A REVIEW OF SUNDAY LEGISLATION IN CENTURY NINETEEN. NO. 7.
BY PROF. P. T. MAGAN.
THE INQUISITION (CONCLUDED).
I HAVE now written at some length upon the iniquitous motives which lay behind the establishment of the Inquisition; and I have also shown what trivial and accidental circumstances were accepted as capital evidence against an accused Jew by that nefarious tribunal. It will, therefore, be now in place to expose some of its secret workings, and to relate how its victims were accused, condemned, and tortured.
To presume the innocence of the prisoner until his guilt has been established is an axiom of justice, by all true jurists accepted. The Inquisition, however, instead of granting to the prisoner "the protection afforded by every other judicature, and especially demanded in his forlorn situation," acted upon the opposite principle, and "used the most insidious arts to circumvent and surround" all who came within its fearful grasp. Says Prescott:—
The accused, . . . whose mysterious disappearance was perhaps the only public evidence of his arrest, was conveyed to the secret chambers of the Inquisition, where he was jealously excluded from intercourse with all, save a priest of the Romish Church and his jailer, both of whom might be regarded as the spies of the tribunal. In this desolate condition the unfortunate man, cut off from external communication and all cheering sympathy or support, was kept for some time in ignorance even of the nature of the charges preferred against him, and at length, instead of the original process, was favored only with extracts from the depositions of the witnesses, so garbled as to conceal every possible clue of their name and quality. With still greater unfairness, no mention whatever was made of such testimony as had arisen in the course of the examination in his own favor. Counsel was indeed allowed him from a list presented by his judges. But this privilege availed little, since the parties were not permitted to confer together, and the advocate was furnished with no other information than what had been granted to his client. To add to the injustice of these proceedings, every discrepancy in the statements of the witnesses was converted into a separate charge against the prisoner, who thus, instead of one crime, stood accused of several. This, taken in connection with the concealment of time, place, and circumstance in the accusations, created such embarrassment that, unless the accused was possessed of unusual acuteness and presence of mind, it was sure to involve him, in his attempt to explain, in inextricable contradiction.
If the prisoner refused to confess his guilt, or, as was usual, was suspected of evasion, or an attempt to conceal the truth, he was subjected to the torture. This, which was administered in the deepest vaults of the Inquisition, where the cries of the victim could fall on no ear save that of his tormentors, is admitted by the secretary of the holy office, who has furnished the most authentic report of its transactions, not to have been exaggerated in any of the numerous narratives which have dragged these subterranean horrors into light. If the intensity of pain extorted a confession from the sufferer, he was expected, if he survived, to confirm it on the next day. Should he refuse to do this, his mutilated members were condemned to a repetition of the same sufferings, until his obstinacy (it should rather have been termed his heroism) might be vanquished.
By a subsequent regulation of Philip II. the repetition of torture in the same process was strictly prohibited to the inquisitors. But they, making use of a sophism worthy of the arch-fiend himself, contrived to evade this law, by pretending, after each new application of punishment, that they had only suspended and not terminated the torture.
Should the rack, however, prove ineffectual to force a confession of his guilt, he was so far from being considered as having established his innocence that, with a barbarity unknown to any tribunal where the torture has been admitted, and which of itself proves its utter incompetency to the ends it proposes, he was not unfrequently convicted on the depositions of the witnesses. At the conclusion of his mock trial the prisoner was again returned to his dungeon, where, without the blaze of a single fagot to dispel the cold or illuminate the darkness of the long winter night, he was left in unbroken silence to await the doom which was to consign him to an ignominious death, or a life scarcely less ignominious.
Such are a few of the tender mercies of the Inquisition, that most fearful engine of tyranny worked by her whose name is given in Holy Writ as "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." From the preceding description who can doubt but that Omnipotence hath judged of her character well, and named her accordingly. Yet all of this is the religion of the people of the United States, according to the Supreme Court. As we said before, we say again, we do not agree with the Court; but yet we know that now, since the bargain has been struck between the two (the Church and the State), the country is doomed to come most completely under Rome's control. We never expect that the contract will be annulled. God has protested, he has protested through his servants, by means of voice and pen. The conflict between the powers of darkness and the powers of light is even now being waged, and is only to be ended by the ruin of the United States and of the world, and the setting up of the everlasting kingdom of God, when the "kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." But I am wandering from the theme of my paper into a realm toward which it is designed to point the way, but where at this stage of its development it is forbidden to enter.
To add to the discomfiture of the victims, the three papists who sat as judges in the inquisitorial courts were almost invariably chosen from the most ignorant. Says Puighblanch:—
Even the common people, amidst the illusion in which they lived under the yoke of this tribunal, at length became sensible of the great ignorance which prevailed in its dark conclaves. This is proved by the following saying, to be met in the mouths of everyone:—
Question—What constituted the Inquisition?
Answer—One crucifix, two candlesticks, and three blockheads, alluding to the form and parade of its sittings, and the number of judges present thereat.
The culprit was obliged to declare his whole genealogy and descent, and to state whether any of his ancestors, in a direct or transversal line, or his brothers, wife, children, or, indeed, himself, had at any time previously been arraigned before the tribunal, and penanced by it.149The object of all this was to obtain possession of the property he might have inherited, by declaring the right of succession null and void.
There were three kinds of torture generally used by the Inquisition, viz., the pulley, the rack, and the fire. The apartment in which these were inflicted was underground, and was called the hall of torture.
The first of these three modes of punishment was inflicted by fastening a pulley, with a rope passed through it, to the roof. The executioners would then seize the culprit, shackle his feet together, and suspend weights of one hundred pounds to his ankles. His hands were bound behind his back, and the rope from the pulley fastened to his wrists. He was then raised about six feet from the ground, then twelve stripes were inflicted upon him. After this he was let down with a run, but checked just before either his feet or the weights should touch the floor, in order to render the shock to his body greater.
The torture of the rack, also called that of water and ropes, was a common one. The victim, divested of his clothing, was stretched on his back along a hollow bench with sticks across like a ladder, and prepared for the purpose. To this his head, hands, and feet were bound so tightly that he could not move. In this position he experienced eight strong contortions in his limbs, viz., two on the fleshy parts of the arm above the elbow, and two below, one on each thigh, and also on the legs. Sometimes also his face was covered with a thin piece of linen, through which seven pints of water ran into his mouth and nostrils, preventing him from breathing.
But the torture by fire was the most revolting of all. The prisoner was placed with his legs naked in the stocks, the soles of his feet were then well greased with lard, and a "blazing chafing dish applied to them, by the heat of which they became perfectly fried."
But enough of this sickening picture. These are a few of the tortures which Rome has used, and these refinements of cruelty or others equal to them she proposes to use again, and in the United States, too; she has a right to, of course, since the Supreme Court saw fit to deed the nation over to her. And this, too, God has foretold. Here it is:—
God's word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures, in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is.
This was first predicted and published to the world, as far as the author is aware, in 1886. Ever since that time, and, indeed, from before that time, Seventh-day Adventists have been warning the United States and the world of the designs of Rome. To how great an extent these warnings have been received, He who searcheth the hearts of men, alone can tell. But we do know that they have not been received by all who have heard them, and we do also know that they will not be received by nearly all who will hear them. They are, nevertheless, none the less true, as the "Protestant world will learn when it is too late." And we would rather be found on the side of the word of God than be numbered with the throngs of earth. Thus saith Jehovah: "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil; neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after many to wrest judgment."
Of the company who heed this command it is that the prophet speaks and says: "All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed." And to all who are not now of us, but whom God is calling to "come out" and be of us, we extend the invitation of Zechariah, bidding them make it true in their cases: "Thus saith the Lord of Hosts: In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you; for we have heard that God is with you." There are "multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the great day of the Lord is near." Now is the time to decide to leave the valley and ascend the mountain of the Lord.