To us, in our enlightened times, it must appear very astonishing, that proceedings so inhuman and shocking could be witnessed and sanctioned by a great monarch and his mighty nobles. Yet these outrages continued, but not without complaints against the Inquisition from some of the nobility and statesmen, so that no less than 9,216 victims of that court are reckoned in the reign of Charles II., from A.D. 1666 to A.D. 1700: of these, 1,728 were burnt to death; 576 were burnt in effigy; and 6,912 were subjected to severe penances, in Spain. ACT OF FAITH AT LISBON, A.D. 1682. Dr. Michael Geddes, an eminent English divine, and chaplain to the factory at Lisbon for several years, until he was apprehended by the Inquisition in 1686, when he was interdicted from officiating in his ministerial capacity, and returned to England, witnessed an _auto da fé_, in 1682, and he describes it as follows:-- “In the morning of the day, the prisoners are all brought into a great hall, where they have the habits put on they are to wear in the procession, which begins to come out of the Inquisition about nine of the clock in the morning. The first in the procession are the Dominican friars, who carry the standard of the Inquisition, which on the one side hath their founder Dominic’s picture, and on the other side, a cross between an olive leaf and a sword, with this motto, _Justitia et Misericordia_. Next after the Dominicans come the penitents, some with _benitos_, some without, according to the nature of their crimes; they are all in black coats without sleeves, and bare-footed, with a wax candle in their hand. Next come the penitents who have narrowly escaped being burnt, who, over their black coat, have flames painted, with their points turned downwards, to signify their having been saved, but so as by fire: this habit is called by the Portuguese _fuego revolto_, or flames turned upside down. Next come the negative and relapsed, that are to be burnt, with flames upon their habit, pointing upward; and next come those who profess doctrines contrary to the faith of the Roman church, and who, besides flames on their habit, pointing upward, have their picture, which is drawn two or three days before, upon their breasts, with dogs, serpents, and devils, all with open mouths, painted upon it. Pequa, a famous Spanish inquisitor, calls this procession, _Horrendum ac tremendum spectaculem_; and so it is in truth, there being some things in the looks of all the prisoners, besides those that are to be burnt, that is ghastly and disconsolate, beyond what can be imagined; and in the eyes and countenance of those that are to be burnt, there is something that looks fierce and eager.