FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
183
serves, " if ever the Jack Ketch of any country should be rich enough to have a splendid tomb, this might serve as an excellent model."
One of the most interesting anecdotes relating to the inquisition, exemplifying how the use of the diabolical engines of torture forces men to confess crimes they have not been g^uilty of, was related to Mr. D'Israeli by aPortuguese gentle- man. A nobleman in Lisbon* having heard that his physician and friend was imprisoned by the inquisition, under the stale pretext of Judusm, addressed a letter to one of uiem to request his freedom, assuring the inquisitor that his friend was as orthodox a christian as himself. The physician, notwithstanding this high recommen- dation, was put to the torture ; and, as was usu- ally the case, at the height of his sufferings con- fesed every thing they wished. This enraged the nobleman, and feigning a dangerous illness he begged the inquisitor would come to give him_ his last spiritual aid. As soon as the Do- minican arrived, the lord, who had prepared his confidential servants, commanded the inquisitor in their rtresence to acknowledge himself a Jew, to write nis confession, and to sign it. On the refusal of the inquisitor, the nobleman ordered his people to put on the inquisitor's head a red- hot helmet, which to his astonishment, in draw- ing aside a screen, he beheld glowing in a small fnmace. At the sight of this new instrument of torture, "Luke's iron crown," the monk wrote and subscribed the abhorred confession. The nobleman then observed, " See now the enor- mity of your manner of proceeding with un- happy men ! My poor physician, like you, has confessed Judaism; but with Uiis difference, only tormenu have forced that from him which fear alone has drawn from yon !"
A man of letters declared that, having fallen into their hands, nothing perplexed him so much as the ignorance of the inquisitor and his coun- cil : and it seemed very doubtful whether they had read even the scriptures.
The Inquisition has not failed of receiving its due praises. Macedo, a Portuguese Jesuit, has discovered the origin of the inquisition in the terrestrial paradise, and presumes to allege that God was the first who began the functions of an wwwiJtorover Cain and Sie workmen of Babel! The history of the Inquisition enters into that of the human mind ; and that by Limborch, translated by Chandler, with a very curious in- troduction, loses none of its value with the phi- losophical mind. This monstrous tribunal of human opinions aimed at the sovereignty of the intellectual world, without intellect.
1486, Aug. 22. The battle of Bosworth Field, and the death of Richard III. The Tudor race were indebted to this day for their regal inheri-
- la 1 S39, ooe Saavcdn mpfeaitd at Liabnn u legate a
iaitrt, from the pope, to establish the Inqaisitlon in Porta. gaL Ibx kinir conceded the necesauy poWen, and 8aa- ▼edn cansed two hnndred to be burnt, and collected M«,o«o crowns. He then departed foi Spain, but beingr dlscoTered to be an Impostor, he was seized, but let off with a wUppiiiK and ten years in the gallies. The inqni- ■ttion wu tben eataUisbed in Foitswal.— PAUU^.
tance. Richard lost his life by defection: his courage and foresight were worthy of a better cause . He was born at the castle of Totheringay, October 2, 1452 ; and during the contention of the rotet was present in nearly every engagement of those unnatural wars. Richard with his consort (Ann Beauchamp, widow of Edward prince of Wales) wascrowned at Westminster July 8, 1483, on the 8th of September following tney were again crowned at York.* After the death of Richard, the duke of Richmond was saluted king, by the title of Henry VII.
1486. Printing introduced into the following places in the course of this year : —
Heidelberg, by Fridericus Misch: his name appeared to his first work in 1488.
Katisbon, by J . Sensenschmidt and J. Beken- haub.
Vercelli, in Peidmont, by Jacob Suigus.
Pescia, by Franc. Cenni.
Udino, bv Gerard de Flandria.
Burgos, by Frederic de Basilea.
1486. The press of Caxton was entirely oc- cupied this year with printing romances.
A Booh of the noble hyttoryei ofhynge Arthur and of eerteyn of hit hnyghte».\
Different opinions have been entertained re- specting the original author of this work : it is said to be a translation of a French romance, in- tituled, Lancelot. Caxton's preface commences with informing us, that, " having completed the translation of divers histories of ^t&tX, conquerors and princes," as well as " certain books of good examples and doctrine," he was solicited by
- In what odious cokmr* baa Sbakspeaie made Rlchanl
III. describe himself, in the flnt scene of the first act of the celebrated tiaged7 of that name.
But I, that am not shap'd for sporttve tricks. Nor made to court an am'rons looking glass, I, that am radelv stampt, and want lore's nuOeaty, To stmt before a wanton, ambling nymph i I, that am cnrtall'd of this Ctir proportion. Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deform*d. onllnish'd, sent before my time Into this breathing world, scarce half made up. And that so lamely, and nnfashlonably, That dogs baik at me, as I halt by them.— Jef I, Se.l.
Tetchy and wayward was his infkncy i His school-days frightMU deqierate, wild, and forious j His prime of manhood, dating, bold, and ventuioas ; His age conflrm'd, proud, subtle, sly, and bloody.
Act 4, se. I.
In this description what a monster of blended deftnrnity and viUany do we behold I The deformity of person as- nouncing the depravity of soul I But Horace Walpole, in his ingenious treatise entitled HMorical Doubtt, has given a variety of reasons to support the opinion of It^>in, that Richard was neither hunched backed nor deformed ; and that personal ugliness was imputed to him. by the histo- rians of the time, with many crimes of which he was en- tirely Innocent, merely to flatter his bitter enemies, his two Immediate successors, Henry vil. and VIII.
Richard III. was killed at the foot of a declivity In the ground at the east of the well, in Bosworth FleM. The bedstead and travelling treasury of Richard is still shewn at Rothlcy, near Leicester. It was hollow, and fuU of gold pieces, not discovered till 130 years afterwards. His stone coffin was for many years in the possession of Sir Richard Phillips, then a bookseller at Leicester, and after- wards aerially served as a bone trough, at the White Horse Inn. " Sic trmuil gloria mundi."
t A perfect copy of this work is In the libiary at Osterley Park, belonging to the earl of Jersey. Another (onfortu- natdy defective) is In earl Spencer's Ubniy.
VjOOQ IC
