Q. Why are they so?
A. In order to elucidate the allegories of the great, continual, and true light, which the lodges receive from the great Architect of the world; and these representations belong to the brethren, and engage them to be charitable.
Q. M. Tournon will observe, that all the explanations he has given of the facts and ceremonies which take place in the lodges, are false, and different from those which he voluntarily communicated to other persons, worthy of belief; he is therefore again invited, by the respect he owes to God, and the Holy Virgin, to declare and confess the heresies of indifferentism, the errors of superstition, which mingle holy and profane things and the errors of idolatry, which led him to worship the stars. This confession is necessary for the acquittal of his conscience, and the good of his soul, because, if he confesses with sorrow for having committed these crimes, detesting them, and humbly soliciting pardon, (before the fiscal accuses him of these heinous sins,) the holy tribunal will be permitted to exercise towards him that compassion and mercy, which it always displays to repentant sinners; and because, if he be judicially accused, he must be treated with all the severity prescribed against heretics by the holy canons, apostolical bulls, and the laws of the kingdom.
A. I have declared the truth, and if any witnesses have deposed to the contrary, they have mistaken my words; for I have never spoken on this subject to any but the workmen in my manufactory, and then only in the same sense conveyed by my replies.
Q. Not content with being a freemason, you have persuaded other persons to be received into the order, and to embrace the heretical, superstitious, and pagan errors, into which you have fallen?
A. It is true, that I have requested these persons to become freemasons, because I thought it would be useful to them, if they travelled into foreign countries, where they might meet brothers of their order, who could assist them in any difficulty; but it is not true that I engaged them to adopt any errors contrary to the Catholic faith, since no such errors are to be found in freemasonry, which does not concern any points of doctrine.
Q. It has been already proved, that these errors are not chimerical; therefore, let M. Tournon consider that he has been a dogmatizing heretic, and that it is necessary that he should acknowledge it with humility, and ask pardon and absolution for the censures which he has incurred; since, if he persists in his obstinacy, he will destroy both his body and soul: and as this is the first audience of monition, he is advised to reflect on his condition, and prepare for the two other audiences which are granted by the compassion and mercy which the holy tribunal always feels for the accused.
After undergoing this examination, M. Tournon was remanded to prison. In two subsequent audiences he persisted in giving the same answers; but perceiving at length, that the only method by which he might escape punishment, was to acknowledge that he was wrong, he pretended that he might have been deceived, from being ignorant of particular doctrines, and requested absolution. He was accordingly sentenced to one year's imprisonment, and to be afterwards banished for ever from Spain, and obliged at the same time to promise that he would never again attend the assemblies of the freemasons.
The following account of the persecution of a Spanish Protestant priest, who was imprisoned in the Inquisition of Saragossa in 1802, is particularly deserving of notice, showing, as it does, the cruelty of the holy office, even in the nineteenth century.—"Don Miguel Juan Antonio Solano, a native of Verdun, in Arragon, was vicar of Esco, in the diocess of Jaca. His benevolence and exemplary conduct endeared him to his parishioners. The goodness of his heart combined with his inventive talent in the work of fertilizing a dale, or rather a mere ravine, belonging to the inhabitants of his parish, which lay waste for the want of irrigation. Without any help from the government, and with no mechanical means but the spades of the peasants, he succeeded in diverting the waters of a mountain streamlet upon the slip of vegetable soil which had been deposited in the glen.