“However rigorous this punishment may appear, yet it is mild when compared with the severity with which the Inquisition formerly visited similar offences. Nothing less than the personal interference of the monarch himself, and the clemency of the grand-inquisitor, could probably have prevented a repetition of those dreadful scenes which have rendered this formidable tribunal an object of universal horror; for the confessor, and many of the subordinate members, insisted on the necessity of an _auto da fé_, in which Olavides would have been infallibly committed to the flames.” Olavides made his escape from the convent in which he had been confined, and retired to France. There he wrote a book, entitled, “The Gospel Triumphant; or, the Converted Philosopher,” for which he obtained pardon and permission to return to Spain. 4. SUFFERINGS OF A BEATA.--_Beatas_, or _blessed females_, are devotees in the Romish church. One of this class, a lady of extraordinary piety and courage, perished at the stake of the Inquisition in Seville, about the year 1780. She had adopted the principles of Michael de Molinos, a Romish priest, of a noble family in Spain, founder of the _Quietists_. They placed religion in spiritual feeling, in opposition to ceremonies, deducing his principles from the Scriptures. Molinos having published a book, entitled “Spiritual Guide,” at Rome, A.D. 1675, he was imprisoned in the Inquisition, condemned as a heretic, and died under torture. In a “Letter to the Spanish Inquisition,” about 1810, the writer says of this lady:--“The confinement of the Beata lasted three or four years, during which time there was scarcely a graduate of any order, who did not, in turn, undertake the conversion of the heretic. The assessors to the inquisitors exhausted the syllogistic art, but hardened as she was, she would not yield to their powerful arguments and authorities. The poor wretch was not aware of her danger in not being convinced, and the cause was drawing towards a conclusion. This arrived, and she insisted in arguing. The tribunal declared her an obstinate heretic, and appointed a time for the _auto da fé_. Scarce an inhabitant of Seville but went to see this solemn act. It lasted from the early part of the morning until night. The criminal was conducted, gagged, and mounted on an ass, in the midst of divines, who endeavoured to subdue her obstinacy by new arguments, and vie with the multitude in stunning her with repeated shouts of _Viva la fé_ (long live the faith). Her cause was read from the pulpit, in the principal church of the Dominicans, intermixed with obscenities expressed in the grossest terms. Nothing now remained but to deliver her up to the secular judge, that she might be punished with death. A retraction, previous to this act, might have saved her life, but the unfortunate fanatic persisted in not making it, and was delivered up. The approaching punishment, and depression of