bestowed upon man; divested of every particle of inhumanity throughout the whole range of its principles, it forms man to a character of benevolence and love, in which meekness, compassion, and all the mild and humane virtues are displaying their lustre, and producing their effects, which are ever in favour of the good of human beings, how erroneous soever may be their opinions. Mankind never can have learned from the Gospel to treat each other harshly and cruelly. The Inquisition originated in other causes than obedience to Christ could ever have suggested, and its spirit and proceedings unequivocally proclaim its Antichristian nature. How sad is the consideration, that only from this and similar institutes, a large portion of our fellow creatures form their estimate of Christ's religion! As they perceive it, it appears to be a curse rather than a blessing. Angry, and frowning on all attempts to enlighten the human race and extend their liberties, it yokes and chains the mind to its superstitions, and tortures and destroys the inquirers after the reasons of a true faith. The most tremendous visitation of the world has been by the Ministry of a corrupt priesthood, who have been the scourges of the earth. Practising wickedness, and prospering in violence, they have worn out the Saints of the Most High, and scattered the wrecks of their implacable fury against the just and the good, in every place to which they could extend their influence. Their atrocities and crimes and the mischiefs which their machinations have produced, make us forget all other perpetrators of evil, and vail the enormities of even giants in wickedness, from our eyes. How much must it excite our astonishment that mankind should ever have given themselves up, bound hand and foot, into the power of an ecclesiastical despotism, whose achievements, before its grand conquests were designated by the land-marks of Inquisitions, had given warning of its purposes! Into what ignominious debasement had mankind fallen, what blighted minds and withered hearts were theirs, when this abomination was first permitted to defile the earth! This institution has a council established at court, under the title of Supreme and General Inquisition, and the other provincial tribunals are dependent on this council. This is composed of a president, the Inquisitor General of Spain and the Indies, who is generally a bishop or archbishop, and of eight ecclesiastical counsellors as members, six belonging to the secular clergy, of whom the youngest officiates as fiscal-proctor in behalf of the bench. Of the other two, one is always a Dominican, according to privilege granted to that order by Philip III.; and the other is chosen by turns out of the other religious orders, as regulated by Charles III. Besides the above, two counsellors of Castile attend when they are called, which is only in cases purely civil, Its officers and subalterns are a fiscal-proctor; two secretaries; two, and sometimes three, reporters; a treasurer usually called receiver an accomptant; one chief, and two inferior bailiffs; and also several theologians called qualificators, who decide on matters of faith, and examine all doctrines and propositions. The provincial tribunals have three and sometimes four inquisitors of the secular clergy; one proctor, who is always the youngest of the above; three or four secretaries of the chamber of secrecy; another for sequestrations and all civil matters; a receiver or treasurer; one accomptant; one chief bailiff; and two inferior ones; together with other dependents called commissaries and familiars, who, scattered throughout the district of each of the tribunals, serve to fulfil their orders. They have also qualificators, similar to those described as belonging to the supreme council, as well as counsellors, who are lawyers, and are consulted on points of law; however, at present, these only are on the establishments of America, and are generally members of the Audiencias or high courts of justice in that country. Of these tribunals there are sixteen in Spain, viz. the territorial one of Madrid, also called that of the court; one in Seville, Toledo, Cordova, Zaragoza, Barcelona, Valencia, Santiago, Murcia, Valladolid, Cuença, Granada, Llerena, Logrono, Majorca, and the Canary Islands. In America there are three, viz. in Mexico, Lima, and Car thagena. The Inquisitor General is named by the king and confirmed by the pope; but the simple approbation of his Majesty is sufficient to confer the dignity of counsellor or member of the supreme council; and the inquisitors themselves, without any previous consultation, elect their own officers and other dependents. The diocesan bishop also sends his coadjutor or some other ecclesiastic, to the tribunal within his district, as his own representative, who acts in the quality of associate judge, jointly with those named by the Inquisitor General, Such in substance are the origin and form of the establishment we are about to consider, under the various heads pointed out.' Introd. pp. 14-17. In the first chapter, the meekness which ought to distinguish the Ministers of the Gospel, is well defined and argued, and the incompatibility of a rigorous tribunal, with the spirit of the Gospel, is clearly demonstrated. Measures of meekness and persuasion alone ought to be adopted, worthily to sustain the religion of Jesus Christ; coercion and rigour, far from contributing to its support, only render it odious. Nothing is more palpable in the Gospel, and other books of the New Testament, than the benignity therein breathed. In the second chapter, the Author perplexes himself, and entangles his argument by adducing the authority of the Fathers in support of his discussions: A very laboured but untenable apology for Augustin, is offered by the Author in this part of his work, which only serves to shew the utter impropriety of collecting precedents in favour of his principle from the dicta or practice of the Holy Fathers,' men frequently of strange opinions and indefensible conduct. Augustin allowed of every degree and kind of religious persecution not extending to deprivation of life; and this melancholy and absurd judgement is, after all the attempts of the Author to modify and soften the opinions of the Bishop of Hippo, conspicuous in the statements and conclusions which he has furnished. Loosened from his bondage to the Fathers, an unhappy tax imposed upon him as a Romanist, the Author regains possession of his Christian principles, and in the third chapter of the work, enters on a train of argument worthy of a highly endowed and virtuous mind. A noble eloquence breathes throughout this part of the composition, and gives to truth the animation that moves it to the conscience and the heart. The proposition which heads this admirable chapter, is universal in its application, and our readers will not fail to discern its direction beyond the strict purpose of its present introduction: the sentiments which constitute its elucidation are of irresistible strength in teaching men the wickedness and folly of employing coercion in the service of Religion. The Inquisition, far from contributing to the preservation of the true belief, is only suited to encourage hypocrisy and excite the people to rebellion. Even if meekness were not one of the characteristic virtues of the Christian religion, it nevertheless ought to be esteenied as the best means of extending and preserving it in all its parity. Meekness tends to aid truth in her conquests; and whenever both act in due concert, scarcely any understanding can resist their united power. He who possesses the celestial gift of sweetness, makes the universe his own, for no heart is so jealous of its freedom and independence as not to become its tributary. It is in this sense I understand the hap piness Jesus Christ promises to the "mild of heart," when he says, they shall possess the land," as a reward for this divine quality. The tranquillity with which they enjoy the fruits of their virtue, is equal to the facility with which they acquired it; for there is no one so unjust as to disturb it, as David, in former times, gave his assurance. Monarchs themselves, according to Seneca, make their thrones more secure when they found their empire on the principles of mildness. • Quisquis placide potens, Dominusque vitæ, servat innocuas manus, Vel læta felix nemoris Elysii loca.' And if this observation holds good in all cases in which it is intended to conciliate the affections and opinions of mankind in favour of truth and justice, will it not have a double effect in maintaining the belief of religion? It is therefore useless, or at least difficult for the understanding, that is the most independent part of man, to yield to the impressions it is attempted to excite in favour of the faith, if, at the same time, its natural companion, the will, is ruffled by irritation. In this case the victory would be ideal, and the insensate man who should flatter himself with thus having obtained one, would reap no other fruits from his labour than a satisfaction equally vain and criminal. In welcome let the Mahometan professors of divinity boast their ignominious right of forcibly sustaining and propagating their tenets in default of prudence and reason; let the Arabs, who intruded into Europe, ruined Greece, and trampled science under their feet, establish the credibility of their dogmas by means of the scimitar; but the ministers of a religion like that of Jesus Christ, founded on enlightened principles and requiring a rational worship, can never promote its respect and defence by measures of violence and rigour.* Can any enlightened Spaniard be found to exist who, jealous of the glory of his nation, which having at length reached the happy day when the chains of despotism are broken asunder and the voice of truth is heard among us, shall fail to cry out against a tribunal that wears the cross of Jesus Christ accompanied by the sword of Nero as the boasted emblem of its authority? Is there any one so prejudiced as not to discover, on the slightest reflection, that a tribunal which presents the monstrous aspect of meekness supported by terror,† far from doing honour to the Gospel and human reason, only deserves to find a place in the book of Mahometan precepts.' Vol. I. pp. 80-83. Strange, indeed, are the contradictions discovered in the proceedings of this tribunal. It has subjected culprits to an examination under torture, in order to wrest from their mouths the truth with regard to their belief: and, at the same time, has placed them on the scaffold when they have refused to commit a falsehood, not to act treacherously to their own sentiments and to the truth. Such conduct would be pardonable if a forced and purely mechanical I worship was pleasing to the Creator; but if it is the intention that gives value to human actions,-if the preferable worship is that of the heart,-if it is the spirit of those who adore the Celestial Father which makes their adoration real,-What glory can result to this infinite Being by such outrages? How can he have been pleased with those offerings made to him by the Inquisition of so many unhappy victims, terrified by its threats, or exterminated by its rigours? The priests of ancient Mexico, were impressed with the idea that they appeased their deities by offering to them the hearts of the wretched persons chosen for these horrid sacrifices, torn by main force out of their entrails. And, foorsooth, do not our Inquisitors resemble them?" pp. 91-92. The Author would not have committed an error in judgement, if he had given the Inquisitors the darker side of the coinparison. The sentiments of the preceding passages are such Rom. Cap. xii. 1. "Obsecro vos, fratres, per misericordiam Dei, ut exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam viventem sanctam Deo placentem, rationabile obsequium vestrum." + The coat of arms used by the Inquisition is a green cross on a black field with an olive-branch on the right side and a naked sword on the left; and this motto taken from Psalm lxxiii. 22. placed round: "Exurge, Domine, judica causam tuam." Arise, Lord, plead thine own cause. as every mind which error and fraud have not darkened, must perceive and approve. Their strict accordance with the known principles of human nature, and with truth, will supply the reason that an enlightened state of the public mind ever raises a barrier against the pressure of intolerance, and opposes so effective a resistance to the spirit of persecution. Wherever the philosophy of mind is understood and cultivated, the objects of faith will be left in exclusive possession of their own attractions and evidence to find recipients. Hence also it has ever been the business of intolerant establishments, to fetter the intellect and to prevent the improvement of man in moral science ;-an employment in which the Inquisition has conspicuously distinguished itself. That external force can never open the understanding, or engage the heart to receive principles, is one of the most evident of axioms. That it is hostile to truth and makes men hypocrites, is not less certain. Instances of the following description can excite in us no surprise. Examples are not wanting in this tribunal to confirm the inutility of all violent measures in matters of religion. One of them is evinced in what happened, about the year 1334, with a clergyman of the name of Benanat, a resident of Villa Franca del Panadés, in the principality of Catalonia. Whilst a prisoner, and condemned to the flames, together with two companions, he consented to be placed on the faggots rather than retract from his errors; but when one of his sides was scorched, and the pain had become so great that he could no Jonger endure it, he cried out to be removed from thence, for he was ready to abjure. He was, consequently, taken down, and on abjuring was reconciled to the Church; but fourteen years afterwards, it was discovered that he had continued under his former erroneous maxims. Imprisoned a second time, and placed on the burning pile, as in consequence of his having relapsed he had now no pardon to expect, he died persisting in his contumacy, as most probably he would have done the first time if that sentence had been like the second, irrevocable." p. 32. What interesting but galling truths, what just but poignant reproaches, remarks our Author, would not the tribunal of the Inquisition have heard from the mouths of the victims it so untimely immolated to the faith, if they had been allowed to pronounce them? He has provided a remonstrance of this kind, and supposes its delivery by a tortured sufferer at the burning place to his persecutors. What indignant but just feeling! What cutting but well deserved rebukes are conveyed in this expostulation! What is it ye require of me, ye judges who thus defend the religion of Jesus Christ? Is it that I renounce my own opinion and acquiesce in yours? This command might be proper if it rested with myself to change my understanding in order to decide on the reasons you comprehend, but which to me it is not given even to perceive. |