They who have been lately in the prison of the inquisition in Spain and Portugal, tell us of another method they make use of to draw a confession from the prisoners, viz. The inquisitor suborns a certain person to go and speak to the prisoner, and to tell him he comes of himself, and of his own accord, and to exhort him to tell the inquisitor the truth, because he is a merciful man, and such fine tales. This is now particularly the custom in Spain and Portugal, as to those they call the new Christians. If the prisoner affirms himself to be a Catholic, and denies that he is a Jew, and is not convicted by a sufficient number of witnesses, they suborn one to persuade him to confess. If he protests himself innocent, the other replies, that he also hath been in jail, and that his protesting his innocence signified nothing. What, had you rather dwell for ever in jail, and render your life miserable, by being ever parted from your wife and children, than redeem your freedom, by confessing the crime? By this, and other like things, the prisoners are oftentimes persuaded to confess not only real, but fictitious crimes. And when their constancy is thus almost overcome, the inquisitor commands them to be brought before him, that they may make him a confession of their faults.
After these examinations, if the prisoner persists in the negative, he is admitted to his defence, and hath an advocate or proctor appointed him, but such only as the inquisitors allow him; and who, as soon as ever they know the prisoners are criminal, bind themselves by oath to throw up their defence. A copy of the accusation is usually given to the prisoner, to which he must answer article by article; and likewise a copy of the proofs, but not of the names of the witnesses, nor any circumstances by which they may discover who they are, for fear the witnesses should be in danger if known.
After the process is thus carried on, it is finished in this manner: Either by absolution, if the prisoner be found really innocent, or the accusation against him not fully proved. Not that they pronounce such person free from heresy, but only declare that nothing is legally proved against him, on account of which he ought to be pronounced an heretic, or suspected of heresy; and that therefore he is wholly released from his present trial and inquisition. But if, notwithstanding this, he should afterwards be accused of the same crime, he may be again judged and condemned for it; and this absolution will stand him in no stead.
If the party accused is found to be only defamed for heresy, and not convicted of heresy by any legal proofs, he is not absolved, but enjoined canonical purgation. The manner of the purgation is this: the party accused must produce several witnesses, good and Catholic men, who must swear by God, and the four holy gospels of God, that they firmly believe he hath not been an heretic, or believer of their errors; and that he hath sworn the truth, in denying it upon oath. If he fails in his purgation, i. e. cannot procure such a number of purgers as he is enjoined, he is esteemed as convict, and condemned as an heretic.
If the person accused is not found guilty by his own confession, or proper witnesses; yet if he cannot make his innocence appear plainly to the inquisitor, or if he is caught contradicting himself, or faultering, or trembling, or sweating, or pale, or crying; or if there be half proof of his crime, he is put to the question or torture. And this liberty the inquisitors sometimes shamefully abuse, by torturing the most innocent persons; as appears by the following instance.
“[[261]]A noble lady, Joan Bohorquia, the wife of Francis Varquius, a very eminent man, and lord of Higuera, and daughter of Peter Garsia Xeresius, a wealthy citizen of Seville, was apprehended, and put into the inquisition at Seville. The occasion of her imprisonment was, that her sister, Mary Bohorquia, a young lady of eminent piety, who was afterwards burnt for her pious confession, had declared in her torture that she had several times conversed with her sister concerning her own doctrine. When she was first imprisoned, she was about six months gone with child; upon which account she was not so straitly confined, nor used with that cruelty which the other prisoners were treated with, out of regard to the infant she carried in her. Eight days after her delivery they took the child from her, and on the fifteenth shut her close up, and made her undergo the fate of the other prisoners, and began to manage her cause with their usual arts and rigour. In so dreadful a calamity she had only this comfort, that a certain pious young woman, who was afterwards burnt for her religion by the inquisitors, was allowed her for her companion. This young creature was, on a certain day, carried out to her torture, and being returned from it into her jail, she was so shaken, and had all her limbs so miserably disjointed, that when she laid upon her bed of rushes, it rather encreased her misery than gave her rest, so that she could not turn herself without the most excessive pain. In this condition, as Bohorquia had it not in her power to shew her any, or but very little outward kindness, she endeavoured to comfort her mind with great tenderness. The girl had scarce began to recover from her torture, when Bohorquia was carried out to the same exercise, and was tortured with such diabolical cruelty upon the rack, that the rope pierced and cut into the very bones of her arms, thighs, and legs; and in this manner she was brought back to prison, just ready to expire, the blood immediately running out of her mouth in great plenty. Undoubtedly they had burst her bowels, insomuch that the eighth day after her torture she died. And when after all they could not procure sufficient evidence to condemn her, though sought after and procured by all their inquisitorial arts; yet, as the accused person was born in that place, where they were obliged to give some account of the affair to the people, and indeed could not by any means dissemble it; in the first act of triumph appointed after her death, they commanded her sentence to be pronounced in these words: because this lady died in prison (without doubt suppressing the causes of it) and was found to be innocent upon inspecting and diligently examining her cause, therefore the holy tribunal pronounces her free from all charges brought against her by the fiscal, and absolving her from any farther process, doth restore her both as to her innocence and reputation; and commands all her effects, which had been confiscated to be restored to those to whom they of right belonged, &c. And thus, after they had murdered her by torture, with savage cruelty, they pronounced her innocent.”
After the sentence of torture is pronounced, the officers prepare themselves to inflict it. “[[262]]The place of torture in the Spanish inquisition is generally an under-ground and very dark room, to which one enters through several doors. There is a tribunal erected in it, in which the inquisitor, inspector, and secretary sit. When the candles are lighted, and the person to be tortured brought in, the executioner, who was waiting for him, makes a very astonishing and dreadful appearance. He is covered all over with a black linen garment down to his feet, and tied close to his body. His head and face are all hid with a long black cowl, only two little holes being left in it for him to see through. All this is intended to strike the miserable wretch with greater terror in mind and body, when he sees himself going to be tortured by the hands of one who thus looks like the very devil.”
The degrees of torture formerly used, were principally three: first, by stripping and binding. Secondly, by being hoisted on the rack. Thirdly, squassation.
This stripping is performed without any regard to humanity or honour, not only to men, but to women and virgins, though the most virtuous and chaste, of whom they have sometimes many in their prisons. For they cause them to be stripped, even to their very shifts; which they afterwards take off, and then put on them straight linen drawers, and then make their arms naked quite up to their shoulders. As to squassation, it is thus performed: the prisoner hath his hands bound behind his back, and weights tied to his feet, and then he is drawn up on high, till his head reaches the very pully. He is kept hanging in this manner for some time, that by the greatness of the weight hanging at his feet, all his joints and limbs may be dreadfully stretched; and on a sudden he is let down with a jirk, by the slacking the rope, but kept from coming quite to the ground; by which terrible shake his arms and legs are all disjointed, whereby he is put to the most exquisite pain; the shock which he receives by the sudden stop of his fall, and the weight at his feet, stretching his whole body more intensely and cruelly.
The author of the History of the Inquisition at Goa tells us,[[263]] that the torture now practised in the Portuguese inquisition is exceeding cruel. “In the months of November and December, I heard every day in the morning the cries and groans of those who were put to the question, which is so very cruel, that I have seen several of both sexes who have been ever after lame. In this tribunal they regard neither age nor sex, nor condition of persons, but all without distinction are tortured, when it is for the interest of this tribunal.”