While the tortures is preparing, fome of the graveft perfons prefent take the prifoner a part and endeavour to perfuade him to confefs the things he is accused of, or the things he is called upon to witness, with promise of pardon: though it is very certain that no pardon can be expected; nor is it e ver granted to one that has relapsed, i. e. who has once been found guilty, after he had confeffed, and abjured, and received the mercy of this court. As to the manner of torturing; 1. They ftrip their prifoners without any regard to fex or decency. It is true, they vouchsafe to give young women a pair of linnen drawers; but they firft ftrip them publickly starknaked. 2. They torture them either with cords, or on the rack, or by fome other more cruel invention, as may be collected from the punishments different prifoners have undergone at diftant times and divers places: and which will be better described by a few hiftorical accounts of those that have undergone them, than by any other method: and, therefore, I fhall begin with the ufage of the innocent noble Lady Joan Bohorquia, wife of the eminent Francis Varquius Lord of Higuera. Her fifter Mary Bohorquia, a young Lady of great piety, who was afterwards burnt for her pious profeffion of the proteftant faith, having upon the torture declared that the had at feveral times converfed with her fifter Foan concerning the doctrine for which the now fuffered; the Inquifition took her up, being then about fix months gone with child. She, on this account, was not fo ftraitly confined, nor fo cruelly dealt with as other prifoners on the like occafion, in regard to the infant fhe carried in her. But, eight days after her delivery, they took the child from her, NUMB. XXV. Vol. IV.

and, on the fifteenth, fhut her clofe up, and made her undergo the fate of the other prisoners; and began to manage her caufe with their usual arts and rigour. In fo dreadful a calamity, she had only this comfort, that a certain pious young woman, who was afterwards burnt for her religion by the Inquifitors, 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 prifon, fhe was fo fhaken, and had all her limbs fo miferably dif jointed, that when the lay upon her bed of rushes, it rather increased her mifery, than gave her reft; so that she could not turn herself without the most exceffive pain. In this condition, as Boborquia had it not in her power to fhew her any, or but very little, outward kindnefs, the endeavoured to comfort her mind with great tendernefs. The girl had scarce begun to recover from her torture, when Bohorquia was carried out to the fame exercise, and was tortured with fuch diabolical cruelty upon the rack, that the rope pierced and cut into the very bones of her arms, thighs, and legs; and in this manner fhe was brought back to prifon, juft ready to expire, the blood immediately running out of her mouth in great plenty. Undoubtedly, they had burft her bowels, infomuch that the eighth day after her torture, fhe died. And when, after all, they could not procure fufficient evidence to condemn her, though fought after and procured by all their Inquifitorial arts, yet as the accused perfon 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 diffemble it, in the first act of triumph appointed after her death, they com

manded

manded her fentence to be pronounced in these words: Because this Lady died in prison, without doubt fuppreffing the causes of it, and was found to be innocent, upon infpecting, and dili gently examining her caufe; therefore the holy tribunal pronounces her free from any farther procefs; doth restore her both as to her innocence and reputation; and commands all her effects, which had been confifcated, to be reftored to those to whom they of right belonged, &c. And thus after they had murdered her by torture with favage cruelty, they pronounced her innocent.

When a criminal upon the torture confeffes and asketh pardon of the church, he is condemned as guilty of herefy, by his own confeffion, but treated as a penitent. But, let him be ever fo innocent, and obftinately perfift in his innocence, he is condemned, and delivered up to the fecular arm to be punished.

As foon as any perfon is unhappily fallen under the cenfure of this court; let him be ever so eminent in his profeffion, beloved of his acquaintance, and amiable in the eyes of the world, he, in that moment, is as a man not only dead, but forgotten; his acquaintance and friends are fo far from attempting any thing in his favour, that they dare not be known to pity his unhappy circumstances, left they themfelves fhould thereby be rendered fufpected of favouring or abetting heretics: which imputation would certainly bring them into the fame condemnation, instead of relieving their friend in his diftrefs.

If any one is fo fortunate to escape by fhewing tokens of repentance; and by confeffion avoids the difmal confequences of being delivered up to the fecular arm; he is not, however, permitted to go fcot-free: he is fure of fuch punishment as the heinoufnels of his crime will authorife the Inquifitors to inflict upon him.

The first thing proposed to the penitent, is to fhew his fincerity, by abjuring. All degrees and ages are ob liged to this. Even boys of fourteen, and girls of twelve years old, are compelled to abjure the heresy of which they are found guilty, or are only suspected; or they will be delivered up to the fecular arm to be put to death. And if the criminal can write, he must fubfcribe the abjuration with his own hand; if not, the Inquifitor and Notary are to do it for him.

This abjuration, which alfo includes in it a promife of fubmiflion to all penances whatfoever the Inquifition fhalt think proper to lay upon them, is followed with various forts of punishments. Some are confined during life in a dark difmal prifon, and allowed nothing better than bread and water; debarred from the intercourfe or correspondence of every body, and treated with all forts of feverity and cruelty. Others, that are dealt with more mercifully, are striped of all their worldly fortune, and committed flaves to the gallies for life, or a term of years; and then banished, under pain of death, should they ever again vifit their native foil: or whipped, &c. And the common punish ment of all heretics, or oppofers of the popish faith, is the confifcation of all their effects. Which confifcation is made with fuch rigour, that the Inquifition orders the exchequer to seize on all the effects intrufted to, or negotiated by the prisoner, as well as thofe which are his own property.

If a penitent be ever fo mildly difmiffed the Inquifition, he is excluded from all offices in church and state, civil, military, or ecclefiaftical: and his very children and grandchildren are branded with infamy, and also excluded from enjoying any public office, benefice, dignity, &c.

But the moft ufual punishment, is the wearing of croffes upon their penitential garment; which expofes them

to

to the fcoffs and infults of the most bigotted and vileft part of mankind; and excludes them from all human fociety; for their very friends muft keep from them, left they drew the like or worse punishment upon themfelves. This garment, or habit, is that marked e on the plate fronting page 274, and described on page 281 of Vol. III. They pretend to find the foundation of this penitential habit in holy writ, 1 Kings xxi. 27. But Ludovicus a Paramo, not content with Abab's cafe, carries its original as high as the fall of man, when God cloathed our firft parents with gar ments of skins, in token of confufion and perpetual fhame. Yet how ignominious and hurtful foever this punifh ment is, that deprives the wearer thereof, of all means to earn his bread, it is counted a favour to be difmiffed the Inquifition with this token of their mercy, and is feldom granted to any others than fuch as immediately confefs and abjure their doctrines, as foon as found out. And he, who throws off, or conceals this habit, before the time adjudged is expired, muft be punished as an impenitent. Nor does the punishment feem to determine with the extent of the obligation to wear it; for thefe habits are to be hung up in the parish church where the abfolved penitent dwells, with the names to whom they did belong, and the reafons for their punishment inscribed, and renewed upon them. And whoever dares attempt to take them away, is to be punished at the pleafure of the Judges, as a contemner of Religion and the Judges; with whipping, fines, or banishment.

When a criminal has conftancy enough to refift all the Inquifitorial arts to make him confefs the crimes laid to his charge; and is determined to die, rather than to accuse himself of what has been unjustly and maliciously laid to his charge; or is obftinate and perfevering in Judaifm, &c. he is judged guilty of death. But, if he has

never been under the like condemna→ tion before, nor undergone any of the penitential punishments by order of the Inquifition, the holy office values itself very much upon fhewing mercy to the condemned perfon, if fuch a one can be wrought upon, even after fentence has paffed in that tribunal, to confefs. This was the particular case of that rich-Merchant, Lewis Pezoa, native of Goa, who, with his whole family, had been accused of fecret Judaifm, by fome of his enemies, and who, with his wife, two fons, and one daughter, and fome other relations that lived with him, were all thrown into the prison of the Inquifition. He denied the crime of which he was accufed, and well refuted it, and demanded that the witneffes who had depofed against him, might be difcovered to him, that he might convict them of falfhood: but he could obtain nothing, and was condemned as a negative, to be delivered over to the arm of the fecular court; which fentence was made known to him fifteen days before it was pronounced. The Duke of Cardaval, an intimate friend of the Duke d'Aveira, Inquifitor-General, had made ftrict enquiry how his affair was like to turn. And understanding by the InquifitorGeneral, that unless he confeffed before his going out of prison, he could not escape the fire, because he had been legally convicted, he continued to intreat the Inquifitor-General, till he had obtained a promise from him, that if he could perfuade Pezoa to confefs, even after fentence pronounc ed, and his proceffion in the Act of Faith, he fhould not die, though it was contrary to the laws and cuftom of an Act of Faith. Upon that folemn day, therefore, on which the Act of Faith was to be held, he went with fome of his own friends, and fome that were Pezoa's, to the gate of the Inquifition, to prevail with him, if poffible, to confefs. He came out in the proceffion, wearing the infamous Sa

marre,

rations of the danger, he by his denial incurs, of being burnt alive. And if the witneffes perfift, and the accufed perfon perfifts alfo in the negative, having been kept in prison for a competent time, viz. a year, he is at laft, by the sentence of the Bishop and Inquifitor, caft out of the ecclefiaftical court as obftinate and impenitent, and delivered over to the fecular arm. So that if it fhould happen that he is accused by falfe witneffes, and is really innocent, the miferable wretch, though falfly condemned, is delivered to the power of the fecular court, to be burnt alive; nor is it lawful for him, without the commiffion of mortal fin, as the Roman Doctors think, to fave his life, by falfly confeffing a crime he hath not committed. And, therefore, in this case, though it may feem very hard to fuch a negative to die when he is innocent, and for this reafon he may poffibly believe it lawful for him to confefs the crimes objected to him to fave his life; yet this is not to be fuffered by any means; and, therefore, it is the duty of the Divines and Confeffors, who comfort fuch a negative, and attend on him to his punishment, to perfuade him to discover the truth; but to caution him by all means not to acknowledge a crime he hath not committed, to avoid temporal death; and to put him in remembrance, that if he patiently indures this injury and punishment, he will be crowned as a Martyr.

If the accused perfon has the good fortune to escape the Officers of the Inquifition before they find opportunity to apprehend him, they call him a fugitive heretic; and after citation, fixed upon fome public place for his appearance within such a term of time; if he does not appear, they proceed against him as an obftinate heretic, hear witneffes, and, if he be found guilty upon evidence, which is always certain, he is condemned, and delivered up to the fecular arm.

And left the fentence againft fugitives may feem to be pronounced in vain, it is ufually published before all the people, and the image, or, as they commonly call it, the ftatute of the abfent perfon, is publickly produced, on which there is a fuperfcription fixed, containing the name and firname of the abfent obftinate person, who is condemned; which statue is delivered to the fecular power; on which he executes the fentence and penalty of burning, as he would do upon the abfent perfon himself, if he were prefent, unless he would turn ; or upon a perfon otherwise relapsed. Thus, as Lewis a Paramo tells us, the ftatue of Sigifmond Malatesta was burnt at the gates of St. Peter; and the ftatue of Luther, after he had been cited, and did not appear, was alfo burnt, together with his books, at the command of Leo X. by the Bishop of Afcoli, and Silvefter Prieriates.

This holy tribunal does not even fpare the dead. Such an action is rever hindered or determined by any intervals of time; for even when 40 years and more are elapfed, the Inquifitors may, when ever it is difcovered, and legally proved, that one died an heretic, carry on an action againft him to condemn his memory, and declared him to have died excommunicated, and to forbid any one from praying for him; and to dig up his bones, if poffible, that they may be burnt; for he with whom it is not lawful to have any communion when alive, it is neither lawful to have it with him when he is dead. And although the children escape this confifcation of their eftates, if they have been in poffeffion of them, bona fide, for forty years; they incur, however, the other penalties which the laws have decreed on the children of the condemned, viz. infamy, and incapacity for all public offices and benefices. If his memory is to be condemned, he is pronounced to have died in heresy; his memory is condemned; his effects

con