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both candid and correct . But when you lavish praises upon the work , I cannot but recollect your partial affection towards me , which inclines you to make too much of what you approv e * I designed a sacrifice to truth , and so to represent that tribunal as
learned priests themselves , and even inquisitors describe it to us . I know , indeed , how cautiously the forms of process are detailed in their writings , and palliated by a specious colouring . Thus are the injustice and deformity concealed , which , when its transactions are represented without disguise ,
become exposed to every eye . I am not apprehensive that any one , even among the most zealous advocates of the Inquisition , can charge me with misrepresentation * Should any one even venture to do this , his refutation is at hand by the testimonies of the authors whose names I have given in the margin .
But how different is the reception of books ! You judge my History worthy to be rendered into every vernacular language . But , at Rome , the 19 th of May , this year , by an edict of the cardinals it was condemned
through the whole Christian republic of Inquisitors-general , and the reading of it most strictly prohibited , under the penalties contained in the index of prohibited books . This decree , by which also other books were
condemned , three days after , on the 22 d of May , was published and posted on the gates of the Church of the Chief of-the Apostles , the Palace of the Holy Office , the field of Flora , and in the other public places of the city . But who could expect from the Inquisition a milder sentence against a
History which' draws out of darkness , and exposes to the world its cruel policy , such as it wishes to conceal from every eye ; which represents that tribunal not venerable for sauctity , but execrable for injustice , cruelty , fraud and imposture ? Indeed , if truly described , it could not be represented otherwise .
1 shall most readily transmit to you whatever I have found in other authors too late for my use , or which may be hereafter pointed out to me , I observe what > ou have noticed in the Travels of Du , Mont 9 which cannot have a more suitable place in the mar-
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gin of ray History than you have fixed for it . But to speak freely , I very much dqMJ : > t if that be a true account . I do nofPmean to accuse the author of intentional deception , but it may easily happen that travellers , during a short residence in a country , may fall into the company of persons little
acquainted with its laws and customs , if not disposed to falsify ; on whose authority , without further investigation , they receive representations little agreeing with the truth . Many such things 1 have observed in the travels of those who profess to describe our manners and customs .
The reason of my doubt in thi 3 case is , that I observe all the Popish doctors , and all the ecclesiastical decrees , urging , even strongly , that the secrets of confession should on no account be disclosed , not heresy itself , if discovered in confession ; only the
priests are enjoined not to absolve one that confesses heresy , but strenuously to exhort him to make , when he is cited before , the commissioners , a full concession . 1 know , indeed , that every thin ? prescribed in the
laws of the Inquisition is not observed in the practice 3 and that under the specious pretence of at confession not to be disclosed , the unwary may be deluded , so as freely to confess that of
which the Inquisitors had no information , but which may afterwards be revealed by the priests even to the Inquisitors themselves . Nor do I believe that the sanctity of the Hob Office would revolt from such a frau
dulent transaction . Yet while all their constitutions , laws and orders , and all the decrees of their church direct the contrary , I dare not affirm so much , unless from an approved author , whose information and fidelity were
undisputed . Wherefore , to the passage which you have suggested to me from the Travels of Du Mont , it may be proper to add , i f that account be an thec * tic , from thence it may be clearly proved that the practice of the Inquisition is often at variance with its
rules and orders , and that the Inquisitors only contrive by what means , right or wrong , they may deceive their wretched captives , and , when thus entrapped destroy them by a cruel death . Since writing the above * I have
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480 The Correspondence between Locke and Limborchf translated .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1818, page 480, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2479/page/8/
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