On page 82 of the same work we find the following language. "I do not
propose to myself to speak of the Inquisition of times past, but of what
exists in Rome at the present moment; I shall therefore assert that the
laws of this institution being in no respect changed, neither can the
institution itself be said to have undergone any alteration. The present
race of priests who are now in power are too much afraid of the popular
indignation to let loose all their inquisitorial fury, which might even
occasion a revolt if they were not to restrain it; the whole world,
moreover, would cry out against them, a crusade would be raised against
the Inquisition, and, for a little temporary gratification, much power
would be endangered. This is the true reason why the severity of its
penalties is in some degree relaxed at the present time, but they still
remain unaltered in its code."
Again on page 102, he says, "Are the torments which are employed at the
present day at the Inquisition all a fiction? It requires the impudence
of an inquisitor, or of the Archbishop of Westminister to deny their
existence. I have myself heard these evil-minded persons lament and
complain that their victims were treated with too much lenity.
"What is it you desire?" I inquired of the inquisitor of Spoleto.
"That which St. Thomas Aquinas says," answered he; "DEATH TO ALL THE
HERETICS."
"Hand over, then, to one of these people, a person, however respectable;
give him up to one of the inquisitors, (he who quoted St. Thomas Aquinas
to me was made an Archbishop)--give up, I say, the present Archbishop of
Canterbury, an amiable and pious man, to one of these rabid inquisitors;
he must either deny his faith or be burned alive. Is my statement
false? Am I doting? Is not this the spirit that invariably actuates the
inquisitors? and not the inquisitors only, but all those who in any
way defile themselves with the inquisition, such as bishops and their
vicars, and all those who defend it, as the papists do. There is the
renowned Dr. Wiseman, the Archbishop of Westminster according to the
pope's creation, the same who has had the assurance to censure me from
his pulpit, and to publish an infamous article in the Dublin Review, in
which he has raked together, as on a dunghill, every species of filth
from the sons of Ignatius Loyola; and there is no lie or calumny that he
has not made use of against me. Well, then, suppose I were to be handed
over to the tender mercy of Dr. Wiseman, and he had the full power to
dispose of me as he chose, without fear of losing his character in
the eyes of the nation to which, by parentage more than by merit, he
belongs, what do you imagine he would do with me? Should I not have to
undergo some death more terrible than ordinary? Would not a council be
held with the reverend fathers of the company of Loyola, the same who
have suggested the abominable calumnies above alluded to, in order
to invent some refined method of putting me out of the world? I feel
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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