Vergüenza, or shame, was the same as scourging, with the lashes omitted. The culprit, stripped to the waist and with the pié de amigo, was paraded through the streets, with the insignia of his offence, while the town-crier proclaimed his sentence. It was naturally regarded as less severe than scourging and was sometimes substituted for the latter, when the penitent was too aged or feeble to endure the lash. For the beldams and ruffians who were often its subjects it could have had but few terrors, but it was greatly dreaded by those of sensitive nature. The inquisitors took little count of this, when dealing with Judaizers and Moriscos, who had a keen sense of personal dignity, and Pedraza informs us that those exposed to it regarded death as a mercy, preferring to die rather than to endure a life of infamy.[372] To young women the exposure was especially humiliating, yet, on the whole, it may be regarded as more humane than the pillory of our forefathers, for the penitent was not exposed to the missiles of a brutal populace. Vergüenza was a comparatively infrequent punishment. In the Toledo reports of 1575-1610 it occurs in but twenty-six sentences, which may be compared with the hundred and thirty-three scourgings, and the records of the same tribunal from 1648 to 1794 present but ten vergüenzas to ninety-two scourgings. In the very severe series of autos de fe between 1721 and 1727, the comparison is thirteen to two hundred and ninety-seven.

Philip II was led to interest himself in the case of Andrés de Frias, condemned to the galleys, and asked to have him dispensed from the remainder of his term. To this the Suprema demurred, saying that the statement of Frias was untrue, for in Rome he had treacherously stabbed to death the procurator of the Inquisition, Doctor Puente, after dining with him and promising to sup with him; moreover the seventeen months which he claimed to have served had not been as a galley-slave, as required by his sentence. Still, if he would present himself and manifest repentance there might{142} be opportunity for the king to show him mercy, but otherwise it would greatly impair the authority of the Inquisition

 

MORDAZA.

The mordaza or gag, as we have seen, was regarded as increasing greatly the severity of the infliction of which it formed part. It was sometimes used in scourging and vergüenza, when the so-called penitent was a hardened blasphemer or likely in some way to create scandal. It was likewise employed in the autos de fe, on pertinacious and impenitent heretics of whom it was feared that they might on their way to the stake produce an impression on those not firm in the faith. Its use was not frequent, although, in the dread inspired by Protestantism, in 1559, at the great Seville auto of September 24th, twelve of the victims wore the mordaza. There were also twelve thus gagged in the Madrid auto of 1680, but these numbers were exceptional.

THE GALLEYS.

Enslavement in the galleys, to labor at the oar, would appear to be even more incongruous than scourging as penance for spiritual offences. It was a Spanish device, unknown to the elder Inquisition, and had its origin in the thrifty mind of Ferdinand. We shall presently see how exercised were the monarch and the Holy Office over the problem presented by the maintenance of those condemned to the canonical penalty of perpetual prison, and Ferdinand, whose Sicilian possessions required a powerful navy, bethought him of the expedient of utilizing his able-bodied prisoners to man his galleys—the galley propelled by oars being as yet the equivalent of the modern battle-ship. Galley-service was recognized as so severe that the old fueros of Aragon forbade it under heavy penalties, except with the free assent of the individual, and it was not until the curtailment of ancient privileges, in the Córtes of Tarazona in 1592, that judges were permitted to use it as a punishment for robbers.[375] In Castile, the pressure for slaves to man the galleys is indicated by a royal cédula of November 14, 1502, commuting the death-sentence of criminals in the secular{140} courts, and ordering them to be sent to the galleys.[376] It was probably about this time that Ferdinand turned to the Inquisition, which was bound by no laws, for relief from overcrowded prisons and undermanned galleys. Even the callous morality of the age seems to have been shocked at this and, as usual, the sanction of the Holy See was sought for the iniquity. It was of course granted, and Alexander VI, in a brief addressed to the inquisitors, May 26, 1503, recited that Ferdinand and Isabella had represented to him that those condemned to perpetual prison relapsed into heresy; that there was a lack of prisons in which they could be confined without perverting others, and that multiplication of prisons would lead to dissemination of heresy; that their power to commute imprisonment into other perpetual punishment had been called into question, and that they had asked him to provide a remedy. As the chief solicitude of the inquisitors should be the prevention of relapse, he therefore empowered them to change the perpetual prison of penitents into other penalties—deportation to the colonies, or imprisonment in the royal galleys, where, in perpetual confinement, they might render enforced service, or to any other perpetual punishment, according to their quality and offences.

THE GALLEYS

That full advantage was taken of this there can be no doubt, to the relief of the prison funds and the facilitation of the conquest of Naples. We chance to hear of the transfer at Barcelona, January 24, 1505, of nineteen prisoners from the gaol of the Inquisition to the galleys of Ramon de Cardona, which we may fairly accept as an example of what was on foot everywhere. In fact, the eagerness of the tribunals to disembarrass themselves of their prisoners seems to have led to their discharging on the galleys those in every way unfit for the service, for the Suprema was obliged, in 1506, to declare that men over 60, clerics and women were exempt from the punishment of the galleys.Even Ferdinand himself, towards the close of his career, seems to have shrunk from the responsibility of openly authorizing an extension of this heartless business for when, in 1513, the Inquisitor of Sicily asked permission to send to the galleys those condemned to perpetual{141} prison, Ferdinand threw the decision back on him; to build prisons will cost much money, he said, but the galleys may deter men from confessing their heresy; the inquisitor is therefore to think the matter over and do what he deems best. The conclusion reached is unknown, but we may reasonably surmise that the Palermo tribunal did not waste its funds in constructing prisons.