A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION
Previous to the reign of Constantine, or to the union of Church and
State, heresy and spiritual offenses were punished by excommunications
only; but shortly after his death capital punishments were added.
Theodosius is generally allowed to have been the first of the Roman
Emperors who pronounced heresy to be a capital crime. But the inquisitors
at that time did not belong to the clerical order, they were laymen
appointed by Roman prefects. Priscillian, the Spanish heretic, was put to
death about 385. Justinian in 529 enacted penal laws against heretics, and
as centuries rolled onward, the proceedings against them were marked by
increasing severity. It was not, however, as we have just seen, until the
thirteenth century that the court of Inquisition was established by
canon-law. Then it became a criminal tribunal, charged with the detection,
prosecution, and punishment of heresy, apostasy, and other crimes against
the established faith. Whether Dominic or Innocent is to have the credit
of the invention, it evidently had its origin in the Albigensian war. The papal legate
discovered that the open slaughter of heretics would never accomplish
their utter extermination. This difficulty led to the creation of a new
fraternity, called the order of the Holy Faith; the members of which were
bound by solemn oaths to employ their utmost powers for the repression of
free inquiry in matters of religion and for maintaining the unity of the
faith, for the destruction of all heretics and for the rooting out of all
heresy from the homes, the hearts, and the souls of men. But it was
reserved for Gregory IX., in the Council of Toulouse, to fix the
establishment of the Inquisition in the form of a tribunal, and at the
same time to give it positive laws.
This terrible tribunal was gradually introduced into the Italian
states, into France, Spain, and other countries; but into the British
islands it never was allowed to force its way. In France and Italy it
required strenuous and persevering efforts to organize and establish it;
Germany successfully resisted a permanent Inquisition; in Spain, however,
though it met with some opposition at first, it speedily gained a footing,
and in time attained a magnitude which, from a variety of causes, it never
reached in any other country. Gradually the authority of the inquisitors
was extended, and they were called upon to pronounce judgment, not only
upon the words and actions, but even upon the thoughts and intentions of
the accused. During the fourteenth century, its progress was steady,
whilst its rigor and energy were continually on the increase. But it was
not till the close of the fifteenth century; when Isabella, wife of
Ferdinand of Arragon, had ascended the throne of Castile, and when the
different kingdoms of Spain — Castile, Navarre, Arragon, and Portugal
— were united under these sovereigns, that the Inquisition became
general in the country, and assumed that form which it retained until the
period of its dissolution in 1808. 1
THE INTERNAL PROCEEDINGS OF THE INQUISITION
Under this head, as all know now, the darkest deeds, the most
irresponsible tyranny and inhuman cruelties that ever blackened the annals
of mankind, might be written; but lengthy details, however painfully
interesting, would be out of place in our "Short Papers;" so we
will content ourselves with a few brief statements and extracts. No
tribunal, we may safely affirm, so regardless of justice, humanity, and
every sacred relationship in life, ever existed in the dominions of
heathenism or Mahometanism.
When a man was slightly suspected of heresy, spies, called the
Familiars of the Inquisition, were employed narrowly to watch him, with
the view of discovering the least possible excuse for handing him over to
the tribunal of the Holy Office. The man may have been a good Catholic,
for Llorente assures us that nine-tenths of the prisoners were true to the
Catholic faith; but, perhaps, he was suspected of holding liberal
opinions, or he may have shown in conversation that he knew more of
theology than the illiterate monks, or differed with them on some point of
doctrine. Any of these things would be enough to create suspicion; for
nothing was more to be dreaded than new light or truth; he was now marked
and denounced by the familiars.
At midnight a knock is heard, the suspected man is ordered to accompany
the messengers of the Holy Office. His wife and family know what that
means; their distress is great; they must now take a last farewell of the
beloved husband and the beloved father. Not a word of entreaty or of
remonstrance dare be breathed. Thus suddenly and unexpectedly this
frightful institution pounced upon its victims. Wives gave up their
husbands, husbands their wives, parents their children, and masters their
servants, without a question or a murmur. Terror constituted the great
element of its power. No man, from the monarch to the slave, knew when the
knock might come to his door. An impenetrable secrecy characterized all
the proceedings of this institution. This feeling of insecurity and the
workings of the imagination lent their aid to exaggerate the fearful
reality.
Neither rank, nor age, nor sex, afforded any defense against its
watchful vigilance and its pitiless severity. The prisoner, the helpless
victim, is now within the gates of the Inquisition; and few who ever
entered there left it absolved and acquitted; not more, it is said, than
one in a thousand. Certain forms were gone through as to the question of
the alleged guilt of the accused, but all were a gross mockery of justice.
"The court sat in profound secrecy; no advocate might appear before
the tribunal; no witness was confronted with the accused; who were the
informers, what the charges, except the vague charge of heresy, no one
knew. The suspected heretic was first summoned to declare on oath that he
would speak the truth, the whole truth, of all persons living or dead,
with himself, or like himself, on suspicion of heresy, or Waldensianism.
If he refused, he was cast into a dungeon, the most dismal, the most foul,
the most noisome, in those dreary ages. No falsehood was too false, no
craft too crafty, no trick too base, for this deliberate, systematic,
moral torture which was to wring further confession against himself,
denunciation against others. It was the deliberate object to break the
spirit; the prisoner’s food was to be slowly, gradually, diminished till
body and soul were prostrate. He was then to be left in darkness,
solitude, and silence." The next part of the procedure of the Holy
Office in these secret prisons was the application of bodily torture. The
helpless victim was charged with the culpable concealment and denial of
the truth. In vain did he affirm that he had answered every question fully
and honestly to the Utmost extent of his knowledge; he was urged to
confess if ever he had entertained an evil thought in his heart against
the church, or the Holy Office, or anything else they chose to name.
No matter what answer he gave, he was denounced as an obstinate heretic.
After some hypocritical expressions as to their love for his soul, and
their sincere desire to deliver him from error, that he might obtain
salvation, a vast apparatus of torturing instruments were shown to him;
the rack must now be applied to make him confess his sin.
THE APPLICATION OF TORTURE
Were it not that truth and impartial history demand that the real
nature of the papacy should be told, we would much rather not describe,
even in the briefest way, those scenes of torture; but few of our young
readers in these peaceful times have any idea of the cruel character of
popery, and of its thirst for the blood of God’s saints. And that
nature, let it be remembered, is unchanged. As late as 1820, which may be
said to be our own day, when the Inquisition was thrown open in Madrid by
the orders of the Cortes, twenty-one prisoners were found in it: not one
of them knew the name of the city in which he was; some had been confined
for three years, some a longer period, and not one knew perfectly the
nature of the crime of which he was accused. One of these persons was to
have suffered death the following day by the Pendulum. This method of
torture is thus described. The condemned is fastened in a groove, upon a
table, on his back, suspended above him is a pendulum, the edge of which
is sharp, and it is so constructed as to become longer with every
movement. The victim sees this implement of destruction swinging to and
fro above him, and every moment the keen edge approaches nearer and
nearer; at length it cuts the skin of his face, and gradually cuts through
his head, until life is extinct." This was a punishment of the Secret
Tribunal in 1820, and may be so today in some places in Spain and Italy!
The penances and punishments to which the accused were subjected, in
order to obtain such a confession as the inquisitors desired, were many
and various; the rack was usually the first. The naked arms, to which a
small hard cord was fastened, were turned behind the back, heavy weights
were tied to the feet; and then the sufferer was drawn up by the action of
a pulley to the height of the place he was in. Having been kept suspended
for some time, he was suddenly let down with a jerk to within a little
distance of the floor; this done
several times, the joints of the arms were dislocated, whilst the cord, by
which he was suspended, cut through the skin and flesh, and penetrated to
the bone; and by means of the weights appended to the feet, the whole
frame was violently strained. This species of torture was continued for an
hour and sometimes longer, according to the pleasure of the inquisitors
present, and to what the strength of the sufferer seemed capable of
enduring. The torture by fire was equally painful. The prisoner being
extended on the floor, the soles of his feet were rubbed with lard, and
placed near the fire, until, writhing in agony, he was ready to confess
what his tormentors required. A second time the judges doomed their
victims to the same torture, to make them wn the motives and intentions of
their hearts for their confessed conduct or sayings; and a third time,
that they might reveal their accomplices or abettors.
When cruelties failed to wring a confession, artifices and snares were
resorted to. Persons were sent into the dungeons, pretending to be
prisoners like themselves, who ventured to speak against the Inquisition,
but only with the view of ensnaring others that they might witness against
them. When the accused was held to be convicted, either by witnesses or by
his own forced confession, he was sentenced according to the heinousness
of his offense. It might be to death, to perpetual imprisonment, to the
galleys, or to flogging. Those sentenced to death by fire were allowed to
accumulate, that the sacrifice of a great number at once might produce a
more striking and terrible effect.
THE AUTO DE FE
The cruel death by which the Inquisition closed the career of its
victims was styled in Spain and Portugal as AUTO
DE
FE,
or "Act of Faith," being regarded as a religious ceremony of
peculiar solemnity; and to invest the act with greater sanctity, the cruel
deed was always done on the Lord’s day. The innocent victims of this
papal barbarity were led forth in procession to the place of execution.
They were dressed in the most fantastic manner. On the caps and tunics of
some were painted the flames of hell, and dragons and demons fanning them
to keep them brisk for the heretics; and the Jesuits thundering in their
ears that the fires before them were nothing to the fires of hell which
they would have to endure for ever.
If any brave heart attempted to say
a word for the Lord, or in defense of the truth for which he was about to
suffer, his mouth was instantly gagged. The condemned were then chained to
stakes. Any of the persons confessing that he was a true Catholic and
wished to die in the Catholic faith, had the privilege of being strangled
before he was burned; but those who refused to claim the privilege, were
burnt alive, and reduced to ashes.
A quantity of furze, sometimes
green, and pieces of wood were laid around the bottom of the stakes and
set on fire. Their sufferings were indescribable. The lowest extremities
of the body were sometimes actually roasted before the flames reached the
vital parts. And this appalling spectacle was beheld by crowds of people
of both sexes, and of all ages, with transports of joy; so demoralized
were the people by Romanism. For upwards of four centuries the Auto de Fe
was a national holiday in Spain, which its kings and queens, princes and
princesses, witnessed in the pomp of royalty.
According to the calculations of Llorente, compiled from the records of
the Inquisition, it appears that from the year 1481 to 1808 this tribunal
condemned, in Spain alone, upwards of three hundred and forty one thousand
persons. And if to this number be added all who suffered in other
countries, then under the dominion of Spain, what would the total number
be? Torquemada, on being made Inquisitor-general of Arragon in 1483,
burned alive, to signalize his promotion to the Holy Office, no less
than two thousand of the prisoners of
the Inquisition. Sovereigns, princes, royal ladies, learned men
magistrates, prelates, ministers of state, were boldly and fearlessly
accused and tried by the Holy Office. But the Lord knows them all — He
knows the sufferers, He knows the persecutors, He knows how to reward the
one and how to judge the other. The dark deeds of those secret dungeons,
the pitiful wail of the helpless sufferers, the cruel mockings of the
unaccountable Dominicans, must all be revealed before that throne of
inflexible justice, of overwhelming purity. The pope and his college of
cardinals, the abbot and his fraternity of monks, the inquisitor-general
and his gaolers, tormentors, and executioners, must all appear before
"the great; white throne" — the judgment-seat of Christ.
There we leave these wicked men, thankful that we have not to judge
them, and perfectly content with the Lord’s decisions. Shall not the
Judge of all the earth do right?
He who rebuked His disciples for entertaining the thought of calling
down fire on the Samaritans will judge them by His own standard. He then
placed on record what should have been a guide to His people in all
ages.
He rebuked the disciples, and said, "Ye
know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come
to destroy men’s lives, but to save them." (Luke 9:55, 56.)
It may be necessary just to state here, that we do not consider all who
suffered by the Inquisition to be martyrs, or even Christians. The crimes
of which the inquisitors took cognizance were heresy in all its different
forms; such as Judaism, Mahometanism, sorcery, polygamy, apostasy;
besides, we have not the privilege of knowing the final testimony of the
sufferers. It was quite different with the martyrs under the heathen
emperors. At the same time, it is impossible not to be strongly moved with
horror as well as compassion, in reading the histories of that dark and
diabolical period.
The reader has now before him the commencement and the general
character of the Inquisition; individual cases of its cruelty will come
before us in the progress of our history. Next in order to be noticed,
however briefly, are the new orders of monks which sprang out of the same
memorable Albigensian war.
Miller's Church History, Chapter 26, pgs 641-648.
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