council, and, which is still more extraordinary, now figures as a saint in the Roman Martyrology! Baronius, in struggling to extricate himself from this embarrassment, plunges still more deeply into the mire, by telling us that the Pope was imposed upon in this affair. If so, what becomes of his infallibility, or how can we rely with safety on the judgment of any Pope whatever? Let it be remembered that the Roman Pontiff claims to be sole judge in such matters, and to have the privilege of severing from his communion, and consequently, as it is now pretended, from the Church of Christ, and the hope of salvation, whomsoever he pleases, without being responsible to any body for what he does. At the same time, he may be ignorant, prejudiced, or dishonest, and may, as Damasus did, favour the less worthy and reject the good, encourage a rancourous and misguided faction to set themselves in opposition to their lawful pastor, and unjustly and tyrannically withhold from the acknowledged patriarch of an extensive province what is essential to his salvation and that of his adherents. If, however, the decision of Damasus in reality went for nothing in this affair, if it might be safely despised by the Christians of his own time, and justly set aside by posterity, why should we be alarmed at being excluded from communion with the Pope, who perhaps only denies it to us on account of some blunder or misapprehension of his own? May not all the Roman Pontiffs from Leo X. down to the present time have been imposed upon with respect to the leaders of our reformation, concerning whom a thousand times more calumnies and falsehoods have been propagated than ever were circulated about Meletius; or, can we be assured that Dunstan, Anselm, and Thomas á Becket, may not in process of time be turned out of the Romish calendar, and Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer, introduced in their stead? However, if this supposition should never be realized, we may console ourselves with reflecting that Meletius, who lived and died out of the pale of the Church of Rome, is now venerated as a saint and a champion of the true faith; consequently, salvation is attainable out of the Church of Rome, which differs from the universal church as a part differs from the whole; and it is as false and erroneous in theology to assume that the Pope is the centre of christian unity, as it is in astronomy to make the earth the centre of the solar system.

From the above slight sketch of the character and conduct of Damasus, many of our readers will probably be disposed to think that a parallel between him and those holy men who are proposed in Scripture as models for our imitation, would not be much to his advantage. He seems to have had but few of the elements of a true saint in his composition, but to have been well enough calculated for a place among the Popes, such as they have usually been since the days of Constantine. He was not destitute of ability, but of slender* theological acquirements, proud, haughty, and tenacious of his supposed prerogatives, a fisher in

of Lucifer." It is embarrassing enough to find St. Eusebius, one of the most distin. guished champions of the true faith, refusing to acknowledge Paulinus as a Christian brother, notwithstanding his adherence to the centre of unity; and still more so to find St. Damasus, the supposed punctum saliens et immutabile of all church communion, in. dulging himself in such an eccentric vagary as to ratify Lucifer's irregular proceedings, and thus foment two schisms at once!

• The assertion in the Breviary that Damasus was well versed in the Scriptures, is sufficiently disproved by his letters to Jerome, in which he solicits information on a variety of points, most of which are of a very easy and trivial description, and would be solved extemporé by many a Scotch farmer. In fact, he was so thoroughly unac quainted with his ex officio privilege of being sole and definitive judge of the sense of Scripture, or placed so little reliance upon it, that he retained Jerome in his service for the express purpose of answering his biblical querists, when he himself was unable to give them the information they wanted.

troubled waters, and an encroacher upon the rights of others, ambitious of rank and dignity, and little scrupulous as to the means by which he attained them. Such things as those are, however, trifling and venial in the estimation of the saint-makers at Rome, who are ready to overlook much greater faults, provided the candidate has shewn a proper zeal for the exaltation of the church. But we, who judge of people's sanctity by the standard of the Gospel, cannot but distrust that of a man who climbed to the pontifical throne over the dead bodies of his fellow-christians; and, instead of joining with the Romanists in supplicating the intercession of St. Damasus, we shall be rather disposed to exclaim with the patriarch Jacob:-"O my soul, come not thou into his secret, unto his assembly, mine honour, be not thou united. • Cursed be his anger, for it was fierce, and his wrath, for it was cruel!"

AN ACCOUNT OF THE MOST SOLEMN JUDICIAL ACT OF THE INQUISITION AS ESTABLISHED IN SPAIN; Commonly denominated AUTO DE FE, as exhibited in a published Account of that celebrated in Madrid, 1680.

There are few subjects of contemplation more calculated to excite and keep alive in the breast of sincere Protestants-which is only another name for sincere Christians-an intense feeling of gratitude to the Great Disposer of events, than a retrospect of the more abominable and revolting features of that corruption of the true religion, under which their ancestors for so many ages were doomed to spend the years of their earthly probation. Of these deformities, the establishment and acts of the Inquisition, more especially that of Spain, stand in the foremost rank-a tribunal, to which, of all earthly ones, the name and description of the Gates of Hell may most appropriately be applied; and from the fury of which the preservation of this and other divisions of the true Church is a noble monument of the truth with which its divine founder promised, that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it.

I propose to give an account of that solemn judicial Act, usually called AUTO DE FE, of this tribunal, as it existed in Spain, and from an instance of its celebration in comparatively modern times. It is derived from a book, which I believe is not common, professedly relating one of these exhibitions with excessive minuteness of detail, with such utter unconsciousness of crime in the act, that it is officiously and earnestly represented as a most meritorious one, by a most competent witness-one, who was a principal agent in the execution of its preparatory arrangements. The work is in Spanish, a small quarto of 308 pages, and thus entitled. The engraved title is adorned with the Royal and Inquisitorial Arms, with this subscription :-RELACION DEL AUTO GEN. DE LA FEE. Q. SE CELEBRO EN MADRID, EN PREsencia de sus MGdes EL DIA 30 DE JUNIO 1680. Dedicado al Rey N. S. Carlos Segdo Gran Monarcha de Espana, y del nuevo Mundo, que Dios guarde. Por Joseph del Olmo Ayuda de la Furriela de su Mga. Alcaide y Familiar del Sto Off. y Mo maor de Ma, marcus Orozco. The next more detailed title is as follows:

Relacion Historica de AUTO GENERAL DE FE, que se celebro en Madrid Este Ano de 1680. Con Assistencia del Rey N. S. Carlos II. y de las

Magestades de la Reina N. S. y la Augustissima Reina Mudre. Siendo Inquisidor General el Excelentmo. Sr. D. Diego Sarmiento de Valladeres. Dedicada a la S. C. M. del Rey N. S. Referense con curiosa puntualidad todas las circumstancias de tan Glorioso Triunfo de la Fe, con el Catalogo de los Senores, que se hizieron Familiares, y el Sumario de las Sentencias de los Reos. Va inserta la Estampa de toda la Perspectiva del Teatro, Plaça, y Valcones. Por JOSEPH DEL OLMO, Alcayde, y Familiar del Santo Oficio, Ayuda de la Furricla de su Magestad, y Maestro mayor del Buen Retiro, y Villa de Madrid. Vendese en casa de Marcos de Ondatigni, Familiar del Santo Oficio, a la Plateria, junto a San Salvador. Impresso por Roque Rico de Miranda, Ano 1680.

These titles are sufficiently intelligible without a translation; and they are quite circumstantial enough. In the outset I may observe, that there is a short outline of this Auto de Fe in LLORENTE'S Hist. de 'Inquisition, Tome iv, pp. 3, 4. It does not appear from what source he derived his information, as he does not refer to the work before me, or any other. He states that the exhibition was intended in honour of the recent marriage of the king, and that no persons of rank or eminence were among the condemned. Whence he seems to infer that this particular Auto is not entitled to much notice. If he had in his valuable history any where given so satisfactory an account of some of the details, particularly the horrible concluding ones, as are to be found in the volume intended to be described, the scanty reference which he has furnished would be less to be regretted. For it is a fact scarcely credible, that, excepting the small abridgment in French of Llorente's work, where there is, for its extent, a very reasonable account of the Auto de Fe, in a separate chapter, neither the able and elaborate work of LIMBORCH, nor, what perhaps may be accounted for, those of ExMERIC, PEGNA, or CARENA, communicate some, at least, of those particulars in the dire process of the tribunal under consideration, concerning which Protestants, at least, are most inquisitive. In the description of the ultimum supplicium, the Belgic historian discovers that he had next to no materials.

The first thing noticeable in this volume is the number, amounting to seven, of distinct attestations, Royal, Inquisitorial, and otherwise official, to its authenticity. There cannot, therefore, be the shadow of a doubt on this point.

After these, the first division of the work, which is throughout written with evident approbation and exultation, starts with asserting the necessity and utility of an earthly tribunal, which in the view of the writer presents a lively image of that, which will be occupied by the great Judge on the last day. The motives for the exhibition of an Auto de Fe at this time, are stated to be the intimated desire of the king to imitate his father, who was present at one celebrated in 1632, and the great number of spiritual offenders in the different prisons of the kingdom. The council of the Inquisition accordingly suggested that his Majesty might now be gratified, and the solemnity was appointed to take place in Madrid, on the 30th of June in the present year, 1680, being the commemoration of St. Paul. Every thing was done with great formality for this grand triumph of the Catholic Faith, by appli cation to the prime minister, and assembly of the great council of the Inquisition, with the Inquisitor-General of the Catholic Monarchy, D. Diego Sarmiento de Valladaras, &c. &c. at its head.

The first direct act in the execution of the decree for the purpose, was the Publication of the Auto, which took place, with a grand procession and music, on the 30th of May, a month preceding the intended actual ceremony. The great end, we are informed, of this pompous publica

tion was, to notify to the pious the indulgences and graces to be obtained from the sovereign Pontiffs for assisting and co-operating in a function which so nearly affects the exaltation of the Faith. p. 25. An account then follows of eight distinct proclamations in as many different parts of the city; the proclamation itself containing simply the object expressed in the passage above.

The next titled division (p. 29) is De la Fabrica del Teatro-the building of the Theatre; which theatre is a magnificent temporary erection in the Placa Mayor, the largest square about the centre of Madrid, for the orderly accommodation of the different functionaries and the condemned, and of which our author, Joseph del Olmo, as Alcaide, had the principal superintendance. And it must be confessed he appears to have fulfilled his office, con amore, with the zeal and alacrity of an amateur. And, if we may believe him, the operatives performed their part with equal hilarity, exclaiming, at times:-Live the Faith of Jesus Christ; it will be finished with time; and if materials fail, we can devote our houses to so holy an object. Their progress was correspondent, and the subject of admiration. The area was a parallelogram of 190 by 100 feet, and contained 19,000 square feet. The theatre was constructed with great strength, consisted of various planes, or floors, was furnished with various flights of steps to admit to the different positions, and was adorned, not only with the Inquisitor's throne and other conspicuous erections, but with sumptuous hangings over every part. The king's station was the Royal Balcony in the large building against which the theatre was erected, and at the windows of which were lines of balconies appropriated to distinguished individuals. I pursue the order of my book, and therefore say no more yet of these balconies. But we are told, the whole expense of the work was borne by the city, except a part of the decorations by the king, and a part by the tribunal.

We proceed (p. 45) to the Formation of the Company of the Soldiers of the Faith, embodied for the present great occasion. On the 28th of June, two days before the grand ceremony, they began their march from the Houses of the Tribunal to the court of the Palace, each soldier furnished with a faggot, and the Captain with an ornamented one, which he presented to his Majesty, who received it in his own hand, shewed it to the Queen, and returned it to the Captain, with the command, that it should be taken in his name and be the first thrown into the fire; imitating, we are told, the piety of holy Ferdinand III., who, on a similar occasion, as we are more fully informed before, p. 22, taking a faggot to the Brasero on his majestic shoulders, left to posterity this heroic example of the fervorous zeal for the Christian religion, with which his bosom was inflamed. I keep as near to the original as possible, which is eminently Spanish and Inquisitorial. At p. 49, we have the first notice of the actual advent of the long-expected day; and the hour first marked for any operation is five o'clock in the morning. The different bodies of military, with which we need not much concern ourselves, had, however, naturally a great deal to do in this affair; one part of their duty was to take into custody (though this is anticipating) the Relaxed, as they are called, or those delivered over to the secular arm. The title which next appears is, Of the Lords, who made themselves Familiars on and for this occasion. And here our honest author seems to let out something of a secret. For thus he sets forward:-"As the authority of Judges cannot be maintained without servants to execute what is determined in the tribunals; and as in disposing the Inquisition, the multitude and obstinacy of the condemned, not accustomed to what they abhor as rigour, and revolt from as novelty, some danger might attend the execution of so holy a jurisdiction, many nobles enflamed with ardent zeal for the faith, engaged, to the risk of their lives, to

defend, and procure obedience to, the Sacred Tribunal and the Apostolic Inquisitors." So then, we are instructed, that even in Madrid, the regular authorities, civil and military, were not deemed sufficient to secure the holy act of doing justice upon heretics from resistance and violence. But our author proceeds to narrate, that the number of this noble corps of Inquisitorial volunteers increased, and discharged their duty with so much exactness, that the sovereign Pontiffs remunerated them with many Indulgences, and among them with the privilege of wearing the cross of the tribunal, as the badge of their profession, on their breast. Hence those who were formerly called Familiars were in future called Crucesignati. A summary is immediately subjoined of some of the innumerable privileges and favours conferred upon them, consisting, as usual, of plenary indulgences without number, several of forty years, and one of Pius V. to chuse a confessor, who may absolve them from all sorts of crimes, however grievous or enormous, with liberty to commute their penances with other works of piety. The condition of penitence and confession is prudently added; but, there is the best reason to believe, not always insisted upon. After the ceremony of benediction, a list is given, alphabetically, of the Grandes de Espana, who made themselves Familiars.

Then we have the procession of the two Crucifixes used on the occasion, the green and the white. All this was accompanied with a multitude of ceremonies, of which the only one deserving of attention was that of the conveyance of the white crucifix to the Brasero, which was situated about the centre of the northern boundary of the city, near the gate of Fuencarral. It was fixed on the north side of the Brasero, in the middle, on a pedestal three feet and a half high, there to remain during the terrific execution.

The procession of the criminals, with the attendance of his Excellency the Inquisitor-General, occupies the next division, which opens with an amplification of the terror intended to be impressed by the solemnity, and with a repeated assimilation, in the cool spirit of blasphemy familiar with the adherents of Popery, to the proceedings of the real Day of Judgement. In both, there is, the Judge on his lofty throne, the penitent and impenitent assembled before him, the reading of the causes, the irrevocable sentence, the irresistible execution. On the preceding night the condemned had the opportunity allowed of recanting and becoming penitents, as appears to have been done by two women; and to the rest, the obstinate, was at the same time read the notification of their sentence, of which the form is given. At length, our author exultingly adds, arrived the thirtieth of June, so ardently expected by the people; and at three o'clock in the morning the criminals were begun to be prepared for their appearance, which was finished before five. The different classes of criminals are then enumerated, from the dead or absent, who were to be exhibited in effigy, and the bones of the former, if procurable, conveyed in boxes, and burnt, to the miserable body who were condemned to suffer the flames in person, and whose well-known dress for the occasion was designed to express every thing most horrible in their present state and future prospects. These amounted to twentyone in the present Auto. An elaborate description of the individuals composing the procession, and of the particulars of its progress, is then given; and the exhilarated writer observes, that this triumphant march was performed with admirable silence, and as there was no other music than the harmony which enters by the eyes, the whole soul took its station in them, without dividing its attention with the ears. All the characters in this black drama performed their parts to the admiration and delight of the zealous narrator. When they had all taken their respective places in the theatre and the stations connected with it, the principal