Overcome by this malignant suggestion, Melchior delivered an indignant invective against the inquisitors, and all who appeared on the trial, and then said, “What can you do to me?—burn me? Well, then, be it so. I cannot confess what I do not know. All that I have said of myself is true, but what I have declared of others is entirely false. I invented it, because I perceived that you wished me to denounce innocent persons; and being unacquainted with the names and quality of these unfortunate people, I named all whom I could think of, in the hope of finding an end to my misery. I now perceive that my situation admits of no relief, and I therefore retract all my depositions; and now, having fulfilled this duty, proceed to burn me as soon as you please.” The papers relating to the trial were sent to the supreme council, which confirmed the sentence of burning, and reprimanded the inquisitors for the delay. Instead of submitting to this decision, the inquisitors called Melchior again before them, representing to him that his declarations contained many contradictions, and that, for the good of his soul, it was necessary that he should finally make a confession, respecting himself and all his guilty acquaintances. This artful appeal did not shake his constancy. Melchior affirmed that they would find all the truth in the declaration that he had made before the visitor, Senor Ayora. It was found in this that Melchior had stated, that “he knew nothing of the subject on which he was examined.” The inquisitor then said, “How can this declaration be true, when you have several times declared that you have attended the Jewish assemblies, believed in their doctrines, and persevered in the belief for the space of one year, until you were undeceived by a priest?” Melchior replied, “I spoke falsely when I made a declaration against myself.” “But how is it,” said the inquisitor, “that what you have confessed of yourself, and many other things, which you now deny, are the result of the depositions of a great many witnesses?” “I do not know,” replied Melchior, “if that is true or false, for I have not seen the writings of the trial; but if the witnesses have said that which is imputed to them, it was because they were placed in the same situation as I am. They do not love me better than I love myself; and I have certainly declared against myself both truth and falsehood.” “What motive had you, then,” asked the inquisitor, “in declaring things injurious to yourself, if they were false?” Melchior declared, “I expected to derive great advantage from them, because I saw that if I did not confess anything, I should be considered as impenitent, and the truth would lead me to the scaffold. I thought that falsehood would be most useful to me, and I found it so in two autos da fé.”
Nothing was now to be expected but death, and he was desired, on the 6th of June, 1568, to prepare for it by the next day. At two o’clock in the morning he desired an audience with the inquisitor, who, with his notary, went to his cell. Melchior then said to him, “That at the point of appearing before the tribunal of the Almighty, and without any hope of escaping from death by new delays, he thought himself bound to declare that he had never conversed with any person on the Mosaic law; that all he had said on this subject was founded on the wish to preserve life, and the belief that his confessions were pleasing to the inquisitors; that he asked pardon of the persons implicated, that God might pardon him, and that no injury might be done to their honour and reputation.”
Melchior Hernandez was, therefore, sacrificed to the bigotry of the inquisitors, first being strangled and then burnt. As to his inventions and false accusations of others, nothing can justify him; but such endeavours to escape from the dreadful tribunal appear to be common among the unhappy prisoners of that horrid court which knows no mercy.
5. Lewis Pezoa.—About the year 1650, Lewis Pezoa, a new Christian, his wife, and two sons, and one daughter, besides some relations living with him, were all thrown into the gaol of the Inquisition in Portugal. They were accused by some of their enemies of being Jews. Pezoa denied the charge, and refuted it, but in vain; he demanded that his accusers might be discovered to him, that he might convict them of falsehood. He was condemned, as a negative heretic, to be delivered over to the secular court to be burnt. This was made known to him fifteen days before the sentence was pronounced by the court.
Pezoa being a man of wealth, the Duke de Cadaval knew him, and desired to know, from his intimate friend, the Duke d’Aviera, inquisitor-general, how he would be treated; and understanding that unless he confessed before his going out of prison, he would not escape the fire, because he had been convicted according to the laws of the Inquisition, he entreated, and obtained from the inquisitor-general a promise, that if he could persuade Pezoa to confess, even after sentence was pronounced, and his procession in the act of faith, he should not die, though it was contrary to the laws. Upon that solemn day, therefore, on which the act of faith was held, he went with some of his own friends, and some of Pezoa’s, to the Inquisition, to prevail on him, if possible, to confess. He was led forth in the procession, wearing the infamous attire and the mitre, indicating the sacrifice of his life. His friends, with many tears, besought him, in the name of the Duke of Cadaval, and by all that was dear to him, that he would preserve his life, and intimated to him, that if he would confess and repent, the duke would give him more than he had lost, as he obtained his life on that condition from the inquisitor-general. But all in vain; Pezoa continually protesting himself innocent, and that the accusation was the contrivance of his enemies, who sought his destruction, as guilty of crimes. When the procession was ended, and the act of faith almost finished, the sentences of those who were condemned to certain penances having been read, and, on the approach of evening, the sentences of those who were to be delivered over to the secular court being begun to be read, his friends repeated their entreaties, by which they overcame his constancy at last; so that, desiring an audience, and rising up, that he might be heard, he said, “Come, then, let us go and confess the crimes I am falsely accused of, and thereby gratify the desires of my friends.”
Having made confession, he was remanded to gaol. But, two years after, he was sent to Evora, and walked in procession in another act of faith, wearing the infamous garment, on which was painted the fire inverted, according to the usual custom of the Portuguese Inquisition; and after five years more, in which he was detained in the gaol of the Inquisition, he was condemned to the galleys, as a slave, for five years.
CHAPTER XV.
ACTS OF FAITH OF THE INQUISITION.
The Auto da Fé—Act of Faith at Madrid—Act of Faith at Lisbon—Testimony of Rev. Mr. Wilcox.
The auto da fé, or act of faith, in the Romish church, is a grand ceremony performed by the Inquisition, for the punishment of heretics, and the absolution of those who have been declared innocent. It is usually contrived to fall on great festivals of the church, that the whole procedure may strike the spectators with the utmost awe. The auto da fé may be called the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy. It is a kind of gaol delivery, as often as a competent number of prisoners in the Inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted confession, or on the testimony of certain witnesses. The process is generally as follows:—
In the morning, the prisoners are brought into a great hall, where they put on certain habits, which are to be worn in the procession, and from which they know their doom. The procession is led forth by Dominican friars, after whom come the penitents, being all in black coats without sleeves, and bare-footed, with wax candles in their hands. These are followed by those penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt, and who, over their black coats, have flames painted, with their points turned downwards. Next come the negative and relapsed, who are doomed to be burnt, having flames on their habits pointing upwards. After these come such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their pictures painted on their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, as in a fury. Each prisoner is attended by a familiar of the Inquisition; and those to be burnt, have also a Jesuit on each hand urging them to abjure. After the prisoners, there follow a troop of familiars on horseback, and then the inquisitors and other officers of the court, on mules: last of all, the inquisitor-general on a white horse, led by two men with black hats and green hatbands.