A History of the Inquisition of Spain; vol. 3

by Henry Charles Lea

As the activity of the Inquisition diminished, in the latter half of the eighteenth century, the use of torture naturally decreased but, until, the suppression in 1813, the formal demand for it was preserved in the accusation presented by the fiscal. One of the early acts of Fernando VII, on his restoration in 1814, was the issue of a cédula, July 25th, addressed to all officers of justice, reciting that, in 1798, when the Royal Council learned that, in the courts of Madrid, the accused were subjected to the severest pressure to extort confessions, it investigated the matter and found that thumb-screws and other methods more or less rigorous were employed, and that this was without authority of law: consequently on February 5, 1803, the discontinuance of these was ordered, except fetters to the feet, and at the same time inquiries made of all courts in the kingdom showed that various kinds of compulsion were used whereby the innocent were sometimes compelled to convict themselves falsely. In view of all of this Fernando now ordered that in future no judge should use any kind of pressure or torment to obtain confession from the accused or testimony from witnesses, all usages to the contrary being abolished.[98] This can scarce have applied to the Inquisition but, under the Restoration, it had little to do with actual heresy and, before it was thoroughly reorganized, all doubts were removed by Pius VII. Llorente tells us that the Gazette de France of April 14, 1816, contained a letter from Rome of March 31st, stating that the pope had forbidden the use of torture in all tribunals of the Inquisition, and had ordered that this be communicated to the ambassadors of France and Portugal.[99] I see no reason for doubting this, although no such brief appears in the Bullarium of Pius VII, and we may assume that at last the Spanish Holy Office closed its career relieved of this disgrace.

According to an arancel, or fee-list, of 1553, the executioner was entitled to one real for administering torture, or to half a real if the infliction was only threatened. In the lay courts the sufferer was obliged to pay his tormentor, for there is a provision that, if he is poor, the executioner is to receive nothing and is not allowed to take his garments in lieu of the money.[100] In the Inquisition where, for offences justifying torture, arrest was accompanied with sequestration, the tribunal necessarily took upon itself the payment and, as we have seen, in 1681, the fee had increased to four ducats. In cases which did not end with confiscation, the outlay was undoubtedly included among the costs of the trial charged against the sequestrated estate. In the Roman Inquisition, where torture was used so much more indiscriminately, a decision of the Congregation, in 1614, relieved the accused from payment of the fee.[101]

CHAPTER VIII.
THE TRIAL

THE procedure of the Inquisition was directed to procuring conviction rather than justice, and in some respects it bore a resemblance to that of the confessional. The guilt of the accused was assumed, and he was treated as a sinner who was expected to seek salvation by unburdening his conscience and contritely accepting whatever penance might in mercy be imposed on him. Pressure of all kinds, mental and bodily, was scientifically brought to bear upon him to induce confession, and his refusal to confess, in the face of what was considered sufficient evidence, was treated as hardened and pertinacious impenitence, aggravating his guilt and rendering him worthy of the severest penalty.

The arrest, as we have seen, was preceded by careful preliminaries. Evidence was accumulated, in some cases for years, and, when the accused was thrown into the secret prison, he was to a great extent prejudged. It was the business of the tribunal, while preserving outward forms of justice, to bring about either confession or conviction; the defence was limited and embarrassed in every way and, when the outcome of all this was doubt, it was settled in the torture-chamber, always with the reservation that, if suspicion remained, that in itself was a crime deserving due punishment.

AUDIENCES

In the earliest period there were few formalities and no absolute estilo, or recognized method of procedure. In the enormous work crowded upon the inexperienced tribunals, the main object was the despatch of business, and the success attained in this is seen in the frequent and enormous autos de fe. The records of the trials are hasty and imperfect, showing that little attention was paid to forms that might cause delay. The Instructions of 1484 are crude, merely meant to supplement the traditional system of inquisitorial procedure with such regulations as should adapt it to the needs of the situation and to the intentions of Ferdinand and Isabella. They are largely devoted to the questions of confiscation and the fines accruing under the Edicts of Grace and, for the rest, they conclude by saying that, as all circumstances cannot be foreseen and provided for, everything is left to the discretion of the inquisitors who, in all that is not especially prescribed, must conform themselves to the law and act according to the dictates of their consciences for the service of God and the sovereigns.[102] The result of this discretion was that, in the assembly of the inquisitors in 1488, a long debate was required to reach the conclusion that there should be uniformity in the procedure and acts of all the tribunals, the existing diversity having led to many embarrassments.[103]

It is therefore scarce worth while to examine in detail the simple and varying forms of this period, except as we shall find them interesting in comparison with later practice. The desired uniformity was gradually attained by the Suprema which, under the independent organization of the Spanish Holy Office, developed an elaborate system of procedure, set forth in the Instructions of 1561 and furnished, in 1568, with all necessary formulas in the Orden de Processar of Pablo García. Subject to such changes as subsequent experience demanded, this remained the standard to the last and was followed, with more or less exactitude by the tribunals.

When the accused was thrown into the secret prison his case, in the hurry of the earlier period, was heard and despatched with promptitude, but subsequently it became the custom for the inquisitors to exercise their discretion as to when they would call him before them, and we shall see what exasperating and calculated delays they sometimes interposed. He could, however, ask for an audience at any time, and it was an invariable rule to grant such requests, for the reason that he might have an impulse to repent and confess which might be transitory. Such audiences, however, did not count in the progress of the case. When summoned to his first regular audience, he was sworn to tell the truth in this and all future hearings and to keep silence as to all that he might see or hear, and as to everything connected with his own affair. He was made to declare his name, his age, his birthplace, his occupation and the length of time since his arrest. After these formalities, if the case was one of heresy, there came an investigation into his genealogy. This, which accumulated a mass of information as to all infected families, and facilitated greatly researches into limpieza, was not a feature of the early trials; in those of from 1530 to 1540, it was still very informal, but by the middle of the century it had become minute, extending back to two generations and including all uncles, aunts and cousins, describing of what race they were, whether any of them had been tried by the Inquisition and, if so, how punished. The punctilious observance of this takes a somewhat ludicrous aspect in the trial at Lima, in 1763, of a Mandingo negro slave for superstitious cures. He was seventy years of age and had been brought from Guinea when a child, but was interrogated minutely as to parents and grandparents, uncles and aunts, and was made to declare that they were all of the race and caste of negroes, and that none of them had been penanced, reconciled or punished by the Inquisition.[104] The accused was then interrogated as to his baptism, confirmation and observance of the rites of religion; he was made to sign and cross himself, repeat the creed and usual prayers, and finally to give an account of his past life.