ytes to the Reformed religion.
De Roxas, as was the usage with ecclesiastics, was allowed to retain his
sacerdotal habit until his sentence had been read, when he was degraded
from his ecclesiastical rank, his vestments were stripped off one after
another, and the hideous dress of the _san benito_ thrown over him, amid
the shouts and derision of the populace. Thus apparelled, he made an
attempt to address the spectators around the scaffold; but no sooner did
he begin to raise his voice against the errors and cruelties of Rome,
than Philip indignantly commanded him to be gagged. The gag was a piece
of cleft wood, which, forcibly compressing the tongue, had the
additional advantage of causing great pain, while it silenced the
offender. Even when he was bound to the stake, the gag, though contrary
to custom, was suffered to remain in the mouth of De Roxas, as if his
enemies dreaded the effects of an eloquence that triumphed over the
anguish of death.[447]

The place of execution--the _quemadero_, the burning-place, as it was
called--was a spot selected for the purpose without the walls of the
city.[448] Those who attended an _auto da fe_ were not, therefore,
necessarily, as is commonly imagined, spectators of the tragic scene
that concluded it. The great body of the people, and many of higher
rank, no doubt, followed to the place of execution. On this occasion,
there is reason to think, from the language--somewhat equivocal, it is
true--of Philip's biographer, that the monarch chose to testify his
devotion to the Inquisition by witnessing in person the appalling close
of the drama; while his guards mingled with the menials of the Holy
Office, and heaped up the fagots round their victims.[449]

Such was the cruel exhibition which, under the garb of a religious
festival, was thought the most fitting ceremonial for welcoming the
Catholic monarch to his dominions! During the whole time of its duration
in the public square, from six in the morning till two in the afternoon,
no symptom of impatience was exhibited by the spectators, and, as may
well be believed, no sign of sympathy for the sufferers.[450] It would
be difficult to devise a better school for perverting the moral sense,
and deadening the sensibilities of a nation.[451]

[Sidenote: PROSECUTION OF CARRANZA.]

Under the royal sanction, the work of persecution now went forward more
briskly than ever.[452] No calling was too sacred, no rank too high, to
escape the sh