The Revival of the Inquisition and of Persecution

Mr. Editor:-In your paper of last week you inserted exclusively an article of much importance; it was an extract from the Malta Times, a copy of which had been sent you by a correspondent from the Mediterranean. It is little to the honor of the London press that this important article has not been copied in its columns. I allude to the revived persecution of the Jews in Ancona. If persecution be allowed to commence it will soon make rapid strides, and we shall have all the horrors of the good old times revived among us. Persecution can never be confined within its limits;-let it exist at all, and it is boundless. With respect to the Court of Inquisition, it was the glory of the immortal Napoleon that, wherever he went, he destroyed it; and to the shame and disgrace of the Duke of Wellington, it is recorded, that wherever he was successful he restored or allowed to be restored, this detestable Court of Priests. When the illustrious Emperor possessed Spain and Portugal, the Courts of Inquisition in both countries, were annihilated. When the Duke of Wellington drove the French out of those countries, the Inquisition revived in all its horrors. It may be truly said, that the march of Napoleon was that of liberality, whilst the progress of the Duke of Wellington was always that of absolute tyranny.

The revival of the Inquisition at Ancona is a fearful feature of the times. This hateful Court of Priests has its sittings and proceedings in secret; there is no appeal from its horrible decisions, and the chief judge has a power known to no other court in the world. Its president can aggravate a sentence to any amount. In all other courts throughout Europe the sovereign has the prerogative of mitigating, but certainly not of increasing, a penal sentence: but in this terrible court of the priests the inquisitor has the power of augmenting the punishment to any extent he pleases. This, of course, renders a trial, at best, a mere mockery. The sentence of the court generally consists in torture, and the Grand Inquisitor, may increase the torture to the utmost extent of his disposition.

The Inquisition is re-established at Ancona, and its first proceeding is against the Jews.-Ancona is the third city in the Pope's dominions. It contains about 26,000 inhabitants-an immense number for a city of the dominions of this wretched sovereign, called the Pope. A great portion of the population are Jews, Greeks, and Mahomedans. It has a cathedral and churches innumerable. Its manufactures are in the hands of the Jews, to whom the town owes all its prosperity. Now comes out a proclamation against these Jews, the sole object of which is to plunder them by extorting bribes for getting rid of this proclamation. In most parts of Europe liberality towards the Jews, for half a century at least, has been a prominent feature of the age. The French emancipated them as we did the Irish Catholics. In England, our Queen, very much to her honor, has conferred titles on the Jews. We have had, we are glad to say, Jews as High Sheriffs of counties, and even of London itself; but the spirit of persecution must, like a pestilence, break out somewhere, and in the Pope's dominions

it is now directed against the Jews of Ancona. The real motives of the priests, of course, consists in a knowledge that the Jews are worth plunder. By this edict of the Pope's Inquisition, a Jew is prohibited from marrying with a Christian; a Jew is not allowed to eat with a Christian, or to visit a Christian family. He is not permitted to employ Christian men or women, day or night. We fancy that this will prove sadly detrimental to the Christians, for the Jews are the great capitalists-the monied [moneyed] men-and employ half the town, and this part of the edict will throw the Catholic population of Ancona out of employment. It is really dreadful to know that such a hateful spirit of persecution can exist in any part of Christendom. The Jews are confined to a district of the town, and they are prohibited from employing Christian nurses, or Christian domestic servants, under the pain of fines and penalties, according to the Pontifical constitution. As we placed the Pope on his trumpery throne at an immense expense, we see not why we should not exercise a discretion in checking such enormities. Why should English gold have been spent, and English blood have been spilled, to establish such a system of Popish tyranny? One section of the edict amounts to the ludicrous. It enacts that all Jews possessed of property must alienate that property by bona-fide contracts, and within the space of three months, or otherwise the whole property will be forfeited to the Sacred Court of Inquisition. Is not this enough to make the English people alive to religious persecution? The principle fully exists in this country, although it is not carried to quite as great an extent. The Jews are prohibited from eating with Christians, or sleeping out of their quarters, and from permitting Christians to sleep within them. Another clause of the edict prohibits the Jews from visiting Christians without a license, but the license being paid for, the Jews may visit where they please. Then, these Israelites are prohibited from trafficking in sacred things, or in trading books of any sort whatever. These chosen people are forbid to read anything. This, I suppose, is a step in the progress of education-in the march of intellect. I will give the English public an idea of the horrible nature of this Catholic edict of the Inquisition:-"XI. That the Jews in carrying their dead to the grave, must not use any religious rite, or public pomp, and especially must abstain from saying prayers, or displaying torches, or other lights in the streets, and out of the Jewish quarter, under the pain of 100 scudes, the loss of the wax lights, and other things, to which the nearest relation shall be subjected." Such are the proceedings of what is called, "The Sacred Inquisition of Ancona."

The priests, of course, have the power of granting licenses to the Jews for breaking all the orders of this edict of the sacred inquisition, and as the Jews are the only active, wealthy, and useful portion of Ancona, of course the priests make a good revenue of their licenses. Such a case as this ought to open the eyes of the English public as to the spirit of priestcraft, which is as rampant in this country as it is in Ancona, only it assumes a very different name. PUBLICOLA