The Holy Office meanwhile went on in cold, savage resolution: the Holy
Office which had begun the business and was the cause of it.

A note in Cecil's hand says that in the one year 1562 twenty-six English
subjects had been burnt at the stake in different parts of Spain. Ten
times as many were starving in Spanish dungeons, from which
occasionally, by happy accident, a cry could be heard like this which
follows. In 1561 an English merchant writes from the Canaries:

'I was taken by those of the Inquisition twenty months past, put into a
little dark house two paces long, loaded with irons, without sight of
sun or moon all that time. When I was arraigned I was charged that I
should say our mass was as good as theirs; that I said I would rather
give money to the poor than buy Bulls of Rome with it. I was charged
with being a subject to the Queen's grace, who, they said, was enemy to
the Faith, Antichrist, with other opprobrious names; and I stood to the
defence of the Queen's Majesty, proving the infamies most untrue. Then I
was put into Little Ease again, protesting very innocent blood to be
demanded against the judge before Christ.'

The innocent blood of these poor victims had not to wait to be avenged
at the Judgment Day. The account was presented shortly and promptly at
the cannon's mouth.




LECTURE II

JOHN HAWKINS AND THE AFRICAN SLAVE TRADE