Historical Department

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Mar 19, 1867

Historical Department.

Prophecy is History in Advance.

THE INQUISITION.

The prominence given on the prophetic page to that Antichristian abomination, the Papacy, renders of more than ordinary interest any information concerning that huge system of iniquity. The following sketch of the Inquisition, the climax of all its nefarious schemes by which it has shed the blood of the meek and humble followers of Jesus, gives a concise and thrilling view of the character and workings of that infernal institution. And what will be of special interest to Seventh-day Adventists, is the fact that this institution was devised and put in operation against the Waldenses, who, we have good reasons for believing, were observers of the Lord’s Sabbath. See History of the Sabbath, pp. 296-303. Thus the little horn, the Man of Sin, who has sought to raise himself above all that is called God, and to change his times and laws, is ever found directing his most hellish rage against those who firmly adhere to the unchanged and unchangeable requirements of the Most High. We find this sketch in a work entitled, “The Great Red Dragon,” by A. Gavin, formerly one of the Roman Catholic priests of Saragossa, Spain, pp. 400-404.

This tribunal, the most infamous by which the history of the world has been disgraced, was instituted in the beginning of the thirteenth century, for the purpose of completing the extermination of heretical pravity from among mankind. Its introduction and establishment constitute the most awful demonstration that could possibly have been given of the apostasy of the Papal church, and a most unequivocal and dreadful proof of her Antichristian character. Anything more abhorrent to justice than the procedure of this tribunal—anything more revolting to humanity than the punishments which it imposed—anything more at war with religion than the spirit which it displayed—anything, in short, more entirely destructive to the peace and the happiness of mankind, than its existence and operation, it is impossible to conceive. It did not seem enough to the profligate ecclesiastics who sought to become masters of the world, that they had imposed restraints upon liberty of thought, and induced an almost universal midnight darkness, and gained the implicit reverence of almost all the princes and the nations of Europe; there seemed to be some formidable institution still wanting in their system of degradation, by which their unhallowed triumph, wheresoever it was not fully achieved, might be completed, and which might seem like some almighty giant standing at the gate of the gloomy edifice which they had reared, and frowning destruction on all by whom it should be assailed. This institution they found in the court of the Inquisition. Organized for the avowed purpose of punishing and exterminating heresy, it came, in the course of a few years, in consequence of the extensive interpretation which that term received, to take cognizance of every thing which the Inquisitors thought proper to regard as a crime. It was heresy, to reject even one tenet which had been sanctioned by the councils or the court of Rome; to read an interdicted book; to be kind to an excommunicated person; to utter an unguarded expression respecting the Papal authority; or even to manifest natural affection to the dearest earthly friend, who had incurred the censure of the church. In consequence of such an extensive interpretation of the crime of heresy, the life of almost every man was put under the power of this most extraordinary tribunal. Soon after the establishment of the Inquisition, positive crime was not necessary in order to bring persons under the cognizance of that ruthless court: it was sufficient to be suspected of heresy, and the slightest degree of suspicion, however destitute of foundation, was enough to involve those to whom it attached, in proceedings which might terminate in their temporal ruin, and their death. Even when no ground for suspicion existed, accusations were basely fabricated, and the innocent and unsuspecting were imprisoned; that their property might be forfeited, and their all sacrificed to the avarice and villainy of the church.

The mode of proceeding which this court adopted in the prosecution of its victims, was not less extraordinary and unjust, than that by which they were brought under its power. Secrecy, dishonest and tyrannical secrecy, under cover of which the most flagrant crimes might be perpetrated, was its peculiar characteristic. The apprehension of the unhappy victims of inquisitorial villainy was not permitted to transpire. Generally, in the dead hour of night this deed of darkness was done; and with so much dexterity was it conducted by the familiars of the holy office, that not only those who lived in the same neighborhood, but even those who were members of the same family, in many instances, knew nothing of it. One striking example of this is mentioned by the historian of the Spanish Inquisition, in case of a father, three sons, and three daughters, who, although they lived together in the same house, were all carried prisoners to the Inquisition, without knowing any thing of one another’s being there, till seven years afterwards, when those who were alive were brought forth to an Auto-da-fe.

Lest any of its infernal secrets might be disclosed, no sounds were permitted to be heard throughout the dismal apartments of the Inquisition. The poor prisoner was not allowed to bewail his fate, or, in an audible voice, offer up his prayers to Him who is the refuge of the oppressed; nay, even to cough was to be guilty of a crime, which was immediately punished. A poor prisoner, we are told by Limborch, was on one occasion heard to cough; the jailors of the Inquisition instantly repaired to him, and warned him to forbear, as the slightest noise was not tolerated in that house. The man replied that it was not in his power to forbear; a second time they admonished him to desist; and when again, the poor man unable to do otherwise had repeated the offense, they stripped him naked, and cruelly beat him. This increased his cough, for which they beat him so often, that at last he died through the pain and anguish of the stripes which he had received!

From the moment that the hapless victims of this dreadful tribunal were arraigned before it, an utter violation of justice characterized every step of the proceedings that were instituted against them. No information was given to the wretched prisoner respecting the crime of which he had been accused. The grand object of the Inquisitors was to make him inform against himself; with his accusers, or the witnesses against him, he was never confronted; nay, he knew not even their names. He was told that the holy fathers never proceeded save on the most unquestionable information; was exhorted to reflect on his past life, and tell ingenuously the sins which he had committed; and was assured that ingenuous confession would procure for him a mitigation of the punishment which his crime might deserve. Rarely were their efforts unsuccessful. By operating successively on their victim’s hopes and fears—now fawning and then frowning—one while affecting to pity, another while uttering dreadful menaces; at one time deluding him with promises of speedy deliverance, at another, threatening racks, and dungeons, and burning flames; or if these methods availed not, by a train of excruciating torments, in the invention of which more than human ingenuity seemed to have been employed, and in the application of which more than human cruelty seemed to have been displayed; and, by tedious confinement in some solitary, noisome, dungeon, where his eye never saw the light of heaven, and no sounds ever fell upon his ear, save the clanking of his fetters, and the stern voice of the man who daily brought him his miserable pittance of bread and water;—in this way did the Inquisition generally bring their unhappy prisoner to accuse himself, to confess crimes of which he was innocent, and thus to become the instrument of his own destruction.

It was against the poor, but memorable people, known by the name of Waldenses, that the operations of this infernal tribunal were first directed. Dwelling in the deep sequestered valleys of the Alps, and greatly unknown and unheeded by the rest of the world, this interesting people preserved for many ages, the purity of Christian worship and Christian manners; and their little region was the scene of light and verdure, while all around it was darkness and desolation. But persecution entered their peaceful retreats. It was not to be brooked by the haughty priests at Rome, that this simple people should remain strangers to the Papal yoke, and be permitted, without interruption, to worship God according to his word, apart from the Roman abominations. In the ears of surrounding princes their atrocious heresy was proclaimed; and it was declared to be more meritorious and pleasing to Heaven, to undertake a crusade against them, than even against the infidel possessors of the Holy Land. Armies were accordingly assembled at the nod of the pontiff; against a people of whom the world was not worthy, was the tempest of their ungodly fury let loose; and the lone valleys of the Waldenses, where the sound of war had never been heard, became the scene of outrage and ruthless devastation. In this truly Antichristian work of extirpating heretics and heresy together, was the Inquisition devised and established to yield its aid—as if the ordinary operations of pontifical vengeance would have too tardily accomplished the annihilation of this weak, unresisting, harmless, people. The detail of its atrocious proceedings in their ill-fated land—of the havoc which it made among the humble disciples of Jesus Christ—of the tortures which it inflicted—and of the martyring flames which it lighted up, will remain in the historian’s page an indelible memorial of its character, and of the monstrous wickedness of the system that gave it birth. Over this devoted and truly Christian people, among whom the truth of God was preserved, when all the surrounding world had forsaken it, did persecuting Rome, after ages of bloodshed and martyrdom, gain a melancholy triumph;—the crossed banners of Popery floated over deserted villages, and the wrecks of conflagrated towns, and the poor remains of the Waldensian church, driven to strange lands, or retired to the mountains and lurking-places of their own beloved land, wept in secret over its sad desolations, and cried to Him who is the refuge of the oppressed, that he would arise and plead his own cause.

In other parts of Europe was this bloody court soon erected, and, that the poor heathen who had never heard of the name of Jesus, might have a specimen of the tender mercies of Christian men, and might be gained over as converts to the Christian faith, its establishment was extended to Pagan lands. Nowhere, however, has its operation been more powerful and terrific than in the kingdom of Spain. Eight hundred persons have been condemned at once by one of its tribunals; and, in the year 1481, the Inquisition of Seville condemned to the flames no fewer than two thousand persons, and nearly twenty thousand more to various inferior degrees of punishment. During hundreds of years, the Inquisition has been the terror of the Spanish people, and has contributed more than any other institution to reduce to the lowest pitch of degradation their national character. ‘Its form of proceeding, is an infallible way to destroy whomever the inquisitors wish. The prisoners are not confronted with the accuser or informer. Nor is there any informer or witness who is not listened to. A public convict, a notorious malefactor, an infamous person, a common prostitute, a child, are, in the holy office, though nowhere else, credible accusers and witnesses. Even the son may depose against his father, and the wife against her husband.

‘This procedure, unheard of till the institution of this court, makes the whole kingdom tremble. Suspicion reigns in every breast. Friendship and quietness are at an end. The brother dreads his brother, the father his son.’

This is the tribunal of the Inquisition!—a tribunal more blasphemous, and dishonoring to the God of Mercy, and our Saviour Jesus Christ, and more awfully degrading to mankind, than any other institution that ever has existed upon earth. Everlasting infamy will rest upon its name; and the execrations of the wise and the good in all ages, will light upon the unhallowed system that gave it birth.