The History of Persecution, from the Patriarchal Age, to the Reign of George IIChandler, Samuel
History
The History of Persecution, from the Patriarchal Age, to the Reign of George II
Chandler, Samuel
Persecution -- Great Britain; Persecution -- History
IX. A ninth is, that when the crimes cannot be proved against the
prisoner, he is not absolved from the crime of which he is accused, but
only from prosecution; and all the declaration that is made, is that the
crime against him is not proved by proper witnesses; and this sentence
is never taken for an adjudged case. So that he who is once informed
against to the inquisition, although he be innocent, and his crime
cannot be proved according to the received manner of the inquisition,
though indeed, according to that manner, all crimes of which there is
but the least suspicion may be easily proved; yet he is never blotted
out of the inquisitors book or index, but his name is there preserved in
perpetual remembrance of his being a suspected person, that if he should
happen to be informed against for heresy at any other time, these latter
informations added to the former may amount to a real proof; and that
although he is dismissed from jail by the sentence of the judge, he may
never be able to live in safety, but that being always suspected by the
inquisitor, he may be arrested for the same crime which ought to have
been forgotten, upon the fresh information of some vile and wicked
fellow.
X. A tenth, and that not the least instance of injustice, is their
readiness to put persons to the torture, and that to discover a secret
crime, lying concealed in the mind; yea, that they will use the torture
so much the sooner, because the crime is more concealed than other
crimes.
XI. The eleventh is, their putting persons to the torture upon half full
proof of the crime. This half full proof is faultering, defamation, and
one witness of his own knowledge, or when the tokens are vehement and
violent. All these things are subject to the pleasure of the judge. So
that if any one falls into the hands of a cruel inquisitor, and faulters
in his answer, or is informed against by one witness, who declares he
was present at the action or words he gives information of, he cannot
possibly escape the torture, nor consequently the punishment of the
crime he is accused of, considering the violence of the torments. Nor is
this all; but as there may be some facts occasioned not so much by
heresy concealed in the mind, as by carnal concupiscence or rashness,
they will have such to be tortured for their intention, and force them
by torments to confess they had an heretical intention in their mind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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