As these keepers have it in their power greatly to injure or serve their prisoners, they must promise by an oath, before the bishop and inquisitors, that they will exercise a faithful care and concern in keeping them; and that neither of them will speak to any of them but in presence of the other, and that they will not defraud them of their provision, nor of those things which are brought to them. Their servants also are obliged to take this oath.
But notwithstanding this law, a great part of the provision appointed for the prisoners is withheld from them by their covetous keepers; and if they are accused for this to the inquisitors, they are much more gently punished, than if they had used any mercy towards them. Reginald Gonsalve relates,[[255]] that in his time Gaspar Bennavidius was keeper of a jail. “He was a man of monstrous covetousness and cruelty, who defrauded his miserable prisoners of a great part of their provisions, which were ill dressed, and scarce the tenth part of what was allowed them, and sold it secretly, for no great price, at the Triana. Besides, he wholly kept from them the little money allowed them to pay for the washing of their linen; thus suffering them to abide many days together in a nasty condition, deceiving the inquisitor and treasurer, who put that money to the keepers account, as though it had been expended every week for the use of the prisoners, for whom it was appointed. Neither was it very difficult to deceive them, because they took but little pains to inquire out the truth. If any one of the prisoners complained, muttered, or opened his mouth upon account of this intolerable usage, the cruel wretch, who had divested himself of all humanity, had a remedy at hand. He brought the prisoner immediately out of his apartment, and put him down into a place they call Mazmorra, a deep cistern that had no water in it. There he left him for several days together, without any thing to lie on, not so much as straw. His provision there was so very rotten, that it was more proper to destroy his health by sickness, than to preserve it, or support him in life. All this he did without ever consulting the inquisitors, and yet fraudulently and villanously pretended their command to his prisoner. If any one besought him to complain to the inquisitors for so injurious a treatment, for they could not do it by any other person, and to desire an audience, the cunning wretch, knowing that the whole blame must lie upon himself, pretended that he had asked, but could not obtain it. By such forged answers he kept the miserable prisoner in that deep pit twelve or fifteen days, more or less, till he had fully gratified his anger and cruelty. After this he brought him out, and threw him into his former jail; persuading him that this favour was owing to his humanity and care, having made intercession for him with their lordships. In short, his thefts and injuries with which he plagued his prisoners, who were otherwise miserable enough, were so numerous, that some persons of interest with the inquisitors at length accused him before them. Upon this he was imprisoned himself; and being found guilty of many false accusations, he received this sentence: that he should come out at a public act of the faith, carrying a wax candle in his hand, be banished five years from the city, and forfeit the whole sum of money, which by virtue of his office he was to have received from the holy tribunal.”
“This very man,[[256]] whilst he was keeper, had in his family an ancient servant maid, who observing the distress of the prisoners, labouring under intolerable hunger and nastiness, through the wickedness and barbarity of her master, was so moved with pity towards them, being herself well inclined to the evangelical piety, that she often spoke to them through the doors of their cells, comforted them, and as well as she could exhorted them to patience, many times putting them in meat under their doors, in proportion to the mean and low abilities of her condition. And when she had nothing of her own, by which to shew her liberality to the prisoners of Christ, she stole good part of that provision from the wicked thief her master, which he had stolen from the prisoners, and restored it to them. And that we may the more wonder at the providence of God, who so orders it that the worst of parents shall not have always the worst of children, but sometimes even the best, a little daughter of the keeper himself was greatly assisting to the maid in these pious thefts. By means of this servant the prisoners had information of the state of the affairs of their brethren and fellow prisoners, which much comforted them, and was oftentimes of great service to their cause. But at length the matter was discovered by the lords inquisitors, by whom she was thrown into prison for a year, and underwent the same fate with the other prisoners, and condemned to walk in the public procession with a yellow garment, and to receive two hundred stripes; which was executed upon her the following day, through the streets of the city, with the usual pomp and cruelty. To all this was added banishment from the city and its territories, for ten years. Her title was, “The favouress and aidress of heretics.” What excited the implacable indignation of the lords, the fathers of the faith, against her, was, that they discovered in her examination, that she had revealed the secrets of the most holy tribunal to some of the inhabitants of the city, particularly relating to the provision allotted to the prisoners. From both these examples, and from their different and unequal punishment, any one may see how much safer it is to add to the affliction of the prisoners in their jail, than to comfort them by any act of humanity and mercy whatsoever.”
And in order that the jail of heretics may be kept secret, no one of the officials, no not the judge himself, can enter it alone, or speak with the prisoners but before another of the officials, nor without the previous order of the inquisitors. All are obliged to swear that they will observe this, that no one may see or speak to the prisoners besides the person who gives them their necessaries; who must be a faithful, honest person, and is obliged to swear that he will not discover the secrets, and must be searched to prevent his carrying any orders or letters to the prisoners.
This command they will have observed as most sacred, because, as they say, secrecy is the strength of the inquisition, which might easily be violated, unless this order be punctually kept; and therefore they always most severely punish those who transgress it. Gonsalvius Montanus[[257]] gives us a very remarkable instance of this. “One Peter ab Herera, a man not altogether vile, but of some humanity, and not very old, was appointed keeper of the tower of Triana, which is the prison of the inquisition. It happened, as it often doth in such numerous and promiscuous imprisonments, that amongst other prisoners committed to his custody, there was a certain good matron, with her two daughters, who were put in different cells, and earnestly desired the liberty of seeing one another, and comforting each other in so great a calamity. They therefore earnestly entreated the keeper, that he would suffer them to be together for one quarter of an hour, that they might have the satisfaction of embracing each other. He being moved with humanity and compassion, allowed them to be together, and talk with one another for half an hour; and after they had indulged their mutual affections, he put them, as they were before, in their separate prisons. A few days after this they were put with great cruelty to the torture; and the keeper being afraid, that through the severity of their torments, they should discover to the lords, the fathers inquisitors, his small humanity in suffering them to converse together for half an hour without the inquisitors leave; through terror, went himself to the holy tribunal, of his own accord confessed his sin, and prayed for pardon; foolishly believing, that by such his confession he should prevent the punishment that threatened him for this action. But the lords inquisitors judged this to be so heinous a crime, that they ordered him immediately to be thrown into jail; and such was the cruelty of his treatment, and the disorder of mind that followed on it, that he soon grew distracted. However, his disorder and madness did not save him from a more grievous punishment. For after he had lain a full year in that cursed prison, they brought him out in the public procession, cloathed with the yellow garment, and an halter round his neck, as though he had been a common thief; and condemned him first to receive two hundred lashes through the streets of the city, and then to the gallies for six years. The day after the procession, as he was carried from the Triana to be whipped with the usual solemnity, his madness, which usually seized him every other hour, came on him; and throwing himself from the ass, on which, for the greater shame, he was carried, he flew upon the inquisitory Alguazile,[[258]] and snatching from him a sword, had certainly killed him, had he not been prevented by the mob who attended him, and set him again upon the ass, and guarded him till he had received the two hundred lashes according to his sentence. After this the lords inquisitors ordered, that as he had behaved himself indecently towards the Alguazile, four years more should be added to the six for which he was at first condemned to the gallies.”
These keepers are answerable for the smallest fault, for they are to use the same care in the custody of their prisoners, as fathers ought to do in governing their families; so that if they suffer any one to escape from jail, they are to be punished according to the nature of their offence. It is therefore their business frequently to visit and search the cells of their prisoners, to prevent any thing from being clandestinely carried in, by which they may destroy themselves, dig through the walls, and so escape. Their care of the women is to be peculiarly strict; since the sex is naturally frail, and more subject than men to yield to passion and despair, and so are more likely to seek an occasion of destroying themselves. They must, above all other things, take care that they do not behave themselves indecently towards their women prisoners. Thus the congregation of cardinals inquisitors general condemned a jail-keeper to the gallies for seven years, and to perpetual banishment from the place where he committed his offence, for having carnal knowledge of a woman that was prisoner in the holy office.
If the inquisitor thinks it necessary to prevent the escape of any prisoners, he may lay them in irons. If the poverty of the inquisitors is so great, or their jails so defective, as that they are not fit to hold in safe custody, either for the thinness of the walls, or for want of iron bars to the windows, or sufficient bolts for the doors, if the magistrate be required by the inquisitor, he must take care of the safe custody of the prisoners.
What the several duties of the messenger, door-keeper, and physician are, is plain enough from their very names. They must be honest men, and not suspected, and born of old christians.
The salaries of the inquisitors and officers are differently paid in different countries.
In Spain there are fixed salaries for the inquisitors, and other ministers of the holy office, which are paid them at stated times out of the forfeited effects.