The faith of our fathers - Carmel Apologetics

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION. 291of Inquisitors, of which he had been Secretary.Actuated by interest and revenge, he wrote his history at the instance of Joseph Bonaparte, the newKing of Spain, and, to please his royal master, hedid all he could to blacken the character of thatinstitution. His testimony, therefore, should be received with great reserve. To give you one instanceof his unreliability, he quotes the historian Marianaas his authority for saying that two thousand personswere put to death in one year in the dioceses aloneof Seville and Cadiz. By referring to the pages ofMariana, we find that author saying that two thousand were put to death in all Spain during the entireadministration of Torquemada, which embraced a periodof fifteen years.Before beginning to examine the character of thistribunal, it must be clearly understood that theSpanish Inquisition was not a purely ecclesiasticalinstitution, but a mixed tribunal. It was conceivedsystematized, regulated in all its procedures andjudgments, equipped with officers and powers, andits executions, fines, and confiscations were carriedout by the royal authority alone, and not by theChurch. 1To understand the true character of the SpanishInquisition, and the motives which prompted KingFerdinand in establishing that tribunal, we must1For an impartial account of the Inquisition, the readeiis referred to thethe Count de Maistre."Letters on the Spanish Inquisition," by