Records of the Spanish Inquisition, Translated from the Original Manuscripts. Andrew Dickson White

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Sismondi, Litterature du Midi de l’Europe.

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Sismondi, Hist. des Français.

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Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiast.

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Daru, Hist. de Venise.

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Giannone, Storia di Napoli.

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Llorente, Hist. de la Inquisicion de Espana.

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Mariana, Hist. de Espana. Llorente.

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Schiller, Abfall der Niederlande.

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Llorente.

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Lafitau, Conquestes des Portugais.

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As soon as the crime of suspicion of heresy was established in the preliminary accusation, the Inquisitors ordered the arrest of the delinquent. From that moment there were neither privileges nor shelter for him. Whatever might be his rank, he was seized in the midst of his family and friends, and no one dared to offer the least resistance. From the instant he was in the hands of the Inquisition not an individual was allowed any communication with him, he was abandoned by all the world and deprived of every species of consolation. Wo to the compassionate mind that dared to show any sympathy for a victim of the Inquisition. The accused was plunged into a frightful dungeon till the Inquisitors saw fit to interrogate him.

In the mean time the officers of the Inquisition proceeded to the dwelling of the accused, and drew up an inventory of all his goods, which were immediately seized. His creditors lost their debts; his wife and children were left in the most pitiable desertion; wives and daughters the most virtuous and accomplished, have many times been seen reduced to the horrible necessity of gaining a wretched existence by prostitution, occasioned by their destitute state and the contempt attached to them from being connected with a person apprehended by the Holy Office. After he had passed many days and even months in prison, the Inquisitors caused him to insinuate, by means of the jailor, that he demanded audience; for it was a constant practice of this Tribunal to contrive that the accused should be the person to demand. The prisoner, appearing before his judges for the first time, they questioned him as if they did not know him, and engaged him by the most crafty methods, to acknowledge his crime. Llorente Hist. de la Inquisicion.

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‘The least mixture of African, Indian, Moorish, or Jewish blood taints a whole generation. Nor does the knowledge of such a fact die away in the course of years, or become unnoticed from the obscurity and humbleness of the parties. Not a child in this populous city (Seville) is ignorant that a family, who, beyond the memory of man, have kept a confectioner’s shop in a central part of the town, had one of their ancestors punished by the Inquisition for a relapse into Judaism. I well recollect how, when a boy, I often passed that way, scarcely venturing to cast a side glance on a pretty young woman, who constantly attended the shop, for fear, as I said to myself, of shaming her. A person free from tainted blood is defined by law, ‘Christiano viejo, limpio de toda mala raza.’ An old Christian, free from all bad race and stain. The severity of this law, or rather of the public opinion enforcing it, shuts out its victims from every employment in church or state, and excludes them even from fraternities, or religious associations, which are otherwise open to persons of the lowest ranks. I verily believe that were St Peter a Spaniard, he would either deny admittance into heaven to a people of tainted blood, or send them to a retired corner, where they might not offend the eyes of the old Christians.’

Doblado’s Letters from Spain.

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Attorney General.

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Calificacion or qualification, a judgment pronounced upon the character and tendency of any actions or speeches denounced before the Inquisition. This was done by officers holding a special commission for that purpose called Calificadores.