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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01857	A full, ample and punctuall discouery of the barbarous, bloudy, and inhumane practises of the Spanish Inquisition, against Protestants with the originall thereof. Manifested in their proceedings against sundry particular persons, aswell English as others, upon whom they have executed their diabolicall tyrannie. A worke fit for these times, serving to withdraw the affections of all good Christians from that religion, which cannot be maintayned without those props of Hell. First written in Latin by Reginaldus Gonsaluius Montanus, and after translated into English.; Sanctae Inquisitionis Hispanicae artes aliquot detectae, ac palam traductae. English	González de Montes, R. (Raimundo), 16th cent.; Skinner, Vincent, d. 1616.	1625 (1625)	STC 11999; ESTC S117395	161,007	238

kept all and singular the customes rites and ceremonies of the Church of Rome and vsed to come often to shrift and to receiue his maker and in passing by any image or crosse if he haue done to them their due reuerence that it may appeare that he is none of Luthers sect Finally if hee can auerre generally that he hath beene quite contrary to that whereof he is now accused Which things if he proffer to prooue particularly the Inquisitors by solemne act in law doe openly declare in Court that they are content that he make his purgation accordingly within 9. dayes next after The whole charge whereof after that the party hath giuen in the names of those witnesses that deposed against him resteth wholly on the Aduocate as I haue said a little before Howbeit euery man hath not thus much fauor shewed him to make his purgation on this sort but onely in such cases where the witnesses in their depositions agreed not with their fellowes nor greatly with themselues in their owne tales For otherwise they haue but small succour or none at all to auoyd them by making their owne purgation but onely are admitted to take exception against the witnesses as I said before if they can deuise who they be And when the party is proceeded thus farre let him perswade himselfe that God hath brought him thither for tryall of his fayth whether it be pure and perfect yea or no. For if he vpon hope to auoide the present perill of the body determine to use such shifts for his succour in procuring his purgation by meanes aforesaid albeit he be throughly quit in this Court concerning his duty obedience to the Church of Rome and her Idolatries yet bee he well assured in that generall day of doome which will be so terrible to all creatures in the judgement of Gods true Church it will fall out against him farre otherwise It shall therefore stand a man vpon in this case to look well about him and to enter into his owne conscience and secretly debate with himselfe the causes of his imprisonment diligently For if it be for the glory of God and the free professing of the truth and he forsweare Christ treading the bloud of his testament vnder his feet denying the truth wherunto God hath called and raised him out of that deep dungeon of darknesse ignorance and sin hoping by these cursed and damnable meanes to escape the tyranny of men perhaps he may doe so for a season and purchase the favor of men again but let him him be most assured that he shall never escape the sharp and most just judgement of God from whose truth he is revolted whose power is not only over the carcasse to kill the body but afterwards to throw the soule into vtter darknesse Therefore if hee haue any sparke of grace left aliue within him or any zeale either of Gods glory or loue of his owne salvation or that the authority of our Redeemer may waigh with him any thing at all saying Whoso denieth mee before men him will I deny before my heavenly Father and he that acknowledgeth me before men him will I also acknowledge before my Father and his Angels in heaven c. he will wholly rest vpon that authority and sticke to his tackling in that pinch and vtterly renouncing with heart and mouth all these meanes to saue this temporall life offred vnto him by his Advocate and the Iudge whereunto he cannot giue his consent without great dishonour to his Creator and danger of his owne soule will yeeld a plaine and open confession of his faith thinking himselfe a thousand times in better case that God hath preserued him to that instant to suffer some affliction for Christs sake battering in pieces this earthly tabernacle that is to say a full weak and wearyish body for so noble a quarrell as is the honor of God and the building vp of his Church For these cursed meanes to saue a mans life which that holy house the very sinke of sin and iniquity vseth of like curtesie and compassion as is in the Crocodile to grant to these poore soules are not here reported to the end that the godly should learn hereby the shifts to saue themselues but rather that by knowing them they should vtterly auoyde and abhorre them and that the world may see that all the deuices and policies of this holy Inquisition tend to no other end but after they haue layd their cruell hands continually stained with the bloud of some of the Saints vpon any person if he relent and recant Gods glorious truth so to destroy him both body and soule if otherwise yet at the least to kill his body ouer which alone their power is able to extend it selfe in such as liue in the feare and seruice of God duly and truly Thus after that the party hath endured two or three months in prison at the discretion of these good Fathers they send for him foorth once againe to the place of this combate where the Inquisitor beginneth to declare vnto him how that the witnesses which he brought for his purgation haue beene heard what they can say and therefore he desireth to see what he can say for himselfe or else to draw to an end Then he after their accustomed manner falleth to exhortation that hee tell the truth which is alwayes one peece of their talke so that I beleeue a man should tell them a good long tale ere they would be satisfied Whereunto the party maketh them such reasonable answer as he thinketh best for his owne case Howbeit vnto diuers they vse to put sundry questions oppose them in their owne answer exhibited vp by thē in writing quarrelling at euery letter and syllable like to subtill Sophisters When the party hath spoken all that he hath to say the Fiscall concludeth vpon his sayings and lastly the Inquisitors with the assent of their Councell and Assistants giue sentence when and what they list or like themselues the Diuines Monks and other of the Clergy first waighing and considering such things as the party hath vttered touching doctrine and faith and so valuing it after their owne rate and measure and trying it by their own touch which they call the qualification of doctrine At what time if the party be able to prooue substantially that he neuer dealt in Christs Gospell which they by a new name of their owne coyning commonly call Luthers heresies either they absolue him and giue him his Quiet us est or else most commonly vse to order the matter and giue iudgement accordingly as they haue him in a certaine iealousie and suspicion stil either more or lesse Prouiding alwayes that none passe their hands without such markes and badges as he shall carry with him to his graue in token that hee hath bin within the Inquisitors paw● The marks are commonly these Confiscation of their goods imprisonment during life or for a great part of it A white

his former life and labour euill spent and therefore beganne anew to tread another path which should lead him vnto perfect wisedome and learning whereof as then hee knew not one step Furthermore perceiuing his counseller to stand so long vpon that point which concerned the dutie of a good Preacher he took it to be a sufficient calling for him to that vocation whereof he knew he should neither reap commoditie nor estimation in this world Perhaps many will maruell to hear the party named that was the occasion of so suddaine a change and alteration of such a man in so short space taking vpon him to teach him the true way to perfect wisedome Truly I must needs disclose it to the end that the wonderful mysteries of Gods election may be manifested and reuerenced who by the foolish of this world confoundeth the wisedome of man His name was Roderico Valerio man long ago condemned at Siuill by the Inquisitors for a false Apostle a counterfait Prophet and a wicked deceiuer of the people and therevpon banished and in his exile suffred for the profession of the truth Whose wonderfull kind of calling to the true knowledge of Christ since I am occasioned to make mention of the person it shall neither be greatly impertinent briefly to speak of nor tedious to such as be godly disposed This Valerio a Citizen of Nebrissa a famous towne as any is in all the precinct of Granata both for the antiquitie thereof and chiefly for the fame of one Antonio de Nebrissa a notable Clerke as any was and one that first restored the puritie of the Latin tongue in Spaine in these our dayes was descended of a good house and of sufficient abilitie to maintaine the worship thereof howbeit he employed his wealth not to vertue but as commonly such men of abilitie doe which think all their honor to consist in the maintenance of a good stable the furniture thereof in games in costly and excessiue apparell in hunting other such like pastimes and exercises For in all these qualities he was singular aboue all the yong gentlemen of the whole citie insomuch that hee sought not only to match such as were his equalls in degree and abilitie but also to exceede them far In the middest of these vain phantasies a certaine motion came into his mind by what occasion or through whose perswasion or otherwise by what meanes God knoweth but he suddenly left all his old delights contemning the speech of the people which was a hard thing for a man to doe and bent himselfe wholly both body and soule to the exercise of vertue godlinesse that a man would searcely iudge him to bee a man of this world Moreouer the wonderfull change that appeared to be in him otherwise as well in his speech and behauiour as in his apparell that was fine and sutable before gorgious as might be and now quite altered into simple stuffe and plainest fashion was well liked of some but on the other side a great number thought it meere madnesse or starke folly But as the like false verdites giuen of the holy Apostles that were indued with the Holy Ghost were attainted by the effectes of the same spirit so the perfect feare of God with the bewayling of his former vanities the earnest desire of righteousnesse and his whole talke tending to these ends and concerning these matters alwayes framed according to the prescript rule of Gods word was a sufficient proofe and euidence to men of perfecter vnderstanding that the spirit of God most certainly possessed him In his youth time hee had gotten a little smack in the Latin by the help where of hee was conuersant in the holy Scriptures both day and night so that by continuall studie thereof hee had a great part of them by heart and could make application thereof to his purpose sensibly maruellous readily He had also dayly conflicts with the spiritual men as they call them the Priests and Monks which were the causes said he that not only the estate of the Clergy but also all Christendome was so fouly corrupted that they were almost hopelesse of remedy for which causes hee did also diuers and sundry times sharply rebuke them Whereat this pharisaicall generation much maruelling enquired of him how he attained so suddenly to all this skilin holy Scriptures how he durst presume so arrogantly to inuay against the very supporters and lights of the Church For indeed he spared none but would tell the proudest of them his minde being but a lay-man voide of all good learning and one that had spent the greater part of his time in vaine and vnprofitable studies Likewise they examined him by force of what commission hee did it who sent him how hee was called and by what tokens hee declared the same Alas for them good men when they cannot denie their abominations nor longer hold out the light which discouereth their darknesse euen now as in all other ages from time to time they are driuen to these shifts Howbeit Valerio answered them truly and with a bold courage to euery demand that he had not fished for that wisedome and caught it in their most filthie puddles and muddie ditches but had it by the only goodnesse of the Holy Ghost who poureth whole floods of grace into the hearts of true beleeuers most aboundantly As for his boldnesse he told them that both the goodnes of his quarrell and hee that sent him gaue him the encouragement and that the spirit of God which is bound to no estate or degree be it in name neuer so spirituall specially if it be corrupt hath heretofore chosen very idiots and fishermen and placed them in the roome of Apostles to controll the Synagogue of the learned touching the law to appeach them of ignorance to call the whole world to the knowledge of their own saluation that the same Christ had sent him whose name and authoritie hee had for his warrant but as for any signe to declare the same he said it was the token of a bastardly generation and of the branches degenerate from the true stocke of the children of God to aske for any signes in the time of such light when all things shine therewith yea verie darknesse it selfe as cleare as noone day At the length for these and such like matters he was called to his answer before the Inquisitors where he disputed very earnestly of the true Church of Christ and which were the markes to know it by how man was iustified in the sight of God and of such other points of religion the knowledge whereof he confessed that he had attained vnto by no meanes or help of man but by the onely handy worke of God and his wonderfull reuelation Howbeit his madnesse phrensie wherewith the Inquisitors supposed him to bee troubled excused him for this time yet to the end that he might the sooner come to himself again they condemned him in the losse of all his substance

Aurelius in Scyllas time that was neither of the one side nor the other but lamented the spoile and misery of his countrie when as he came into the market place and heard hi● name read among them that were proscribed to death cryed out O vnhappy man that I am my house at Alba is the cause of my death and by and by was openly slaine If euer there were time like to Scyllas it is now in our dayes in which hungry need and vnsatiable couetousnesse armed with crueltie will spare nothing The seruant will betray his master the friend his friend and acquaintance the brother shall murther his brother As in the same time L. Catilina he that after would haue set fire on the Citie slew his owne brother and after prayed Scylla that hee might bee proscribed The which being granted him he recompenced with killing another M. Marius one of the contrary faction and bringing his head the blood running along his armes presented it in the market place to Scylla and ranne to the holy water-pot of Apollos temple which was hard by to wash his hands a very fit vse of such holy water The which storie I the rather recite sparing an infinite sort of our times because yee may vnderstand by the way that Idols and holy water bee ancient things such as were before Christs comming and will be continued by his enemies till he come againe and that knowing the Papists religion to be no better then those heathenish peoples was their couetousnesse greater their need more their cruelty farre passing not onely all present example but also all written history you may daily looke for worse then Scillas time if they ouercome hauing on the other side no fierce or cruell Marius to withstand them nor to quarell with them for the gouernment but a poore flock of silly sheepe behinde their shepheard affraid of the wolues halfe yeelding halfe defending their liues and on their sides thousands of desperate Catilines that to repaire their decayed states will not spare neither to kill their owne brethren nor to fire their countrie and hauing at all times but specially now such a Scilla vnder whose banner they fight as the old Scilla may in respect of this be both forgiuen and forgetten Take heed we haue now to our holy Father a Frier no secular priest but a regular H●lhound who though he think it no robbery to be equall in pompe with his predecessours and in malice with the diuell his father yet hath he vouchsafed to take vpon him the shape of a man and goeth they say on foot and maketh his tenants the stewes keepe-in like good huswiues which is no small reformation and doth good deeds at home and worketh wonders forsooth whiles he vndoeth all abroad and openeth such a gap for the great Seigneur the Turke as neuer was yet made But what will not these fellowes do to reuenge their fall and what ought not we rather to endure then to admit these spirituall tyrants who would not rather be conquered of a mightie Prince and honourable in comparison then of a villaine bankrupt priest who hath for these eight or nine hundred yeares occupied the whole world of credite and now he should come to accompt killeth his creditours A miserable choice but yet a ready choice For the Turke contenteth himselfe with honour and tribute permitting religion The Pope no honour will satisfie him no riches suffice him no blood asswage him neither the death of the liuing nor the soules of the dead will content him Whose very name should not be spoken of without Surreuerence and great contempt for the basenesse and vilenesse of his counterfeit state were hee not so iustly to be hated and abhorred as the great abuser and very vndoubted Antichrist of the world and sworne enemy of God and man The cruell and tyrannicall outrages of whose Inquisitours founded and established by the Diuell and this Antichrist if we conferre with the milde proceedings and discipline of Commissioners appointed by God and his Anointed we shall thereby see euidently by the heauenly iudgement and sentence of wise Salomon to which mother the liue childe appertaineth To the Romish whore who in despite that she cannot possesse the poore infants that belong not to her to smother them sleeping with the huge and filthy body of her traditions and ceremonies seeketh by all meanes possible to diuide and mangle them or to the naturall and pitifull mother the true Church of the faithfull whose fathers and ministers knowing of whose spirit they are seeke with all gentlenesse to call home the lost ones and watchfully to nourish them Whose prince imitating the peaceable raigne of Salomon hath not so much as executed the false Prophets not killed the wolues not destroyed the foxes Onely they are tyed vp short which though it bee no such suretie for the little ones as worldly wisdome doth require and necessitie long since hath cried out for yet is it to them no small griefe to see the Lambes feed before their eyes and the poorest shepheards least whelpe baying at them whilest they in the middest of their gluttony and drunkennesse houle for hunger of their brethrens flesh and thirstinesse of their blood and pine for very enuie of the proceeding of Gods word If the poore ignorant people will but compare the imprisonmen●s of the persecuted Protestants with the restraints of the bridled Papists their famine with these mens fatnesse their tongues fettered with Iron torments with the libertie of railing that our men haue and vse seditiously against their Prince blasphemously against God their most miserable and strange kindes of deathes with our mens liuing and liking they shall easily know the tree the persons by the fruit Wherefore good Reader hauing so euident markes of their woluish and rauening natures and so good notice of their bloody conspiracie so waying the very true cause of all these troubles and wars that be in Christendome and thereto conferring the present executions slaughters euen in our neighbours house the fire whereof may soone imbrace our owne let vs be stirred vp to pray for their deliuerance and that it would please God to turne from vs the same iustly deserued plague for our vnthankfulnesse Let vs be strong in faith and couragious in deed to repell these common enemies from our countrie whensoeuer they shall offer that they haue so long determined And if in this translation there shall happen to be some faults pardon them till the next impression for the meaning of the translatour was onely to make thee speedily vnderstand of so great and so imminent a perill besides that thou mightest vse this booke as a taste in the meane space whiles the booke of Martyres be reprinted wherein there is a most plentifull and notable History of the like matter and argument The Preface of the Author IN so great a hurly-burly of ciuill dissensions wherein so many people and nations bend force against their owne companions and

so much as daily to haue change of spoyles will take it thankefully at their hands then labour they by all meanes possible to curry fauour with them to get themselues rid out of misery and to be set at liberty So that it commeth oftentimes to passe that the parties being at the first arrested for very trifling matters vndoe both themselues and many others moe by giuing ouer-much credit to the fair promises and goodly gloses of these false and faithlesse Inquisitors through want of skill how to behaue themselues in their owne affaires much lesse able to iudge and discerne what opinion they should haue of these Fathers that is to say not to be fathers as they glory to be called in derision of all humanity piety and fatherlinesse but their most cruell and deadly enemies which by craft subtilty and lying and by all kind of knaueries priuily goe about to get that they gape for both life and goods of the guilty and of the guiltlesse Against all which snares of theirs there is one onely way of auoydance to wit that he whose destinie it is I meane by Gods ordinance and appointment to fall into their hands beleeue neuer a word they say promise they neuer so fairly nor be afraid of them threat or thunder they neuer so terribly hauing alwaies before his eyes the loue and dread of him who after hee hath killed the body hath power also ouer the soule to send it to hell fire and hauing numbred the very haires of our head to the vttermost will not suffer the least of them to perish or fall to the ground without his good pleasure and prouidence The next lesson is to keep his tongue for his life speake not one word till the time that he hath heard his accusation with the depositions whereunto he is bound by order of law to make answer Furthermore at the fourth day of hearing they tender him an oath vehemently exhorting him to shriue himselfe voluntarily otherwise they will deale with him as hardly as the law will permit them if the Fiscall once commence his sute against him And if he do yet perseuere constantly affirming that he hath no more to say then reade they vnto him a long inditement charge him with many great matters falsely forged and deuised against him such as neither the party did euer so much as thinke vpon nor any had accused him of to them For it is a point of cunning forsooth in this their crafty faculty for the Fathers to make these great matters and huge offices on their fingers ends for these special causes First by thus loading the poor man and laying to his charge many great and made matters to bring him into such a maze that being scarcely his owne man he shall not well know where he is nor which way to turne him nor what answer to make Secondarily to prooue if happely he will admit any of these misdemeanors that are laid against him or at the least if by argument about any of them they can trippe him in his tale and so catch him in their net Is this then their following of Gods iudgements whose cause these Fathers of the faith brag and boast so much and beare the silly ignorant people in hand that they take vpon them to maintaine in the very first steppe of the stage whereon they are ready bent to do execution of a sort of innocents thus shamefully and mockingly to cry Arise O Lord and iudge thine owne cause Do these policies proceede of faith trowe ye where of they tearme themselues the Patrons Did euer any true Patrons of faith either teach them to other or els vse them themselues Are these the most direct meanes to bring him into the right way that of meere ignorance and simplicity hath gone astray from the truth and word of God or to teach the vnlearned or to correct and amend him who hath erred and fallen of common infirmity Or are they not rathermore likely to be the snares of Satā practised frō time to time by contentious and diuellish people priuily laid to supplant a poore man withall and very stumbling blockes craftily and maliciously cast for the nonce to make him breake not onely his shinnes but his neck also that plainely and simply shall passe thereby and lookes not warily to his footing And who would haue thought I pray you that these holy Fathers would haue busied themselues in making such mouse-traps and setting such pitfals But how many good Christians haue fallen into these snares to the great perill both of their bod●es and soules onely by the detestable meanes of these pestilent and pernicious Tyrants Christ the searcher of secrets and chiefe Inquisitor ouer all at his generall doome sitting in his seat of Maiesty will one day make manifest As touching their accusations the great and principall matters wherewith they burden euery one that commeth within their iurisdiction be these First for that he being baptized vnder the obedience of the Church of Rome forsaking her profession and doctrine is become one of Luthers disciples by admitting and harbouring his heresies in his heart and yet not content therewithall to be an heretike himselfe hath prouoked and poysoned others by teaching preaching the same heresies vnto them And to this effect well neare they vse many big words to make the simple folke afraid withall Next to this they charge them also with other matters sometime of more importance sometime of lesse Prouided alwayes that the matter wherof the party is accused be brought in either in the beginning or ending or else some other thing that some man hath him half in a iealousie for Which thing they lay to his charge not as a matter surmised or of likelihood but most constantly affirmed and testified by witnesses For in this holy Consistory they may do what they list and what they think expedient Then is the party accused put to answer to euery article that is laid against him seuerally and directly either yea or no as he thinketh good hauing alwayes a clerke by him to record euery word that he speaketh After this examination and confession thus had done Ex tempore without either order or any great aduisement they straightway giue him pen inke and paper to put in his answer in writing if he will pretending hereby that they work for him al the means helps that may be to try himself an honest man And thus is this crafty Inquisition cloked with this goodly pretence of equity iustice where in very deed this is their fetch that hearing him first make one confession by word of mouth suddenly and without aduisement and after that another with more deliberation in writing they may easily find some ods betwixt the one and the other hauing neither any copy of his former confession to lay before him nor being able for very feare trouble of mind to remember euery word that hath escaped him But if there

linnen garment with a red crosse called a Samb●●it and last of all a perpetuall slander and ignominy to all his stocke and posterity such as never will be worne out as shall be hereafter declared But if the party shrinke not for the matter but constantly continue so confessing the truth or disaffirme the depositions that be against him hauing not excepted against the witnesses he is sure ●o try the torments whereof I haue now to say somewhat CHAP. VI. The condemnation to the racke and the manker of the execution thereof THe state and condition of the godly gentle reader hath beene euermore from the beginning hard and very miserable in comparison of the prosperitie which the wicked and vngodly enioy in this world For according to Christs owne saying in his Gospell after Iohn they thinke they doe God great good seruice which slay them vpon euery light occasion and study daily by new deuices and practices to circumuent them whereof you haue heard some sufficient proofe before And albeit the iniurious dealings and subtile practices which I haue declared already be such as any good natured people or that can be content to be ordered by law reason or equitie would worthily thinke intolerable yet in respect of these that shall ensue hereafter which I am now to shew they will seeme not onely sufferable but very reasonable and full of equity and good conscience For they doe farre exceede all barbarousnes yea I may well say all brutish and beastly madnes that a man cannot more aptly liken them to any thing in the world then to that which they do most liuely resemble and from whence they proceede that is to say Sathan their Syre so that the diuell though hee should force himselfe thereto is not able in matters touching men no nor in any thing else in the whole world to goe beyond them in these their most monstrous and diuellish examples of tyranny neither hath he any mans heart in his belly that can without teares reade or heare these things that hereafter ensue which in rifling this butchery wherein many a good soule vpon trifling occasions yea diuers of them guiltlesse God knoweth are made away we will lay open before the face of the whole world and plucke off their hood of holinesse wherewith they haue bleared all mens eyes and abused the whole world hitherto After the sentence be once giuen except it be to the racke the party is not sent for againe till the great day of their glorious shew at what time he commeth out into open audience with the other prisoners that come to heare their iudgements pronounced vpon them and euery man foorthwith to receiue his punishment accordingly vnlesse hee be found not guilty and so quit by proclamation For then is he kept in prison still by the space of 2. or 3. dayes after the triumph that the world may thinke that he also departed out with the rest And this forsooth is one of their holy deuices because they would not be thought to lay their hands vpon any person rashly or without good cause why as they are wont oftentimes to tell the parties by the way in such exhortations as they make vnto them to vtter the truth The holy house is so perswaded of their owne doings that what extreamity soeuer they shew vnto the prisoners yet they think they do vnto them no iniury Howbeit diuers of them whom they shew speciall fauour vnto for certaine causes to them knowne are set at liberty and sent away to their owne houses two or three dayes before the great day of their solemnities causing it to be noysed abroad that they were accused by false witnesses Yet is this their slye dealing open enough to any man that list to mark it euen by this one thing that a man shall neuer fee any such false witnesses openly punished therefore which in all other cases are accustomably most sharply seen vnto But if they be determined to put any man to the rack at such time as he least looketh for it then shall he be sure to be brought into the Audience where all the Inquisitors or the greater part of them sit in their seates of Maiestie and besides them the Prouisor as they tearme him or deputy Ordinary of the Diocesse like a shepheard ready to flea one of his own flock who of duty ought to be present as well to heare the sentences giuen as to see execution ministred And at this Court-day they declare vnto the prisoner how the Inquisitours with all the learned Councell haue deepely considered his whole case bearing him in hand that they haue found it out for a surety that he will not wholly declare the truth therefore are resolued that he shall ride the racke and there be spurred certaine questions and so by hooke or by crooke will wring it out of him will he nill he therefore they aduise him to do it voluntarily as he will avoyde the paine and perill of the racke Whereunto they ioyne a certaine exhortation which they intermingle with some sowre speech of high and threatning words and set it out with great seueritie of countenance rehearsing vnto him all the seuerall torments of the racke as terribly as they can describe them to make him quake in euery ioynt of him Yet whether he confesse or not confesse all is one for to the rack he must go Wherupon they send for the Officer command him to haue the party into that place where the Racke standeth which commonly is a deepe and a darke dungeon vnder the ground with many a doore to passe thorow ere a man can come vnto it because such as are put thereto should not be heard to shrike or cry In the which place there is a scaffold reared where the Inquisitour the Prouisor and the Clerke do sit to see the Anatomie made of him that is brought to them Then the linkes being lighted and all the players entred that haue parts in this Tragedy the Executioner who tarrieth last to make all fast as they say and to see euery man in before him commeth also at the length and of himfelfe alone maketh a shew worthy the sight more then all the rest of that rout being wholly arrayed all ouer from the top of his head to the sole of his foote in a sute of blacke canuas such as the superstitious Spaniards weare on Maundy-thursday when they scourge and whip themselues as the custome is in most places vnder Popery if not in all much like that apparell that the diuells in stage-playes vse here with vs in England Moreouer his head is couered with a long black hood that reacheth ouer all his face hauing two little peep holes to see through and all to this end to make the poor soule the more afraid both in body and mind to see one torment him in the likenesse of a diuell O Lord such are their holy guiles After that the Lords be set downe each in

his ghostly father communicated the same vnto him Which after Arias had obtained he gaue him a friendly farwell and so left him At the day of disputation when both parts were assembled this Arias was also present ioined himself to the other side that were aduersaries to Ruizio The which when Ruizio beheld he was somewhat astonied therewithall and perceiued at the length his Legerdemane seeing him so readily out off his arguments which hee had made him priuie vnto two dayes before and to answer them so fully and exactly that hee had nothing to replie againe whereupon the silly soule being thus circumuented and spoiled of all his weapons yeelded himselfe leauing to Arias the honour of the field which hee most like a Iudas had gotten by treason and treachery The like honest part also for all the world he plaid with D. Aegidio For whereas hee meaning nothing but well as the most constant bruit is had referred the matter concerning the opinion of his knowledge and learning to this mans iudgement because he knew him to be as able to iudge as a great sort of others he gaue such a verdit as it had been somewhat reasonable for him to haue giuen in a matter of vntruth Notwithstanding he was the first in all Saint Isidors house in Siuill that started out of that dead sleep of superstition and ignorance wherein they were all dead and drowned and by meanes of a few sparkes which this man had set on fire a great part of the house beganne to shake off their drowsinesse and to see a glimmering of the truth afarre off appeare like the dawning of the day and to desire that the vaile might bee drawne to the end that they might the more easily see the shining beames of true religion For the whole scope of all his sermons for the which there was a space appointed as it fell out most conueniently sometime by night from two of the clocke in the morning till foure was wholly to ouerthrow all their profession howbeit not openly but couertly and as it were afarre off First hee taught them that singing and saying of their prayers all the day and night was no seruice nor praier vnto God that the exercises of a true Christian man were other then the common people took them to bee that the holy Scriptures were to bee reade and studied with diligence whence alone the true knowledge and seruice of God and of his holy will of true religion and such as was most allowable in his sight was to bee had and learned to the obtaining whereof we must quoth he vse praier as a mean proceeding as well of the sense and feeling of our owne infirmities and necessities as grounded vpon perfect trust confidence in God Thus by laying these and such like foundations of Christian religion he made them to loath that stale stuffe of their old forworn religion wrought in them an earnest desire of the better but specially moued thē to the study of holy Scriptures Moreouer besides his sermons hee read dayly a lecture vpon Salomons prouerbs very learnedly made application thereof with good iudgement and discretion and had priuate and familiar conference with diuers such as he was dayly conuersant withall and vsed to accompany onely to the same end and purpose And for this one thing his hap was alwaies very good to haue such schollers as were tractable and soone wrought and which was wonderfull to consider such as were not greatly wedded to their monkish superstitions though they were vowed whereby he had lesse to doe with them and might with more ease giue the assault and in short time batter downe this forced rampire of superstition with the perfect shot of Gods word Howbeit his head was so full of toyes and new deuices that after all these wholesome preparatiues wherwith he had so wrought in them that the rest of their superstitious dregs might more cōmodiously be expelled that they were halfe wonne to his doctrine he made them fall to vnseasonable fastings and watchings before the Sacrament whence they should looke for I know not what inspirations hee caused them to remoue all their stuffe bookes and beds out of their celles and to lye vpon the bare earth or else to sleep standing to weare a hairecloth in stead of their shirts and a hoope of Iron next vnto their skin with a number of such toyes moe as though those stinking weeds would not haue taken root fast enough of themselues except the earth had first been cared vp with the coulter of Gods word as was before declared For after hee had weeded the old superstition he did nothing else but sow a like seede againe more corrupt and perilous than the other that grew before By meanes whereof manie of his auditours got such good as is like to ensue of so dangerous a doctrine Insomuch that ma-many of them fell stark mad some so consumed with melencholy that they were halfe frantick some caught vncurable diseases and paines in the head and became almost brainlesse that they were not able to serue any turne thereafter but they that had stronger bodies and better stomackes to beare it out withall had such a pharisaicall pride and glory in themselues by meanes of that vaine perswasion of holinesse and perfectnesse that no wise man will account them in much better case than other of their fellowes And yet perhaps were Arias excusable herein from this so grieuous guilt either for want of better knowledge or by destiny if it were so first to take vpon him that office then so meanly to execute it but that I am right wel assured that his conscience did condemn all the trash which he had planted in place of truth For at the very same time being among his companions would take pleasure in remembring the folly of such men that were so forward to run any way that he would prescribe and appoint them Notwithstanding such is the force and might of Gods election that these few good seedes sowne among those fitches fructified in the end to the great encrease of godlines maruellously Insomuch that diuers and sundry of them hauing their consciences cleared purged of their old hypocrisie and scarcely well staied or quieted with these new deuices sought further by occasion hereof for some better instructions and vnawares hapned vpon the other sort of Preachers that taught the truth with more sinceritie Of whom after they had entred some acquaintance with them they learned the principles of pure and perfect religion leauing by little and little that euill opinion which they had generally conceiued against the Lutherans Afterwards being perswaded that they could by no meanes attaine the perfect knowledge of the truth except they would sometime peruse their writings God did likewise maruellously prouide for them herein that they had not onely such bookes brought vnto them by a miraculous means as they had a long time desired euen at such time as they securely