Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/405

261 THE INQUISITION. 261 this occasion, putting on the sable livery of famil- iars of the Holy Office and bearing aloft its banners, condescended to act as the escort of its ministers ; while the ceremony was not unfrequently counte- nanced by the royal presence. It should be stated, however, that neither of these acts of condescen- sion, or more properly, humiliation, were witnessed until a period posterior to the present reign. The effect was further heightened by the concourse of ecclesiastics in their sacerdotal robes, and the pom- pous ceremonial, which the church of Rome knows so well how to display on fitting occasions ; and which was intended to consecrate, as it were, this bloody sacrifice by the authority of a religion, which has expressly declared that it desires mercy and not sacrifice. ^^ CHAPTEa VI (. Spayne, fol. 46. — Puigblanch, Inquisition Unmasked, vol. i. chap. 4. — Every reader of Tacitus and Juvenal will remember how early the Christians were condemned to endure the penalty of fire. Per- haps the earliest instance of burn- ing to death for heresy in modern times occurred under the reign of Robert of France, in the early part of the eleventh century. (Sismon- di, Hist, des Francais, torn. iv. chap. 4.) Paramo, as usual, finds authority for inquisitorial autos da fe, where one would least expect it, in the New Testament. Among other examples, he quotes the re- mark of James and John, who, when the village of Samaria re- fused to admit Christ within its walls, would have called down fire from heaven to consume its inhab- itants. " Lo," says Paramo, " fire, the punishment of heretics ; for the Samaritans were the heretics of those times." (De Origine In- quisitionis, lib. 1, tit. 3, cap. 5.) The worthy father omits to add the impressive rebuke of our Sav- iour to his over-zealous disciples. " Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. The son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." 48 Puigblanch, vol. i. chap. 4. — The inquisitors after the celebra- tion of an auto da fe atGuadaloupe, in 1485, wishing probably to justify these bloody executions in the eyes of the people, who had not yet be- come familiar with them, solicited a sign from the Virgin (whose shrine in that place is noted all over Spain) in testimony of her approbation of the Holy Office Their petition was answered by such a profusion of miracles, that Dr. Francis Sanctius de la Fuente, who acted as scribe on the occa- sion, became out of breath, and after recording sixty, gave up in despair, unable to keep pace with