A church dictionary

by Walter Farquhar Hook

INNOCENTS’ DAY. One of the holy-days of the Church. Its design is to commemorate one of the most thrilling events in the gospel history. The innocents were they who suffered death under the cruel decree of Herod, who thought, by a general slaughter of young children, to have accomplished the death of the infant Jesus. They are so called from the Latin term innocentes or innocui, harmless babes, altogether incapable of defending themselves from the malice of their inhuman persecutors. The celebration of the martyrdom of these innocents was very ancient. It occurs on the 28th of December.

INQUISITION. A tribunal, or court of justice, in Roman Catholic countries, erected by the popes for the examination and punishment of heretics.

Before the conversion of the empire to Christianity, there was no other tribunal, for the inquiry into matters of faith and doctrine, but that of the bishops; nor any other way of punishing obstinate heretics, but that of excommunication. But the Roman emperors, being converted to Christianity, thought themselves obliged to interpose in the punishment of crimes committed against God, and for this purpose made laws, (which may be found in the Theodosian and Justinian codes,) by which heretics were sentenced to banishment and forfeiture of estates. Thus there were two courts of judicature against heretics, the one spiritual, the other civil. The ecclesiastical court pronounced upon the right, declared what was heresy, and excommunicated heretics. When this was done, the civil courts undertook the prosecution, and punished those, in their persons and fortunes, who were convicted of heresy.

This method lasted till after the year 800. From this time the jurisdiction of the Western bishops over heretics was enlarged, and they had now authority both to convict and punish them, by imprisonment, and several acts of discipline, warranted by the canons and custom: but they could not execute the imperial laws of banishment upon them. Matters stood thus until the 12th century, when the great growth and power of heresies (as they were called) began to give no small disturbance to the Church. However, the popes could do no more than send legates and preachers to endeavour the conversion of heretics, particularly the Albigenses, who about this time were the occasion of great disturbances in Languedoc. Hither Father Dominic and his followers (called from him Dominicans) were sent by Pope Innocent III., with orders to excite the Catholic princes and people to extirpate heretics, to inquire out their number and quality, and to transmit a faithful account thereof to Rome. Hence they were called Inquisitors; and this gave birth to the formidable tribunal of the Inquisition, which was received in all Italy, and the dominions of Spain, excepting the kingdom of Naples, and the Low Countries, where Charles V., and after him Philip II. of Spain, endeavouring to establish it, in 1567, by the Duke of Alva, thereby incurred the loss of the United Provinces.

This tribunal takes cognizance of heresy, Judaism, Mahometanism, and polygamy; and the people stand in so much fear of it, that parents deliver up their children, husbands their wives, and masters their servants, to its officers, without daring in the least to murmur. The prisoners are shut up in frightful dungeons, where they are kept for several months, till they themselves turn their own accusers, and declare the cause of their imprisonment; for they are never confronted with witnesses. Their friends go into mourning, and speak of them as dead, not daring to solicit their pardon, lest they should be brought in as accomplices. When there is no shadow of proof against the pretended criminal, he is discharged, after a tedious imprisonment, and the loss of the greatest part of his effects.

The sentence against the prisoners of the Inquisition is publicly pronounced, and with extraordinary solemnity. This is called Auto da fé, that is, Act or Decree of Faith. In Portugal, they erect a theatre, capable of holding 3000 persons, on which they place a very rich altar, and raise seats on each side in the form of an amphitheatre, where the criminals are placed; over against whom is a high chair, whither they are called one by one, to hear their doom, pronounced by one of the Inquisitors. The prisoners know their doom by the clothes they wear that day. Those who wear their own clothes, are discharged upon payment of a fine. Those who have a Santo Benito, or straight yellow coat without sleeves, charged with St. Andrew’s cross, have their lives, but forfeit their effects. Those who have the resemblance of flames, made of red serge, sewed upon their Santo Benito, without any cross, are pardoned, but threatened to be burnt, if ever they relapse. But those who, besides these flames, have on their Santo Benito their own picture, environed with figures of devils, are condemned to die. The Inquisitors, who are ecclesiastics, do not pronounce the sentence of death, but form and read an act, wherein they say, that the criminal, being convicted of such a crime by his own proper confession, is delivered with much reluctancy to the secular power, to be punished according to his demerits. This writing they give to seven judges, who attend at the right side of the altar. These condemn the criminal to be first hanged, and then burnt: but Jews are burnt alive. The public place for execution in Portugal is called Roussi, whither the Confraternity of Mercy attend, and pray for the prisoner.

The Inquisition of Goa, in the Indies, is very powerful, the principal inquisitor having more respect showed him than either the archbishop or viceroy. The criminals, sentenced by this tribunal to die, are clad much after the same manner as in Portugal. Such as are convicted of magic, wear paper caps in the form of sugar-loaves, covered with flames and frightful figures of devils. All the criminals go in procession to a church chosen for the ceremony, and have each of them a godfather, who is answerable for their forthcoming after the ceremony is over. In this procession the criminals walk barefooted, carrying lighted tapers in their hands: the least guilty march foremost. After the last of them that are to be discharged, comes one carrying a crucifix, and followed by those who are to die. The next day after the execution, the pictures of the executed are carried to the church of the Dominicans. The head only is represented surrounded with firebrands, and underneath is written the name, quality, and crime of the person executed.

The Inquisition of Venice, consisting of the pope’s nuncio residing there, the patriarch of Venice, the father inquisitor, and two senators, is nothing near so severe as those of Spain and Portugal. It does not hinder the Greeks and Armenians from the exercise of their religion; and it tolerates the Jews, who wear scarlet caps for the sake of distinction. In fine, the power of this tribunal is so limited by the states, that, in the university of Padua, degrees are taken without requiring the candidates to make the profession of faith enjoined by the popes; insomuch that schismatics, Jews, and those they call heretics, daily take their degrees in law and physic there.

The Inquisition of Rome is a congregation of twelve cardinals, and some other officers, and the pope presides in it in person. This is accounted the highest tribunal in Rome. It began in the time of Pope Paul IV., on occasion of the spreading of Lutheranism. The standard of the Inquisition is of red damask, on which is painted a cross, with an olive branch on one side, and a sword on the other: the motto in these words of the 73rd psalm, Exurge, Domine, et judica causam meam.

INSPIRATION. (See Holy Ghost.) The extraordinary and supernatural influence of the Spirit of God on the human mind, by which the prophets and sacred writers were qualified to receive and set forth Divine communications, without any mixture of error. In this sense the term occurs in 2 Tim. iii. 16. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,” &c. (See Scriptures, Inspiration of.)