If the prisoner do not confess according to the deposition of the witnesses against him, or do not satisfy the inquisitors, torture is employed, chiefly to induce the accused to confess regarding friends or associates, who may hold opinions deemed heretical. Determined to humble their victims, they employ extensively a most cruel system of torture, the records of which have justly procured for the Inquisition the character of _sanguinary_ and _diabolical_. Surely, none but the evil spirit, “the devil, who was a murderer from the beginning,” could have devised such revolting methods of cruelty, and prompted men, with the most ingenious devices, so to outrage all the dictates of humanity, as to act on the system which was the practice of the Romish inquisitors. They yet attempt its justification on the plea that “Paul delivered the Corinthian to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.” (1 Cor. v. 5.) Paul inflicted no bodily tortures, but such is the Romish perversion of the Scriptures. These tortures of the Inquisition it will be necessary here briefly to describe, that the character of the atrocious system may be the more clearly understood by the reader. 1. THE HALL OF TORTURE.--This, in Spain, is a subterraneous chamber, in the centre of the prison, so that the cries of the sufferer may not be heard by any one outside. It is entered by a passage through several doors; at one end of it a tribunal is erected, on which the inquisitors, the inspector, and the notary are seated. The lamps being lighted in this dark room, the prisoner is brought in and delivered to the executioner, who makes a dreadful appearance; as he is covered all over with a black linen garment down to his feet, and tied close to his body, while his head and face are all hidden with a hood, having in it only two small holes, through which he may see. All this is intended to strike terror into the miserable wretch, when he sees himself in the power of one who has the appearance of an infernal spirit. Those who are employed as torturers are required to be such as are born of “ancient Christians,”--undoubted Catholics; and they are sworn to secresy as to what is said and done in this terrible place of punishment. 2. STRIPPING.--All who are tortured are stripped naked, both men and women, without regard to decency or honour; and the prisoner has no clothing except a pair of linen drawers. This process, to some, is an inexpressible torment. While he is being stripped, he is exhorted to confess and declare all the truth, being admonished that if he should die under the torture, the judges would be clear from blame, which would rest alone with himself, as a criminal. The notary present writes down everything that is said or done in the act of torture. If the inquisitors are not satisfied with the confession, the prisoner is threatened with various punishments, the instruments of which he is shown in the hall.