Inquisition in Goa (1560-1812)

 by Alfredo de Mello 

(Chapter 21 " Memoirs of Goa")

Continued from Page 1

"...There were days when seven or eight were submitted to torture. These scenes were reserved for the inquisitors after dinner. It was a post-prandial entertainment. Many a time during those acts, the inquisitors compared notes in the appreciation of the beauty of the human form. While the unlucky damsel twisted in the intolerable pains of torture, or fainted in the intensity of the agony, one inquisitor applauded the angelic touches of her face, another the brightness of her eyes, another, the voluptuous contours of her breast, another the shape of her hands. In this conjuncture, men of blood transformed themselves into real artists !!" 

In Portugal, the Inquisitors went so far as to excommunicate King Joao IV after his death in 1656. The absolution of King Joao IV was done, according to J.C. Barreto Miranda in his "Quadros Historicos de Goa", as follows: "once the king died, the inquisitors ordered the queen D. Luiza de Gusmao, his widow, that she appear with her sons D. Afonso and D. Pedro, and princess D. Catarina ( future Queen of England, by marriage to Charles I) in the cathedral, where everything was being prepared for the burial of her husband.. The inquisitors, wearing their sacerdotal vests leave in procession from the palace of the inquisitor general, cross Lisbon, and enter the church, where a multitude of people had gathered; they climb to the altar; their henchmen climb also, and bring down the coffin; they open it, and throw away the cadaver: they undress the dead king, and leave the body at the feet of the Inquisitor General: The sentence is read whereby he is declared as excommunicated; they proclaim the dead person as enemy of the church; they insult the dead king with offences and vituperations; later they pronounce the absolution. They bestow to the soul of this king the permission to present itself before the eternal judge, order the cadaver to be put back into the coffin, consent to the continuation of the funeral, they sing a Te Deum, and full of pride they return to their tribunal!"

Mr. Alfred Demersay, French commissioner in Portugal and Spain in 1862, on examining the archives of Lisbon where past processes of inquisition are kept, wrote: "Only the Inquisition has furnished 40,000 proceedings of lawsuits, which are the most precious elements to write the history of this nefarious institution, and an inexhaustible mine for the novelists and authors of melodramas" . (3)

The inquisition was the greatest terror of our ancestors in Goa because of its incredible tyranny; it was an independent terrorist Republic, which did not recognize the viceroys as their superiors.

The savant Ferdinand Denis wrote: "Many voyagers painted with great energy the torments which the inquisition of Goa inflicted on its prisoners, but the most minute report, without contradiction and most moderate in all respects was that of a French doctor called Dellon, who wrote a special treatise on this tribunal, of which he was one of the victims" . (4) 

Indeed a young French doctor by the name of Dellon, ten years after he escaped from his punishment in the galleys in Lisbon, wrote the famous book "RELATION DE L’INQUISITION DE GOA", printed in Holland in 1687. The acquisition of Dellon’s book was most difficult for more than two hundred years, because not only it was antique but prohibited. Only Mr. Cunha Rivara, in the late 19^th century, on the way to serve as Secretary to the Governor in Goa, was able to get a copy from the curator of the public library in Lisbon, Joao Jose Barbosa Marreca.

The words Auto da fé reverberated throughout Goa, reminiscent of the furies of Hell, which concept, incidentally does not exist in the Hindu pantheon. On April 1^st 1650 for instance, four people were burnt to death, the next auto da fe was on December 14, 1653, when 18 were put to the flames, accused of the crime of heresy. And from the 8^th April 1666 until the end of 1679 - during which period Dellon was tried - there were eight autos da fe, in which 1208 victims were sentenced. In November 22, 1711 another auto da fe took place involving 41 persons. Another milestone was on December 20, 1736, when the Inquisition burnt an entire family of Raaim, Salcete, destroying their house, putting salt on their land, and placing a stone "padrao", which still existed in the place ( at least in 1866).

Let us dwell on Dellon’s experience. He was a 24 year-old Roman Catholic Frenchman, living in Daman - a Portuguese colony north of Bombay - and practised medicine. The apparent reasons for his imprisonment by order of the Inquisition of Goa were the ill-conceived jealousy of the Governor of Daman, Manoel Furtado de Mendonça, and that of a priest, secretary of the Holy Office, who harboured a secret passion for the same lady who lived in a house in front of the priest’s lodgings.

"The jealousy of the Captain was motivated by my frequent and innocent visits that I made to a lady that he coveted:; I was equally greatly loved by her, a circumstance which until then I ignored; and as he judged things by light appearances, he learnt soon that I was his most beloved rival"

"An ecclesiastic, a native, secretary of the Holy Office, who lived in front of the house of the said lady, also nurtured a strong passion, like that of the captain-governor, citing her infamously even in the tribunal of penitence, as was revealed to me by herself. This priest, observing my visits, had become as jealous as the captain, and even though until then he was one of my best friends, grateful for the important services rendered by me, nevertheless he made a common cause with captain Manoel Furtado to provoke my ruin".

Both these rivals joined forces, by claiming heresies on the part of Dellon for not kissing the small alms boxes, on which were painted the image of the Holy Virgin or some saint as was the custom of the local Catholics. Also the fact that he did not wear rosaries around the neck. And the final heresy was a friendly conversation that he had had with the priest, in which he questioned the infallibility of the inquisitors, who were, after all, men. To which the priest had replied: "Beware of saying such a thing. If the inquisitors in the tribunal are infallible, it is because the Holy Spirit presides always on their decisions."....

Captain Furtado being the cousin of the Viceroy Luis de Mendonça Furtado, went to Goa to denounce Dellon, and he was imprisoned by order of the inquisitors on August 24, 1673 to Dellon’s great surprise.

Prisao is the generic name for prison. Carcere was the prison of the inquisition. Dellon was dumped into a fetid cell, provided with a hole for relieving himself. But it overflowed, and there were faeces all over, an abominable smell, practically no light, save for slits on the wall, well above the reach of one’s hands. The first inquisitor was Francisco Delgado e Mattos, a secular priest of around 40 years old. the second inquisitor was always a Dominican. All belongings were confiscated and inventoried, and the prisoners were told that these would be returned after the sentence; in reality the belongings and properties of the jailed were auctioned off at the Rua Direita, Goa’s main thoroughfare, and the inquisitors got hold of the monies and properties at half their value.

The house of the Inquisition, which the Portuguese called Santa Casa, was situated in one of the sides of the great plaza in front of the Cathedral which is dedicated to Saint Catherine. This building was great and majestic; it had in front three doors, the centre one being the greatest, and led to a flight of stairs. The lateral doors led to the apartments of the inquisitors with a capacity to install comfortably many pieces of furniture. Besides these apartments there were many other rooms for the officers of the house. Going inside one met a great building, divided into many partitions of two stories, separated by patios , and having each a gallery in the shape of a dormitory of 7 or 8 cubicles, that is ten square feet each. The total of the cubicles went up to 200. The cells of these dorms were dark, because they did not have barred windows. The walls were five feet thick, and the cells were closed by two doors, one inside the wall, and the other outside; the inner one having a small window where the prisoners received their food and clothing.

Each prisoner was given an earthen bowl with water for ablutions; another cleaner bowl with water for drinking, and a jug of earthenware to keep the water cool. He was given also a broom, in order to keep his cell clean (¡?); a mat to put on the bench where he was supposed to sleep; a big basin, which was changed every four days, and another basin to cover the former, and served to keep the trash after cleaning the cell.

Continued on Page 3