Dear Reader, This book was referenced in one of the 185 issues of 'The Builder' Magazine which was published between January 1915 and May 1930. To celebrate the centennial of this publication, the Pictoumasons website presents a complete set of indexed issues of the magazine. As far as the editor was able to, books which were suggested to the reader have been searched for on the internet and included in 'The Builder' library.' This is a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by one of several organizations as part of a project to make the world's books discoverable online. Wherever possible, the source and original scanner identification has been retained. Only blank pages have been removed and this header- page added. The original book has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. 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Please do not assume that a book's appearance in 'The Builder' library means it can be used in any manner anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liability can be quite severe. The Webmaster Ns V 1 1^ ^* THE INQUISITION UNMASKED: BEIKG AX HISTORICAL AXD PHILOSOPHICAL ACCOUNT OF TttAT CrntimtJoiis Crtbuiial, FOUNDED ON AUTHENTIC DOCUMENTS; ATD EXHiBrrnfG THE NECESSITY OF ITS SUPPRESSIOX, AS A MEA\S OF REFORM AXD REGESERAFIOS'. WEITTEX AND PrSLISHED AT A TIME WHZX THE KATIONAL C0NGBZ5S OF SPAIN WAS ABOUT TO DELIBERATE OX THIS IMPOBTANT MEASCEE, BY D. ANTONIO PUIGBLANCH. TRANSLATED FROM THE AUTHOR S ENLARGED COPY, BY WILLIAM WALTON, Esa- VOL I. LOXDON: PRINTED FOR BALDWIN, CRADOCK, AXD JOT. PATERNOSTER-ROW ; AND J. BOOTH, DUKE-STREET, PORTLAND-PLACE. 1S16, v.i TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THF. DUKE OF GLOUCESTER, Sfc. Sfc. 8fc. X HE exalted manner in which Your Royal Highness has ever been distinguished as the active friend of humanity, and the zealous ad- vocate of liberal principles in every quarter of the globe, has made me desirous of obtaining Your Royal Highness's patronage for the Eng- lish edition of a work which most contributed to overthrow the Inquisition in Spain—an oc- currence more remarkable, if not so interesting, as the abolition of the Slave Trade in our own country ; for though the victims of the one were fewer, its theory and practice were no less shocking to humanity than opposed to the moral acquirements of the day. a 2 IV DEDICATION. No one would have rejoiced more cordially than Your Royal Highness if that triumph had been lasting: still the annals of the event, and the means by which it was achieved, are sub- jects of the deepest interest to every one, and must be particularly so to Your Royal High- ness. This consideration alone has induced me to solicit the present honour, which, whilst it confers on me an obligation, affords me the opportunity of expressing the profound respect and veneration with which I am Your Royal Highness's Most obedient and humble Servant, WILLIAM WALTON. Oct. I, 18IC. " TRANSLATOR'S PRELIiMINARY REMARKS. In contemplating the rapid growth of the free prin- •ciples which, like a volcanic eruption, burst forth from the French revolution, it was prophetically observed, " that Church Power (unless some revolution auspi- cious to priestcraft should replunge Europe in igno- rance) would not survive the nineteenth century ; and certainly no political prediction was ever nearer its acooraplisliment, when the late events in the Pen- insula opened upon us. At the time Napoleon had matured his plans for the invasion of Spain, that country exhibited the most abject state of political and religious torpor and debasement, and the people had acquired a settled habit of passive obedience and •slothful profligacy, from which it seemed impossible to rouse them. A principle of degeneracy had spread over the general face of public manners : the mass of the nation, immersed in ignorance and superstition, represented the picture of a people neither knowing their faculties nor their wants ; and, such had been the system and successful efforts of their rulers, that, far from promising any thing of that courage and perseverance which afterwards impelled them manfully to resist the insidious invasion of an cuetny, iheir Vi PRELIMINARY REMARKS energies appeared to have so much crouched under the dark shade of despotism, as to induce little hope that their imminent danger, or the stimulus of a fo- reign alliance, would be able to make them act on the impulse of national resentment, or rouse them to re- pel the wrongs and indignities with which they were assailed. Charles IV. a weak and inactive prince, had then governed about eighteen years ; but, subservient to an intriguing and dissipated wife, and guided only by a corrupt and ambitious minister, his reign had been distinguished by no act that could endear his name to posterity, or tend to solace the reverses of fortune which awaited him. On ascending the throne, he found that despotic and illiberal system in force which had gradually extinguished the martial spirit of the nation, overturned the fi'ee principles and constitu- tional charters possessed" by most of the provinces prior to the reign of Philip II., and broken down the bulwarks of civil freedom, so long the peculiar boast of Aragon and Navarre. Unaware of that evident truth, that the safeguard of a monaixh's throne is founded on the love he inspires and the good he has done, the preceding rulers of Spain had erected their power on the ignorance of their subjects and the de- gradation of the human mind ; and Charles, devoid of sufficient energy or discernment to deviate from the footsteps of his ancestors, was seemingly fearful of placing his kingdom on a level with those which had profited by the improvements of the age. Acting in the fullest sense on the principle that sovereignty is of divine institution and that the people possess no rights, the cultivation of those arts which embellish, ennoble, and preserve human life had been prevented ; the en- joyment of those studies which enlarge the faculties, ; OF THE TRANSLATOR. VU atsuage the fiercer passions, and soften the manners of a nation, had been proscribed ; till at last, absurd prejudices, taught in the schools and preached from the pulpit, liad led the mass of the people to believe that civil liberty, instead of a blessing, was a curse and that to pronounce it8 name was a crime punish- able with the severest anger of Heaven. The remembrance of the proud days of Spain seemed obliterated—enterprize and martial glory had lost their attractions — the possession of the new world had introduced effeminacy; riches, acquired without toil and divided only among a few persons, had engendered habits of luxury and corruption, whilst it appeared to be the chief aim of the court and nobility to forget the exalted and dignified character formerly attached to the Spanish name, and to cause the nation to assume no other than the supple and fri- volous refinements of Italian manners introduced by the queen. Hence the arts and sciences, which had made so rapid a progress in other parts of Europe, were stationary in Spain, or only pursued in the greatest seclusion ; nor wei*e any other improvements attempted than those which the caprice or passions of a profligate minister thought proper to dictate. Thus, whilst the retainers of the crown wallowed in riches, their tenants and all the lower orders were de- pressed by indigence, and debased by a total want of instruction; nor did the scanty produce of their la- bours seem their own, it served rather to feed the pampered appetites of their lords, or to be absorbed in the monastic burdens of the state. The public re- venues, destined for the defence or melioration of the country, were spent in ostentatious magnificence; often wrested from a wretched peasantry or the shackled and unprotected merchant, they were Ik- Viii PRELIMINARY REMARKS vished by the hand of fanatical zeal, or appropriated to support the luxury of men in power. A handful of privileged nobles and favourites were every thing, and the people nothing. Consideration, power, with enjoyments of every kind, fell to the lot of the former, whilst the latter had to endure hardships, contumely, and servile obedience, without being allowed to re- monstrate. Neither talents, courage, nor virtue, could fill up the immense distance placed between the only two existing classes of the community. Religion itself had been made subservient to politi- cal purposes and base and selfish interests, or was only known by the increasing profligacy of its minis- ters.