The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1907-01-28
THE CURRENT RELIGIOUS CONTROVERSY

! all their procedures there prevailed UNI
certainty, want of regularity and arbf-
trary dealings. The accused were de-
| priyed of the precious guarantee OF
publicity as to the proceedings; the
Judge could, If he pleased, refuse to the
| accused the assistance of counsel, and
the supposed criminal was not allowed
to be present at the deposition of testi-
| mony." Concerning the penalties in
use the same writer says: 1.-THE gener-
al system breathed nothing but intirni-
dation and public vengeance. The
penalty of death was often accompa-
MED by revolving cruelties, the judges
endeavoring to proportion the torments
ACCOMMODATING the death penalty ac-
| cording to the various degrees OF GRIM
inality in the offenders. Besides the
penalty of death, the law recognized
only corporal punishment. often pro-
ducing irreparable consequences to the
victim, always degrading. Nothing was
done to reform the criminal and to in
spire him with better sentiments be-
fore returning him to social life. I'm
prisonment was only. resorted to as a
punishment and in cases of minor Of
lenses 1t had no place in the penal
system properly so-called, and was
never ordered, when the judge was
about to punish crime of real grav-
ity"
This very same condition applies to
the rest of Europe. In those days COIN
ers of false money were burnt alive;
those who gave false weights and
measures were scourged or were con-
demned to death; burglars were led to
the scaffold; thieves convicted Of a re-
lapse were also condemned to death.
A monument of the extreme severity
of the civil tribunals was the Caroline,
the penal code of Charles v. which
governed the German Empire until
the last century.
Hence Guggenberger wisely remarks
General History of Christian Era VOL
H., o. 1859: ''It is not just to compare
the judicial methods of the inquisition
with those Of the present day. They
must be compared with contemporary
proceedings sanctioned by the public
laws in vogue at those times. The
methods which we deplore in the inqui-
sition, were the methods of the age;
the redeeming qualities were due to
the influence of the legislation of the
Church, who greatly mitigated the Sc
verify of the civil codes.
Moreover, the punishment by fire
was neither introduced by the Church,
nor confined to the tribunal of the in
QUESTION. AS historical Jurisprudence
informs us it was the penalty inflicted
for high treason even on women in Eng
land; for poisoning and other crimes
in France, and for circulating coun-
terfeit coin in other countries OF
Europe. But the process of being
drawn, hanged, disenboweled and
quartered; the boiling to death of pris-
oners; the revolving torture of the
wheel, on which the victim was left to
linger with broken bones for hours and
days, were certainly far worse than
the stake, and we owe such amenities
to the mild code of Henry VIII. and
Queen Elizabeth" These are the black
and bloody stains which a modern
English writer would wish to blot out,
If he could, from the history of Eng
land.
Remark ". When men reproach the
recourse to torture as a special griev-
ance against the inquisition, they feign
to ignore the fact that this means of
discovering the truth was in use in all
the tribunals of Europe.
But we must here observe that, ac-
cording to the laws governing the pro-
cedure of the inquisition, the torture
could be employed only once in each
process, and its use was far milder
than in any other civil tribunal.
A curious circumstance concerning
this subject is related in the memoir
Of M. Poullet. The Councils of Justice
Of Belgium were consulted by Charles
Of Lorraine in 1865 and 1866, as to prof.
ects of reform to be introduced into |
the criminal law, and particularly as
to the advisability of the eventual |
abolition of torture. All the councils |
demanded its continuance. A few /
years afterwards these same councils |
we're again required to give their opin- /
on as to the employment of torture, |
rom the accused, and all of them re-
'eated their former judgment.
We must also particularly remark
hat the inquisition renounced the use
If torture long before the other trib-
mails of Europe. ''It is certain" saws
Llorente himself, that for a long time
The inquisitfon no longer had recourse
20 the torture" Moreover, contrary to
he usage of all civil tribunals, the in
QUESTION did not permit the repeated
DUPLICATION of torture during the same
rial, and it required that a physician
should be present to announce when
orture would imperil the life of the
,atient.
(To be continued.)
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