CHAPTER SEVEN.
THE TORTURE.
Antonio Herezuelo was only one of many who on that unhappy night wereseized by the officers of the Inquisition and dragged off to prison. Inconsequence of the information given by the wife of Juan Garcia, eightypersons were immediately apprehended in Valladolid, among those who hadbeen present at the meetings; and in Seville and its neighbourhood twohundred were betrayed into the hands of the inquisitors by the treacheryof a pretended member of the Protestant Church, and the superstitiousfears of another. The first, suspecting that some of his acquaintancesentertained Lutheran opinions, insinuated himself into their confidencefor the express purpose of learning their secrets and of betraying them.The latter, hearing Lutheran principles denounced in the most fearfullanguage, as the only means of saving himself from the results of theanathemas, hurried off and informed against all those he knew to beProtestants. Dismay seized upon large numbers of the most timid of theProtestants; and as people are often panic-struck when a ship strikesthe rocks, and leap overboard into the raging surf, so some of themhurried off to the Triana, and accused themselves to the inquisitors ofentertaining doctrines for which the stake was the sure punishment.Others, who had been before unsuspected, betrayed themselves by thehurried manner of their flight. Thus in a few days the chief members ofall the Protestant Churches throughout Spain were either in prison, orfugitives, or hiding in the caves of the earth, among mountains andforests. In no place, however, were they safe, and many even of thoseabroad were betrayed into the hands of the emissaries of theInquisition, and dragged back to Spain to suffer death at the stake.The inquisitors were not content with those who denounced themselves.Every possible means was employed to discover heretics, and to assistthe object Philip renewed a royal ordinance--fallen into desuetude--allowing to informers the fourth part of the property of those guilty ofheresy. This abominable edict greatly increased the zeal and activityof the vile tribe. Pope Paul the Fourth also assisted with eagerness inthe object, and issued a bull enjoining all confessors to examine theirpenitents, from the highest to the lowest, and to charge them todenounce all whom they knew to be guilty of buying, selling, reading, orpossessing any book prohibited by the Holy Office, the punishment beingdeath. The great aim of the papists was to strike terror into the mindsof the whole nation; and while they had not the most distant intentionof extending mercy to those who professed themselves penitent, they werenevertheless anxious to secure a triumph to the Catholic faith (as theycalled their system of idolatry and tyranny), by having in it theirpower to read, in the public _auto-da-fe_, the forced retractions ofthose who had embraced the truth.
Antonio Herezuelo stood before the council of inquisitors. Sowell-known is the scene that it scarcely requires description. It istoo true a picture--an exhibition of devilish ingenuity of man when hedesires to tyrannise over his fellow-creatures, unsurpassed in crueltyby the heathen or most barbarous nations of ancient or modern days.There sat the inquisitors in a gloomy vaulted chamber--on one side thefearful rack, with grim, savage executioners ready to perform theiroffice, a black curtain only partly concealing other instruments oftorture, with hooded familiars standing silently round; while at thetable sat two secretaries, ready to note every word uttered by theprisoner, to be wrested, if possible, to his destruction. The onlyperson whose countenance could have been regarded with satisfaction wasthe prisoner. He stood calm and undaunted amidst those cruel men, whohad resolved on his death. Hark! the president addresses him in aharsh, pitiless voice:
"Antonio Herezuelo, you have been accused by most credible witnesses ofholding in disrespect many of the principal articles of our most holyfaith. What have you to answer for yourself?"
"That I hold most sincerely and truly all the doctrines necessary for myeternal salvation, and all other doctrines which I find clearly setforth in God's blessed Word, sent in His mercy and love as a sure guideto perishing man," answered Antonio, boldly.
"Then you consider the Bible, by which so many are misled, as the onlyguide and rule of faith?" said the Chief Inquisitor. "You set at noughtthe authority of the Church?"
"I bow with all submission to the authority of the Church in all pointsin which she is clearly guided by Holy Scripture," answered Herezuelo,who still clung, as did many of the Protestants of those days, to thefalse idea that there exists only one sole visible Church on earth; andbelieving that such a Church does exist, supposed it to be, in spite ofall its errors, the Church of Rome.
"Then, heretic, you dare to say that the Bible is above the Church?"exclaimed the Inquisitor. "Why, fool, it is through the Church that youhave a Bible; but it is not fit that the laity should possess it, forthey can only, as we have evidence that you and others have done, make amost improper use of it. Therefore it is a prohibited book, and yet youdare to acknowledge that you have both possessed one and studied it.Ay, you have done so, and to your own utter destruction of body andsoul."
"To the salvation of my soul," said Antonio, boldly. "Our blessed LordHimself appealed to Scripture on many occasions, and to Scripture Iappeal and trust."
"Then you reject the traditions of the Church?" said the Inquisitor,looking towards the secretary, who was busily noting down all thequestions he put, and the answers made by the prisoner.
"By tradition we may be deceived. Scripture is a sure guide, which,through the teaching of the Holy Spirit, will lead us infalliblyaright," answered Herezuelo.
"Oh, what abominable--what terrible heresy!" exclaimed the Inquisitor."You deny, too, that the Blessed Virgin should be adored and honouredabove Christ, as, being His mother, and, from being a woman, more readyto hear the prayers of the faithful than He can be?"
"The Virgin Mary was blessed in that she became the earthly mother ofJesus, and thus she was peculiarly honoured among women; but I findnowhere in Scripture that prayers should be made to her; on thecontrary, at the marriage feast of Cana of Galilee, our Lord says,`Woman, what have I to do with thee?' when she ventured to interfere ina matter she was incapable of understanding. Saint Mark tells us of theremark made by our Lord when told that His mother and His brethrenwaited without: `Who is My mother or My brethren? Whosoever shall dothe will of God, the same is My brother, and My sister, and mother.'When hanging on the cross, too, and looking down on Mary and His beloveddisciple John, He said, `Woman, behold thy son!' and then, addressingHis disciple, He said, `Behold thy mother!' `And from that hour thatdisciple took her to his own home.' Not a word more does the HolySpirit reveal to us of the history of the mortal mother of Jesus. Allwe know is, that, as a mortal child of Adam, she must have been saved byHis precious blood shed on Calvary, for without that blood shed there isno remission of sins."
The Inquisitor rose from his seat as if he would tear off his clothes,and sat down again, exclaiming, "Blasphemy! blasphemy! You deny, too, Ihear, the necessity of confession and of priestly absolution?"
"I nowhere find it written that we are to confess our sins to man, butalways to God. `A broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, Thou wilt notdespise.' In the Epistle of James (chapter verse 16), he says, `Confessyour faults to _one another_, and pray for _one another_, that ye may behealed'; that is to say, if you have trespassed one against another, orif one brother has offended another. Nowhere do I find, however, thaton sinners coming in faith to our blessed Lord, does He require them toconfess their sins to Him before He will hear them. He says, simply,`Thy faith hath made thee whole; go, and sin no more.' I find it alsowritten, `Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is noneother name given among men whereby we may be saved!' When our Lord sentout His disciples, He said to them that all those who would accept theoffers of the Gospel would be forgiven, or would have their sinsremitted through them, or rather through their preaching; and those who,in spite of the preaching, refused to accept the offer, would have theirsins retained. Through faith in Jesus Christ only can a person obtainforgiveness of sins; and John says, `He that believeth on the Son hatheverlasting life, and
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life;but the wrath of God abideth on him.' This great truth a minister hasthe power to declare, but in no other way has he, according to theScriptures, the right to absolve any persons from their sins. I holdthat when our Lord said to His disciples, `Whose soever sins ye remit,they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they areretained,' He said it not only to all the ministers of the Gospel, butto all Christian men who go forth with the Bible in their hands, thatthey should declare the glorious Gospel truth that all who trust in Him,Jesus Christ, are forgiven; but that all who refuse to trust in Himstill remain in their sins--their sins are retained."
"Oh, what hideous blasphemy!" exclaimed the Inquisitor, he and hisassociates lifting up their hands as if in horror at what Antonio hadsaid. "But go on, go on, fill up the measure of your iniquities. Howdo you interpret, `Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound inheaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed inheaven'?"
"Much in the simple way that I interpret the previous passage. Theapostles, as employed in preaching the Christian doctrine among theJews, were to release or loose them from certain obligations of theMosaic law; but as they were not to release them from them all, theywere to pronounce what were to be retained, or by what they were stillto be bound; in other words, when a thing might lawfully be done amongthe Jews, it was a common mode of expression to say that that thing wasloosed to them, and that if anything was unlawful for them to do, it wasbound to them. The meaning of the expression was thus very clear to theJews who heard Him. So Peter understood the same expression, and heknew perfectly well that he was simply to declare, both to Jew andGentile, what was to be believed, and what was not to be believed, thusunlocking to them the doors of the kingdom of heaven, inviting them tocome in, to become subjects of Christ. Such are his keys. On the greattruth which he had confessed, `Thou art the Christ, the Son of theliving God,' was Christ's spiritual Church to be founded, as on a rockagainst which the powers of hell are never to prevail."
"Most horrible! most horrible!" cried the Inquisitor. "Then you do notacknowledge the authority of the Church, that his Holiness the Pope isthe successor of Saint Peter, that the priesthood have power to forgivesins?"
"The Scriptures speak nowhere of Saint Peter having a successor, nordoes our Lord give authority to him to appoint one," said Herezuelo,boldly. "No Church can have authority with regard to spiritual mattersexcept such as is clearly derived from the Bible, which is equally opento all men, while the only priest a Christian can acknowledge is the onegreat High Priest standing at the right hand of God, ever makingintercession for us."
"Horrible! horrible!" again cried the Inquisitor. "Then, if you do notacknowledge the priesthood, you deny the doctrine of transubstantiation,the great work performed at the Mass, the chief glory of the Church?"
"Certainly, I deny that the bread and wine at the Mass are changed inany way into the body and blood of Christ, with the soul and deity, thebones and sinews," answered Herezuelo, solemnly. "I deny that whenJesus said, `I am the living bread which came down from heaven,' He waseven speaking of the Last Supper, or that He intended that it should besupposed that He was to become literally bread and wine, or rather thatbread and wine should become Him, any more than that He should become adoor, or a shepherd, or a rock, to all of which He likens Himself. Hesays, `The words that I speak unto you they are spirit, and they arelife'; and then He continues, as if he would say, `Come to Me, andbelieve on Me, for that is what I mean by eating My flesh and drinkingMy blood; He that cometh to Me shall never hunger, and he that believethon Me shall never thirst. As by eating bread and drinking wine yourphysical body is sustained, so by believing that My body was broken foryou on the accursed tree, and that My blood was shed for you, will yourspiritual life be sustained; and I enjoin you to meet togetheroccasionally to break bread and to drink wine in remembrance of Me.Moreover, I promise you that as oft as you do this in My name, throughlove of Me, I will be spiritually in the midst of you.' No otherconstruction can I put on these words of our Lord, and in that faith Iam prepared to die."
"And die you shall, audacious heretic!" exclaimed the Inquisitor, whowas no other than the infamous Munebrega, Archbishop of Tarragona, whohad come over from Seville in consequence of the illness of hiscolleague. His eyes rolled; he gnashed with his teeth in fury atfinding himself unable to intimidate the prisoner--he, before whom somany men of rank and condition had been compelled to humble themselves.He remembered, too, whose husband the prisoner was--the daughter of onewho had despised and rejected him. "To the rack with him! to the rack!We must learn from him what other persons hold these abominableopinions, while we teach him to abandon them himself. Spare him not:for his soul's good his body must be afflicted."
Antonio Herezuelo cast his eyes to heaven, and from the depths of hisheart there came up a prayer, earnest, solemn, of mighty power. Not forhimself he prayed--not even for the beloved wife of his bosom; but heprayed that in the fiery trial he was to undergo he might not dishonourhis holy faith; that he might hold fast to the truth; that the love ofChrist, by which He keeps His own, might be exhibited through him. Toresist would have been useless; and yet it cost him a hard struggle tosubmit to the indignities to which he was subjected by the brutalexecutioners ordered to carry out the Inquisitor's sentence. There hestood, full of life and strength and energy, capable of enjoying to thefull all the blessings that God has bestowed in this life on man. Eventhe confinement to which he had been subjected had not been ablesensibly to diminish the strength of his well-knit frame. In anotherinstant he was thrown, naked, and bound hand and foot, on to the cruelrack, every sinew and muscle of his body extended to the utmost, whilstagonising wrenches were given of the most fearful character, as thescrews and ropes of the horrid instrument were set in motion. Not aword did he utter; scarcely a groan escaped from his bosom, though everylimb was suffering the most excruciating torture; the blood gushed fromhis nostrils and mouth, his eyes well nigh started from their sockets.His physical nature at length gave way, though his courage did not failhim. He fainted. Death would have been a happy release, but historturers took pains not to allow him that boon; restoratives wereadministered, and consciousness again returned. The surgeon who stoodby, however, gave notice that he must not be subjected, for a time, toequal torture, or he would sink under it. He was therefore removed on ablood-besprinkled stretcher to another chamber, and the inquisitorsproceeded with callous indifference to examine a fresh prisoner who wasnow brought forward.
The person who was next led before the inquisitors was of a charactervery different from that of Herezuelo. A glance at the rack made himtremble in every limb. The inquisitors saw immediately that he wouldafford them but little trouble, though, at the same time, that he mightbe made useful by his giving information regarding others. He mighthave passed in the world in quiet times as an earnest true Christian,but now alarm for his personal safety overcame every otherconsideration. He at once incriminated himself, and was soon induced tobring damnatory accusations against his friends. When all theinformation which could thus be obtained from him was secured, he wasdismissed, though still ignorant of the fate which awaited him--it mightbe, if victims were required, to be consigned to the flames, or perhapsto add to the sad band of penitents supposed to have recanted theirerrors. Such was the character of several of those accused of heresy,though by far the larger number of persons seized by the Inquisitiongladly suffered death rather than deny the truth. And now anotherprisoner appears--a female. She is clothed in black from head to foot.As the light from the lamp which hangs from the roof falls on hercountenance, it is seen to be very pale, but not enough so to detractfrom the beauty of those young and fair features.
"Leonor de Cisneros, you are brought here accused of holding opinionswhich, if generally entertained, would be subversive of the opinions ofour holy faith," said the Inquisitor, in a peculiarly harsh voice."Have you become sensible of your errors? and are you pre
pared to recantthem?"
"I hold to the doctrines which I have been taught from my earliest days,and which I find clearly set forth in the blessed Word of God. I am,therefore, not aware that I hold any errors," answered Leonor, calmly.
"What do you mean by God's holy Word?" asked the Inquisitor.
"The Bible," said Leonor, firmly.
"Are you aware that the Bible is prohibited to the laity, and that, wereit not so, it is not susceptible of any private interpretation?" askedthe Inquisitor.
"I am aware that without the aid of God's Holy Spirit, which when Christascended up on High, He promised to us as our Instructor andEnlightener, we cannot expect to read aright this blessed Gospel," saidLeonor. "I am aware that in the Second Epistle of Saint Peter, 1stchapter, 20th verse, there is this expression--`Knowing this first, thatno prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation.' 21st,`For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy menof God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.' I am aware,however, that the Greek word epilusis, which has been translatedinterpretation, means rather _impetus_, _impulse_; and therefore thatthe clear meaning is that no writer of the Scripture wrote according tohis own mind or thoughts, but entirely as he was moved or impelled bythe Holy Spirit. Therefore Peter in no respect contradicts his Lord,who says, addressing the people, `Search the Scriptures; for in them yethink ye have eternal life: and they are they which speak of me.' Oh,my lords, what I have done--what thousands have done in Spain--hassimply been to obey our loving Saviour in reading His holy Word, instriving to carry out His precepts by assembling ourselves together inprayer, by exhorting and comforting one another. If this be a crime, Iam a criminal; but if not, why imprison us? why torture us? why killus?"
She stretched out her hand as she spoke. Her youth and beauty, herpathetic look, the truth which came from her lips, might have movedhearts of stone, but nothing could move the demon-inspired minds of theInquisitors of Spain--the base instruments of the Pope and hissupporters, Valdes and Philip. They compressed their lips as Leonorspoke.
"You have disobeyed the Church," answered the Inquisitor, with anunmoved countenance. "Unless you recant your errors, your punishment iscertain. It may be that you will see the wisdom of so doing, and followthe example of those you love best. Remove the woman."
So ended the first trial of Leonor de Cisneros. The inquisitorsconsulted together how she should be treated. She was evidently notlikely to change her opinions by argument; the Archbishop was unwillingto have her subjected to torture. He had made up his mind that herhusband must die. He was too clever a heretic, even should he recant,to be allowed to live. He was not likely ever to recant. But Leonor,she must be won over; her life must be saved. Notwithstanding herknowledge of Scripture, the clear declaration she had made of Protestantprinciples, the Archbishop did not despair. He had seen many who, firmat first, had, after a few weeks' solitary confinement and scanty food,with occasional visits from friends desirous of saving them, completelyrecanted, and acknowledged their errors. He knew, too, the subtlearguments, the system of deception, the threats, the promises, thevarious artful methods of proceeding which could be brought to bear on aprisoner. Should these fail, he had other means in store by which hehoped to make her give up what he honestly thought her folly. How coulda weak woman venture to set herself up in opposition to the Church?Many others, to be sure, had ventured to do the same, but few had spokenas she had done, and several had at sight of the rack recanted, andgiven all the information required of them.
The Last Look: A Tale of the Spanish Inquisition Page 7