Dealings with the Inquisition, Or, Papal Rome, Her Priests, and Her Jesuits
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JOHN M. KELLY LIBRARY Donated by The Redemptorists of the Toronto Province from the Library Collection of Holy Redeemer College, Windsor University of St. Michael s College, Toronto HOLY KDEEMQBEIBRARY, WIND " m DEALINGS ; . ITH THE IIQUISITION; OR, PAPAL ROME, HER PRIESTS, AND HER JESUITS. WITH IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES. BY THE REV. GIACINTO ACHILLI, D.D., LATE PRIOR AND VISITOR OF THE DOMINICAN OUDEJIEAD PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY, AND VICAR OF THE MASTER O^RlE SACRED ^ - ^*^ APOSTOLIC PALACE, ETC., ETC. " Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers : the snare is broken and we are escaped." Ps. cxxiv., 7. "It is time for thee, LORD, to work; for they have made void thy law." Ps. cxix., 126. NEW YORK: HARPER <fe BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 82 CLIFF STREET. 1851. HOLY RDEEMER CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. Page My Reasons for giving the History of my Imprisonment to the World 5 CHAPTER II. Of the Subjects treated upon in this Narrative 18 CHAPTER III. MyCreed 27 CHAPTER IV. First Letter to Gregory XVI 43 Second Letter to Ditto 50 Letter to Pius IX 62 CHAPTER V. The Inquisition in the Nineteenth Century 71 CHAPTER VI. The Subtlety of the Inquisition 89 CHAPTER VII. The Jesuits 106 CHAPTER VIII. The Dominicans, and my Life among them 130 CHAPTER IX. My Conversion 160 CHAPTER X. My Farewell to Rome 187 CONTENTS. XI. CHAPTER Page 218 Naples and the Neapolitans CHAPTER XII. 247 The Monks of Naples CHAPTER XIII. My Exile 261 CHAPTER XIV. The Italian Church 270 CHAPTER XV. My Mission 288 CHAPTER XVI. 327 The Castle of St. Angelo DEALINGS WITH THE INQUISITION, CHAPTER I. MY REASONS FOR GIVING THE HISTORY OF MY IMPRISONMENT TO THE WORLD. IT was in the month of July, 1842, that I was released, by order of Pope Gregory, from my first imprisonment in the dungeons of the Inquisition. On this occasion, one of the Dominican monks who serve the office of inquisitor in quired of me, with a malicious look, whether I, also, in tended, one day, to write an account of the Inquisition, as a well-known author had done before me, with respect to " Spielberg, in his celebrated work, Le mie prigioni." Perceiving at once the object of this deceitful interrogation, which was only to afford a pretext for renewing my incar ceration at the very moment when liberty was before me, " I smiled at my interlocutor, and exclaimed, How is it pos sible, Padre Inquisitore, you can imagine I can have any idea of vindicating myself on account of the imprisonment I have undergone ? No, be assured, whatever injustice you may have committed toward me, I shall attempt no vindi cation. You know full well that in this country there ex ists no tribunal higher than your own : even that of con science is silent here, and prostrate before you. Should I make my complaint elsewhere, and appeal to the justice of another land, how could I hope, unknown and unfriended as I am, that my story would be listened to ? Distrust is nat ural to man. One tribunal remains from that nei only ; ther nor I can and it is to that tribunal you escape ; same that I shall be able to summon the pope and his cardinals. Nay, setting aside the idea of my own appeal, they will be summoned to appear by the great Judge himself. I be- 6 DEALINGS WITH THE INdUISITION. * lieve in the declaration of Scripture, "We shall all appear at the judgment-seat of Christ. And it is there, Padre In- quisitore, that our cause shall be tried, and the justice of your decrees adjudicated. Moreover, I shall not, at the describe not because I have present time, my imprisonment ; not sufficient materials, but because it shall not be said that I seek to avenge myself, in publishing to the world what you study to hide, and laying open to sight what you would keep concealed from every eye. This time I shall make it my business to write concerning my liberty rather than my confinement. The latter, indeed, might gratify the merely inquisitive, but the former will be a source of satisfaction to many kind hearts. If I speak of my imprisonment alone, I merely enjoy the advantage perhaps a useless one of en for a while the ear of the but if I treat of gaging public ; the liberty I have gained, O Padre Inquisitore, the holy and the real liberty I have achieved, then indeed I may hope to see around me those generous spirits who, also es caped from their imprisonment, flock to the true standard of liberty to the Word of God." At these words the inquisitor appeared perplexed, and, alluding to a former part of my observations, abruptly re marked, " You have said you should not write an account of this time have idea your imprisonment ; you, then, any of returning here ?" " At any rate, you may rest assured that, should I ever again be shut up in the Inquisition, no consideration will prevent me from giving a full account of all I may have seen or heard, as soon as I am released." " ! another time would not so Oh you get away easily." " I can readily imagine it. Indeed, I do not know how it has happened that I have got off so cheaply in the pres ent instance, with only three months confinement. Wheth I shall ever return here or I can not in er not, say ; but, case you should lay hands on me again, would you then, Padre Inquisitor^ permit me to give a short account of my treatment ?" " Only let us see you back, and then it will be time DEALINGS WITH THE INQUISITION. 7 talk about the with an air enough to it," replied inquisitor, indicated what kind of of spiteful derision, that sufficiently treatment I might expect. Now, as it has happened that my return did take place, I feel myself authorized, and indeed called upon, to keep if I ever my word. The inquisitor no doubt resolved that, his I should not a second time again fell into power, escape ; and his purpose was very near being realized. Every pre caution was taken to render my confinement more severe, and every means of escape provided against. And as it was imagined that the prisons of the Inquisition were less secure than those of the Castle of St. Angelo, I was speed indicated ily removed to that fortress. In fact, every thing a determination, on the part of the Church of Rome, to keep me in perpetual incarceration, so that I should altogether have despaired of ever knowing the blessing of liberty again, had my chance of obtaining it at all rested on the will of my enemies. Often, no doubt, the inquisitors have said " among themselves, Ah ! this time our prisoner will have no opportunity to write his narrative." And I, on the other " hand, kept repeating to myself, This time I shall effect my escape, even better than the last : they trust in their jailers and in their doors of iron, and I in that invisible hand which throws open the doors and lays the jailers asleep." They had apparently as much reason and probability on their side as I had on mine. Their prognostications, how while mine were realized a ever, completely failed, ; proof, at any rate, of the superior value of my principle, com pared with their own. How often may they not have been tormented with the thought that I might possibly effect my escape ! And all the while I had no intention of the kind. I will show hereafter how many offers of assistance were made, both to myself and to my friends, in case of my at tempting flight, which they, as well as myself, had the res olution to refuse. In short, the inquisitors were miserable, lest they should fail in their promise to retain me in their custody whenever they caught me again. Why should not 8 DEALINGS WITH THE INdUISITION. I observe mine toward them ? Since our first contest is de cided, the performance of my promise naturally follows. But ought this to he my sole motive why I should give an account of ? indeed there are my imprisonment No, ; others of a better a nature and the and higher ; principal one of all arises from the reverence I feel for the truth, to my devotion for which my imprisonment bears testimony. The Church of Rome, which has become the Church of Satan,* incessantly boasts itself as the sole Church of Christ, under the title of catholic and to apostolic ; and, according its old practice of lying, it has endeavored to persuade the world that we, the people of Rome, are so penetrated with its doctrines and so attached to its rites, that the denomin ation "Roman" may be considered synonymous with that of in order that it not belie it "Papist." And, may itself, has established a sacrilegious tribunal, wherein the Romans are taught that neither human reason nor divine authority to stand in their of its views and ought way promoting ; that, if they are but faithful to the system it has framed, all sins will be them nor will the imaginable pardoned ; means of a life of be withheld on leading pleasure ; but, the contrary, if they express an opinion adverse to this priestly sect, every species of malediction will be showered upon their heads : they will be imprisoned, persecuted, and even to death their families to want or ex put ; consigned ile, and their very names loaded with infamy and held in execration.