mouth the recital of the divine praises. And after having properly chastised and subdued him with fasting, they give him the Precious Body of the Lord, and refresh him with the Holy Blood, and when they have made him once more a vessel of election, and freed him from sin, they send him forth pure and guiltless to the Lord."* Capital punishment was never decreed, or inflicted, except by the civil authority. The sentence of the Inquisition in the worst cases was to abandon the convict to the civil power, which was accompanied by a recommendation of mercy. This abandonment was made with a knowledge that the laws enjoined death for the crime, but the expres sion of the ecclesiastical judge was intended to show the reluctance with which the Church beholds the shedding of human blood, according to the known maxim: Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine. The sentence of perpetual imprisonment was reduced to three years in favor of penitents. When the sentence excluded the hope of pardon, absque spe gratiæ, it was still limited to eight years on repentance. The Knights Templars sought to be tried by the Inquisition, in the confidence of escaping condemnation, or, at least, death, as De Maistre remarks ‡ yet Puigblanch lays their death to the charge of this tribunal."§ The sentence was not hastily put into execution. Every effort was made to recall the unfortunate culprit to the principles of faith : months and years were suffered to roll round, in the hope that grace would at length touch his heart, and dispose him by faith and penitence for pardon. In the Roman Inquisition, Anthony Maria Leoni was condemned for propagating the licentious principles of Molinos, veiled in professsons of piety. For two months he remained obstinate, but at the end of that time retracted his errors, and obtained pardon. Jerom Vecchietti continued for five years obstinate in his errors, and was then restored to his friends, on some appearance of weakness of mind. It should be known that crimes against faith declared capital by the laws were punished with death only in circumstances of the most aggravated character. To deny the Most adorable Trinity, to blaspheme the virginity of the Mother of our Lord, or the Holy Eucharist, were capital crimes, but scarcely ever punished with that rigor,|| the object of the law being attained by deterring from the crime by a penalty which might be inflicted. Cardinal Albici testifies that most horrid *Conc. Hard. t. iv. p. 15. This is admitted by Puigblanch, Inquisition Unmasked ch. i. p. 26. Della punizione degli Eretici p. 160. outrages against the Eucharist received pardon on proper evidence of repentance.* The number of persons who have suffered death in consequence of conviction before the Inquisition, although not by the act of its officers, cannot be ascertained, no more than the number of convicts who have suffered by the sentence of any criminal tribunal: but if we advert to the acknowledgment of Llorente that its severity abated in the fourteenth century, we may hope that the number of those who suffered is far less than a tithe of what has been alleged. Capital punishment was not inflicted, when the Inquisition was first established in Spain, the highest penalty being confiscation of property.† Don Melchor de Macanaz, a statesman high in the service of Philip V. who had incurred the disgrace of his sovereign, and had fallen under the censure of the Inquisition, after he had recovered favor, wrote a book styled "a critical defence of the Inquisition," in which "he says that it was not usual to confiscate the property of culprits unless they had relapsed, that they were not delivered over to the secular magistrate till they had thrice fallen into heresy; that then alone was the torture inflicted upon them, and this after condemnation; adding that it is a calumny to attribute to the tribunal the stratagem of sifting out the truth of their crimes by means of another person converted, and still feigning that he is a heretic. He also affirms that, with the exception of very few cases intended to stop the progress of Lutheranism in the reign of Philip II., scarcely three persons had been sentenced." Puigblanch endeavors to weaken this assertion by referring to the auto de fe under Charles II., but the number of criminals actually executed at that time was small, and a long space of time had elapsed since any like act had occurred. It is a great mistake to speak of these acts as ordinary occurrences, since they were separated oftentimes by intervals of many years. No capital punishment has taken place under the Spanish Inquisition since the year 1783,|| or under the Portuguese tribunal for more than a century. Gross crimes against nature and morals, which are elsewhere cognizable before civil tribunals, fell under the cognizance of the Inquisition. Polygamy was punished with the gallies for five or more years. If it was connected with formal heresy it was liable to capital punishment. Witches, who to superstition added the murder of infants, and a number of convicts, who would De Inconst. in fide cap. 34, n. 135. † Informe sobre el tribunal de la Inquisicion, apud De Maistre let. i. P. Journal de l'empire, 19 April, 1809. 26. have suffered death by the laws of every civilized country, are included among the sufferers. St. Peter Arbues, holding the officer of Inquisitor, was assassinated in the Metropolitan Church of Saragossa, at matins, on the 15th September, 1485. The indignation of the people against the Jews, accused of his death, was such that a general massacre might have ensued, had not the archbishop on the following day rode through the city, assuring them that the Inquisition would bring the assassins to justice.* Two were afterwards found guilty, and handed over to the civil authority. "Carena relates from Farinacius, that a certain prisoner in the holy office was hanged for killing his keeper, in order to make his escape. He adds that at Cremona, an. 1614, a certain Jew was hanged for killing another Jew who had deposed against him in the holy office."+ All these and numberless other criminals liable to death by all laws are included among the victims of the Inquisition. It is just to take into consideration the outrages and civil wars which have been prevented by the Inquisition. Spain and Italy would have been most probably convulsed, as Germany and France were in the sixteenth century, by religious dissensions, but for the vigilance of the Inquisitors. Thousands might have fallen in the fierce struggle, for one who was sent to the stake in consequence of conviction by this tribunal. The prevention of calamities the most direful cannot, indeed, justify a law which creates an imaginary offence: but heresy was not in former ages a mere error of the mind: it was often manifested in attempts against property and life, and the whole order of society. With this legislation, however, we are not concerned. A milder system prevails every where at this time, and meets the cordial support of Catholics, who willingly leave to God the judgment of all, and rejoice in exercising towards all, without distinction, the most sincere charity. The same unbounded charity is manifested by the successor of St. Peter, who in his capital and palace receives with kindness and condescension those who deny his authority, as well as those who kneel to do him homage. Why should the severity of former ages, exercised for the most part against the enemies of public order, which has long since been retaliated on us with large increase, be made a subject of reproach to us, and an occasion of division between us, and those whom we are anxious to embrace with the warmth of Christian affection? The general spirit of the Apostolic See is admirably expressed by St. Leo: "Since the ways of the Lord are meekness and truth, we are * Llorente, Memoria Historica p. 107. † Limborch, History of the Inquisition 1. iii. ch. x. p. 56. forced," he says "according to the indulgence of the Apostolic See, to temper our sentence in such a way, as, weighing the offences, which are not all of the same gravity, to tolerate some, and to cut off others without delay." When Anastasius, bishop of Thessalonica, Vicar Apostolic throughout Illyricum, had acted with severity towards Atticus, metropolitan of Epirus, the Pope rebuked him most sharply, and reminded him of the many admonitions given by himself and his predecessors to their Vicars to temper the exercise of authority, and reproached him with betraying the honor of the Holy See. "Benevolence has more influence," he observes, "on delinquents, than severity: exhortation is better than indignation: affection is more powerful than authority." "The moderation of the apostolic see," says he when writing to the Empress Pulcheria concerning Eutyches, "observes this measure, to treat the obdurate with severity, and to extend pardon to the penitent." These various passages have no reference whatever to temporal inflictions, but they shew the moderation constantly observed by the Holy See in the use of canonical censures. In regard to the Inquisition the Popes are fairly responsible for its origin and organization as an ecclesiastical tribunal, and they may be considered as approving the civil jurisprudence of their age, by which heresy was declared a capital crime: but they are entitled to the praise of all that is just in the mode of proceedings, and of the traits of mercy which peculiarly distinguish it. It must be evident to the impartial inquirer that all the regulations were directed to the discovery of the facts, and to the conversion of the culprit. Doubtless just and holy men, such as St. Joseph Calasanctius, Father D'Avila, and others, have occasionally incurred unjust suspicions, and been subject to molestation from the officers of this tribunal. It is also alleged to have been made in many instances an instrument of royal oppression. But, as far as the Popes could influence its proceedings, it was directed to justice. Its forms were different from ordinary tribunals: its operation may have been often unjust and cruel: but the solicitude of the Pontiffs was displayed in putting many safeguards against abuse, and in their prompt interposition, whenever the cry of the sufferer could reach them. Sixtus IV. directed a Bull to Ferdinand and Isabella, communicating the complaints which had been made of the conduct of some Inquisitors, and declared that the Apostolic See being the safest asylum for * Ep. xii. ad episcopos Africanos prov. Maurit. Cæsar. † Ep. xiv. ad Anastasium ep. Thessalonic. Ep. xxxi. ad Pulcheriam Augustam. * the oppressed in every part of the globe, could not be insensible to their lamentations. In 1489, he deposed Father Christopher Galvez, inquisitor of Valencia.† I abandon to the censure of the age the principle on which the Inquisition was based, namely that heresy is a crime against society, punishable by civil penalties, and even by death; but I maintain that the Popes, who sanctioned this tribunal, whilst seeking to extirpate heresy, did not urge the indiscriminate infliction of those penalties, but chiefly proposed to allure to conversion by the proffer of pardon. This was made to the self-accuser-it was extended to the culprit, if he acknowledged his error, and abjured it before the process advanced-it was indulged to the convict, when he humbled himself and manifested penitence. Even on the way to execution, justice could still be disarmed. Whilst preparing for the auto de fe, celebrated at Madrid, in 1680, before Charless II., the Inquisitors sat up all night, endeavoring to convert the convicts, two of whom, on their way to execution, professed conversion, and escaped death. "In case any of the persons convicted of contumacy might wish to be converted, the court remained sitting the whole night, to give them hearing, and in fact two women were converted." The mercy of the Inquisition to penitent convicts, is without parallel in any other tribunal. The general esteem in which the tribunal was held, does not suffer us to suppose that it was generally unjust or cruel. "In Spain and Portugal," says Limborch, "most persons are fully persuaded of the sanctity and sincerity of this tribunal." It was deemed a high honor to be numbered among its familiars, or bailiffs. The people looked up to it with reverence, and were ready to support its officers in the execution of their duty. "As soon as ever the Executor shews, that he is to apprehend any one by command of the holy office, no one dares oppose him. And if any one should, the mob would immediately run together to lend a helping hand to the holy office, and so overpower him, that unless he would undergo the severest treatment, he would, of his own accord, offer himself to be taken up by the Executor."T * 66 1482. Oppressorum ubique tutissimum refugium." Bulla Sixti iv. 29 Jan. † Inquisition Unmasked vol. ii. ch. vi. p. 237. Ibid. ch. iv. p. 316. § History of the Inquisition 1. ii. ch. xviii. p. 242. Ibidem ch. ix. p. 187. Ibidem l. iii. ch. xii. p. 249. |