"On the arrival of the procession at the theatre, which had been fitted up for the occasion, the prisoners ascended by the stair-case nearest their destined seats; but, before occupying them, they were all paraded round the stage, in order that their majesties, who were already seated in their balcony, might have the satisfaction of viewing them near. The tribunals, and persons invited, then proceeded to take their respective seats, and the Inquisitor-general ascended his throne. Mass being commenced, and the gospel ended, the oldest secretary of the tribunal of Toledo, read from the pulpit the form of the oath taken by the mayor of the city of Madrid, as well as by all the people. A bombastic sermon was then preached by a Dominican friar, qualificator of the supreme council of the Inquisition, and preacher to the king. After sermon they proceeded to the reading of the trials and sentences, beginning with those who had been condemned to die. This part of the ceremony lasted till four in the afternoon, when those who were condemned to death were delivered over to the civil magistrates, and whilst the latter proceeded on to the place of execution, and met their final end, the reading of the proceedings continued, as well as the abjurations of those who had been reconciled, which lasted till half-past nine at night, when those who had been absolved returned to the prisons of the Inquisition.
"The prisoners personally condemned to death, amounted to nineteen; thirteen men, and six women, principally of the Jewish persuasion. They were conducted to the gate of Fuencarrel, mounted on mules with pack-saddles, preceded by the effigies of those who had died or made their escape. Of those personally condemned for execution, eleven were impenitents; viz. eight obdurates, and three convicted, but refusing to confess. The burning place was sixty feet square, and seven high, and consequently sufficiently capacious, when twenty stakes with their corresponding rings were fastened thereon. Some were previously strangled, and the others at once thrown into the fire. The ministers having cast the bodies of those who were strangled into the flames, together with the effigies and bones of the deceased, more fuel was added, till all was converted into ashes, which was not till nine in the morning. Two days afterwards, six of those who had been condemned to do penance were flogged, among whom were two women. Such was the form and solemnity of this auto-da-fé, the largest and most splendid ever known."
The penitential habits with which the Inquisitors array the culprits at an auto-da-fé, are truly ludicrous. A garment or tunic of yellow linen or cloth, reaching down to the knees, which is called the sanbenito, and a conical cap called the coroza, are the dress of the victims of the Holy Office. When the person is to be executed as impenitent, both the sanbenito and coroza are embellished with flames and pictures of devils, and a rude likeness of the individual who wears them, is also painted on the sanbenito, burning in flames, with several figures of dragons and devils in the act of fanning them. When the individual has repented after sentence has been pronounced, he wears the same dress, but the flames are reversed, to show that the culprit is not to be burnt until he has been strangled. Those who only do penance, wear the tunic either with or without a cross, according to the different degrees of crime of which they have been convicted.
It only remains to mention here, the hypocritical manner in which the Inquisitors deliver over those who are sentenced to death, into the hands of the secular power. Having declared the condemned individual "an apostate heretic, a defaulter, and an abettor of heretics, and that he has thereby fallen into and incurred the sentence of grievous excommunication," &c. they, adding insult to cruelty, add, "Nevertheless we earnestly beseech and enjoin the said secular arm, to deal so tenderly and compassionately with him, as to prevent the effusion of blood, or danger of death!!" No words can do justice to such a masterpiece of hypocrisy; for let it be remembered that the Inquisition positively commands the civil magistrate to put the condemned to death. The gross falsehood of its professions, therefore—the aspect of meekness which it thus displays, while it thirsts for the blood of, and dooms to the flames, its wretched victim—literally prove that "there is no faithfulness in their mouth—that their inward part is very wickedness—and that their throat is an open sepulchre." "Is there in all history," says Dr. Geddes, "an instance of so gross and confident a mockery of God, and the world, as this of the Inquisition, beseeching the civil magistrate not to put the heretics they have condemned and delivered to them to death? For were they in earnest when they made this solemn petition to the secular magistrates, why do they bring their prisoners out of the Inquisition, and deliver them to those magistrates with coats painted over with flames? Why do they teach that heretics, above all other malefactors, ought to be punished with death? And why do they never resent the secular magistrates having so little regard to their earnest and joint petition, as never to fail to burn all the heretics that are delivered to them by the Inquisition, within an hour or two after they have them in their hands? And why, in Rome, where the supreme, civil, and ecclesiastical authority are lodged in the same person, is this petition of the Inquisition, which is made there as well as in other places, never granted?" The truth is, as already noticed, the Inquisitors are commanded by the bulls of various Popes, to compel the civil magistrate, under penalty of excommunication, and other ecclesiastical censures, within six days, readily to execute the sentences pronounced by the Inquisitors against heretics, that is, to commit them to the flames!
FOOTNOTES:
[14] Not only are persons against whom something has been proved subjected to this monstrous engine of Inquisitorial cruelty, for the purpose of drawing from them some additional confessions; those also who cannot make their innocence plainly appear to the Inquisitor, (and who can in a court so iniquitous?) who in the smallest degree contradict themselves, who faulter, tremble, or even turn pale, are considered guilty, and as such are condemned to the rack!
[15] This does not, however, hold good in every case; individuals, as we have already seen, and shall afterwards have occasion to notice, who have been subjected to the torture, and made confession, having subsequently been condemned to the flames. No doubt the Inquisitors pretended to have had good grounds for thus acting; but where was there ever a deed of blood perpetrated, (and innumerable have been the number which have been committed by these demons in human form), that they could not colour over, in a manner sufficient to satisfy the consciences of at least Romish ecclesiastics?