The executors are they who execute and perform the commands of the inquisitors. They apprehend and keep in custody criminals, and pursue them in any places to which they may have escaped; and may, when needful, put them in irons. All persons, whether magistrates or others, are obliged to assist them, when they are endeavouring to apprehend any person, or seize his effects, upon penalty of a large fine, and being put under the ban.
The familiars are the bailiffs of the inquisition, which, though a vile office in all other criminal courts, is esteemed so honourable in this of the inquisition, that there is not a nobleman in the kingdom of Portugal who is not in it; and these are commonly employed by the inquisitors to take persons up. If several persons are to be taken up at the same time, the familiars must so order things, that they may know nothing of each other’s being apprehended. And at this the familiars are so expert, that a father and his three sons and three daughters, who lived together at the same house, were all carried prisoners to the inquisition, without knowing any thing of one another’s being there till seven years afterwards, when they of them who were alive, came forth in an act of faith.
There is a particular kind of these familiars, who wear crosses, instituted by Dominic; who vow upon oath, before the inquisitors, that they will defend the catholic faith, though with the loss of fortune and life. The inquisitors give them red crosses, which they have blessed, and may compel them to perform their vow.
The visitor of the inquisition is one who goes into all the provinces where the inquisitors are, and reports to the inquisitor general and council whatever he thinks proper to be amended; and whether the several inquisitors have observed the several orders and rules prescribed to them, that in case of any offences, they may be duly punished.
The civil magistrate is under great subjection to these inquisitors and their officers. He swears to defend the catholic faith, and to cause all the constitutions relating to the inquisition to be observed, and that he will study to exterminate all persons marked out for heretics by the church. And if any temporal lord shall, after admonition by the church, neglect to purge his dominions from heretical pravity, for the space of a year after such admonition, his country is ordered to be seized, and the person seizing it allowed to possess it without contradiction. When any persons are condemned for heresy by the inquisitors, the civil magistrate is obliged to receive them as soon as delivered to him, and to punish them with the deserved punishment; without presuming directly or indirectly to hinder any judgment, sentence, or process of the inquisitors.
The office of the jail-keepers is not to be described; though some account of their jail will not be amiss.
All criminals have not alike places of imprisonment, their cells being either more terrible and dark, or more easy and chearful, according to the quality of the persons and their offences. In reality, there is no place in the prison of the inquisition that can be called pleasant or chearful, the whole jail is so horrible and nasty.
These jails are called in Spain and Portugal “Santa Casa,” i. e. the holy house. Every thing it seems in this office must be holy. The prisons are so built, as the author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa describes them, that they will hold a great number of persons. They consist of several porticoes; every one of which is divided into several small cells of a square form, each side being about ten feet. There are two rows of them, one being built over the other, and all of them vaulted. The upper ones are enlightened by iron grates, placed above the height of a tall man. The lower ones are under ground, dark, without any window, and narrower than the upper ones. The walls are five feet thick. Each cell is fastened with two doors; the inner one thick, and covered over with iron, and in the lower part of it there is a little small window, through which they reach to the prisoner his meat, linen, and other necessaries, which is shut with two iron bolts. The outer door is entire, without any opening at all. They generally open it in the morning, from six o’clock till eleven, in order to refresh the air of the prison.
In Portugal all the prisoners, men and women, without any regard to birth or dignity, are shaved the first or second day of their imprisonment. Every prisoner hath two pots of water every day, one to wash, and the other to drink; and a besom to cleanse his cell, and a mat made of rushes to lie upon, and a larger vessel to ease nature, with a cover to put over it, which is changed once every four days. The provisions which are given to the prisoners, are rated according to the season, and the dearness or plenty of eatables. But if any rich person is imprisoned, and will live and eat beyond the ordinary rate of provisions, and according to his own manner, he may be indulged, and have what is decent and fit for him, and his servant, or servants, if he hath any, with him in the jail. If there are any provisions left, the jail-keeper, and no other, must take them, and give them to the poor. But Reginald Gonsalvius observes, p. 106. that this indulgence is not allowed to prisoners of all sorts, but to such only as are taken up for small offences, who are to be condemned to a fine. But if they find by the very accusation that any persons are to be punished with forfeiture of all their effects, they do not suffer them to live so plentifully, but order them a small pension for their subsistence, viz. about thirty maravedis, of the value of ten Dutch stivers. This agrees with the account of Isaac Orobio, who had a plentiful fortune at Seville, and was nevertheless used very hardly in the prison of the inquisition there. Although his estate was very large, yet he was allowed a very small pension to provide himself provision. This was flesh, which they made him sometimes dress and prepare for himself, without allowing him the help of any servant. In this manner are the richer prisoners treated. As to the poorer, and such who have not enough to supply themselves in jail, their allowance is fixed by the king, viz. the half of a silver piece of money, called a real,[[246]] every day; and out of this small sum, the buyer of their provision, whom they call the dispenser, and their washer, must be paid, and all other expences that are necessary for the common supports of life. Besides, this very royal allowance for the prisoners doth not come to them but through the hands of several persons, and those none of the most honest; first by the receiver, then the dispenser, then the cook, then the jail-keeper, who, according to his office, distributes the provisions amongst the prisoners. Gonsalvius adds, that he gave this particular account of this matter, because all these persons live, and have their certain profits out of this small allowance of the king to the prisoners; which coming to them through the crooked hands of these harpies, they cannot receive it till every one of them hath taken out more than a tenth part of it.
The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa tells us, this order is observed in distributing the provisions. The prisoners have meat given them three times every day; and even those who have the misfortune to be in this case, though they have money, are not treated much better than others, because their riches are employed to make provision for the poorer. I was informed by Isaac Orobio, that in Spain they sometimes give the prisoners coals, which they must light, and then dress their own food. Sometimes they allow them a candle. Those who are confined in the lower cells generally sit in darkness, and are sometimes kept there for several years, without any one’s being suffered to go or speak to them, except their keepers; and they only at certain hours, when they give them their provision. They are not allowed any books of devotion, but are shut up in darkness and solitude, that they may be broke with the horrors of so dreadful a confinement, and by the miseries of it forced to confess things which oftentimes they have never done.