The executors are they who execute and perform the commands of the inquisitors. They apprehend and keep in custody criminals, and pursue them in any places to which they may have escaped; and may, when needful, put them in irons. All persons, whether magistrates or others, are obliged to assist them, when they are endeavouring to apprehend any person, or seize his effects, upon penalty of a large fine, and being put under the ban. The familiars are the bailiffs of the inquisition, which, though a vile office in all other criminal courts, is esteemed so honourable in this of the inquisition, that there is not a nobleman in the kingdom of Portugal who is not in it; and these are commonly employed by the inquisitors to take persons up. If several persons are to be taken up at the same time, the familiars must so order things, that they may know nothing of each other’s being apprehended. And at this the familiars are so expert, that a father and his three sons and three daughters, who lived together at the same house, were all carried prisoners to the inquisition, without knowing any thing of one another’s being there till seven years afterwards, when they of them who were alive, came forth in an act of faith. There is a particular kind of these familiars, who wear crosses, instituted by Dominic; who vow upon oath, before the inquisitors, that they will defend the catholic faith, though with the loss of fortune and life. The inquisitors give them red crosses, which they have blessed, and may compel them to perform their vow. The visitor of the inquisition is one who goes into all the provinces where the inquisitors are, and reports to the inquisitor general and council whatever he thinks proper to be amended; and whether the several inquisitors have observed the several orders and rules prescribed to them, that in case of any offences, they may be duly punished. The civil magistrate is under great subjection to these inquisitors and their officers. He swears to defend the catholic faith, and to cause all the constitutions relating to the inquisition to be observed, and that he will study to exterminate all persons marked out for heretics by the church. And if any temporal lord shall, after admonition by the church, neglect to purge his dominions from heretical pravity, for the space of a year after such admonition, his country is ordered to be seized, and the person seizing it allowed to possess it without contradiction. When any persons are condemned for heresy by the inquisitors, the civil magistrate is obliged to receive them as soon as delivered to him, and to punish them with the deserved punishment; without presuming directly or indirectly to hinder any judgment, sentence, or process of the inquisitors. The office of the jail-keepers is not to be described; though some account of their jail will not be amiss.