ruptions and its tendency to absolute despotism, than the sanction and encouragement which it extends to the practice of secret denunciation and to concealed informers. The Mosaic statutes (Lev. xix. 16-18.) were prohibitory of this evil, and prescribed the duty and obligations of the people for whom they were ordained, with the greatest clearness on this point. "Thou "shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer (or informer) among thy people, neither shalt thou stand against the blood of thy "neighbour-thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against "the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour "as thyself." The Roman law guarded the safety of the state and the honour of its citizens, by opposing themselves to the employment of spies and informers, which it was the business only of the despotic Emperors in times of great degeneracy and wickedness to encourage. In imitation of examples furnished only by the very worst governments, the Inquisition solicits in aid of its purposes and proceedings, the services of the basest and most degraded of the human species, and admits secret informers to its privacy and protection. It employs an agency which is as destructive of justice as it is subversive of humanity.

The informer, although he may have acted inconsiderately, besides being exempt from punishment, in consequence of the sophistry that the impeachment is directed to produce the amendment and not the punishment of the accused, is a treacherous enemy who strikes in an unguarded moment, when he proceeds with bad faith, since the accused is never informed of his name, in order that he may be en. abled to state his objections and exceptions; rights which are conformable to nature, to the good order of society, and which the Inquisition alone has dared to refuse. On the other hand, a wide field is not only left open to informers to establish and carry on their malevolent and false criminations, but they are even invited and compelled to become accusers. What then is the check which this tribunal places on the informer? Certainly no other than the prudence of the judges which is the same as to say their arbitrariness*.

Popes Alexander IV., Urban IV., and Clement IV., granted three years indulgence to every one who may give aid to the inquisitors, and consequently to every secret informer.-Eymeric, Director. Inquisit. Part III. quæst. cxxviii. Pius V. moreover enacted, that no regular prelate, either by way of chastisement or penance, shall be allowed, for any fault whatever, to trouble any secret informer, being one of his subjects, during the period of five years from the date of his information laid, unless the Inquisition should agree thereto, for which purpose he is previously to consult it. Lupo de Bergamo, Eova Nux in edit. S. Inquisit. Part I. Lib. iv. ditt. ix. art. iv. The penalty against the negligent and tardy, according to several pontifical decrees, is excommunication, and their being considered as abettors of heretics."

With regard to restrictions, none are to be expected in a denunciation actually commanded and ordained by the tribunal; for even in. sensible beings would be compelled to inform, if it was in their power, or else incur the penalty of the highest excommunication. Unable to extend its jurisdiction over the physical order, for the purpose of carrying its scrutinies into effect, it over-turns the moral order of things by silencing the dictates of reason, and stifling the purest sentiinents of humanity. At the same time that it attaches infinite importance to a word, and deems the persecution and death of him who uttered it as the only means of preserving religion and the state, it eagerly grasps at any instrument however weak it may be, any slight surmise, although it may have the strongest presumptions of right against it, and holds them in the light of props to the edifice it endeavours to sustain. Not only females and striplings under age, on whose judgment little reliance can be placed, but the infamous, those who are pronounced banes of society, and even the perjured, who are public.y known to disregard the sacred solemnity of an oath, are all admitted, and even enjoined, to lodge informations before this tribunal, without any other restriction than being bound to swear that they have been induced to this measure by no other impulse than a zeal for the faith and the dread of punishment. The Inquisition does not stop here. It believes, or feigns to believe, that the excommunicated, the heretic himself, nay, even the infidel, takes a true interest in religion when he subscribes to an impeachment and is admitted*. Legislators who thus unblushingly trampled on the rights of justice, could not be expected to pay any regard to the tender ties of domestic piety. Among us, therefore, one brother is not secure against another, the mother is rendered suspicious to her own children; and the spouse, or father of a family, busied in daily labour to provide sustenance for the objects of his tender love, in all of them has a continual spy, because it is thus the pharisaical inquisitor ordainst." Vol. 1. pp. 174-177.

What an exhibition of accumulated evils do the preceding paragraphs contain! Can any thing be more iniquitous and revolting than the conduct of persons who, being themselves destitute of all religious qualifications, denounce others as offenders against religion? Hypocrisy in all cases is detestable; in matters of religion it is peculiarly odious; but when practised, whether by a party or by individuals, for the purpose of reproaching and injuring others, or exposing them to peril, it surely reaches the height of consummate baseness. What effrontery must they possess who declaim against delinquencies with which they themselves are contaminated? who take a prompt and eager part in the prosecution of persons charged with violations of laws which

* De Hæret. Cap. Accusat. in. 6. What is said in this decretal of the witness, is also to be understood of the secret informer; -for in fact he acts both parts.-Eymeric, Director. Inquisit. Part II, Cap. xiii. et Part iii. n. 68.

f Eymeric, Director. Inquisit. Part II. Cap. lxx,

they habitually transgress? Proceedings of this kind, base as they are, are not limited to Inquisitors. There have been instances of the strongest invectives being uttered against the alleged profaneness of persons whom it was wished to punish, by men whose mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.' T'hey have been heard to inveigh against the tendency of actions to bring religion into contempt, who are themselves dishonouring it. Can any thing be more scandalous than for the unbelieving and the unholy to affect zeal for a cause to which they are in heart opposed? Can any species of falsehood he inore atrocious than that which is committed by persons of this description standing forward as witnesses or accusers against others charged with being irreligious, and declaring themselves moved by zeal for the honour of religion, when, at the same time, they are averse to religion, impatient of its restraints, mockers of its solemnities, aud" lovers of pleasure more than "Jovers of God?"

We should extend our review of the present work to a length which would exceed the proper limits, were we to insert every passage which either on account of its interesting narrative or Juminous argumentation, we have marked in our progress through the volumes; we must therefore content ourselves with laying before our readers such specimens of their contents as will be found in the following quotations.

When a denunciation has been made to the Inquisition, of persons charged with any of the supposed errors or crimes of which it takes cognizance; when false witnesses, it may be, have risen up against a man, and, breathing out cruelty against him, laid to his charge things which he knows not; when individuals of correct morals, but whose known or supposed opinions do not correspond with the tenets prescribed by a set of mortals as liable to error as any of their kind, are marked for crimination ; the informer and the witnesses are heard by the inquisitors, who, on receiving a ratification of their first report, impose silence upon them by the same oath which accompanied their declaration: this constitutes the summary impeachment, which is laid before the Supreme Council, and its approbation being obtained, the arrest is carried into execution.

This is given in charge to the high bailiff, who executes his commission by carrying with him a competent number of ministers, taking the necessary precautions to surprise the culprit, which is generally done at night. The law prescribes that the receiver and notary of sequestrations should also be present at the arrest, for in this tribunal confiscation forms an essential part of the process. The party then sets out, and dread and consternation seize on the culprit and his family. The thunderbolt launched from the black and angry cloud,

* Compilacion de Instrucciones, n. 6.

strikes not with such alarm as the sound of " DELIVER YOURSELF UP A PRISONER TO THE INQUISITION!" (Dése v. preso por la In quisicion.) Astonished and trembling, the unwary citizen hears the dismal voice, a thousand different affections at once seize upon his panic-struck frame-he remains perplexed and motionless. His life in danger, his deserted wife and orphan children, eternal infamy, the only patrimony that now awaits his bereft family, are all ideas which rush upon his mind-he is at once agitated by an agony of dilemma and despair. The burning tear scarcely glistens on his livid cheek, the accents of woe die on his lips, and amidst the alarm and desolation of his family, and the confusion and pity of his neighbours, he is borne away to dungeons, whose damp and bare walls can alone witness the anguish of his mind.' Vol. I. pp. 189, 190.

The horrors of such a situation are not to be conveyed by even the most eloquent description; words are utterly insufficient to represent the mental anguish and the complicated distress of scenes like this. How much is the whole interest of the case heightened by the consideration that this tremendous visitation may fall on persons of spotless reputation and of most meritorious character, and that it is directed by bigoted or dotard priests who have been permitted to ascend the seat of secular authority, and by all that is appalling and terrific in suffering to uphold their dogmas and their superstitions! Their unhappy victims thus torn from their families, are hurried off to the receptacles of the wretched, which, says our Author, are edifices of such ancient and gloomy structure, that their sight alone caused terror.'

In one of these edifices, whose black and furrowed walls announce the melancholy gloom that reigns within; massive piles, which have long withstood the injuries of time, and for ages witnessed the rising and setting of the sun without receiving comfort from its beams; sable and rugged structures, on which whole generations have looked with terror and dismay-in one of these edifices in short, which im. moveable amidst the lapse of time, and whence when the prisoner comes forth he can reveal nothing, present the tremendous image of eternity, was usually confined the father of a family, perhaps his amiable wife or tender daughter, the exemplary priest, or peaceful scholar; and in the mean time his house was bathed in tears and filled with desolation. Venerable matrons and timid damsels, have been hurried from their homes, and, ignorant of the cause of their misfortune, have awakened from the phrenzy of the brain, and found themselves here alone and helpless in a solitary cell. Here the amanly youth, torn from his bewailing kindred, and often wrested from ties still more endearing, pines amid damp seclusion and chill despair, and vainly invokes the names of objects which so lately thrilled him with pleasure. The dripping vaults re-echo the sighs of the aged father, no longer encircled by the fond endearments of a numerous progeny; all, in short, are condemned to drag existence

amidst a death-like silence, and, as it were, immured from the sight of their weeping relatives.

Such are the afflicted inhabitants of the awful cells of the Inquisition, awaiting the tardy but inexorable sentence that is to decide their fate. Haply some may escape; again they may behold the light of day; perhaps innocence may triumph over rancour, malice, and fanaticism; but where are they to look for redress for what they have suffered, when even the privilege of complaining is denied them? What a train of melancholy ideas rush to the imagination of him who contemplates the secrets of the Inquisition, and fathoms the malice of which it is capable! What sensible man, to speak without disguise, and it is certainly time now to be candid, can fail to impute all kinds of disorders to an institution of this nature, notwithstanding its artifices to hide them from the eye of the public and the research of the historian.' Vol. I. pp. 191-193.

The examination of the unhappy persons whom the Inquisition has immured in its horrid dungeons, is conducted with every refinement of iniquity. Every artifice is employed against them. Oaths are administered to them, by which they are strictly enjoined to make the most particular disclosures. They are cajoled by promises, they are terrified by threatenings. Their judges, intent on their condemnation, rather than solicitous for their deliverance, discard every principle of equity from the rules of their proceedings, which present a finished picture of the perversion of justice, and the combination of fraud and cruelty.

Scarcely recovered from the surprise caused by his arrest, and appalled by the contrast his imagination forms of the many and secret steps previously taken, compared with the state of security in which he lately lived, from that moment the prisoner begins to despair, and, hopeless and dismayed, he already beholds the torment that awaits him. Bewildered, as in the mazes of a labyrinth, wherever he turns his eyes some fresh object increases his pain, and adds to his anguish. Under the undoubted supposition that, in this abode of wretchedness, the appearances of the most officious charity conceal acts of insidious cruelty, he beholds no one who is not an enemy, and hears nothing that is not directed to his ruin.' p. 206.

Judicial proceedings never can be conducted in a manner favourable to the good of society, or fair towards the accused, unless the witnesses who depose against a prisoner, are confronted with him. In the Inquisition, the prisoner never knows who is his accuser, nor who are the witnesses that appear against him; the utmost precaution is taken to keep him profoundly ignorant of these. In cases where doubt exists as to the identity of the prisoner's person, the witnesses view him from a secret place where they cannot be seen; or else they are brought before him with masks on their faces, and covered with cloaks from head to foot. Can any situation,' the Author remarks," "be imagined more like that of our Redeemer in the house of Caiaphas, when his executioners, after binding his eyes, struck,