opinion in the eighteenth century swept it out of existence, together with cruel forms of punishment.
This victory is due to the combined influence of justice, humanity, and tolerance.
Notes.
I. "The whole system of the Inquisition," says Lea (p. 331), "was such as to render the resort
to torture inevitable. Its proceedings were secret; the prisoner was carefully kept in ignorance of
the exact charges against him, and of the evidence upon which they were based. He was presumed
to be guilty, and his judges bent all their energies to force him to confess. To accomplish this, no
means were too base or too cruel. Pretended sympathizers were to be let into his dungeon, whose
affected friendship might entrap him into an unwary admission; officials armed with fictitious
evidence were directed to frighten him with assertions of the testimony obtained against him from
supposititious witnesses; and no resources of fraud or guile were to be spared in overcoming the
caution and resolution of the poor wretch whose mind had been carefully weakened by solitude,
suffering, hunger, and terror. From this to the rack and estrapade the step was easily taken, and was
not long delayed." For details see the works on the Inquisition. Llorente (Hist. crit. de l’Inquisition
d’Espagne IV. 252, quoted by Gieseler III. 409 note 11) states that from 1478 to the end of the
administration of Torquemada in 1498, when he resigned, "8800 persons were burned alive, 6500
in effigy, and 90,004 punished with different kinds of penance. Under the second general-inquisitor,
the Dominican, Diego Deza, from 1499 to 1506, 1664 persons were burned alive, 832 in effigy,
32,456 punished. Under the third general-inquisitor, the Cardinal and Archbishop of Toledo, Francis
Ximenes de Cisneros, from 1507 to 1517, 2536 were burned alive, 1368 in effigy, 47,263 reconciled."
Llorente was a Spanish priest and general secretary of the Inquisition at Madrid (from 1789–1791),
and had access to all the archives, but his figures, as he himself admits, are based upon probable
calculations, and have in some instances been disproved. He states, e.g. that in the first year of
Torquemada’s administration 2000 persons were burned, and refers to the Jesuit Mariana (History
of Spain), but Mariana means that during the whole administration of Torquemada "duo millia
crematos igne." See Hefele, Cardinal Ximenes, p. 346. The sum total of persons condemned to
death by the Spanish Inquisition during the 330 years of its existence, is stated to be 30,000. Hefele
(Kirchenlexikon, v. 656) thinks this sum exaggerated, yet not surprising when compared with the
number of witches that were burnt in Germany alone. The Spanish Inquisition pronounced its last
sentence of death in the year 1781, was abolished under the French rule of Joseph Napoleon, Dec.
4, 1808, restored by Ferdinand VII. 1814, again abolished 1820, and (after another attempt to restore
it) in 1834. Catholic writers, like Balmez (I.c. chs. xxxvi. and xxxvii.) and Hefele (Cardinal Ximenes,
p. 257–389, and in Wetzer and Welte’s Kirchen-Lexicon, vol. V. 648–659), charge Llorente with
inaccuracy in his figures, and defend the Catholic church against the excesses of the Spanish
Inquisition, as this was a political rather than ecclesiastical institution, and had at least the good
effect of preventing religious wars. But the Inquisition was instituted with the express sanction of
Pope Sixtus IV. (Nov. 1, 1478), was controlled by the Dominican order and by Cardinals, and as
to the benefit, the peace of the grave-yard is worse than war. Hefele adds, however (V. 657): "Nach
all’ diesen Bemerkungen sind wir öbrigens weit entfernt, der Spanichen Inquisition an sich das
Wort reden zu wollen, vielmehr bestreiten wir der weltlichen Gewalt durchaus die Befugniss, das
Gewissen zu knebeln, und sind von Herzensgrund aus jedem staatlichen Religionszwang abhold,
mag er von einem Torquemada in der Dominikanerkutte, oder von einem Bureaucraten in der
Staatsuniform ansgehen. Aber das wollten wir zeigen, dass die Inquisition das schaendliche
Ungeheuer nicht war, wozu es Parteileidenschaft und Unwissenheit häufig stempeln wollten."
rick simeone
(Rick Simeone)
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