Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1901-02-19


First WAS raised on high the standard of
the Dominican order of monks, for the
Dominican order were the founders of tho
Inquisition, and claimed this privilege by
prescriptive right. After the banner, the
monks themselves followed in two lines.
And what was the motto of their banner?
"Justitia ct Misericordia!' Then follow
ed the culprits, to the number Of 800, each
with his godfather by his side, and his
large wax candle lighted in his hand.
Those whose offenses have been most
venial walk first, all are bareheaded and
barefooted. After this portion, who wore
only the dress Of black and white serge
came those who carried the Sanbenitos;
then those who wore the Samarias, with
the flames reversed Here there was
separation in the procession, caused by a
large cross, with tho carved image Of our
Saviour nailed to 1t, the face Of the image
carried forward. This was intended to
signify that those in advance of the cruel.
FIX, and upon whom the Saviour looked
down, were not to suffer; and that those
who were behind, and upon whom his
back was turned, were cast away, to per-
ish forever, in this world and tho next.
Behind the crucifix followed the seven
condemned; and, as the greatest criminal
Anime walked the last. But tho process
sion did not close here. Behind Anime
were five eff1gies raised high on poles,
clothed in the same dresses, painted with
flames and demons. Behind each effigy
the efagies were Of those who had died in
their dungeon, or expired under the tor
ture, and who had been tried and con-
demned after their death, and sentenced
to be burned. These skeletons had been
dug up and were to suffer the same sem
tenoe as, had they still been living beings,
they would have undergone. The effigiss
were to be tied to the stakes, and the bones
were to be consumed. Then followed the
members Of the inQuisition; the familiars,
monks, priests and hundreds of peni-
tents, in black dresses, which concealed
their faces, all with the lighted tapers in
their hands.
1t was two hours before the procession,
which had paraded through almost every
important street in Goa, arrived at the
cathedral, In which the further ceremonies
were to be gone through. The barefooted
culprits could now scarcely walk, the
small, sharp flints having so wounded
their feet that their tracks up the steps Of
the cathedral were marked with blood.
The grand altar of the cathedral was
hung with black cloth and lighted up with
thousands Of tapers. On one side of it
was throne for the grand inquisitor, on
the other a raised platform for the yiceroy
of Goa and his suit. The center aisle had
benches for the prisoners and their godfa-
thore the other portions of the procession
falling OF to the right and left to the side
aisles, and mixing for the time with the
spectators. As the prisoners entered the
cathedral, they were led into their seats,
those least guilty sitting nearest to the
altar, and those who were condemned to
suffer at the stake being placed the far
thest from 1t.
| The bleeding Anime tottered to her seat,
and longed for tho hour which was to
sever her from a Christian world. She
thought not Of herself, nor of what she
was to suffer; she thought but of Philip;
Of his being safe from these merciless crea-
tures-of the happiness Of dying first, and
of meeting him again in bliss.
Worn with long confinement, with sus-
pense and anxiety, fatigue and suffering
from her painful walk and the exposure
to the burning sun, after SO many months
incarceration In dungeon, she no longer
shone radiant with beauty; but still there
was something even moro touching in her
careworn yet still perfect features The
object Of universal gaze, she walked with
her eyes cast down, and nearly closed; but
occasionally, when she did look up, the
fro that flashed from them spoke the
proud soul within, and many feared and
wondered, while more pitied, that one SO
young and still so lovely should be DOOM
taken her scat in the cathedral more than
few seconds, when, overpowered by her
feelings and fatigue, she fell back in a
swoon.
Did no one step forward to assist her, to
raise her up, and offer her rcstoratives:
No-not one. Hundreds would have done
SO, but they dared not; she was an out
cast, communicated, abandoned, and
lost; and should any one, moved by COM
passion for a suffering fellow creature,
have ventured to raise her up, he would
have been looked upon with suspicion, and
most probably have been arraigned, and
have had to settle the affair of conscience
with the holy inquisition.
After short time two Of the officers of
the inquisition wen. to Amino and raised
her again in her seat, and she recovered
sufficiently to enable her to retain her pos.
ture.
A sermon was then preached by Do
minican monk, in which no portrayed the
tender lnercies, the paternal love of the
holy office. He compared the inquisition
to the ark of Noah, out of which all the
animals walked after the deluge; but with
this difference, highly in favor of the holy
Office, that the animals went forth from
the ark no better than they went in,
whereas those who had gone into the in
QUESTION with all the cruelty of DISPOSE
ton and with the hearts of wolves, came
out as mild and patient as lambs.
The public accuser then mounted the
| pulpit, and read from 1t all the crimes of
those who had been condemned, and the
punishments which they were to undergo.
Each prisoner, as his sentence was read,
was brought forward to the pulpit by the
officers, to hear it, standing up, with his
wax candle lighted in his hand. AS soon
as the sentences of all those whose lives
had been spared were read, tho grand in.
Quisitor put on his priestly robes, and fol-
| lowed by several others, took off from