Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/403

259 THE INQUISITION. 259 The proceedings of the tribunal, as I have stated chapteh them, were plainly characterized throughout by the '■ — n ... 1 • 1 • 1 Injustice of most iiaffrant miustice and mhumanity to the ac- jtsprocecj- o •J J ings. cused. Instead of presuming his innocence, until his guilt had been established, it acted on exactly the opposite principle. Instead of affording him the protection accorded by every other judicature, and especially demanded in his forlorn situation, it used the most insidious arts to circumvent and to crush him. He had no remedy against malice or misapprehension on the part of his accusers, or the witnesses against him, who might be his bitterest enemies ; since they were never revealed to, nor confronted with the prisoner, nor subjected to a cross-examination, which can best expose error or wilful collusion in the evidence. ^^ Even the poor forms of justice, recognised in this court, might be readily dispensed with ; as its proceedings were impenetrably shrouded from the public eye, by the appalling oath of secrecy imposed on all, whether functionaries, witnesses, or prisoners, who entered de I'Inquisition, ubi supra. — I Inquisition at Madrid, and his Es- shall spare the reader the descrip- cape in 1817- 18." tion of the various modes of tor- ^4 The prisoner had indeed the lure, the rack, fire, and pulley, right of challenging any witness practised by the inquisitors, which on the ground of personal enmity, have been so often detailed in the (Llorente, Hist, de I'Inquisition, doleful narratives of such as have torn. i. chap. 9, art. 10.) But as had the fortune to escape with life he was kept in ignorance of the from the fangs of the tribunal. If names of the witnesses employed we are to believe Llorente, these against him, and as even, if he barbarities have not been decreed conjectured right, the degree of for a long time. Yet some recent enmity, competent to set aside tes- statements are at variance with timony, was to be determined by this assertion. See, among oth- his judges, it is evident that his ers, the celebrated adventurer Van privilege of challenge was wholly Haien's " Narrative of his Impris- nugatory, onment in the Dungeons of the