"A physician and surgeon, who were in waiting as usual, to give their
opinion as to the safety or danger of continuing those operations,
that the inquisitors might not commit an irregularity by murdering the
patient, were called in. Being friends of the sufferer, they gave their
opinion that he had strength enough remaining to bear more. By this
means they saved him from a SUSPENSION of the torture, which would have
been followed by a repetition, on his recovery, under the pretext of
CONTINUATION. The cords were therefore pulled a third time, and this
ended the torture. He was dressed in his own clothes, carried back to
prison, and, after about seventy days, when the wounds were healed,
condemned as one SUSPECTED of Judaism. They could not say CONVICTED,
because he had not confessed; but they sentenced him to wear the
sambenito [Footnote: This sambenito (Suco bendito or blessed sack,) is
a garment (or kind of scapulary according to some writers,) worn by
penitents of the least criminal class in the procession of an Auto de
Fe, (a solemn ceremony held by the Inquisition for the punishment of
heretics,) but sometimes worn as a punishment at other times, that the
condemned one might be marked by his neighbors, and ever bear a signal
that would affright and scare by the greatness of the punishment and
disgrace; a plan, salutary it may be, but very grievous to the offender.
It was made of yellow cloth, with a St. Andrew's cross upon it, of
red. A rope was sometimes put around the neck as an additional mark of
infamy.
"Those who were condemned to be burnt were distinguished by a habit of
the same form, called Zamarra, but instead of the red cross were
painted flames and devils, and sometimes an ugly portrait of the heretic
himself,--a head, with flames under it. Those who had been sentenced to
the stake, but indulged with commutation of the penalty, had inverted
flames painted on the livery, and this was called fuego revuelto,
"inverted fire."
"Upon the head of the condemned was also placed a conical paper cap,
about three feet high, slightly resembling a mitre, called corona or
crown. This was painted with flames and devils in like manner with the
dress.] or penitential habit for two years, and then be banished for
life from Seville."
APPENDIX III.
INQUISITION OF GOA--IMPRISONMENT OF M. DELLON, 1673.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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