The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1892-08-17
THE INQUISITI0N.
AN INSTITUTION THAT EXISTED II
SPAIN FOR GENERATIONS.

Its Victims Are Numbered by Hundreds
of Thousands First Directed Against
Jews. Afterward Hereto Christians
Were Tortured ana Killed.
Perhaps those who have accused Chris
topher Columbus of narrowssectarian
bigotry and of cruelty have not sufi-
GENTLY taken into account the spirit of
the age in which he lived. The intol-
erance, the bigotry and the inerciless
cruelty of that time are sufficiently Illus
trated in that most monstrous of institu-
tions, the Spanish inquisition.
What is called the modern inquisition
was established in.Spainunder thereign
of Ferdinand and Isabella --sovereigns
who possessed many of the elements of
greatness, and who certainly brought
Spain to high position among the ma
tions of the world Yet it was under
the reign of these two sovereigns that
the monstrous inquisition was estab-
lished.
This inquisition consisted of COM
mission consisting of several judges, ]
whose duty it was to hunt out heretics
and punish them. The primary object
of the inquisition was to extirpate
every trace of heterodoxy, and make
land where none but the orthodox could
live. 1t succeeded in its attempt. but
the history of its proceedings fur
nishes one of the most bloody mar
ratives to which the race has ever lis
tened.
The attention of the inq1isition was
first directed against the Jews. This
thrifty race of people then, as now,
were conspicuous for their financial inn
portance. In the course of time many
Christians became their debtors, and it
is probable that the desire to escape
these just debts frequently occasioned
the seizure of these unfortunate Jews
for heresy. The Christian not only did
not feel it incumbent upon himself to
pay his debts to heretics, but even all
their property was conHseated.
These keretics could be accused anony-
mously, and it was not considered neces-
sary to bring the accused and the .ac.
cuser face TO face. The accused hereto
was seized without warning, conveyed
to the chambers of the inquisition and
rigidly kept from all intercourse with
the outside world. No relative or friend
to condole with him or to advise him
was permitted to come into his presence.
He was kept in ignorance of the charge
upon which he was incarcerated. Coun-
sci was allowed him, but this was mere
formality, for this counsel was not al
lowed to confer with him.
II the prisoner refused to confess his
guilt, or was caught in evasions OF con-
tradictions, he was conveyed to the tor
ture chamber, where he was submitted
to the intensest agony which it is pos
sible for human nerves to sustain.
Doubtless many innocent men declared
themselves guilty under this exquisite
torture in order to escape the terrible
agony. Indeed death was preferable to
the torment
The evidence upon which the heretics
were convicted seems to us entirely in
sufficient. ''The presumptive proofs"
says Prescott, Shy which the charge Of
Judaism was established against the nc
cused are SO curious that few Of them
may deserve notice. 1t was considered
a good evidence of the fact If the pris-
oner wore better clothes or cleaner linen
on the Jewish Sabbath than on other
days of the week; If he had no
fire in his house the preceding even
ing; if he sat at table with Jews,
or ate the meat of animals slaugh-
tered by their hands, or drank
certain beverage held in much estiima-
ton by them; if he washed u corpse in
warm water, or when dying turned his
face to the wall; or, finally, If he gave
Hebrew names to his clildren-a pro-
vision most whimsically cruel, since, by
law Of Henry'II, he was prohibited
under severe penalties from giving them
Christian names. He must have found
it difficult to extricate himself from the
horns Of this dilemma"
IL the accused was found guilty, as he
usually was, he was led forth in great
ceremonial state, accompanied by. pro-
cession of high ecclesiastics, submitted
to revolving insults and ignominiously
burned at the stake.
While Torquemada was inquisitor
general, a period of eighteen years, over
10000 heretics were burned at the stake,
nearly 1000 burned in efiigy and almost
100, 900 subjected to- heavy and igno-
minious penalties. This makes an av-
erage of over 6,000 persons annually.
The inquisition was at first directed
against Jews, but afterward against
hereto Christians themselves. 1t con-
tinued its awful work through many
generations, aud its unfortunate victims
were numbered by the hundred thou
sand.
The present degradation and degener-
acy of Spain is due to this cause more
than any other. Wherever letters are
put upon the human mind the race de-
Gays, shrivels and degenerates. Whor-
ever freedom Of thought is prohibited
race of intellectual pygmies must neces-
sarily result. Humanity progresses
through the influence of original minds,
which do not think along the accepted
lines of thought. This order Of men it
is which leads the world up to ever
higher and higher conceptions, to higher
! and higher planes Of living. TWAS this
kind Of n1ens that The Spanish inquisi-
ton could find no better use for than
burning at the stake.
SO all the noblest thinkers Of Spain
were burned, all her original thinkers
were either killed OF suppressed and
only commonplace minds, which ac-
copied existing standards without In
vestigation and without thought. We're
spared. 1t is no wonder that Spain
dropped into an intellectual lethargy
from which she has never revived. The
inquisition was one Of the most colossal
mistakes in all history s. Watterson
| Ford in Yankee Blade.