The History of Persecution, from the Patriarchal Age, to the Reign of George II

by Samuel Chandler

III. A third is, that in this office every one, though excluded by other courts, is admitted for a witness, a mortal enemy only excepted.

IV. To this may be added a fourth, that the names of the witnesses are not shewn to the prisoner, nor is any circumstance discovered to him by which he can come to the knowledge of the witnesses.

V. A fifth instance of injustice is, that if two unexceptionable witnesses, who yet must ever be liable to exception, because unknown to the criminal, testify of different facts, yea, sometimes if there be one only, yea, if but a mere report, they think it enough to order to the torture.

VI. A sixth instance is, that they would have persons informed against become their own accusers: for as soon as ever any one is thrown into jail, he is bound by an oath to declare the truth.

VII. A seventh instance is, that the inquisitors use various arts to draw out a confession from the prisoners, by making them deceitful promises, which, when they have got the confession, they do not believe themselves obliged to fulfil; that so the prisoner being destitute of all human assistance and comfort, and seeing no end to his miseries, may, through the art and fraud of the inquisitor, have no possible way left to defend himself, and yet in the mean while these wretches affect the appearance of justice, and grant the criminals an advocate and proctor to manage their cause. But in this the prisoner is miserably deceived.

VIII. And this is an eighth specimen of their injustice, because the advocate granted to him is given him only to betray him. For he may not choose such an advocate as he himself approves of, nor is it lawful for the advocate to defend the prisoner, unless he would be accounted as a favourer of heresy; but the inquisition itself assigns him his advocate, bound to them by an oath, whose principal business is to persuade the criminal to confess the crime he is accused of, not to use any methods of defence not practised in the court of the inquisition, and immediately to quit his defence, if he cannot defend him according to the laws of the inquisition.

IX. A ninth is, that when the crimes cannot be proved against the prisoner, he is not absolved from the crime of which he is accused, but only from prosecution; and all the declaration that is made, is that the crime against him is not proved by proper witnesses; and this sentence is never taken for an adjudged case. So that he who is once informed against to the inquisition, although he be innocent, and his crime cannot be proved according to the received manner of the inquisition, though indeed, according to that manner, all crimes of which there is but the least suspicion may be easily proved; yet he is never blotted out of the inquisitors book or index, but his name is there preserved in perpetual remembrance of his being a suspected person, that if he should happen to be informed against for heresy at any other time, these latter informations added to the former may amount to a real proof; and that although he is dismissed from jail by the sentence of the judge, he may never be able to live in safety, but that being always suspected by the inquisitor, he may be arrested for the same crime which ought to have been forgotten, upon the fresh information of some vile and wicked fellow.

X. A tenth, and that not the least instance of injustice, is their readiness to put persons to the torture, and that to discover a secret crime, lying concealed in the mind; yea, that they will use the torture so much the sooner, because the crime is more concealed than other crimes.

XI. The eleventh is, their putting persons to the torture upon half full proof of the crime. This half full proof is faultering, defamation, and one witness of his own knowledge, or when the tokens are vehement and violent. All these things are subject to the pleasure of the judge. So that if any one falls into the hands of a cruel inquisitor, and faulters in his answer, or is informed against by one witness, who declares he was present at the action or words he gives information of, he cannot possibly escape the torture, nor consequently the punishment of the crime he is accused of, considering the violence of the torments. Nor is this all; but as there may be some facts occasioned not so much by heresy concealed in the mind, as by carnal concupiscence or rashness, they will have such to be tortured for their intention, and force them by torments to confess they had an heretical intention in their mind.

XII. A twelfth is, that when they prepare themselves for the torture, they gravely and seriously admonish the criminal to speak nothing but the truth, and to confess nothing that is not agreeable to truth to avoid the tortures. By this means they put on the appearance of sincerity, as though they sought nothing but the naked truth, that when the torture is finished they may be very secure that the tortured person hath confessed a real crime, because they have seriously[seriously] and gravely admonished him to say nothing contrary to truth. In the mean while they suppose, that the crime objected against him is real, and endeavour to force from him a confession by torture, and threaten to double his torments unless he confesses; so that if he denies the crime, his torments are aggravated; if he confesses it, his torments are soon ended. Hence it appears, that their design is not honestly to find out the truth by torture, but that they suppose the crime is real, although according to the laws of the inquisition it be only half proved, and then extort a confession of it.