Having thus given a sketch of the Inquisition, the reader must have perceived in every circumstance connected with this singular tribunal, its injustice, tyranny, hypocrisy, and cruelty. Its dungeons, torments, and executions are not only opposed to the spirit of Christianity, but outdo the most ferocious deeds recorded in history, of the greatest tyrant among heathen nations. It has carried terror throughout every land in which it has been established, robbed both the wealthy and the poor of their property, and what is infinitely worse, glutted its vengeance with the blood of the innocent.
Above all, the cruelty of the "holy office" to those whom it pronounces penitent, is most detestable. Instead of embracing them with open arms, it inflicts the most grievous punishments on those whom, in the plenitude of its power, it permits to live; whilst others, also believed to be converted to the faith of the Romish Church, are nevertheless doomed to suffer an ignominious death. To these unhappy persons, the sacraments are given, if desired; thus acknowledging that they are "put in a state of salvation, received into the bosom of the Church, and assured of a heavenly crown!" What greater cruelty, then, can be conceived, and what more abhorrent to the mild spirit of the gospel of peace, than to punish with death a person who repents, and is reconciled to the Church? Yet, such are the iniquitous doings of the Inquisition! such the laws by which that blood-thirsty tribunal is governed—laws which must be carried into effect, in despite of the precepts of Jehovah, and the injunctions of the Great Head of the Church, every one of which are trampled under foot!
"The Inquisition, model most complete,
Of perfect wickedness, where deeds were done,
Deeds! let them ne'er be named—and sat and planned
Deliberately, and with most musing pains,
How, to extremest thrill of agony,
The flesh, the blood, and souls of holy men,
Her victims, might be wrought; and when she saw
New tortures of her labouring fancy born,