Part 20

Drexelius, we know, has fixed the dimensions of hell to a German cubic mile, and the number of the damned to an hundred thousand millions: _De Damnator_, _Carcer_, &c. Rogo. But Mr. Swinden thinks he need not to have been so sparing in his number, for that there might be found an hundred times as many; and that they must be insufferably crowded in any space he could allow them on our earth. It is impossible, he concludes, to stow such a multitude of spirits in such a scanty apartment, without a penetration of dimensions, which, he doubts, in good philosophy, even in respect of spirits: “If it be (he adds,) why God should prepare, _i. e._ make, a prison for them, when they might all have been crowded together into a baker’s oven.” p. 206.

His arguments for the sun’s being the local hell are: 1. Its capacity. Nobody will deny the sun spacious enough to receive all the damned conveniently; so that there will be no want of room. Nor will fire be wanting, if we admit of Mr. Swinden’s argument against Aristotle, whereby he demonstrates, that the sun is hot, p. 208, _et seq._ The good man is “filled with amazement to think what Pyrenian mountains of sulphur, how many Atlantic oceans of scalding bitumen, must go to maintain such mighty flames as those of the sun; to which our Ætna and Vesuvius are mere glow-worms.” p. 137.

2. Its distance and opposition to the empyreum, which has usually been looked upon as the local heaven: such opposition is perfectly answerable to that opposition in the nature and office of a place of angels and devils, of elect and reprobate, of glory and horror, of hallelujahs and cursings; and the distance quadrates well with Dives seeing Abraham _afar off, and the great gulph between them_; which this author takes to be the solar vortex.

3. That the empyreum is the highest, and the sun the lowest place of the creation; considering it as the centre of our system; and that the sun was the first part of the visible world created; which agrees with the notion of its being primarily intended or prepared to receive the angels, whose fall he supposes to have immediately preceded the creation.

4. The early and almost universal idolatry paid to the sun; which suits well with the great subtilty of that spirit, to entice mankind to worship his throne.

II. As to the eternity of _hell torments_, we have Origen again at the head of those who deny it; it being the doctrine of that writer, that not only men, but devils themselves, after a suitable course of punishment, answerable to their respective crimes, shall be pardoned and restored to heaven.—_De civit. Dei._ l. xxi. c. 17. The chief principle Origen went upon was this, that all punishments was emendatory; applied only to painful medicines, for the recovery of the patient’s health. And other objections, insisted on by modern authors, are the disproportion between temporary crimes and eternal punishments, &c.

The scripture phrases for eternity, as is observed by Archbishop Tillotson, do not always import an infinite duration: thus, in the Old Testament, _for ever_ often signifies only for a long time; particularly till the end of the Jewish dispensation: thus in the epistle of _Jude_, ver. 7, the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are said to be set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of _eternal fire_; that is, of a fire that was not extinguished till those cities were utterly consumed. So one generation is said to come, &c. but the earth endureth _for ever_.

In effect, Mr. Le Clerc notes, that there is no Hebrew word which properly expresses eternity: ‏עולם‎ _gnolam_, only imports a time whose beginning or end is not known; and is accordingly used in a more or less extensive sense, according to the thing treated of.

Thus when God says, concerning the Jewish laws, that they must be observed ‏לעולם‎ _legnolam_, for ever, we are to understand as long a space as we should think fit; or a space whose end was unknown to the Jews before the coming of the Messiah. All general laws, and such as do not regard particular occasions, are made _for ever_, whether it be expressed in those laws, or not; which yet is to be understood in such a manner, as if the sovereign power could no way change them.

Archbishop Tillotson, however, argues very strenuously, that where _hell torments_ are spoken of, the words are to be understood in the strict sense of infinite duration; and what he esteems a peremptory decision of the point is, that the duration of the punishment of the wicked is in the very same sentence expressed by the very same word which is used for the duration of the happiness of the righteous, which all agree to be eternal. “These, speaking of the wicked, shall go away εις ηολασιν ονεωνιον, into eternal punishment; but the righteous, εις ζωην αιωνι, into life eternal.”

Oldham, in his “Satires upon the Jesuits,” alludes to their “lying legends,” and the numerous impositions they practised on the credulous. The following lines are quoted from these legendary miracles, noticed under the article LEGEND, and the amours of the Virgin Mary are narrated in vol. ii. under the article _Religious Nouvellete_:—

Tell, how _blessed Virgin_ to come down was seen, Like playhouse punk descending in machine, How she writ _billet-doux_ and _love discourse_, Made _assignations_, _visits_, and _amours_; How hosts distrest, her smock for _banner_ wore, Which vanquished foes! ——How fish in conventicles met, And _mackerel_ were the _bait_ of _doctrine_ caught; How cattle have judicious hearers been! How consecrated hives with bells were hung, And _bees_ kept mass, and holy _anthems sung_! How _pigs_ to the _rosary_ kneel’d, and sheep were taught To bleat _Te Deum_ and _Magnificat_; How _fly-flap_, of church-censure houses rid Of insects, which at _curse_ of _fryar_ died. How _ferrying cowls_ religious pilgrims bore O’er waves, without the help of sail or oar; How _zealous crab_ the _sacred image_ bore, And swam a catholic to the distant shore. With shams like these the giddy rout mislead, Their folly and their superstition feed.

These are all extravagant fictions in the “Golden legend.” Among other gross and equally absurd impositions to deceive the mob, Oldham also attacks them for certain publications on topics not less singular. The tales he has recounted, says Oldham, are only baits for children like toys at a fair; but they have their profounder and higher matters for the learned and the inquisitive.

One undertakes by scales of miles to tell The bounds, dimensions, and extent of hell; How many German leagues that realm contains! How many hell each year expends In coals, for roasting Hugonots and friends! Another frights the rout with useful stories Of wild chimeras, limbos, PURGATORIES! Where bloated souls in smoky durance hung Like a Westphalia gammon or neat’s tongue, To be redeemed with masses and a song.

Topographical descriptions of HELL, PURGATORY, and even HEAVEN, were once favourite researches among certain orthodox and zealous defenders of the papish church, who exhausted their materials in fabricating a hell to their own ideas, or for their particular purpose. There is a treatise of Cardinal Bellarmin, a jesuit, on _Purgatory_, wherein he appears to possess all the knowledge of a land-measurer among the secret tracts and formidable divisions of “the bottomless pit.” This jesuit informs us that there are beneath the earth four different places, or a place divided into four parts; the deepest of which is hell: it contains all the souls of the damned, where will be also their bodies after the resurrection, and likewise all the demons. The place nearest hell is _purgatory_, where souls are purged, or rather where they appease the anger of God by their sufferings. The same fires and the same torments, he says, are alike in both places, the only difference between _hell_ and _purgatory_ consisting in their duration. Next to _purgatory_ is the _limbo_ of those _infants_ who die without having received the sacrament; and the fourth place is the limbo of the _Fathers_; that is to say, of those _just men_ who died before the death of Christ. But since the days of the Redeemer this last division is empty, like an apartment to let. A later Catholic theologist, the famous Tillemont, condemns all the _illustrious pagans to the eternal torments of hell_! because they lived before the time of Jesus, and, therefore, could not be benefited by the redemption! Speaking of young Tiberius, who was compelled to fall on his own sword, Tillemont adds, “Thus by his own hand he ended his miserable life, _to begin another, the misery of which will never end_!” Yet history records nothing bad of this prince. Jortin observes, that he added this _reflection_ in his later edition, so that the good man as he grew older grew more uncharitable in his religious notions. It is in this matter too that the Benedictine editor of Justin Martyr speaks of the illustrious pagans. This father, after highly applauding Socrates, and a few more who resembled him, inclines to think that they are not fixed in _hell_. But the Benedictine editor takes infinite pains to clear the good father from the shameful imputation of supposing that a _virtuous pagan might be saved_ as well as a Benedictine monk[52]!

The adverse party, who were either philosophers or reformers, received all such information with great suspicion. Anthony Cornelius, a lawyer in the 16th century, wrote a small tract, which was so effectually suppressed, as a monster of atheism, that a copy is now only to be found in the hands of the curious. This author ridiculed the absurd and horrid doctrine of _infant damnation_, and was instantly decried as an atheist, and the printer prosecuted to his ruin! Cœlius Secundus Curio, a noble Italian, published a treatise _De Amplitudine beati regno Dei_, to prove that heaven has more inhabitants than hell, or in his own phrase, that the _elect_ are more numerous than the _reprobate_. However we may incline to smile at these works, their design was benevolent. They were the first streaks of the morning-light of the Reformation. Even such works assisted mankind to examine more closely, and hold in greater contempt, the extravagant and pernicious doctrines of the domineering papistical church.

INQUISITION.

In the civil and canon law, inquisition implies a manner of proceeding for the discovery of some crime by the sole office of the judge, in the way of search, examination, or even torture. It is also used in common law for a like process in the king’s behalf, for the discovery of lands, profits, and the like; in which sense it is often confounded with the office of the

_Inquisition, or the Holy Office_,

Which denotes an ecclesiastical jurisdiction established in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, for the trial and examination of such persons as are suspected to entertain any religious opinions contrary to those professed in the church of Rome. It is called _inquisition_ because the judges of their office take cognizances of crime or common report, without any legal evidence, except what they themselves fish out.

Some people fancy they see the original inquisition, in a constitution made by Pope Lucius, at the council of Verona, in 1184, where he orders the bishops to get information, either by themselves or by their commissaries, of all such persons as were suspected of heresy; and distinguishes the several degrees of suspected, convicted, penitent, relapsed, &c. However this may be, it is generally allowed, that Pope Innocent III., laid the first foundation of the _holy office_; and that the Vaudois and Albigenses were what gave the occasion to it. The pontiff sent several priests, with St. Dominic at their head, to Tholouse, in order to blow up a spirit of zeal and persecution amongst the prelates and princes. These missionaries were to give an account of the number of heretics in those parts, and the behaviour of the princes and persons in authority to them; and thence they acquired the names of inquisitors: but these original inquisitors had not any court, or any authority; they were only a kind of spiritual spies, who were to make report of their discoveries to the Pope.

The Emperor Frederick II. at the beginning of the 13th century, extended their power very considerably: he committed the taking cognizances of the crime of heresy, to a set of ecclesiastical judges; and as fire was the punishment decreed to the obstinate, the inquisitors determined indirectly, with regard both to the persons and the crimes; by which means the laity was cut off from its own jurisdiction, and abandoned to the devout madness and zeal of the ecclesiastics.

After the death of Frederick, who had long before repented the power he had given the churchmen, as having seen some of the fruits of it; Pope Innocent IV. erected a perpetual tribunal of inquisitors, and deprived the bishops and secular judges of the little power the Emperor Frederick had left them. And this jurisdiction, which depended immediately on himself, he took care to introduce into most of the states of Europe. But the inquisitors were so fiery hot, and made such horrid butchery among the reputed heretics, that they raised an universal detestation, even in some Catholic countries themselves. Hence it was that their reign proved very short both in France and Germany; nor was even Spain entirely subject to them till the time of Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1448, when their power was increased, under the pretence of clearing the country of Judaism and Mahometanism. The power of the inquisition is very much limited in some countries, particularly at Venice, where it is received under such modifications as prove a great check on its authority. Indeed at Venice it seems rather a political than a religious contrivance, and serves rather for the security of the state, than that of the church. There are appeals from the subaltern inquisitions in Italy, to the congregation of the holy office at Rome.

It is the constant practice of the inquisition to affect, in all their procedures, to inspire as much terror as possible; every thing is done with the most profound silence and secrecy, and with the greatest rigour and pretended impartiality. When a person is seized all the world abandons him; not the nearest friend dares to speak a word in his defence; that alone would be enough to render them suspected of heresy, and would bring them within the claws of the inquisition. The criminals are seized, examined, tried, tortured, and unless they recant, are even condemned and executed, without ever seeing or knowing their accusers; whence the revengeful have a fair opportunity of wreaking their malice on their enemies. When the inquisition has done with them, and condemned them to death, they are turned over to the secular arm, with a world of prayer, and pious entreaty, that their lives may not be touched.

Time is no manner of security in point of heresy, nor does the grave itself shelter the accused from the pursuits of the inquisition; even the deceased have their trials, and they proceed in all their form and solemnity against the dead carcases. The execution is always deferred till the number of condemned is very great, that the multitude of sufferers may strike the deeper horror, and make the scene more terrible and shocking.

The inquisition of Rome is a congregation of twelve cardinals and some other officers, where the Pope presides in person. This is accounted the highest tribunal in Rome; it began in the time of Pope Paul IV. on occasion of the Lutheranism.

The inquisition is very severe in the Indies. It is true, there must there be the oaths of seven witnesses to condemn a man; but the deposition of slaves or children are taken. The person is tortured till he condemns himself; for his accusers are never brought to confront him. Persons are accused for the most slender expression against the church; or even for a disrespectful word against the inquisitors.

The standard of the inquisition is a piece of red damask, on which is painted a cross, with an olive branch on one side and a sword on the other; with these words of the Psalm, _Exurge, Domine, et judica causam meam_.

This infernal engine of tyranny, bigotry, and superstition, did not become known in Spain before the year 1484. The court of Rome owed this obligation to another Dominican, John de Torquemada. As he was the confessor of Queen Isabella, he had extorted from her a promise that if ever she ascended the throne, she would use every means to extirpate heresy and heretics. Ferdinand had conquered Grenada, and had expelled from the Spanish realms multitudes of unfortunate Moors. A few remained, who, with the Jews, he compelled to become Christians: they at least assumed the name, but it was well known that both these nations naturally respected their own faith, rather than that of the Christians. This race was afterwards distinguished as _Christianos novos_; and in marriages, the blood of the Hidalgo was considered to lose its purity by mingling with such a suspicious source.

It was pretended by Torquemada, that this dissimulation would greatly hurt the holy religion. The Queen listened with respectful diffidence to her confessor; and at length gained over the king to consent to the establishment of the unrelenting tribunal. Torquemada, indefatigable in his zeal for the holy see, in the space of fourteen years that he exercised the office of chief inquisitor, is said to have prosecuted near eighty thousand persons, of whom six thousand were condemned to the flames.

Voltaire attributes the taciturnity of the Spaniards to the universal horror such proceedings spread. “A jealousy and suspicion took possession of all ranks of people: friendship and sociability were at an end! Brothers were afraid of brothers, fathers of their children.”

The situation and feelings of one imprisoned in the cells of the inquisition are forcibly painted by Orobio, a mild, and meek, and learned man, whose controversy with Limborch is well known. When he escaped from Spain he took refuge in Holland, was circumcised, and died a philosophical Jew. He has left this admirable description of himself in the cell of the inquisition:—“Inclosed in this dungeon I could not even find space enough to turn myself about; I suffered so much that I found my brain disordered. I frequently asked myself, am I really Don Bathazaar Orobio, who used to walk about Seville at my pleasure, who so much enjoyed myself with my wife and children? I often imagined that all my life had only been a dream, and that I really had been born in this dungeon! The only amusement I could invent was metaphysical disputations. I was at once opponent, respondent, and phæses!” In the cathedral at Saragossa is the tomb of a famous inquisitor; six pillars surround the tomb; to each is chained a Moor, as preparatory to his being burnt. On this St. Foix ingeniously observes, “If ever the jack-ketch of any country should be rich enough to have a splendid tomb, this might serve as an excellent model.”

Bayle informs us, that the inquisition punished heretics by fire, to elude the maxim, _Ecclesia non novit sanguinem_; for burning a man, say they, does not shed _his blood_! Otho, the bishop at the Norman invasion, in the tapestry worked by Matilda, the queen of William the Conqueror, is represented with a _mace_ in his hand, for the purpose, that when he _dispatched_ his antagonist, he might not _spill blood_, but only break bones! Religion has had her quibbles as well as law.

The establishment of this despotic order was resisted in France; but it may perhaps surprise the reader that a recorder of London, in a speech, urged the necessity of setting up an inquisition in England! It was on the trial of Penn the Quaker, in 1670, who was acquitted by the jury, which seems highly to have provoked the said recorder. “_Magna Charta_,” says the preface to the trial, “with the recorder of London, is nothing more than _Magna F——_!” It appears that the jury after being kept two days and two nights to change their verdict, were in the end both fined and imprisoned. Sir John Howell, the recorder, said, “Till now I never understood the reason of the policy and prudence of the Spaniards, in suffering the inquisition among them; and certainly it will not be well with us, till something _like unto the Spanish inquisition_ be in England.” Thus it will ever be, while both parties, struggling for pre-eminence, rush to the sharp extremity of things, and annihilate the trembling balance of the constitution. But the adopted motto of Lord Erskine must ever be that of every Briton, “_Trial by Jury_.”

Gabriel Malagrida, an old man of seventy, so late as the year 1761, was burnt by these evangelical executioners. His trial was printed at Amsterdam, 1762, from the Lisbon copy. And for what was this unhappy Jesuit condemned? Not, as some imagined, for his having been concerned in a conspiracy against the King of Portugal. No other charge is laid to him in his trial, but that of having indulged certain heretical notions, which any other tribunal but that of the inquisition, would have looked upon as the deleterious fancies of a fanatical old man. Will posterity believe, that in the eighteenth century an aged visionary was led to the stake for having said, amongst other extravagances, “that the Virgin having commanded him to write the life of Antichrist, told him, that he, Malagrida, was a second John, but more clear than John the Evangelist; that there were to be three Antichrists, and that the last should be born at Milan, of a monk and a nun, in the year 1920; that he would marry Proserpine, one of the infernal furies.”

For such ravings as these the unhappy old man was burnt in recent times. Granger assures us, that a horse, in his remembrance, who had been taught to tell the spots upon cards, the hour of the day, &c. by significant tokens, was, together with his _owner_, put into the inquisition, for both of them dealing with the devil! A man of letters declared that, having fallen into their hands, nothing perplexed him so much as the ignorance of the inquisitor and his council; and it seemed very doubtful whether they had read even the Scriptures.

The following most interesting anecdote relating to the terrible inquisition, exemplifying how the use of the diabolical engines of torture forces men to confess crimes they have not been guilty of, was related to Mr. D’Israeli by a Portuguese gentleman.

A nobleman in Lisbon having heard that his physician and friend was imprisoned by the inquisition, under the stale pretext of Judaism, addressed a letter to one of them, to request his freedom, assuring the inquisitor, that his friend was as orthodox a Christian as himself. The physician, notwithstanding this high recommendation, was put to the torture; and, as was usually the case, at the height of his sufferings, confessed every thing they wished. This enraged the nobleman, and feigning a dangerous illness, he begged the inquisitor would come to give him his last spiritual aid.