[13] The following affords a view of the secrecy with which the affairs of the holy office are conducted: "When the familiar is sent for to apprehend any person," says Limborch, "he has the following order put into his hand: 'By the command of the reverend father N. an Inquisitor of heretical pravity, let B. be apprehended, and committed to the prisons of this holy office, and not to be released out of them, but by the express order of the said reverend Inquisitor.' And if several persons are to be taken up at the same time, the familiars are commanded so to order things, that they may know nothing of one another's being apprehended. And at this the familiars are so very expert, that a father and his three sons and three daughters, who lived together in the same house, were all carried prisoners to the Inquisition, without knowing any thing of one another's being there until seven years afterwards, when they that were alive came forth to an auto-da-fé."
Examination of the accused by torture—its different degrees—it is sometimes inflicted on those who are condemned to death—innocence no protection against Inquisitorial cruelty—different punishments inflicted by the Inquisition—description of an auto-da-fé—hypocritical manner in which the Inquisitors deliver over their victims to the civil power.
After undergoing the usual number of examinations before the Inquisitors, if the prisoner still persists in protesting his innocence, he is condemned to the torture.[14] Attempts are first made, however, to frighten him by a variety of Inquisitorial methods. The instruments of torture are shown him at a distance. Having been conducted into a large room, feebly lighted, the executioner is pointed out to him, dressed in a black gown which reaches down to his feet, and having a long cowl drawn over his head and face. This revolting figure has in his hand an iron collar, or some other instrument of torture, and stares in solemn silence at the prisoner, through two holes which are cut for this purpose in his cowl. "All this," says Gonsalvius, "is intended to strike the miserable wretch with greater terror, when he sees himself about to be tortured by the hands of one who thus looks like the very devil."