"The past tumults, and the war, which have desolated all the provinces of the kingdom for the space of six years—the residence therein during this period of foreign troops consisting of many sects, almost all infected with abhorrence and hatred of the Catholic religion, and the disorders these evils always bring with them, together with the little care latterly taken to regulate religious concerns are circumstances which have afforded wicked persons full scope to live according to their free will, and also given rise to the introduction and adoption of many pernicious opinions, through the same means by which they have been propagated in other countries," viz. the press: "Wherefore I have resolved that the council of the Inquisition, together with the other tribunals of the holy office, shall be restored, and for the present continue in the exercise of their jurisdiction, as well ecclesiastical—a power granted them by the popes at the request of my august predecessors, united with that vested in local prelates by virtue of their ministry—as also royal, conferred upon them by successive monarchs; the said tribunals, in the use of both jurisdictions, complying with the statutes by which they were governed in 1808, as well as the laws and regulations it had been deemed expedient to enact at various times, in order to prevent certain abuses." Dated Madrid, July 21, 1814.
No sooner accordingly were the Inquisitors re-invested with power, than they began to display a similar spirit to that of their persecuting predecessors. On the 12th of February, 1815, they issued the following injunction to all confessors throughout European and American Spain.
"1st, Each one is with the greatest efficacy to persuade the penitent to accuse himself before the said confessor, of all the errors or heresies into which he may have fallen, without promising him the benefit of absolution in any other form, assuring him of the inviolable secrecy he will keep, and which is kept in the holy office, and that the smallest injury shall not thence result to him; rather that this measure will serve as a means to prevent his being punished, in case he should be accused by any other person of the errors and heresies which it behoves him to manifest, and to which he otherwise stands liable.
"2dly, In case he should consent, the confessor shall take down his declaration under oath to speak the truth, and the act shall bear the following heading: 'In the town of N., on such a day, month, and year, spontaneously appeared before me the undersigned confessor——(expressing his name, country, and profession.') The document shall then relate, in the most specific manner, all his errors and their accompanying circumstances, the time and place in which he may have committed them, seen, or heard them committed; and if any persons were present, they are to be named, and he is also to specify of them all he knows. He is then to sign his declaration, if he knows how; and, if not, he is to make a cross, but the confessor is always to sign it.
"3dly, He (the confessor) shall cause him to abjure his heresy, and absolve him by reconciling him to the church; he shall moreover enjoin him secretly to confess all his errors, and impose on him such penance as he may deem fit; which being done, the whole is to be forwarded to the Holy Office.
"Finally, if the most efficacious persuasions have not been able to prevail on the penitent, in case he should evince due signs of repentance and detestation of his offences, the confessor shall absolve him from excommunication in the internal form only," (that is, not exempt him from the future prosecutions of the Inquisition,) "explaining this to him for his government and information. As soon as the statement of all this has been drawn up by the confessor, he is also to forward it to the Holy Office."
On the 5th of April, Don Francisco Xavier de Mier y Campillo, the Inquisitor-general, published an edict, offering a term of grace to those who had fallen into the crime of heresy, provided they denounced themselves before the end of the year; and declaring that "Spain was infected by the new and dangerous doctrines which had ruined the greatest part of Europe." And on the 22d of July following, the Inquisitors issued an order for the suppression of almost every work which had been published in Spain during the revolution, subjecting every reader and retainer of any of the proscribed books to the most grievous punishments.
Thus, although both the king and the Inquisitors pretended that reformations had taken place in the holy tribunal, and the latter in particular boasted of the "sweetness and charity which are now used in the ecclesiastical procedure," yet it is evident that the re-established Inquisition differs little or nothing from that which was suppressed. It does not appear that a single public auto-da-fé has been celebrated since that period, [20] and it is to be hoped that a scene so barbarous will never again be exhibited in Spain; yet, while that odious tribunal exists, who can be safe in that oppressed and degraded country? Its secret prisons, and its various modes of torture and other punishments, still remain. Spain, therefore, can never be happy, or its inhabitants one moment secure, while the falsely denominated "Holy Office" continues to enjoy the smallest footing in that kingdom.
Nor let these remarks be termed the effects of prejudice. On the contrary, it is proved by numerous living authors, who adduce facts, the best of all evidence, in support of their statements, that the procedure of the modern Inquisition is equally cruel with that of the ancient, excepting indeed the celebration of public autos-da-fé. Among these none give a more ample detail of the present state of the holy tribunal, than Lieut. Colonel Don Juan Van Halen, and Llorente. The former of these writers has published a narrative of his imprisonment in the dungeons of the Holy Office in 1817. He was confined first in the Inquisition of Murcia, and subsequently in that of Madrid, for the active part which he took in the exertions of the liberales to deliver their country from tyranny, both civil and ecclesiastical. He was arrested at Murcia, on the 21st of September, and all his papers were seized, among which were several that very nearly involved many eminent persons in the same persecution. Passing over the sufferings which he endured while confined in the Inquisition of Murcia, we shall give here, in his own words, an account of part of those which were inflicted on him in Madrid.
"About eight o'clock at night, on the 20th of November," says he, "Don Juanita, (one of the Inquisitors,) entered my dungeon, with a lantern in his hand, followed by four other men, whose faces were concealed by a piece of black cloth, shaped above the head like a cowl, and falling over the shoulders and chest, in the middle of which were two holes for the eyes. I was half asleep when the noise of the doors opening awoke me, and, by the dim light of the lantern, I perceived those frightful apparitions. Imagining I was labouring under the effects of a dream, I earnestly gazed awhile on the group, till one of them approached, and, pulling me by the leather strap with which my arms were bound, gave me to understand by signs that I was to rise. Having obeyed his summons, my face was covered with a leather mask, and in this manner I was led out of the prison. After walking through various passages on a level with that of my dungeon, we entered a room, where I heard Zorilla (the other Inquisitor) order my attendants to untie the strap.