Chapter XIV: Victims of the Inquisition

Victims--1. Juan de Salas--2. Donna Johanna Bohorques--3. Donna
Maria Bohorques--4. Melchior Hernandez--5. Lewis Pezoa.

“_Justice and Mercy_” are the words chosen by the Romish Inquisition, as forming the maxims of that court, in proceeding against heretics. But the tortures inflicted falsify the profession. No court of judgment, in any age or nation, was ever found so utterly at variance with these principles, or conducted in a manner so manifestly opposed to equity and humanity. A few selected cases of their tortured victims will still further illustrate the diabolical savageness of the inquisitors: these cases are given from the most undoubted authorities.

1. JUAN DE SALAS.--This victim was a young man, and it appears an officer of the Inquisition in Spain. He had been charged with employing the language of heresy, and therefore immured in the dungeon. The Inquisition transgressed their own rules in relation to him, refusing to hear the witnesses whom he wished to be examined in his favour. He positively denied having used the words attributed to him; on which account he was subjected to the torture, to compel his confession. The particulars of his sufferings under the inquisitors, Moriz and Dr. Alvarado, are contained in the following record, drawn up by the notary of the Inquisition:--

“At Valladolid, on the 21st of June, 1527, the licentiate Moriz, inquisitor, caused the licentiate Juan de Salas to appear before him. After the reading, the said licentiate Salas declared that _he had not said that of which he was accused_; and the said licentiate Moriz immediately caused him to be conducted to the chamber of torture, where, being stripped to his shirt, Salas was put by the shoulders into the _chevalet_, where the executioner, Pedro Porras, fastened him by the arms and legs with cords of hemp, of which he made eleven turns round each limb. Salas, during the time that the said Pedro was tying him thus, was several times warned to speak the truth; to which he always replied that _he had never said what he was accused of_. He recited the creed ‘_Quicumque vult_,’ and several times gave thanks to God and our Lady; and, the said Salas being still tied as before mentioned, a fine wet cloth was put over his face, and about a pint of water was poured into his mouth and nostrils from an earthen vessel, with a hole at the bottom, and containing about two quarts; nevertheless, Salas persisted in denying the accusation. Then Pedro Porras tightened the cord on the right leg, and poured a second measure of water on the face; the cords were tightened a second time on the same leg, but Juan de Salas still persisted in denying that he had ever said any thing of the kind; and, although pressed to tell the truth several times, he still denied the accusation. Then the said licentiate Moriz having declared that _the torture was begun, but not finished_, commanded that it should cease. The accused was withdrawn from the _chevalet_, or _rack_, at which I, Henry Paz, was present from the beginning to the end.--_Henry Paz_, Notary.”

Juan de Salas was condemned, notwithstanding his denial; and Llorente makes the following remarks on the whole case of shocking injustice and cruelty:--

“We may form an idea of the humanity of the Inquisition at Valladolid from the definitive sentence pronounced by the licentiate Moriz and his colleague, Dr. Alvarado, without any other formality, after they had taken (if we may believe them) the advice of persons noted for their learning and virtue, but without the adjournment which ought to have preceded it, and without the concurrence of the diocesan in ordinary. They declared that the fiscal had not entirely approved the accusation, and that the prisoner had succeeded in destroying some of the charges; but that, on account of the suspicion arising from the trial, Juan de Salas was condemned to the punishment of the public _auto da fé_, in his shirt, without a cloak, his head uncovered, and with a torch in his hand; that he should abjure heresy publicly; and that he should pay ten ducats of gold to the Inquisition, and fulfil his penance in the church assigned. It is seen, by a certificate afterwards given in, that Juan de Salas performed his _auto da fé_ on the 24th of June, 1528, and that his father paid the fine. The trial offers no other peculiarity. This affair, and several others of a similar nature, caused the supreme council to publish a decree, in 1558, commanding that the torture should not be administered without an order from the council.”

2. DONNA JOHANNA BOHORQUES.--Limborch, from Gonsalvius, gives the following account of this noble young lady, who was really murdered by the inquisitors in their tortures of her, about A.D. 1569.

“At the same time almost, they apprehended, in the Inquisition at Seville, a noble lady, Johanna Bohorques, the wife of Don Francis de Vargos, a very eminent man, and Lord of Heguera, and daughter of Peter Garsia Xeresius, a wealthy citizen of Seville. The occasion of her imprisonment was, her sister, Maria Bohorques, a young lady of eminent piety, who was afterwards burnt for her pious confession, had declared, in her torture, that she had several times conversed with her sister concerning her doctrine. When she was first imprisoned she was about six months gone with child, upon which account she was not so straitly confined, nor used with that cruelty which the other prisoners were treated with, out of regard to the infant she carried. Eight days after her delivery they took the child from her, and on the fifteenth shut her up close, and made her undergo the fate of the other prisoners, and began to manage her cause with their usual arts and rigour. In so dreadful a calamity she had only this comfort, that a certain pious young woman, who was afterwards burnt for her religion by the inquisitors, was allowed her for her companion. This young creature was, on a certain day, carried out to her torture; and being returned from it into her gaol, she was so shaken, and had her limbs so miserably disjointed, that when she was laid upon her bed of rushes, it rather increased her misery than gave her rest, so that she could not turn herself without the most excessive pain. In this condition, as Bohorques had it not in her power to show her any, or but very little outward kindness, she endeavoured to comfort her mind with great tenderness. The girl had scarcely begun to recover from her torture, when Bohorques was carried out to the same exercise, and was tortured with such diabolical cruelty upon the rack, that the rope pierced and cut into the very bones in several places; and in this manner she was brought back to prison, just ready to expire, the blood running out of her mouth in great plenty. Undoubtedly they had burst her bowels, insomuch that the eighth day after her torture she died. And when, after all, they could not procure sufficient evidence to condemn her, though sought after and procured by all their inquisitorial arts--yet as the accused person was born in that place, where they were obliged to give some account of the affair to the people, and, indeed, could not, by any means, dissemble it--in the first act of triumph appointed after her death, they commanded her sentence to be pronounced in these words:--‘Because this lady died in prison (without doubt suppressing the cause of it), and was found to be innocent upon inspecting and diligently examining her cause, therefore the holy tribunal pronounces her free from all charges brought against her by the fiscal, and absolving her from any further process, doth restore her, both as to her innocence and reputation, and commands all her effects, which had been confiscated, to be restored to those to whom they of right belonged.’ And thus, after they had murdered her, by torture, with savage cruelty, they pronounced her innocent!”

Llorente adds, “Under what an overwhelming responsibility will these monsters appear before the tribunal of the Almighty!”

This instance of refined barbarity in the inquisitors strikingly displays their hypocrisy as professors of the benevolent religion of Christ, and their malignity against those who dared to listen to the doctrines of the Scriptures, then condemned under the name of LUTHERANISM.

3. DONNA MARIA BOHORQUES.--This lady was sister of Johanna, who had been murdered in the Inquisition. She perished in the flames at Seville. The account of her states, “She had completed her twenty-first year when she was arrested on suspicion of being a Lutheran. Under the instruction of D. Juan Gil, bishop of Tortosa, she was perfectly acquainted with the Latin language, and had made considerable progress in Greek. She knew the Gospel by heart, and was deeply read in those commentaries which explain, in a Lutheran sense, the text referring to justification by faith, good works, the sacraments, and the characteristics of the true church.

“Donna Maria was confined in the secret prisons of the Inquisition, where she avowed the doctrines imputed to her, defended them against the arguments of the priests who visited her, and boldly told the inquisitors, that instead of punishment for the creed which she held, they would do much better to imitate her example. With regard to the depositions of her accusers, though she allowed the principal points, she persisted in denying some things which related to the opinions of other individuals; and this denial gave the inquisitors an opportunity of putting her to the rack. By this torture they only procured a confession that her sister, Johanna Bohorques, knew her sentiments, and had not disapproved of them; and, as she persisted in her confession of faith, sentence was passed upon her as an obstinate heretic. In the interval between her condemnation and the _auto da fé_, at which she was to suffer, the inquisitors made every exertion to bring her back to the Romish faith. They sent to her, successively, two Jesuits and two Dominican priests, who laboured with great zeal for her conversion; but they returned without having effected their object, full of admiration of the talents she displayed, and regretting the obstinacy with which she persisted in what they supposed a damnable heresy. The evening before the _auto da fé_, two Dominicans joined in the attempt, and were followed by several theologians of other orders. Donna Maria received them with civility, but dissuaded them from attempting the hopeless task. To the professions which they made of being interested in the welfare of her soul, she answered, that she believed them to be sincere, but that they must not suppose that she, being the party chiefly concerned, felt a less interest in the matter than they did. She told them, that she came to prison fully satisfied of the orthodoxy of the creed which she held, and that she had been confirmed in her belief by the evident futility of the arguments brought against it.

“At the stake, Don Juan Ponce de Leon, who had abjured the Lutheran doctrines, exhorted Donna Maria to follow his example. The weakness of this apostate for a moment overcame her, and she silenced him by language rather of contempt than of pity. Recollecting herself, however, she told him that the time for controversy was past, and that their wisest plan would be, to occupy the few minutes which remained to them, in meditating on the death of their Redeemer, in order to confirm that faith by which alone they could be justified. All that poor Juan Ponce de Leon gained by his apostacy was, that he was not burnt alive, but first strangled, and then burnt. On this occasion, the attendant priest, moved by the youth and talents of Donna Maria, offered her this milder death, if she would merely repeat the Creed. With this offer she readily complied; but having finished it, she began immediately to explain its articles, according to the sense of the reformers. This confession of faith was immediately interrupted. Donna Maria was strangled by the executioner, and her body was afterwards reduced to ashes!”

4. MELCHIOR HERNANDEZ.--This victim was a merchant of Toledo, whence he removed to settle, A.D. 1564, in Murcia, where he was arrested by the officers of the Inquisition, charged with Judaism. Witnesses, known to be his enemies, appeared against him, but their evidence was contradictory; yet he was detained in prison. Being dangerously ill, he demanded an audience of the inquisitors, to whom he said that he had been present at a meeting, a year before, where the subject of conversation was the law of Moses. Some days after, at his re-examination, he declared that what was said at the meeting was in jest, and he did not recollect the particulars of the conversation. Having said to the visitor of the tribunal that the things which he had declared, he had been induced to utter before his judges by the fear of death, he was put to the torture, to compel him to confess what he knew respecting certain persons; but he bore the cruel infliction without uttering a word. On the 18th of October, 1565, he was declared, as a Jewish heretic, to be guilty of concealment in his confession, and condemned to be burnt. His execution was fixed for the 9th of December; and on the 7th he was exhorted to a full confession. He replied, that he had confessed all he knew; and the next day, being desired to prepare for death, he declared that he had seen the persons whom he had mentioned, and some others at the meeting; that they conversed respecting the law of Moses, but that he regarded their communications as mere pastime. Between this and the commencement of the _auto da fé_, next day, he made several communications, in hope of escaping death, giving the names of various parties as his accomplices. This disclosure being unavailing to induce the inquisitor to suspend his execution, Melchior stated that he had really believed, for a year, what had been preached in the synagogue, though he had not confessed the fact, because he thought there was no proof of heresy in the depositions of the witnesses. His execution was suspended, and he was subjected to new examinations, at which he made extraordinary and contradictory statements, perplexing to his judges; three of whom voted for his punishment and two for his reconciliation. The council decreed that Melchior should be burnt on the 8th of June, 1567; and on each of the three preceding days he was called up, and exhorted to declare his accomplices. The habit of a prisoner to be burnt was put upon him, when he declared that he could name other accomplices, and an inquisitor went to receive his confession. He gave another synagogue, and seven other places, with the names of fourteen persons who frequented them. This not being deemed satisfactory, he was led, with others, to the place of execution, where he mentioned two more houses, and twelve heretics; in a _second_ audience, he gave seven more persons; and in a _third_ audience, two more houses, and six persons. He was again remanded, as he hoped; but on the 23rd of June, despairing of success, he appealed to his judges, “What more could I do than accuse myself falsely? Know that I have never been summoned to any assembly; that I never attended any but for the purposes of commerce.” After many audiences, he was for the third time sentenced for execution, and he again succeeded in escaping the fire. In five subsequent audiences he denounced various persons; but he was declared “_still guilty of concealment, in not mentioning several persons not less distinguished and well known than those already denounced, and that he could not be supposed to have forgotten them_.”

Overcome by this malignant suggestion, Melchior delivered an indignant invective against the inquisitors, and all who appeared on the trial, and then said, “What can you do to me?--burn me? Well, then, be it so. I cannot confess what I do not know. All that I have said of myself is true, but what I have declared of others is entirely false. I invented it, _because I perceived that you wished me to denounce innocent persons; and being unacquainted with the names and quality of these unfortunate people, I named all whom I could think of, in the hope of finding an end to my misery. I now perceive that my situation admits of no relief, and I therefore retract all my depositions; and now, having fulfilled this duty, proceed to burn me as soon as you please._” The papers relating to the trial were sent to the supreme council, which confirmed the sentence of burning, and reprimanded the inquisitors for the delay. Instead of submitting to this decision, the inquisitors called Melchior again before them, representing to him that his declarations contained many contradictions, and that, for the good of his soul, it was necessary that he should finally make a confession, respecting himself and all his guilty acquaintances. This artful appeal did not shake his constancy. Melchior affirmed that they would find all the truth in the declaration that he had made before the visitor, Senor Ayora. It was found in this that Melchior had stated, that “_he knew nothing of the subject on which he was examined_.” The inquisitor then said, “How can this declaration be true, when you have several times declared that you have attended the Jewish assemblies, believed in their doctrines, and persevered in the belief for the space of one year, until you were undeceived by a priest?” Melchior replied, “I spoke falsely when I made a declaration against myself.” “But how is it,” said the inquisitor, “that what you have confessed of yourself, and many other things, which you now deny, are the result of the depositions of a great many witnesses?” “I do not know,” replied Melchior, “if that is true or false, for I have not seen the writings of the trial; but if the witnesses have said that which is imputed to them, it was _because they were placed in the same situation as I am_. They do not love me better than I love myself; and I have certainly declared against myself both truth and falsehood.” “What motive had you, then,” asked the inquisitor, “in declaring things injurious to yourself, if they were false?” Melchior declared, “I expected to derive great advantage from them, because I saw that if I did not confess anything, I should be considered as impenitent, and the truth would lead me to the scaffold. I thought that falsehood would be most useful to me, and I found it so in two _autos da fé_.”

Nothing was now to be expected but death, and he was desired, on the 6th of June, 1568, to prepare for it by the next day. At two o’clock in the morning he desired an audience with the inquisitor, who, with his notary, went to his cell. Melchior then said to him, “That at the point of appearing before the tribunal of the Almighty, and without any hope of escaping from death by new delays, he thought himself bound to declare that he had never conversed with any person on the Mosaic law; that all he had said on this subject was founded on the wish to preserve life, and the belief that his confessions were pleasing to the inquisitors; that he asked pardon of the persons implicated, that God might pardon him, and that no injury might be done to their honour and reputation.”

Melchior Hernandez was, therefore, sacrificed to the bigotry of the inquisitors, first being strangled and then burnt. As to his inventions and false accusations of others, nothing can justify him; but such endeavours to escape from the dreadful tribunal appear to be common among the unhappy prisoners of that horrid court which knows no mercy.

5. LEWIS PEZOA.--About the year 1650, Lewis Pezoa, a new Christian, his wife, and two sons, and one daughter, besides some relations living with him, were all thrown into the gaol of the Inquisition in Portugal. They were accused by some of their enemies of being Jews. Pezoa denied the charge, and refuted it, but in vain; he demanded that his accusers might be discovered to him, that he might convict them of falsehood. He was condemned, as a negative heretic, to be delivered over to the secular court to be burnt. This was made known to him fifteen days before the sentence was pronounced by the court.

Pezoa being a man of wealth, the Duke de Cadaval knew him, and desired to know, from his intimate friend, the Duke d’Aviera, inquisitor-general, how he would be treated; and understanding that unless he confessed before his going out of prison, he would not escape the fire, because he had been convicted according to the laws of the Inquisition, he entreated, and obtained from the inquisitor-general a promise, that if he could persuade Pezoa to confess, even after sentence was pronounced, and his procession in the act of faith, he should not die, though it was contrary to the laws. Upon that solemn day, therefore, on which the act of faith was held, he went with some of his own friends, and some of Pezoa’s, to the Inquisition, to prevail on him, if possible, to confess. He was led forth in the procession, wearing the infamous attire and the mitre, indicating the sacrifice of his life. His friends, with many tears, besought him, in the name of the Duke of Cadaval, and by all that was dear to him, that he would preserve his life, and intimated to him, that if he would confess and repent, the duke would give him more than he had lost, as he obtained his life on that condition from the inquisitor-general. But all in vain; Pezoa continually protesting himself innocent, and that the accusation was the contrivance of his enemies, who sought his destruction, as guilty of crimes. When the procession was ended, and the act of faith almost finished, the sentences of those who were condemned to certain penances having been read, and, on the approach of evening, the sentences of those who were to be delivered over to the secular court being begun to be read, his friends repeated their entreaties, by which they overcame his constancy at last; so that, desiring an audience, and rising up, that he might be heard, he said, “Come, then, let us go and confess the crimes I am falsely accused of, and thereby gratify the desires of my friends.”

Having made confession, he was remanded to gaol. But, two years after, he was sent to Evora, and walked in procession in another act of faith, wearing the infamous garment, on which was painted the fire inverted, according to the usual custom of the Portuguese Inquisition; and after five years more, in which he was detained in the gaol of the Inquisition, he was condemned to the galleys, as a slave, for five years.