Part 16 (2/2)
L, aware of the danger, had food given theht, as they were able to bear it
We then proceeded, said Col L, to explore another room on the left
Here we found the instruenuity of men or devils could invent Col L, here described four of these horrid instruments The first was awith the fingers, every joint in the hands, arms and body, were broken or drawn one after another, until the victim died The second was a box, in which the head and neck of the victim were so closely confined by a screw that he could not move in any way Over the box was a vessel, from which one drop of water a second, fell upon the head of the victi upon precisely the same place on the head, suspended the circulation in a few ony The third was an infernal machine, laid horizontally, to which the victi placed between two bea the machine with a crank, the flesh of the sufferer was torn from his limbs, all in senuity Its exterior was a beautiful woe doll, richly dressed, with arms extended, ready, to embrace its victim Around her feet a semi-circle was drawn
The victi which caused the diabolical engine to open; its arms clasped him, and a thousand knives cut him into as many pieces in the deadly eines of infernal cruelty kindled the rage of the soldiers to fury They declared that every inquisitor and soldier of the inquisition should be put to the torture Their rage was ungovernable Col L, did not oppose theainst hian with the holy fathers The first they put to death in thejoints The torture of the inquisitor put to death by the dropping of water on his head was ony to be taken froht before the infernal engine called ”The Virgin” He begged to be excused ”No” said they, ”you have caused others to kiss her, and now you must do it” They interlocked their bayonets so as to fore forks, and with these pushed hie instantly prepared for the embrace, clasped him in its arms, and he was cut into innumerable pieces Col L said, he witnessed the torture of four of them--his heart sickened at the awful scene--and he left the soldiers to wreak their vengeance on the last guilty inmate of that prison-house of hell
In the h Madrid that the prisons of the Inquisition were broken open, and multitudes hastened to the fatal spot
And, Oh, what awas there! It was like a resurrection! About a hundred who had been buried for many years were now restored to life
There were fathers who had found their long lost daughters; wives were restored to their husbands, sisters to their brothers, parents to their children; and there were so the ue can describe
When the s, furniture, etc, to be reon load of powder, he deposited a large quantity in the vaults beneath the building, and placed a slow match in connection with it All had withdrawn to a distance, and in a few ht to thousands The walls and turrets of the massive structure rose majestically towards the heavens, impelled by the tremendous explosion, and fell back to the earth an immense heap of ruins The Inquisition was no iven by Col Lehmanowsky of the destruction of the inquisition in Spain Was it then finally destroyed, never again to be revived? Listen to the testimony of the Rev Giacinto Achilli, D D
Surely, his statements in this respect can be relied upon, for he is himself a convert froy, and Vicar of the Master of the Sacred Apostolic Palace”
He certainly had every opportunity to obtain correct information on the subject, and in a book published by his with the Inquisition,” we find, (page 71) the following startling announcement ”We are now in the middle of the nineteenth century, and still the Inquisition is actually and potentially in existence This disgrace to humanity, whose entire history is a mass of atrocious crimes, committed by the priests of the Church of Rome, in the name of God and of His Christ, whose vicar and representative, the pope, the head of the Inquisition, declares himself to be,--this abominable institution is still in existence in Roe 89) he says, ”And this most infamous Inquisition, a hundred times destroyed and as often renewed, still exists in Ro that the same iniquities are at present practiced there with a little more secrecy and caution than formerly, and this for the sake of prudence, that the Holy See may not be subjected to the anie 82 of the sae ”I do not propose to myself to speak of the Inquisition of times past, but of what exists in Rome at the present moment; I shall therefore assert that the laws of this institution being in no respect changed, neither can the institution itself be said to have undergone any alteration The present race of priests who are now in power are too nation to let loose all their inquisitorial fury, which ht even occasion a revolt if they were not to restrain it; the whole world, ainst theainst the Inquisition, and, for a little teered This is the true reason why the severity of its penalties is in soree relaxed at the present tiain on page 102, he says, ”Are the torments which are employed at the present day at the Inquisition all a fiction? It requires the impudence of an inquisitor, or of the Archbishop of Westminister to deny their existence I have myself heard these evil-minded persons lament and complain that their victims were treated with too much lenity
”What is it you desire?” I inquired of the inquisitor of Spoleto
”That which St Thomas Aquinas says,” answered he; ”DEATH TO ALL THE HERETICS”
”Hand over, then, to one of these people, a person, however respectable; give him up to one of the inquisitors, (he who quoted St Thoive up, I say, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, an amiable and pious man, to one of these rabid inquisitors; he must either deny his faith or be burned alive Is ? Is not this the spirit that invariably actuates the inquisitors? and not the inquisitors only, but all those who in any way defile themselves with the inquisition, such as bishops and their vicars, and all those who defend it, as the papists do There is the renowned Dr Wise to the pope's creation, the same who has had the assurance to censure me from his pulpit, and to publish an infaether, as on a dunghill, every species of filth fronatius Loyola; and there is no lie or caluainst me Well, then, suppose I were to be handed over to the tender mercy of Dr Wiseman, and he had the full power to dispose ofhis character in the eyes of the nation to which, by parentage ine he would do with o some death more terrible than ordinary? Would not a council be held with the reverend fathers of the coested the abominable calumnies above alluded to, in order to invent so me out of the world? I feel persuaded that if I were condemned by the Inquisition to be burned alive,fire to it with his own hands; or should strangulation be preferred, that he would, with equal readiness, arrange the cord around lory of the Inquisition, of which, according to his oath, he is a true and faithful servant”
This, then, according to Dr Achilli is the spirit of Rohtful as anything described in the foregoing story?
But let us listen to his further ree 75 he says, ”What, then, is the Inquisition of the nineteenth century? The saes That which raised the Crusade and roused all Europe to arms at the voice of a monk [Footnote: Bernard of Chiaravalle] and of a hermit, [Footnote: Peter the Hermit] That which--in the name of a God of peace, h love for sinners, gave hienses and the Waldenses; filled France with desolation, under Domenico di Guzman; raised in Spain the funeral pile and the scaffold, devastating the fair kingdoh the assistance of those detestable monks, Raimond de Pennefort, Peter Arbues, and Cardinal Forqueisters in the annals of France the fatal 24th of August, and the 5th of Noveland”
That same system which at this moment flourishes at Rome, which has never yet been either worn out or on of the priests, is called a ”the holy, Roman, universal, apostolic Inquisition Holy, as the place where Christ was crucified is holy; apostolic, because Judas Iscariot was the first inquisitor; Roman and universal, because FROM ROME IT EXTENDS OVER ALL THE WORLD It is denied by some that the Inquisition which exists in Rohout the world by means of the anda are in close connection with each other Every bishop who is sent in partibus infideliuh the means of his missionaries, whatever is said or done by others in reference to Roation to make his report secretly The Apostolic nuncios are all inquisitors, as are also the Apostolic vicars Here, then, we see the Roain this sae 112,) that ”the principal object of the Inquisition is to possess themselves, by every means in their power, of the secrets of every class of society
Consequently its agents (Jesuits and Missionaries,) enter the domestic circle, observe every motion, listen to every conversation, and would, if possible, becohts It is in fact, the police, not only of Rome, but of all Italy; INDEED, IT MAY BE SAID OF THE WHOLE WORLD”
The above statements of Dr Achilli are fully corroborated by the Rev
Wm H Rule, of London In a book published by him in 1852, entitled ”The Brand of Do remarks in relation to the Inquisition of the present tied to have an infinite multitude of affairs constantly on hand, which necessitates its assee thrice every week Still there are criminals, and criminal processes The body of officials are still maintained on established revenues of the holy office So far froation of severity or judicial improvement in the spirit of its administration, the criminal has now no choice of an advocate; but one person, and he a servant of the Inquisition, performs an idle ceremony, under the name of advocacy, for the conviction of all And let the reader mark, that as there are bishops in partibus, so, in like manner, there are inquisitors of the same class appointed in every country, and chiefly, in Great Britain and the colonies, who are sworn to secrecy, and of course coation of all that can be conceived capable of comprehension within the infinitude of its affairs We must, therefore, either believe that the court of Rome is not in earnest, and that this apparatus of universal jurisdiction is but a shadow,--an assumption which is contrary to all experience,--or we must understand that the spies and fa at our doors, and intruding themselves on our hearths How they proceed, and what their brethren at Ro, events may tell; BUT WE MAY BE SURE THEY ARE NOT IDLE
They were not idle in Rome in 1825, when they rebuilt the prisons of the Inquisition They were not idle in 1842, when they imprisoned Dr
Achilli for heresy, as he assures us; nor was the captain, or so in their name, took his watch from him as he came out They were not idle in 1843, when they renewed the old edicts against the Jews And all the world knows that the inquisitors on their stations throughout the pontifical states, and the inquisitorial agents in Italy, Ger the last four years, and even at this moment, when every political misdemeanor that is deeainst the Inquisition, and visited with punish forh it may please them to deny that Dr Achilli saw and exa the praxis now in use, the criminal code of inquisitors in force at this day,--as Archibald Bower had an abstract of such a book given hio,--they cannot convince me that I have not seen and handled, and used in the preparation of this volume, the coulations, given to the vicars of the inquisitor-general of Modena
They , of which Dr
Achilli speaks, as er used; but that it is ain isseen that the ”sacred congregation” has fixed a rate of fees for the ordering, witnessing, and administration of TORTURE There was indeed, a talk of abolishi+ng torture at Roation will not drop theany such reforation has kept silence For although a continuation of the bullary has just been published at Roation, there is not one that announces a fulfilined by a correspondent to French newspapers, but never given by the inquisitors themselves And as there is no proof that they have yet abstained froe ahted thes became inexpedient--as at Goa--did they not make provision for private executions?
For a third ti of those of the provinces--were broken open, in 1849, after the desertion of Pius IX, and two prisoners were found there, an aged bishop and a nun
Many persons in Ro what is already before the public, I translate a letter addressed to eneral of the Roman army, in reply to a few questions which I had put to hie whether his account of facts be not marked with every note of accuracy They will believe that his power of oratory DOES NOT betray him into random declamation Under date of March 20th, 1852, he writes thus: