This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868 Excerpt: ... in the story of these seraphic monks and nuns is the fact, that their pretended purity of life appears to have been proved. The Inquisitors, into whose hands the Archbishops of Maintz and Cologne surrendered their victims, sought for the very worst truth against them, by the very worst means. Torn on the rack, screwed ...
Read More
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868 Excerpt: ... in the story of these seraphic monks and nuns is the fact, that their pretended purity of life appears to have been proved. The Inquisitors, into whose hands the Archbishops of Maintz and Cologne surrendered their victims, sought for the very worst truth against them, by the very worst means. Torn on the rack, screwed in the thumb, broken in the joints, scorched in the fire, the crushed and bleeding Brethren confessed their sins and crimes, --the evil they had spoken of the Pope, the scorn they had expressed for public worship, the denunciations they had hurled against the law; but they had no confession to make of sins against purity of life. The fact of their having kept company--males and females, brethren and sisters--was not disputed, either on the wheel or at the stake. Men and women had lived together in the Lord. They were free in manners, and a particular brother might be attached to a particular sister. They had lodged in the same barn, slept under the same tree. They had been in each other's society day and night; yet the most searching quest into their ways of life by the spiritual police, who followed them with a deadly zeal and hate, could bring to light no circumstance implying moral blame. With what appears to have been deep regret and wonder, the Inquisitors report, that though these heretics had cast themselves away from God, had given themselves up to evil imaginings, and were utterly lost to the sense of shame, they had contrived to preserve their bodies chaste. The facts were certainly perverse; but servants of the Holy Office had a ready means of explaining such perverse phenomena by the power of devils. The use of demons had long been known to the church police. When a saint of high repute had been caught in some intrigue, and it was ...
Read Less