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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 moft unnatural and shocking mixture of lechery and cruelty is here exhibited! A modeft, beautiful young lady is ftripped naked before thefe grave, reverend monfters, who behold her firft 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 ftrained '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 fex being thus cruelly punished, even when they have committed the moft heinous offences? Yet in civilized, polished, and, what one would ftill 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 christianity in particular, not only fuffered to live, but to

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enjoy the greatest honours, dignities, and

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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 appointed by the inquifition, it is in Spain and Portugal a day of the utmoft 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 fpectators of the cavalcade, and the tormenting death the poor creatures are put to: all which is, by a famous Spanish inquifitor himself, justly called, horrendum ac tremendum

For a very full and circumstantial account of these executions, the reader may be pleased to confult the often-mentioned Mr. Chandler's translation of Limborch's Hiftory of the Inquifition.

tremendum fpectaculum. The judges, many of the nobility, gentry, military officers, friers, and other ecclefiaftics, march in the proceffion with the devoted victims of religious cruelty. The manner of their execution is almoft too horrible to be related, and yet, which fhews the prodigious force of bigotry and enthufiafm, is viewed even by the ladies, who on occafion of all other execu tions fhew as much compaffion as any of their fex, with apparent figns of fatisfaction and pleasure. Two eminent protestant and English divines, who were prefent at thefe affecting fpectacles, have given relations of them, from which the following account is extracted.

THE poor fufferers, who are to be burned alive, are feated on a bench about twelve feet high, and chained to a stake to which the bench is faftened. Two Jefuits then go up a ladder, and exhort the heretics to be reconçiled to the church of Rome: if after the second exhortation they refuse so to do, the Jefuits then tell them, that the devil is at their elbow to receive their fouls, and will, as foon as out of their bodies, carry them with him into hell-fire. Immediately after this charitable and comfortable denunciation, a great fhout is raised by the people, and the cry is, Let the dogs beards be trimmed, as it is merrily

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merrily termed. This is done by thrusting flaming furzes, fastened to a long pole, against their faces, which is commonly continued till they are burnt to a coal, and is accompanied with fuch loud acclamations of joy, as are not to be heard on any other occafion; a bull-feast or a farce being dull entertainments to this, The furze or faggots are then fet on fire; but the flame feldom reaching higher than the poor miserable creatures knees, they are rather roafted than burned to death, being fometimes an hour and a half or two hours thus tormented before they are dead.

My author informs us, that the late king of Portugal and his brothers were feated in a window, fo near the place where one of these executions was performed, as to be addressed a confiderable time in very moving terms by a man as he was burning: but tho' the favour he begged was only a few more faggots, to put an end to his mifery, yet he could not obtain it. This poor wretch's hinder parts, fays the fpectator, were perfectly wasted, and as he turned himself, his ribs opened, before he left fpeaking.

AT one of these acts of faith in Spain, the queen, who was a daughter of the French king, being prefent, when a most beautiful young fewish girl, fcarce entered into her feventeenth year, was going to be burned for

her

her religion; the poor girl turned herself to the queen, and prayed, that out of her goodnefs and clemency fhe might be delivered from the most dreadful punishment of the fire, in these words: "Great Great queen, is not

your prefence able to bring me some com"fort under my mifery? Confider my youth, "and that I am condemned for a religion, " which I have fucked in with my mother's "milk." The queen turned away her eyes, and declared she pitied the miserable creature, but did not dare to intercede for her with a fingle word.

BEHOLD the effects of religious cruelty! for fo may these barbarities with propriety be ftyled, because they are committed under a pretence of serving the cause of religion: but they must be ftrangely ftupid, prepoffeffed or infatuated, who cannot difcern that they are defigned for a very different purpose.

WE may affure ourselves, that all pretended zeal for religion, which breaks out into perfecution or other acts of violence, proceeds from temporal views of gratifying mens pride, covetoufnefs, ambition, &c. or from an outrageous, cruel, and wicked temper of mind.

CERTAIN Wretches, without religion, morality, or common honefty, have invented or propagated a number of fabulous tales and abfurd

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