Should the prisoner, as already stated make confession while enduring the torture, that confession is immediately taken down by the notary; after which he is carried to another place, where his confession is read over to him, and he is required to subscribe it. But here Gonsalvius observes, "that when the prisoner is carried to audience, they make him pass by the door of the room where the torture was inflicted, where the executioner shows himself, in that shape of a devil described before, that, as he passes by, he may, by seeing him, be forced to feel, as it were, over again, his past torments."
If there be very strong evidence against the accused—if new proofs of his guilt be brought forward—or, if it be considered that he was not sufficiently tortured formerly, he may be subjected to this cruel ordeal again, "when his body and mind are able to endure it."
Ever ready to inflict punishment, the Inquisitors not unfrequently condemn the innocent to endure the most excruciating tortures; and, after subjecting them to agony or death, in solemn mockery pronounce them to be innocent. The following example, illustrative of such unheard of barbarity, occurred at Seville, in 1559. Maria de Bohorques, the natural daughter of a Spanish grandee of the first class, avowed her faith before the Inquisitors, defended it as the ancient truth of God, and was tortured to induce her to implicate her friends. First, two Jesuits, and then two Dominicans, were sent to debate with or ensnare her; but she continued steadfast—her convictions acquired strength, and her views grew clearer during the discussions; and nothing remained for Maria, but to form her part in the bloody pageant of an auto-da-fé. She there tried to comfort her companions in tribulation, but was gagged. Her sentence was read, the gag removed, and she was asked to recant. "I neither can nor will," was the resolute reply; and she proceeded to the place of execution. After she was bound to the stake, the lighting of the pile was delayed for a little, that another attempt might be made to reclaim her. She was, by the grace of God, immovable still—was strangled, and burned, one of her last employments being to comment on the creed in the Protestant sense. In 1560, no fewer than eight females, of irreproachable character, and some of them distinguished by rank and learning, perished in a similar manner in another Auto at Seville. Maria Gomez, her three sisters, and her daughter, were of the number. After being sentenced to the flames, the young woman thanked one of her aunts, who had taught her the truth; and then, amid many affectionate expressions, accompanied with confidence in Him for whose truth they were dying, they prepared for their fiery doom. After describing the touching scene, Dr. M'Crie informs us, that "so completely had superstition and habit subdued the strongest emotions of the human breast, that not a single expression of sympathy escaped from the multitude at witnessing a scene which, in other circumstances, would have harrowed up the feelings of the spectators, and driven them into mutiny."
We know that these details must lacerate the feelings of our readers; but it is needful fully to elucidate the spirit of Popery, wherever it appears full-grown. To complete our abstract, therefore, we must further narrate, that, at the same Auto, an event took place which gives the Inquisitors a full title to the epithet of Cannibals, which it caused to be applied to them. Dona Juana de Xeres y Borhorques had been apprehended, in consequence of a confession extorted from her sister Maria by the rack. Being six months gone in pregnancy, Dona Juana was imprisoned in the public jail till her delivery. Eight days thereafter her child was taken from her, and she was placed in a cell in the Inquisition. A young woman was imprisoned beside her, who exerted herself to the utmost to promote the afflicted lady's recovery; but the attendant was soon subjected to the torture herself, and remitted to her cell mangled by the process. As soon as Dona Juana could rise from her bed of rushes, she was in her turn tortured by the Inquisitors. She would not confess. She was placed on one of their instruments of cruelty. The cords penetrated through the delicate flesh to the bone of her arms and legs. Some of the internal vessels burst. The blood flowed in streams from her mouth and nostrils. She was conveyed to her cell in a state of insensibility, and died in the course of a few days. The Inquisitors, for once, pronounced the lady whom they had murdered, innocent, on the day of the Auto. They feared the recoil which their atrocity might have occasioned; so that in this fiendish proceeding we see Popery in its twofold character—shedding the blood of God's saints, and then like a dastard or a sycophant, fawning upon those whom it has injured, when there is danger of retaliation.
"The punishments inflicted by the Inquisition," says a modern writer, "may be regarded as of two sorts,—punishments not issuing in death, and punishments which have that issue. Under the first of these heads are comprehended the ecclesiastical punishments, such as penances, excommunication, interdict, and the deprivation of clerical offices and dignities; and under this head too, are included the confiscation of goods, the disinheriting of children, for no child, though he be a Catholic, can inherit the property of a father dying in heresy; the loss of all right to obedience, on the part of kings and other feudal superiors, and a corresponding loss of right to the fulfilment of oaths and obligations on the part of subjects; imprisonment in monasteries or in jails, whipping, the galleys, and the ban of the empire. Under the second head, or that of punishments issuing in death, there are only two instances, viz: strangling at the stake, and death by fire. These instances may easily be comprehended in a short account of the auto-da-fé."
"In the procession of the auto-da-fé," says Dr. Geddes, "the monks of the order of St. Dominic walk first. These carry the standard of the Inquisition, bearing on the one side the picture of St. Dominic himself, curiously wrought in needle-work, and on the other, the figure of the cross between those of an olive branch and a naked sword, with the motto 'justitia et misericordia.' Immediately after the Dominicans, come the penitents, dressed in black coats without sleeves, barefooted, and with wax candles in their hands. Among them, the principal offenders wear the infamous habit called the sanbenito. Next come the penitents, who have narrowly escaped the punishment of death; and these have flames painted upon their garments or benitoes, but with the points of the flames turned downwards, importing that they have been saved, 'yet so as by fire.' Next come the negative and the relapsed, the wretches who are doomed to the stake; these also have flames upon their habits, but pointing upwards. After the negative and the relapsed, come the guilty and the impenitent, or those who have been convicted of heresy, and who persist in it; and these, besides the flames pointing upwards, have their picture (drawn for that purpose a few days before,) upon their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, all with open mouths, painted about it. This part of the procession is closed by a number of individuals carrying the figures of those who have died in heresy, or large chests, painted black, and marked with serpents and devils, containing their bones dug out of their graves, in order that they may be reduced to ashes. A troop of familiars on horseback follow the prisoners; and after these come the subordinate Inquisitors, and other functionaries of the Holy Office, upon mules; and last of all comes the Inquisitor-general himself, in a rich dress, mounted upon a white horse, and attended by all the nobility who are not employed as familiars in the procession. The train moves slowly along, the great bell of the cathedral tolling at proper intervals.
"At the place of execution, stakes are set up according to the number of the sufferers. They are usually about twelve feet in height, and at the bottom of each there is placed a considerable quantity of dry furze. The negative and the relapsed are first strangled at the stake, and afterwards burnt. The convicted and the impenitent, or the professed, as they are otherwise called, are burnt alive. To these, certain Jesuits who are appointed to attend them, address many exhortations, imploring them to be reconciled to the Church of Rome, but commonly without effect. The executioner therefore ascends, and turns the prisoners off from the ladder, upon a small board fastened to the stake, within half a yard of the top; and the Jesuits having declared, 'that they leave them to the devil who is standing at their elbow,' to receive their souls as soon as they have quitted their bodies, a great shout is raised, and the whole multitude unite in crying, 'let the dogs' beards be trimmed, let the dogs' beards be trimmed.' This is done by thrusting flaming furze, tied to the end of a long pole, against their faces; and the process is often continued till the features of the prisoners are all wasted away, and they can be no longer known by their looks. The furze at the bottom of the stake is then set on fire, but as the sufferers are raised to the height of ten feet above the ground, the flames seldom reach beyond their knees, so that they really are roasted, and not burnt to death.—Yet though, out of hell," as Dr. Geddes adds, "there cannot be a more lamentable spectacle than this, it is beheld by people of both sexes, and of all ages, with the utmost demonstrations of joy—a bull feast, or a farce, being dull entertainments compared with an auto-da-fé."
In order, however, to give the reader a still more distinct account of the parade and ceremony attending an auto-da-fé, we shall select the celebrated one which took place at Madrid in 1680, in presence of Charles II. and the royal family. On the day appointed, the procession began to move from the Inquisition, in the following order, at seven o'clock in the morning.
"The soldiers of the faith came first, and cleared the way; next followed the cross of the parish of St. Martin, covered with black, and accompanied by twelve priests clothed in surplices, and a clergyman with a pluvial cope; then came the prisoners to the amount of one hundred and twenty, seventy-two of whom were women, and forty-eight men; some came forth in effigy, and the remainder in person. First in the order of procession were the effigies of those condemned persons who had died or made their escape, and amounting in all to thirty-four; their names were inscribed in large letters on the breast of their effigies; and those who had been condemned to be burned, besides the coroza or cap on their heads, had flames represented on their dress; and some bore boxes in their hands, containing the bones of their corresponding originals. Next came the fifty-four who had been reconciled, the most guilty wearing a sanbenito with only one branch, and carrying in their hands, as did also the above, a yellow candle unlighted. Lastly came twenty-one prisoners condemned to death, each with his coroza and sanbenito corresponding to the nature of his crime, and the most of them with gags on their mouths: they were accompanied by numerous familiars of the Inquisition in the character of patrons, and were besides each attended by two friars, who comforted the penitent, and exhorted the obdurate. The whole of this part of the ceremony was closed by the high bailiff of Toledo and his attendants. Behind the effigy of each culprit were also conveyed boxes containing their books, when any had been seized with them, for the purpose of also being cast into the flames. The courts of the Inquisition followed immediately after, preceded by the secretaries of those of Toledo and Madrid, with a great number of commissaries and familiars; among whom walked the two stewards of the congregation of St. Peter Martyr, carrying the sentences of the criminals inclosed in two precious caskets. So far the procession on foot.
"Next, on horseback, paraded the sheriffs and other ministers of the city, together with the chief bailiffs of the Madrid Inquisition. Then came a long string of familiars on horses, richly and variously caparisoned, wearing the habit of the Inquisition over their own dress, the proper insignia on their breasts, and staffs raised in their hands. In succession followed a great number of ecclesiastical ministers; such as notaries, commissaries, and qualificators, all bearing the same insignia, and mounted on mules with black trappings. Behind them went the corporation of Madrid, preceded by the mayor, and followed by the fiscal-proctor of the tribunal of Toledo, who carried the standard of the faith, of red damask, with the arms of the Inquisition and of the king, accompanied by the royal council and board of Castile. Lastly came the Inquisitor-general, placed on the right hand of the president of the council, an office at that time filled by the Bishop of Avila. He was accompanied by an escort of fifty halberdiers, dressed in satin. He was clothed in a suit of black silk, embroidered in silver, with diamond buttons, &c. and attended by eighteen livery servants. The whole of the procession was closed with the state sedan chair and coach, belonging to the Inquisitor-general, together with other coaches, in which were his chaplains and pages.