Inquisition in Goa (1560-1812)

 by Alfredo de Mello 

(Chapter 21 " Memoirs of Goa")

Continued from Page 2

The prisoners were well treated; they ate three times a day: breakfast at 6.a.m. , dinner at 10 a.m., and supper at 4 p.m. The natives were given canja, which is rice water and the other food was rice and fish. The Europeans were better treated; in the mornings they received a 3-ounce loaf of fresh bread, fish fruits, and sausages on Sundays and sometimes on Thursdays. On both these days, for dinner, they received meat and bread, a dish of rice and curry with lots of sauce to mix with the rice, which is barely cooked with water and salt. On the other week days dinner consisted of only fish; and for supper, bread, fried fish, a plate of rice, fish curry, or eggs. The sick were served with great care. There were doctors and surgeons, and when their lives were in peril, they were supplied with confessors. But they never heard mass.

Those who died in the jail were buried inside the building, and as they were going to be judged, the bodies were exhumed, and the bones were kept to be burnt on the next "auto da fe".

The prisoners were not given any books to read, neither light except the daylight which filtered through the slits on the wall above. All the cells had two benches for sleeping and whenever necessary, two prisoners were kept in the same cell. Besides the mat, the European prisoners were given a quilt, which served as mattress, or as cover against the mosquitoes.

As mentioned before, in Goa there were two inquisitors, the first called inquisidor-mor, who is always a secular priest, whilst the second belonged to the order of the Dominicans.. They had a great number of officers, who are called deputies of the Holy Office. They were obliged to be present in the judgment of the accused, in the examinations and tortures, but were never summoned to attend the Tribunal unless they were expressly called for by the inquisitors. Other employees called qualifiers of the Holy Office had to examine the books, and the suspicions regarding any heresy contrary to the purity of the faith. The Holy Office also had a promoter, a procurator, and lawyers who were assigned to the prisoners who sought them. These lawyers, far from defending their assigned prisoners, served only to denounce their most recondite sentiments giving them false illusions. There were other officers who were called "familiares do santo oficio", who were really justice officers of this tribunal. Persons of all conditions were anxious to be admitted to such posts; even the dukes and princes sought them, such was the esteem of the posts. Their job was to accuse the prisoner. They were not salaried, but were distinguished with a gold medal with the inscriptions of the Holy Office. Besides all these employees, there were also secretaries and other who had the titles of "meirinhos", Alcaide (justice of the peace) or Carcereiro (jailer) and guards, to keep an eye on the prisoners, and to give them their meals.

Since the prisoners were separated from one another, and only rarely were two lodged in the same cell, four guards were enough to keep a watch on 200 prisoners. There was an eerie, perpetual silence, and those who complained, or even prayed to God loudly, ran the risk of being whipped by the guards.

Seven witnesses were required to condemn a person. But the witnesses were never brought face to face with the hapless accused. The inquisition admitted the testimony of all kinds of people, even of those who were interested in the utter condemnation of the accused ( as was the case of Dellon). Among the seven witnesses, was included the victim himself, who under torture had admitted the heresies that he had ( not) committed.

Many a time all the seven witnesses were worth nothing because they became supposed accomplices, who were really innocent of the crime which they purportedly committed, because the Inquisition in their fiendish manner made them really criminal, obliging them with tortures of fire, to accuse an innocent victim in order to save his own life.

The crimes were of different kinds: blasphemies, impiety, sodomy, necromancy and witchcraft. For example if any of the newly converted took part of the "superstitious assemblies" (Jewish sabbaths) or former idolatries ( Hindu gods) practised of yore, were enough to cause a victim to be burnt at the stake. If he confessed at the last moment, and was truly sorry, he would be condemned to the garrote for capital punishment, and then burnt. Otherwise he would be burnt alive.

This was not the end. After confessing to the crimes he was accused of by his witnesses, the inquisitors twisted around, forcing the victim to accuse the witnesses; for instance, " if you have been in the assemblies of the sabbath, and your accusers were also there, as is probable, then to convince us of your sincere repentance, it is necessary that you indicate to us not only the names of your accuser, but of all who associated with you in such assemblies"... a catch-22 situation.

What a dilemma! If the victim did not know the names of his accusers, how could this innocent imagine who they were ? Therefore, in order to avoid being burnt by fire, the victim had to follow such a line of argument: "My accusers must be surely some of my relatives, friends, neighbours, or finally some new Christians , whose houses I happen to visit: because the old Christians are never censored, nor suspect of jewishness, and maybe these individuals are so unlucky as I; it is therefore necessary that I accuse them all"... And since he could not by any means find the six or seven persons who had accused him, he had no choice than to declare a greater number of innocents, who had never thought of him in any way whatsoever... thus eternally feeding the Holy Office’s eager headhunting.... and money grabbing !

All the belongings and properties of the accused were confiscated, be it of those condemned to death, or of those who escape from it, by confessing, because in both cases they were reputed as guilty; and as the inquisition wanted the fortune rather than the life of the prisoner, according to their laws, they cynically only delivered to the secular arm ( for carrying out the burnings) the relapsed who refused to confess the accusations made against them.

Out of one hundred people condemned to the stake as Jews, maybe only four had continued with Jewish mores, whilst all the others cried out loud until their last pitiful gasp that they were Christians, and that they had been Christians all their lives, and adored Jesus Christ as their only and real God. Neither the tears nor the protests of those wretched ( as wretched were those who suffered for not confessing a lie ) were of any avail. Whereas on the other hand a great number of witnesses, for fear of being burnt to death, were obliged to accuse those innocents.

If Christians taken for secret Jews were unjustly delivered to the executioners, it was not less unjust to see how the native Christians were accused of magic and witchcraft, and as such, were condemned to fire. Any practice, or feast or celebration of the pagans, was considered as witchcraft. Furthermore, the newly converted gentiles who had passed the greater part of their lives as pagans, and those who lived in Goa were slaves or servants, who with the intention of improving their status in the house of their lords, had changed their religion to Catholicism, these ignorant and rude men might merit at most some whipping, and not death by fire. It did not matter: they were all convicted and suffered death.

The inquisition did not punish only the Christians accused of having trespassed, but also Muslims, Hindus, and other foreigners of different religions: they were accused of practising their religion in Portuguese lands, subject to the Portuguese crown, where Catholicism was the Law. Many were condemned to whipping and work in the galleys, and this fear of being condemned to the stake, often made these gentiles and Muslims embrace Christianity as a mode of escape. Therefore, instead of being useful for the Christian faith, the inquisition only served to shoo away the people from the Catholic church, and create a horror towards same.

In spite of Dellon’s tearful requests to appear before the judges, he was kept in prison, and only obtained the first audience on January 31, 1674. After hearing Dellon, the judge dismissed him and recommended that "he should take good counsel to accuse himself spontaneously", and exhorted him on the part of our Lord Jesus Christ that "he should declare the rest of his accusations, in order to experience the goodness and mercy, which the tribunal used with those who are truly repentant of their sins, by means of a sincere confession, and not forced".

There followed the second and third audience, weeks apart. No luck; he was always sent back to jail, because he had not confessed all his sins... Dellon tried to commit suicide with bloodletting: he feigned to be sick, and the Pundit ordered some bloodletting, but Dellon afterwards, when alone, untied the binding and let his blood ooze, losing about 18 ounces , for five consecutive days. The jailers found out and in order not to allow him to commit suicide and become mad, they sent another prisoner to his cell to keep him company for some months. He was taken to the inquisitor who reprehended him most severely and ordered that the cloth bindings be protected by iron hoops, so that Dellon could not move his arms.

After eighteen months in jail, Dellon was called for the fourth audience, and several times more, and the august Inquisitors had him returned to his cell, because he had not confessed all his sins. Every morning of November and December he could hear the cries of the tortured.

Three kinds of torture were practised: 1) the rope or the pulley, 2) water and 3) fire.

The torture by rope consisted of the arms being tied backwards and then raised by a pulley, leaving the victim hanging for some time, and then let the victim drop down to half a foot above the floor, then raised again. These continued up-and-down movement dislocated the joints and made the prisoner emit horrible cries of pain. This torture went on for an hour.

The torture by water was as follows: the victim was made to lie across an iron bar, and was forced to imbibe water without stopping. The iron bar broke the vertebrae and caused horrible pains, whereas the water treatment provoked vomits and asphyxia.

The torture by fire was definitely the worst: the victim was hung above a fire, which warmed the soles of the feet, and the jailers rubbed bacon and other combustible materials on the feet. The feet were burned until the victim confessed. These last two tortures lasted for about an hour, and sometimes more.

The house of torments was a subterranean grotto, so that other might not hear the cries of the wretched. Many a time, the victims died under torture; their bodies were interred within the compound, and the bones were exhumed for the "auto da fe" , and burnt in public.

Continued on Page 4