en
once discharged, had relapsed. In Spain, heretics who recanted before
execution were first strangled; the obstinately impenitent were burned
alive. Persons convicted of heresy who could not be reached were burnt
in effigy.

Acting on the maxim _ecclesia non sitit sanguinem_ the Inquisitors did
not put their victims to death by their own officers but handed them
over to the civil authorities for execution. With revolting hypocrisy
they even adjured the hangmen to be merciful, well knowing that the
latter had no option but to carry out the sentence of the church.
Magistrates who endeavored to exercise any discretion in favor of the
condemned were promptly threatened with excommunication.

If anything could be wanting to complete the horror it was supplied by
the festive spirit of the executions. The _Auto da Fe_, [Sidenote:
_Auto da Fe_] or act of faith, was a favorite spectacle of the
Spaniards; no holiday was quite complete without its holocaust of human
victims. The staging was elaborate, and the ceremony as impressive as
possible. Secular and spiritual authorities were ordered to be present
and vast crowds were edified by the horrible example of the untimely
end of the unbeliever. Sundays and feast days were chosen for these
spectacles and on gala occasions, such as royal weddings and
christenings, a special effort was made to celebrate one of these holy
butcheries.

The number of victims has been variously estimated. {415} An actual
count up to the year 1540, that is, before Protestantism became a
serious factor, shows that 20,226 were burned in person and 10,913 in
effigy, and these figures are incomplete. It must be remembered that
for every one who paid the extreme penalty there were a large number of
others punished in other ways, or imprisoned and tortured while on
trial. When Adrian of Utrecht, afterwards the pope, was Inquisitor
General 1516-22, 1,620 persons were burned alive, 560 in effigy and
21,845 were sentenced to penance or other lighter punishments.
Roughly, for one person sentenced to death ten suffered milder
penalties.

[Sidenote: Crimes punished]

Heresy was not the only crime punished by the Inquisition; it also took
charge of blasphemy, bigamy and some forms of vice. In its early years
it was chiefly directed against the Jews who, having been forced to the
baptismal font, had relapsed. Later the Moriscos or christened Moors
supplied the largest number of victims. As with th