Church and that God hath given to me more affections to the instructions which are received in it than the greatest part of Christians ordinarily have Consequently I have always taken pleasure both to hear and read And I never read any thing with so much diligence as the Holy Scriptures as well of the Old as of the New Testament which I commonly carry about with me I had also taken care not to be ignorant of the School Divinity because in long Travels there is a necessity of continual conversation with all sorts of People among whom may be found some of all Religions and Sects And I freely disputed with Hereticks and Schismaticks whom I found in my way I carried with me Books fit for this purpose and among others an Abridgment of Divinity writ by Father Don Peter de St. Ioseph Feuillant and I was sufficiently instructed by discourse and reading during my great leisure at Sea and stay which I made in divers places of the Indies I thought my self then in a condition of conversing or even disputing with profest Divines and I fell very innocently into the Snare in talking with this Monk. I lodged with the Dominicans because of those earnest desires which they had made to me and I lived with them with much kindness and familiarity I had served them also upon diverse occasions in acknowledgment of the honour which they did me in desiring my company and in return of the friendship which they testified to me We were ofttimes in dispute and that which I had with the aforesaid Monk was concerning the effects of Baptism We both agreed in the three species of Baptism which the Catholick Church acknowledgeth and it was only in way of discourse not for that I doubted of it that I would deny the effect of that Baptism which they call Flaminis and for to maintain my opinion I alledged that passage Whosoever is not born again of Water and of the Holy Ghost c. Nevertheless I had scarce ended my discourse but the good Father retired himself without answering one word as if he had some pressing business and went according to all appearance to inform against me to the Commissary of the Holy Office. I afterwards discoursed several times with this same Monk and as he testified no coldness towards me I was far from believing he had done to me so bad an Office. I was oftentimes present in the Assemblies where they carry about little Trunks upon which is painted the Image of the Blessed Virgin or that of some other Saint The Portugueze are wont to kiss the Image which is upon this Trunk and those who have Devotion to these Confraternities put their Alms into these Boxes Here it is free to give any thing or not but none can omit kissing the Image without giving scandal to the company I was not then above 24 years old and I had not all the Prudence requisite to a person who liveth among Strangers to whose Customs it is fit to conform as much as may be and as I was not then used to these sorts of Ceremonies I refused ofttimes to take and kiss these Boxes from whence they rashly inferred that I contemned the Images and consequently that I was an Heretick I was with a Portugueze Gentleman on a time when he was about to let his sick Son blood I saw that this young man had in his Bed the Image of the H. Virgin made of Ivory as he loved this Image extremely he kissed it often and addressed his speech to it This way of honouring Images is very ordinary among the Portugueze and it created â—ome reluctance in me because in effect the Hereticks interpreting it ill this hinders them as much as any thing from returning to the Church I said then to this young man that if he did not take heed his Blood would fly upon the Image and he answered me That he could not find in his heart to lay it by I represented to him that this would hinder the Operation Then he reproached me that the French were Hereticks and that they adored not Images To which I answered That I believed we ought to honour them and that if it were permitted to use the word Adore Yet this ought only to be in respect of our Lord Jesus Christ in which case also it were necessary that this Adoration should be referred to Jesus Christ represented by these Images and for this I cited the Council of Trent Session 25. It happened about the same time that one of my Neighbours coming to visit me and seeing a Crucifix upon my Pillow said to me Monsieur remember to cover this Image if by chance you take any Woman into Bed to you and to take heed of it How is it said I that you imagine by this mean to hide your self from the eyes of God Are you of the mind of those debauched Women which are among you who after they have shut their Chaplets and Boxes of Reliques believe they may without any crime abandon themselves to all excess Go Monsieur have more noble thoughts of the Deity and think not that a little Linnen can hide our sins from the eyes of God who seeth even the secrets of our heart In fine what is this Crucifix but a piece of Ivory We stopt there and my Neighbour having withdrawn acquitted himself very well of his pretended duty in going to accuse me to the Commissary of the Inquisition For it is to be known that all persons living in Countrys subject to the jurisdiction of the Holy Office are obliged under pain of the greater Excommunication reserved to the Grand Inquisitor to declare within the space of thirty days all which they have seen to be done or heard to be spoke touching the cases of which that Tribunal takes Cognizance And because many people might slight this punishment or doubt whether they have actually incurred it for to oblige people to obey this Order punctually the Inquisitors will that those who fail in making this Declaration within the time limited by their Constitutions shall be esteemed Guilty and consequently punished as if themselves had committed the Crimes which they did not reveal which causeth that in the matter of the Inquisition Friends betray Friends Fathers their Children and that Children by an indiscreet Zeal forget all the respect which God and Nature oblige them to bear to those who gave them life The obstinacy which I shewed in refusing to wear a Chaplet about my Neck contributed no less to make them believe I was an Heretick than my refusal to kiss the Images but that which served above all the rest as a motive to my imprisonment and my condemnation was that being pressed in company where a discourse was raised concerning the justice of men I said that it much less deserved that name than the name of injustice that men judging not but according to appearances which are too often deceitful were subject to make very unequitable judgments and that
THE HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION As it is Exercised at GOA Written in French by the Ingenious Monsieur Dellon who laboured five years under those severities With an Account of his Deliverance Translated into English. LONDON Printed for Iames Knapton at the Queens-Head in St. Paul's Church-yard MDCLXXXVIII To the Reader THE Reason of offering this Preface to the Reader is only to satisfie the World that these Papers came not abroad with any design of insinuating to the People a probability of the Inquisition being about to be introduced into England It is at present in use but in three places in the World Italy Spain and Portugal and the Countries subject to them The Gallican Church is so far from admitting it that His present Majesty thought fit to give a License for the publishing this Relation and consequently by thus incouraging the publication of the proceedings made use of in the Inquisition shewed his Aversion to them In England there is yet less probability of its being ever Established the Laws of the Land by which His Majesty hath so often promised to govern being a sufficient guard against it and if we should yet require any greater assurances His Majesties repeated Declarations for Liberty of Conscience have already offered them All that remains therefore is to desire the Reader that he would not upon perusing these Papers suffer any such fears and jealousies to grow upon him but â—arely to look them over in order to the satisfying his Curiosity and the informing himself in the Nature and Constitution of this Tribunal to whose Customs and manner of proceedings he was before altogether a Stranger THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER THIS Translation was made from the French Copy Printed by the direction of the Author at Paris by Daniel Horthemels 1688 Octavo with the permission of the King. The Author had intermixed a description of several Islands and Towns in the East Indies and other places of his Travels which because they contained nothing curious or extraordinary in them and did not in the least relate to the Story of the Inquisition I have wholly omitted which might easily be done without any disorder of the History or Mutilation of the Sense since the Author had comprised all his Geographical digressions in distinct Chapters and thereby given a fair opportunity of omitting them I have no more to acquaint the Reader but only that the Author of this Relation was Monsieur Dellon a person well known to the World by his ingenious Writings particularly by his Relation of his Travels into the East Indies Printed at Paris 2 Vol. in Octavo TO Mademoiselle Du Cambout De Coslin Madam I Should be unjust to complain of the Rigours of the Inquisition and the ill usage which I received from her Officers since they have administred to me the subject matter of this Work and thereby afforded me the advantage of Dedicating it to you I should desire Madam to make a just use of so favourable an occasion to have an Eloquence proportionable to my Zeal I would employ it in speaking of so many excellent Qualities wherewith Heaven hath so liberally endued you which render you one of the most aimable Persons of the World and cause you to be already admired by all those who know you In truth there is observed in you a Goodness and Sweetness which Charm a vivacity and penetration of Spirit which surprise a Prudence and Discernment which are not ordinary to Persons of your Age But this Madam deserves our astonishment that you are so accomplished that to create a just Idea of you and make your Elogy in few words it doth not suffice to say that you are the worthy Daughter of two Persons no less Eminent and Illustrious for their Piety than for their Birth and Quality May Heaven grant Madam that your Merit may be fellowed by an uninterrupted Happiness that your Prosperity may surpass even the measure of your Desires and that this Book which I present to you may be scattered into the most remote Provinces not so much to instruct People in what passeth in the Tribunals of the Holy Office as to preserve the memory of your Illustrious name and serve for an Eternel Proof of that profound respect wherewith I am Madam Your most Humble and most Obedient Servant D*** The PREFACE IT is but too ordinary to find Books whose pompous Titles promise much and which deceiving the expectation of the Reader contain nothing less that what is hoped to be found in them In this Book a quite opposite method is observed and those who shall give themselves the trouble to read it will grant that the Title doth but imperfectly express the matter of the Book I have contented my self to describe faithfully what I observed in the Inquisition without insisting to make large Reflections on it and have chose rather to leave to the Readers the liberty of doing that Those who have already any light knowledge of the Holy Office will make no difficulty to believe all which is here related the whole is so far from receiving any exaggeration and how extraordinary soever the Proceedings and Formalities of the Inquisition may appear the Reader may be assured that there is nothing here related which is not exactly true I do not in the least hereby pretend to blame the Inquisition it self I am willing to believe that the Institution of it is good and it is certain that in those places where it first began it is not exercised with so great Severity as in Spain Portugal and the Countreys which depend upon these two Crowns where it is received but as all human Institutions how excellent soever they be are subject to Relaxation and Abuse it is not to be admired if Abuses have crept into the Tribunals of the Holy Office. It is of these Abuses therefore only that I design to complain however the Inquisitors who affect so great Secrecy in whatsoever relates to their Tribunals will perhaps be displeased that I have taken the liberty to expose to the Publick things which it seemed so much their concern to keep concealed But besides that this discovery may if they will make a right use of it be serviceable to them also I thought it my Duty no longer to deprive the Publick of a knowledge which could not but be very useful to it In effect it very much concerns those Persons whose Curiosity or Business shall oblige them to live in those places where the Holy Office exerciseth its Iurisdiction that they be informed of what they ought to avoid or do that they may not fall into the hands of those Officers and thereby undergo a Misfortune like to that which makes the subject of this Relation An Extract of the Priviledge of the King. BY the Grant and Priviledge of the King given at Versailles the 21st day of August 1687. Signed by the King in his Council Poullain it is permitted to the Sieur D*** to cause a Book to be imprinted Intituled
A Relation of the Inquisition of Goa during the time and space of 8 years to be accounted from the day when the first Impression shall be finished And it is forbidden to all Printers Booksellers and others to Print Sell or Divulge the said Book upon pain of the Penalties mentioned in the said Grant. The said Sieur D*** hath yielded and transferred his Right in the present Priviledge to Daniel Horthemels to enjoy it according to the Agreement made between them A RELATION OF THE Inquisition of Goa CHAP. 1. Motives which induced me to publish this Relation ALL the World knows in general what the Inquisition is and that it is Established in certain places as Italy Spain and Portugal and most of the Countrys which depend upon them and that the Judges which possess it exercise with much severity upon the people subject to them a Judicature unheard of to other Tribunals It is moreover known that this Rigour is not every where equal for the Inquisition of Spain is more severe than that of Italy and less severe than that of Portugal and the States depending on it The Maxims of this unheard of Judicature may be found in printed books the examination of those Maxims and the effects of them in diverse occasions but I know none who hath given himself the Liberty to tell us what passeth in the recesses of this Tribunal The Officers of this Judicature are too much interessed in its conservation for to discover the secrets of it and as for those who have had to do with these Magistrates and their inferiour Officers are informed of what is there practised and have had some reason to complain of it The fear of those terrible punishments that are carefully inflicted upon those who shall be convinced not to have kept their Oath of Secrecy which is extorted from them before they are set at Liberty renders the Mysteries of the Inquisition of impenetrable that it is almost impossible ever to learn the truth unless to him who hath the unhappiness to be carried into her Prison and make the experience of them in his own Person Or to yield under so great an Adversity Moreover it is necessary that he who hath been shut up in the horrible Solitudes of the Holy Office should have taken care during his imprisonment diligently to observe what passed and after his enlargement hath the courage to relate without any fear what himself hath learned and experienced These are the reasons that very few persons truly know what passeth in that terrible Tribunal and as after the obligation of rendring to God what we owe to him there is no duty more pressing than that of serving our Neighbour and especially the publick I thought my self obliged to relate what I have suffered and what I observed in the Prisons of the Inquisition at Goa adding to it what I learned from cerdible persons whom I knew familiarly during the time of my imprisonment and after my enlargement I doubted a long time whether I ought to publish this Relation for it is more than eight years since I returned into France and it is more than four since this Relation was writ I feared to scandalize the Holy Office and violate my Oath and this fear was confirmed in me by Pious but timerous Persons who were of the same Opinion as my self but other persons no less Pious and who seemed to me more Rational at last convinced me that it concerned the Publick upon many accounts to know this Tribunal well that this Relation might be useful even to the Ministers of the Holy Office if they knew how to profit by it and much more to those who have a right to regulate the proceedings and limit the jurisdiction of it And as for the Oath of Secrecy so unjustly extorted as that is which the Inquisition extorteth under pain of burning the publick good sufficiently dispenseth with it for to set at liberty the Conscience of him who took it and consequently puts him into a kind of obligation to relate what he knoweth See the Reasons which hindred me from publishing this Relation before and those which now engage me to publish it at present if the delay of it hath deprived the Publick of an useful knowledge at least it will serve to assure me that I have precipiated nothing and that the resentment of those ill treatments which I suffered had no share in this account In fine what I here say of the Inquisition of Goa is to be understood of those also of Portugal and Spain for although this last be less cruel than the other two upon this account that those publick Executions which they call Acts of Faith are here less frequent and that there is a greater ignorance in the Indies than in Portugal we see nevertheless by the Relation which the Gazette of France giveth the 12th of August 1680. that the same Spirit the same Rules and the same Rigour reign in all the Executions of the Inquisition in all these Countries forasmuch as there is even in the relation of the Gazette circumstances much more terrible than those of the Act of Faith which I underwent CHAP. II. The Apparent causes of my Imprisonment I Had stayed at Daman a Town of the East-Indies possest by Portugueze for to refresh my self a little from the fatigues which I had suffered in my Voyages and that I might put my self into a condition of continuing my Travels But in the same place where I had hoped to have found rest I found the beginning of much greater troubles than all those which I had hitherto experienced The true cause of all the Persecutions which the Ministers of the Inquisition made me endure was an ill-grounded jealousie of the Governour of Daman It is not hard to judge that this reason was never alledged in my process Yet for to satisfie the passion of this Governour they made use of divers pretexts and they found at last the the means of seizing me and removing me from the Indies where perhaps otherwise I had passed the rest of my days It must be acknowledged that altho these pretexts of which they made use were very weak for persons instructed in the Faith or in Law they were nevertheless too sufficient for such persons as the Portugeze are in respect of their prejudices and maxims Insomuch as upon this account I thought them my self so plausible that I discovered not the true reasons of my detainment but in the sequel of the affair The first occasion which I gave to my Enemies to make use of the Inquisition to destroy me was a discourse which I had with an Indian Monk a Divine of the Order of St. Dominick But before I proceed any farther I must premise that altho my manners have not always been conformable to the Holiness of that Religion wherein I was Baptized I have yet been always strongly addicted to the Religion of my Forefathers I mean to that of the Catholick Apostolick and Roman
through which we were to pass for they took care to give notice to the Parish Priests in the Parishes of more remote places a long time before the Act of Faith was performed At last covered with shame and confusion and very weary of the march we arrived at the Church of St. Francis which for this time was destined and prepared for the Act of Faith. The great Altar was spread with black and there were upon it six Silver Candlesticks with so many Tapers of white Wax burning There were raised on the sides of the Altar two kind of Thrones the one on the right hand for Monsieur the Inquisitor and his Councellors the other on the left for the Viceroy and his Court. At some distance and over against the great Altar inclining a little towards the door was placed another whereon were laid two Misâ—als open From thence to the door of the Church was made a Gallery about three foot broad with a Balister on each side and both on one side and the other were placed Benches for the Criminals and their Godfathers to sit on who accordingly seated themselves in order as they entred into the Church insomuch as those who came in first sat very near the Altar As soon as I was entered and placed in my Rank I applied my self to consider the order which they made those observe who came after me I saw that those to whom those horrible Carochas of which I spake were given marched last in our whole Troop that immediately after them a great Crucifix was carried whose Face respected those who marched before and which was followed by two living Persons and four Statues of the height of a Man represented very naturally fixed every one to the end of a long Pole and accompanied with so many little Chests born each by a Man and filled with the bones of those whom these Statues represented The Face of the Crucifix turned toward those who went before it signifieth the mercy which is used in respect of them in delivering them from death altho they had justly deserved it and the same Crucifix turning the back upon them that followed it signifieth that those unfortunate Persons have no more favour to hope for For so it is that all is mysterious in the Holy Office. The Habits wherewith these miserable Persons were vested were no leâ—s capable of striking horror and pity into the Beholders as well the living Persons as Statues bore a Samarra of Grey Stuff all painted over with Devils Flames and burning Fire brands upon which the Head of the Prisoner was represented to the Life before and behind with his Sentance written below bearing an Abridgment an in great Characters his Name that of his Country and â—â—e Crime for which he was condemned Beside this terrible Habit they had also upon their Heads those dreadful Carochas covered as their Vestments with Flames and Devils The little Coffers wherein were inclosed the Bones of those who were dead and against whom Process had been made either before or after their decease during or before their Imprisonment that so occasion might be given to the Confiscation of their Goods were painted with black and covered also with Devils and Flames It must be here observed that the Inquisition terminates not its Jurisdiction upon living Persoâ—s or upon those who died in her Prison but that she sometimes formeth a Process against Persons who died many years before they were accused then when after their decease they are charged with any great Crime that in this case if they be convinced they are digged up their Bones are buâ—ned at the Act of Faith and all their Goods are Confiscated whereof those are carefully despoiled who have inherâ—ted them And I advance nothing which I have not seen practised since among the Statues which were seen when I came out of the Inquisitâ—on there was one which represented a Man dead a long time before whose Process they had foâ—med whose Bâ—dy they had digged up and whose Goods were Confiscated and his Bones burnt or it may be those of some other who had been buried in the same place CHAP. XXVII Containing what was observed in the place wherein the Act of Faith was Celebrated THese unhappy Persons being entred into that dreadful Equipage which I have already described and being seated in their places which were appointed for them near the door of the Church the Inquisitor followed with his Officers entered and went to place himself upon the Tribunal which was erected for him upon the right side of the Altar while the Viceroy and his Court seated themselves upon the left The Crucifix was placed upon the Altar between the six Candlesticks Every one being thus setled in his Post and the Church filled with as many People as it could contain the Provincial of the Augustâ—ians ascended the Pulpit and Preached for half an hour Notwithstanding the anxiety of mind wherein I then was I sailed not to observe the comparison which he then made of the Inquisition with the Ark of Noah between which yet he found this difference that the Animals which entered into the Ark went out again after the Deluge invested with the same Nature which they had when they entered in But that the Inquisitor had the admirable property to charge in such sort those who are shut up in it that in coming out we see those to be as Lambs who when they entred in had the cruelty of Wolves and the fierceness of Lions The Sermon being finished two Readers went up one after another into the same Pulpit to read there publickly the Process of all the Criminals and to signifie to them the punishments to which they were condemned He whose Process was read was during that time led by the Alcaide into the middle of the Gallery where he stood upright holding a Taper lighted in his hand till his Sentence was pronounced And as it was supposed that all the Criminals had incurred the punishment of greater Excommunication they led us to the foot of the Altar whereon laid the Missals where being placed on our knees they made us lay our hands upon one of these Books and remain in that posture till there was as many persons as Missals Then the Reader discontinued reading of the Process to pronounce with a loud voice a Confession of Faith after he had briefly exhorted the Criminals to repeat it with heart and mouth at the same time with him which being done every one returned to his place and the reading of the Process was began anew I was called in my order and understood that all my affair ran upon these three heads The first for having maintained the invalidity of the Baptism called Flaminis The second for having said that Images ought not to be adored and having blasphemed against the Image of the Crucifix in saying of a Crucifix of Ivory that it was a piece of Ivory And lastly for having spoken contemptuously of the Inquisition and its Ministers but