ACCOUNT OF THE INQUISITION. INNOCENT the Third, a Pope as enterprizing as he was successful in his enterprizes, having sent Dominic, with some missionaries, into Languedoc, these men so irritated the Heretics they were sent to convert, that most of them were assassinated at Toulouse, in the year 1200. It was ihen he called iu for aid temporal arms, and published against them a crusade ; granting, as is usual with the Popes on similar occasions, all kinds of indulgences and pardons to those who should arm against these . Mahometans, as he stiled these unfortunate men. Raimond, Count of Toulouse, was constrained to submit. The inhabitants were passed on the edge of the sword, without distinction of age or sex. It was then he established that scourge of Europe, THE INQUISITION : for having considered that, though all might be compelled to submit by arms, there might remain numbers who would profess particular, dogmas, he established this sanguinary tribunal solely to inspect into all families, and examine all persons who they imagined were unfriendly to the interests of Rome Dominic did so inuch by his cares and continued pursecutions, that he firmly estab ished it at Toulouse. It was as late as the year 1484 that it became known in Spair. It was also to a Dominican, John de Torquemada, that the court of Rome owed this obligation. As he was the confessor of Queen Isabella, he had • extorted from ber 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 chaсed from the Spanish realms ... multitudes of unfortupate Moor. A few had remained; who, with the Jews, he obliged to become Christians : they at içası assumed the name; but i was well known that both ihese pations naturally respected their own prejudices, rather than those of the Christians. . Torqueinada pretezided that this dissimulation would greatly hurt the interests of the Holy Religion. The queen listened with respeciful diffidence to her confessor; and, at lergth, gained over the sig to consent to the establishınent of this barbarous tribunal. Torquemada, ir:defatigable in his zeal for the holy seat, in the space of fourteen years that he exercised the office of chief inquisitor, persecuted near eighty thousand persons, of whom six ihousand were condemned to the fames! Voltaire attributes the taciturnity of the Spaniards to the universal horror such proceedings spreadi He says. A general jealousy and suspicion took possession of all-ranks of people : friendship and sociability were all at an end! Brothers were afraid of brcthers; fathers of their children. " . !... . 1.,.* . Let us contemplate a slight sketch of that DESPOTISM which, with the destruction of the Bastile, we hope is extinguished throughout Europe. 1 During the pontificate of Sixtus the fifth the Inquisition was powerful and rigorous in Rome, Muretus, in writing to De Thou the historian, says" we do not know what becomes of the people here. Almost every day, when I rise I hear, with an alarming surprize, how such an one has disap eired. We dare not whisper our suspicions: the Inquisition woud eimmediately at our doors " Taverner, in his Travels, informs us, that a man of letters, who had fallen into the hauds of the inqu sitors, said, that nothing !roubled him so much as the ignorance of the inquisitor and his council when they put any question ; so that he inclined to believe that not one of them had really read the Scripturest . n . Dr. Grainger atfords us a curious piece of information. He assures us, thai in lis remembrance, a horse, that 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 inquisiti in for both of them dealing with the devil!-i'he man who teaches a horse, in the present day, will be mucha better paid than the philosopher who instructs his scholars. · The Inquisition have chosen to punish heretics hy fire, in preference to any other punishment; because Bayle assures us) it is to elude the maxim, Ecclesia non novit sanguinem, which they conceive to be observed in these punishments; as burning a man, they say, does not break his bones, or shed his blood!Religion has her quibbles as well as Law.. . .my Although we imagine that the fires of this terrible tribunal are extinguished, its ashes may yet kindie. It was only as far back as the year 1761, that Gairie Malagrida, an old man of seventy, was burnt by these evangelical executioners. His verbal process was printed at Amsterdam, 1762, from the Lisbon copy. And for what was this unhappy Jesuit condemned ? Not, as soine have imagined, for his having been concerned in a conspiracy against the King of Portugal. No other charge is laid to bim in his verbal process, but that of having indulged certain heretical notions, which any other tribunal than that of the Inquisition woud have looked upon as the delirious fancies of an old fa atịc. Will posteri y believe that, in the eighteenth century, an aged visionary was led to the stake, for having said, amongst other extravagancies, that~'I he holy Virgin having commanded him to wri:e the life of Anti-Christ, told him that he, Malagrida; was a second John, but more clear than John the Evangelist: that there were to be three Anti-Christs, and that the last shou d be born at Milan, o a Monk and a Nun; in the year 1920; and that he would marry Proserpmie, one of the infernal furies." It was for such ravings as these the unhappy old man was bornt; whi "Trpeat once more, was not forty year ago!" POETRY. TO A FRIEND ON HIS MARRIAGE. A prudent wife is from the Lord.” SOLOMON. LEST be the day which crowns that mutual love, Unerring Wisdom first ordaind above, What native instinct, or exterior charms, First rais'd the tumult of love's soft alarms? What sweet inducement taught the breast to move, The soul to languish, and the heart to love? 'Twas winning piety and sense conjoin'd, That spoke the innate beauties of the mind: Cementing Friendship lent her gentle aid, And crowu'd the happy choice that prudence inade: Spontaneous efforts fann'd the mutual fire, And grace inherent sanctify'd desire. May heay'n propitious bless you from above,., And crown with many a pledge your mutual love, The father's virtues in the boys be found, The mother's graces in the girls abound: Maria's charms include whate'er we know, Can heighten joy, or soften care below; Her sweet converse shall soothe thy future hours, Aod strew the rugged path of life with flow'rs; Thy constant bliss shall all her care employ, And her bright viriue teach thee how to die! Her gentle hand support thy drooping head, When all the joys of human life are fed. The great first Cause, the Sire of heav'n and earth, Who gave all animated being birth, Saw Adam solitary-saw him grieve, If love and harmony you would preserve, Your setting sun, when life's short day is o'er, So Christian, let thy inward light EPITAPH ON SAMUEL LOVE, A. M. IN BRISTOL CATHEDRAL. W HEN worthless grandeur decks th' embellished urn, No poignant grief attends the sable bier, Deep is the sorrow, genuine the tear. Stranger! shouldst thou approach this awful shrine, The merits of the honour'd dead to seek, Let those who knew him, those who lov'd him, speak. Oh! let them in some pause from anguish say, What zeal inspir'd, what faith enlarg'd his breast, From earth to heav'n, from blessing to be blest! . |