[1] Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiast.
[2] Sismondi, Litterature du Midi de l’Europe.
[3] Sismondi, Hist. des Français.
[4] Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiast.
[5] Daru, Hist. de Venise.
[6] Giannone, Storia di Napoli.
[7] Llorente, Hist. de la Inquisicion de Espana.
[8] Mariana, Hist. de Espana. Llorente.
[9] Schiller, Abfall der Niederlande.
[10] Llorente.
[11] Lafitau, Conquestes des Portugais.
[12] As soon as the crime of suspicion of heresy was established in the
preliminary accusation, the Inquisitors ordered the arrest of the
delinquent. From that moment there were neither privileges nor shelter
for him. Whatever might be his rank, he was seized in the midst of his
family and friends, and no one dared to offer the least resistance. From
the instant he was in the hands of the Inquisition not an individual was
allowed any communication with him, he was abandoned by all the world
and deprived of every species of consolation. Wo to the compassionate
mind that dared to show any sympathy for a victim of the Inquisition.
The accused was plunged into a frightful dungeon till the Inquisitors
saw fit to interrogate him.
In the mean time the officers of the Inquisition proceeded to the
dwelling of the accused, and drew up an inventory of all his goods,
which were immediately seized. His creditors lost their debts; his wife
and children were left in the most pitiable desertion; wives and
daughters the most virtuous and accomplished, have many times been seen
reduced to the horrible necessity of gaining a wretched existence by
prostitution, occasioned by their destitute state and the contempt
attached to them from being connected with a person apprehended by the
Holy Office. After he had passed many days and even months in prison,
the Inquisitors caused him to insinuate, by means of the jailor, that he
demanded audience; for it was a constant practice of this Tribunal to
contrive that the accused should be the person to demand. The prisoner,
appearing before his judges for the first time, they questioned him as
if they did not know him, and engaged him by the most crafty methods, to
acknowledge his crime. _Llorente Hist. de la Inquisicion._
[13] ‘The least mixture of African, Indian, Moorish, or Jewish blood
taints a whole generation. Nor does the knowledge of such a fact die
away in the course of years, or become unnoticed from the obscurity and
humbleness of the parties. Not a child in this populous city (Seville)
is ignorant that a family, who, beyond the memory of man, have kept a
confectioner’s shop in a central part of the town, had one of their
ancestors punished by the Inquisition for a relapse into Judaism. I well
recollect how, when a boy, I often passed that way, scarcely venturing
to cast a side glance on a pretty young woman, who constantly attended
the shop, for fear, as I said to myself, of shaming her. A person free
from tainted blood is defined by law, _‘Christiano viejo, limpio de toda
mala raza.’ An old Christian, free from all bad race and stain._ The
severity of this law, or rather of the public opinion enforcing it,
shuts out its victims from every employment in church or state, and
excludes them even from _fraternities_, or religious associations, which
are otherwise open to persons of the lowest ranks. I verily believe that
were St Peter a Spaniard, he would either deny admittance into heaven to
a people of tainted blood, or send them to a retired corner, where they
might not offend the eyes of the _old Christians_.’
_Doblado’s Letters from Spain._
[14] Attorney General.
[15] Calificacion or _qualification_, a judgment pronounced upon the
character and tendency of any actions or speeches denounced before the
Inquisition. This was done by officers holding a special commission for
that purpose called _Calificadores_.
[16] There were three sorts of persons distinguished by the Tribunal as
suspected of heresy; those who were _lightly_ suspected, those who were
_seriously_ suspected, and those who were _violently_ suspected. The
lightly suspected were designated by the term _de levi_, and the
seriously and violently suspected, by the term _de vehementi_.
_Llorente Hist. de la Inquisicion._
[17] _Du bist ein narr das du dies glaubst._
[18] There were three methods of torture; the cord, fire, and water.
In the first method, they tied the hands behind the back of the patient
by means of a cord which passed through a pulley attached to the roof,
and the executioners drew him up as high as possible. After suspending
him for some time, the cord was loosened, and he fell within six inches
of the ground. This terrible shock dislocated all the joints and cut the
flesh even to the sinews. The process was renewed every hour and left
the patient without strength or motion. It was not until after the
physician had declared that the sufferer could no longer endure the
torture without dying, that the Inquisitors sent him back to prison.
The second was performed by means of water. The executioners stretched
the victim over a wooden instrument like a spout, fitted to receive the
body of a man, without any bottom but a stick passing across it. The
body falling backwards, came to such a position that the feet were
higher than the head. In this state the respiration became very painful,
and the patient suffered the most dreadful agonies in all his limbs from
the pressure of the cords, the knots of which cut into the flesh. In
this cruel position the executioners passed into the throat a piece of
fine linen, wet, a part of which covered the nostrils. They then turned
water into the mouth and nose and left it to filter so slowly that one
hour at least was consumed before the sufferer had swallowed a drop,
although it trickled without interruption. Thus the patient found no
interval for respiration. At every moment he made an effort to swallow,
hoping to give passage to a little air; but the wet linen prevented
this, and caused the water to enter by the nostrils. Thus it often
happened that when the torture was finished, they drew the linen from
the throat all stained with the blood of the vessels which had been
burst by the struggles of the unfortunate victim. It should be added,
that every instant, a powerful arm turned the fatal lever, and at each
turn the cords which bound the arms and legs penetrated to the very
bones.
If by this second torment they could obtain no confession, the
Inquisitors resorted to fire. For this purpose the executioners tied the
hands and feet in such a manner that the sufferer could not change his
position. They then rubbed the feet with oil and lard, and other
penetrating matter, and placed them before the fire, until the flesh was
so roasted that the bones and sinews appeared in every part.--_Llorente,
Hist. de la Inquisicion._
[19] When the crime imputed to the accused was not certain, and he had
not entangled himself in the interrogatories, he was acquitted, on the
condition that he should make a formal abjuration of his heresies and be
purged, after the canonical fashion, of the suspicion attached to him.
After this, he was absolved _ad cautelam_, or, in other words, as having
been suspected of heresy.--_Llorente, Hist. de la Inquisicion._
[20] One who makes a voluntary confession, and takes his trial on the
strength of the evidence which he gives against himself, rather than the
testimony of other witnesses.
[21] As a specimen of the modern Catalan dialect, the original of the
above letter is subjoined.