Farther, he who hath offended against the Catholic faith which he had professed, hath a rope tied round his neck, to signify, that the inward parts of such a person being possessed by the craftiness of the devil, have been given to such sins, of which his outward parts being tied with ropes, give a very evident sign and proof. And though they are reconciled after abjuration of their heresy, yet they walk with a rope tied about their necks; that they may come out as witnesses against themselves, and may be examples to others, that they may turn their eyes to the inward spots of the mind. During this action, every one of the prisoners eats the bread and figs in the church, which were given them by the officers of the inquisition in jail. When this ceremony is performed, the inquisitor goes back to his place; after which the sentences of those who are appointed to death are read over; the conclusion of which is, that the inquisition can shew them no favour, upon account of their being relapsed, or impenitent, and that therefore it delivers them over to the arm of the secular court, which they earnestly intreat so to moderate their punishment, as to prevent the effusion of blood, and danger of death. When those last words are read, one of the officers of the holy office gives each of them a blow on the breast, by which he signifies that they are left by the inquisition; upon which one of the officers of secular justice comes to them and claims them. If any of them are in holy orders, they are degraded, and deprived of all their orders, before they are delivered to the secular arm. After this they read the sentences against the dead. At last these miserable wretches are brought to the secular judge, to hear the sentence of death; and when they come before him, they are severally asked in what religion they desire to die? Their crime is never inquired into; because it is not the office of the secular magistrate to ask, whether those, who are condemned by the inquisition, are criminal? He is to presuppose them guilty, and his duty is to inflict the punishment appointed by law upon those who commit such crimes, of which they are pronounced guilty by the inquisition. When they have answered this one single question, they are soon after tied to a stake, round about which there is placed a pile of wood. Those who answer that they will die Catholics, are first strangled; but those who say they will die Jews or heretics, are burnt alive.[277] As these are leading out to punishment, the rest are carried back without any order, by their sureties, to the jail of the inquisition. This is the celebration of an act of faith in Portugal; or rather in that part of India which is subject to the Portugueze, as a Frenchman hath described it in his History of the Inquisition at Goa, who himself walked in procession at an act of faith, wearing the infamous Sambenito, and who accurately observed and described all the circumstances of it. ----- Footnote 277: