A01115:1663
An abridgement of the book of acts and monuments of the ChurchAn abridgement of the booke of acts and monumentes of the Church
An abridgement of the book of acts and monuments of the Church: written by that Reverend Father, Master John Fox: and now abridged by Timothy Bright, Doctor of Physic, for such as either through want of leisure, or ability have not the use of so necessary an historyAn abridgement of the booke of acts and monumentes of the Church: written by that Reuerend Father, Maister Iohn Fox: and now abridged by Timothe Bright, Doctour of Phisicke, for such as either through want of leysure, or abilitie haue not the vse of so necessary an history
London: printed by I. Windet, 1589
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
The execrable Inquisition of Spain.
The execrable Inquisition of Spaine.
IT first began by Ferdinandus and Elizabeth his wife,1 and was instituted against the Jews, which after their Baptism, professed their own ceremonies: but now it is practised against the professors of the Gospel. The Spaniards, especially the great divines, do hold, that the holy Inquisition can not err: and that the Fathers of the Inquisition can not be deceived. By the order of the Inquisition, the party called in question, if any thing be suspected or pretended, is incontinent commanded to a horrible prison, and there they find out crimes against him at leisure. In the mean time no man living so hardy (not the father for the child) as to speak for him: for if he do, he is also taken, and cast into prison: neither is it permitted for any one to enter into the prison, but there he endureth alone, where he can not see so much as the ground, and where he sustaineth moreover whippings, rackings, irons, tortures, &c. Sometimes they are brought forth, and showed in some high place, for an open spectacle of rebuke and shame: and thus are some of them detained many years, & murdered by long torments whole days together:2 during all the time what is done in the prison no man knoweth, but only the holy ⟨p. 472⟩Fathers and the tormentors: all is done in secrete: the accuser secrete, the crime secrete, the witness secrete, neither is the poor prisoner ever advertised of any thing: if he can guess who accused him, wherefore and whereof, he may be pardoned peradventure of his life, but this is very seldom, and yet is he not set at liberty, before he hath endured long time infinite torments: and this is called their Penitence: and so he is let go, yet not but that he must wear a garment with yellow colours, for a note of public infamy to him and his whole race. And if he can not guess right, showing to the judge by whom he was accused, and whereof, incontinent the horrible sentence of condemnation is pronounced against him, to be burned for an obstinate heretic: yet so the sentence is not executed till he hath endured imprisonment, in some heinous prison.