Page:The "Trial" of Ferrer - A Clerical Judicial Murder (IA 2916970.0001.001.umich.edu).pdf/23

 unnecessarily. No proclamation of any sort was mentioned among the findings in the oflicial act signed by the wit- It is to be noted that Ferrer was in jail at the time of the two last scarches ; therefore it was not "pos- sible" for him to be present, as the law demands. What was Ferrer doing during the outbreak ? On the 26th, the first day of the troubles, he had gone to Barcelona on errands; that night he returned to Mas Germinal. There his family, fearing new persecutions, prevailed upon him to hide. Nobody saw him any more for some time, until on the first of September, hearing of the edict against him, Ferrer came out of hiding to present himself volun- tarily before the judge. He was met on the road to Bar- celona by volunteer policemen who recognized and arrested him. Hearing of his arrest, the whole of Europe began to protest. The enemies of Ferrer began to fear that their prey was going to escape them again. They started to inflame public opinion by giving a free rein to the clerical papers and their campaign of slander,88 and by muzzling the liberal press through censorship." Finally they hur- ried the trial through at top speed, after having it trans- ferred to military jurisdiction; we shall see later distortion of the letter of the law. It was a race between nesses. 89 what their mortal hatred of Ferrer and the storm of indigna- tion brewing all over the civilized world. They got Fer- ref 'condemned and immediately had him executed. They had won the race. The storm then broke out, bringing about the fall of Premier Maura. It was too late to save Ferret, but not to rehabilitate his memory. Having formed a conception of the events in Barcelona, of Ferrer's work, of the campaign of defamation carried clerical The lib- sa The glven acces8 to of the proliminary examination, although the low orders It to be kept secret. papers the summary" put, under cengorshtp. eral papers, of coarse, did not dare publish anything In favor of Ferrer as this might have led to thelr suspension. were
 * AH the pręss at that time was