Of prisons, the Inquisition had several kinds: 1st, the common prison, in which were confined persons accused merely of ordinary misdemeanour, and who, consequently, were allowed to communicate with their families and friends; 2nd, the prison of mercy or of penitence, which was set apart for those who were to be detained only temporarily; 3rd, the intermediate prison, reserved for those who had committed some ordinary delinquency which brought them within the jurisdiction of the Holy Office; 4th, the secret prison, the inmates of which were kept in solitary confinement. The dungeons of the Inquisition were like all those constructed in the Middle Ages.
After an incarceration which varied in length, the prisoner was conducted, when the day of trial arrived, to the large audience hall, which was hung with black, and adorned with a figure of Christ upon the cross, the body being of ivory and the cross of ebony. At the extreme end, before a circular table, sat the Inquisitor-general in a raised chair covered with black velvet and surmounted by a canopy of the same material. To his right and left, seats placed at a lower elevation were reserved for the Inquisitors, who, with the secretary, composed the tribunal. Two clerks of the court took down the questions put by the president and the answers made by the accused; behind them stood the spies of the Inquisition, and four men wearing long black robes, with their faces concealed by a mask with openings for the mouth, the nose, and the eyes.
The prisoner was seated upon a kind of raised stool placed opposite the Inquisitor; when, after a long interrogatory, he failed to avow his guilt, he was taken to the torture-chamber, preceded by the Inquisitor and the four mysterious men in black who had been present at the trial. Here he was again exhorted to abjure his errors, and, if these fresh entreaties were powerless to move him, he was handed over to the torturer, who put him to the torture with one of the four agencies employed by justice—the cord, the scourge, fire, or water (see the chapter on “Punishments,” in Manners and Customs of the Middle Ages).
The torture as used by the tribunals of the Inquisition did not differ from that employed by the civil tribunals, which, using it as unsparingly, scarcely attained a more satisfactory result, for the victim steeled himself against the pain and generally refused to reply to this interrogatory, though accompanied by inconceivable tortures. The solemn delivery of the judgment of the Inquisition and the execution of its sentences were preceded by a peculiar ceremony, designated in Spain and its dependencies by the name of Auto-da-fé, or Act of Faith. In most Auto-da-fés, the dismal procession was headed by a double file of Dominican brothers, before whom was carried the banner of the Holy Office (Fig. 334), with the device, “Justitia et misericordia.” Behind them came the condemned, followed by the spies of the Inquisition and the executioner.
Fig. 334.—An Auto-da-fé Procession, in Spain, according to the ceremonial observed from the Fourteenth Century.—Fac-simile of a large Engraving on copper in the work of Philip of Limborch, entitled “Historia Inquisitionis:” folio, Amsterdam, 1692.
There were many kinds of san-benito for different classes of penitents. The first, for heretics who were reconciled to the Church before sentence had been passed, consisted of a yellow scapulary, with large reddish-coloured St. Andrew’s cross, and of a round pyramid-shaped cap called coroza, of the same material as the san-benito and with similar crosses; but no flames were represented on the garments, as the accused by timely repentance had escaped the punishment of burning (Fig. 335).
The second, for those who, sentenced to be burnt, had subsequently recanted, was made up of a san-benito and a coroza of the same material. The scapulary was covered with tongues of fire pointing downwards, to indicate that the wearer (Fig. 336) would not be burnt alive, inasmuch as he was to be strangled before being placed upon the burning pile.
Fig. 335.—San-benito. Garment worn by those who escaped burning by making a confession before being sentenced.