pectation, and by a very fingular accident, he was delivered out of gaol, efcaped death, and returned to England.

A CERTAIN pious matron, with her two daughters who were virgins, and her niece who was married, were put into the inquifition at Seville for herefy. Various kinds of tortures were made ufe of to conftrain thefe women to betray those of their own religion, and especially to accufe one another; but in vain. The inquifitor, obferving this, commanded one of the daughters to be brought to him, and difcourfed with her alone, pretending to be much grieved at her afflictions, and endeavouring to comfort her. After he had by these means, and mourning over her, induced the poor girl to believe, that he was really and with a fatherly affection concerned for her and her family's calamity, and would fincerely endeavour for their liberty; he then began to perfuade her to confefs what related to herself, and difcover all the knew concerning her mother, fifters, aunt, and fome others who were not yet apprehended; promifing upon oath, that if she would faithfully make this confeffion and difcovery to him, he would find out a method to relieve her from her misfortunes, and to send them all back to their houses. This wheedling effected what torturing could not: the young woman was

by

by these promises, and repeated oaths to perform them, allured to give fome account to the inquifitor of what he wanted to know. i When the perfidious, perjured villain had fo far obtained his point, he put the poor girl

to the most extreme tortures, even thofe of the rack and the wooden horfe above-mentioned, in order to extort what she might have omitted in her former confeffion: the then accufed her mother and fifters, and feveral others alfo, who were upon this taken up and tortured likewife; after which they were all burned alive in the fame fire with the girl.

HORRID as this inftance of complicated wickedness is, the following will not fall short of it, and in fome circumstances may perhaps be thought rather more cruel.

A NOBLE lady, named Boborquia, wife of the lord of Higuera in Spain, tho' about fix months gone with child, was taken up by the inquifition, only because a young lady, her fifter, who was alfo imprifoned as a heretic and afterwards burnt, had in her torture declared, that she had converfed with her fifter on her own doctrine. Lady Boborquia was delivered of her child in prifon; fifteen days after which fhe was clofe fhut up, and underwent the fate of other prifoners. In fo dreadful a calamity fhe had only one com

fort, that a certain pious young woman, who was afterwards burnt for her religion by the inquifitors, was allowed her for a companion. But this comfort was foon changed into a grievous affliction: for this poor creature was in a little time taken out of prison to be tor tured, and when brought back, with all her limbs disjointed, afforded a most dismal spectacle to this young lady of what the herself was likely to fuffer. And accordingly, when the girl had but just began to recover, Boborquia was carried out to endure the fame mifery, and was tortured with fuch diabolical cruelty upon the rack, that the rope cut to the very bones of her arms, thighs, and legs, the blood running copiously out of her mouth: they had, fays my author, undoubtedly burst her bowels. In this manner she was brought back to prifon, as if just ready to expire; and in fact did die the eighth day following. And to fill up the full measure of inquifitorial wickedness, it afterwards appeared, that this lady was intirely innocent of what she had been accused, and was fo pronounced to be by the inquifitors themfelves, after they had thus barbaroufly murdered her by torture.

IT has already been obferved, that with out diftinction of age, quality, or fex, all perfons, before they are tortured, even the most virtuous matrons, or chafte and modeft vir

gins, are, contrary to all rules of honour and decency, ftripped intirely naked, and then a pair of ftrait linen drawers put on them. What a scene, in all probability, of a most unnatural and shocking mixture of lechery and cruelty is here exhibited! A modeft, beautiful young lady is stripped naked before these grave, reverend monsters, who behold her first with eyes full of luft, then order her to be laid on the rack, and with eyes ftill fuller of cruelty fee her lovely limbs strained 'till the finews crack, and cut with cords through the flesh to the very bones; her beauteous face bathed in tears, and distorted with deathful agonies.

ARE there any inftances in heathen antiquity, or among the most favage modern people, of the fair and tender sex being thus cruelly punished, even when they have committed the most heinous offences? Yet in civilized, polished, and, what one would still think more ftrange, in chriftian countries, this has frequently been their treatment, when intirely innocent, and of exemplary piety and merit. And the perpetrators of thefe hellish cruelties, who certainly ought to be exterminated from the face of the earth, are, to the fcandal of religion in general, and in the highest degree to chriftianity in particular, not only fuffered to live, but to

enjoy

enjoy the greatest honours, dignities, and

power.

T

SECTION X.

O finish this account of the inquifition, (that hell upon earth) it will be neceffary to give a fhort description of the manner of executing the pretended criminals who are condemned to die ".

WHEN an Auto de Fe, or act of faith, that is, in plain English, a day of execution, is ap pointed by the inquifition, it is in Spain and Portugal a day of the utmost exultation and triumph to the church and the mob. The lords inquifitors appear in the most infolent and triumphant pomp, with (fays my author) almoft divine majefty, and the mob rejoice in the most outrageous manner. The king and queen, and principal grandees, with the whole court, ufually affift at this fhocking fight, and are spectators of the cavalcade, and the tormenting death the poor creatures are put to: all which is, by a famous Spanish inquifitor himself, juftly called, borrendum ac tremendum

For a very, full and circumftantial account of these executions, the reader may be pleafed to confult the often-mentioned Mr. Chandler's tranflation of Limborch's History of the Inquifition.