And in order that the jail of heretics may be kept secret, no one of the officials, no not the judge himself, can enter it alone, or speak with the prisoners but before another of the officials, nor without the previous order of the inquisitors. All are obliged to swear that they will observe this, that no one may see or speak to the prisoners besides the person who gives them their necessaries; who must be a faithful, honest person, and is obliged to swear that he will not discover the secrets, and must be searched to prevent his carrying any orders or letters to the prisoners. This command they will have observed as most sacred, because, as they say, secrecy is the strength of the inquisition, which might easily be violated, unless this order be punctually kept; and therefore they always most severely punish those who transgress it. Gonsalvius Montanus[257] gives us a very remarkable instance of this. “One Peter ab Herera, a man not altogether vile, but of some humanity, and not very old, was appointed keeper of the tower of Triana, which is the prison of the inquisition. It happened, as it often doth in such numerous and promiscuous imprisonments, that amongst other prisoners committed to his custody, there was a certain good matron, with her two daughters, who were put in different cells, and earnestly desired the liberty of seeing one another, and comforting each other in so great a calamity. They therefore earnestly entreated the keeper, that he would suffer them to be together for one quarter of an hour, that they might have the satisfaction of embracing each other. He being moved with humanity and compassion, allowed them to be together, and talk with one another for half an hour; and after they had indulged their mutual affections, he put them, as they were before, in their separate prisons. A few days after this they were put with great cruelty to the torture; and the keeper being afraid, that through the severity of their torments, they should discover to the lords, the fathers inquisitors, his small humanity in suffering them to converse together for half an hour without the inquisitors leave; through terror, went himself to the holy tribunal, of his own accord confessed his sin, and prayed for pardon; foolishly believing, that by such his confession he should prevent the punishment that threatened him for this action. But the lords inquisitors judged this to be so heinous a crime, that they ordered him immediately to be thrown into jail; and such was the cruelty of his treatment, and the disorder of mind that followed on it, that he soon grew distracted. However, his disorder and madness did not save him from a more grievous punishment. For after he had lain a full year in that cursed prison, they brought him out in the public procession, cloathed with the yellow garment, and an halter round his neck, as though he had been a common thief; and condemned him first to receive two hundred