On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
witch and destroy their enemies , carry pestilence into their flocks , and blight their fruits . < c More than twenty murders , damages , and acts of vengeance , " were proved against one poor wretch who suffered under our commission .
Evidence was also given of the deaths of many children who had been the victims of witchcraft : the blood of some had been sucked ; others had been hanged ; others had been scourged with brambles to death ; and manv with brambles to death ; and many
had been destroyed by the poisonous pills . After many details of this character , the inquisitors break off and say , < e The number of these murders is so great , that it is impossible to go into the particulars of all . "
In the course of their inquiries , the inquisitors obtained information of an Aquelarre of more than five hundred witches ; but it seems they were unsuccessful in their attempt to convict them . What precedes is a very imperfect and abbreviated account of the
discoveries and proceedings of the Logrono inquisitors . Many disgusting details are omitted , but enough are given to show the gross barbarism and credulity of a tribunal which professed to justify the character of God , and to purify religion from all its errors .
T he establishment of the inquisition in Spain seems to have been the prelude to the gradual decline of that " renowned , romantic land . " The most enlightened writers , ( and especially Hernando de Pulgar ) opposed the introduction of this merciless
tribunal with energy and eloquence . More than twenty thousand persons were marked out for its prey , immediately after its establishment - , of whom two thousand were burnt , and about the same number , condemned to death , fled to the mountains , and escaped , as they were able , from their country .
In 14 Q 2 , the barbarous decree was issued , which drove nearly half a million of Jews from the Peninsula , who took with them immense treasures , and whose removal almost crushed the vising spirit of literature in Spain , for among them were some of the ablest philosophers and most intelligent critics . *
* And their talents descended to their children . Spinoza , Monteira ( whose shrewd objections against Christianity were
Untitled Article
In 155 Q , the inquisitor general published the first list of prohibited books . Among these the New . Testament is mentioned ; the prohibition 0 / which , was repeated in 1583 . Such is the growth of superstition , when
ministered to by ignorance and sheltered by power , that soon after this period a noted Jesuit ( Martin del Rio ) wrot $ to prove ( aye , and quotes authorities too ) that Luther was fhe carnal son
of the devil , who in the form of a goat seduced his mother—and that all heretics are magicians , calmly recommending that they may be brought to the torture , which he supposes would make them confess the fact .
It would be an useful , it might even be an interesting object , to trace the influence of ecclesiastical tyranny on the literature , the civil rights , the happiness of a nation , which has gradually sunk from the summit of political influence , and power and pride , into a state of moral , mental , and political degradation . B .
Untitled Article
3 $ Hxtractjrom Alexander ' s Sermon on the Universal Progress of the Gospel .
Untitled Article
Sir , Bath , Dec . 6 , 1816 . I 3 JEG leave to transmit to you an Iextract from a sermon preached at Lurgan , in Ireland , before a body of Dissenting ministers , by Andrew Alexander , of Urney . The subject was the universal progress of the gospel—the text Isaiah xi . 9 .
After the author had illustrated the doctrine , he then proceeds to consider the causes which prevent its immediate accomplishment , and , first he considers the prejudices of education . He says , it is very natural to think , that whatever opinions get
first hold of the mind , will take the deepest root ; they grow up with its growth , and strengthen with its strength . They arc generally received from parents or masters , whom young persons are inclinable to treat with . great deference and respect ; and it
may be they are patronized by great names , for some particular accomplishments highly reputable . Thesecircumstances are all apt to conspire in rendering the balk of mankind extremely tenacious of such senti * ments , and very unwilling to admit
answered by our Anthony Collins ) , Castro , Pinedo , and other famous Hebraists , wer * descendants of the Portuguese and SpanUJ * expatriated Jews .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1817, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2460/page/22/
-