nd activity
of the vile tribe. Pope Paul the Fourth also assisted with eagerness in
the object, and issued a bull enjoining all confessors to examine their
penitents, from the highest to the lowest, and to charge them to
denounce all whom they knew to be guilty of buying, selling, reading, or
possessing any book prohibited by the Holy Office, the punishment being
death. The great aim of the papists was to strike terror into the minds
of the whole nation; and while they had not the most distant intention
of extending mercy to those who professed themselves penitent, they were
nevertheless anxious to secure a triumph to the Catholic faith (as they
called their system of idolatry and tyranny), by having in it their
power to read, in the public _auto-da-fe_, the forced retractions of
those who had embraced the truth.

Antonio Herezuelo stood before the council of inquisitors. So
well-known is the scene that it scarcely requires description. It is
too true a picture--an exhibition of devilish ingenuity of man when he
desires to tyrannise over his fellow-creatures, unsurpassed in cruelty
by the heathen or most barbarous nations of ancient or modern days.
There sat the inquisitors in a gloomy vaulted chamber--on one side the
fearful rack, with grim, savage executioners ready to perform their
office, a black curtain only partly concealing other instruments of
torture, with hooded familiars standing silently round; while at the
table sat two secretaries, ready to note every word uttered by the
prisoner, to be wrested, if possible, to his destruction. The only
person whose countenance could have been regarded with satisfaction was
the prisoner. He stood calm and undaunted amidst those cruel men, who
had resolved on his death. Hark! the president addresses him in a
harsh, pitiless voice:

"Antonio Herezuelo, you have been accused by most credible witnesses of
holding in disrespect many of the principal articles of our most holy
faith. What have you to answer for yourself?"

"That I hold most sincerely and truly all the doctrines necessary for my
eternal salvation, and all other doctrines which I find clearly set
forth in God's blessed Word, sent in His mercy and love as a sure guide
to perishing man," answered Antonio, boldly.

"Then you consider the Bible, by which so many are misled, as the only
guide and rule of faith?" said the Chief Inquisitor. "You set at nought
the authority of the Church?"

"I bow with all s