The Irish standard., 1899-01-07

lSn cruelty out OF SlRnl. IL may We ludI
ordinarily the Spaniards are more callous
to the sufferngs Of others than the Ger
mans, but the German punishment of
wtchcraft was, it should seem, incom-
parably more terrible than the manner in
which death was usually inflicted under
sentence of the holy Office. Except in an
occasional instance of double relapse into
heresy, every culprit condemned to death
by fire was asked at the stake if he would
have confessor. If he said yes as al
most all did, he was garroted and his
body burned. Sometimes an ineXpert
eXecutioner would give almost as much
death came with sharp. quick stroke.
On the other hand, except in England and
New England, which punished witchcraft
with hanging, the uniform punishment,
from all that have ever seen in Scotland
and on the continent, was burning alive,
without any mitigation. This renders
German cruelty simply incommensurable
with Spanish.
is rare. l do not pretend to have any
great depth of it myself, though it is no
great offense against modesty to claim
more of it, in certain directions, than
most of those with whom l have to do.
Something much rarer than historical
knowledge, however, is historical imag
ination, without which historical knowl-
, edge is only another name for grossly
misleading historical ignorance. Is it Il
voluntary or involuntary lack Of histori-
cal imagination that sways most Protest.
ant minds in giving account to them
selves of the origin Of the Inquisition?
A mixture Of the two, probably. They
commonly draw the picture thus. Eu-
rope Of the Thirteenth century appears
to them like Europe of today. indeed like
England Of today, with settled principles
OF jurisprudence, ample opportunities Of
defense allowed to the accused, and pun
ishments as mild as can in nny way be
| reconciled with the interests of society.
Even moral pressure put upon prisoner
to cXtort avowal of crime is. rs we
know, abhorrent to Anglo-SaXon juris-
prudence, and If 1t can be shown to have
been used, rouses general Indignation.
Physical torture for the same end, al
though 1t fingered in Protestant Nurem-
berg, and perhaps in IL few other places,
down to 1SOO is not now used. ut least
avowedly, even in Russia.
Nov most Protestants, although IL
| asked in terms, they would show that
they knew better, yet when thinking of
| the Inquisition, first smooth down mGdi-
! acval Europe into an even moleratcness,
like that to which we are accustomed in
the administration of Justice today. Then
they picture to themselves the lnquisi-
tion as bursting up through the tranquil
soil. an irruption from the pit of Becl-
zebub, and establishing itself in the
midst of the affrightcd nations, with
hidcous processes and hideous punish
ments hitherto unknown to them, crush
ing their spirits with utterly unaccus-
toned tcrrors.
"Now all this is utterly contrary to
historical truth. AS Henry c. Lea points
out, the elder Tnquisition was set up not
merely by zcalots, but by noble minded
men, of whom St. Louis was the nObcst
They set 1t up because they did not see
how otherwise they could save Western
Europe from going to pieces socially,
morally and religiously. 1t Is not true.
as Doctor Rule gives 1t out, that the
1nquisition was set up by the priesthood
to crush the laity into Il new submission
st. Louis was Il layman and a king The
Emperor Frederick III. was the most mag
nificcnt and most worldly-minded of lay
men and of monarchs. His life was one
long contest with the church and with
the Pope, and he died under the ban of
both. Yet these two men were as rcsO-
lutte in supporting tho Inquisitlon as any
priest, as any Pope. Indeed, the Man
ichacan dualsm against which they set
1t up seems to have favored n very rigor-
GUS saccrdotal authority. 1t was not for
the priesthood that these great laymcn
were working, but for historical Christi
anity and rational morality. There were
all sorts Of conflicts between the laity and
the priests, between the priests and the
bishops, between the bishops and the
metropolitans, between the metropoli-
tans and the Curia. between the sover-
cigns and the Popcs, among the orders
and between the orders and the seculars,
( Into all these disputes the Inqusiton did
| not intrudc. 1t was only where doctrine
was concerned that it spoke. Even it's
llsnrpatiOns--as notably in the Spanish
institnte-wcre not in the interest of the
priesthood, but in it's own particular in
tcrcst. The Spanish form was continu-
ally flonting the bishops and scanting
obedience to the Pope. In short, its
purpose when carried out was doctrinal;
when distorted, personal In neither
case was 1t hicrarcllical
"As to its methods, they were in some
ways an intcnsiflcation, in others miti-
CATION of usual judicial proceedings No
where and at no time were they an in
vcntion of its own. In the secrecy of
proceedings and the very imperfect
knowledge afforded the accused of the
I,