548 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1294-1517.
in the procedure. After his arrest, the prisoner was placed in one of the secret prisons, — careeres secretas, — and rigidly deprived of all intercourse with friends. All papers bearing upon his case were kept from him. The names of his accusers and of witnesses for his prosecution were withheld. In the choice of its witnesses the Inquisition allowed itself great liberty, even accepting the testimony of persons under the Church's sentence of excommunication, of Jews who remained in the Hebrew faith and of heretics. Witnesses for the accused were limited to persons zealous for the orthodox faith, and none of his relatives to the fourth generation were allowed to testify. Heresy was regarded as a desperate disorder and to be removed at all costs. On the other hand, the age of amenability was fixed at 12 for girls and 14 for boys. The age of fourscore gave no immunity from the grim rigors of the exacting tribunal.^
The charges, on which victims were arraigned, included the slightest deflection_in word or act from strict Catholic usage, such^s the refusal to eat pork on a single occasion, visiting a house where Moorish notions were taught, as well as saying that the Virgin herself and not her image effected cures, and that Jews and Moors would be saved if they sincerely believed the Jewish and the Moorish doctrines to be true.^ Recourse was had to torture, not only to secure evidence of guilt. Even when the testimony of witnesses was sufficient to establish guilt, resort was had to torture to extract a confession from the accused that thereby his soul might be delivered from the burden of secret guilt, to extract information of accomplices, and that a wholesome influence might be exerted in deterring others from heresy by giving them an example of punishment. The modes of torture most in use were the water ordeal and the garruche. In the water-cure, the victim, tightly bound, was stretched upon a rack or bed, and with the body in an inclined position, the head downward. The jaws were distended, a linen cloth was thrust down the victim's throat and water from a quart jar allowed to trickle through it into his
1 Lea, II. 137, gives cases of accused women, respectively 78, 80 and 86.
2 Lea, III. 8, 14, etc.
§ 60. THE SPANISH INQUISITION. 549
inward parts. ^ On occasion, seven or eight such jars were slowly emptied. The garrucha, otherwise known as the strappade^ has already been described. In its application in Spain it was customary to attach weights to the feet and to suspend the body in such a manner that the toes alone touched the ground, and the Spanish rule required that the body be raised and lowered leisurely so as to increase the pain.
The final penalties for heresy included, in addition to the spiritual impositions of fasting^and pilgrimage, confiscation of goods, im^risonmeixt^ublic scaui-glng, the galleys,^fixiLe_aml death. Confiscation and burning extended to the dead, against whom the charge of heresy could be made out. At Toledo, July 25, 1485, more than 400 dead were burnt in effigy. Frequently at the autos no living victims suffered. In cases of the dead their names were effaced from their tombstones, that " no memory of them should remain on the face of the earth except as recorded in our sentence." Their male descendants, including the grandchildren, were incapacitated from occupying benefices and public positions, from riding on horseback, carrying weapons and wearing silk or ornaments.
The penalty of scourging was executed in public on the bodies of the victims, bared to the waist, by the public executioner. Women of SQ to girls of 13 were subjected to such treatment. Galley labor as a mode of punishment was sanctioned by Alexander VI., 1503. The sentence of perpetual imprisonment was often relaxed, either from considerations of mercy or for financial reasons. Up to 1488, there had been 5000 condemnations to lasting imprisonment.^
The saw hendito,ov sanbenito^ another characteristic feature of the Spanish Inquisition, was a jacket of gray or yellow texture, furnished before and behind with a large cross as prescribed byTorg[uemada. This galling humiliation was aggravated by the rule that, after they were laid aside, the sanhenitos should be hung up in the churches, together with a record of the wearer's
1 In Paris the usual method was to inject water into the mouth, oil and vinegar also being used. The amount of water was from 9 to 18 pints. La Croix : Manners, Customs and Dress of the M. A., N.Y. 1874, chapter on Punishments, pp. 407-433.
2 Lea, III 140-159.