should be released from my solitary confinement. He stated,
that the intendant-general of police was in the habit of detaining his
prisoners in solitary confinement for days, months, and years--indeed,
so long as he thought convenient; and that the magistrates were left to
their own discretion, with unlimited powers to investigate crimes, and
to bring the culprits to punishment.
“Six months had I passed in solitary confinement, when one night the
gaoler came to the cell, accompanied by four or six men. This mysterious
and absurd way of proceeding rendered it apparent to me that I was going
to the prison of the Inquisition; an event which I had long anticipated.
I was taken in chains to a carriage, where I found a silent companion;
and being surrounded by constables, officers of the Inquisition, who
walked by the side of the carriage, I was conveyed to St. Anton Gate.
There, to prevent any person from guessing my destination, I was ordered
to alight, and led through an alley, to the gate of the palace of the
Inquisition, which communicates with the prison. I was then conveyed to
a room, where they entered my name in the books, made an inventory of
the few clothes I had, and asked me if I had any knife, razor, or
scissors, or any other instrument; also, if I had any gold, silver, or
jewels; and, on their saying that they would rely on my word in this
respect, I produced some pieces of gold coin, most stupidly relying on
their assertion; but as soon as they obtained this, and found that I had
nothing else to produce, they began the most scrupulous search over
every part of my body.
“The gaoler, who for greater dignity has the name of _alcaide_, that is,
keeper of the castle, addressed to me almost a little sermon,
recommending me to behave in this respectable house with great
propriety; stating also, that I must not make any noise in my room, nor
speak loud, lest the other prisoners might happen to be in the
neighbouring cells and hear me, with other similar instructions. He then
took me to my cell, a small room, 12 feet by 8, with a door to the
passage: in this door were two iron grates, far from each other, and
occupying the thickness of the wall, which was three feet, and outside
of these grates there was, besides, a wooden door; in the upper part of
this was an aperture that let into the cell a borrowed light from the
passage, which passage received its light from the windows fronting a
narrow yard, but having opposite, at a very short distance, very high
walls. In this small room were a kind of wood frame without feet,
whereon lay a straw mattress, which was to be my bed; a small water-pot;
and another utensil for various purposes, which was emptied only once
every eight days, when I went to mass in the prisoners’ private chapel.
This was the only opportunity I had of taking fresh air during such a
period; and they contrived seven divisions in the chapel in such a
manner that the prisoners could never see each other, or know how many
were granted the favour of going to mass. The cell was arched above, and
the floor was brick, the wall being formed of stone, and very thick. The
place was consequently very cold in winter, and so damp, that very
frequently the grates were covered with drops of water like dew; and my
clothes, during the winter, were in a state of perpetual moisture. Such
was my abode for the period of nearly three years!
“The day following my entrance into these prisons, the gaoler came at
nine o’clock, with another turnkey, and said that I must accompany him
to the hearing of my case by the lord-inquisitor, appointed by the holy
tribunal to be my judge, and what they call reporter of the cause, who
happened to be the first inquisitor and president of the small board,
Manoel Stanislao Fragoso. The affability with which this priest treated
me, when I first spoke to him, knew no abatement during the time of my
imprisonment, except in one or two instances, when his temper was
ruffled.
“I must acknowledge, as a warning to others, that my childish credulity,
in entertaining the hope of finding in the Holy Office meekness,
clemency, or despatch in my trial, had no other ground, except the
popular rumour in every corner of Portugal, that the Holy Office is very
much altered, and does not now practise those cruelties which it before
committed. The inquisitor was in the audience room, with another priest,
who acted as clerk, or, as they call it, notary, and he commenced the
interrogatories, first, by inquiring my name, parentage, and place of
birth; next, if the familiar, who brought me to the prisons of the Holy
Office, had done me any violence; or if I knew the cause that had
subjected me to the notice of the Inquisition. He then observed to me,
that I was before the most just and merciful tribunal on earth; but to
obtain its mercy and pardon for my crimes, it was necessary that I
should, of my own free will and accord, confess all crimes of which I
had been guilty, without concealing my accomplices, frauds, or any other
circumstances, and that this confession must be immediate; because the
present time was the most favourable moment a prisoner in the
Inquisition could have--for, should I confess afterwards what I might
deny in the beginning, the lenity of the tribunal would be very
different.
“I replied to the inquisitor, that having been first imprisoned by the
police, on the ground of having gone to England without passports,
although I was not interrogated about this subject, but only with
respect to my having entered into the order of freemasonry, I was led to
conjecture that my being a freemason was the cause of my trial by the
Inquisition. If, indeed, this was the crime of which I was accused, I
was disposed to confess it, not only because it was true that I was a
freemason, but with a view that I might obtain the mercy he, the
inquisitor, had promised me; but if I was mistaken in my conjecture, and
the crime I was accused of was different, I begged that its nature might
be disclosed to me, and I would reply to the accusation as should be
necessary. The inquisitor replied, that he could do no otherwise than
praise my laudable resolution to confess my crimes; but it was his duty
again to admonish me (and he said this with a great deal of apparent
charity), that I ought to examine my conscience thoroughly, and not
leave anything untold of all that I had done in any period of my life;
that I had committed crimes whose cognisance belonged to that holy
tribunal, and that I was accused of them, and informed against on that
account; that I should remember his recommendation, that to confess my
crimes was highly important to the clearing of my conscience; to the
salvation of my soul, and to the successful issue of my cause; and that
he, to do me favour, would send me back to my solitary prison, that I
might have time to examine my conscience. I told him, that the greatest
possible favour he could confer upon me was that of accelerating my
cause; for having been more than six months in prison without being
allowed to communicate with any one, my health was so seriously injured,
that all I wished was to have a sentence, in order to get free from my
painful situation and suspense; and, however rigorous that sentence
might be, it would always be preferable, in my estimation, to being in a
solitary prison, under circumstances that could only lead to an
inevitable ruin, which was the more to be feared, as I was literally
dying by inches in slow torments.
“I was then immediately remanded to my prison; and the gaoler came to
inform me that the goodness of the lords inquisitors extended so far as
to order that I should have, besides the ordinary allowance, some coffee
for breakfast, and, in consideration of the state of my health, a daily
allowance of wine. The ordinary allowance he spake of was half a pound
of boiled meat--the bones enter into the weight of this half pound, and,
on some days, this allowance is very scanty--a few spoonfuls of rice, a
cup of gravy, and some bread. The only persons who are allowed to have
any access to the prisoner, or who can see and speak to him, are the
gaoler, and four guards, called the ‘faithful of the prisoner,’ who
convey the prisoner backwards and forwards to the audiences, and are at
the same time the executioners who administer the tortures. These guards
also wait upon the prisoners, and bring them what they want,--such as
food, water, &c. But it is necessary to observe here, that these guards
are, properly speaking, spies set upon the prisoner, to observe
everything in the prisons, and to relate it to the inquisitors, not only
what they can gain by listening to the conversation of the prisoners,
but also what they can see through small holes they make in the ceiling,
just at the corners of the cells.”
Da Costa was kept thus in prison for three years, during which period he
was tormented by repeated examinations, without sentence being passed
upon him. Finding his health decline, he formed the desperate resolution
of attempting his escape from prison; and, happily, he succeeded, and at
length reached England. The relation of his sufferings in the
Inquisition occasioned his friends to request his giving an account of
them to the public; and, therefore, he published in London the
“Narrative of his Persecutions,” in 1811.