fuch is the injuftice as well as cruelty of the inquifition, that husbands are not only admitted, but commanded by it, in case of herefy, to inform and bear witness against their wives; wives against their husbands; parents against children; and children against parents: and to induce the former so to do, the forfeited eftates and effects of their parents, or a part of them, are many times, promised to the children on the parents conviction. Thus is parricide encouraged, and children even bribed to be the means of their parents being many times put to an extreme cruel death. By this it is plain, that the most atrocious and unnatural crimes, if committed for the service of the church, lofe their nature, are immediately fanctified, and become neceffary duties and meritorious actions.

THE cruelties of this holy tribunal, as it is impudently and impiously called, are indeed terrible and astonishing: many of them have undoubtedly been concealed from the knowledge of the public; but it would require volumes to give an ample relation of fuch as are come to light: volumes have indeed been written on the fubject; fome by the fufferers themselves, who were fo happy as to obtain their deliverance. In this fhort Effay nothing more will be attempted, than to give fome idea of fo complete a master

piece of religious villainy and cruelty, and that chiefly for the fake of thofe of my readers who may not have met with other accounts; particularly Limborch's Hiftory of the Inquifition, or Mr. Chandler's translation of it; from whence what has been already mentioned, as well as what follows on this fubject, refpecting facts, is principally taken, tho' fome original hiftories have also been confulted and made ufe of.

WHEN an accufed perfon is arrested by order of the inquifition, he is put into a small dark dungeon, and there confined, fometimes for many years, and, generally speaking, alone: no companion, not fo much as a book, even a religious one, or indeed any thing else, is allowed to alleviate his affliction, which on the contrary is ftudiouly aggravated by every imaginable circumftance. A moft profound filence is strictly commanded throughout this region of mifery. If a prifoner says his prayers in a loud voice, or bemoans himself fo as to be heard, nay if he makes any noise, tho' involuntary, the jaylor admonishes him to forbear; if he repeats it, he is beat without mercy. A prifoner being troubled with a cough, was ordered by one of the keepers to refrain coughing: the poor man replied, it was impoffible: upon which he was fo beat that he died under the blows.

T

BUT

BUT although fo ftrict and close a confinement in fuch difmal places, with the many melancholy and afflicting circumstances attending it, is of itself a very fevere punishment, and oftentimes caufes fome of the confined perfons to go mad; deftroys others, or puts them upon destroying themselves; yet this is commonly but a fmall part of the miferies that most of the poor wretches endure, who fall into the jaws of this horrid monster, the inquifition.

A

TORMENTS, the sharpest and most ingeniously cruel that even inquifitors can invent, are frequently inflicted upon the miferable. victims of their barbarity. The principal defign of these tortures is to force the prifoners to accufe themselves or others: and they often produce falfe charges against both.

CERTAIN Women in Flanders, about the year 1460, when the inquifition raged there, being accused of witchcraft and holding perfonal conferences with the devil, denied on their examination the truth of the charge: but being put to the rack, they confeffed all they were accused of, and particularly, that

Mr. Dellon, an ingenious French gentleman, and a zealous Roman Catholic, who was near four years a fufferer in the inquifition, declares that he became almost mad, and three times attempted to take away his own life. See A Relation of the Inquifition at Goa, written by himself, chapters 20 & 21.

the devil had carnal knowledge of their bodies: this they again denied when led to execution, as well they might, the facts being abfolutely impoffible, alledging that the confeffion had been extorted from them by the torture: they were nevertheless burned to death.

IN the inquifition no means are omitted to terrify the poor unhappy pretended criminals, and aggravate their misery. The place of torture is generally an under-ground and very dark room, hung with black, and enlightened with candles. The executioner, dreffed in black, and looking like a very devil, makes his appearance to the prisoner, and fhews him the inftruments of torture. The sufferers, whether men or women, without any regard to decency, humanity, or honour, even the most virtuous and chafte matrons and virgins, are stripped ftark naked; after which a thin linen garment, drawn very close to their bodies, is put on them, or sometimes only a pair of linen drawers.

THE methods of torture are various, numerous, and truly diabolical: a few of them only shall be here mentioned. One is thus performed: The prisoner hath his hands bound behind his back, and weights tied to his feet, and is then drawn up on high by a pully, 'till his head touches it: in this manner he is

kept

kept fufpended for fome time, that by the weights hanging at his feet, all his joints and limbs may be stretched; when on a fudden, by flacking the rope, he is let down with a jirk, but not quite to the ground, by which terrible shock his arms and legs are all dif jointed: this, not unusually, is twice or thrice repeated; and sometimes (as Piazza, who was himself one of the judges of the inquifition, informs us) the poor creatures, while thus fufpended and stretched, are feverely whipped.

ANOTHER method of torture is this: a large iron chafing-dish, full of burning charcoal, is ordered to be brought in, and held close to the foles of the tortured person's feet, which are greased with lard, that the heat of the fire may more sharply pierce them. But not to dwell too long upon fuch a fhocking fubject, only one other manner of torturing fhall here be described.

A HOLLOW trough, called the wooden horse, big enough to contain a man lying on his back at full length, is prepared, about the middle of which there is a bar fixed a-cross: upon this the prisoner is laid with his feet much higher than his head. As he is in this posture, his arms, thighs, and fhins are tied round with small cords, which being strained with screws, cut to the very bones, so that

Relation de l'Inquifition, &c. p. 97.

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