in the Church of Rome, a criminal tribunal charged with the detection and punishment of heresy, apostacy, and other crimes against religion.

This formidable jurisdiction, created for the purpose of checking free inquiry in matters of religion, and maintaining the unity of the faith, was first instituted about the beginning of the thirteenth century, when Innocent III. appointed a commission to prosecute and punish the heretics of Narbonne. In 1208 the pope employed Pierre de Castelnau and Raoul, monks of Cîteaux attached to the monastery of Frontfroine, in Narbonne, to preach against the heresy of the Albigenses. They made a considerable impression, and especially in Toulouse and its neighbourhood their success encouraged the pope to introduce into the Catholic Church inquisitors independent of the bishops, who should, as delegates of the Holy See, have the right of prosecuting heretics.

With this view, he named as apostolic legates the abbot of Cîteaux and the two monks Castelnau and Raoul, who received orders to reclaim heretics to the Catholic faith, and to excommunicate and hand over to the secular power such as still remained obdurate. To carry out this plan more easily, he called upon Philip II. of France and the leading French nobility to prosecute heretics of every rank, and to seize their property; promising them plenary indulgences as the reward of their zeal. But the papal legates experienced great difficulties in the execution of their mission, which was distasteful to the bishops; the king of France took no part in the affair; and the counts of Toulouse, Foix, Béziers, Carcassonne, and other great lords of the provinces, refused to persecute a race of men in whose religious views they took no interest whatever, and whose piety and skill in the useful arts made them good and valuable retainers. The legates were consequently discouraged; the Pope, however, exhorted them to persevere, and at the same time addressed new briefs to the French king, to the archbishop of Narbonne, and to the bishop of Béziers, censuring their coldness and lack of zeal for the church.

In these circumstances, Castelnau and Raoul commenced preaching to the heretics, and even held conferences with some of their leaders; but, as might have been expected, the number of persons converted by them was exceedingly small. Arnald, abbot of Cîteaux, the principal legate, then summoned to his assistance twelve abbots of his order, elected by a chapter held in 1206, and also admitted to his counsels two Spaniards, Diego Acebes, bishop of Osma, and Dominic de Guzman, the celebrated founder of the Dominican order.

At this time the great feudatories of Provence and Narbonne were engaged in constant wars with each other; and hence, when the papal legates summoned them to prosecute the heretics in their states, they represented that they could not execute the orders of his holiness by reason of the wars which they were obliged to maintain against their neighbours. Innocent III. then ordered his legates to mediate between the great lords, and turn their thoughts to rooting out heresy in their domains. These orders, backed by the thunders of the church, had the desired effect, and the great lords consented to sign a peace. Of these seigneurs the most powerful was Raymond VI., count of Toulouse. Having been several times threatened by Pierre de Castelnau, the proud noble answered with a haughty retort; and the Albigenses, believing themselves safe under his protection, assassinated the legate. This outrage roused the wrath of Innocent, who proclaimed a crusade against the heretics, and proclaimed to all who would join it the same indulgences as if they had been called to combat against the Saracens.

The establishment of the Inquisition in France dates from the war now (1208) begun against the Albigenses, and their protector, Raymond VI., count of Toulouse. Resistance was speedily overcome at all points; and the church was soon in circumstances to work its will upon its victims. It is not easy to determine the number of the unfortunate Albigenses who perished in the flames after 1208; but it is impossible not to be strongly moved with horror as well as compassion in reading the histories of the time, which represent the destruction of many thousands of persons, in the midst of the most cruel torments, as the triumph of a religion on which its divine Founder had impressed the characters of benevolence and mercy. In 1215 Innocent III. held a tenth general council, in which a variety of new penalties were decreed against the heretics of Languedoc. In particular, it was ordained that those who were condemned by the bishops as impenitent heretics should be delivered to secular justice; that the goods of laymen condemned should be confiscated, and those of priests applied to the use of their churches; that the inhabitants suspected of heresy should be summoned to purge themselves in the canonical form, and in case of refusal excommunicated; that if they continued more than a year under the anathema, without having recourse to the pardon of the church, they should be accounted heretics, and treated as such; that all persons who favoured or received into their houses heretics, should be liable to excommunication as well as the heretics themselves—declared infamous, and as such excluded from all public employments—deprived of the right of electing their own magistrates—and rendered incapable of giving evidence in a court of justice, making testamentary dispositions, or taking up any succession, if at the expiry of a year they had failed to perform their duties and satisfy the church.

Pope Innocent III. died on the 12th of July 1216, and was succeeded by Honorius III., who resolved to continue the work which his predecessor had commenced. The new pontiff approved of the institution founded by Dominic de Guzman, with the view of preaching down heretics and heresy, an institution which gave rise to the order of preaching friars, afterwards known as Dominicans. He wrote to Guzman, encouraging him to persevere in his enterprise; and through Cardinal Bertrand, whom he sent into the provinces of Languedoc and Provence, with the title of legate, carried on the war against the Albigenses with all the zeal of his predecessor. Meanwhile St Dominic had instituted an order for seculars, the members of which were to be bound to assist those who preached against heresies, and to prosecute heretics with unrelenting rigour. This order was known under the various names of the Third Order of Penitence, the Militia of Christ, or, as they belonged to the family of the inquisition, Familiars. Here, then, we have the two great elements of the Holy Office: first, the institution of St Dominic, or the order of preaching friars, called Dominicans; and, secondly, the Militia of Christ, an association which afterwards gave rise to that which was known under the name of the Congregation of St Peter Martyr; two orders which were soon confounded, and the members of which were denominated Familiars of the Holy Office of the Inquisition. It was not long before this tribunal commenced active operations against heretics.

In 1224 the Inquisition had been established in Italy, under the direction of the religious Dominicans. But it was reserved for Gregory IX., who ascended the pontifical throne in 1227, to fix the establishment of the Inquisition in the form of a tribunal, and at the same time to give it constitutions. With this view he convened a council at Toulouse, where new measures of severity were adopted against the heretics; he also issued a bull excommunicating them, and further enjoining that the impenitent should be delivered over to the secular arm, and that all their supporters and adherents should be declared infamous. He next transmitted a brief to Esparrago, archbishop of Toledo, exhorting him to combat heresy; and at the same time addressed to the prior of the Dominicans of Lombardy a commission, confiding to that religious order the execution of his bull against heretics. Councils were also held at Melun, and at Beziers, where new regulations were adopted for preserving the purity of the faith, by multiplying the severities against those by whom it was denied. Meanwhile the heresy of the Albigenses penetrated even into the capital of the Catholic world. The extreme means of repression hitherto employed against them had failed of the desired effect. Several thousands of their number had perished at the stake in France and Italy; yet, so far from being discouraged, they had carried their doctrines into the very capital of the Pope. A new bull was immediately issued, more severe if possible in its provisions than any that had preceded it, and embittered by the terrible rigour with which it was enforced in all the States of the Church. From Rome these regulations were transmitted to the Archbishop of Milan, to be rigorously executed in the various parts of Cisalpine Gaul, where heresy had made alarming progress. Frederick II. also renewed the constitutions which he had published against heretics in 1224, particularly the law against blasphemers, which condemned all heretics indiscriminately to undergo the punishment of burning, or of having the tongue cut out, if the bishops thought proper to show them mercy, in order that in future it might be impossible for them to blaspheme the name of God.

Such is the general form which the Inquisition had assumed in France and Italy, when Gregory IX. introduced it into Spain. This event took place about the middle of the thirteenth century. Never did plant find a more congenial soil. In France and in Italy it had required strenuous and persevering efforts to establish the terrible tribunal; but in Spain it took root at once, and in time attained a magnitude which it never reached in any other country. During the fourteenth century its progress was steady, whilst its vigour and energy were continually on the increase. Its jurisdiction was enlarged, and its ramifications multiplied; autos-da-fe were celebrated in various places; and its victims were counted by hundreds.

But it was not until towards the close of the fifteenth century, when Spain became a united kingdom under Ferdinand and Isabella, that the Inquisition became general in that country, and assumed the form which it retained till its abolition in 1808. The execution of the bull of Sixtus IV., which authorized Ferdinand and Isabella to establish the Inquisition in their states, was indeed for a time suspended; but this suspension must have been of short duration, for in 1480 and 1481 we find it in full activity. Severe measures were adopted against the Jews, who were accused of the most absurd and ridiculous crimes, and in consequence the new Christians, as they were called, emigrated in great numbers. The flames of persecution raged at Seville, where, in 1481, twenty-six persons perished at the stake; and already no less than two hundred and ninety-eight victims had shared a similar fate. From this period may be dated the establishment of the Inquisition as it existed till our own time. This was effected by the creation of a grand inquisitor-general; the appointment of a royal council of the Inquisition, afterwards denominated the Council of the Supreme; the institution of subaltern tribunals in all parts of the kingdom; and lastly, the enactment of laws, giving stability to the tribunal, and uniformity to its procedure. By this organization there was created in Spain a jurisdiction in matters of religion, which, under the able but merciless direction of such men as Torquemada, Valdez, and their immediate successors, became the most effective engine of persecution which had ever before been known in any age. Its character will be best understood by stating the substance of its fundamental laws, which, under the name of Instructions, were published at Seville on the 29th of October 1484.

The first of these regulated the manner in which the institution of the tribunal should be announced in those countries or places where it might be judged necessary to establish it. The second ordained the publication, in the church of the place, of an edict accompanied with the censures provided against those who, having committed the crime of heresy or apostasy, should not voluntarily denounce themselves before the expiry of the term of grace which had been granted them; and also against those who should obstruct or resist the execution of the measures ordained by the Holy Office. By the third a delay of thirty days was allowed to heretics to declare themselves, and thereby to prevent the confiscation of their goods, without prejudice, however, to the pecuniary fines to which they might afterwards be condemned. By the fourth it was provided that the voluntary confessions of those who declared themselves should be made in writing in the presence of the inquisitors and a registrar, so that the self-accused might be required to answer all the questions which might be addressed to them by the inquisitors on the subject of their confessions, and also respecting their accomplices, and those whom they knew or suspected to be guilty of apostasy. The fifth prohibited giving secret absolution to any one who had made a voluntary confession, excepting in the single case where no one had had knowledge of his crime, and where there was nothing to apprehend from its publicity. By the sixth article it was provided that part of the penance enjoined on him who had been reconciled should consist in his being deprived of the exercise of every honourable employment, and of the use of gold, silver, pearls, silk, and fine linen. The seventh imposed pecuniary fines upon those who had made a voluntary confession. The eighth provided that the voluntary penitent who might present himself with his confession after the expiration of the term of grace should not be exempted from the penalty of confiscation of goods, which he would otherwise have incurred. In the ninth article it was enacted, that if persons under the age of twenty presented themselves to make confession after the expiry of the term of grace, and if it were proved that they had been led into error by their parents, it would be sufficient to impose on them a slight penance. The tenth imposed on inquisitors the obligation of declaring, in the act of reconciliation, the time in which the reconciled had fallen into heresy, in order to ascertain what portion of his goods belonged to the fisc. The eleventh article bore, that if a heretic detained in the secret prisons of the Holy Office were touched with due repentance, and demanded absolution, it might be granted him, by imposing as a penance the pain of perpetual imprisonment. By the twelfth it was provided, that if the inquisitors considered the confession of the penitent to have been simulated, in the case indicated in the preceding article, they should refuse absolution, declare him a false penitent, and condemn him as such to be relaxed, that is, delivered over to the secular arm. The thirteenth ordained that if a man, absolved after free confession, boasted of having concealed several crimes, or if it appeared from information afterwards obtained that he had committed more than he confessed, he should be arrested and judged as a false penitent. The fourteenth provided that if the accused when convicted persisted in denying the charge, even after the publication of the evidence, he should be condemned as impenitent. By the fifteenth, if there were only a semi-plena probatio against the accused who denied the crime charged against him, he might be subjected to the question; in which case, if he confessed himself guilty under the torture, and thereafter confirmed his confession, he was punished as one regularly convicted; but if he retracted, he was to undergo a second time the same probation, or to be condemned to an extraordinary punishment. The sixteenth prohibited communicating to the accused an entire copy of the declarations of the witnesses. They were only to be informed generally what had been deposed, without being made aware of any circumstances which might enable them to discover who had given evidence against them. The seventeenth article enjoined inquisitors themselves to interrogate the witnesses in every case where it was possible for them to do so. The eighteenth provided that two inquisitors should be present when the person arraigned was put to the question; but if otherwise occupied, they might appoint a commissary to receive the declarations of the sufferer. By the nineteenth article, if the accused did not appear, after having been cited according to the prescribed forms, he might be condemned as a convicted heretic. The twentieth bore that if it were proved by the books, or by the conduct whilst in life of a person deceased, that he had been a heretic, he might be judged and condemned as such, his corpse disinterred, and the whole of his property confiscated to the state, at the expense of his natural heirs. By the twenty-first article the inquisitors were ordered to extend their jurisdiction over the vassals of the great lords; and if the latter refused to recognise it, to apply to them censures and other penalties. The twenty-second provided that if the person condemned to be relaxed to the ordinary tribunal left children minors, a small portion of the confiscated property of their father should be granted them by the government in name of alms, and the inquisitors should be obliged to confide to proper persons the care of their education and Christian instruction. By the twenty-third, if a heretic reconciled during the term of grace, without having incurred the penalty of confiscation, should have acquired property from a person who would have been condemned to that penalty, such property was not to be included in or protected by the law of pardon. The twenty-fourth rendered it obligatory to restore to liberty the Christian slaves of the reconciled when confiscation had not taken place, provided the king had granted pardon only on that condition. The twenty-fifth article prohibited the inquisitors and other persons attached to the tribunal from receiving presents, under pain of incurring the greater excommunicatio, being deprived of all their employments, condemned to make restitution, and amerced in twice the value of the articles received. The twenty-sixth recommended to the officers of the Inquisition to live in peace with one another, without affectation of superiority, even on the part of him who might be invested with the powers of the ordinary of the diocese; and in case any difference should arise, it was reserved for the inquisitor-general to settle it quietly (amus eclar). By the twenty-seventh, inquisitors were expressly enjoined to watch carefully over their subordinates, in order that the latter might be exact in discharging their duties. Lastly, the twenty-eighth article committed to the prudence of the inquisitors the examination and discussion of all points which might not have been provided for in the foregoing constitutions.

Such is the substance of the Code of the Inquisition, as originally promulgated. From this abstract it is evident that the judgments and sentences pronounced would depend upon the manner in which the charge was prepared, and the personal feelings and prejudices of the individual judges. The code in question was, however, several times augmented, even in the early days of the Inquisition. In particular, there were added to it the instructions which had been prepared at Seville in the beginning of 1484, those of Valladolid in 1488, those of Toledo and Avila in 1498, and lastly those of Valladolid in 1561. But with all these modifications the forms of procedure underwent little or no change; nor was the cruel and inhuman character of the code at all mitigated. It was scarcely possible for the accused, however innocent, to establish an effectual defence. Placed between the alternative of either recognising his innocence or suspecting him of guilt, the judges constantly allowed themselves to adopt the latter course, which superseded the necessity of proof, and left the accused at their mercy.

The additional acts of the inquisitor-general Torquemada also fall under the description which has already been given. They were eleven in number, and principally intended to regulate details. They provided that in every subaltern tribunal there should be two inquisitor-jurisconsults, a fiscal, an alguacil, registrars, and other officers if required; that every functionary who received presents either from the accused or their families should be immediately dismissed; that the Inquisition should maintain at Rome an able jurisconsult, with the title of agent; that contracts signed before the year 1479 by persons whose goods happened to be seized after that period, should be valid; that proprietors who might have afforded to fugitives an asylum on their estates, should be held as having placed their whole property at the disposal of the government; that the notaries of the Inquisition should keep accounts of the effects of persons condemned; that the receivers of the Holy Office might sell that property the administration of which they found troublesome, and collect the rents of such as was immoveable; that each receiver should attend to the interests of the tribunal to which he was more immediately attached; that the goods of a person condemned could not be sequestrated without an order of the Inquisition; that the inquisitor and other officers should be paid their salaries quarterly by the receiver; and that, in regard to circumstances unprovided for in the new constitutions, the inquisitors should have a discretionary power to act as they judged best, but that, in matters of great importance, they should have recourse to the government for instructions.

The crimes of which the Inquisition took cognisance were heresy in all its different forms, apostasy, Judaism, Mohammedanism, sorcery, offences against nature, and polygamy; and the punishments consequent on conviction varied according to the presumed degree of delinquency, from temporary confinement and severe penance to the san benito and the auto-da-fe. This tribunal was not established without great opposition. The first inquisitor of Aragon was openly assassinated, and all the provinces of that kingdom offered the most strenuous resistance to a jurisdiction which trenched so much on their ancient rights and privileges. But their opposition proved unavailing, as did also an attempt made by the Cortes of Castille and Aragon to reform the Holy Office after it had been established. The Inquisition triumphed over all its adversaries, and soon became so formidable, that parents delivered up their children, husbands their wives, and masters their servants, without a murmur. Terror, in fact, constituted the great element of its power; nor was this feeling diminished by the suddenness with which it pounced on its victims, and the impenetrable secrecy in which all its proceedings were involved. Imagination lent its aid to exaggerate the fearful reality; terror froze all hearts; even kings and princes trembled before it. Nor can it be denied that, in its early days, its proceedings were marked by a bold and fearless impartiality. It scrupled not to arrest and proceed against Don Carlos of Austria, prince of the Asturias, whom death alone placed beyond the reach of its sentence. It instituted processes against Charles V., Philip II., the Duke of Alba, and other illustrious personages. Nor was it in any respect more lenient to the clergy than to the laity. Bartolomeo Caranza, archbishop of Toledo, a prelate of eminent learning, piety, and moderation, was accused of entertaining and countenancing certain opinions declared to be heretical, imprisoned for several years, and, after enduring the greatest sufferings, died before his process was brought to a close, though it ended in a sentence of absolution. With regard to the inferior clergy, a charge of heresy, or even the suspicion of having shown kindness to heretics, was almost equivalent to a capital condemnation.

The procedure of the Inquisition consisted of several parts; namely, the denunciation, the inquest, the censure by qualificators, secret imprisonment, the primary audiences, the charges, tortures, the requisitory, the defence, the proofs, the publication of the proofs, the definitive censure by qualificators, and the sentence.

The procedure of the Holy Office commenced by denunciation, or something held equivalent thereto, such as a discovery incidentally resulting from a deposition made before the tribunal in another affair; and this, when signed, assumed the form of a declaration, in which the delator, after having sworn to tell the truth, designated by their names, or in some other manner, the persons whom he believed or presumed to be able to give evidence against the denounced. Then followed the inquest, or examination of the persons named and designed in the declaration as cognisant of the facts and circumstances therein set forth, and who were made to promise upon oath that they would never reveal the interrogatories which they were to be called upon to answer. Next came the censure by the qualificators. When the tribunal had examined the preliminary instruction, and discovered therein sufficient grounds for further procedure, and when the registers of the other tribunals of the province had been examined, to ascertain if there existed in these any charges against the denounced, the whole was submitted by the inquisitors to certain theologians, called qualificators of the Holy Office, who indicated or qualified in writing the propositions meriting theological censure, as heretical, savouring of heresy, or calculated to lead to heresy. In case the denounced was only suspected of this crime, they decided whether the suspicion was light, grave, or violent. As soon as the qualification here described had been made, the procurator-fiscal demanded that the denounced should be transferred to the secret prisons of the Holy Office. The tribunal had three sorts of prisons; public, intermediary, and secret. The first were those in which the Holy Office caused to be confined persons who, without being guilty of any crime against the faith, were accused of some delict, the punishment of which belonged of right to the Inquisition. The second were destined for such servants or ministers of the Holy Office as had committed some crime or some fault in the exercise of their functions, without, however, incurring the suspicion of heresy. The third or secret prisons were those in which heretics, or persons suspected of being so, were confined, and where the prisoners could only communicate with the judges, in the cases provided and with the precautions enjoined by the constitutions.

In the three days which followed the imprisonment of the suspected, they gave him three audiences of monition or advice, to engage him to speak the truth and the whole truth, without concealing anything which he had himself done or said, or which he could impute to others contrary to the faith. He was also told that if he conformed faithfully to what had been prescribed to him in this particular, mercy would be shown him, but that in the contrary case he would be treated with all the rigour of law. After the formality of the three audiences of monition had been gone through, the procurator-fiscal prepared the indictment against the prisoner, in conformity with the heads of accusation indicated or qualified in the instruction; and although there existed only a semi-plena probatio, he charged the facts deposed to as if they had been fully proved, and what was worse, he did not limit the articles or counts of his indictment to the number of facts declared, and dispensed with applying to each head of accusation the proper character or notion which distinguished it. The next part of the procedure was the most horrible, namely the application of the torture. Although the prisoner, in the three audiences of monition, might have confessed as much as, or even more than, the witnesses had deposed to, the fiscal terminated his requisitory or accusation, by demanding that the accused should be subjected to the question, on the alleged ground of culpable concealment and denial of the truth. It is certain that for a long period the torture had not been applied by the inquisitors, either in Spain or in any other country, the mitigating and humanizing influence of time and improvement having virtually abolished this barbarity; but the form of procedure still remained unchanged. The requisitory or accusation of the fiscal was never communicated in writing to the accused, to enable him to prepare his defence. He was conducted into the hall of audience, where, in presence of the inquisitors and the fiscal, a secretary read over the charges one after another, stopping at each article, and calling upon the accused to answer at the instant, whether it was conformable to the truth or otherwise; thus laying a snare for the unhappy person who was about to be put on his trial. After the accusation had been read, the inquisitors asked the accused if he wished to be defended. If he answered in the affirmative, they ordered a copy to be taken of the accusation and answers, and, from the list of titularies of the Holy Office, appointed him an advocate. No prisoner was permitted to choose his own counsel, although there existed no law of the Holy Office which denied him this just and natural right. To the proof, and the publication of the proof, as it was called, both gross mockeries of justice, succeeded the definitive censure by the qualificators, or theologians of the Holy Office, to whom was remitted the original of the judgment they had pronounced on the summary instruction, together with an extract of the answers made by the accused in his last examination, and who were required to qualify for the second time the propositions upon which the accusation was founded, to consider the explanation given by the prisoner, and to decide whether he had, by his answers, eluded in whole or in part the suspicion of heresy with which he was charged, or whether, on the contrary, he had not fortified the suspicion of his guilt. The importance of this censure must be evident, since on it depended the definitive sentence. Yet, says Llorente, in his Hist. Crit. de l'Inquisition d'Espagne, "les qualificateurs se donnent à peine le temps d'écouter une lecture rapide de ce qui s'est passé; ils se hâtent d'établir leur opinion, et c'est là le dernier acte important de la procédure," all the rest being a simple formality. Lastly came the sentence, which, as may easily be anticipated from the nature of the procedure, was generally condemnatory of the prisoner. In fact, before the reign of Philip III., sentences of absolution were so rare in the Holy Office, that in one or even two thousand judgments we scarcely find an instance where the prisoner was fully acquitted, because the slightest doubt as to the complete innocence of the accused led the qualificators to declare him suspected de levi, and this was sufficient to induce the inquisitors to condemn him to suffer pains more or less grave, according to circumstances, and to make a formal abjuration of all kinds of heresy, particularly of that of which he had incurred the suspicion. The reading of the judgment formed the finale of the procedure which we have been endeavouring to describe; and the execution of it always commenced in the same auto-da-fe where it was read and signified. It is not necessary here to dwell on the ceremony of the auto-da-fe, which has been already discussed under the head Act or Faith. We shall only speak here of the san-benito. This vestment was merely a kind of scapulary which was fitted close to the person, and descended only to the knees, in order that it might not be confounded with any form of the monastic habit. It was made of an ordinary woollen stuff dyed yellow, with crosses of a red colour. Such was the san-benito in 1514, when Cardinal Ximenes de Cisneros caused the ordinary cross to be replaced by that of St Andrew. Afterwards, however, the inquisitors varied the forms of the san-benito, adapting them to the different classes of penitents. We shall only mention here those in common use. When a person had been declared slightly suspected of heresy, and condemned to make abjuration, if he demanded to be relieved from the censures ad cautelam, he was made to assume a san-benito which the Spaniards of the fifteenth century called zamorra, and which was merely the scapulary we have already mentioned, without a cross in saltier. But if the condemned abjured as one violently suspected, he bore one-half of this cross; and if he made abjuration as a formal heretic, he bore it entire. This, however, applied only to those who, after having been reconciled, had their lives spared. But there were other kinds of san-benito for those who were condemned to perish in the flames. He who, after having been once absolved from the crime of formal heresy, and reconciled to the church, relapsed into his former errors, was denominated relapsed, and incurred the pain of death. His fate was inevitable, however sincere his repentance. If reconciled before his death he was merely strangled, or put to death in some other manner less horrible than by fire, and then his corpse was delivered to the flames. Thus, as there were three kinds of san-benito for the three classes of condemned who were delivered to the secular arm, so also the inquisitors contrived an equal number for those who were doomed to suffer death.

The first was that of prisoners who had repented before being condemned. It was formed of a simple yellow scapulary, with an entire red cross in saltier, and a round pyramidal bonnet, called coroza, of the same stuff as the san-benito, and garnished with similar crosses, but without any representation of flames, because the repentance of the accused had saved them from death by fire. The second was destined for those who had been definitively condemned to be delivered to secular justice, in order to undergo the pains of fire, and who had repented after their condemnation, and before being conducted to the auto-da-fe. The san-benito and the coroza were made of the same stuff. On the lower part of the scapulary was represented a human bust on a brazier, whilst the rest of it was covered with the resemblance of flames pointing downwards, to indicate that the criminal was not to be burned alive, because he had not been adjudged to suffer that punishment, but only to be thrown into the flames after being strangled. The same representations were painted upon the coroza. The third was for those who were treated as guilty of final impenitence. It was made of the same stuff (serge) as the others. The lower part exhibited a human bust on a brazier, surrounded with flames; and the rest was covered with flames in their natural direction, to show that he who wore it was doomed to actual burning. On the vestment were also delineated grotesque figures of fiends, which were intended to indicate that these lying spirits had taken up their abode in the soul of the guilty. The coroza was marked with similar figures. Such were the principal forms of the san-benito. The others were intended for those adjudged to suffer milder penalties, as confinement and penance, and generally had inscribed on them the name, country, species of heresy, punishment, and date of con- damnation of the delinquent, accompanied with a cross in saltier or with flames, according to circumstances.

As the Inquisition was the creation of an intolerant age, when religious zeal was envenomed by bigotry, and exasperated by schisms and divisions, so it has fallen before the humanizing influence of modern civilization, and is now, even in Catholic countries, only a matter of history. In Spain and Portugal it has ceased to exist even in name; in Italy and other countries, where it has not been formally abolished, it is practically obsolete. But the time was when it acted with fearful energy and efficiency, and when, like the Vehmgericht, it struck terror into all hearts. In Spain alone, according to Llorente, upwards of three hundred and forty thousand persons were judged and punished, one way or other, by this tribunal. Of these nearly thirty-two thousand were burned alive. And if to this number be added all the unfortunates who were condemned by the tribunals in Mexico, Lima, Carthagena, Sicily, Sardinia, Oran, Malta, together with Naples, Milan, and Flanders, whilst these countries were under the dominion of Spain, it would probably be found that more than half a million of human beings had been condemned by this inexorable tribunal to undergo various punishments, a large proportion of which inferred infamy.