Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A HistorySabatini, Rafael
History
Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition: A History
Sabatini, Rafael
Inquisition -- Spain; Torquemada, Tomás, de, 1420-1498
ARTICLE III
After the conclusion of the said sermon the inquisitors shall
publish an edict granting a term of grace, of thirty or forty
days--as they may deem proper--so that all persons who have
fallen into the sin of heresy or apostasy, who have observed
Jewish rites or any other that are contrary to the Christian
Religion, may come forward to confess their sins, assured that
if they do so with a sincere penitence, divulging all that is
known to them or that they remember, not only of their own sins
but also of the sins of others, they shall be received with
charity.
They shall be subjected to a salutary penance, but they shall
not suffer death, imprisonment, or confiscation of their
property, nor shall they in any way be mulcted unless the
inquisitors, in consideration of the quality of the penitents
and of the sins they confess, should think well to impose some
pecuniary penance upon them.
Concerning this grace and mercy that their Highnesses consider
well to accord to those who are reconciled, the Sovereigns
order the delivery of letters-patent, bearing the royal seal,
whose tenor shall be included in the published edict.
It is sufficiently plain, from the terms of this article, that the
edict of grace was published by royal command, and that it was not,
as Garcia Rodrigo represents it, a merciful dispensation spontaneously
emanating from the Holy Office.
ARTICLE IV
Self-delators shall present their confessions in writing to the
inquisitors and their notaries with two or three witnesses who
shall be officers of the Inquisition or other upright persons.
Upon receipt of this confession by the inquisitors, let the
oath be administered to the penitents in legal form, not only
concerning the matters confessed but concerning others that
may be known to them and upon which they may be questioned.
Let them be asked how long it is since they Judaized or
otherwise sinned against the Faith, and how long it is since
they abandoned their false beliefs, repented, and ceased to
observe those ceremonies. Next let them be examined upon the
circumstances of the matters confessed, that the inquisitors
may satisfy themselves that these confessions are true.
Especially let them be questioned as to what prayers they
recite, where they recite them, and with whom they have been in
the habit of assembling to hear the law of Moses preached.
ARTICLE V
Self-delators who seek reconciliation to Holy Mother Church
shall be required publicly to abjure their errors, and penance
shall publicly be imposed upon them at the discretion of the
inquisitors, using mercy and kindness as far as it is possible
for them to do so with an easy conscience.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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