The Inquisition revealed : in its origin, policy, cruelties, and history : with memoires of its victims in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, England, India and other countires

Front matter

Theological Seminary,

PRINCETON, N. J.

Case '2>X\r7 l |

Dedication

TO

HIS EMINENCE, CARDINAL WISEMAN.

My Lobd Cardinal,

Contents

Chapter Page

1. Popery as predicted in Scripture 9

2. Progress of Antichrist 20

Chapter I

The Court of Inquisition cruel and execrable — Christianity benevolent — The Inquisition predicted, 2 Thess. ii. 3, 4 ; 1 Tim. iv. 1-3 ; Rev. xvii. 1-18 — Comments by Elliott, Bp. Newton, and Scott.

Religion, as taught by the Romish priesthood, has been enforced and guarded by pains and penalties during many ages. For the last six centuries, this has been done chiefly by a court, denominated, in all countries where it has been established, “The Holt Inquisition.” But this court has been execrated, in every country in which it has existed, as the most dreadful, cruel, and sanguinary of all tribunals, even by professors of the faith of Rome. Still it is supported by the papal hierarchy, as the agents of the Pope may be able to obtain permission of the governments who observe the Romish religion.

Christianity has thus been dishonoured in the assumption of its sacred name by Roman Ca-

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tholics, while they have practised these cruelties, so contrary to the letter and to the spirit of the religion of Jesus Christ; for all His principles and precepts manifest Divine benevolence, as chanted at the birth of the Redeemer, by a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, “ Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will towards men.”

Christianity is the religion of love, and like its ever blessed Author, the Son of God. “ God is love; and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him.” It enjoins upon all its professors the practice of benevolence. It requires them to possess and exemplify that spirit. Its moral code is comprehended in that summary of the Divine law, as given by our Saviour, “ Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. And thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” Its chief practical maxim is, “ Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them : for this is the law and the prophets.” These precepts were followed by the early believers of the Gospel, constraining the heathen to admire their benevolence, exclaiming, “ See how these Cliristians love one another !”

Raise teachers, however, having corrupted the doctrines and ordinances of Christ, were influenced by another spirit ; and, in the course of a few ages, the professed ministers of the loving Redeemer exhibited intolerance, malevolence, and cruelty, exceeding what had ever been witnessed

POPERY AS PREDICTED IN SCRIPTURE. 11 under any form of religion. These enormities have been seen chiefly in the operations of the Eoman Catholics, and especially by their execrable “ Court of Inquisition,” as this has been established in Spain, France, Portugal, India, and Eome. This court, though denominated “Holy,” has been the most arbitrary, inhuman, and sanguinary that ever existed among men ; and because of its enormities, by its various machinery, and by its savage armies, it is symbolised in the Holy Scriptures under the emblem of a harlot, deluding the nations with her intoxicating draughts, and herself “ drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” — (Eev. xvii. 6.)

Before we enter upon the direct history of the Inquisition, therefore, it will be necessary to notice the inspired prophecies relating to this apostate and cruel hierarchy of popery ; and to take a brief review of the rise and progress of that terrible and hated system of Antichrist.

“ Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world.” And equally foreseen were all the forms of falsehood, cruelty, and evil upon the earth. Hence the inspired predictions concerning the hateful enemy of Christ.

Our blessed Lord repeatedly admonished his disciples concerning false teachers, who would be distinguished by their inhumanity ; and the apostle Paul, in correcting the mistakes of some, regarding the day of judgment as being near, says, “ Let no man deceive you by any means : for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first,

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and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” — (2 Thess. ii. 3, 4.) Again, he represents the character of Bomish teachers, and says, “ Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils ; speaking lies in hypocrisy ; having their conscience seared with a hot iron ; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them who believe and know the truth.” — (1 Tim. iv. 1 — 3.)

Still more remarkable is the prediction described by the apostle John : “ And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither ; I will show unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters : with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the iuhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness : and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten boms. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication : And upon her forehead was a name written,

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Mystery, Babylox the Great, the Mother oe Harlots axd abomixatioxs oe the earth. And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of J esus ; and when I saw her, I wondered with gTeafc admiration. And the angel said unto me, "Wherefore dost thou marvel ? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrie th her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that thou sawest was, and is not ; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth. And there are seven kings. And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet ; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them : for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful. And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the woman whom thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” — (Lev. xvii. 1 — 18.)

All these several predictions have been fulfilled with the most striking completeness ; and we mayhave to refer to them in the course of this work , but the descriptions in those from the Revelation require our very special notice, as they lead us more particularly to the Romish hierarchy, and to the terrible court of inquisition. The Rev. Mr.

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Elliott, in his “ Commentary” on this chapter, says : —

“This vision represented pictorially a gaudily dressed drunken harlot, seated on a beast of monstrous form, with seven heads, and on the seventh ten horns. The beast, in respect of its body, depicted the papal empire of the ten western European kingdoms ; and in respect of the seventh, or rather, eighth head, the succession of Homan popes, constituting, from after the sixth century, that empire’s spiritual rulers. So the woman represented Home in its character of the papal see, and mother-church of Western Christendom ; including, doubtless, as part and parcel of herself, the ecclesiastical state, or Peter’s patrimony, in Italy, and vast dominions, convents, churches, and other property appertaining to the papal church elsewhere, both in Europe and over the world.

“ 1. As the beast’s body both upheld and was subject to the woman, the rider, so the empire, as a whole, with the power of its secular kingdoms and many peoples, upheld, and was also at the same time ruled by papal Home, the mother-church of Christendom.

“ 2. As the woman was here depicted before St. John under a double character, viz., as a harlot to the ten kings, and a vintner or tavern-hostess vending wines to the common people, just according to the custom of earlier times, in which the -harlot and the hostess of a tavern were characters frequently united ; so the church of Koine answered to the symbol in either point of view; interchanging mutual favours, such as might suit their respective

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characters, with the kings of Anti- Christendom ; and to the common people dealing out for sale the wine of the poison of her fornication, her indulgences, relics, transubstantiation-cup, as if the cup of salvation, &c. (see the Pope’s own medal, holding out the cup of her apostacy, struck at Pome on occasion of the Jubilee in 1825), therewith drugging and making them besotted and drunk.

“ 3. "With regard to the portraiture of the woman, robed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold, and precious stones and pearls, it is, as applied to the Romish church, a picture, characteristic and from life ; the dress specified being distinctively that of the Romish ecclesiastical dignitaries, and the ornaments those with which it has been bedecked beyond any church called Christian ; nay, beyond any religion, probably, that has ever existed in the world ; not to add that even the very name on the harlot’s forehead, Mystery, (a name allusive, evidently, to St. Paul’s predicted mystery of iniquity,') was one, if we may repose credit on no vulgar authority, once written on the Pope’s tiara; and the apocalyptic title, ‘ Mother of harlots and of the abominations of the earth,’ the very parody, if I may so say, of the title Rome arrogates to herself, ‘Rome, mother and mistress.’

“ 4. As to the harlot’s being depicted ‘ drunken with the blood of the saints,’ its applicability to the Romish church, throughout the latter half, at least, portion of the beast’s 1260 predicted years of prospering, is written in deep-dyed characters on the page of history.”

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Nothing can be more evident than that “Babylon the Great ” designs tbe mystical city of the papal commonwealth, a regnant system of spiritual wickedness — an idolatrous church. This was the judgment of all the chief reformers in Germany, Switzerland, France, England, and Scotland. Some even of the Homan Catholics had the same conviction ; and Petrarch, the celebrated Italian poet, calls the papal court “The Babylonian harlot, mother of all idolatries.”

Bishop Newton, having reviewed the prophecy, says, “Moreover, the woman, like other harlots who give philters and love-potions to inflame their lovers, hath ‘a golden- cup in her hand, full of abominations, and filthiness of her fornication,’ to signify the specious and alluring arts wherewith she bewitcheth and inciteth men to idolatry, which is ‘ abomination and spiritual fornication.’ It is an image copied from Jeremiah li. 7, ‘ Babylon hath been a golden cup in the Loeb’s hand, that made all the earth drunken.’ And is not this a much more proper emblem of pontifical than of imperial Home ?

“ Tet farther to distinguish the woman, she has her name inscribed upon her forehead (verse 5), in allusion to the practice of some notorious prostitutes, who had their names written in a label upon their foreheads. The inscription is so very particular, that we cannot easily mistake the person; ‘Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots, or rather, of fornications and abominations of the earth.’ Her name, Mystery, can imply no less than that

POPERY AS PREDICTED IK SCRIPTURE. 17

she dealeth in mysteries ; her religion is a mystery, a mystery of iniquity; and she herself is mystically and spiritually ‘ Babylon the great.’ But the title of mystery is in no respect proper to ancient Borne, more than any other city ; and neither is there any mystery in substituting one heathen, idolatrous, and persecuting city for another ; but it is indeed a mystery, that a Christian city, professing and boasting herself to be the city of God, should prove another Babylon in idolatry and cruelty to the people of God. She glories in the name of Homan Catholic, and well, therefore, may she be called ‘ Babylon the great.’

“ Infamous as the woman is for her idolatry, she is no less detestable for her cruelty, which are the two principal characteristics of the antichristian empire. ‘ She is drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus,’ (ver. 6) which may indeed be applied both to pagan and to Christian Borne, for both have in their turns cruelly persecuted ‘ the saints and the martyrs of Jesus ; ’ but the latter is more deserving of the character, as she hath far exceeded the former, both in the degree and duration of her persecutions. It is very true, that if Borne pagan hath slain her thousands of innocent Christians, Borne Christian hath slain her ten thousands ; for, not to mention other outrageous slaughters and barbarities, the crusades against the Waldenses and Albigenses ; the murders committed by the Duke of Alva in the Netherlands ; the massacres in France and Ireland, will probably amount to above ten times the number of all the Christians slain in all the ten persecutions of the Roman emperors put together. St. John’s admiration also plainly evinces that Christian Rome was intended, for it could be no matter of surprise to him that a heathen city should persecute the Christians ; but that a city professedly Christian should wanton and riot in the blood of Christians, was a subject of astonishment indeed; and well might he, as it is emphatically expressed, ‘ wonder with great wonder. ’ ”

Mr. Scott, in his commentary on 2 Thessalonians ii. 3, 4, remarks, “ No apostacy of equal magnitude and duration, no delusions equally pernicious and abominable, have taken place since the apostle’s days, as those of Rome. The imposture of Mohammed alone can be compared with it, and this could not be intended ; for that impostor and his successors were not placed in the temple of God, the visible church (Rev. xi. 1, 2), but without it, and in direct opposition to the very name of Christianity ; they propagated their delusions mainly by the sword, and not lying miracles ; and, indeed, the impieties of Mohammed never equalled the blasphemies here predicted. This ‘ man of sin 5 would be the ‘ son of perdition ’ (John xvii. 12) ; a genuine descendant of Judas, the apostle and traitor, who sold his Lord for money, and destroyed him with a kiss; a peculiar factor and agent of Satan, in destroying the souls of men, and finally sinking into perdition as his inheritance. It is manifest, that no succession of men have yet appeared on earth to whom this description fully accords, except that of

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the Roman pontiffs. This deceiver would oppose and exalt himself above all that is called God, or is ‘ worshipped,’ either by Christians or pagans ; thus the Roman pontiffs have opposed the truths, commandments, and disciples of Christ, in every age; the prophetical office of Christ, by teaching human inventions — his priestly office, by the doctrine of human merits and created intercessors — and his kingly office, by changing and dispensing with his laws. They have exalted themselves ‘ above all that is called God,’ and is ‘worshipped,’ by claiming authority to forgive sins ; by granting indulgences to men to break the commandments of God ; by dispensing with his laws, and presuming to give meaning and authority to the Scriptures themselves. Moreover, this ‘ man of sin ’ ‘ sits as God’ in the temple of God ; and we must, therefore, look for him within the visible church ; there he blasphemously usurps the throne of God, ‘ showing himself to he God.’ Many Roman emperors affected divine honours, and demanded adoration ; hut there was no antecedent apostacy from Christianity or the worship of Jehovah ; and they might rather he said to sit in the temple of Jupiter or Mars, than in that of God, whose temple must be considered to be among his professed worshippers, and not among avowed heathen. But the Roman pontiff — claiming to he the universal head of the whole church of God, called by lus flatterers ‘ Yice- God,’ a ‘ God upon earth,’ arrogating the title of ‘ His Holiness,’ boasting of ‘ infallibility,’ claiming a right to depose kings and bestow kingdoms on

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whom he pleases — answers exactly to the description here given. While the Soman pontiff opposes the worship of God, by enjoining the worship of images, of saints, and angels, and the authority of his laws, to enforce subjection to his own edicts, he himself may be called the great idol, as well as the great tyrant, of the Romish church ! ”

Human sagacity could by no means have conjectured such a character rising up among the people of God, and such deeds perpetrated in the name and form of religion. This required the prescience of the Infinite Mind. But we shall see them all in their dreadful enormity, as we pursue the history of the Romish Inquisition.

Chapter II

Spirit of Antichrist — Priests, Clergy, and Laity — Ceremonies — Mosheim — “ Pious Frauds ’’—Splendour of Prelates — Constantine — the Hierarchy — Titles — Creeds — Arianism — Persecution — Rome and Constantinople — Pope John — Pope Gregory — Mohammed — Claims of the Pope — Henry IV. — Corrupt principles.

Divine Wisdom having foreseen, and thus foretold, all the dreadful corruptions of the Christian church, we are interested in marking the steps by which the progress was made. The spirit of popery we behold in the conduct of the judaising teachers of

the early Christians, as censured by Paul, and as seen in the proceedings of Diotrephes, who is believed to have been a pastor. John complained of his refusing to “ receive the brethren,” the messengers of the apostle, and of his “ malicious words,” persecuting some, and casting others out of the church. — (2 John 9, 10.)

This ambitious spirit led the pastors in some of the larger churches, early in the second century, to assume the character and title of priests, as peculiar to their order. They claimed the privilege of being the Lord’s “heritage,” or clergy, which belonged to the faithful, as distinct from their ministers. — (1 Pet. v. 31.) But they persuaded the people that they had succeeded to the rights of the Jewish priesthood, as God’s clergy ; and hence the distinction of clergy and laity , which has no foundation in Christianity. This distinction being established, gave immense force to the spirit of popery, which advanced rapidly among the ignorant people. Dr. Mosheim states, “The Christian doctors had the good fortune to persuade the people, that the ministers of the Christian church succeeded to the character, rights, and privileges of the Jewish priesthood ; and this persuasion was a new source of honour and profit to the sacerdotal order. This notion was propagated with industry, some time after the second destruction of Jerusalem [a.d. 135] had extinguished all hopes of seeing their government restored to its former lustre, and their country arising from its ruins. And, accordingly, the lishops considered themselves invested with a rank

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and character similar to those of the high priests among the Jews, while the presbyters represented the priests, and the deacons the Levites.”

Christianity having no splendid ceremonial to recommend the preaching of the Gospel, priests devised various forms to be added to the Lord’s supper, which was administered every Sabbath, and ceremonies were invented, partly derived from the J ews and 'some from the idolators, to attract the minds of the people, and with a view to gratify the converts from heathenism. The performance of these, especially in the Lord’s supper, served also as the means of employing the priests in their newly created offices ; and they were called mysteries, as having a hidden meaning and a peculiar virtue, after the manner of the rites of the Pagan priests. Hence originated the term sacraments, the Latin word for mysteries, applied to various rites, especially baptism and the Lord’s supper.

Dr. Mosheim, therefore, remarks, “ The bishops, by an innocent allusion to the Jewish manner of speaking, had been called ‘ chief priests ;’ the elders or presbyters had received the title of ‘priests,’ and the deacons that of ‘ Levites.’ But in a little time these titles were abused by an aspiring clergy, who thought proper to claim the same rank and station, the same rights and privileges, that were conferred with those titles upon the ministers of religion under the Mosaic dispensation. Hence the rise of tithes, first-fruits, splendid garments, and many other circumstances of external grandeur.

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by which ecclesiastics were eminently distinguished.”

Priestly power was greatly augmented at this time by the meetings of the bishops, as delegates from the churches, to consult respecting their mutual defence and security against their persecuting enemies. In these synods or councils, as they were called, various decisions were formed unfriendly to the interests of the people; for the bishops soon asserted authority to prescribe laws, and to impose creeds, which led to the most grievous persecution in the following ages. Superiority was claimed in these assemblies by the bishops of the chief cities, especially by the bishop of Rome, as the imperial metropolis. Dr. Mosheim, therefore, states, “ Toward the conclusion of this century, Victor, bishop of Rome, took it into his head to force the Asiatic Christians, by the pretended authority of his laws and decrees, to observe the Roman custom of keeping Easter.” They refused compliance ; and, as Milner says, “ Victor, with much arrogance, as if he had felt the very soul of the future papacy formed in himself, inveighed against the Asiatic churches, and pronounced their excommunication.”

In the second century, popery was further advanced by the peculiar practices of the Egyptian monks being cherished among the Christians. They magnified the virtues of fasting, celibacy, and a solitary life, as the perfection of excellence ; and hence the origin of the Romish monks, nuns, and celibacy of the clergy.

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Christianity, in the third century, was still more corrupted by the priesthood; for “pious frauds,” or false miracles, were commonly practised. Several of the teachers were guilty of these in the second century; hut, to the dishonour of religion, they were now publicly defended, even by some good men, provided they were employed with a design to convert men and advance the cause of Christianity !

Popery continued to advance in this century by rapid strides ; for the clergy maintained their various dignities with determined zeal. The simple ordinances of Christ in the ministry of the Gospel were laid aside for the performance of priestly rites. Ecclesiastical government degenerated towards the form of a religious monarchy; while the people were, in most cases, excluded from all share in the management of their own affairs in the churches. Dr. Mosheim, therefore, testifies — “The bishops assumed, in many places, a princely authority, particularly those who presided over the most opulent assemblies. They appropriated to their evangelical function the splendid ensigns of temporal majesty. A throne, surrounded with ministers, exalted above his equals the servant of the meek and humble Jesus, and sumptuous garments dazzled the eye and the mind of the multitude into an ignorant veneration for their arrogated authority. The example of the bishops was ambitiously imitated by the presbyters, who, neglecting the sacred duties of their station, abandoned themselves to the indolence and delicacy of an effeminate and

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luxurious life. "When the honours and privileges of the bishops and presbyters were augmented, the deacons also began to extend their ambitious views, and to despise those lower functions and employments which they had hitherto exercised with such humility and zeal ; and the effects of a corrupt ambition were spread through every rank of the sacred order.”

Ecclesiastical ambition was not satisfied with the creation of a hierarchy of bishops, priests, and deacons ; but various lesser orders of ministers were now instituted, on account of the increasing ceremonies which had been adopted in imitation of the heathen mysteries. Various forms of prayer and consecration were prepared for these ceremonies ; the table of the Lord was converted into an altar ; wax tapers were burnt upon it ; the bread and wine were regarded as possessing a kind of saving virtue ; and much solemn pomp was observed in celebrating the Lord’s supper. Baptism was preceded by a terrifying process — exorcism, to expel the evil spirit, and the newly baptised persons were required to taste milk and honey, as indicating spiritual food, and the converts from heathenism were sent home from the ceremony adorned with crowns and white garments.

Popery received a vast accession of power, in the beginning of the fourth century, by the conversion of the Emperor Constantine. He became a most munificent patron of Christianity, as by its profession he succeeded to the throne of the Caesars. The extravagant claims of the ambitious prelates o were now confirmed, and the spiritual institution of Jesus Christ was transformed into a worldly system, framed to resemble the civil government of the empire. The bishops of Home, Antioch, and Alexandria were already regarded as superior to the other prelates — as archbishops, with the title of patriarch ; and to these was added a fourth, for the new imperial city of Constantinople. Under this first Christian emperor, as Dr. Haweis remarks, “ the prelatical government became modelled, after the imperial, into great prefectures, of which Borne, Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople, claimed superiority; whilst a sort of feudality was established, descending from patriarchs to metropolitans, archbishops, bishops, some with greater, and others with less extensive spheres of dominion. Instead of the people choosing their own bishops and presbyters, they were no more consulted. The presbyters wholly depended on the bishops and patrons; the bishops were the creatures of patriarchs and metropolitans ; or, if the see was important, appointed by the emperor. So ‘ church and state’ formed the first inauspicious alliance; and the corruption, which had been plentifully sown before, now ripened by court intrigues for political bishops of imperial appointment, or at the suggestion of the prime minister.”

“This pernicious example,” says Dr. Mosheim, “was soon followed by the several ecclesiastical orders. The presbyters, in many places, assumed an equality with the bishops, in point of rank and authority. Those more particularly of the presby-

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ters and deacons, who filled the first stations of these orders, carried their pretensions to an extravagant length, and were offended at the notion of being placed upon an equal footing with their colleagues. Eor this reason, they assumed the titles of archpreshy ters and archdeacons .”

These newly created dignities required a corresponding style of address, which was soon contrived. It may be remarked, that all these things are contrary to the New Testament; for though all Christians are there described as saints , or holy persons ; they are never addressed with pompous titles . Even the apostles are never called Saint J ohn and Saint Peter ; these titles are the inventions of popery. Lord Chancellor King remarks, therefore, “ It is very seldom, if ever, that the ancients give the title of saints to those holy persons, but singly style them Peter, Paul, John, &c. ; not Saint Peter, Saint Paul, Saint John.” Priestly dignities originated the addresses of “ reverend,” “ very reverend,” “right reverend,” “ most reverend,” “your grace,” “your holiness.”

Constantine having arranged the offices of his government in church and state, soon found it necessary to attempt to produce uniformity of faith, especially as Arius, a presbyter of Alexandria, had declared his belief that the Son of Grod is inferior to the Eather, of another nature, and only the first of all created beings. Einding this heresy prevail, he called the bishops of all the provinces to an assembly, a.d. 325, at Nice, in Bithynia. This, assembly, famous, as the first general council , conc 2 sisted of about two thousand and fifty persons, of whom three hundred and eighteen were bishops. These prelates delivered to the emperor letters of grievous accusation against each other, but the prudent sovereign threw the whole into the fire, and referred them to the day of judgment for a settlement. After two months’ deliberation, they agreed on that form denominated “ The Nicene Greed,” which required to be believed by all Christians. But, by this celebrated act, the foundation was laid for the pernicious influence of a political priesthood, and for the authority of councils in ecclesiastical matters, above even the Holy Scriptures ; and this authority, claimed and acted upon, produced all the superstition, intolerance, and cruelty, which characterise the terrible Inquisition.