The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-03-26
INQUISITORIAL METHODS
IN OPERATION IN ITALY DURING
 THE LAST CENTURY.

Why the Modern Inquisltion Deserves More Attention Than the MedIseval-The Strappado and Other Instruments of Torture Employed-Questions of the Judges.
 Of late years great deal of atten- tion has been directed to the subject of the Inquisition. This, no doubt, is due in some degree to the appearance of Dr. Lea's learned but desultory and ill., arranged work, which has been very widely read, and not, upon the whole, perhaps, very judiciously criticised. But pr. Lea deals with the mediaeval Inquisition only. The modern Inquisi- tlon seems to me of more interest and importance for several reasons. I will mention here merely two. Once is that 1t is much nearer to us. Until toward the close of the last century it was in good working order throughout South ern Europe, Nay, even in our own century, after the Congress of Vienna it was established, though with at tenuated attributes, in Spain, Portugal, Bavaria and the Papal States. Its new career in the first three mentioned countries was, indeed, brief. But in l Rome 1t fingered as a spiritual tribu- | nal, with power to infiict temporal pen alties, until the downfall of the Pope s | civil princedom, in 1870.
 | Another reason why the modern h. l quisition--which we may date from the issue, in 1542, of Paul HIS Bull, "Licet ab initto"-deserves more attention than the medieval is because its prac- tice was more regular, more settled more-if l may use the word-scientif- ic. And perhaps Italy is the country in which workings may be best stud | jed. In Spain it was to a great extent a political engine, and to this fact many writers impute it's interruptions savagery, for which no one, so far, as l know, except De Maistre, has in these latter days attempted to apologize. The same may be said of it as organized In Portugal But in Italy, where il was purely ecclesiastical court, il was certainly less sanguinary. And there can be no doubt of it's poularity in that country during the seventeetf | century and at all events, the early part of the eighteenth; a popularity due not only to it's congruousness with the religious sentiment of the popula. tion, who regarded heresy as the worst crime any man could commit, but also to the high character of its officials
 The strappado was the torture espe. cially affected by the Italian Inquisi tion in the last century. The hands oi the person to be tortured were fasten- ed behind his back, and he was at
 tached by his wrists to a cord anC elevated by means of pulley almos to the roof of the torture chamber, ant was then let fall, with all the weigh of his body, to within short distance of the floor. Sometimes plummets were attached to his feet, to increase tn, severity of his torture. The torture O. fire had it's admirers. It consisted il exposing the feet of the accused, wei anointed with lard and securely fas tened, to fierce heat. But, although persuasive of confession, it was fount to be very dangerous, and on that ac count was seldom used, as repugnan to the mildness and benignity of all ec clesiastical tribunal. The boot and tn thumbscrew were occasionally employ ed for those who were medically o surgically declared to be unfit sub jects for the strappado But fancy tor tures-if one may so speak-were dis allowed. And wise provision enjoin ed that no torture should be given un til nine or ten hours after food. o course, all confessions made under tor ture would not receive equal credence If the accused confessed things wildl. mprobable-"maria ct montes' wa the cant phrase in the Holy Office
 judicious inquisitor would receive then