The Inquisition Process
The organization of the Inquisition was simple, yet effective. It did not care to impress the minds of men with magnificence, but rather to paralyze them with terror. The Inquisition was both a place and a process. It now remains that we give an Account of what relates to the Execution of the Inquisitorial Office. This will be a more difficult Task, because, although the Inquisitors are bound to certain Laws, yet many Things are left to their Pleasure. Besides, the very Application of the Laws to particular Cases, which come before the Inquisitors; and also the Method of proceeding and drawing a Confession from the Prisoners, depends very much on their Will.
When the Inquisitor is first constituted by the Pope, he must present himself to the King, or temporal Lord of those Territories, in which the Inquisitor is deputed by the Apostolic See, and exhibit his Apostolic Commission. Then he must demand his Protection for himself, his Colleague, Notary, Servants and their Effects, and his Orders to his Officials to obey the inquisitor in apprehending Heretics, their Believers, Receivers, Defenders, Favorers, and such as are defamed for Heresy.
He requires of them, according to the Law of the Emperor Frederick, that at the Desire of the Inquisitor, or other Catholic Men, they will apprehend Heretics, and when taken, strictly keep them, till being condemned by the Ecclesiastical Censure, they perish with an accursed Death. Finally, he takes an Oath from these Officials for their defending the Church against heretical Pravity, and that they will obey the Inquisitor with all their Might .
After the validation of the Inquisitor’s commission he then makes a general sermon to the public at large at the Cathedral Church. On the Sunday appointed, the Inquisitor makes the general Sermon to the People, in which he speaks concerning the Faith, commends it, and exhorts the People to the Defense of it, and the Extirpation of heretical Pravity. When the Sermon is ended, he admonishes the People, that ’tis their Duty to discover it to the Inquisitor, if they have known any Person that has spoken or done any thing against the Faith, or who holds any Error. *The full text of a typical General Sermon is recorded in the Appendix .
The Obligation to denounce every HERETIC to the INQUISTORS
The Publication of the Edicts of Faith is repeated every Year, and all are obliged, under Penalty of Excommunication, to be present at the publishing of it, and at the general Sermon concerning the Faith, unless they are prevented by Sickness, Age, or any other Hindrance, and can make a legal Excuse.
The Oath which all Persons, not only private, but Magistrates, are compelled by the Inquisitors to take, obliges them not to obstruct the Office the Inquisition, either directly or indirectly. Such are believed to obstruct indirectly, who do not reveal the Truth they know, i.e., do not accuse to the Inquisitor every one they know to be an Heretic, or suspected of Heresy, So that in Spain they are doubly obliged to accuse to the Inquisitor every Heretic, first under Penalty of Excommunication, which they incur if they are wanting in their Duty; and secondly, by their own Oath.
“These Things ought to excite every faithful and Catholic Person, as to engage them willingly to accuse or denounce and bear Witness, for the common Good of the Christian Religion, without the Admonition, Citation, or punishment of the Judge. . . We but secure incomparable Reward through the Bounty of the Supreme God, and the Favor of his holy Church. Nor is there any Regard to Kindred in this Affair. For the Brother is bound under the fame Penalty to accuse his Brother, yea, the Wife her Husband, and the Husband his Wife, if guilty, or suspected of Heresy.”
The Three Methods of beginning the Process before the Tribunal of the INQUISITION
If any appear within the Term assigned to discover Heretics, &c. to reveal to the Inquisitor certain Matters relating to the Faith, such Denunciations must be received judicially. If so great a Number appear, that the Denunciation of all cannot be taken judicially, the Inquisitor must provide himself with a distinct Book in every Diocese, to write down in it all the Denunciations brought to him, the Names of the Denouncers and Witnesses, and the Town and Place where they dwell ; which Book he keeps privately to himself, that the Names of the Denouncers may not be discovered, and they thereby come into any Danger.
Now there are three Ways of Proceeding and beginning the Process. First, by Accusation, which must be preceded by Inscription. Secondly, by Denunciation, which must be preceded by a charitable Admonition. . So that those who, under pretense of brotherly Correction, do not discover secret Heretics to the Inquisitors, and those who advise them not to do it, are punished as Concealers of Heretics, and as Hinderers of the Office of the holy Inquisition. Thirdly, by Inquisition, which must be preceded by notorious Suspicion This is either General or Special.
— There is this difference between a Denunciation and an Accusation. A Denunciation does not disable the Person that makes it to be a Witness, as an Accusation does.
Of the Witnesses, and who are admitted as Witnesses
In the Crime of Heresy any one may be an Accuser, even an Enemy. But it is quite otherwise as to Witnesses themselves, for an Enemy is not admitted as a Witness. Not that every sort of Enmity prevents a Person from being a Witness, but mortal Enmity only. Every sort of Enmity doth indeed somewhat weaken the Weight of the Evidence, but doesn’t entirely overthrow it, unless it be mortal Enmity.
Of the Number of WITNESSES
As to the Number of the Witnesses, ’tis generally believed that two Witnesses are sufficient fully to prove Heresy, and to condemn any one of Heresy. But ’tis necessary they should be worthy of Credit, and, as they say, above all Exception. Hence it is, that though excommunicated persons, and those guilty of the same Crimes, are not absolutely prohibited from being Witnesses against Heretics, their Defenders, Receivers, and all other suspected Persons, yet full Credit is not to be given to them, unless it appears that they speak Truth, from probable Conjectures, the Number and Quality of the Persons, and other Circumstances.
But if any one is convicted by more than two proper Witnesses, and will not confess, some say they must wait for some time, and see if they can find out Witnesses agreeing in all Things; but first the Criminal is to be tortured, that if it can be they may draw the Truth from his Mouth. If he confesses nothing he may be most justly compelled to abjure as one vehemently suspected, or to undergo canonical Purgation, because, in this Case, he cannot be thought to have purged away the Evidence by Torture, since the Proof against him are many and strong.
BUILDINGS AND PRISONS.
These preliminary proceedings were commonly held in the convent of the Order to which the inquisitor belonged, if such there were, or in the episcopal palace if it were a cathedral town. In other cases the church or municipal buildings would afford the necessary accommodation, for the authorities, both lay and clerical, were bound to afford all assistance demanded. While the horrors of the crowded dungeon can scarce be exaggerated, yet more effective for evil and more widely exasperating was the sleepless watchfulness which was ever on the alert to plunder the rich and to wrench from the poor the hard-earned gains on which a family depended for support. It was only in rare cases that the victims dared to raise a cry, and rarer still were those in which that cry was heard; but sufficient instances have reached us to prove what a scourge was the institution, in this aspect alone, on all the populations cursed by its presence.
But in time special buildings were provided, amply furnished with the necessary appliances and dungeons—cells built along the walls and thence known as “murus,” in contradistinction to the “career” or prison—where the unfortunates awaiting sentence were under the immediate supervision of their judge. It was here, for the most part, that the judicial proceedings were carried on, though we occasionally hear of the episcopal palace being used, especially when the bishop was zealous and co-operated with the Inquisition.
The prisons were naturally built with a view to economy of construction and space rather than to the health and comfort of the captives. In fact the papal orders were that they should be constructed of small, dark cells for solitary confinement, only taking care that the “enormis rigor” of the incarceration should not extinguish life. M. Molinier’s description of the Tour de l’Inquisition at Carcassonne, which was used as the inquisitorial prison, shows how literally these instructions were obeyed. It was a horrible place, consisting of small cells, deprived of all light and ventilation, where through long years the miserable inmates endured a living death far worse than the short agony of the stake. In these abodes of despair they were completely at the mercy of the jailers and their servants. Complaints were not listened to; if a prisoner alleged violence or ill-treatment his oath was contemptuously refused, while that of the prison officials was received.
As a means of release from the horrors of these foul dungeons was the excessive mortality caused by their filthy and unventilated squalor. Occasionally, as we have seen, the unfortunate were unlucky enough to live through protracted confinement, and there is one case in which a woman was graciously discharged, with crosses, in view of her having been for thirty-three years in the prison of Toulouse. As a rule, however, we may conclude that the expectation of life was very short. *For additional accounts of the Jails etc., see Appendix.
How the CRIMINALS, when informed against, are sent to Jail
If Inquisition be made against any one, he is imprisoned, if, though the Crime be so small as that Bail may be taken for it, he does not give the necessary Bail.
After ’tis determined that the Criminal shall be sent to Jail, the Inquisitor subscribes an Order for his Apprehension, and gives it to the Executor, who is to take up the Criminal. The Form of the Order is this: “By Command of the Reverend Father X, an Inquisitor of heretical Pravity, let Y be apprehended and committed to the Prisons of the holy Office, and not be released but by the express Order of the said Lord Inquisitor.” This Order must be inserted in the Criminals Process by the Notary, in the very Words in which ’tis given to the Executor. Such Orders are to be given to a trusty Executor, and who knows how faithfully to keep the Secret he is instructed with, because, if the Person to be apprehended should receive any private Information, he would easily escape. When the Criminal is apprehended, he must be well guarded, and if there be Need, put in Irons, and thus carried by the Executor to the Jails of the Inquisition, and delivered into the Hands of the Jail-Keeper. The Keeper must take him into his Custody, and use him according to the Laws made about Prisoners.
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