The History of Persecution. From the Patriarchal Age to the Reign of George II

Of the crimes cognizable by the Inquisition, and the punishment annexed to them.

The first and principal crime is heresy. Three things are required to make any one properly an heretic. 1. That he hath been baptized. 2. That he err in his understanding in matters relating to the faith, i. e. differ in those points which are determined by a general council, or the pope, as necessary to be believed, or enjoined as an apostolic tradition. 3. Obstinacy of will; as when any one persists in his error, after being informed by a judge of the faith that the opinion he holds is contrary to the determination of the church, and will not renounce it at the command of such a judge, by abjuring it, and giving suitable satisfaction. This crime is so widely extended by the doctors of the Romish church, that they esteem every thing as heresy, that is contrary to any received opinion in the church, though it be merely philosophical, and hath no manner of foundation in the scripture.

The punishments ordained against heretics are many, and most grievous. The first is excommunication; by which heretics are driven from the church, and expelled the company of all Christians. The ceremony of it is thus: when the bishop pronounces the anathema, twelve priests stand round him, and hold lighted torches in their hands, which they throw down on the ground, and tread under foot at the conclusion of the excommunication; after which a letter is sent to the proper parishes, containing the names of the excommunicated persons, and the reason of their sentence. Persons thus excommunicated, are deprived of all ecclesiastical benefices and dignities, and are not to receive Christian burial.

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Being excommunicated, all their effects are forfeited, all donations by them are null and void, and even portions paid to children must be revoked, and all legacies to wives forfeited. The treasury of the inquisition devours all. The consequence of this is, that the children of heretics are absolutely disinherited; excepting only when a child accuses his heretical parents. Heretics are also deprived of their natural power over their children, and of that civil power they have over their servants; so that slaves and servants are, ipso facto, freed from servitude the moment their masters fall into heresy. Subjects are also freed from obedience to heretical princes and magistrates, and absolved from their oaths of allegiance. In a word, heretics lose all right and property in every thing that they have. Hence proceeds the maxim, “that faith is not to be kept with heretics,” because it ought never to be given them; and because the keeping it is against the public good, the salvation of souls, and contrary, as they say, to the laws of God and man. Farther, all places of refuge, which are open to malefactors, and the worst of villains, are denied to heretics. Another punishment is imprisonment; or if they cannot be apprehended, they are put under the ban; so that any one, by his own private authority, may seize, plunder, and kill him as an enemy, or robber. The last penalty is death, the most terrible one that can be inflicted, viz. the being burnt to death. Such as are obstinate and impenitent, are to be burnt alive; others are to be first strangled, and then burnt.

Heretics are distinguished into open and secret. Open heretics are such, who publicly avow somewhat contrary to the Catholic faith, or which is condemned as such by the sentence of the inquisitors. Secret heretics are such who err in their mind, but have not shewn it outwardly by word or deed; and these are excommunicated ipso jure; or who by word or writing have discovered the heresy of their heart with secrecy and craft; and such are liable to all the punishments of heretics.

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Again, heretics are either affirmative or negative. Affirmative heretics are such who err in their minds as to matters of faith; and who by word or deed shew that they are obstinate in their wills, and openly confess it before the inquisitor. Negative heretics are such, who being according to the laws of the inquisition convicted of some heresy before an inquisitor, yet will not confess it; constantly declaring that they profess the Catholic faith, and detest heretical pravity; or who owning heretical words or actions, deny the heretical intention; or who refuse to discover all their accomplices. Such are generally put to the torture.

Again, heretics are either impenitent or penitent. An impenitent is one who, being convicted of heresy, or having confessed it before an inquisitor, will not obey his judge, when he commands him to forsake his heresy and abjure it, but obstinately perseveres in his error; or who having confessed through fear of punishment, yet afterwards asserts his innocence, or doth not observe the penance enjoined him. Penitents are those who, being admonished by the inquisitor, abjure their error, and give suitable satisfaction, as the bishop or inquisitor enjoins them; either of their own accord, or upon any particular inquisition made after them. Such who return of their own accord, are treated with greater mildness; but the other enjoined a very severe penance. But they will by no means receive such who do not return till after frequent admonition, or till fear of death; or who endeavour any ways to persuade others to heresy, especially kings and queens, or the sons and daughters of princes.

Next to heretics are the believers of heretics, and such who receive, defend, and favour them; who by word or deed declare their belief of an heretic’s error, who knowingly take them into their houses and other places, and thus conceal them from the hands of the church, or give them notice to make their escape, or vindicate them on their trial, or hinder the procedure of the office of the inquisition; or 

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who, being magistrates, refuse to extirpate them, or to apprehend and keep them in custody, or to punish them when given over to them by the inquisitors; or who being prelates or inquisitors, neglect to have safe prisons, and faithful jailkeepers, or to apprehend, torture, or punish heretics. These, ipso facto, incur excommunication; and if they remain under it a year, are to be punished as heretics. And finally, such who visit them privately, whilst in custody, and whisper with them, and give them food; or who lament their apprehension or death, or who complain they are unjustly condemned, or who look with a bitter countenance on their prosecutors, or who gather up the bones of heretics after they are burnt; these are all favourers of heresy, and are ipso jure excommunicated.

Such also who hinder the office of the inquisition are subject to this tribunal. This may be done by rescuing persons taken up for heresy from prison, or by wounding any of the witnesses against them; or by using threatenings, and terrifying words; or by hindering process, judgment, or sentence; or if a temporal lord ordains that no one shall take cognizance of heresy but himself, and that no one shall be accused but before his tribunal, nor any bear arms but those of his own household. The punishment of this is excommunication; which, if they continue under a year, they must either abjure, or be delivered over as heretics to the secular arm. Sometimes their whole dominions are put under interdict, and given to him who can first conquer them.

Yea, they extend this affair sometimes so far, that all manner of offences committed against any one that belongs to the inquisitors, though they have no relation to the faith, are punished in the same manner as though the office of the inquisition had been hindered by them, or the inquisitor himself had received some grievous injury. Reginald Gonsalvius[259] gives us a remarkable instance of this, which 

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happened in the former age at Seville. The bishop of Terragone, chief inquisitor at Seville, went one summer for his diversion to some pleasant gardens situate by the sea side, with all his inquisitory family, and walked out, according to his custom, with his episcopal attendance. A child of the gardener, two or three years old at most, accidentally sat playing upon the side of a pond in the garden, where my lord bishop was taking his pleasure. One of the boys that attended his lordship, snatched out of the hand of the gardener’s child a reed, with which he was playing, and made him cry. The gardener hearing his child, comes to the place; and when he found out the occasion of his crying, was angry, and bad the inquisitor’s servant restore the reed to him. And upon his refusal, and insolently contemning the countryman, he snatched it away; and as the boy held it fast, the gardener slightly hurt his hand by the sharp husk of the reed, in pulling it from him. The wound was far from being mortal, or from endangering the loss of any part, and so could not deserve a severe punishment. It was no more than a scratch of the skin, a mere childish wound, as one may imagine by the cause of it. However, the inquisitor’s boy came to his master, who was walking near the place, to complain about his wound; upon which the inquisitor orders the gardener to be taken up, and thrown into the inquisitory jail, and kept him there for nine months in very heavy irons; by which he received such damage in his circumstances, which were at best but mean, as the poor man could not easily recover; his children and wife, in the mean while, being ready to perish for hunger; and all because he did not pay deference enough to the inquisitor’s boy, as a member of the holy tribunal. At nine months end they dismissed him from jail, and would have persuaded him that they dealt much more mercifully with him than his crime deserved.

Again, there are other persons who are only suspected of heresy. This suspicion is threefold; light, vehement, or violent. A light suspicion arises from a person’s frequenting 

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conventicles, and in his behaviour differing from the common conversation of the faithful. A vehement suspicion of heresy, is a person’s not appearing when called to answer upon any article of the faith; hindering the inquisition, giving council or assistance to heretics; or advising them to conceal the truth, or who knowingly accompany, visit, or receive them; or who are convicted of perjury or lying, in a cause of the faith; or who give ecclesiastical burial to heretics, or their favourers, or bury them in church yards with psalms and prayers; or who preserve the ashes, bones, garments, and the like, of buried heretics; or who think ill of some doctrine or order of the church, such as the power of the pope, the religion of the monks, the rites of the sacrament, and the like; or who persist in their excommunication for two years; such persons give such suspicions as are sufficient to put them to the torture. A violent suspicion arises from such external words and actions by which it may be effectually, and almost always concluded, that he who says or doth them is an heretic; such as the receiving the communion from heretics, and the like. Of these different kinds of suspicions the punishment is different. A person lightly suspected is enjoined canonical purgation, or may be made to abjure. One vehemently suspected may be commanded a general abjuration of all heresies; after which, if he relapses into his former heresy, or associates with, and favours heretics, he is delivered over to the secular power as a relapse. One violently suspected, is to be condemned as an heretic. If he confesses and abjures, he may be admitted to penance; but if he doth not confess, and will not abjure, he is to be delivered over to the secular court, and burnt.

And as some persons are suspected, others are defamed for heresy; such who are spoken against by common report, or such against whom there is legal proof before a bishop that they are spoken against upon account of heresy. And to this two witnesses suffice, though they have had their information from different persons, and though they do not 

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agree as to time and place, and the causes of their knowledge; and though the person accused as defamed, can prove himself to be of good reputation. The punishment of one thus defamed is canonical purgation, and some other ordinary penalty.