Endless was the catalogue of most pious men and eminent scholars who
underwent purification, as it is termed, in this den of superstition and
tyranny. The culprit was not permitted to speak with his attorney,
except in the presence of the inquisitor and a notary, who took notes,
and certified what passed; and so far from the names of the informer or
of the witnesses being supplied, every thing that could facilitate the
explanation of them was expunged from the declarations; and the
prisoners, one and all, in these dungeons might truly exclaim, with Fray
Luis de Leon, "I feel the pain, but see not the hand which inflicts
it." Even in the early days of the inquisition, torture was carried to
such an extent, that Sextus IV., in a brief published Jan. 29, 1482,
could not refrain from deploring the wellknown truth, in lamentations
which were re-echoed from all parts of Christendom. The formula of the
sentence of torture began thus, _Christo nomine invocato_; and it was
therein expressed, that the torture should endure as long as it pleased
the inquisitors; and a protest was added, that, if during the torture
the culprit should die, or be maimed, or if effusion of blood or
mutilation of limb should ensue, the fault should be chargeable to the
culprit, and not to the inquisitors. The culprit was bound by an oath of
secresy, strengthened by fearful penalties, not to divulge any thing
that he had seen, known, or heard, in the dismal precincts of that
unholy tribunal--a secresy illegal and tyrannical, but which constituted
the soul of that monstrous association, and by which its judges were
sheltered against all responsibility.--_For. Rev._
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