Chapter XV: Acts of Faith of the Inquisition

The _Auto da Fé_--Act of Faith at Madrid--Act of Faith at Lisbon--Testimony of Rev. Mr. Wilcox.

The _auto da fé_, or _act of faith_, in the Romish church, is a grand ceremony performed by the Inquisition, for the punishment of heretics, and the absolution of those who have been declared innocent. It is usually contrived to fall on great festivals of the church, that the whole procedure may strike the spectators with the utmost awe. The _auto da fé_ may be called _the last act of the inquisitorial tragedy_. It is a kind of gaol delivery, as often as a competent number of prisoners in the Inquisition are convicted of heresy, either by their own voluntary or extorted confession, or on the testimony of certain witnesses. The process is generally as follows:--

In the morning, the prisoners are brought into a great hall, where they put on certain habits, which are to be worn in the procession, and from which they know their doom. The procession is led forth by Dominican friars, after whom come the penitents, being all in black coats without sleeves, and bare-footed, with wax candles in their hands. These are followed by those penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt, and who, over their black coats, have flames painted, with their points turned downwards. Next come the _negative_ and _relapsed_, who are doomed to be burnt, having flames on their habits pointing upwards. After these come such as profess doctrines contrary to the faith of Rome, who, besides flames pointing upwards, have their pictures painted on their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, as in a fury. Each prisoner is attended by a familiar of the Inquisition; and those to be burnt, have also a Jesuit on each hand urging them to abjure. After the prisoners, there follow a troop of familiars on horseback, and then the inquisitors and other officers of the court, on mules: last of all, the inquisitor-general on a white horse, led by two men with black hats and green hatbands.

On the occasion, a scaffold is erected large enough for two or three thousand persons; at one end of which are the prisoners, at the other the inquisitors. After a sermon, made of encomiums on the Inquisition, and invectives against heretics, a priest ascends a desk near the scaffold, and having taken the abjuration of the penitents, he recites the final sentence of those who are to be put to death, and delivers them to the secular arm, earnestly beseeching the authorities not to touch their blood, nor to put their lives in danger! The prisoners, being thus in the hands of the civil magistrate, are presently loaded with chains, and carried first to the secular gaol, and thence, in an hour or two, brought before the civil judge; who, after asking in what religion they intend to die, pronounces sentence on such as declare they die in the communion of the church of Rome, that they shall be first strangled, and then burnt to ashes! or such as die in any other faith, that they be burnt alive! Both are immediately carried to a place of execution, where there are as many stakes set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with fuel of dried furze. The stakes for the professed, or such as reject the Romish faith, are about four yards high, having a small board near the top for the prisoner to be seated on. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed mount their stakes by a ladder, and the Jesuits, after several repeated exhortations to be reconciled to the church, retire, telling them that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry them to the flames of hell. On this, a great shout is raised, the cry being “Let the dogs’ beards be made;” that is done by thrusting flaming furzes, fastened on long poles, against their faces, till they are scorched, and every feature destroyed; and this is accompanied with the loudest exclamations of savage joy. At last, fire is set to the furze at the bottom of the stake, over which the victim is, chained so high that the flame can scarcely reach the seat, and the sufferer is thus made to endure a roasting. There cannot be a more lamentable spectacle; the sufferers cry out, as long as they are able, “Pity, for the love of God!” or such-like appeals for mercy and sympathy; yet it is beheld, by both sexes of the superstitious populace, with transports of joy and satisfaction, illustrating the genuine spirit of Popery.

ACT OF FAITH AT MADRID, A.D. 1680.

Spain and Portugal, more than any other countries, have been governed on the principles of Popery. To learn its true genius, we must look at the horrid ceremony of burning dissenters, under the designation of heretics. The following account relates to the act of faith celebrated in honour of Charles II., on the occasion of his public entry into Madrid, after his marriage, A.D. 1680.

Charles II., of Spain, was born A.D. 1662, and ascended the throne at nearly the age of four years, October 7, 1665. In February, 1680, he married Maria Louise of Orleans. This was publicly celebrated under the direction of the priesthood, with all possible magnificence at Madrid, and an _act of faith_ by the Inquisition, May 3, 1680.

A month before the general execution, the officers of the Inquisition, preceded by their standard, rode with great solemnity from the palace of the Holy Office to the open square, where, in the presence of crowds of people, they proclaimed, by sound of trumpet and kettle-drums, that on that day month, an act of faith, or general execution of the heretics, would be exhibited. The proclamation being over, extensive preparations were made for the dreadful solemnities, under pretence that the horrid sacrifice was in honour of the blessed Jesus and his religion, the Gospel of peace. Previous to this bloody solemnity, a scaffold, fifty feet long, was erected in the great square, and raised to the same height, with a balcony upon it with seats for the king and queen and royal family. At the end, and along the sides, seats were placed, as an amphitheatre, in view of the king, for the council of the Inquisition. On one side, under a splendid canopy, a rostrum was elevated for the grand-inquisitor; and at the opposite side was an elevated platform, on which the prisoners were required to stand. In the centre of the scaffold were erected two enclosures, or cages, open at the top, enclosing the prisoners while sentence of death was pronounced on them. Three pulpits also were erected, two of which were for the use of those who read the sentence, and the third for the preacher; and, lastly, an altar was erected near the rostrum, where the several counsellors sat. The seats, on which their Catholic majesties sat, were ranged so that the queen was at the king’s left hand, and on the right the queen-mother. The rest of the whole scaffold was filled with the ladies of honour of both queens; balconies were likewise erected for the foreign ambassadors, and for the lords and ladies of the court, and scaffolds also for the people.

On the solemn day, a month after the proclamation, the ceremony opened in the following order. The march was preceded by a hundred coal-merchants, armed with pikes and muskets, indicating their being under obligation to furnish fuel for the burning of the criminals. These were followed by Dominican friars, before whom a white cross was carried. Behind them came the Duke of Mendini Celi, carrying the standard of the Inquisition, a privilege hereditary in his family. The standard was of red damask, on one side of which was represented a drawn sword in a crown of laurels, and the arms of Spain on the other. Then was brought forward a green cross, covered with black crape, which was followed by several grandees and other persons of quality, familiars of the Inquisition, wearing black cloaks, marked with black and white crosses, edged with gold wire. The march was closed by fifty halbardiers or guards, belonging to the Inquisition, clothed with black and white garments, and commanded by the Marquis of Ponar, hereditary protector of the Inquisition in the province of Toledo.

The procession having marched in this order before the palace, proceeded to the square, when the standard and the green cross were placed on the scaffold, where none but the Dominicans remained, the rest having retired. These Dominican friars had spent the night in chanting psalms, and several masses were celebrated on the altar from day-break until six in the morning. About an hour after, the king, the queen, and the queen-mother, with all the royal family, the lords, ladies and officers of the court, made their appearance, and at eight o’clock ascended the scaffold. The coal-merchants placed themselves on the left of the king’s balcony, and his guards stood on the right. Afterwards came thirty men carrying images of pasteboard, as large as life, some representing those who had died in prison, and whose bones were brought in chests, with flames painted on them, and the rest those who had escaped and were outlawed.

These figures were placed at one end of the amphitheatre, and then came twelve men and women with ropes about their necks, torches in their hands, and pasteboard caps on their heads, three feet high, on which were written their crimes. These were followed by fifty others, having also torches in their hands, and clothed with yellow great coats, on which were crosses of St. Andrew X., behind and before. These were Jews, who had repented of their crimes, and desired to be admitted into the church as believers in Jesus Christ. Next came twenty Jews of both sexes, who had relapsed thrice into their former errors, and were condemned to the flames. Those who had given some tokens of repentance were to be strangled before they were burnt; but the rest, for having persisted in their errors, were to be burnt alive. These last wore linen garments, with devils and flames painted on them, and caps after the same manner. Five or six among them, who were more obstinate than the rest, were gagged, to prevent their uttering what the Roman Catholics call blasphemous tenets.

Such as were condemned to die, were surrounded each by four Dominicans and two familiars of the Inquisition. These unhappy creatures passed, in the manner above related, under the king of Spain’s balcony, and after having walked round the scaffold, were placed in the amphitheatre that stood on the left, and each of them surrounded by the monks and familiars who had attended them. Some of the grandees of Spain were among these familiars, and they, consistently with their usual national pride, seated themselves on high benches erected for the purpose. The clergy of St. Martin’s parish, coming forward, placed themselves near the altar; the officers of the supreme council of the Inquisition, the inquisitor, and several other persons of distinction, both regulars and seculars, all on horseback, with great solemnity, arrived afterwards, and placed themselves on the right hand of the amphitheatre, and on both sides of the rostrum in which the grand-inquisitor was to seat himself. The grand-inquisitor came last, dressed in a purple habit, accompanied by the president of the council of Castile, and several other officers, who, on this occasion, would have been reckoned among the number of heretics, had they not become the more than obsequious slaves of the priests.

Then they began to celebrate mass; in the midst of which, the priest who officiated went down from the altar and seated himself in a chair, which had been placed for him. The grand-inquisitor came down from his seat, and having saluted the altar, and put the mitre on his head, he advanced towards the king’s balcony. Then he went up the steps that stood at the end of the balcony, with several officers, who carried the cross and Gospels, and a book containing the oath by which the kings of Spain obliged themselves to protect the Catholic faith, to extirpate heretics, and to support the holy Inquisition to the utmost of their power.

The king, standing up bareheaded, having on one side of him a grandee of Spain, holding the royal sword with the point upward, swore to observe the oath which a counsellor of the Inquisition had just read to him. The king continued in this posture till such time as the grand-inquisitor was returned back to his seat, where he took off his pontifical vestments. Then one of the secretaries of the Inquisition ascended a pulpit appointed for that purpose, and read an oath to the same purport, which he administered to all the grandees who were then present; and this part of the ceremony was followed by that of a Dominican going up into the pulpit, and delivering a sermon full of flattery in praise of the Inquisition.

About two o’clock in the afternoon they began to read the sentences of the condemned criminals; and they began with those who had died in prison, or who had been outlawed. Their figures in pasteboard were carried up to the little scaffold, and put into the cages, and then they read the sentences to each of the criminals who were alive, and they were, one by one, put into the cages, in order that every person present might know them. There were, in all, twenty persons, of both sexes, condemned to the flames; and of these, six men and two women could not be prevailed on either to confess or repent of their errors. A young woman was remanded to prison because she had always made the strongest protestations of her innocence, and therefore they thought it would be proper to re-examine the evidence that had been produced against her. Lastly, they read the sentences of those who had been found guilty of bigamy, or witchcraft, with several other crimes, and this lasted till about nine in the evening, when mass was finished.

Mass being finished, the grand-inquisitor, clothed in his pontifical vestments, pronounced a solemn absolution on all those who would repent; and then, the king being withdrawn, the criminals who had been condemned to be burnt, were delivered over to the civil power, and, being mounted upon asses, were carried in this manner through the gate called Foncural. About three hundred paces from it they were chained to stakes, and executed a little after midnight. Those who persisted in their errors were burnt alive; but such as repented, were first strangled before the fire was lighted. Those condemned to lesser punishments were remanded to prison, and the inquisitors returned home to their palace!

To us, in our enlightened times, it must appear very astonishing, that proceedings so inhuman and shocking could be witnessed and sanctioned by a great monarch and his mighty nobles. Yet these outrages continued, but not without complaints against the Inquisition from some of the nobility and statesmen, so that no less than 9,216 victims of that court are reckoned in the reign of Charles II., from A.D. 1666 to A.D. 1700: of these, 1,728 were burnt to death; 576 were burnt in effigy; and 6,912 were subjected to severe penances, in Spain.

ACT OF FAITH AT LISBON, A.D. 1682.

Dr. Michael Geddes, an eminent English divine, and chaplain to the factory at Lisbon for several years, until he was apprehended by the Inquisition in 1686, when he was interdicted from officiating in his ministerial capacity, and returned to England, witnessed an _auto da fé_, in 1682, and he describes it as follows:--

“In the morning of the day, the prisoners are all brought into a great hall, where they have the habits put on they are to wear in the procession, which begins to come out of the Inquisition about nine of the clock in the morning. The first in the procession are the Dominican friars, who carry the standard of the Inquisition, which on the one side hath their founder Dominic’s picture, and on the other side, a cross between an olive leaf and a sword, with this motto, _Justitia et Misericordia_. Next after the Dominicans come the penitents, some with _benitos_, some without, according to the nature of their crimes; they are all in black coats without sleeves, and bare-footed, with a wax candle in their hand. Next come the penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt, who, over their black coat, have flames painted, with their points turned downwards, to signify their having been saved, but so as by fire: this habit is called by the Portuguese _fuego revolto_, or flames turned upside down. Next come the negative and relapsed, that are to be burnt, with flames upon their habit, pointing upward; and next come those who profess doctrines contrary to the faith of the Roman church, and who, besides flames on their habit, pointing upward, have their picture, which is drawn two or three days before, upon their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, all with open mouths, painted upon it. Pequa, a famous Spanish inquisitor, calls this procession, _Horrendum ac tremendum spectaculem_; and so it is in truth, there being some things in the looks of all the prisoners, besides those that are to be burnt, that is ghastly and disconsolate, beyond what can be imagined; and in the eyes and countenance of those that are to be burnt, there is something that looks fierce and eager.

“The prisoners that are to be burnt alive besides a familiar, which all the rest have, have a Jesuit on each hand of them, who are continually preaching to them to abjure their heresies; but if they offer to speak anything in defence of the doctrine, for professing which they are going to suffer death, they are immediately gagged, and not suffered to speak a word more. This I saw done to a prisoner presently after he came out of the gates of the Inquisition, upon his having looked up to the sun, which he had not seen before for several years, and cried out in rapture, ‘How is it possible for people to behold that glorious body, to worship any being but Him that created it?’ After the prisoners come a troop of familiars on horseback, and after them the inquisitors, and other officers of the court, upon mules, and last of all comes the inquisitor-general, upon a white horse, led by two men, with a black hat and a green hatband, and attended by all the nobles that are employed as familiars in the procession.

“In the _Terceiro de Paco_, which may be as far from the Inquisition as Whitehall is from Temple Bar, there is a scaffold erected, which may hold two or three thousand people; at the one end sit the inquisitors, and at the other end the prisoners, and in the same order as they walked in the procession, those that are to be burnt being seated on the highest benches behind the rest, and which may be ten feet above the floor of the scaffold. After some prayers, and a sermon, which is made up of encomiums on the Inquisition, and invectives against heretics, a secular priest ascends a desk, which stands near the middle of the scaffold, and who, having first taken all the abjurations of the penitents, who kneel before him, one by one, in the same order as they walked in the procession, at last he recites the final sentence of the Inquisition upon those who are to be put to death, in the words following:--

“‘We, the inquisitors of heretical pravity, having, with the concurrence of the most illustrious _N._, lord archbishop of Lisbon, or of his deputy, _M._, called on the name of his Lord Jesus Christ, and of His glorious mother, the Virgin Mary, and sitting on our tribunal, and judging with the holy Gospels lying before us, that so our judgment might be in the sight of God, and our eyes might behold what is just in all matters between the magnific Doctor _N._, advocate-fiscal, on the one part, and you, _N._, now before us, on the other; we have ordained that in this place, and on this day, you should receive your definitive sentence. We do, therefore, by this our sentence, put in writing, define, pronounce, declare, and sentence thee, _N._, of the city of Lisbon, to be a convicted, confessing, affirmative, and professed heretic, and to be delivered by us as such to the secular arm; and we, by this sentence, do cast thee out of the ecclesiastical court, as a convicted, confessing, affirmative, and professed heretic, and we do leave and deliver thee to the secular arm, and to the power of the secular court, but at the same time do _most earnestly beseech that court so to moderate its sentence as not to touch thy blood, or to put thy life in any danger_.’

“Is there in all history,” asks Dr. Geddes, “an instance of so gross and confident a mockery of God and the world as this of the inquisitors, earnestly beseeching the civil magistrates not to put the heretic they have condemned and delivered to them to death? For were they in earnest when they make their solemn petition to the secular magistrates, why do they bring their prisoners out of the Inquisition, and deliver them to those magistrates, in coats painted over with flames? Why do they teach that all heretics, above all other malefactors, ought to be punished with death? And why do they never resent the secular magistrates having so little regard to their earnest and joint petition as never to fail to burn all the heretics which are delivered to them by the Inquisition, within an hour or two after they have them in their hands? And why, in Rome, where the supreme civil and ecclesiastical authority are lodged in the same person, is this petition of the Inquisition, which is made there as well as in other places, never granted? Certainly, not to take any notice of the old canon, which forbids the clergy to have any hand in the blood of any person whatsoever, would be a much less dishonour to the Inquisition, than to pretend to go on observing that canon, by making a petition which is known to be so contrary to their principles and desires.

“The prisoners are no sooner in the hands of the civil magistrate than they are loaded with chains, and before the eyes of the inquisitors; and, being first carried to the secular gaols, are within an hour or two brought thence before the lord chief-justice, who, without knowing any thing of their particular crimes, or of the evidence that was against them, asks them, one by one, _in what religion do they intend to die?_ If they answer that they will die in the communion of the Roman church, they are condemned by him to be _carried forth to the place of execution, and there to be first strangled, and then burnt to ashes_. But if they say that they will die in the Protestant or any other faith that is contrary to the Roman, they are sentenced by him to be _carried to the place of execution, and there to be burnt alive_. At the place of execution, which, at Lisbon, is in the Ribera, there are so many stakes set up as there are prisoners to be burnt, with a good quantity of dry furze about them. The stakes of _the professed_, as the inquisitors call them, may be about four yards high, and have a small board whereon the prisoner is to be seated, within half a yard of their top. The negative and relapsed being first strangled and burnt, the professed go up a ladder between the two Jesuits, who have attended them all day, and when they are come even with the fore-mentioned board, they turn about to the people, and the Jesuits do spend near a quarter of an hour in exhorting the professed to be reconciled to the church of Rome; which, if the professed refuse to be, the Jesuits come down, and the executioner ascends, and, having turned the professed off the ladder upon the seat, and chained their bodies close to the stake, he leaves them, and the Jesuits go up to them a second time, to renew their exhortation to them, and at parting tell them that they leave them to the devil, who is standing at their elbow to receive their souls, and carry them with him into the flames of hell-fire, so soon as they are out of their bodies. Upon this a great shout is raised, and as soon as the Jesuits are off the ladder, the cry is, ‘_Let the dogs’ beards be made! Let the dogs’ beards be made!_’ which is done by thrusting of flaming furzes, fastened to a long pole, against their faces; and this inhumanity is commonly continued until their faces are burned to a coal, and is always accompanied with such acclamations of joy as are not to be heard on any other occasion; a bull fight or a farce being but dull entertainments to the using of a professed heretic thus inhumanly.

“The beards of the professed having been thus made, as they call it in jollity, fire is set to the furze which is at the bottom of the stake, and above which the professed are chained so high that the top of the flame seldom reacheth higher than the seat they sit upon; and if there happen to be a wind, and to which that place is much exposed, it seldom reacheth so high as their knees; so that though there be a calm, the professed are commonly dead in half an hour after the furze is set on fire; yet, if it prove windy, they are not after that dead in an hour and a half, or two hours, and so are really roasted, and not burnt to death. But though out of hell there cannot be a more lamentable spectacle than this, being joined with the sufferers, so long as they are able to speak, crying out, ‘_Misericordia, por amos de Dios_’ (_Mercy, for the love of God_,) yet it is beheld by people of both sexes and of all ages with such transports of joy and satisfaction, as are not on any other occasion to be met with. And that the reader may not think that this inhuman joy may be the effect of a natural cruelty that is in those people’s disposition, and not of the spirit of their religion, he may rest assured that all public malefactors, besides heretics, have their violent deaths nowhere more tenderly lamented than among the same people, and even when there is nothing in the manner of their deaths that appears inhuman or cruel.

“Within a few days after the execution, the pictures of all that have been burnt, and which were taken off their breasts when they were brought to the stake, are hung up in St. Domingo’s church, whose west end, though very high, is all covered over with such trophies of the Inquisition, hung up there in honour to Dominic, who, to fulfil his mother’s dream, was the first inventor of that court. Dominic’s mother, when she was about to be delivered, having dreamed that she was delivered, not of a human creature, but of a fierce dog, with a burning torch in his mouth!”

Enormities of cruel bigotry so truly shocking might well require to be authenticated by the most unquestionable testimony. This has been given. That of the Rev. Mr. Wilcox, chaplain to the English factory of Lisbon in the reign of Queen Anne, and afterwards Bishop of Rochester, wrote in reply to the inquiry of Bishop Burnet, confirming the statements of Dr. Geddes, June 15, 1706. Part of his letter is as follows:--

“My Lord,--In obedience to your lordship’s commands of the 10th ultimo, I have here sent all that was printed concerning the last _auto da fé._ I saw the whole process, which is agreeable to what is published by Limborch and others upon that subject. Of the five persons condemned, there were but four burnt; Antonio Tavances, by an unusual reprieve, being saved after the procession. Heytor Dias and Maria Pinteyra were burnt alive, and the other two first strangled. The execution was very cruel. The woman was alive in the flames half an hour, and the man above an hour. The present king and his brothers were seated at a window so near as to be addressed, for a considerable time, in very moving terms, by the man as he was burning. But though the favour he begged was only a few more faggots, yet he was not able to obtain it. Those who are burnt alive here are seated on a bench twelve feet high, fastened to a pole, and above six feet higher than the faggots. The wind being a little fresh, the man’s hinder parts were perfectly wasted; and as he turned himself, his ribs opened before he left speaking, the fire being recruited as it wasted, to keep him just in the same degree of heat. But all entreaties could not procure him a larger allowance of wood to shorten his misery and dispatch him!”