, 1880-02-22
hailed with pleasure and not decried and dis
TEE. ROMAN 1NQUIS1TION.
OF TIE PALACE OF THE HOLY

l.
ADEscR1PT1oN OF THE PALACE OF THE HOLY
oFFICE-THE CHARACTER OF THE ISouI-
s1TlON, PAST AND PRESENT.
Rome Letter to Philadelphia Pyess
just behind that noble grove of pillars
which forms the wonderful portico Of st.
Peters, and to the right as you leave the
church, but marked by some common, irreg-
ular structures, there arises gloomy and
fofbiddlng pile Of massive masonry known to
Rome as the "Palace of the Holy Office"
This sacred or sacrilegious euphemism con-
cealss a celebrated building, which is looked
for with much interest by American visitors,
and, il found, regarded with intense aud lust
indignation.
This accursed building, in which they
killed the body, and, perhaps sometimes the
soul, is an Immense structure Of solid stone
work, nearly 400 feet in front. Tt is almost
rectangular in shape, the front being the long
side, and is a little over fifty feet in hight
The outer walls are many feet III thickness,
and in places buttressed. There are almost
no windows in the entire building. The i'm
mense wall Of the north end is one unre-
ieved blank, unbroken by an opening Of any
kind. The entire wing of this end has but
three small windows, all Of them thirty-six
feet above the ground. equal to q fourth-story
of an average Philadelphia house. In the
main building there are a few windows,
grated with immense iron bars. In the south
wing there are no windows, excepting at the
hight of the three in the northern wing, al
though there are imitation windows on a
lower floor, so well constructed and painted
as to deceive one nt first into the belief that
they were real. Built into the back Is the
rear Of a large church which effectually
closes I'D that side.
For all ingress or exit to this immense and
terrible building there is but one visible door,
and it gave me a sensation Of pleasure to see
drawn, q .hright-eyed, red.cheeked young
have confscated this palace of atrocities, and
it is now used as military station aud bar
racks.
In the revolution Of 1s4S the gates Of this
merciless structure, at once courthouse and
prison, were opened and the prisoners set
free. / marvel greatly that 1t was not then
RACED to the ground, for it was . more infa-
justly the object Of wrath and vengeance,
inasmuch as it had been blasphemously con-
Quoted in the name Of God. In 1849 the In
QUESTION, as an Institution, was formally
brief tenure Of power, but was recstablished
by Plus x. the same year, when he regained
his authority. -..
Victor Emanuel, when he was made King,
again cleared out the building. It may be
matter of some interest to know that military
possession was taken Of it by the present
king, then Lieutenant-General i'll his faith
er's army. The 1nquisition still survives,
however, as an 1nquisition and Court OF the
Roman Church under Pope Leo Kill, and
can. Its power, however, is greatly limited
and confined, and it does no more arrest 4
Roman citizen. It has full power, however,
believe, over the Bishops and priests of the
Ncff,njia 1rnh 1trHhahV
the entire population Of the Vatican. inclo-
sure,-that curious little ecclesiastical empo-
rum in civil imperio,- which is consider
BILE. I suppose an American priest or Bishop
over and put his head into the tigers mouth.
While the lowering Palace of the Holy
Office, with its deaf stone ears and voiceless
walls, is the representative monument OF
for M its dreadful uses, it has not been the
scene Of some of its historic crimes most
Familiarity known to the civilized world. Cali
leo did not make within its walls his famous
recantation Of the movement pf Of the earth:
took place in the convent Of the Church Of
Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, long used as the
tribunal and dungeon Of the lnQulsltlon.
Bruno, sfor teaching the heresy Of the Co
But IN the Campo de Flori, a kind of Roman
Smithfield across the river, where the bar
barous autos-da-f6 Of that time were Gus
tomarily held. 1t is now dirty market
place, wide and open, filled with foul smells
But although this palace, only erected
about 1900, has been spared some OF the dra-
matte horrors Of the history OF the nqulsl-
tion, it is the building which must ever be as
sociated in the public mind with this institn,,
tion and bear its odium,-an odium that will
grow stronger and deeper as men grow gen
tier and juster, and more Christian. It was
the The seat Of the unjust Judge, the chamber Of
torture and of DEATH built deliberately and
in cold blood for the worst purposes Of the
institution when it was at the height. OF its
power and cruelty. do not propose in this ri
place to enter into any argument as to the
nature or character of the secret trials Of the
IDauisition. I am only describing the char
acter and appearance, of the building pre-
pared for its operations,-a building con-
structed so that human eye cannot see Of
which is stronger than castle. In this
building the most appalling tortures,
the most atrocious murders, might be carried
eh streets Mts Of crowded city: It IS building
whose plan and construction is unholy-a
building literally conceived in sin and born
in iniQuity, and which has no right to exist.
So much for thH 1atSIde on afE ana fe Haqs StoTy
writer whose works on Rome are y known
the world over, tell in a few brief lines Of
the story, Of the inside:
sIn the interior Of the building is a lofty
hall with gloomy frescoes Of Dominican
saints. and many terrible dungeons and cells
in which the visitor is unable to stand up,
right, having their vaulted ceilings lifted
with reeds to deaden sound. When the peo-
ple rushed into the 1nquisition at the revolu;,
ton number Of human bones we're found
in these vaults, which so excited the popular
fury that an attack on the Dominican Con-
vent at the Minerva was anticipated"
While these things add to the dramatic hor-
rors of the place, they do not essentially IN,
crease its wrong. To the Anglo-Saxon mind
secret trial is wrong which cannot be very
well made worse. It is unfair; it is harm
| to The State as well as to the prisoner: It is
| in itself a violation Of law and prostitution
| of Justice, and a fit ground for violent revo-
| luton. And yet because this belief is ground
| ed in us we have no bastiles and no inquisi-
tions. And I think the same good day is
coming for the Romans. It is customary to
| charge the outrages moral and physical, OF
| the Inquisition on the alleged cruelty Of the
| Italian nature. As the italian people have,
| however, within thirty years three times
| driven out the institution, it can hardly with
| fairness be laid to their DOORS.
It is also said in its defense that Its terrible
and inhuman pu,lishments were medieval,
1 I Il