When the criminal is put in jail, he is brought before the inquisitor. The place where he appears before the inquisitor, is called by the Portuguese the table of the holy office. At the farther end of it there is placed a crucifix, raised up almost as high as the ceiling. In the middle of the room there is a table. At that end which is nearest the crucifix, sits the secretary or notary of the inquisition. The criminal is brought in by the beadle, with his head, arms and feet naked, and is followed by one of the keepers. When they come to the chamber of audience, the beadle enters first, makes a profound reverence before the inquisitor, and then withdraws. After this, the criminal enters alone, who is ordered to sit down on a bench at the other end of the table, over against the secretary. The inquisitor sits on his right hand. On the table near the criminal lies a missal, or book of the gospels; and he is ordered to lay his hand on one of them, and to swear that he will declare the truth, and keep secrecy. After taking this oath, of declaring the truth both of himself and others, the inquisitor interrogates him of divers matters. As, whether he knows why he was taken up, or hath been informed of it by any one or more persons? Where, when, and how he was apprehended? If he says that he knows nothing of it, he is asked, whether he cannot guess at the reason? whether he knows in what prisons he is detained? and upon what account men are imprisoned there? If he says he cannot guess at the cause of his imprisonment, but knows that he is in the prisons of the holy office, where heretics and persons suspected of heresy are confined, he is told, that since he knows persons are confined there for their profanation of religion, he ought to conclude that he also is confined for the same reason; and must therefore declare what he believes to be the cause of his own apprehension and confinement in the prisons of the holy office. If he says he cannot imagine what it should be, before he is asked any other questions, he receives a gentle admonition, and is put in mind of the lenity of the holy office towards those who confess without forcing, and of the rigour of justice used towards those who are obstinate. They also compare other tribunals with the holy office, and remind him, that in others the confession of the crime draws after it immediate execution and punishment; but that in the court of the inquisition, those who confess and are penitent, are treated with greater gentleness. After this, he is admonished in writing, and told, that the ministers of the holy office never take up any one, or are used to apprehend any one without a just cause; and that therefore they earnestly beseech him, and command and enjoin him, exactly to recollect and diligently to consider his actions, to examine his conscience, and purge it from all those offences and errors it labours under, and for which he is informed against.