Faith Then having assembled great numbers of people and caused a great Fire to be made he threw both the Books into it and immediately that which contained the Heretical Doctrines was consumed and the other nimbly leapt out of the fire and being thrown in again the second and third times did not like the warmth of it but still came out safe and sound out of the devouring Flames But this would not do and it was found requisite to throw the Hereticks themselves into the fire for their further conviction Wherefore Dominic having obtained from the Pope a power and delegation to be Inquisitor an 1216. fell to work in good earnest to butcher such stray Sheep as the proper Shepherds could not or would not reduce Nature seemed to be affraid of those horrid cruelties which were now coming to be exercized at the Tremendous Tribunal of the Inquisition there being about this time many Prodigies seen to the great affrightment of many Nations Monsters Inundations and Earthquakes in Italy Savoy Germany and elsewhere as is to be seen in the Authors that treat of this Century But Dominic and the other Bigots of the Roman Church took it another way and would have these to be expressions of the wrath of God against Hereticks and so came with great zeal and fury to be executioners of that wrath and to destroy them Pope Innocent had seen a Vision as Bzovius reports to this purpose Christ appeared in great anger ready to cast down upon wicked men the exterminating Thunder-bolts of his Indignation but that the blessed Virgin interposed and assured him she had two men two valiant Champions who would reduce all things to right if he would but be patient and then shewed him St. Dominic and St. Francis and he became pacified These two whatever the Tale be offered to God many humane Victims as though they had indeed designed thereby to appease his wrath the Franciscans became Inquisitors in Italy in honour of their Founder there born And the Dominicans had the same Office in Spain and elsewhere But to return Dominic work'd very many Miracles and had very free entercourse with heaven as is to be seen in Bzovius who is very prolix upon that subject ad anno 1211. deinceps But that which makes for my purpose is his coming with Didacus Bishop of Osma and with twelve Abbots to preach the Croisadoes that is to levy Souldiers that would engage against the Hereticks and to make an Army of zealous men who should have a Cross for their Badge and should be in perpetual War against the Enemies of Christ as they called the Albigenses and other Dissenters from Rome He himself would carry a Cross in his hand when she went to fight and all the Arrows that were thrown at him did only peirce the Cross but never touch him Whereby his Fellow-Souldiers were wonderfully encouraged as they report it SECT II. Of the first making of Familiars or armed Officers or Bailiffs for the H. Tribunal BUt the having as it were a standing Army to back and enforce the Proceedings and Decrees of the Inquisition was that which at length quite destroyed his Enemies and blotted even the name of Waldenses and Albigenses from under heaven This was it hath preserved the Inquisition and made it formidable and irresistible the having a great number of men the most cunning potent zealous and vigorous sworn Servants and Officers who have power to bear what Arms they please to enter where they will who are of all trades and all conditions and are always ready to execute the commands of the Inquisitors This Dominic instituted he chose out the most fierce bloudy implacable Zealots of his numberless Cross-bearers and made of them a select Company or Fraternity which he called Christ's Familiar Souldiers Familiares Christi milites Vt accerime haereticos insectarentur impetu quam possent maximo in illorum perniciem irruerent So A Paramo words it That they might persecute Hereticks with the greatest violence and endeavour their destruction and ruine by all possible means These Familiars being mighty useful to the design of the Sacred Tribunal are highly favoured by the Popes Innocent III. began to pour his blessings upon them and upon all that should any ways be aiding the newly-erected Court of Inquisition But the Familiars had a double share of Indulgences and Immunities In Italy they were called Crucigeri Cross-bearers and St. Petri Martyris Scholares the Disciples of St. Peter the Martyr who was a holy Inquisitor And Honorius III. and Gregory IX made a kind of Order of them which they named Fratres Militiae Jesu Christi The Friers of the Militia of Jesus Christ But now saith my Author they that serve the Inquisition are all such Familiars as Dominic instituted They used to have a Cross of coloured Cloth upon their breast fastened to their upper Garment but now I suppose they have left it because I find in several occasions since the Reformation that they were not known not so much as one to another CHAP. IV. Of the first that suffered the rigours of Inquisition DOminic having erected his Court and got power enough what from the Pope what from his Familiars to make it so strong as to do that work it was designed for proceeded against Hereticks with as much severity as the bloudy Religion of Rome can inspire He added to all the former rigours and cruelties and though he made use of several forms and ways of judging and punishing Hereticks found out before him yet he tied himself to none but with such a certain method which hath not been much changed since he followed no other rules but his own pleasure in inflicting punishments upon guilty or suspected persons And so it remains to this day most dreadful and arbitrary Those Hereticks against whom the Pope and his Friends were so angry have a very ill name given by such as put them to death and if we may believe their Enemies were very vile and wicked But when we find full as bad said of us in many late Writers we have great reason to suspect that then as now they painted Hereticks like Devils as they do when they burn them to justifie their hatred and their cruelty against them The Beguini and Beguardi the poor men of Lions or Minorits de tertia regula Sancti Francisci The Stadingenses and others in the twelfth and thirteenth Century were most likely of the same Religion as to the substance as the Waldenses and Albigenses men that sighed and endeavoured for a Reformation and could not hold Communion with the Church of Rome by reason of its great corruptions but that held the same Primitive Faith as we do There is enough in Reinerius even as it is set out by Grotserus the Jesuit to justifie this He had been one of them of the Waldenses and changed and became Inquisitor against them but together with the expressions of his malice gives such an account of them
account and upbraiding us with our many Sects shews that Rominists are not a little proud of their success in begetting or maintaining of them A man in a Vizard robs his Neighbour and having pulled it off reproacheth him for his beggarliness this is very disingenuous But very strange it is that the same man should yield himself a prey every time the Thief shall put on his mask The mischief is that Faction not Conscience makes the great differences in the Christian Church Opinions are embraced and asserted upon design to promote worldly interests Those Doctrines in the Romish Church we say and prove to be Innovations are such as tend to advance the power and greatness of those that brought them in and now impose them on others And it is not to be denied but that some are enemies to the Tyranny of that Church because they themselves would govern or be under no Government at all Factions like errors and sins may clash and fight one against another but it is not the property of true Religion to multiply Controversies or to be fierce in lesser contentions But then there are some things so bad in themselves so much against Divine Commandments and the duty every man ows to God that there he may not and must not comply Let who will injoyn what is dishonourable to God or forbidden by him the first and greatest Obligation ought to take place God must be obeyed above all though in the discharge of that obedience we expose our selves to great dangers and sufferings Glad should I be that Popery were the true Religion that our Blessed Lord had constituted the Pope his Vicar and made him infallible and commanded us to believe and obey all he should speak from his Chair It would supersede all our enquiries and the paiâ—s we are at to examine whether Papal Decrees agree well with our Masters wâ—ll It would have spared the bloud of Millions of Christians who rather chose to die in flames and tortures than comply with those Injunctions which they judged contrary to their Saviours Laws And it would free all meek good men who would buy peace and submit to any thing that were not sinful from the dread of Massacres and Inquisitions and what else may be feared from the formidable Principles and Persecutions of the See of Rome We are abundantly satisfied that the Bishop of that City hath no just right to that Power and Dominion he claims over all Crowns and Miters nay we clearly see by the Records of ancient times that every where he used very ill means to usurp that Authority Yet I believe most Protestants would easily be brought to recede from their right and for peace sake to give him more than is his due Precedency Honour even Money to maintain his Greatness I could afford him if that engaged me to nothing contrary to the duty I owe my God and Saviour But if yielding so far must oblige me to embrace a new Creed and false and to practice an unlawful Worship then I am bound to assert my liberty und to bear faith and allegiance to God whatever I suffer for it we might if we would part with our freedom but we may not give up Gods truth and honour The Case is this we may not live in the Communion of Rome but as the Popes Subjects and that would make us in many things rebels against God We are not obliged to live in that Communion and we dare not do it for then except we yield in all things we are proceeded against as Hereticks as accursed Traitors to God and the Pope and the greatest severities are inflicted on us So that as we would preserve our Consciences and our lives we must withdraw from Rome and live asunder All Christians are obliged to worship God alone and in all things to obey their Saviour and all men would live and enjoy their own Now I shall make it appear that if we are in the Communion or in the power of the Roman Church we can do neither We must believe and worship otherwise than Gods Word hath commanded or we must live under infamy and persecutions and expire in flames Whilst I give an account of these two things it will appear that there is a very great difference betwixt the case of the Reformation and the case of them that separate from the Church of England That as necessary and Just as that was this is as needless and unjust and that as much as Religion and self-preservation obligeth us to break communion with the Church of Rome so much the same bonds tie all Dissenters to unite with the Church of England and to live quietly like good Christiane and loyal Subjects in its Communion A Prayer to be said by them that are solemnly admitted into the Fraternity of the holy Virgin Mary wherein the devout Officers of the Inquisition are Commonly listed SAncta Maria Mater Dei Virgo ego N. N. te hodie in Dominam patronam advocatam eligo firmiterque statuo atque propono me nunquam te derelicturum neque contra to aliquid unquam dicturum aut facturum neque permissurum ut à meis subditis aliquid contra tuum honorem unquum agatur Obsecro te igitur suscipe me in servum perpetuum adsis mihi in omnibus actionibus meis nec me deseras in hora mortis Amen Holy Mary Mother of God and Virgin I N. N. chuse thee this day for my Lady Patroness and Advocate firmly resolving and engaging my self that I will never forsake thee nor yet ever say or do any thing against thee nor suffer any thing to be done against thine honour by any that are subject to me I beseech thee therefore let me be thy Servant for ever and own me for such assist me in all my actions and forsake me not at the hour of death Amen The Holy Inquisition IF the Church of Rome had kept to the Primitive Creeds and still retained the Ancient purity of Divine Worship and used her strength and policy only to maintain true Christianity it might have been said that too great a Zeal had transported her and made her too fierce against erroneus opinions That might have made some abatement of the censure she lies under of being too cruel but withal it had been a prejudice against that Religion that had occasioned the shedding so much bloud and destroying so many lives and it would have been thought that the Christian Faith had disposed its Professors to be merciless and unnatural Now if in both cases it be quite otherwise if Christianity inspires and recommends nothing but meekness and the greatest charity and if it hath not been to maintain the Doctrines of our Blessed Lord or the Worship of the True God that Rome hath persecuted and slain so many Nay if the Gospel forbids nothing more than to be hard and severe to take away mens lives or the comforts of them And if Rome by flames and tortures
and Canon that you shall be finally and perpetually imprisoned betwixt bare Walls there to perform a salutary Penance with Bread and Water the bread of sorrow and the water of tribulation and that you N. and you N. because you have more grievously offended shall be kept perpetually in Chains and Irons in a more narrow and uneasie place charging and requiring every one of you upon the Oath which you have taken that without delay you transport your selves to the Walls of Tholose which is appointed to such Criminals as you and that therein you descend and shut up your selves And now if you shall neglect to fulfil what we here appoint you by not entring within those Walls or by coming out of them without our licence or the licence of our Successors in this holy Office or if at any time hereafter you any ways transgress against what you have sworn and abjured and shew your selves impenitent and that your Confession was but fained you shall be thenceforth taken for perjured and impenitents and shall return under your former Chains of guilt And by our foresaid Apostolick Authority we Excommunicate you and all them that shall knowingly receive defend counsel or favour you decreeing by these presents that you and they shall for ever after be uncapable of the benefit of Absolution And we reserve to our selves and to our Successors in this Office full and free power to change what we shall think fit in this our Sentence by making it more grievous or easie SECT II. Of the Crimes of the Waldenses THe Sentences against relaps'd and impenitent Hereticks who were delivered to the Secular Power to be burned have the same form mutatis mutandis So have also the Sentences against such as were to wear only the Sanbenit a certain kind of Coat with yellow Crosses upon it But I do not find by what tortures they made their Inquisitions nor how they dealt privately with their Prisoners we have only in this Register what the Inquisitors did publickly in the Cathedral Church of S. Stephen before the general Assembly of the Clergy and people I shall therefore at present out of this Manuscript observe only that the Crimes of such as were to be put to death or otherwise punished were only such wicked heresies and deeds as these That they were obstinate or that they returned as the dog to their vomit or that they had not persecuted and detected Hereticks as they were obliged by their Oaths that they had been made to confess with great difficulty or not till they were accused by others and taken and detained in Jail or that when they came to their Pastors or went away from them they had kneeled and craved their blessing Ter adorabant eos dicentes benedicite and to some Rogate Dominum pro nobis quod perducat nos ad bonum finem pray God to bring us to a happy end or that they believed those whom the Church of Rome called Hereticks to be good men and Professors of the truth and that they had commended their good lives to many believing for so many years that they might be saved in their way or that they had fled or endeavoured to flee into Lombardy or that they had concealed some that were fled from the Inquisitors or privately buried some Hereticks in their Gardens or that when they were sick some Hereticks had been brought to comfort them or else that they had comforted or promised to comfort some dying Hereticks or that they had heard them or read some of their Books or eaten of their blessed Bread or that they believed themselves descended from the Apostles of Christ and that their Pastors had from them that power of binding and loosing which Christ gave to blessed Peter and afterwards to the other Apostles that they did believe there were but three Orders in the Church Bishops Priests and Deacons the Church of Rome makes seven That they thought the Excommunications of the Church of Rome would not be their damnation That they did not believe themselves to be subject to the Pope and Prelates of the Roman Church because they persecuted them unjustly or that they had attempted to flee or had not come to confess lest if they came into the Inquisitors hands their Children should starve and perish One or two or more of these were the most abominable Crimes which with many cruelties they made those poor Waldenses to confess and for which they burnt immured or otherwise punished them And nothing can more clear the Innocence of those persecuted people than the accusations and convictions which were then brought against them in the Courts of the Inquisitors their profest and implacable enemies wherein we see nothing of those either silly or impious Errors which many of the Romish Writers are pleased to impute to them So much I thought fit to say concerning those pretended Hereticks who first felt the merciless barbarities of the Papal Inquisition CHAP. V. Of the restoring of the Inquisition NOw I shall give you some account of the setting up or restoring the Sacred Tribunal in several places The Inquisition was so successful in Tholosa and it so well agreed with the principles of the Popish Religion and the genius of the Roman Popes that Frier Lambertus was authorized to be St. Dominic's Coadjutor to help him to promote that work which so well prospered in his hands And that holy Father Innocent III. and his Successors used all their strength and endeavours and watched all opportunities to erect in all places such a Court as holy Dominic did manage In many Cities of France and even in Paris it was erected as appears by a Bull of Pope Alexander 47. 1258. In Hetruria and other parts of Italy the Franciscan Friers were made Inquisitors and appointed to proceed anno 1258. Gregory IX some twenty years before had in Navarra and the adjacent parts committed the judging and punishing of Heresie by way of Inquisition to the Dominicans In Lombardy also which was the refuge of the Waldenses Dominic had at the very first taken care that they should be duly prosecuted and destroyed In the Belgick Provinces Frier Robert and other Inquisitors did burn very many of the Albigenses In many parts of Germany also the like was done by times In Spain and Portugal it is more uncertain when the Inquisition began and some are of opinion there was none in those parts before King Ferdinand But A Paramo tells us that in some Cities in Castile there are extant Bulls of Clement IV. 1267. whereby the Provincial of the Dominicans is impowered to appoint out of his Order Inquisitors against Heretical pravity in all the parts of that Kingdom which the Christians possessed And that Boniface IX granted by a Bull the same power to Vincentius Lisboa and to Tostatus Abulensis who in his works mentions Inquisitors among the Spaniards SECT I. The erecting of the Spanish Inquisition BUt if Spain was free for some time of the Inquisition it
Sentences of all Judges and Magistrates that do not take such an Oath are void and insignificant The Civil Magistrates as we see are made Officers of the Holy Tribunal even in Venice Padre Paolo tells us c. 6. the Inquisitors would oblige the Assistants who represent the State to swear secrecy to them making it a great Case of Conscience to reveal any of their proceedings without their leave and backing it with this Maxim Checause di fede evono restarappo i Giudici◠della fede That matters that concern the Faith must remain with the Judges of the Faith SECT I. Some Priviledges of the Inquisitors and Cruelties committed or occasioned by it INquisitors are called Defensores fidei Ecclesiae ad gloriam Dei augmentum fidei deputati Defensors of the Faith of the Church deputed for the glory of God and the increase of holy Faith They have power at any time to grant Indulgences of forty days and of three years to them who any ways are assistants against Hereticks They themselves have granted by three Popes as Aimericus in his Directorium tells us Plenary Indulgences and a full Pardon of all their sins both living and dying So that if they are exorbitant in the use of their power and chance to wound their Consciences here is a sure Plaister near at hand They being accountable to none but to the Pope whose Delegats they are and having power to proceed against all sorts of persons even against the Secular and Regular Clergy notwithstanding all exemptions as Villa-Diego cites the Canon Law Pro crimine Haeresis possunt procedere contra omnes etiam exemptos c. have therefore a mighty influence over all Confessors and by their means over all people who either living or dying are so awed by them that can give or deny Absolution that where the Inquisition prevails the Popes Edicts are of more force than any Civil Laws or Evangelical Precepts Padre Paolo chap. 26. gives an instance of it very observable And A Paramo p. 623 c. saith that in their Visitations when the Inquisitors publish their Edict of Justice they command all Confessors to make what inquiries they please and forbid them to absolve any penitents from any thing that concerns Heresie And they enjoyn all under severe penalties to declare who they are that have or have read any Bibles in the Vulgar Tongue or any Heretical Books or have revealed any secret of the Inquisition or spoken any thing against it or not obeyed their Injunctions Which makes their Dominion more formidable and absolute than that of Turkish Emperours We have seen before how they have a numerous train of armed men who have power always and in all places to wear all sorts of Weapons and are devoted to their service and obedience Now these men as well as their Masters are sacred and inviolable as appears by the fore-mentioned Bull of Pius V. But Leo X. had before that anno 1515. ordered that whoever should kill beat or strike any of them should be delivered up to the Secular Power to be burnt as a Heretick It would be endless to rehearse all their priviledges and powers which make the Tribunal of a few in outward appearance contemptible Friers higher more firm more irresistible and dreadful than that of any Potentate upon earth Their Mystick Coat of Arms represents much of this as some make it out very ingeniously A green Cross in Field Sable on the right side a green Olive branch on the left a naked glittering Sword and a Brier round the Cross this Motto Exurge Domine judica causam tuam which is ver 23. of Psal 74. But Torrents of Bloud and devouring Flames had been more proper to represent what use they make of their might Out of their own Writings and other Authors since the time of Ferdinand and Isabella a man might gather a dismal Catalogue of men of Fame Learning and Piety whom they have by various torments murthered in several Kingdoms for being Hereticks besides Millions known only to themselves whom they have likewise destroyed A Paramo tells us of more than thirty thousand burnt in Sicily in less than 150. years under pretence of being Magicians That in Portugal Didacus de Sylva being supreme Inquisitor so many and some even of the principal men were miserably harassed imprisoned bound tortured condemned that about the year 1535. the King was mightily affected with pity and with much ado stopt and reversed those bloudy proceedings And the same Author cites Hieronimus Zurita to witness that in a few years more than one hundred thousand in Sevil alone were several ways put to death and that more than five thousand houses remained empty for a great while But it would no doubt exceed much all other accounts and be the astonishment of the world if the Registers of the Inquisition for the two last hundred years should come to publick view and we could see in them the numbers of men they have slain and the sorts of tortures they have made them endure that were or were suspected to be such Hereticks as we Thuanus in l. 3. giving an account of the great prevalency of the Lutheran Doctrine even in Italy and how the Tyranny of the Inquisition was let loose upon all that but looked towards it gives this short account of that Holy Tribunal Ejus horror odium ingens augebat horrorem perversa praepostera judiciorum forma quae contra naturalem aequitatem omnem legitimum ordinem in jurisdictione illa explicanda observatur tum etiam immanitas tormentorum quibus plerunque contra veritatem quicquid delegatis judicibus libebat à miseris innocentibus reis ut se cruciatibus eximerent per vim extorquebatur That is That it is the object of the greatest dread and hatred because the method of its proceedings is against all Order and Justice and natural Equity and because by direful unnatural tortures the Judges make innocent Criminals suffer and say what they please I know there have been Massacres and bloudy Executions in many places where there is no Inquisition In France many Towns of the poor Waldenses were destroyed and the Inhabitants Men Women and Children most barbarously murthered Thuan. l. 6. The Parisian St. Bartholomeo some years after is also sadly remarkable what hapned since here and elsewhere upon the same account cannot be forgotten The Jesuit Strada l. 2. saith that besides those that suffered under Queen Mary the severities she used to purge this Kingdom of Heresie drove away no less than thirty thousand persons out of it How many in lesser numbers endured great persecutions and died at the the Stake for many years in most places of Europe where the Popish Religion and Power had the prevalency is known only to that God who hears the voice of Innocent bloud and is the Revenger of it though many Authors have transmitted to Posterity large memorials of those cruelties some in detestation some in commendation
in the Torture is a good proof in Law against himself or others except he presently retract it which as soon as he is took down they read his confession to him I find by cautions in several Authors that some weakly tender Hereticks not able to bear the pain of it die in the torture and some of them find great fault with it and in that case accuse those Tortures of cruelty But however they all own that it is much worse to endure the torture than to have both hands or any part of the body cut off SECT III. Of repeating the Question IT is seldom that once serves the turn and therefore the Judges must not be satisfied with what the Prisoner saith the first time he is racked They have taken great care that Hereticks should not go so peaceably out of the world And therefore the same Rules of theirs that appoint that in the case of Heresie the Inquisitors should be prone and ready to use the torture appoint also that he should frequently repeat it Heretical pravity is a subtil and secret poyson which lies in the closest recesses of the Soul and is apt to stick one bitter potion will not fetch it up they must repeat the Dose Therefore when the man is taken down and they are clothing him again they must insert this clause into the Process of what hath been done Animo tamen illum torturae iterum subjiciendi quatenus opus sit that now they release him with a design to put him again to the same torments as long as there is need And so the poor Wretch not able to move himself is carried to his Den with this comfort that as soon as his disjoynted bones are knit again and he is capable of relishing the same pain he shall be sure to hear of the good Fathers who now will let him alone but not forget him But I must not forget to say that whilst he hangs in the Sling with his weights at his feet those great searches of truth the Inquisitors Positis coram eo dirioribus instrumentis torturae having set before him more direful Instruments of torture give him to understand by this formal sentence that they will make use of them the next time Nos Inquisitores c. assignamus tibi N.N. diem talem ad quaestiones continuandum ut ex tuo ore proprio veritas ulterior eruatur c. We N. N. Inquisitors c. do assign to thee A.B. such a day to continue to torture thee that from thine own mouth we may get more of the truth Indeed in some of these Sentences I find the name of the Bishop inserted but that is only a pro forma for properly it is his substitute who is or is supposed to be then present and who being sworn to secrecy and to obedience to the Inquisitors is altogether their Servant and their Officer as are all the rest of them that attend the Holy Office But for all Padre Paolo's moderation and his blaming the exorbitancies of that Court I doubt not but at Venice it self Lutherans or Calvinists would be as hardly dealt with as any where else and that their mixt Inquisition half Ecclesiastical and half Secular would be near as severe to real Hereticks though likely Roman Catholicks be not so much endangered and oppressed by it as in other places I am sure that with publick allowance the most bloudy Directories of the Inquisition and the cruellest Books against Hereticks are Printed at Venice And that for all their own Patricians be said to be impowered by the Republick to inquire against Heresie the Canonists on all hands make it a maxim Inquisitores à quocunque eligentur semper ab Apostolica sede habent authoritatem immediate That whoever chuseth or nominates Inquisitors they always have their authority immediately from the Roman See However where the Pope is powerful enough Inquisition is in full force and there he hath taken care that Hereticks shall find little of mercy but that they shall suffer as much as possibly they can And therefore let them acknowledge or invent what they will still they may be tortured further in caput alienum to discover other Hereticks or still to say more than they have said There are Decrees of Paul IV. and Pius V. Quoscunque reos convictos confessos de Haeresi pro ulteriore veritate habenda super complicibus fore torquendas arbitrio dominorum judicum That all that were guilty convict of Heresie or had confessed it should at the pleasure of the Judges be tortured again and again to reveal their Accomplices and make a further confession And this is enforced and pressed by a Decree of the Congregation of the Inquisition July 28. 1569. And thus the misery of their unhappy Prisoners is prolonged as long as they please CHAP. XI Of reconciling and dismissing Penitents BUt the comfort is that at last there is an end of their sufferings After all the cruel and tedious Formalities of the Holy Office the Process comes to be fully formed and the Inquisitors to be willing to determine the whole matter and to give a definitive sentence and then such as have proved themselves to be sound Catholicks and to have only been indiscreet and failed in lesser matters are to be acquitted by being put to Penance For it is observed that never none come out without some infliction if they are not tortured within yet when they are released they must suffer something grievous and bear some marks of the just severity of that strickt and inflexible Court who must not be supposed ever to have proceeded against any without very good grounds And it is hard if they should want them when their Repertories and Rules appoint that they shall not go without punishment who act or speak any thing that hath a smack of Heresie though it were by anger or a slip of the tongue in a fit of drunkenness or even in a dream Proferens haereticalia per iram vel ebrietatem per somnum vel lâ—bricum linguae puniendus c. And A Paramo tells the Story of a melancholy Hermit who came and confested to the Inquisitors some Idle Heretical fancies that had come into his head for which they made him do a very strict Pennance But for them that were really infected with Heretical pravity and have been converted by the convincing reasons of sharp Tortures and a hard imprisonment the mercy shewed them commonly is to immure them sometimes send them to the Gallies or make them wear the San benit But the Law is where the Pope is Master Haereticus rediens ad Fidem non evadit nisi poenam mortis That by returning to the Catholick Faith an Heretick avoids only the punishment of death All other Penalties appointed for Hereticks may be laid upon him only he is not delivered up to the Secular power to be burnt he is taken in again into the Lap of the Church and remains under the kind
direction of the Inquisitors who will take great care that he may not relapse into Heresie SECT I. Of the Cautions of the Friers when they absolve an Heretick WHen the day comes that the Frier Inquisitor is pleased to give decisive sentence in favour of a Prisoner which is commonly done at the Act of Faith or their publick Assizes Then is he brought forth and an Officer of the Court reads his charge and his conviction which is what they please to say for the Prisoner must not dare to speak one word for himself After that it is declared how it hath pleased God to bless with success the Inquisitor's endeavours in bringing back the stray Sheep into the Fold and how that the repenting Heretick who had been held in the chains of Satan doth now see and bewail the greatness of his crime and begs to be untied from those bonds of Excommunication and all other Censures wherewith he was tied and to be upon any terms re-admitted to be a member of the Church which request of his they readily accept and grant out of their great inclination to mercy they never desiring the death of a sinner but only that he may be converted and live After this or such a fine Preface he is absolved in form if he was not before he came out of their Cloysters and then they pronounce his Sentence and after the publick solemnity ended bring him to the Monastery back again that he may have his Penitential Letters and be fully instructed how to behave himself for the future For by their Popes Bulls and by the Inquisitors Laws a man that hath once come into their hands is never wholly freed from them but by death they may still aggravate his Penance or Punishment as they please they may at any time take his cause in hands again and have him brought back into their Prisons They may swear whom they please to have an eye upon him to see that he wear his San-benit and that he attempt not to go out of the Country And this they fail not to do if they suspect the man And however before his dismission into the World the Gallies or the four Walls they strictly swear him to secrecy that he will never reveal to any creature any thing he hath seen or known within the Inquisition nor any thing that hath been said or done to him And the Inquisitors tell him the danger of it that if he doth he shall be taken for a relaps and Apostate and be dealt with accordingly Further they swear him to the Romish Faith with some curses and imprecations and many grievous threats if ever he swerves from it in any one point and make it part of his Oath that he shall ever discover and persecute Hereticks to the utmost of his power and in his Sentence and Absolution insert this conditional clause Si de corde bono de fide non ficta redieritis ad Ecclesiae unitatem si servaveritis illa quae vobis injuncta suerint mandata That they are not to receive any benefit by being absolved except they the penitent Hereticks return to the unity of the Church with a good heart and an unfeigned faith and obey what shall be enjoyned and commanded them All these Cautions and Securities duly observed and taken out goeth the trembling Wretch resolved to be so zealous a Roman Catholick as never to come there again by being suspected But some if before they had known the truth and cowardly denied it become so perplexed and uneasie that they relapse into Heresie and venture the severities of the Inquisition and think it easier to be racked and burnt than to bear the accusations and reproaches of their Consciences and venture an eternal Hell SECT II. Forms of Sentences THe Forms of Absolution and Reconciliation you have in the Pontificale and of them I have said enough already there is only this difference that here the Inquisitors make more use of the Rod they have in their hands and that the Penitents the day before the Act of Faith were shaved beard and hair and that at the solemnity they in Sicily are clothed in black every where they hold lighted Torches in their hands and are mightily sprinkled with Holy Water have hanging Ropes about their Necks and that sleeveless Coat on with Crosses before and behind which they call the San-benit I set down before treating of the Waldenses a form of Sentence against such as are immur'd or laid up to live and die upon bread and water in a Dungeon betwixt bare Walls As for them that are enlarged and only must wear the San-benit they are thus sentenced Nos N. N. Inquisitores Haereticae pravitatis c. vobis ad unitatem Ecclesiae reducere volentibus abjurata prius omni haeretica pravitate imponimus injungimus pro poenitentia duas cruces crocei coloris duorum palmorum in longitudinem unam anterius alteram posterius in omnes vestes praeter Camisiam in extra domum portandas renovandas si rumpantur vel desiciant item injungimus vobis peregrinationes visitationes Ecclesiarum N. W. alia quae literae poenae vestrae quae vobis concedentur plenius continebunt c. We N. N. Inquisitors against Heretical Pravity c. willing to reduce you N. to the unity of the Church you having first abjured every Heretical Pravity do appoint and enjoyn you for penance to wear upon all your garments behind and before two Crosses of yellow colour one foot in length and that within or without doors you never appear without them that when they are worn out or broke you take care to renew them That in Pilgrimages you visit such and such Churches and duly perform all other things contained more at large in that Letter of Penance which we shall give you c. still reserving to our selves and to our Successors in this Office full power to increase to lessen or to change the Penance here imposed to you Given c. Those Letters of Penance which are given to the reconciled Penitents and which they are sworn to observe ever to carry about with them that they may know what they must abstain from and what they must do differ according to the several restraints or impositions which the Friers are pleased to lay upon their Converts Thus St. Dominic their Founder set them their Copy which they still follow Omnibus Christi Fidelibus ad quos praesentes literae pervenient Fr. Dominicus Oxoniensis Canonicus praedicator minimus salutem in Christo Authoritate Domini Ab. Cistercienâ—s Apost sedis Legati qui hoc nobis injunxit officium reconciliavimus praesentium latorem Pontium Rogerium ab Haereticorum secta Deo largiente conversum mandantes in virtute praestiti Juramenti ut tribus Dominieis vel festivis diebus ducatur à Sacerdote nudus infemoralibus ab ingressu villae usque ad ingressum Ecclesiae verberando Injungimus etiam ei ut Ã