The court of inquisition, which, although it was not the parent, has been the nurse and guardian of ignorance and superstition in every kingdom into which it has been admitted, was introduced into Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella, and was principally intended to prevent the relapse of the Jews and Moors, who had been converted, or who pretended to be converted, to the faith of the Church of Rome. Its jurisdiction, however, was not confined to the Jews and Moors, but extended to all those who in their practice or opinions differed from the established church. In the united kingdoms of Castille and Arragon, there were eighteen different inquisitorial courts, having each of them its counsellors, termed apostolical inquisitors; its secretaries, serjeants, and other officers; and besides these there were twenty thousand familiars dispersed throughout the kingdom, who acted as spies and informers, and were employed to apprehend all suspected persons, and to commit them for trial, to the prisons which belonged to the inquisition. By these familiars persons were seized on bare suspicion, and in contradiction to the established rules of equity, they were put to the torture, tried and condemned by the inquisitors, without being confronted, either with their accusers, or with the witnesses on whose evidence they were condemned, The punishments inflicted were more or less dreadful, according to the caprice and humour of the judges. The unhappy victims were either strangled or committed to the flames, or loaded with chains, and shut up in dungeons during life-their effects confiscated, and their families stigmatized with infamy.

This institution was, no doubt, well calculated to produce an uniformity of religious profession, but it had a tendency also to destroy the sweets of social life; to banish all freedom of thought and speech; to disturb men's minds with the most disquieting apprehensions, and to produce the most intolerable slavery, by reducing persons of all ranks in life to a state of abject dependence upon priests; whose integrity were it even greater than that of other men, as in every false profession of religion it is less, must have been corrupted by the uncontrolled authority which they were allowed to exer

cise. By this tribunal a visible change was wrought in the temper of the people, and reserve, distrust, and jealousy became the distinguishing characteristicts of a Spaniard. it confirmed and perpetuated the reign of ignorance and superstition; inflamed the rage of religious bigotry, and by the cruel spectacles to which, in the execution of its decrees, it familiarized the people, it nourished in them that ferocious spirit, which in the Netherlands and America they manifested by deeds that have fixed an indelible reproach upon the Spanish name.

Authors of undoubted credit affirm, and without the least exaggeration, that millions of persons have been ruined by this horrible court. Moors were banished, a million at a time. Six or eight hundred thousand Jews were driven away at once, and their immense riches seized by their accusers, and distributed among their persecutors, while thousands dissembled, and professed themselves Christians only to be harrassed in future. Heretics of all ranks and of various denominations were imprisoned and burnt, or fled into other countries. The gloom of despotism overshadowed all Spain. The people at first reasoned, and rebelled, and murdered the inquisitors—the aged murmured and died—the next generation fluttered and complained, but their successors were completely tamed by education; and the Spaniards are now trained up by the priests to shudder at the thought of thinking for themselves. That honour to his country and of human nature, the late Mr. Howard, says, when he saw the inquisition at Valladolid, "I could not but observe, that even the sight of it struck terror into the common people as they passed. It is styled, he adds, by a monstrous abuse of words, "the holy apostolical court of inquisition.'

A simple narrative of the proceedings of the inquisition has shocked the world, and the cruelty of it has become proverbial. Nothing ever displayed so fully to the eyes of mankind the spirit and temper of the papal religion. “Christians," says Tertullian, "were often called, not Christiani, but Chrestiani, from the gentleness of their manners, and the sweetness of their tempers." Jesus himself was the essence of mildness. His apostles were gentle, even as a

1

nurse that cherisheth her children. But what an awful contrast is exhibited in this horrid court of papal inquisition. Let us hear the description which Voltaire, a very competent witness, gives of it. "Their form of proceeding," says he, ❝is an infallible way to destroy whomsoever 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 no where else, credible accusers and witnesses. Even the son may depose against his father, the wife against her husband." The wretched prisoner is no more made acquainted with his crime than with his accuser. His being told the one might possibly lead him to guess the other. To avoid this, he is compelled, by tedious confinement in a noisome dungeon, where he never sees a face but the jailor's, and is not permitted the use of either books or pen and ink— or should confinement alone not be sufficient, he is compelled, by the most excruciating tortures, to inform against himself, to discover and to confess the charge, of which he is often ignorant. says or historian, "unheard of till the court, makes the whole kingdom tremble. in every breast. Friendship and quietness are at an end. The brother dreads his brother, the father his son. Hence taciturnity is become the characteristic of a nation, endued with all the vivacity natural to the inhabitants of a warm and fruitful climate. To this tribunal we must likewise impute that profound ignorance of sound philosophy in which Spain lies buried, whilst Germany, England, France, and even Italy, have discovered so many truths, and enlarged the sphere of our knowledge. Never is human nature so debased, as where ignorance is armed with power. ""*

crime laid to his "This procedure," institution of this Suspicion reigns

It is but doing justice, however, to many Roman Catholic states, and to thousands of individuals belonging to that church, to say, that they abhor this infernal tribunal, almost as much as Protestants themselves do. This is sufficiently

* Voltaire's General History.

evinced by the tumults which were excited in several parts of Italy, Milan, and Naples in particular, and afterwards in France, as well as in other catholic countries, by the attempts that were made to introduce it at first, and by its actual expulsion from some places, where, to all appearance, it was firmly established. It is, indeed, matter of regret that any among the members of that church should have their minds so enslaved by prejudice, as to imagine for a moment that à despotism which required for its support such diabolical engines, could possibly be of heavenly origin. There is something in the very constitution of this tribunal só monstrously unjust, so exorbitantly cruel, that it must ever excite one's astonishment, that the people of any country should have permitted its existence among them. How they could have the inconsistency to acknowledge a power to be from God which has found it necessary to recur to expedients so manifestly from hell, so subversive of every principle of sound morality and religion, can be regarded only as one of those contradictions, for which human characters, both in individuals and nations, are often so remarkable. The wisdom that is from above is pure, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. But the policy of Rome, as displayed in the inquisition, is so strikingly characterized by that wisdom which is earthly, sensual, and devilish, that the person who needs to be convinced of it, seems to be altogether beyond the power of argument. Never were two systems more diametrically opposed in their spirit, their maxims, and effects, than primitive Christianity, and the religion of modern Rome; nor do heaven and hell, Christ and Belial, exhibit to our view a more glaring contrast.

SECTION VI.

History of the persecutions of the Albigenses in France, during the thirteenth century.

THE flight of Peter Waldo from Lyons, and the conse quent dispersion of his flock throughout the south of France, took place in the year 1163. As nothing lay nearer the hearts of the Popes, than an anxious desire to crush in its infancy every doctrine that opposed their exorbitant power, they were seldom remiss in adopting such measures as appeared to them best calculated for promoting that favourite object. Accordingly we find that in the same year (1163) a synod was convened at Tours, a city of France, at which all the bishops and priests in the country of Toulouse, were strictly enjoined "to take care, and to forbid, under pain of excommunication, every person from presuming to give reception, or the least assistance to the followers of this heresy; to have no dealings with them in buying or selling, that thus being deprived of the common necessaries of life, they might be compelled to repent of the evil of their way." And further, that "whosoever should dare to contravene this order, should be excommunicated as a partner with them in their guilt." And lastly, that, "as many of them as could be found, should be imprisoned by the catholic princes, and punished with the forfeiture of all their substance.*

It is very natural to suppose that these cruel precautionary proceedings, if followed up with much rigour, must drive the friends of Waldo to seek an asylum in more hospitable climes; and, of course, many of them took refuge in the vallies of Piedmont, while others proceeded to Bohemia, and not a few migrated into Spain. Hence, in the year 1194, in · consequence of some of the Waldenses coming into the province of Arragon, King Ildefonsus issued a severe and bloody edict, by which "he banished them from his kingdom and all his dominions, as enemies of the cross of Christ,

* Baronius's Annals, sect. 18. n, 4. quoted in Limborch, ch. ix.