It is no unfrequent occurrence, that while the prisoner refuses to confess, and remains in his dungeon, the inqui tor affects to be displeased with his obstinacy, and con demns him to the torture. But first of all, attempts are made to frighten him in various ways. The instruments of torture are shown him at a distance. He is led, by many windings, and through a succession of doors, into a large room, feebly lighted, where the executioner is point ed out to him, covered with a black linen garment, which reaches down to his feet, and having a long cowl of the same colour drawn over his head and face. This extraor dinary figure carries in his hand an iron collar, or a whip, or some other instrument of torture, and he appears to stare in solemn stillness at the prisoner, through two small open ings, which are made for that purpose in the cowl. " All this," says Gonsalvius, " is intended to strike the misera ble wretch with greater terror, when he sees himself about to be tortured by the hands of one, who thus looks like the very devil." The degrees of torture formerly in use were five in number. They were inflicted in succession, and have been described at length by Julius Clams. i. The threaten ing of the torture 2. The steps taken when conducting the prisoner to the place of torture. 3. The torture by stripping and binding. 4. Elevation upon the rack or pulley. 5. Squassation, or the sudden precipitation, and sudden suspension of the body. To these may be added, the iron slipper, the colt, or wooden horse, the thumb screws, and various others. The measure of the severity :s indicated by tale terms in which the orders of the inqui sitors are expressed. If it is said, " let the prisoner be imerrogated.by torture," he is merely hoisted up upon the rope, but dues not undergo the squassation. If the order bears, let him be tortured," he must undergo the squas saliet once, being first interrogated as he is hanging upon the cord and engine. It it is said, " let him be well tor tured," he must suffer two squassations. If the expres sion is, " let him be seterely tortured," it is understood of three squassations, inflicted at three different times within the space of an hour. If, " very severely," it must be done with twisting, and weights suspended from the feet of the pi Boner ; and if, " very severely, even unto death," the ciuninal's life is in immediate danger. Should the prisoner, through the weakness of human nature, or the extremity of tile suffering, be forced to confess, his con fession is instantly taken down by the notary ; and it' he adheres to it at his next examination, which commonly takes place in twenty•four hours alter the infliction of the torture, and, at the same time, acknowledges his guilt, he is condemned, it is true, as a heretic upon his own confes sion, but is represented as penitent, and restored to the bosom of the church ; though not without undergoing certain punishments, more or less severe, and certain pain ful varieties of penance. But, should he either retract his confession, or persist in his heresy, he is delivered over to the secular power, and is burnt alive at the next auto da fe.
The punishments inflicted by the Inquisition may be re garded 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 pun ishments, such as penance, excommunication, interdict, and the deprivation of clerical offices and dignities ; and under this bead, too, are included the confiscation of goods, the disinheriting of children ; for no child, though himself 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 gallies, and the banu of the empire, or diffi dation. Under the second head, or that of punishments issuing in death, there are only two instances, viz. strang ling at the stake, and death by fire. These instances may easily be comprehended in a short account of the 4, auto da ft." For the severity of the latter class of punishments, Sultanas gives what is called by Liniborch, " a merry reason." " We must not contend with heretics," says lie, " by Scripture, as by that, our victory will be uncertain and doubtful." Cathol. Institut. tit. 59. sect. ii.
In the procession of the "auto dale," the monks of the. order of St Dominic walk first. These early the stand ard of the Inquisition, bearing on the one side, the picture of 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 "jus titia et misericordia." immediately after the Dominicans conic the penitents, dressed in black coats, without sleeves, barefooted, and with wax-candles in their hands. Among these, the principal offenders wear the infamous habit call ed the sambcnito. Next come the penitents, who have nar rowly 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 doom ed to the stake ; these also have flames upon their habits, but pointing upward. After the negative and the relapsed come the guilty and impenitent, or those who have been convicted of heresy, and who persist in it ; and these, be sides 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 the grave, in order that they may be reduced to ashes. A troop of familiars on horseback follow the prisoners ; and after these come the subordi nate inquisitors, and other functionaries of the Holy Office, upon roules ; 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 fami liars in the procession. The train moves slowly along, the great bell of the cathedral tolling at proper intervals.
We hurry over the rest of this dreadful scene. At the place of xecution, 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 impenitent, or the professed, as they are otherwise called, are burnt alive. To these, cer tain Jesuits who are appointed to attend them, address many exhortations, imploring them to be reconciled to the church of Rome, but coinnionly without effect. The exe cutioner therefore astends, and turns the prisoners off from the ladder, upon a small board fastened to the stake, with in 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 mul titude unite in crying, " let the dogs' beards be trimmed, let the dogs' beards be trimmed." This is done by thrust ing 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 arc all wasted away, and they can no longer be known by their looks. The furze at the bot tom of the stake is then set on fire ; but as the sufferers are raised to the height of ten feet above the ground, the flame seldom reaches beyond their knees, so that they are really roasted, and not burnt to death. " Yet, though out of hell," as Dr. Geddes expresses it, " there cannot be a more lamentable spectacle than this," it is beheld by peo ple of both sexes, and of all ages, with the utmost demon strations of joy,--a bull feast or a farce being dull enter tainments compared with au " auto da fe." In finishing the account which we meant to give of the inquisition, it is distressing to state, that this most detesta ble tribunal, after having been abolished in Spain by the orders of Napoleon, has been restored mulct Ferdinand VII. surnamed "the beloved,"—a prince, reinstated in his possessions, and established on his throne, by the magnani mous exertiors of the British people. The order for the restoration of the Holy Office was dated at Mach id, 2Ist of July, 1314, and bears the signature of " I the King." It vas followed on the 5th of April 1815, by a solemn de claration on the part of D. Francisco Xavier diary Cam pill°, the Spanish inquisitor-general, offering a term of grace to those who had fallen into the crime of heresy, and requiring them to purge their consciences by confession, and to be reconciled to the church. Both the king and the inquisitor speak of changes and modifications ; and the latter, in particular, takes notice of the " sweetness and charity" which are now to be used in the ecclesiastical procedure. Strange things have happened in our day.; but we should hope, that though the secret prisons of the inquisition may remain, and its solitary and hopeless con finement, and the agony of its torture, we shall never again hear of a public " auto du fe." Sec the Directorium In qzdaitortan, Fr. Nicolai Lymcrici, Rom. 1535. fol. Instructio seu Praxis Inquisitorum, cum notis. Cxsaris Carxnx, Lugd. 1669. Lucerne Inquisitorum. Fr Bern ardi Comensis. Simancas De Catholicis Institutiombus. Royas De therelicis, l c. Ugolini Tractat. de thercticia. Gonsalvi Inquisit. Hispanic. ?Irtee Detect C..nge, Voce Inquisitio. Limborch's Hist. of the Inquisition. Dug dale's Spanith Inquisition. Voltaire's Universal Hist. Sup. plement to vol. i. p. 224, and vol. iii. p. 177. Geddes' View of the Inquisition in Portugal. Bucharlan's Ecclesiastical Researches, p. 168. (h)