“When I arrived at the Inquisition, and had ascended the outer stairs, the door-keepers surveyed me doubtingly, but suffered me to pass, supposing that I had returned by permission and appointment of the inquisitor. I entered the great hall, and went up directly towards the tribunal of the Inquisition, described by Dellon, in which is the lofty crucifix. I sat down on a form, and then desired one of the attendants to carry in my name to the inquisitor. As I walked up the hall, I saw a poor woman sitting by herself, on a bench by the wall, apparently in a disconsolate state of mind. She clasped her hands as I passed, and gave me a look expressive of her distress. This sight chilled my spirits. The familiars told me she was waiting there to be called up before the tribunal of the Inquisition. While I was asking questions concerning her crime, the second inquisitor came out in evident trepidation, and was about to complain of the intrusion, when I informed him I had come back for the letter from the chief-inquisitor. He said it should be sent after me to Goa; and he conducted me with a quick step towards the door. As we passed the poor woman, I pointed to her, and said, with some emphasis, ‘Behold, father, another victim of the holy Inquisition!’ He answered nothing. When we arrived at the head of the great stair, he bowed, and I took my last leave of Joseph à Doloribus, without uttering a word!”
Dr. Buchanan makes various reflections on his detail of the visit which he paid to this dreadful institution. He states, “The foregoing particulars concerning the Inquisition at Goa, are detailed chiefly with this view—that the English nation may consider, whether there be sufficient ground for presenting a remonstrance to the Portuguese government, on the longer continuance of that tribunal in India; it being notorious, that a great part of the Romish Christians are now under British protection. ‘The Romans,’ says Montesquieu, ‘deserved well of human nature, for making it an article in their treaty with the Carthaginians, that THEY SHOULD ABSTAIN FROM SACRIFICING THEIR CHILDREN TO THEIR GODS!’ It is surely our duty to declare our wishes, at least, for the abolition of these inhuman tribunals (since we take an active part in promoting the welfare of other nations), and to deliver our testimony against them in the presence of Europe!”
CHAPTER XIX.
LICENTIOUSNESS OF THE INQUISITORS.
Corruptions predicted—Licentiousness of celibate Priests—Splendour of the Chief-inquisitor at Madrid—Inquisitors’ seraglios at Saragossa—Case of a Victim—Number of the Ladies of three Inquisitors.
Divine Inspiration, describing the papal apostacy, gives various striking particulars, illustrations of which are given variously in the foregoing history. Among those shocking practices, the Holy Spirit declares that its ministers “speak lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry.”—1 Tim. iv. 2, 3.
Every one acquainted with the manners of the people in popish countries is aware of the prevalence of impurity, even among the priests. It is too notorious to be denied. All classes, from the popes downward, are known to be guilty. Many papal bulls have condemned unchastity, with characteristic hypocrisy, which may be illustrated by a single fact. Pope Pius IV., A.D. 1561, issued a bull, directed to the Inquisition, the commencement of which is as follows:—“Whereas certain ecclesiastics in the kingdom of Spain, and in the cities and dioceses thereof, having the cure of souls, or exercising such cure for others, or otherwise deputed to hear the confessions of penitents, have broken out into such heinous acts of iniquity as to abuse the sacrament of penance in the very act of hearing the confessions, nor fearing to injure the same sacrament, and Him who instituted it, our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, by enticing and provoking, or trying to entice and provoke females to lewd actions, at the very time when they were making their confessions,” &c., &c.
Upon the publication of this bull in Spain, the Inquisition issued an edict requiring all females, who had been thus abused by the priests at the confessional, and all who were privy to such acts, to give information, within thirty days, to the holy tribunal; and very heavy censures were attached to those who should neglect or despise this injunction. When this edict was first published, as Catholic authors of credit state, such a considerable number of females went to the palace of the Inquisition, in the single city of Seville, to reveal the conduct of their base confessors, that twenty notaries, and as many inquisitors, were appointed to minute down their several informations against them; but these being found insufficient to receive the depositions of so many witnesses, and the inquisitors being thus overwhelmed, as it were, with the pressure of such affairs, thirty days more were allowed for taking the accusations; and this lapse of time also proving inadequate for the intended purpose, a similar period was granted for a third and a fourth time. Maids and matrons of every rank and station, dreading the excommunication, crowded to the Inquisition. Modesty, shame, and the desire of concealing the facts from their husbands, induced many to go veiled. But the multitudes of depositions, and the odium which the discovery drew on auricular confession and on the priesthood, caused the Inquisition to quash the prosecutions, and to consign the depositions to oblivion!
From the enormous hypocrisy and unparalleled cruelty that we have seen recorded of the inquisitors, every one will be prepared to believe that they must have been guilty of the most atrocious personal immoralities. Many of them were priests; and the celibacy of the clergy, as enjoined by the Romish religion, was the occasion of the most shocking violations of the laws of God. These crimes are testified by papal historians of the highest character, and proved by laws of the popes made against them; but the records of the lives of the priests exhibit the most disgusting and dreadful crimes.
Elevation in office generally rendered the inquisitors above all law; and the peculiarity of their stations shielded them from accusation, rendering it dangerous in the extreme for any one to breathe a whisper against them. They, therefore, commonly rolled in luxury, and indulged in licentiousness that would appear incredible, were it not for their other enormities and abominations recorded on the faithful pages of history.
The translator of Limborch’s history remarks, therefore:—“The licentious character so largely applied to the Romish clergy has not been wanting in those deputed to the office of inquisitors. Whilst by the very constitution of their authority they are placed in a great degree above the laws, they possess, in addition to their ecclesiastical revenues, opportunities of amassing enormous wealth from the wreck of those whom they condemn; and, besides, such unbounded power as to command any object of desire, or to gratify any purpose of revenge. With such temptations, therefore, it is no wonder if the inquisitor should become voluptuous, and that, possessing the authority, he should assume the vices of the oriental monarchs.” M. Lavallée, in his “Histoire des Inquisitions Religieuses,” relates the following circumstance:—