“The great bell of the Cathedral began to ring a little before sunrise, which served as a signal to warn the people of Goa to come and behold the august ceremony of the Auto da Fè; and then they made us proceed from the gallery one by one. I remarked as we passed into the great hall, that the inquisitor was sitting at the door with his secretary by him, and that he delivered every prisoner into the hands of a particular person, who is to be his guard to the place of burning. These persons are called Parrains, or Godfathers. My Godfather was the commander of a ship. I went forth with him, and as soon as we were in the street, I saw that the procession was commenced by the Dominican Friars; who have this honour, because St. Dominic founded the inquisition. These are followed by the prisoners who walked one after the other, each having his Godfather by his side, and a lighted taper in his hand. The least guilty go foremost; and as I did not pass for one of them, there were many who took precedence of me. The women were mixed promiscuously with the men. We all walked barefoot, and the sharp stones of the streets of Goa wounded my tender feet, and caused the blood to stream: for they made us march through the chief streets of the city: and we were regarded every where by an innumerable crowd of people, who had assembled[assembled] from all parts of India to behold this spectacle; for the inquisition takes care to announce it long before, in the most remote parishes. At length we arrived at the church of St. Francis, which was, for this time, destined for the celebration of the act of faith. On one side of the altar was the grand inquisitor and his counsellors; and on the other the vice-roy of Goa and his court. All the prisoners were seated to hear a sermon. I observed that those prisoners who wore the horrible Carrochas came in last in the procession. One of the Augustin monks ascended the pulpit, and preached for a quarter of an hour. The sermon being concluded, two readers went up to the pulpit, one after the other, and read the sentences of the prisoners. My joy was extreme when I heard that my sentence was not to be burnt, but to be a galley-slave for five years.—After the sentences were read, they summoned[summoned] forth those miserable victims who were destined to be immolated by the holy inquisition. The images of the heretics who had died in prison were brought up at the same time, their bones being contained in small chests, covered with flames and demons.—An officer of the secular tribunal now came forward, and seized these unhappy people, after they had each received a slight blow upon the breast from the Alcaide, to intimate that they were abandoned. They were then led away to the bank of the river, where the vice-roy and his court were assembled, and where the faggots had been prepared the preceding day.—As soon as they arrive at this place, the condemned persons are asked in what religion they choose to die; and the moment they have replied to this question, the executioner seizes them, and binds them to a stake in the midst of the faggots. The day after the execution, the portraits of the dead are carried to the church of the Dominicans. The heads only are represented, (which are generally very accurately drawn; for the inquisition keeps excellent limners for the purpose,) surrounded by flames and demons; and underneath is the name and crime of the person who has been burned.” Relation de l’ Inquisition de Goa, chap. XXIV.
[289]. The manjeel is a kind of palankeen common at Goa. It is merely a sea-cot suspended from a bamboo, which is borne on the heads of four men. Sometimes a footman runs before, having a staff in his hand, to which are attached little bells or rings, which he jingles as he runs, keeping time with the motion of the bearers.
[290]. Edin. Rev. No. XXXII. p. 449.
[291]. Edin. Rev. No. XXXII. p.429.
BOOK IV.
OF PERSECUTIONS AMONGST PROTESTANTS.
After the world had groaned for many ages under the insupportable bondage of Popish superstition and cruelty, it pleased God, in his own good Providence, to take the remedy of these evils into his own hands; and after several ineffectual attempts by men, at last to bring about a reformation of religion by his own wisdom and power. The history of this great event hath been very particularly and faithfully given by many excellent writers, to which I must here refer my readers; and it must be owned, that the persons employed by Almighty God, to accomplish this great work, were, many of them, remarkable for their great learning and exemplary piety. I am sure I have no inclination to detract from their worth and merit. One would indeed have imagined, that the cruelties exercised by the papists upon all who opposed their superstitions in worship, and their corruptions in doctrine, should have given the first reformers an utter abhorrence of all methods of persecution for conscience-sake, and have kept them from ever entering into any such measures themselves. But it must be confessed, that however they differed from the church of Rome, as to doctrines and discipline, yet, that they too generally agreed with her, in the methods to support what they themselves apprehended to be truth and orthodoxy; and were angry with the papists, not for persecuting, but for persecuting themselves and their followers; being really of opinion that heretics might be persecuted, and, in some cases, persecuted to death. And that this was their avowed principle, they gave abundant demonstration by their practice.
SECT. I.
Luther’s opinion concerning Persecution.
Luther, that great instrument, under God, of the reformation in Germany, was, as his followers allow, naturally of a warm and violent temper, but was however in his judgment against punishing heretics with death. Thus, in his account of the state of the Popish church, as related by Seckendorf, he says:[[292]] “the true church teaches the word of God, but forces no one to it. If any one will not believe it, she dismisses him, and separates herself from him, according to the command of Christ, and the example of Paul in the Acts, and leaves him to the judgment of God: whereas our executioners and most cruel tyrants teach not the word of God, but their own articles, acting as they please, and then adjudge those who refuse to believe their articles, and obey their decrees, to the fires.” The same author gives us many other strong passages to the same purpose. Particularly, in one of his letters to Lineus, who asked his opinion about the punishment of false teachers, Luther says:[[293]] “I am very averse to the shedding of blood, even in the case of such as deserve it: and I the more especially dread it in this case, because, as the Papists and Jews, under this pretence, have destroyed holy prophets and innocent men; so I am afraid the same would happen amongst ourselves, if in one single instance it should be allowed lawful for seducers to be put to death. I can therefore, by no means, allow that false teachers should be destroyed.” But as to all other punishments, Luther seems to have been of Austin’s mind, and thought that they might be lawfully used. For, after the before-mentioned passage, he adds, “it is sufficient that they should be banished.” And in another place[[294]] he allows, that “heretics may be corrected, and forced at least to silence, if they publicly deny any one of the articles received by all Christians, and particularly that Christ is God; affirming him to be a mere man or prophet.” “This,” says he, “is not to force men to the faith, but to restrain from public blasphemy.” In another place he goes farther and says,[[295]] that “heretics are not indeed to be put to death, but may however be confined, and shut up in some certain place, and put under restraint as madmen.” As to the Jews, he was for treating them more severely;[[296]] and was of opinion, that “their synagogues should be levelled with the ground, their houses destroyed, their books of prayer, and of the talmud, and even those of the old testament, be taken from them; their rabbies be forbid to teach, and forced, by hard labour, to get their bread; and if they would not submit to this, that they should be banished, as was formerly practised in France and Spain.”
[[297]]This was the moderation of this otherwise great and good man, who was indeed against putting heretics to death, but for almost all other punishments that the civil magistrates could inflict: and agreeably to this opinion, he persuaded the Electors of Saxony not to tolerate in their dominions, the followers of Zuinglius, in the opinion of the sacrament, because he esteemed the real presence an essential or fundamental article of faith; nor to enter into any terms of union with them, for their common safety and defence, against the endeavours of the papists to destroy them. And accordingly, notwithstanding all the endeavours of the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel, to get them included in the common league against the papists, the Elector would never allow it, being vehemently dissuaded from it by Luther, Melancton, and others of their party, who alledged, “That they taught articles contrary to those received in Saxony; and that therefore there could be no agreement of heart with them.”