under strong suspicions of heresy. No
accuser was named; but the thumb-screw, the stretching-rope, the boot
and wedge, or other enginery of torture, soon supplied that defect, and,
innocent or guilty, he accused himself!

Notwithstanding all this power, the Inquisition failed of its purpose.
When the heretic could no longer confront it, he evaded it. A dismal
disbelief stealthily pervaded all Europe,--a denial of Providence,
of the immortality of the soul, of human free-will, and that man can
possibly resist the absolute necessity, the destiny which envelops him.
Ideas such as these were cherished in silence by multitudes of persons
driven to them by the tyrannical acts of ecclesiasticism. In spite of
persecution, the Waldenses still survived to propagate their declaration
that the Roman Church, since Constantine, had degenerated from its
purity and sanctity; to protest against the sale of indulgences, which
they said had nearly abolished prayer, fasting, alms; to affirm that it
was utterly useless to pray for the souls of the dead, since they must
already have gone either to heaven or hell. Though it was generally
believed that philosophy or science was pernicious to the interests of
Christianity or true piety, the Mohammedan literature then prevailing
in Spain was making converts among all classes of society. We see very
plainly its influence in many of the sects that then arose; thus, "the
Brethren and Sisters of the Free. Spirit" held that "the universe came
by emanation from God, and would finally return to him by absorption;
that rational souls are so many portions of the Supreme Deity; and that
the universe, considered as one great whole, is God." These are ideas
that can only be entertained in an advanced intellectual condition. Of
this sect it is said that many suffered burning with unclouded serenity,
with triumphant feelings of cheerfulness and joy. Their orthodox enemies
accused them of gratifying their passions at midnight assemblages in
darkened rooms, to which both sexes in a condition of nudity repaired. A
similar accusation, as is well known, was brought against the primitive
Christians by the fashionable society of Rome.

The influences of the Averroistic philosophy were apparent in many of
these sects. That Mohammedan system, considered from a Christian point
of view, led to the heretical belief that the end of the precepts of
Christianity is the union of the soul with the Supreme Being; that God
an