INQUISITION, in the Church of Rome, a criminal tribunal, charged with the detection, prosecution, and punishment of heresy, apostasy, and other crimes against religion· ...

This formidable jurisdiction, created for the express purpose of repressing free inquiry in matters of religion, and maintaining the unity of the faith, was first instituted about the beginning of the thirteenth century, when Innocent III. appointed a commission to prosecute and punish the heretics of Narbonne. In 1203, the Pope employed Pierre de Castelnau and Raoul, monks of Citeaux, attached to the monastery of Frontfroine in Narbonne, to preach against the heresy of the Albigenses. The labours of these missionaries were not altogether fruitless, as is proved by an authentic act which William Castel has inserted in his History of the Counts of Toulouse, and which was agreed to in the year 1204. They appear to have made a considerable impression, and, in particular, to have induced the inhabitants of Toulouse to bind themselves by an oath to maintain the Catholic religion, and to combat heresy by every means in their power. The success which Castelnau and Raoul had thus obtained in their mission, encouraged the Pope to put in execution a project which he had formed for introducing into the Catholic Church inquisitors independent of the bishops, who should, as delegates of the Holy See, have the right of prosecuting heretics.

With this view he named as apostolic legates, the Abbot of Citeaux, and the two monks Castelnau and Raoul, who received orders to take the necessary measures for bringing back heretics to the Catholic faith, and also for delivering to the secular power, after excommunication, those who refused submission; a penalty which involved the seizure of their goods, and the proscription of their persons. And, in order to facilitate the execution of his design, he solicited Philip II., king of France, his oldest son Louis, and the counts, viscounts, and barons of the kingdom, to prosecute heretics of whatsoever rank they might be, and to seize the goods of all persons who might be convicted of favouring heresy 7 , or who had not laboured to destroy it; promising them, as a recompense for their zeal, plenary indulgences, similar to those granted to the Christians who had assumed the cross, and repaired to the Holy Land to combat against the Infidels. But the papal legates experienced great difficulties in the execution of their mission, which was distasteful to the bishops; the king of France took no part in the affair; and the Counts of Toulouse, Foix, Beziers, Carcassonne, and other seigneurs or great lords of the provinces, seeing that the Albigenses had singularly multiplied, and [7:12:284] persuaded that only a very small number of them would freely consent to abjure their opinions, refused to expel a body of men, the loss of whom would weaken the population of their estates, and consequently prove injurious to their interests. Nor was the force of this motive lessened by the consideration that these heretics were generally peaceable and obedient subjects. The legates were consequently discouraged, and one of their number applied to the Pope for permission to retire to his monastery. But the Holy Father, firm to his purpose, exhorted him to prosecute the enterprise with new ardour, and at the same time addressed new briefs to Philip II., reproaching him for his indifference, and to the Archbishop of Narbonne and to the Bishop of Beziers, censuring the mode in which they had acted towards his legates.

In these circumstances, Castelnau and Raoul commenced preaching to the heretics, and even held conferences with some of their leaders; but, as might have been expected, the number of persons converted by them was exceedingly small. Arnauld, Abbot of Citeaux, the principal legate, then summoned to his assistance twelve abbots of his order, elected by a chapter held in 1206, and also admitted to a participation of their labours two Spaniards, whose zeal prompted them to preach against the heretics, and one of whom became afterwards celebrated as the founder of a new order in the Catholic Church. These were Diego Ace-bes, Bishop of Osma, who was then on his return from Rome to his diocese, and Dominic de Guzman, a regular canon of St Augustin, and sub-prior of the cathedral of the same diocese, who had accompanied the bishop in his journey. With a staff thus reinforced, some conversions were made, and when the Spanish bishop resolved to cross the frontier, he permitted De Guzman to remain in France.

At this time the great feudatories of Provence and Narbonne were almost all engaged in war with each other; and hence when the legates sent by the Pope summoned them to prosecute obstinate heretics in their states, they represented that they could not execute the orders of his Holiness, by reason of the wars which they were obliged to maintain against their neighbours. Innocent III., informed of what was passing, issued a formal order to his legates, commanding them to terminate, by their mediation, the differences which had armed the princes and great lords of this country, and to make the latter promise upon oath, to extirpate heresy, and to exterminate heretics in their domains. Nor were the legates unfaithful to the instructions which they had received. They threatened to excommunicate those who should refuse obedience to the orders of the Holy See; to lay their principalities under interdict; to release their vassals from their oath of fidelity; and, in a word, to punish them by all the means which the church had or claimed a right to employ against rebels. The effect of this measure was decisive; and the great lords, dreading evils still greater than those of war, renounced for the time their different pretensions, and consented to sign a peace. Of these princes the most powerful was Raymond VI., Count of Toulouse. Having been several times menaced by Pierre de Castelnau, because he hesitated to execute what he had promised, and failed to reinforce the predications of the legate by proscription and confiscation, the proud noble let fall some expressions of resentment. His words were treasured up by those who had deeper wrongs to avenge, and falling in with the feeling of indignation excited by the insolent conduct of the churchman, they induced the Albigenses to assassinate the legate. The latter was beatified, and enrolled amongst the martyrs of the church, sooner perhaps than he had anticipated ∙, but the perpetrators of the crime were destined ere long to taste its bitter fruits. Meanwhile the Pope wrote to all the counts, barons, seigneurs, and gentlemen of the provinces of Narbonne, Arles, Embrun, Aix, and Vienne in

Dauphine, urging them to unite their forces and to march against these heretics, and promising them the same indulgences as if they had been called to combat against the Saracens. In this expedition, Innocent named as his legate the Bishop of Couserans, who was to be accompanied by the Abbot of Citeaux.

The commencement of the Inquisition in France dates from the war undertaken against the Albigenses, and their protector Raymond VI., Count of Toulouse, in 1208. The murder of Castelnau having excited the indignation of the* Catholics of Narbonne, Arnauld took advantage of this feeling, to put in execution the orders which he had received from the Pope. He charged the twelve monks of his order who were associated with him, besides Dominic de Guzman, and certain other priests, to preach a crusade against the heretics; to grant indulgences to all who should take part in the war; to take especial notice of those who might refuse to engage in it; to inform themselves particularly as to the creed of such recusants; and to cause the‘obstinate to be placed at the disposal of Simon, Count de Montfort, who had been entrusted with the command of the crusaders. The authentic act by which these measures were ordained, has not reached our time; but its existence is proved generally by the events of that epoch, and, in particular, by a certificate of reconciliation granted by Dominic de Guzman to a heretic named Ponce Roger, in which the founder of the Dominicans declared that he acted as the delegate of the Abbé Arnauld.

It is not easy to determine the number of the unfortunate Albigenses who perished in the flames after 1208, the year in which the Inquisition commenced in France. But it is impossible not to be strongly moved with horror as well as compassion, in reading the histories of the time, which represent the destruction of several millions of persons, in the midst of the most cruel torments, as the triumph of a religion on which its divine Founder had impressed the characters of humanity and charity, benevolence and mercy. The apostles, upon one occasion, entreated their divine Master to cause fire to descend from heaven and consume the Samaritans, who were the heretics and schismatics of the Hebrew communion; but, so far from complying with their impious request, he reproached them for entertaining the very thought, and made them feel that he detested it, by treating them with a degree of severity of which there is no other example to be found in the Gospel. This lesson, however, was lost upon the men of the thirteenth century. They seem to have conceived that the history of Samaria had nothing in common with the conduct which ought to be pursued towards the heretics of that age. In 1215, Innocent III. celebrated the tenth general council, being the fourth of Lateran, in which a variety of new penalties were decreed against the heretics of Languedoc. In particular it was ordained, that those who were condemned by the bishops as impenitent heretics should be delivered to secular justice; that the goods of laymen condemned should be confiscated, and those of priests applied to the use of their churches; that the inhabitants suspected of heresy should be summoned to purge themselves in the canonical form, and, in case of refusal, excommunicated; that if they continued more than a year under the anathema, without having recourse to the pardon of the church, they should be accounted heretics, and treated as such; that all persons who favoured or received into their houses heretics, should be liable to excommunication as well as the heretics themselves,—declared infamous, and as such excluded from all public employments,—deprived of the right of electing their own magistrates,—and rendered incapable of giving evidence in a court of justice, making testamentary dispositions, or taking up any succession, if at the expiration of a year they had failed to perform their duties and satisfy the church.
[7:12:285]

Pope Innocent HL died on the 12th of July 1216, and two days thereafter was succeeded by Honorius III., who resolved to continue the work which his predecessor had commenced. The new pontiff approved of the institution founded by Dominic de Guzman, according to the rule of St Augustin, and having for its object to preach against the heretics; an institution which gave rise to the order of preaching friars, who were afterwards termed Dominicans. He wrote to Guzman, praising his zeal, and encouraging him to persevere in the enterprise in which he had engaged; he sent into the provinces of Languedoc and Provence, Cardinal Bertrand, with the title of legate, the principal object of whose mission was to prosecute with new vigour the war against the Albigenses, to sustain the zeal of the missionaries, and to ensure the reconciliation of converted, as well as the punishment of obstinate heretics; and, lastly, he issued a brief addressed to all the bishops of Christendom, strongly recommending to their favour and support the order of preaching friars.

Meanwhile St Dominic, who happened to be at Rome, had instituted an order for seculars who lived in the world, the members of which were to be bound to assist, as far as they could, those who preached against heresies, and to prosecute heretics with unrelenting rigour. This order has sometimes been designated the Third Order of Penitence, but it was more commonly denominated the Militia of Christ, because those who entered it were required to combat heretics, and to aid the inquisitors in the exercise of their ministry. They were in fact regarded as forming part of the family of the inquisition, and, for this reason, they bore the name of Familiars. Here, then, we have the two great elements of the Holy Office; first, the institution of St Dominic, or the order of preaching friars, called Dominicans; and, secondly, the Militia of Christ, an association which afterwards gave rise to that which was known under the name of the Congregation of St Peter Martyr; two orders which were soon confounded, and the members of which were denominated Familiars of the Holy Office of the Inquisition.

Nor was it long ere the tribunal, thus organized, commenced active operations against heretics. In 1224, the Inquisition had been established in Italy, under the direction of the religious Dominicans. This is proved by a constitution of Frederick II., published at Padua in February 1224, which provided that heretics condemned as such by the church, and delivered over to the secular arm, should be punished in a manner proportioned to their crime; that whosoever, through fear of punishment, might be brought back to the unity of the faith, should be subjected to a canonical penance and shut up in prison for life; that the inquisitors established by the pope, or Catholics zealous for the purity of the faith, might require judges, in any part of the empire, to cause heretics to be seized, and detained as prisoners until, after being formally excommunicated by the church, they were judged and punished with death; that all who supported or protected heretics should undergo the same punishment; that heretics who had returned into the bosom of the church should be obliged to pursue those persons charged with heresy, discover, and bring them before the Inquisition; that he who, having made abjuration in articulo mortis, should relapse into heresy after recovering his health, should equally suffer a capital punishment; and that treason against God was a much greater crime than treason against man. This constitution contains other provisions equally severe, and concludes by declaring that all those who should concur with the new religious order m delivering the empire from the contagion of heresy, would serve God and render themselves useful to the state. It appears, however, that the efforts of the Inquisition in Narbonne, were not attended with the success which the Pope had expected from them, probably because the events of the war were not always favourable to the crusaders.

But it was reserved for Gregory IX., who ascended the pontifical throne in 1227, to fix the establishment of the Inquisition in the form of a tribunal, and at the same time to give it constitutions. With this view he convened a council at Toulouse, where new measures of severity were adopted against the heretics; he also issued a bull excommunicating them, and further, enjoining that the impenitent should be delivered over to the secular arm, and that all their supporters and adherents should be declared infamous. He next transmitted a brief to Esparrago, archbishop of Toledo, exhorting him to combat heresy; and at the same time addressed to the prior of the Dominicans of Lombardy a commission, confiding to that religious order the execution of his bull against heretics. Councils were also held at Melun, and at Beziers, where new regulations were adopted for preserving the purity of the faith, by multiplying the severities against those by whom it was denied.

But whilst this was passing in France, the heresy of the Albigenses penetrated even into the capital of the Catholic world. The extreme means of repression hitherto employed against these schismatics had totally failed either in lessening their ardour, or in abating their enthusiasm. Several thousands of their number had perished at the stake in France and Italy; yet, so far from being discouraged, they had, in defiance of the power of the Pope, carried their doctrines into his very capital, and, by this conduct, proved how much they disregarded the anathemas of the church, and even the horrible torments with which Gregory had menaced them. Nor is it improbable that the pontiff would have abandoned the system of repression which he had adopted, if the opinions which originated in the fourth century, when Constantine embraced Christianity, had not from age to age acquired a new degree of force; namely, that sufficient reasons might be discovered in the Gospel for punishing heretics with death. Unhappily, however, men’s minds, subjugated by prejudice, and inflamed by bigotry, were rendered incapable of considering objects in their true light. Hence, so far from changing his system, or taking as his guide that spirit of meekness and benevolence which had distinguished the first three centuries of Christianity, Gregory fulminated against the heretics a bull in which he excommunicated all those belonging to certain classes that are therein named; ordained that the persons condemned should be delivered over to the secular power to receive the punishment due to their crime; regulated the mode of procedure to be adopted against persons accused of heresy; intercommuned, declared infamous, and deprived of their civil rights, those inhabitants who should receive into their houses, protect, or defend reputed heretics; and provided that if any one desired to recant and renounce his errors, he should undergo such penance as might be prescribed, and thereafter be imprisoned for life. This bull, which contained many other penalties and disabilities, was enforced with the utmost rigour; whilst the senator Annibal, and other members of the government of Rome, in order to second the Pope in the execution of the measures which he had ordained, passed different municipal laws, having for their object the detection and punishment of heretics, and being in spirit and character nearly the same with those which had been promulgated by Frederick II.

Nor were these regulations confined in their operation to Rome. They were transmitted, along with those which Gregory himself had decreed, to the Archbishop of Milan, in order that he might cause them to be rigorously executed in his own diocese, in those of his suffragans, and in some other parts of Cisalpine Gaul, where heresy had already made alarming progress. Frederick II. also renewed the constitutions which he had published against heretics in 1224, particularly the law against blasphemers, which condemned all heretics indiscriminately to undergo the punishment of burning, or of having the tongue cut out, if the [7:12:286]bishops thought proper to shew them mercy, in order that in future it might be impossible for them to blaspheme the holy name of God.

Such is the general form which the Inquisition had assumed in France and Italy, when Gregory IX. introduced it into Spain. This event took place about the middle of the thirteenth century. Spain was then divided into four Christian kingdoms, viz. Castille, Navarre, Aragon, and Portugal, besides the Mahommedan States; but, with relation to the Inquisition, that country was, in 1301, divided into two provinces, viz. those of Castille and Aragon. To the Dominicans, who had hitherto acquitted themselves with success in the ministry of persecution, Gregory confided the execution of the bull by which the Inquisition was established in Spain; and, at a subsequent period, the provincial of this order had conferred upon him the right of nominating the local inquisitors, with the title and rank of provincial of Spain. Nor was it long ere this formidable institution, having for its object to extirpate heresy, and to preserve the purity of the Catholic faith, came into active operation. For the details of its proceedings, however, we must refer the reader to the work of Llorente,^[1. Histoire Critique de l’inquisition d’Espagne, Paris, 1818, 4 vols. 8vo. Llorente had been an inquisitor himself (at Calatayud) and was probably on that account selected to prepare a digest of the materials for a history of the Inquisition, furnished by the archives of the Holy Office« ] which, with all its faults of style and arrangement, contains a vast body of interesting and authentic information on this subject. We shall only remark here, that never did plant find a more congenial soil. In France and in Italy it had required strenuous and persevering efforts to organize and establish this terrible tribunal; in Spain, however, it took root at once, and in time attained a magnitude which, from a variety of causes, it never reached in any other country. During the fourteenth century its progress was steady, whilst its vigour and energy were continually on the increase. Its jurisdiction was enlarged, and its ramifications multiplied; autos-da-fe were celebrated in various places; and many perished in the flames, or were condemned to suffer punishments of greater or less severity, for asserting the unalienable rights of conscience.

But it was not until towards the close of the fifteenth century, when Isabella, wife of Ferdinand of Aragon, had ascended the throne of Castille, and when the different kingdoms of Spain were united under these sovereigns, that the Inquisition became general in that country, and assumed that form which it retained until the period of its dissolution in 1808. The execution of the bull of Sixtus IV., which authorized Ferdinand and Isabella to establish the Inquisition in their states, was indeed for a time suspended; but this suspension must have been of short duration, for in 1480 and 1481 we find it in full activity. Severe measures were adopted against the Jews, who were accused of the most absurd and ridiculous crimes, and in consequence the new Christians, as they were called, emigrated in great numbers. The flames of persecution raged at Seville, where, in 1481, twenty-six persons perished at the stake; and already no less than two hundred and ninety-eight victims had shared a similar fate. From this period, indeed, may be dated the establishment of the modern Inquisition, that is, of the Inquisition such as it existed even until our own time. This was effected by the creation of a grand inquisitor-general; the appointment of a royal council of the Inquisition, afterwards denominated the Council of the Supreme; the institution of subaltern tribunals in all parts of the kingdom; and, lastly, the enactment of organic laws, having for their object to give stability to the tribunal, as well as uniformity to its procedure, and efficacy to its exertions in the repression of heresy. By this organization there was created in Spain a jurisdiction in matters of religion, which, under the able but merciless direction of such men as Torquemada, Valdez, and their immediate successors, became the most effective and vigorous eng⅛ e of persecution which had ever before been known in any age or country. Its character will be best understood by stating the substance of the organic or fundamental laws of the modern Inquisition, which, under the name of Instructions, were published at Seville on the 29th of October 1484.

The first of these regulated the manner in which the institution of the tribunal should be announced in those countries or places where it might be judged necessary to establish it. The second crdained the publication, in the church of the place, of an edict accompanied with the censures provided against those who, having committed the crime of heresy or apostasy, should not voluntarily denounce themselves before the expiration of the term of grace which had been granted them, and also against those who should obstruct or resist the execution of the measures ordained by the Holy Office. By the third, a delay of thirty days was allowed to heretics to declare themselves, and thereby to prevent the confiscation of their goods, without prejudice, however, to the pecuniary fines to which they might afterwards be condemned. By the fourth, it was provided that the voluntary confessions of those who declared themselves should be made in writing in the presence of the inquisitors and a registrar, so that the self-accused might be required to answer all the questions which might be addressed to them by the inquisitors on the subject of their confession, andalso respecting their accomplices, and those whom they knew or suspected to be guilty of apostasy. The fifth prohibited giving secret absolution to any one who had made a voluntary confession, excepting in the single case where no one had had knowledge of his crime, and where there was nothing to apprehend from its publicity. By the sixth article it was provided that part of the penance enjoined on him who had been reconciled should consist in his being deprived of the exercise of every honourable employment, and of the use of gold, silver, pearls, silk, and fine linen. The seventh imposed pecuniary fines upon those who had made a voluntary confession. The eighth provided that the voluntary penitent who might present himself with his confession, after the expiration of the term of grace, should not be exempted from the penalty of confiscation of goods, which he would otherwise have incurred. In the ninth article, it was enacted, that if persons under the age of twenty presented themselves to make confession, after the expiration of the term of grace, and if it were proved that they had been led into error by their parents, it would be sufficient to impose on them a slight penance. The tenth imposed on inquisitors the obligation of declaring, in the act of reconciliation, the time in which the reconciled had fallen into heresy, in order to ascertain what portion of his goods belonged to the fisc. The eleventh article bore, that if a heretic detained in the secret prisons of the Holy Office, were touched with due repentance, and demanded absolution, it might be granted him, by imposing as a penance the pain of perpetual imprisonment. By the twelfth, it was provided, that if the inquisitors considered the confession of the penitent to have been simulated, in the case indicated in the preceding article, they should refuse absolution, declare him a false penitent, and condemn him as such to be relaxed, that is, delivered over to the secular arm. The thirteenth ordained that if a man, absolved after free confession, boasted of having concealed several crimes, or if it appeared, from information afterwards obtained, that he had committed more than he confessed, he should be arrested, and judged as a false penitent· The fourteenth provided, that if the accused, when convicted, [7:12:287]persisted in denying the charge, even after the publication of the evidence, he should be condemned as impenitent. By the fifteenth, if there were only a semi-plena probatio against the accused, who denied the crime charged against him, he might be subjected to the question; in which case, if he confessed himself guilty under the torture, and thereafter confirmed his confession, he was punished as one regularly convicted; but if he retracted, he was to undergo, a second time, the same probation, or to be condemned to an extraordinary punishment. The sixteenth prohibited communicating to the accused an entire copy of the declarations of the witnesses. They were only to be informed generally what had been deposed, without being made aware of any circumstances which might enable them to discover who had given evidence against, them. The seventeenth article enjoined inquisitors themselves to interrogate the witnesses, in every case where it was possible for them to do so. The eighteenth provided that two inquisitors should be present when the person arraigned was put to the question; but if otherwise occupied, they might appoint a commissary to receive the declarations of the sufferer. By the nineteenth article, if the accused did not appear, after having been cited according to the prescribed forms, he might be condemned as a convicted heretic. The twentieth bore, that if it were proved by the books, or by the conduct whilst in life of a person deceased, that he had been a heretic, he might be judged and condemned as such, his corpse disinterred, and the whole of his property confiscated to the state, at the expense of his natural heirs. By the twenty-first article, the inquisitors were ordered to extend their jurisdiction over the vassals of the great lords; and if the latter refused to recognise it, to apply to them censures and other penalties. The twenty-second provided that if the person condemned to be relaxed to the ordinary tribunal left children minors, a small portion of the confiscated property of their father should be granted them by the government, in name of alms, and the inquisitors should be obliged to confide to proper persons the care of their education and Christian instruction. By the twenty-third, if a heretic reconciled during the term of grace, without having incurred the penalty of confiscation, should have acquired property from a person who would have been condemned to that penalty, such property was not to be included in or protected by the law of pardon. The twenty-fourth rendered it obligatory to restore to liberty the Christian slaves of the reconciled, when confiscation had not taken place, provided the king had granted pardon only on that condition. The twenty-fifth article prohibited the inquisitors, and other persons attached to the tribunal, from receiving presents, under pain of incurring the greater excommunication, being deprived of all their employments, condemned to make restitution, and amerced in twice the value of the articles received. The twenty-sixth recommended to the officers of the Inquisition to live in peace with one another, without affectation of superiority even on the part of him who might be invested with the powers of the ordinary of the diocese; and, in case any difference should arise, it was reserved for the inquisitor-general to settle it quietly (sans cclatf. By the twenty-seventh, inquisitors were expressly enjoined to watch carefully over their subordinates, in order that the latter might be exact in discharging their duties. Lastly, the twenty-eighth article committed to the prudence of the inquisitors the examination and discussion of all points which might not have been provided for in the foregoing constitutions.

Such is the substance of the Code of the Inquisition, as originally promulgated, perhaps the most extraordinary digest ever formed for consolidating a system of religious tyranny. From this abstract, indeed, it must be evident, whether we examine the twenty-eight articles in detail, or consider them as a whole, that the judgments and sentences pronounced would depend upon the manner in which the charge was prepared, and the particular views and feelings entertained by the judges, who were to decide as to the heresy or orthodoxy of the accused, according to inductions, analogies, or consequences, deduced from facts or isolated observations, reported with more or less of exaggeration and infidelity.^[2. “Que devait-on attendre de tels hommes, devenus les arbitres de la vie et de la mort de leurs semblables, en les voyant com-plettement aveuglés par leurs préventions contre des accusés sans défense? L’homme simple devait succomber; l’hypocrite seul triompha.”—(Llorente, Hist. Crû. de l’Inquisii. d’Espagne, i. 184.) ] The code in question was, however, several times augmented, even in the early days of the Inquisition. In particular, there were added to it the instructions which had been prepared at Seville in the beginning of 1484, those of Valladolid in 1488, those of Toledo and Avila in 1498, and, lastly, those of Valladolid in 1561. But with all these modifications the forms of procedure underwent little or no change; nor was the arbitrary character which distinguished this cruel and odious jurisprudence in any degree mitigated. It was scarcely possible for the accused, however innocent, to establish an effectual defence. Placed between the alternative of either recognising his innocence, or suspecting him of guilt, the judges constantly allowed themselves to adopt the latter course, which at once superseded the necessity of proof, and left the accused entirely at their mercy.

The additional acts of the inquisitor-general Torquemada also fall under the description which has already been given. They were eleven in number, and principally intended to regulate details. They provided that in every subaltern tribunal there should be two inquisitor-jurisconsults, a fiscal, an alguazil, registrars, and other officers if required; that every functionary who received presents either from the accused, or their families, should be immediately dismissed; that the Inquisition should maintain at Rome an able jurisconsult, with the title of agent; that contracts signed before the year 1479 by persons whose goods happened to be seized after that period, should be valid; that proprietors who might have afforded to fugitives an asylum on their estates, should be held as having placed their whole property at the disposal of the government; that the notaries of the Inquisition should keep accounts of the effects of persons condemned; that the receivers of the Holy Office might sell that property, the administration of which they found troublesome, and collect the rents of such as was immoveable; that each receiver should attend to the interests of the tribunal to which he was more immediately attached; that the goods of a person condemned could not be sequestrated without an order of the Inquisition; that the inquisitor and other officers should be paid their salaries quarterly by the receiver; and that, in regard to circumstances unprovided for in the new constitutions, the inquisitors should have a discretionary power to act as they judged best, but that, in matters of great importance, they 7 should have recourse to the government for instructions.

The crimes of which the Inquisition took cognisance were heresy in all its different forms, apostasy, Judaism, Mahommedanism, sorcery, offences against nature, and polygamy; and the punishments consequent on conviction varied according to the presumed degree of delinquency, from temporary confinement and severe penance to the san benito ^[3. San bénite is a corruption of saco bendiio. Its true name in Spanish was zamarra ; but saco bendite, corrupted into san benito, became the vulgar name, because, since the time of the Hebrews, a sack was the habit of penitence. ] and the auto-da-fe. This tribunal was not established[7:12:288] without great opposition. The first inquisitor of Aragon was openly assassinated, and all the provinces of that kingdom offered the most strenuous resistance to a jurisdiction which trenched so much on their ancient rights and privileges. But their opposition proved unavailing, as did also an attempt made by the Cortes of Castille and Aragon to reform the Holy Office after it had been established. The Inquisition triumphed over all its adversaries, and soon became so formidable, that parents delivered up their children, husbands their wives, and masters their servants, without a murmur. Terror, in fact, constituted the great element of its power; nor was this feeling diminished in force by the suddenness with which it pounced on its victims, and the impenetrable secrecy in which all its proceedings were involved. Its stroke was like that of fate. No man knew when it might descend on his own head; every one felt that resistance was vain, and escape impossible. Imagination lent its aid to exaggerate the fearful reality; terror froze all hearts; even kings and princes trembled before it. Nor can it be denied that, in its high and palmy days, its proceedings were marked by a bold and fearless impartiality. It scrupled not to arrest and proceed against Don Carlos of Austria, prince of the Asturias, whom death alone placed beyond the reach of its sentence. It instituted processes against Charles V., Philip II., the Duke of Alba, and other illustrious personages, the first of whom was accused of favouring Lutheranism, and the others were charged with want of zeal in the prosecution and extermination of heretics. Nor was it in any respect more lenient to the clergy than to the laity. Bartolomeo Carranza, archbishop of Toledo, a prelate of eminent learning, piety, and moderation, was accused of entertaining and countenancing certain opinions declared to be heretical, imprisoned for several years, and, after enduring the greatest sufferings, died before his process was brought to a close, though it ended in a sentence of absolution. With regard to the inferior clergy, a charge of heresy, or even the suspicion of having shewn kindness to heretics, was almost equivalent to a capital condemnation. Neither rank, nor age, nor sex, afforded any defence against its watchful vigilance and its pitiless severity. It was instituted to preserve the uniformity of the faith, and, in Spain at least, it completely succeeded.^[4. See Llorente, Hist. Critiq. de unq. d' Espagne, tom. iv., and M’Crie’s History of the Reformation in Spain. ]

Nor can it be doubted that the procedure of the Inquisition was eminently calculated to accomplish the objects for which it had been originally instituted. This consisted of several parts; namely, the denunciation, the inquest, the censure by qualificators, secret imprisonment, the primary audiences, the charges, torture, the requisitory, the defence, the proofs, the publication of the proofs, the definitive censure by qualificators, and the sentence.

The procedure of the Holy Office commenced by denunciation, or something held equivalent thereto, such as a discovery incidentally resulting from a deposition made before the tribunal in another affair; and this, when signed, assumed the form of a declaration, in which the delator, after having sworn to tell the truth, designated by their names, or in some other manner, the persons whom he believed or presumed to be able to give evidence against the denounced. Then followed the inquest, or examination of the persons named and designed in the declaration as cognisant of the facts and circumstances therein set forth, and who were made to promise upon oath that they would never reveal the interrogatories which they were to be called upon to answer. Next came the censure by the qualificators. When the tribunal had examined the preliminary instruction, and discovered therein sufficient grounds for further procedure; and when the registers of the other tribunals of the province had been examined, to ascertain if there existed in these any charges against the denounced; the whole was submitted by the inquisitors to certain theologians, called qualificators of the Holy Office, who indicated or qualified in writing the propositions meriting theological censure, as heretical, savouring of heresy, or calculated to lead to heresy: And in case the denounced was only suspected of this crime, they decided whether the suspicion was light, grave, or violent. As soon as the qualification here described had been made, the procurator-fiscal demanded that the denounced should be transferred to the secret prisons of the Holy Office. The tribunal had three sorts of prisons; public, intermediary, and secret. The first were those in which the Holy Office caused to be confined persons who, without being guilty of any crime against the faith, were accused of some delict, the punishment of which belonged of right to the Inquisition. The second were destined for such servants or ministers of the Holy Office as had committed some crime or some fault in the exercise of their functions, without, however, incurring the suspicion of heresy. The third or secret prisons were those in which heretics, or persons suspected of being so, were confined, and where the prisoners could only communicate with the judges, in the cases provided and with the precautions enjoined by the constitutions.^[5. “Il serait difficile de rien concevoir de plus affreux que ces réduits,” says Llorente; “non qu’ils soient à présent tels qu’on les a décrits, c’est-à-dire profonds, humides, sales et mal-sains: à ces traits il est plus facile de reconnaitre les rapports inexacts et exagérés des victimes de l’inquisition que le témoignage de la vérité. Je ne parlerai de ce qu’ils ont été autrefois, mais il est certain qu’aujourd’hui ces lieux sonl de bonnes chambres voûtées, bien éclairées, sans humidité, et où il est permis de faire un peu d’exercice. Mais ce qui les rend un séjour vraiment redoutable c’est qu’on n’y entre sans être à l’instant flétri dans l’opinion publique; infamie à laquelle aucune autre, soit civile, soit ecclesiastique, n’expose les prisonniers; c’est qu’on y tombe dans une tristesse inexprimable, compagne inévitable d’une solitude profonde et continuelle; c’est qu’on n’y connait jamais l’état de la procédure dont on est l’objet, et qu’on ne peut y jouir de la consolation de voir et entretenir son défenseur; enfin, c’est pareequ’ on y est plonge pendant Thiver dans des ténèbres de quinze heures par jour, car il n’est point permis au prisonnier d’avoir de la lumière après quatre heures du soir ni avant sept heures du matin; intervalle assez long pour qu’une hypochondrie mortelle s’empare du prisonnier, au milieu du froid, dont il est saisi dans un séjour où le feu n’a jamais pénétré.” (Hist. Crit. de l’lnquisit. d’Espagne, i. 300.) ]

In the three days which followed the imprisonment of the suspected, they gave him three audiences of monition or advice, to engage him to speak the truth and the whole truth, without concealing any thing which he had himself done or said, or which he could impute to others contrary to the faith. He was also told, that if he conformed faithfully to what had been prescribed to him in this particular, mercy would be shewn him, but that, in the contrary case, he would be treated with all the rigour of law. After the formality of the three audiences of monition had been gone through, the procurator-fiscal prepared the indictment against the prisoner, in conformity with the heads of accusation indicated or qualified in the instruction ; and although there existed only a semi-plena probatio, he charged the facts deposed to as if they had been fully proved, and what was worse, he did not limit the articles or counts of his indictment to the number of facts declared, and dispensed with applying to each head of accusation the proper character or notion which distinguished it. The next part of the procedure was the most horrible, namely, the application of the torture. Although the prisoner, in the three audiences of monition, might have confessed as much as, or even more, than the witnesses had deposed to, the fiscal terminated his requisitory or accusation, by demanding that the accusea should be subjected to the question, on the alleged ground [7:12:289]of culpable concealment and denial of the truth. It is certain that for a long period the torture had not been applied by the inquisitors, either in Spain or in any other country, the mitigating and humanizing influence of time and improvement having virtually abolished this barbarity; but the form of procedure still remained unchanged. The requisitory or accusation of the fiscal was never communicated in writing to the accused, to enable him to prepare his defence. He was conducted into the hall of audience, where, in presence of the inquisitors and the fiscal, a secretary read over the charges one after another, stopping at each article, and calling upon the accused to answer at the instant, whether it was conformable to the truth or otherwise; thus laying a snare for the unhappy person who was about to be put on his trial. After the accusation had been read, the inquisitors asked the accused if he wished to be defended. If he answered in the affirmative, they ordered a copy to be taken of the accusation and answers, and, from the list of titularies of the Holy Office, appointed him an advocate. No prisoner was permitted to choose his own counsel, although there existed no law of the Holy Office which denied him this just and natural right. To the proof, and the publication of the proof, as it was called, both gross mockeries of justice, succeeded the definitive censure by the qualificators, or theologians of the Holy Office, to whom was remitted the original of the judgment they had pronounced on the summary instruction, together with an extract of the answers made by the accused in his last examination, and who were required to qualify for the second time the propositions upon which the accusation was founded, to consider the explanation given by the prisoner, and to decide whether he had, by his answers, elided in whole or in part the suspicion of heresy with which he was charged, or whether, on the contrary, he had not fortified the suspicion of his guilt. The importance of this censure must be evident, since on it depended the definitive sentence. Yet, says Llorente, “les qualificateurs se donnent à peine le temps d’écouter one lecture rapide de ce qui s’est passé; ils se hâtent d’établir leur opinion, et c’est là le dernier acte important de la procédure,” all the rest being a simple formality. Lastly, came the sentence, which, as may easily be anticipated from the nature of the procedure, was generally condemnatory of the prisoner. In fact, before the reign of Philip HL, sentences of absolution were so rare in the Holy Office, that in one or even two thousand judgments we scarcely find an instance where the prisoner was fully acquitted, because the slightest doubt as to the complete innocence of the accused led the qualificators to declare him suspected de levi, and this was sufficient to induce the inquisitors to condemn him to suffer pains more or less grave, according to circumstances, and to make a formal abjuration of all kinds of heresy, particularly of that of which he had incurred the suspicion.

Devant l’inquisition, quand on vient à jubé Si l’on ne sort rôti, l’on sort au moins flambé.

lhe reading of the judgment formed the finale of the procedure which we have been endeavouring to describe; and the execution of it always commenced in the same auto-da-fe where it was read and signified.

We shall not attempt to describe a public and general auto-da-fe, because all the circumstances attending that ceremony may be found detailed in several works, and even represented in engravings, which exhibit to the eye a picture of the horrors of which no pen can convey any adequate conception. We shall only speak here of the san-be-mto, to which reference has already been made in a previous part of this article.

This vestment was merely a kind of scapulary which was fitted close to the person, and descended only to the knees, m order that it might not be confounded with any form of the monastic habit This last circumstance led the inquisitors to perfer for the san-benito an ordinary woollen stuff dyed yellow, with crosses of a red colour, by which means every trace of resemblance between the habit in which the penitents of the Inquisition were clothed, and that worn by any of the religious orders, Was completely annihilated. Such was the san-benito in 1514, when Cardinal Ximenes de Cisneros caused the ordinary cross to be replaced by that of St Andrew. Afterwards, however, the inquisitors varied the forms of the san-benito, in order that one of these might be applicable to each class or description of penitents. But we shall only mention here those which were in common use.

When a person had been declared slightly suspected of heresy, and condemned to make abjuration, if he demanded to be relieved from the censures ad cautclam, he was made to assume a san-benito, which the Spaniards of the fifteenth century called zamarra, and which was merely the scapulary we have already mentioned, without a cross in saltier. But if the condemned abjured as one violently suspected, he bore one-half of this cross; and if he made abjuration as a formal heretic, he bore it entire. This, however, applied only to those who, after having been reconciled, had their lives spared. But there were other kinds of san-benito for those who were condemned to perish in the flames. He who, after having been once absolved from the crime of formal heresy, and reconciled to the church, relapsed into his former errors, was denominated relapsed, and incurred the pain of death. His fate was inevitable, however lively might be his repentance, and even notwithstanding a second reconciliation. The only advantage which this last act procured him, was that of not being burned alive. He was merely strangled, or put to death in some other manner less horrible than by fire, and then his corpse was delivered to the flames. Thus, as there were three kinds of san-benito for the three classes of condemned who were delivered to the secular arm, so also the inquisitors contrived an equal number for those who were doomed to suffer death.

The first was that of prisoners who had repented before being condemned. It was formed of a simple yellow scapulary, with an entire red cross in saltier, and a round pyramidal bonnet, called coroza, of the same stuff as the san-benito, and garnished with similar crosses, but without any representation of flames, because the repentance of the accused having been manifested in time, had saved them from the penalty of cremation. The second was destined for those who had been definitively condemned to be delivered to secular justice, in order to undergo the pains of fire and who had repented, after their condemnation, and before being conducted to the auto-da-fe. The san-benito and the coroza were made of the same stuff. On the lower part of the scapulary was represented a human bust on a brazier, whilst the rest of it was covered with the resemblance of flames pointing downwards, to indicate that the criminal was not to be burned alive, because he had not been adjudged to suffer that punishment, but only to be thrown into the flames after being strangled. The same representations were painted upon the coroza. The third was for those who were treated as guilty of final impenitence. It was made of the same stuff (serge) as the others. The lower part exhibited a human bust on a brasier, surrounded with flames; and the rest was covered with flames in their natural direction, to shew that he who wore it was doomed to actual burning. On the vestment were also delineated grotesque figures of devils, which were painted thereon, to indicate that these lying spirits had entered and taken up their abode in the soul of the guilty. The coroza was charged with similar figures. Such were the principal forms of the san-benito. The others were intended for those adjudged to suffer milder penalties, as confinement [7:12:290] and penance, and generally had inscribed on them the name, country, species of heresy, punishment, and date of condemnation of the delinquent, accompanied with a cross in saltier or with flames, according to circumstances.

As the Inquisition was the creation of an intolerant age, when religious zeal was envenomed by bigotry, and exasperated by schisms and divisions, so it has fallen before the humanizing influence of modern civilization, and is now, even in Catholic countries, only a matter of history. In Spain and Portugal it has ceased to exist even in name; in Italy and other countries, where it has not been formally abolished, it is merely an obsolete institution, which henceforward no one will ever succeed in reviving. But the time was when it acted with fearfìfl energy and efficacy, and when, like the Vehmgericht of the middle ages, it struck terror into all hearts. In Spain alone, according to Llorente, upwards of three hundred and forty thousand persons were judged and punished, one way or other, by this tribunal. The following is the general result of his statement in figures :—

Burned alive, 31,912

Burned in effigy, 17,659

Subjected to rigorous pains and penances, 291,450

Total, 341,021

And if to the number of victims immolated by the Inquisition in the Peninsula, be added all the unfortunates who were condemned by the tribunals in Mexico Lima, Carthagena, Sicily, Sardinia, Oran, Malta, together with Naples, Milan, and Flanders, whilst these countries were under the dominion of Spain, it would probably be found that more than half a million of human beings had been condemned by this inexorable tribunal to undergo various punishments, a large proportion of which inferred infamy. (a.)