FOOTNOTE:
[13] The following affords a view of the secrecy with which the affairs of the holy office are conducted: "When the familiar is sent for to apprehend any person," says Limborch, "he has the following order put into his hand: 'By the command of the reverend father N. an Inquisitor of heretical pravity, let B. be apprehended, and committed to the prisons of this holy office, and not to be released out of them, but by the express order of the said reverend Inquisitor.' And if several persons are to be taken up at the same time, the familiars are commanded so to order things, that they may know nothing of one another's being apprehended. And at this the familiars are so very expert, that a father and his three sons and three daughters, who lived together in the same house, were all carried prisoners to the Inquisition, without knowing any thing of one another's being there until seven years afterwards, when they that were alive came forth to an auto-da-fé."
CHAPTER IV.
Examination of the accused by torture—its different degrees—it is sometimes inflicted on those who are condemned to death—innocence no protection against Inquisitorial cruelty—different punishments inflicted by the Inquisition—description of an auto-da-fé—hypocritical manner in which the Inquisitors deliver over their victims to the civil power.
After undergoing the usual number of examinations before the Inquisitors, if the prisoner still persists in protesting his innocence, he is condemned to the torture. [14] Attempts are first made, however, to frighten him by a variety of Inquisitorial methods. The instruments of torture are shown him at a distance. Having been conducted into a large room, feebly lighted, the executioner is pointed out to him, dressed in a black gown which reaches down to his feet, and having a long cowl drawn over his head and face. This revolting figure has in his hand an iron collar, or some other instrument of torture, and stares in solemn silence at the prisoner, through two holes which are cut for this purpose in his cowl. "All this," says Gonsalvius, "is intended to strike the miserable wretch with greater terror, when he sees himself about to be tortured by the hands of one who thus looks like the very devil."
The majority of the historians who have been consulted, agree in stating that the different degrees of torture formerly in use were five in number. First, The threatening of the torture. Secondly, The steps taken when conducting the prisoner to the place where the torture is inflicted. Thirdly, Stripping and binding the prisoner. Fourthly, Elevation on the pulley. And lastly, Squassation, or the sudden precipitation and suspension of the body. To these we may add, the wooden horse, the thumb screws, the iron slipper, &c. The measure of severity with which the prisoner is to be tortured, is pointed out by the Inquisitor in the terms in which he is pleased to pronounce sentence. If he says, "Let the prisoner be interrogated by torture," he is merely hoisted up on the rope, but does not undergo the squassation. If he says, "Let him be tortured," he must undergo the squassation once, being first interrogated while hanging in the air. If he orders him "to be well tortured," he must suffer two squassations. If he adds the expression, "severely tortured," he is subjected to undergo within an hour three different squassations. If "very severely," it is done with twistings and additional weights suspended to his feet. And if "very severely, even unto death," the prisoner is in imminent danger of his life. "Should the prisoner, in consequence of the agony which he suffers, be forced to make any confession, that confession is immediately taken down by the notary; and if he adheres to it at his next examination, which commonly takes place in twenty-four hours after the infliction of the torture, and at the same time acknowledges his guilt, he is condemned, it is true, as a heretic upon his own confession, but is represented as penitent, and is restored to the bosom of the Church; though not without undergoing certain punishments, more or less severe, and certain painful varieties of penance. [15] But, should he either retract his confession, or persist in his heresy, he is delivered over to the secular power, and is burnt alive at the next auto-da-fé."
However unwilling we are to shock the feelings of the reader by any further description of the various kinds of torture inflicted by the Inquisition, it is necessary, in a history like the present, to give some more particular account of this part of the procedure of that infamous court. The following particulars relative to the torture, which are given by Puigblanch, are stated in a manner as unrevolting as possible, although, on such a subject, no words which describe this barbarous mode of Inquisitorial punishment can be used, without giving pain to every mind not altogether destitute of humanity.
"Three kinds of torture have been generally used by the Inquisition, viz. the pulley, the rack, and fire. As sad and loud lamentations accompanied the sharpness of the pain, the victim was conducted to a retired apartment, called the hall of torture, and usually situated under ground, in order that his cries might not interrupt the silence which reigned throughout the other parts of the building. Here the court assembled, and the judges being seated, together with their secretary, again questioned the prisoner respecting his crime, which if he still persisted to deny, they proceeded to the execution of the sentence.