When the reformed religion began to diffuse1 the gospel light throughout church. He accordingly instituted a number of inquisitors, or persons who were to make inquiry2 after, apprehend3, and punish, heretics, as the reformed were called by the papists.
At the head of these inquisitors was one Dominic, who had been canonized by the pope, in order to render his authority the more respectable. Dominic, and the other inquisitors, spread themselves into various Roman catholic countries, and treated the protestants with the utmost severity. In process of time, the pope, not finding these roving inquisitors so useful as he had imagined, resolved upon the establishment of fixed5 and regular courts of inquisition. After the order for these regular courts, the first office of inquisition was established in the city of Thoulouse, and Dominic became the first regular inquisitor, as he had before been the first roving inquisitor.
Courts of inquisition were now erected6 in several countries; but the Spanish inquisition became the most powerful, and the most dreaded8 of any. Even the kings of Spain themselves, though arbitrary in all other respects, were taught to dread7 the power of the lords of the inquisition; and the horrid9 cruelties they exercised compelled multitudes, who differed in opinion from the Roman catholics, carefully to conceal11 their sentiments.
The most zealous13 of all the popish monks14, and those who most implicitly15 obeyed the church of Rome, were the Dominicans and Franciscans:[70] these, therefore, the pope thought proper to invest with an exclusive right of presiding over the different court of inquisition, and gave them the most unlimited16 powers, as judges delegated by him, and immediately representing his person: they were permitted to excommunicate, or sentence to death whom they thought proper, upon the most slight information of heresy18. They were allowed to publish crusades against all whom they deemed heretics, and enter into leagues with sovereign princes, to join their crusades with their forces.
In 1244, their power was farther increased by the emperor Frederic the Second, who declared himself the protector and friend of all the inquisitors, and published the cruel edicts, viz. 1. That all heretics who continued obstinate20, should be burnt. 2. That all heretics who repented22, should be imprisoned23 for life.
This zeal12 in the emperor, for the inquisitors of the Roman catholic persuasion24, arose from a report which had been propagated throughout Europe, that he intended to renounce25 christianity, and turn Mahometan; the emperor therefore, attempted, by the height of bigotry27 to contradict the report, and to show his attachment28 to popery by cruelty.
The officers of the inquisition are three inquisitors, or judges, a fiscal29 proctor, two secretaries, a magistrate30, a messenger, a receiver, a jailer, an agent of confiscated31 possessions; several assessors, counsellors, executioners, physicians, surgeons, door-keepers, familiars, and visiters, who are sworn to secrecy32.
The principal accusation33 against those who are subject to this tribunal is heresy, which comprises all that is spoken, or written, against any of the articles of the creed35, or the traditions of the Roman church. The inquisition likewise takes cognizance of such as are accused of being magicians, and of such who read the bible in the common language, the Talmud of the Jews, or the Alcoran of the Mahometans.
Upon all occasions the inquisitors carry on their processes with the utmost severity, and punish those who offend them with the most unparalleled cruelty. A protestant has seldom any mercy shown him, and a Jew, who turns christian26, is far from being secure.
A defence in the inquisition is of little use to the prisoner, for a suspicion only is deemed sufficient cause of condemnation36, and the greater his wealth the greater his danger. The principal part of the inquisitors' cruelties is owing to their rapacity37: they destroy the life to possess the property; and, under the pretence38 of zeal, plunder39 each obnoxious40 individual.
A prisoner in the inquisition is never allowed to see the face of his accuser, or of the witnesses against him, but every method is taken by threats and tortures, to oblige him to accuse himself, and by that means corroborate41 their evidence. If the jurisdiction42 of the inquisition is not fully10 allowed, vengeance43 is denounced against such as call it in question for if any of its officers are opposed, those who[71] oppose them are almost certain to be sufferers for their temerity44; the maxim45 of the inquisition being to strike terror, and awe46 those who are the objects of its power into obedience47. High birth, distinguished48 rank, great dignity, or eminent49 employments, are no protection from its severities; and the lowest officers of the inquisition can make the highest characters tremble.
When the person impeached50 is condemned51, he is either severely52 whipped, violently tortured, sent to the galleys53, or sentenced to death; and in either case the effects are confiscated. After judgment54, a procession is performed to the place of execution, which ceremony is called an auto55 de fe, or act of faith.
The following is an account of an auto de fe, performed at Madrid in the year 1682.
The officers of the inquisition, preceded by trumpets56, kettle-drums, and their banner, marched on the 30th of May, in cavalcade57, to the palace of the great square, where they declared by proclamation, that, on the 30th of June, the sentence of the prisoners would be put in execution.
Of these prisoners, twenty men and women, with one renegade Mahometan, were ordered to be burned; fifty Jews and Jewesses, having never before been imprisoned, and repenting58 of their crimes were sentenced to a long confinement59, and to wear a yellow cap. The whole court of Spain was present on this occasion. The grand inquisitor's chair was placed in a sort of tribunal far above that of the king.
Among those who were to suffer, was a young Jewess of exquisite60 beauty, and but seventeen years of age. Being on the same side of the scaffold where the queen was seated, she addressed her, in hopes of obtaining a pardon, in the following pathetic speech: "Great queen, will not your royal presence be of some service to the in my miserable61 condition! Have regard to my youth; and, oh! consider, that I am about to die for professing62 a religion imbibed63 from my earliest infancy64!" Her majesty65 seemed greatly to pity her distress66, but turned away her eyes, as she did not dare to speak a word in behalf of a person who had been declared a heretic.
Now mass began, in the midst of which the priest came from the altar, placed himself near the scaffold, and seated himself in a chair prepared for that purpose.
The chief inquisitor then descended67 from the amphitheatre, dressed in his cope, and having a mitre on his head. After having bowed to the altar, he advanced towards the king's balcony, and went up to it, attended by some of his officers, carrying a cross and the gospels, with a book containing the oath by which the kings of Spain oblige themselves to protect the catholic faith, to extirpate68 heretics, and to support with all their power and force the prosecutions69 and decrees of the inquisition: a like oath was administered to the counsellors and whole assembly. The mass was begun about twelve at noon, and did not[72] end till nine in the evening, being protracted70 by a proclamation of the sentences of the several criminals, which were already separately rehearsed aloud one after the other.
After this, followed the burning of the twenty-one men and women, whose intrepidity72 in suffering that horrid death was truly astonishing. The king's near situation to the criminals rendered their dying groans73 very audible to him; he could not, however, be absent from this dreadful scene, as it is esteemed75 a religious one; and his coronation oath obliges him to give a sanction by his presence to all the acts of the tribunal.
What we have already said may be applied77 to inquisitions in general, as well as to that of Spain in particular. The inquisition belonging to Portugal is exactly upon a similar plan to that of Spain, having been instituted much about the same time, and put under the same regulations. The inquisitors allow the torture to be used only three times, but during those times it is so severely inflicted78, that the prisoner either dies under it, or continues always after a cripple, and suffers the severest pains upon every change of weather. We shall give an ample description of the severe torments80 occasioned by the torture, from the account of one who suffered it the three respective times, but happily survived the cruelties he underwent.
At the first time of torturing, six executioners entered, stripped him naked to his drawers, and laid him upon his back on a kind of stand, elevated a few feet from the floor. The operation commenced by putting an iron collar round his neck, and a ring to each foot, which fastened him to the stand. His limbs being thus stretched out, they wound two ropes round each thigh81; which ropes being passed under the scaffold, through holes made for that purpose, were all drawn82 tight at the same instant of time, by four of the men, on a given signal.
It is easy to conceive that the pains which immediately succeeded were intolerable; the ropes, which were of a small size, cut through the prisoner's flesh to the bone, making the blood to gush83 out at eight different places thus bound at a time. As the prisoner persisted in not making any confession84 of what the inquisitors required, the ropes were drawn in this manner four times successively.
The manner of inflicting85 the second torture was as follows: they forced his arms backwards86 so that the palms of his hands were turned outward behind him; when, by means of a rope that fastened them together at the wrists, and which was turned by an engine, they drew them by degrees nearer each other, in such a manner that the back of each hand touched, and stood exactly parallel to each other. In consequence of this violent contortion87, both his shoulders became dislocated, and a considerable quantity of blood issued from his mouth. This torture was repeated thrice; after which he was again taken to the dungeon88, and the surgeon set the dislocated bones.
Two months after the second torture, the prisoner being a little recovered, was again ordered to the torture-room, and there, for the last time, made to undergo another kind of punishment, which was[73] inflicted twice without any intermission. The executioners fastened a thick iron chain round his body, which crossing at the breast, terminated at the wrists. They then placed him with his back against a thick board, at each extremity89 whereof was a pulley, through which there ran a rope that caught the end of the chain at his wrists. The executioner then, stretching the end of this rope by means of a roller, placed at a distance behind him, pressed or bruised90 his stomach in proportion as the ends of the chains were drawn tighter. They tortured him in this manner to such a degree, that his wrists, as well as his shoulders, were quite dislocated. They were, however, soon set by the surgeons; but the barbarians92, not yet satisfied with this species of cruelty, made him immediately undergo the like torture a second time, which he sustained (though, if possible, attended with keener pains,) with equal constancy and resolution. After this, he was again remanded to his dungeon, attended by the surgeon to dress his bruises93 and adjust the part dislocated, and here he continued till their Auto de Fe, or jail delivery, when he was discharged, crippled and diseased for life.
An account of the cruel Handling and Burning of Nicholas Burton, an English Merchant, in Spain.
The fifth day of November, about the year of our Lord 1560, Mr. Nicholas Burton, citizen sometime of London, and merchant, dwelling94 in the parish of Little St. Bartholomew, peaceably and quietly following his traffic in the trade of merchandize, and being in the city of Cadiz, in the party of Andalusia, in Spain, there came into his lodging95 a Judas, or, as they term them, a familiar of the fathers of the inquisition; who asking for the said Nicholas Burton, feigned96 that he had a letter to deliver into his own hands; by which means he spake with him immediately. And having no letter to deliver to him, then the said promoter, or familiar, at the motion of the devil his master, whose messenger he was, invented another lie, and said, that he would take lading for London in such ships as the said Nicholas Burton had freighted to lade, if he would let any; which was partly to know where he loaded his goods, that they might attach them, and chiefly to protract71 the time until the sergeant97 of the inquisition might come and apprehend the body of the said Nicholas Burton; which they did incontinently.
He then well perceiving that they were not able to burden or charge him that he had written, spoke34, or done any thing there in that country against the ecclesiastical or temporal laws of the same realm, boldly asked them what they had to lay to his charge that they did so arrest him, and bade them to declare the cause, and he would answer them. Notwithstanding they answered nothing, but commanded him with threatening words to hold his peace, and not speak one word to them.
And so they carried him to the filthy98 common prison of the town of Cadiz, where he remained in irons fourteen days amongst thieves.[74]
All which time he so instructed the poor prisoners in the word of God, according to the good talent which God had given him in that behalf, and also in the Spanish tongue to utter the same, that in that short space he had well reclaimed99 several of those superstitious100 and ignorant Spaniards to embrace the word of God, and to reject their popish traditions.
Which being known unto the officers of the inquisition, they conveyed him laden101 with irons from thence to a city called Seville, into a more cruel and straiter prison called Triana, where the said fathers of the inquisition proceeded against him secretly according to their accustomable cruel tyranny, that never after he could be suffered to write or speak to any of his nation: so that to this day it is unknown who was his accuser.
Afterward102, the 20th of December, they brought the said Nicholas Burton, with a great number of other prisoners, for professing the true Christian religion, into the city of Seville, to a place where the said inquisitors sat in judgment which they called Auto, with a canvass103 coat, whereupon in divers104 parts was painted the figure of a huge devil, tormenting105 a soul in a flame of fire, and on his head a copping tank of the same work.
His tongue was forced out of his mouth with a cloven stick fastened upon it, that he should not utter his conscience and faith to the people, and so he was set with another Englishman of Southampton, and divers other condemned men for religion, as well Frenchmen as Spaniards, upon a scaffold over against the said inquisition, where their sentences and judgments106 were read and pronounced against them.
And immediately after the said sentences given, they were carried from thence to the place of execution without the city, where they most cruelly burned them, for whose constant faith, God be praised.
This Nicholas Burton by the way, and in the flames of fire, had so cheerful a countenance107, embracing death with all patience and gladness, that the tormentors and enemies which stood by, said, that the devil had his soul before he came to the fire; and therefore they said his senses of feeling were past him.
It happened that after the arrest of Nicholas Burton aforesaid, immediately all the goods and merchandize which he brought with him into Spain by the way of traffic, were (according to their common usage) seized, and taken into the sequester108; among which they also rolled up much that appertained to another English merchant, wherewith he was credited as factor. Whereof so soon as news was brought to the merchant as well of the imprisonment109 of his factor, as of the arrest made upon his goods, he sent his attorney into Spain, with authority from him to make claim to his goods, and to demand them; whose name was John Fronton, citizen of Bristol.
When his attorney was landed at Seville, and had shown all his letters and writings to the holy house, requiring them that such goods might be delivered into his possession, answer was made to him that he must sue by bill, and retain an advocate (but all was doubtless to[75] delay him,) and they forsooth of courtesy assigned him one to frame his supplication110 for him, and other such bills of petition, as he had to exhibit into their holy court, demanding for each bill eight rials, albeit111 they stood him in no more stead than if he had put up none at all. And for the space of three or four months this fellow missed not twice a day attending every morning and afternoon at the inquisitors' palace, suing unto them upon his knees for his despatch112, but especially to the bishop113 of Tarracon, who was at that very time chief in the inquisition at Seville, that he of his absolute authority would command restitution114 to be made thereof; but the booty was so good and great, that it was very hard to come by it again.
At length, after he had spent four whole months in suits and requests, and also to no purpose, he received this answer from them, That he must show better evidence, and bring more sufficient certificates out of England for proof of this matter, than those which he had already presented to the court. Whereupon the party forthwith posted to London, and with all speed returned to Seville again with more ample and large letters testimonial, and certificates, according to their requests, and exhibited them to the court.
Notwithstanding the inquisitors still shifted him off, excusing themselves by lack of leisure, and for that they were occupied in more weighty affairs, and with such answers put him off, four months after.
At last, when the party had well nigh spent all his money, and therefore sued the more earnestly for his despatch, they referred the matter wholly to the bishop. Of whom, when he repaired unto him, he made this answer, That for himself, he knew what he had to do, howbeit he was but one man, and the determination appertained to the other commissioners116 as well as unto him; and thus by posting and passing it from one to another, the party could obtain no end of his suit. Yet for his importunity's sake, they were resolved to despatch him: it was on this sort: one of the inquisitors, called Gasco, a man very well experienced in these practices, willed the party to resort unto him after dinner.
The fellow being glad to hear this news, and supposing that his goods should be restored unto him, and that he was called in for that purpose to talk with the other that was in prison to confer with him about their accounts, rather through a little misunderstanding, hearing the inquisitors cast out a word, that it should be needful for him to talk with the prisoner, and being thereupon more than half persuaded, that at length they meant good faith, did so, and repaired thither117 about the evening. Immediately upon his coming, the jailer was forthwith charged with him, to shut him up close in such a prison where they appointed him.
The party, hoping at the first that he had been called for about some other matter, and seeing himself, contrary to his expectation, cast into a dark dungeon, perceived at length that the world went with him far otherwise than he supposed it would have done.[76]
But within two or three days after, he was brought into the court where he began to demand his goods: and because it was a device that well served their turn without any more circumstance, they bid him say his Ave Maria; "Ave Maria gratia plena, Dominus tecum, benedicta tu in mulieribus, et benedictus fructus ventris tui Jesus. Amen."
The same was written word by word as he spake it, and without any more talk of claiming his goods, because it was needless, they commanded him to prison again, and entered an action against him as a heretic, forasmuch as he did not say his Ave Maria after the Romish fashion, but ended it very suspiciously, for he should have added moreover; "Sancta Maria mater Dei, ora pro4 nobis peccatoribus:" by abbreviating119 whereof, it was evident enough (said they) that he did not allow the mediation121 of saints.
Thus they picked a quarrel to detain him in prison a longer season, and afterward brought him forth115 upon their stage disguised after their manner; where sentence was given, that he should lose all the goods which he sued for, though they were not his own, and besides this, suffer a year's imprisonment.
Mark Brughes, an Englishman, master of an English ship called the Minion122, was burnt in a city in Portugal.
William Hoker, a young man about the age of sixteen years, being an Englishman, was stoned to death by certain young men in the city of Seville, for the same righteous cause.
Some private Enormities of the inquisition laid open, by a very singular occurrence.
When the crown of Spain was contested for in the beginning of the present century, by two princes, who equally pretended to the sovereignty, France espoused123 the cause of one competitor, and England of the other.
The duke of Berwick, a natural son of James II. who abdicated124 England, commanded the Spanish and French forces, and defeated the English at the celebrated125 battle of Almanza. The army was then divided into two parts; the one consisting of Spaniards and French, headed by the duke of Berwick, advanced towards Catalonia; the other body, consisting of French troops only, commanded by the duke of Orleans, proceeded to the conquest of Arragon.
As the troops drew near to the city of Arragon, the magistrates126 came to offer the keys to the duke of Orleans; but he told them, haughtily127, they were rebels, and that he would not accept the keys, for he had orders to enter the city through a breach128.
He accordingly made a breach in the walls with his cannon129, and then entered the city through it, together with his whole army.—When he had made every necessary regulation here, he departed to subdue130 other places, leaving a strong garrison131 at once to overawe and defend, under the command of his lieutenant-general M. de Legal. This gentleman, though brought up a Roman catholic, was[77] totally free from superstition132: he united great talents with great bravery: and was, at once, the skilful133 officer, and accomplished134 gentleman.
The duke, before his departure, had ordered that heavy contributions should be levied135 upon the city to the following manner:
1. That the magistrates and principal inhabitants should pay a thousand crowns per month for the duke's table.
2. That every house should pay one pistole, which would monthly amount to 18,000 pistoles.
3. That every convent and monastery136 should pay a donative, proportionable to its riches and rents.
The two last contributions to be appropriated to the maintenance of the army.
The money levied upon the magistrates and principal inhabitants, and upon every house, was paid as soon as demanded; but when the proper persons applied to the heads of convents and monasteries137, they found that the ecclesiastics138 were not so willing, as other people, to part with their cash.
The college of Jesuits to pay 2000 pistoles
Carmelites, 1000
Augustins, 1000
Dominicans, 1000
M. de Legal sent to the Jesuits a peremptory140 order to pay the money immediately. The superior of the Jesuits returned for answer, that for the clergy to pay money for the army was against all ecclesiastical immunities141; and that he knew of no argument which could authorize142 such a procedure. M. de Legal then sent four companies of dragoons to quarter themselves in the college, with this sarcastic143 message, "To convince you of the necessity of paying the money, I have sent four substantial arguments to your college, drawn from the system of military logic144; and, therefore, hope you will not need any further admonition to direct your conduct."
These proceedings146 greatly perplexed147 the Jesuits, who despatched an express to court to the king's confessor, who was of their order; but the dragoons were much more expeditious148 in plundering149 and doing mischief150, than the courier in his journey: so that the Jesuits, seeing every thing going to wreck151 and ruin, thought proper to adjust the matter amicably152, and paid the money before the return of their messenger. The Augustins and Carmelites, taking warning by what had happened to the Jesuits, prudently153 went and paid the money, and by that means escaped the study of military arguments, and of being taught logic by dragoons.
But the Dominicans, who were all familiars of, or agents dependent on, the inquisition, imagined, that that very circumstance would be their protection; but they were mistaken, for M. de Legal neither feared nor respected the inquisition. The chief of the Dominicans[78] sent word to the military commander that his order was poor, and had not any money whatever to pay the donative; for, says he, the whole wealth of the Dominicans consists only in the silver images of the apostles and saints, as large as life, which are placed in our church, and which it would be sacrilege to remove.
This insinuation was meant to terrify the French commander, whom the inquisitors imagined would not dare to be so profane155 as to wish for the possession of the precious idols156.
He, however, sent word that the silver images would make admirable substitutes for money, and would be more in character in his possession, than in that of the Dominicans themselves, "For, (said he) while you possess them in the manner you do at present, they stand up in niches158, useless and motionless, without being of the least benefit to mankind in general, or even to yourselves; but, when they come into my possession, they shall be useful; I will put them in motion; for I intend to have them coined, when they may travel like the apostles, be beneficial in various places, and circulate for the universal service of mankind."
The inquisitors were astonished at this treatment, which they never expected to receive, even from crowned heads; they therefore determined159 to deliver their precious images in a solemn procession, that they might excite the people to an insurrection. The Dominican friars were accordingly ordered to march to De Legal's house, with the silver apostles and saints, in a mournful manner, having lighted tapers160 with them, and bitterly crying all the way, heresy, heresy.
M. de Legal, hearing these proceedings, ordered four companies of grenadiers to line the street which led to his house; each grenadier was ordered to have his loaded fuzee in one hand, and a lighted taper161 in the other; so that the troops might either repel162 force with force, or do honour to the farcical solemnity.
The friars did all they could to raise the tumult163, but the common people were too much afraid of the troops under arms to obey them, the silver images were, therefore, of necessity delivered up to M. de Legal, who sent them to the mint, and ordered them to be coined immediately.
The project of raising an insurrection having failed, the inquisitors determined to excommunicate M. de Legal, unless he would release their precious silver saints from imprisonment in the mint, before they were melted down, or otherwise mutilated. The French commander absolutely refused to release the images, but said they should certainly travel and do good; upon which the inquisitors drew up the form of excommunication, and ordered their secretary to go and read it to M. De Legal.
The secretary punctually performed his commission, and read the excommunication deliberately164 and distinctly. The French commander heard it with great patience, and politely told the secretary he would answer it the next day.[79]
When the secretary of the inquisition was gone, M. De Legal ordered his own secretary to prepare a form of excommunication, exactly like that sent by the inquisition; but to make this alteration165, instead of his name to put in those of the inquisitors.
The next morning he ordered four regiments166 under arms, and commanded them to accompany his secretary, and act as he directed.
The secretary went to the inquisition, and insisted upon admittance, which, after a great deal of altercation167, was granted. As soon as he entered, he read, in an audible voice, the excommunication sent by M. De Legal against the inquisitors. The inquisitors were all present, and heard it with astonishment168, never having before met with any individual who dared behave so boldly. They loudly cried out against De Legal, as a heretic; and said, this was a most daring insult against the catholic faith. But, to surprise them still more, the French secretary told them, they must remove from their present lodgings169; for the French commander wanted to quarter the troops in the inquisition, as it was the most commodious170 place in the whole city.
The inquisitors exclaimed loudly upon this occasion, when the secretary put them under a strong guard, and sent them to a place appointed by M. De Legal to receive them. The inquisitors, finding how things went, begged that they might be permitted to take their private property, which was granted, and they immediately set out for Madrid, where they made the most bitter complaints to the king; but the monarch171 told them, he could not grant them any redress172, as the injuries they had received were from his grandfather, the king of France's troops, by whose assistance alone he could be firmly established in his kingdom. "Had it been my own troops, (said he) I would have punished them; but as it is, I cannot pretend to exert any authority."
In the mean time, M. De Legal's secretary set open all the doors of the inquisition, and released the prisoners, who amounted in the whole to 400; and among these were 60 beautiful young women, who appeared to form a seraglio for the three principal inquisitors.
This discovery, which laid the enormity of the inquisitors so open, greatly alarmed the archbishop, who desired M. De Legal to send the women to his palace, and he would take proper care of them; and at the same time he published an ecclesiastical censure173 against all such as should ridicule174, or blame, the holy office of the inquisition.
The French commander sent word to the archbishop, that the prisoners had either run away, or were so securely concealed175 by their friends, or even by his own officers, that it was impossible for him to send them back again; and, therefore, the inquisition having committed such atrocious actions, must now put up with their exposure.
One of the ladies thus happily delivered from captivity176, was afterward married to the very French officer who opened the door of her dungeon, and released her from confinement. The lady related the[80] following circumstances to her husband, and to M. Gavin, (author of the Master Key to Popery) from the latter of whom we have selected the most material particulars.
"I went one day (says the lady) with my mother, to visit the countess Attarass, and I met there Don Francisco Tirregon, her confessor and second inquisitor of the holy office.
After we had drunk chocolate, he asked me my age, my confessor's name, and many intricate questions about religion. The severity of his countenance frightened me, which he perceiving, told the countess to inform me, that he was not so severe as he looked for. He then caressed177 me in a most obliging manner, presented his hand, which I kissed with great reverence178 and modesty179; and, as he went away, he made use of this remarkable180 expression. My dear child, I shall remember you till the next time. I did not, at the time, mark the sense of the words; for I was inexperienced in matters of gallantry, being, at that time but fifteen years old. Indeed, he unfortunately did remember me, for the very same night, when our whole family were in bed, we heard a great knocking at the door.
The maid, who laid in the same room with me, went to the window, and inquired who was there. The answer was, The Holy Inquisition. On hearing this I screamed out, Father! father! dear father, I am ruined forever! My father got up, and came to me to know the occasion of my crying out; I told him the inquisitors were at the door. On hearing this, instead of protecting me, he hurried down stairs as fast as possible; and, lest the maid should be too slow, opened the street door himself; under such abject182 and slavish fears, are bigoted183 minds! as soon as he knew they came for me, he fetched me with great solemnity, and delivered me to the officers with much submission184.
I was hurried into a coach, with no other clothing than a petticoat and a mantle185, for they would not let me stay to take any thing else. My fright was so great, I expected to die that very night; but judge my surprise, when I was ushered186 into an apartment, decorated with all the elegance187 that taste, united with opulence188, could bestow189.
Soon after the officers left me, a maid servant appeared with a silver salver, on which were sweetmeats and cinnamon water. She desired me to take some refreshment190 before I went to bed; I told her I could not, but should be glad if she could inform me whether I was to be put to death that night or not.
"To be put to death! (exclaimed she) you do not come here to be put to death, but to live like a princess, and you shall want for nothing in the world, but the liberty of going out; so pray don't be afraid, but go to bed and sleep easy; for to-morrow you shall see wonders within this house; and as I am chosen to be your waiting-maid, I hope you'll be very kind to me."
I was going to ask some questions, but she told me she must not answer any thing more till the next day, but assured me that nobody would come to disturb me. I am going, she said, about a little business[81] but I will come back presently, for my bed is in the closet next yours, so she left me for about a quarter of an hour, and then returned. She then said, madam, pray let me know when you will be pleased have your chocolate ready in the morning.
This greatly surprised me, so that without replying to her question, I asked her name;—she said, my name is Mary. Mary, then, said I, for heaven's sake, tell me whether I am brought here to die or not?—I have told you already, replied she, that you came here to be one of the happiest ladies in the world.
We went to bed, but the fear of death prevented me from sleeping the whole night; Mary waked; she was surprised to find me up, but she soon rose, and after leaving me for about half an hour, she brought in two cups of chocolate, and some biscuit on a silver plate.
I drank one cup of chocolate, and desired her to drink the other, which she did: when we had done, I said, well, Mary, can you give me any account of the reasons for my being brought here? To which she answered, not yet, madam, you must have patience, and immediately slipped out of the room.
About half an hour after, she brought a great quantity of elegant clothes, suitable to a lady of the highest rank, and told me, I must dress myself. Among several trinkets which accompanied the clothes, I observed, with surprise, a snuff box, in the lid of which was a picture of Don Francisco Tirregon. This unravelled191 to me the mystery of my confinement, and at the same time roused my imagination to contrive192 how to evade193 receiving the present. If I absolutely refused it, I thought immediate17 death must ensue; and to accept it, was giving him too much encouragement against my honour. At length I hit upon a medium, and said to Mary, pray present my respects to Don Francisco Tirregon, and tell him, that, as I could not bring my clothes along with me last night, modesty permits me to accept of these garments, which are requisite194 to keep me decent; but since I do not take snuff, I hope his lordship will excuse me in not accepting his box.
Mary went with my answer, and soon returned with Don Francisco's portrait elegantly set in gold, and richly embellished195 with diamonds. This message accompanied it: "That his lordship had made a mistake, his intent not being to send me a snuffbox, but his portrait." I was at a great loss what to do; when Mary said, pray, madam, take my poor advice; accept of the portrait, and every thing else that his lordship sends you; for if you do not, he can compel you to do what he pleases, and put you to death when he thinks proper, without any body being able to defend you. But if you are obliging to him, continued she, he will be very kind, and you will be as happy as a queen; you will have elegant apartments to live in, beautiful gardens to range in, and agreeable ladies to visit you: therefore, I advise you to send a civil answer, or even not to deny a visit from his lordship, or perhaps you may repent21 of your disrespect.
O, my God! exclaimed I, must I sacrifice my honour to my fears, and give up my virtue196 to his despotic power? Alas197! what can I do?[82] To resist, is vain. If I oppose his desires, force will obtain what chastity refuses. I now fell into the greatest agonies, and told Mary to return what answer she thought proper.
She said she was glad of my humble198 submission, and ran to acquaint Don Francisco with it. In a few minutes she returned, with joy in her countenance, telling me his lordship would honour me with his company to supper. "And now give me leave, madam, (said she) to call you mistress, for I am to wait upon you. I have been in a holy office fourteen years, and know all the customs perfectly199 well; but as silence is imposed upon me, under pain of death, I can only answer such questions as immediately relate to your own person. But I would advise you never to oppose the holy father's will; or if you see any young ladies about, never ask them any questions. You may divert yourself sometimes among them, but must never tell them any thing: three days hence you will dine with them; and at all times you may have music, and other recreations. In fine, you will be so happy, that you will not wish to go abroad; and when your time is expired, the holy fathers will send you out of this country, and marry you to some nobleman." After saying these words she left me, overwhelmed with astonishment, and scarce knowing what to think. As soon as I recovered myself, I began to look about, and finding a closet, I opened it, and perceived that it was filled with books: they ware200 chiefly upon historical and profane subjects, but not any on religious matter. I chose out a book of history, and so passed the interval201 with some degree of satisfaction till dinner time.
The dinner was served up with the greatest elegance, and consisted of all that could gratify the most luxurious202 appetite. When dinner was over, Mary left me, and told me, if I wanted any thing I might ring a bell, which she pointed118 out to me.
I read a book to amuse myself during the afternoon, and at seven in the evening, Don Francisco came to visit me in his night-gown and cap, not with the gravity of an inquisitor, but with the gayety of a gallant181.
He saluted203 me with great respect, and told me, that he came to see me in order to show the great respect he had for my family, and to inform me that it was my lovers who had procured205 my confinement, having accused me in matters of religion; and that the informations were taken, and the sentence pronounced against me, to be burnt in a dry pan, with a gradual fire; but that he, out of pity and love to my family, had stopped the execution of it.
These words were like daggers207 to my heart; I dropped at his feet, and said, "Ah, my lord! have you stopped the execution for ever?" He replied, "that belongs to yourself only," and abruptly208 wished me good night.
As soon as he was gone I burst into tears, when Mary came and asked me what could make me cry so bitterly. To which I answered, oh, Mary! what is the meaning of the dry pan and gradual fire? for I am to die by them![83]
Madam, said she, never fear, you shall see, ere long, the dry pan and gradual fire; but they are made for those who oppose the holy father's will, not for you who are so good as to obey it. But pray, says she, was Don Francisco very obliging? I don't know, said I, for he frightened me out of my wits by his discourse209; he saluted me with civility, but left me abruptly.
Well, said Mary, you do not yet know his temper, he is extremely obliging to them that are kind to him; but if they are disobedient he is unmerciful as Nero; so, for your own sake, take care to oblige him in all respects: and now, dear madam, pray go to supper, and be easy. I went to supper, indeed, and afterward to bed; but I could neither eat nor sleep, for the thoughts of the dry pan and gradual fire deprived me of appetite, and banished211 drowsiness212.
Early the next morning Mary said, that as nobody was stirring, if I would promise her secrecy, she would show me the dry pan and gradual fire; so taking me down stairs, she brought me to a large room, with a thick iron door, which she opened. Within it was an oven, with fire in it at the time, and a large brass213 upon it, with a cover of the same, and a lock to it. In the next room there was a great wheel, covered on both sides with thick boards, opening a little window in the centre, Mary desired me to look in with a candle; there I saw all the circumference214 of the wheel set with sharp razors, which made me shudder215.
She then took me to a pit, which was full of venomous animals. On my expressing great horror at the sight, she said, "Now my good mistress, I'll tell you the use of these things. The dry pan is for heretics, and those who oppose the holy father's will and pleasure; they are put alive into the pan, being first stripped naked; and the cover being locked down, the executioner begins to put a small fire into the oven, and by degrees he augments216 it, till the body is reduced to ashes. The wheel is designed for those who speak against the pope, or the holy fathers of the inquisition; for they are put into the machine through the little wheel, which is locked after them, and then the wheel is turned swiftly, till they are cut to pieces. The pit is for those who contemn217 the images, and refuse to give proper respect to ecclesiastical persons; for they are thrown into the pit, and so become the food of poisonous animals."
We went back again to my chamber218, and Mary said, that another day she would show me the torments designed for other transgressors, but I was in such agonies at what I had seen, that I begged to be terrified with no more such sights. She soon after left me, but not without enjoining219 my strict obedience to Don Francisco; for if you do not comply with his will, said she, the dry pan and gradual fire will be your fate.
The horrors which the sight of these things, and Mary's expressions, impressed on my mind, almost bereaved220 me of my senses, and left me in such a state of stupefaction that I seemed to have no manner of will of my own.[84]
The next morning Mary said, now let me dress you as nice as possible, for you must go and wish Don Francisco good-morrow, and breakfast with him. When I was dressed, she conveyed me through a gallery into his apartment, where I found that he was in bed. He ordered Mary to withdraw, and to serve up breakfast in about two hours time. When Mary was gone, he commanded me to undress myself and come to bed to him. The manner in which he spoke, and the dreadful ideas with which my mind was filled, so terribly frightened me, that I pulled off my cloths, without knowing what I did, and stepped into bed, insensible of the indecency I was transacting221: so totally had the care of self preservation222 absorbed all my other thoughts, and so entirely223 were the ideas of delicacy224 obliterated225 by the force of terror!
Thus, to avoid the dry pan, did I entail226 upon myself perpetual infamy227; and to escape the so much dreaded gradual fire, give myself up to the flames of lust228. Wretched alternative, where the only choice is an excruciating death, or everlasting229 pollution!
Mary came at the expiration230 of two hours, and served us with chocolate in the most submissive manner; for she kneeled down by the bedside to present it. When I was dressed, Mary took me into a very delightful231 apartment, which I had never yet seen. It was furnished with the most costly232 elegance; but what gave me the greatest astonishment was, the prospect233 from its windows, of a beautiful garden, and a fine meandering234 river. Mary told me, that the young ladies she had mentioned would come to pay their compliments to me before dinner, and begged me to remember her advice in keeping a prudent154 guard over my tongue.
In a few minutes a great number of very beautiful young ladies, richly dressed, entered my room, and successively embracing me, wished me joy. I was so surprised, that I was unable to answer their compliments: which one of the ladies perceiving, said, "Madam, the solitude235 of this place will affect you in the beginning, but whenever you begin to feel the pleasures and amusements you may enjoy, you will quit those pensive236 thoughts. We, at present, beg the honour of you to dine with us to-day, and henceforward three days in a week." I returned them suitable thanks in general terms, and so went to dinner, in which the most exquisite and savoury dishes, of various kinds, were served up with the most delicate and pleasant fruits and sweetmeats. The room was long, with two tables on each side, and a third in the front. I reckoned fifty-two young ladies, the eldest237 not exceeding twenty-four years of age. There were five maid-servants besides Mary, to wait upon us; but Mary confined her attention to me alone. After dinner we retired238 to a capacious gallery, where they played on musical instruments, a few diverted themselves with cards, and the rest amused themselves with walking about. Mary, at length, entered the gallery, and said, ladies, this is a day of recreation, and so you may go into whatever rooms you please till eight o'clock in the evening.[85]
They unanimously agreed to adjourn239 to my apartment. Here we found a most elegant cold collation240, of which all the ladies partook, and passed the time in innocent conversation and harmless mirth; but none mentioned a word concerning the inquisition, or the holy fathers, or gave the least distant hint concerning the cause of their confinement.
At eight o'clock Mary rang a bell, which was a signal for all to retire to their respective apartments, and I was conducted to the chamber of Don Francisco, where I slept. The next morning Mary brought me a richer dress than any I had yet had; and as soon as I retired to my apartment, all the ladies came to wish me good-morning, dressed much richer than the preceding day. We passed the time till eight o'clock in the evening, in much the same manner as we had done the day before. At that time the bell rang, the separation took place, and I was conducted to Don Francisco's chamber. The next morning I had a garment richer than the last, and they accosted241 me in apparel still more sumptuous242 than before. The transactions of the two former days were repeated on the third, and the evening concluded in a similar manner.
On the fourth morning Mary came into Don Francisco's chamber and told me I must immediately rise, for a lady wanted me in her own chamber. She spoke with a kind of authority which surprised me; but as Don Francisco did not speak a syllable243, I got up and obeyed. Mary then conveyed me into a dismal244 dungeon, not eight feet in length; and said sternly to me, This is your room, and this lady your bed-fellow and companion. At which words she bounced out of the room, and left me in the utmost consternation245.
After remaining a considerable time in the most dreadful agonies tears came to my relief, and I exclaimed, "What is this place, dear lady! Is it a scene of enchantment246, or is it a hell upon earth! Alas! I have lost my honour and my soul forever!"
The lady took me by the hand, and said in a sympathizing tone of voice, "Dear sister, (for this is the name I shall henceforth give you) forbear to cry and grieve, for you can do nothing by such an extravagant247 behaviour, but draw upon yourself a cruel death. Your misfortunes, and those of all the ladies you have seen, are exactly of a piece, you suffer nothing but what we have suffered before you; but we dare not show our grief, for fear of greater evils. Pray take courage, and hope in God, for he will surely deliver us from this hellish place; but be sure you discover no uneasiness before Mary, who is the only instrument either of our torments or comfort. Have patience until we go to bed, and then I will venture to tell you more of the matter."
My perplexity and vexation were inexpressible: but my new companion, whose name was Leonora, prevailed on me to disguise my uneasiness from Mary. I dissembled tolerably well when she came to bring our dinners, but could not help remarking, in my own mind, the difference between this repast, and those I had before partook of.[86] This consisted only of plain, common food, and of that a scanty248 allowance, with one plate, and one knife and fork for us both, which she took away as soon as we had dined.
When we were in bed, Leonora was as good as her word; and upon my solemn promise of secrecy thus began to open her mind to me.
"My dear sister, you think your case very hard, but I assure you all the ladies in the house have gone through the same. In time, you will know all their stories, as they hope to know yours. I suppose Mary has been the chief instrument of your fright, as she has been of ours; and I warrant she has shown you some horrible places, though not all; and that, at the very thought of them you were so terrified, that you chose the same way we have done to redeem249 yourself from death. By what hath happened to us, we know that Don Francisco hath been your Nero, your tyrant250; for the three colours of our clothes are the distinguishing tokens of the three holy fathers. The red silk belongs to Don Francisco, the blue to Don Guerrero, and the green to Don Aliga; and they always give those colours (after the farce251 of changing garments and the short-lived recreations are over) to those ladies whom they bring here for their respective uses.
"We are strictly252 commanded to express all the demonstrations253 of joy, and to be very merry for three days, when a young lady first comes amongst us, as we did with you, and as you must now do with others. But afterward we live like the most wretched prisoners, without seeing any body but Mary, and the other maid-servants, over whom Mary hath a kind of superiority, for she acts as housekeeper254. We all dine in the great hall three days in a week; and when any one of the inquisitors hath a mind for one of his slaves, Mary comes about nine o'clock, and leads her to his apartment.
"Some nights Mary leaves the doors of our chambers255 open, and that is a token that one of the inquisitors hath a mind to come that night; but he comes so silent that we are ignorant whether he is our patron or not. If one of us happens to be with child, she is removed into a better chamber till she is delivered; but during the whole of her pregnancy256, she never sees any body but the person appointed to attend her.
"As soon as the child is born it is taken away, and carried we know not whither; for we never hear a syllable mentioned about it afterward. I have been in this house six years, was not fourteen when the officers took me from my father's house, and have had one child. There are, at this present time, fifty-two young ladies in the house; but we annually257 lose six or eight, though we know not what becomes of them, or whither they are sent. This, however, does not diminish our number, for new ones are always brought in to supply the place of those who are removed from hence; and I remember, at one time, to have seen seventy-three ladies here together. Our continual torment79 is to reflect that when they are tired of any of the ladies, they certainly put to death those they pretend to send away; for it is natural[87] to think, that they have too much policy to suffer their atrocious and infernal villanies to be discovered, by enlarging them. Hence our situation is miserable indeed, and we have only to pray that the Almighty258 will pardon those crimes which we are compelled to commit. Therefore, my dear sister, arm yourself with patience, for that is the only palliative to give you comfort, and put a firm confidence in the providence259 of Almighty God."
This discourse of Leonora greatly affected260 me; but I found everything to be as she told me, in the course of time, and I took care to appear as cheerful as possible before Mary. In this manner I continued eighteen months, during which time eleven ladies were taken from the house; but in lieu of them we got nineteen new ones, which made our number just sixty, at the time we were so happily relieved by the French officers, and providentially restored to the joys of society, and to the arms of our parents and friends. On that happy day, the door of my dungeon was opened by the gentleman who is now my husband, and who with the utmost expedition, sent both Leonora and me to his father's; and (soon after the campaign was over) when he returned home, he thought proper to make me his wife, in which situation I enjoy a recompense for all the miseries261 I before suffered.
From the foregoing narrative262 it is evident, that the inquisitors are a set of libidinous263 villains264, lost to every just idea of religion, and totally destitute266 of humanity. Those who possess wealth, beauty, or liberal sentiments, are sure to find enemies in them. Avarice267, lust, and prejudice, are their ruling passions; and they sacrifice every law, human and divine, to gratify their predominant desire. Their supposed piety268 is affectation; their pretended compassion269 hypocrisy270; their justice depends on their will: and their equitable271 punishments are founded on their prejudices. None are secure from them, all ranks fall equally victims to their pride, their power, their avarice, or their aversion.
Some may suggest, that it is strange crowned heads and eminent nobles, have not attempted to crush the power of the inquisition, and reduce the authority of those ecclesiastical tyrants272, from whose merciless fangs273 neither their families nor themselves are secure.
But astonishing as it is, superstition hath, in this case, always overcome common sense, and custom operated against reason. One prince, indeed, intended to abolish the inquisition, but he lost his life before he became king, and consequently before he had the power so to do; for the very intimation of his design procured his destruction.
This was that amiable274 prince Don Carlos, son of Philip the Second, king of Spain, and grandson of the celebrated emperor Charles V. Don Carlos, possessed275 all the good qualities of his grandfather without any of the bad ones of his father; and was a prince of great vivacity276, admirable learning, and the most amiable disposition277.—He had sense enough to see into the errors of popery, and abhorred[88] the very name of the inquisition. He inveighed278 publicly against the institution, ridiculed279 the affected piety of the inquisitors, did all he could to expose their atrocious deeds, end even declared, that if he ever came to the crown, he would abolish the inquisition, and exterminate280 its agents.
These things were sufficient to irritate the inquisitors against the prince: they, accordingly, bent281 their minds to vengeance, and determined on his destruction.
The inquisitors now employed all their agents and emissaries to spread abroad the most artful insinuations against the prince; and, at length, raised such a spirit of discontent among the people, that the king was under the necessity of removing Don Carlos from court. Not content with this, they pursued even his friends, and obliged the king likewise to banish210 Don John, duke of Austria, his own brother, and consequently uncle to the prince; together with the prince of Parma, nephew to the king, and cousin to the prince, because they well knew that both the duke of Austria, and the prince of Parma, had a most sincere and inviolable attachment to Don Carlos.
Some few years after, the prince having shown great lenity and favour to the protestants in the Netherlands, the inquisition loudly exclaimed against him, declaring, that as the persons in question were heretics, the prince himself must necessarily be one, since he gave them countenance. In short, they gained so great an ascendency over the mind of the king, who was absolutely a slave to superstition, that, shocking to relate, he sacrificed the feelings of nature to the force of bigotry, and, for fear of incurring282 the anger of the inquisition, gave up his only son, passing the sentence of death on him himself.
The prince, indeed, had what was termed an indulgence; that is, he was permitted to choose the manner of his death. Roman like, the unfortunate young hero chose bleeding and the hot bath; when the veins283 of his arms and legs being opened, he expired gradually, falling a martyr284 to the malice285 of the inquisitors, and the stupid bigotry of his father.
The Persecution286 of Dr. ?gidio.
Dr. ?gidio was educated at the university of Alcala, where he took his several degrees, and particularly applied himself to the study of the sacred scriptures287 and school divinity. The professor of theology dying, he was elected into his place, and acted so much to the satisfaction of every one, that his reputation for learning and piety was circulated throughout Europe.
?gidio, however, had his enemies, and these laid a complaint against him to the inquisitors, who sent him a citation288, and when he appeared to it, cast him into a dungeon.
As the greatest part of those who belonged to the cathedral church at Seville, and many persons belonging to the bishopric of Dortois[89] highly approved of the doctrines289 of ?gidio, which they thought perfectly consonant291 with true religion, they petitioned the emperor in his behalf. Though the monarch had been educated a Roman catholic, he had too much sense to be a bigot, and therefore sent an immediate order for his enlargement.
He soon after visited the church of Valladolid, did every thing he could to promote the cause of religion, and returning home he soon after fell sick, and died in an extreme old age.
The inquisitors having been disappointed of gratifying their malice against him while living, determined (as the emperor's whole thoughts were engrossed292 by a military expedition) to wreak293 their vengeance on him when dead. Therefore, soon after he was buried, they ordered his remains294 to be dug out of the grave; and a legal process being carried on, they were condemned to be burnt, which was executed accordingly.
The Persecution of Dr. Constantine.
Dr. Constantine, an intimate acquaintance of the already mentioned Dr. ?gidio, was a man of uncommon295 natural abilities and profound learning; exclusive of several modern tongues, he was acquainted with the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and perfectly well knew not only the sciences called abstruse296, but those arts which come under the denomination297 of polite literature.
His eloquence298 rendered him pleasing, and the soundness of his doctrines a profitable preacher; and he was so popular, that he never preached but to a crowded audience. He had many opportunities of rising in the church, but never would take advantage of them; for if a living of greater value than his own was offered him, he would refuse it, saying, I am content with what I have; and he frequently preached so forcibly against simony, that many of his superiors, who were not so delicate upon the subject, took umbrage299 at his doctrines upon that head.
Having been fully confirmed in protestantism by Dr. ?gidio, he preached boldly such doctrines only as were agreeable to gospel purity, and uncontaminated by the errors which had at various times crept into the Romish church. For these reasons he had many enemies among the Roman catholics, and some of them were fully determined on his destruction.
A worthy300 gentleman named Scobaria, having erected a school for divinity lectures, appointed Dr. Constantine to be reader therein. He immediately undertook the task, and read lectures, by portions, on the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles; and was beginning to expound301 the book of Job, when he was seized by the inquisitors.
Being brought to examination, he answered with such precaution that they could not find any explicit302 charge against him, but remained doubtful in what manner to proceed, when the following circumstances occurred to determine them.[90]
Dr. Constantine had deposited with a woman named Isabella Martin several books, which to him were very valuable, but which he knew, in the eyes of the inquisition, were exceptionable.
This woman having been informed against as a protestant, was apprehended303, and, after a small process, her goods were ordered to be confiscated. Previous, however, to the officers coming to her house, the woman's son had removed away several chests full of the most valuable articles; and among these were Dr. Constantine's books.
A treacherous304 servant giving intelligence of this to the inquisitors, an officer was despatched to the son to demand the chests. The son, supposing the officer only came for Constantine's books, said, I know what you come for, and I will fetch them to you immediately. He then fetched Dr. Constantine's books and papers, when the officer was greatly surprised to find what he did not look for. He, however, told the young man, that he was glad these books and papers were produced, but nevertheless he must fulfil the end of his commission, which was, to carry him and the goods he had embezzled305 before the inquisitors, which he did accordingly; for the young man knew it would be in vain to expostulate, or resist, and therefore quietly submitted to his fate.
The inquisitors being thus possessed of Constantine's books and writings, now found matter sufficient to form charges against him. When he was brought to a re-examination, they presented one of his papers, and asked him if he knew the hand writing! Perceiving it was his own, he guessed the whole matter, confessed the writing, and justified306 the doctrine290 it contained: saying, "In that, and all my other writings, I have never departed from the truth of the gospel, but have always kept in view the pure precepts307 of Christ, as he delivered them to mankind."
After being detained upwards308 of two years in prison, Dr. Constantine was seized with a bloody309 flux310, which put an end to his miseries in this world. The process, however, was carried on against his body, which, at the ensuing auto de fe, was publicly burnt.
The Life of William Gardiner.
William Gardiner was born at Bristol, received a tolerable education, and was, at a proper age, placed under the care of a merchant, named Paget.
At the age of twenty-six years, he was, by his master, sent to Lisbon, to act as factor. Here he applied himself to the study of the Portuguese311 language, executed his business with assiduity and despatch, and behaved with the most engaging affability to all persons with whom he had the least concern. He conversed312 privately313 with a few, whom he knew to be zealous protestants; and, at the same time cautiously avoided giving the least offence to any who were Roman catholics; he had not, however, hitherto gone into any of the popish churches.[91]
A marriage being concluded between the king of Portugal's son, and the Infanta of Spain, upon the wedding-day the bride-groom, bride, and the whole court went to the cathedral church, attended by multitudes of all ranks of people, and among the rest William Gardiner who stayed during the whole ceremony, and was greatly shocked at the superstitions314 he saw.
The erroneous worship which he had seen ran strongly in his mind, he was miserable to see a whole country sunk into such idolatry, when the truth of the gospel might be so easily obtained. He, therefore, took the inconsiderate, though laudable design, into his head, of making a reform in Portugal, or perishing in the attempt; and determined to sacrifice his prudence315 to his zeal, though he became a martyr upon the occasion.
To this end, he settled all his worldly affairs, paid his debts, closed his books, and consigned316 over his merchandize. On the ensuing Sunday he went again to the cathedral church, with a New Testament317 in his hand, and placed himself near the altar.
The king and the court soon appeared, and a cardinal318 began mass at that part of the ceremony in which the people adore the wafer, Gardiner could hold out no longer, but springing towards the cardinal, he snatched the host from him, and trampled319 it under his feet.
This action amazed the whole congregation, and one person drawing a dagger206, wounded Gardiner in the shoulder, and would, by repeating the blow, have finished him, had not the king called to him to desist.
Gardiner, being carried before the king, the monarch asked him what countryman he was: to which he replied, I am an Englishman by birth, a protestant by religion, and a merchant by occupation. What I have done is not out of contempt to your royal person, God forbid it should, but out of an honest indignation, to see the ridiculous superstitions and gross idolatries practised here.
The king, thinking that he had been stimulated320 by some other person to act as he had done, demanded who was his abetter321, to which he replied, My own conscience alone. I would not hazard what I have done for any man living, but I owe that and all other services to God.
Gardiner was sent to prison, and a general order issued to apprehend all Englishmen in Lisbon. This order was in a great measure put into execution, (some few escaping) and many innocent persons were tortured to make them confess if they knew any thing of the matter; in particular, a person who resided in the same house with Gardiner, was treated with unparallelled barbarity to make him confess something which might throw a light upon the affair.
Gardiner himself was then tormented322 in the most excruciating manner; but in the midst of all his torments he gloried in the deed. Being ordered for death, a large fire was kindled323 near a gibbet, Gardiner was drawn up to the gibbet by pulleys, and then let down near the fire, but not so close as to touch it; for they burnt or rather[92] roasted him by slow degrees. Yet he bore his sufferings patiently and resigned his soul to the Lord cheerfully.
It is observable that some of the sparks were blown from the fire, (which consumed Gardiner) towards the haven324, burnt one of the king's ships of war, and did other considerable damage. The Englishmen who were taken up on this occasion were, soon after Gardiner's death, all discharged, except the person who resided in the same house with him, who was detained two years before he could procure204 his liberty.
An account of the Life and Sufferings of Mr. William Lithgow, a native of Scotland.
This gentleman was descended from a good family, and having a natural propensity325 for travelling, he rambled326, when very young, over the northern and western islands; after which he visited France, Germany, Switzerland and Spain. He set out on his travels in the month of March, 1609, and the first place he went to was Paris, where he stayed for some time. He then prosecuted327 his travels through Germany and other parts, and at length arrived at Malaga, in Spain, the seat of all his misfortunes.
During his residence here, he contracted with the master of a French ship for his passage to Alexandria, but was prevented from going by the following circumstances. In the evening of the 17th of October, 1620, the English fleet, at that time on a cruise against the Algerine rovers, came to anchor before Malaga, which threw the people of the town into the greatest consternation, as they imagined them to be Turks. The morning, however, discovered the mistake, and the governor of Malaga, perceiving the cross of England in their colours, went on board Sir Robert Mansell's ship, who commanded on that expedition, and after staying some time returned, and silenced the fears of the people.
The next day many persons from on board the fleet came ashore328. Among these were several well known by Mr. Lithgow, who, after reciprocal compliments, spent some days together in festivity and the amusements of the town. They then invited Mr. Lithgow to go on board, and pay his respects to the admiral. He accordingly accepted the invitation, was kindly329 received by him, and detained till the next day when the fleet sailed. The admiral would willingly have taken Mr. Lithgow with him to Algiers; but having contracted for his passage to Alexandria, and his baggage, &c. being in the town, he could not accept the offer.
As soon as Mr. Lithgow got on shore, he proceeded towards his lodgings by a private way, (being to embark330 the same night for Alexandria) when, in passing through a narrow uninhabited street, he found himself suddenly surrounded by nine sergeants331, or officers, who threw a black cloak over him, and forcibly conducted him to the governor's house. After some little time the governor appeared[93] when Mr. Lithgow earnestly begged he might be informed of the cause of such violent treatment. The governor only answered by shaking his head, and gave orders that the prisoner should be strictly watched till he (the governor) returned from his devotions; directing at the same time, that the captain of the town, the alcade major, and town notary332, should be summoned to appear at his examination, and that all this should he done with the greatest secrecy, to prevent the knowledge thereof reaching the ears of the English merchants then residing in the town.
These orders were strictly discharged, and on the governor's return, he, with the officers, having seated themselves, Mr. Lithgow was brought before them for examination. The governor began by asking several questions, namely, of what country he was, whither bound, and how long he had been in Spain. The prisoner, after answering these and other questions, was conducted to a closet, where, in a short space of time, he was visited by the town-captain, who inquired whether he had ever been at Seville, or was lately come from thence; and patting his cheeks with an air of friendship conjured333 him to tell the truth: "For (said he) your very countenance shows there is some hidden matter in your mind, which prudence should direct you to disclose." Finding himself, however, unable to extort334 anything from the prisoner, he left him, and reported the same to the governor and the other officers; on which Mr. Lithgow was again brought before them, a general accusation was laid against him, and he was compelled to swear that he would give true answers to such questions as should be asked him.
The governor proceeded to inquire the quality of the English commander, and the prisoner's opinion what were the motives335 that prevented his accepting an invitation from him to come on shore. He demanded, likewise, the names of the English captains in the squadron, and what knowledge he had of the embarkation336, or preparation for it before his departure from England. The answers given to the several questions asked were set down in writing by the notary; but the junto337 seemed surprised at his denying any knowledge of the fitting out of the fleet, particularly the governor, who said he lied that he was a traitor338 and a spy, and came directly from England to favour and assist the designs that were projected against Spain, and that he had been for that purpose nine months in Seville, in order to procure intelligence of the time the Spanish navy was expected from the Indies. They exclaimed against his familiarity with the officers of the fleet, and many other English gentlemen, between whom, they said, unusual civilities had passed, but all these transactions had been carefully noticed.
Besides, to sum up the whole, and put the truth past all doubt, they said, he came from a council of war, held that morning on board the admiral's ship, in order to put in execution the orders assigned him. They upbraided339 him with being accessary to the burning of the island of St. Thomas, in the West Indies. "Wherefore, (said they)[94] these Lutherans, and sons of the devil, ought to have no credit given to what they say or swear."
In vain did Mr. Lithgow, endeavour to obviate340 every accusation laid against him, and to obtain belief from his prejudiced judges. He begged permission to send for his cloak-bag, which contained his papers, and might serve to show his innocence341. This request they complied with, thinking it would discover some things of which they were ignorant. The cloak-bag was accordingly brought, and being opened, among other things, was found a license342 from king James the First, under the sign manuel, setting forth the bearer's intention to travel into Egypt; which was treated by the haughty343 Spaniards with great contempt. The other papers consisted of passports, testimonials, &c. of persons of quality. All these credentials344, however, seemed rather to confirm than abate345 the suspicions of these prejudiced judges, who, after seizing all the prisoner's papers, ordered him again to withdraw.
In the mean time a consultation346 was held to fix the place where the prisoner should be confined. The alcade, or chief judge, was for putting him into the town prison; but this was objected to, particularly by the corregidor, who said, in Spanish, "In order to prevent the knowledge of his confinement from reaching his countrymen, I will take the matter on myself, and be answerable for the consequences;" upon which it was agreed, that he should be confined in the governor's house with the greatest secrecy.
This matter being determined, one of the sergeants went to Mr. Lithgow, and begged his money, with liberty to search him. As it was needless to make any resistance, the prisoner quietly complied, when the sergeant (after rifling his pockets of eleven ducatoons) stripped him to his shirt; and searching his breeches he found, enclosed in the waistband, two canvass bags, containing one hundred and thirty-seven pieces of gold. The sergeant immediately took the money to the corregidor, who, after having told it over, ordered him to clothe the prisoner, and shut him up close till after supper.
About midnight, the sergeant and two Turkish slaves released Mr. Lithgow from his then confinement, but it was to introduce him to one much more horrible. They conducted him through several passages, to a chamber in a remote part of the palace, towards the garden, where they loaded him with irons, and extended his legs by means of an iron bar above a yard long, the weight of which was so great that he could neither stand nor sit, but was obliged to lie continually on his back. They left him in this condition for some time, when they returned with a refreshment of food, consisting of a pound of boiled mutton and a loaf, together with a small quantity of wine; which was not only the first, but the best and last of the kind, during his confinement in this place. After delivering these articles, the sergeant locked the door, and left Mr. Lithgow to his own private contemplations.[95]
The next day he received a visit from the governor, who promised him his liberty, with many other advantages, if he would confess being a spy; but on his protesting that he was entirely innocent, the governor left him in a rage, saying, He should see him no more till farther torments constrained347 him to confess, commanding the keeper, to whose care he was committed, that he should permit no person whatever to have access to, or commune with him; that his sustenance348 should not exceed three ounces of musty bread, and a pint349 of water every second day; that he shall be allowed neither bed, pillow, nor coverlid. "Close up (said he) this window in his room with lime and stone, stop up the holes of the door with double mats: let him have nothing that bears any likeness350 to comfort." These, and several other orders of the like severity, were given to render it impossible for his condition to be known to those of the English nation.
In this wretched and melancholy351 state did poor Lithgow continue without seeing any person for several days, in which time the governor received an answer to a letter he had written, relative to the prisoner from Madrid; and, pursuant to the instructions given him, began to put in practice the cruelties devised, which they hastened, because Christmas holy-days approached, it being then the forty-seventh day since his imprisonment.
About two o'clock in the morning, he heard the noise of a coach in the street, and some time after heard the opening of the prison doors, not having had any sleep for two nights; hunger, pain, and melancholy reflections having prevented him from taking any repose352.
Soon after the prison doors were opened, the nine sergeants, who had first seized him, entered the place where he lay, and without uttering a word, conducted him in his irons through the house into the street, where a coach waited, and into which they laid him at the bottom on his back, not being able to sit. Two of the sergeants rode with him, and the rest walked by the coach side, but all observed the most profound silence. They drove him to a vinepress house, about a league from the town, to which place a rack had been privately conveyed before; and here they shut him up for that night.
At day-break the next morning, arrived the governor and the alcade, into whose presence Mr. Lithgow was immediately brought to undergo another examination. The prisoner desired he might have an interpreter, which was allowed to strangers by the laws of that country, but this was refused, nor would they permit him to appeal to Madrid, the superior court of judicature. After a long examination, which lasted from morning till night, there appeared in all his answers so exact a conformity353 with what he had before said, that they declared he had learned them by heart, there not being the least prevarication354. They, however, pressed him again to make a full discovery; that is, to accuse himself of crimes never committed, the governor adding, "You are still in my power; I can set you free if you comply, if not, I must deliver you to the alcade." Mr. Lithgow still persisting in his[96] innocence, the governor ordered the notary to draw up a warrant for delivering him to the alcade to be tortured.
In consequence of this he was conducted by the sergeants to the end of a stone gallery, where the rack was placed. The encarouador or executioner, immediately struck off his irons, which put him to very great pains, the bolts being so close riveted355, that the sledge356 hammer tore away half an inch of his heel, in forcing off the bolt; the anguish357 of which, together with his weak condition, (not having the least sustenance for three days) occasioned him to groan74 bitterly; upon which the merciless alcade said, "Villain265, traitor, this is but the earnest of what you shall endure."
When his irons were off he fell on his knees, uttering a short prayer, that God would be pleased to enable him to be steadfast358, and undergo courageously359 the grievous trial he had to encounter. The alcade and notary having placed themselves in chairs, he was stripped naked, and fixed upon the rack, the office of these gentlemen being to be witness of, and set down the confessions360 and tortures endured by the delinquent361.
It is impossible to describe all the various tortures inflicted upon him. Suffice it to say, that he lay on the rack for above five hours, during which time he received above sixty different tortures of the most hellish nature; and had they continued them a few minutes longer, he must have inevitably362 perished.
These cruel persecutors being satisfied for the present, the prisoner was taken from the rack, and his irons being again put on, he was conducted to his former dungeon, having received no other nourishment363 than a little warm wine, which was given him rather to prevent his dying, and reserve him for future punishments, than from any principle of charity or compassion.
As a confirmation364 of this, orders were given for a coach to pass every morning before day by the prison, that the noise made by it might give fresh terrors and alarms to the unhappy prisoner, and deprive him of all possibility of obtaining the least repose.
He continued in this horrid situation, almost starved for want of the common necessaries to preserve his wretched existence, till Christmas day, when he received some relief from Mariane, waiting-woman to the governor's lady. This woman having obtained leave to visit him, carried with her some refreshments365, consisting of honey, sugar, raisins366, and other articles: and so affected was she at beholding368 his situation, that she wept bitterly, and at her departure expressed the greatest concern at not being able to give him further assistance.
In this loathsome369 prison was poor Mr. Lithgow kept till he was almost devoured370 by vermin. They crawled about his beard, lips, eye-brows, &c. so that he could scarce open his eyes; and his mortification371 was increased by not having the use of his hands or legs to defend himself, from his being so miserably372 maimed by the tortures. So cruel was the governor, that he even ordered the vermin to be swept on him twice in every eight days. He, however obtained[97] some little mitigation of this part of his punishment, from the humanity of a Turkish slave that attended him, who, when he could do it with safety, destroyed the vermin, and contributed every refreshment to him that laid in his power.
From this slave Mr. Lithgow at length received information which gave him little hopes of ever being released, but, on the contrary, that he should finish his life under new tortures. The substance of this information was, that an English seminary priest, and a Scotch373 cooper, had been for some time employed by the governor to translate from the English into the Spanish language, all his books and observations; and that it was commonly said in the governor's house, that he was an arch heretic.
This information greatly alarmed him, and he began, not without reason, to fear that they would soon finish him, more especially as they could neither by torture or any other means, bring him to vary from what he had all along said at his different examinations.
Two days after he had received the above information, the governor, an inquisitor, and a canonical374 priest, accompanied by two Jesuits, entered his dungeon, and being seated, after several idle questions, the inquisitor asked Mr. Lithgow if he was a Roman catholic, and acknowledged the pope's supremacy375? He answered, that he neither was the one or did the other; adding, that he was surprised at being asked such questions, since it was expressly stipulated376 by the articles of peace between England and Spain, that none of the English subjects should be liable to the inquisition, or any way molested377 by them on account of diversity in religion, &c. In the bitterness of his soul he made use of some warm expressions not suited to his circumstances: "As you have almost murdered me (said he) for pretended treason, so now you intend to make a martyr of me for my religion." He also expostulated with the governor on the ill return he made to the king of England, (whose subject he was) for the princely humanity exercised towards the Spaniards in 1588, when their armada was shipwrecked on the Scotch coast, and thousands of the Spaniards found relief, who must otherwise have miserably perished.
The governor admitted the truth of what Mr. Lithgow said, but replied with a haughty air, that the king, who then only ruled Scotland, was actuated more by fear than love, and therefore did not deserve any thanks. One of the Jesuits said, there was no faith to be kept with heretics. The inquisitor then rising, addressed himself to Mr Lithgow in the following words: "You have been taken up as a spy, accused of treachery, and tortured, as we acknowledge, innocently: (which appears by the account lately received from Madrid of the intentions of the English) yet it was the divine power that brought those judgments upon you, for presumptuously378 treating the blessed miracle of Loretto with ridicule, and expressing yourself in your writings irreverently of his holiness, the great agent and Christ's vicar upon earth; therefore you are justly fallen into our hands by[98] their special appointment: thy books and papers are miraculously379 translated by the assistance of Providence influencing thy own countrymen."
This trumpery380 being ended, they gave the prisoner eight days to consider and resolve whether he would become a convert to their religion; during which time the inquisitor told him he, with other religious orders, would attend, to give him such assistance thereto as he might want. One of the Jesuits said, (first making the sign of the cross upon his breast) "My son, behold367, you deserve to be burnt alive; but by the grace of our lady of Loretto, whom you have blasphemed, we will both save your soul and body."
In the morning, the inquisitor with three other ecclesiastics returned, when the former asked the prisoner what difficulties he had on his conscience that retarded381 his conversion382; to which he answered, "he had not any doubts in his mind, being confident in the promises of Christ, and assuredly believing his revealed will signified in the gospels, as professed383 in the reformed catholic church, being confirmed by grace, and having infallible assurance thereby384 of the christian faith." To these words the inquisitor replied, "Thou art no christian, but an absurd heretic, and without conversion a member of perdition." The prisoner then told him, it was not consistent with the nature and essence of religion and charity to convince by opprobrious385 speeches, racks, and torments, but by arguments deduced from the scriptures; and that all other methods would with him be totally ineffectual.
The inquisitor was so enraged386 at the replies made by the prisoner, that he struck him on the face, used many abusive speeches, and attempted to stab him, which he had certainly done had he not been prevented by the Jesuits: and from this time he never again visited the prisoner.
The next day the two Jesuits returned, and putting on a very grave supercilious387 air, the superior asked him, what resolution he had taken? To which Mr. Lithgow replied, that he was already resolved, unless he could show substantial reasons to make him alter his opinion. The superior, after a pedantic388 display of their seven sacraments, the intercession of saints, transubstantiation, &c. boasted greatly of their church, her antiquity389, universality, and uniformity; all which Mr. Lithgow denied: "For (said he) the profession of the faith I hold hath been ever since the first days of the apostles, and Christ had ever his own church (however obscure) in the greatest time of your darkness."
The Jesuits, finding their arguments had not the desired effect, that torments could not shake his constancy, nor even the fear of the cruel sentence he had reason to expect would be pronounced and executed on him, after severe menaces, left him. On the eighth day after being the last of their inquisition, when sentence is pronounced, they returned again, but quite altered both in their words and behaviour after repeating much of the same kind of arguments as before, they with seeming tears in their eyes, pretended they were sorry from their[99] heart he must be obliged to undergo a terrible death, but above all, for the loss of his most precious soul; and falling on their knees, cried out, "Convert, convert, O dear brother, for our blessed lady's sake convert!" To which he answered, "I fear neither death nor fire, being prepared for both."
The first effects Mr. Lithgow felt of the determination of this bloody tribunal was, a sentence to receive that night eleven different tortures, and if he did not die in the execution of them, (which might be reasonably expected from the maimed and disjointed condition he was in) he was, after Easter holy-days, to be carried to Grenada, and there burnt to ashes. The first part of this sentence was executed with great barbarity that night; and it pleased God to give him strength both of body and mind, to stand fast to the truth, and to survive the horrid punishments inflicted on him.
After these barbarians had glutted390 themselves for the present, with exercising on the unhappy prisoner the most distinguished cruelties, they again put irons on, and conveyed him to his former dungeon. The next morning he received some little comfort from the Turkish slave before mentioned, who secretly brought him, in his shirt sleeve, some raisins and figs391, which he licked up in the best manner his strength would permit with his tongue. It was to this slave Mr. Lithgow attributed his surviving so long in such a wretched situation; for he found means to convey some of these fruits to him twice every week. It is very extraordinary, and worthy of note, that this poor slave, bred up from his infancy, according to the maxims392 of his prophet and parents, in the greatest detestation of christians393, should be so affected at the miserable situation of Mr. Lithgow, that he fell ill, and continued so for upwards of forty days. During this period Mr. Lithgow was attended by a negro woman, a slave, who found means to furnish him with refreshments still more amply than the Turk, being conversant394 in the house and family. She brought him every day some victuals395, and with it some wine in a bottle.
The time was now so far elapsed, and the horrid situation so truly loathsome, that Mr. Lithgow waited with anxious expectation for the day, which, by putting an end to his life, would also end his torments. But his melancholy expectations were, by the interposition of Providence, happily rendered abortive396, and his deliverance obtained from the following circumstances.
It happened that a Spanish gentleman of quality came from Grenada to Malaga, who being invited to an entertainment by the governor, he informed him of what had befallen Mr. Lithgow from the time of his being apprehended as a spy, and described the various sufferings he had endured. He likewise told him, that after it was known the prisoner was innocent, it gave him great concern. That on this account he would gladly have released him, restored his money and papers, and made some atonement for the injuries he had received but that, upon an inspection397 into his writings, several were found of[100] a very blasphemous398 nature, highly reflecting on their religion. That on his refusing to abjure399 these heretical opinions, he was turned over to the inquisition, by whom he was finally condemned.
While the governor was relating this tragical400 tale, a Flemish youth (servant to the Spanish gentleman) who waited at the table, was struck with amazement401 and pity at the sufferings of the stranger described. On his return to his master's lodgings he began to revolve402 in his mind what he had heard, which made such an impression on him that he could not rest in his bed. In the short slumbers403 he had, his imagination painted to him the person described, on the rack, and burning in the fire. In this anxiety he passed the night; and when the morning came, without disclosing his intentions to any person whatever, he went into the town, and enquired404 for an English factor. He was directed to the house of a Mr. Wild, to whom he related the whole of what he had heard pass, the preceding evening, between his master and the governor; but could not tell Mr. Lithgow's name. Mr. Wild, however, conjectured405 it was him, by the servant's remembering the circumstance of his being a traveller, and his having had some acquaintance with him.
On the departure of the Flemish servant, Mr. Wild immediately sent for the other English factors, to whom he related all the particulars relative to their unfortunate countryman. After a short consultation it was agreed, that an information of the whole affair should be sent, by express, to Sir Walter Aston, the English ambassador to the king of Spain, then at Madrid. This was accordingly done, and the ambassador having presented a memorial to the king and council of Spain, he obtained an order for Mr. Lithgow's enlargement, and his delivery to the English factory. This order was directed to the governor of Malaga; and was received with great dislike and surprise by the whole assembly of the bloody inquisition.
Mr. Lithgow was released from his confinement on the eve of Easter Sunday, when he was carried from his dungeon on the back of the slave who had attended him, to the house of one Mr. Bosbich, where all proper comforts were given him. It fortunately happened, that there was at this time a squadron of English ships in the road, commanded by Sir Richard Hawkins, who being informed of the past sufferings and present situation of Mr. Lithgow, came the next day ashore, with a proper guard, and received him from the merchants. He was instantly carried in blankets on board the Vanguard, and three days after was removed to another ship, by direction of the general Sir Robert Mansel, who ordered that he should have proper care taken of him. The factory presented him with clothes, and all necessary provisions, besides which they gave him 200 reals in silver; and Sir Richard Hawkins sent him two double pistoles.
Before his departure from the Spanish coast, Sir Richard Hawkins demanded the delivery of his papers, money, books, &c. but could not obtain any satisfactory answer on that head.[101]
We cannot help making a pause here to reflect, how manifestly Providence interfered406 in behalf of this poor man, when he was just on the brink408 of destruction; for by his sentence, from which there was no appeal, he would have been taken, in a few days, to Grenada, and burnt to ashes: and that a poor ordinary servant, who had not the least knowledge of him, nor was any ways interested in his preservation, should risk the displeasure of his master, and hazard his own life, to disclose a thing of so momentous409 and perilous410 a nature, to a strange gentleman, on whose secrecy depended his own existence. By such secondary means does Providence frequently interfere407 in behalf of the virtuous411 and oppressed; of which this is a most distinguished example.
After lying twelve days in the road, the ship weighed anchor, and in about two months arrived safe at Deptford. The next morning, Mr. Lithgow was carried on a feather bed to Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, where at that time was the king and royal family. His majesty happened to be that day engaged in hunting, but on his return in the evening, Mr. Lithgow was presented to him, and related the particulars of his sufferings, and his happy delivery. The king was so affected at the narrative, that he expressed the deepest concern, and gave orders that he should be sent to Bath, and his wants properly supplied from his royal munificence412. By these means, under God, after some time, Mr. Lithgow was restored, from the most wretched spectacle, to a great share of health and strength; but he lost the use of his left arm, and several of the smaller bones were so crushed and broken, as to be ever after rendered useless.
Notwithstanding every effort was used, Mr. Lithgow could never obtain any part of his money or effects, though his majesty and the ministers of state, interested themselves in his behalf. Gondamore, the Spanish ambassador, indeed, promised that all his effects should be restored, with the addition of £1000 English money, as some atonement for the tortures he had undergone, which last was to be paid him by the governor of Malaga. These engagements, however, were but mere413 promises; and though the king was a kind of guarantee for the well performance of them, the cunning Spaniard found means to elude414 the same. He had, indeed, too great a share of influence in the English council during the time of that pacific reign19, when England suffered herself to be bullied415 into slavish compliance416 by most of the states and kings in Europe.
Croly on the Inquisition.
We shall conclude this chapter with the subjoined extract from the New Interpretation417 of the Apocalypse by the Rev120. George Croly.
In our fortunate country, the power of the Romish church has so long perished, that we find some difficulty in conceiving the nature, and still more in believing the tyranny of its dominion418. The influence of the monks and the murders of the inquisition have passed[102] into a nursery tale; and we turn with a generous, yet rash and most unjustifiable scepticism from the history of Romish authority.
Through almost the entire of Italy, through the Flemish dominions419 of Germany, through a large portion of France, and through the entire of Spain, a great monastic body was established, which, professing a secondary and trivial obedience to the sovereign, gave its first and real obedience to the pope. The name of spiritual homage420 cloaked the high treason of an oath of allegiance to a foreign monarch; and whoever might be king of France, or Spain, the pope was king of the Dominicans. All the other monastic orders were so many papal outposts. But the great Dominican order, immensely opulent in its pretended poverty; formidably powerful in its hypocritical disdain421 of earthly influence; and remorselessly ambitious, turbulent, and cruel in its primitive422 zeal; was an actual lodgment and province of the papacy, an inferior Rome, in the chief European kingdoms.
In the closest imitation of Rome, this spiritual power had fiercely assumed the temporal sword; the inquisition was army, revenues, and throne in one. With the racks and fires of a tribunal worthy of the gulf423 of darkness and guilt424 from which it rose, the Dominicans bore popery in triumph through christendom, crushing every vestige425 of religion under the wheels of its colossal426 idol157. The subjugation427 of the Albigenses in 1229 had scattered428 the church; the shock of the great military masses was past; a subtler and more active force was required to destroy the wandering people of God; and the inquisition multiplied itself for the work of death. This terrible tribunal set every principle, and even every form of justice at defiance429. Secrecy, that confounds innocence with guilt, was the spirit of its whole proceeding145. All its steps were in darkness. The suspected revolter from popery was seized in secret, tried in secret, never suffered to see the face of accuser, witness, advocate, or friend, was kept unacquainted with the charge, was urged to criminate himself; if tardy430, was compelled to this self-murder by the rack; if terrified, was only the more speedily murdered for the sport of the multitude. From the hour of his seizure431 he never saw the face of day, until he was brought out as a public show, a loyal and festal sacrifice, to do honor to the entrance of some travelling viceroy, some new married princess, or, on more fortunate occasions, to the presence of the sovereign. The dungeons432 were then drained, the human wreck of the torture and scourge433 were gathered out of darkness, groups of misery434 and exhaustion435 with wasted forms and broken limbs, and countenances436 subdued437 by pain and famine into idiotism, and despair, and madness; to feed the fires round which the Dominicans were chanting the glories of popery, and exulting438 in the destruction of the body for the good of the soul!
In the original establishment of the inquisition in 1198, it had raged against the Vaudois and their converts. But the victims were exhausted439; or not worth the pursuit of a tribunal which looked to the wealth as keenly as to the faith of the persecuted440. Opulence and heresy were at length to be found only to Spain, and there the inquisition[103] turned with a gigantic step. In the early disturbances441 of the Peninsula, the Jews, by those habits of trade, and mutual442 communion, which still make them the lords of commerce, had acquired the chief wealth of the country. The close of the Moorish443 war in the 15th century had left the Spanish monarch at leisure for extortion; and he grasped at the Jewish gains in the spirit of a robber, as he pursued his plunder with the cruelty of a barbarian91. The inquisition was the great machine, the comprehensive torturer, ready to squeeze out alike the heart and the gold. In 1481, an edict was issued against the Jews; before the end of the year, in the single diocess of Cadiz, two thousand Jews were burnt alive! The fall of the kingdom of Grenada, in 1492, threw the whole of the Spanish Moors444 into the hands of the king. They were cast into the same furnace of plunder and torture. Desperate rebellions followed; they were defeated and, in 1609, were finally exiled. "In the space of one hundred and twenty nine years, the inquisition deprived Spain of three millions of inhabitants."
On the death of Leo X. in 1521, Adrian, the inquisitor general was elected pope. He had laid the foundation of his papal celebrity445 in Spain. "It appears, according to the most moderate calculation, that during the five years of the ministry446 of Adrian, 24,025 persons were condemned by the inquisition, of whom one thousand six hundred and twenty were burned alive."
It is the constant sophism447 of those who would cast christianity bound hand and foot at the mercy of her enemies, that the pope desires to exercise no interference in the internal concerns of kingdoms; that, if he had the desire, he has not the power; and that, if he possessed the power, he would be resisted by the whole body of the national clergy. For the exposure of this traitorous448 delusion449, we are to look to the times, when it was the will of popery to put forth its strength; not to the present, when it is its will to lull450 us into a belief of its consistency451 with the constitution, in defiance of common sense, common experience, the spirit of British law, and the loud warnings of insulted and hazarded religion.
Of the multitudes who perished by the inquisition throughout the world, no authentic452 record is now discoverable. But wherever popery had power, there was the tribunal. It had been planted even in the east, and the Portuguese inquisition of Goa was, till within these few years, fed with many an agony. South America was partitioned into provinces of the inquisition; and with a ghastly mimickry of the crimes of the mother state, the arrivals of viceroys, and the other popular celebrations were thought imperfect without an auto de fe. The Netherlands were one scene of slaughter453 from the time of the decree which planted the inquisition among them. In Spain the calculation is more attainable454. Each of the seventeen tribunals during a long period burned annually on an average ten miserable beings! We are to recollect455 that this number was in a country where persecution had for ages abolished all religious differences, and where the[104] difficulty was not to find the stake, but the offering. Yet, even in Spain, thus gleaned456 of all heresy, the inquisition could still swell457 its list of murders to thirty-two thousand! The numbers burned in effigy458, or condemned to penance459, punishments generally equivalent to exile, confiscation460, and taint461 of blood, to all ruin but the mere loss of worthless life amounted to three hundred and nine thousand. But the crowds who perished in dungeons, of the torture, of confinement, and of broken hearts, the millions of dependent lives made utterly462 helpless, or hurried to the grave by the death of the victims, are beyond all register; or recorded only before Him, who has sworn that "He who leadeth into captivity, shall go into captivity: and he that killeth with the sword shall be killed by the sword."
Such was the inquisition, declared by the Spirit of God to be at once the offspring and the image of the popedom. To feel the force of the parentage, we must look to the time. In the thirteenth century, the popedom was at the summit of mortal dominion; it was independent of all kingdoms; it ruled with a rank of influence never before or since possessed by a human sceptre; it was the acknowledged sovereign of body and soul; to all earthly intents its power was immeasurable for good or evil. It might have spread literature, peace, freedom, and christianity to the ends of Europe, or the world. But its nature was hostile; its fuller triumph only disclosed its fuller evil; and, to the shame of human reason, and the terror and suffering of human virtue, Rome, in the hour of its consummate463 grandeur464, teemed76 with the monstrous465 and horrid birth of the INQUISITION!
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1 diffuse | |
v.扩散;传播;adj.冗长的;四散的,弥漫的 | |
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2 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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3 apprehend | |
vt.理解,领悟,逮捕,拘捕,忧虑 | |
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4 pro | |
n.赞成,赞成的意见,赞成者 | |
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5 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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6 ERECTED | |
adj. 直立的,竖立的,笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立,建立 | |
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7 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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8 dreaded | |
adj.令人畏惧的;害怕的v.害怕,恐惧,担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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9 horrid | |
adj.可怕的;令人惊恐的;恐怖的;极讨厌的 | |
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10 fully | |
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地 | |
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11 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
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12 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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13 zealous | |
adj.狂热的,热心的 | |
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14 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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15 implicitly | |
adv. 含蓄地, 暗中地, 毫不保留地 | |
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16 unlimited | |
adj.无限的,不受控制的,无条件的 | |
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17 immediate | |
adj.立即的;直接的,最接近的;紧靠的 | |
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18 heresy | |
n.异端邪说;异教 | |
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19 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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20 obstinate | |
adj.顽固的,倔强的,不易屈服的,较难治愈的 | |
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21 repent | |
v.悔悟,悔改,忏悔,后悔 | |
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22 repented | |
对(自己的所为)感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23 imprisoned | |
下狱,监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24 persuasion | |
n.劝说;说服;持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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25 renounce | |
v.放弃;拒绝承认,宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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26 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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27 bigotry | |
n.偏见,偏执,持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
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28 attachment | |
n.附属物,附件;依恋;依附 | |
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29 fiscal | |
adj.财政的,会计的,国库的,国库岁入的 | |
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30 magistrate | |
n.地方行政官,地方法官,治安官 | |
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31 confiscated | |
没收,充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32 secrecy | |
n.秘密,保密,隐蔽 | |
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33 accusation | |
n.控告,指责,谴责 | |
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34 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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35 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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36 condemnation | |
n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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37 rapacity | |
n.贪婪,贪心,劫掠的欲望 | |
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38 pretence | |
n.假装,作假;借口,口实;虚伪;虚饰 | |
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39 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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40 obnoxious | |
adj.极恼人的,讨人厌的,可憎的 | |
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41 corroborate | |
v.支持,证实,确定 | |
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42 jurisdiction | |
n.司法权,审判权,管辖权,控制权 | |
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43 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
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44 temerity | |
n.鲁莽,冒失 | |
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45 maxim | |
n.格言,箴言 | |
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46 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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47 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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48 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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49 eminent | |
adj.显赫的,杰出的,有名的,优良的 | |
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50 impeached | |
v.控告(某人)犯罪( impeach的过去式和过去分词 );弹劾;对(某事物)怀疑;提出异议 | |
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51 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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52 severely | |
adv.严格地;严厉地;非常恶劣地 | |
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53 galleys | |
n.平底大船,战舰( galley的名词复数 );(船上或航空器上的)厨房 | |
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54 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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55 auto | |
n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车 | |
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56 trumpets | |
喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 ); 小号; 喇叭形物; (尤指)绽开的水仙花 | |
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57 cavalcade | |
n.车队等的行列 | |
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58 repenting | |
对(自己的所为)感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的现在分词 ) | |
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59 confinement | |
n.幽禁,拘留,监禁;分娩;限制,局限 | |
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60 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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61 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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62 professing | |
声称( profess的现在分词 ); 宣称; 公开表明; 信奉 | |
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63 imbibed | |
v.吸收( imbibe的过去式和过去分词 );喝;吸取;吸气 | |
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64 infancy | |
n.婴儿期;幼年期;初期 | |
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65 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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66 distress | |
n.苦恼,痛苦,不舒适;不幸;vt.使悲痛 | |
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67 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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68 extirpate | |
v.除尽,灭绝 | |
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69 prosecutions | |
起诉( prosecution的名词复数 ); 原告; 实施; 从事 | |
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70 protracted | |
adj.拖延的;延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词 | |
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71 protract | |
v.延长,拖长 | |
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72 intrepidity | |
n.大胆,刚勇;大胆的行为 | |
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73 groans | |
n.呻吟,叹息( groan的名词复数 );呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
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74 groan | |
vi./n.呻吟,抱怨;(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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75 esteemed | |
adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 );敬重;认为;以为 | |
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76 teemed | |
v.充满( teem的过去式和过去分词 );到处都是;(指水、雨等)暴降;倾注 | |
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77 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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78 inflicted | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79 torment | |
n.折磨;令人痛苦的东西(人);vt.折磨;纠缠 | |
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80 torments | |
(肉体或精神上的)折磨,痛苦( torment的名词复数 ); 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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81 thigh | |
n.大腿;股骨 | |
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82 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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83 gush | |
v.喷,涌;滔滔不绝(说话);n.喷,涌流;迸发 | |
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84 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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85 inflicting | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的现在分词 ) | |
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86 backwards | |
adv.往回地,向原处,倒,相反,前后倒置地 | |
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87 contortion | |
n.扭弯,扭歪,曲解 | |
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88 dungeon | |
n.地牢,土牢 | |
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89 extremity | |
n.末端,尽头;尽力;终极;极度 | |
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90 bruised | |
[医]青肿的,瘀紫的 | |
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91 barbarian | |
n.野蛮人;adj.野蛮(人)的;未开化的 | |
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92 barbarians | |
n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 );外国人;粗野的人;无教养的人 | |
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93 bruises | |
n.瘀伤,伤痕,擦伤( bruise的名词复数 ) | |
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94 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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95 lodging | |
n.寄宿,住所;(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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96 feigned | |
a.假装的,不真诚的 | |
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97 sergeant | |
n.警官,中士 | |
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98 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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99 reclaimed | |
adj.再生的;翻造的;收复的;回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 );要求收回;从废料中回收(有用的材料);挽救 | |
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100 superstitious | |
adj.迷信的 | |
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101 laden | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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102 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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103 canvass | |
v.招徕顾客,兜售;游说;详细检查,讨论 | |
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104 divers | |
adj.不同的;种种的 | |
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105 tormenting | |
使痛苦的,使苦恼的 | |
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106 judgments | |
判断( judgment的名词复数 ); 鉴定; 评价; 审判 | |
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107 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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108 sequester | |
vt.使退隐,使隔绝 | |
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109 imprisonment | |
n.关押,监禁,坐牢 | |
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110 supplication | |
n.恳求,祈愿,哀求 | |
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111 albeit | |
conj.即使;纵使;虽然 | |
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112 despatch | |
n./v.(dispatch)派遣;发送;n.急件;新闻报道 | |
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113 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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114 restitution | |
n.赔偿;恢复原状 | |
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115 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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116 commissioners | |
n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 );长官;委员;政府部门的长官 | |
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117 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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118 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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119 abbreviating | |
使简短( abbreviate的现在分词 ); 缩简; 缩略; 使用缩写词 | |
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120 rev | |
v.发动机旋转,加快速度 | |
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121 mediation | |
n.调解 | |
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122 minion | |
n.宠仆;宠爱之人 | |
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123 espoused | |
v.(决定)支持,拥护(目标、主张等)( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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124 abdicated | |
放弃(职责、权力等)( abdicate的过去式和过去分词 ); 退位,逊位 | |
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125 celebrated | |
adj.有名的,声誉卓著的 | |
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126 magistrates | |
地方法官,治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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127 haughtily | |
adv. 傲慢地, 高傲地 | |
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128 breach | |
n.违反,不履行;破裂;vt.冲破,攻破 | |
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129 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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130 subdue | |
vt.制服,使顺从,征服;抑制,克制 | |
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131 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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132 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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133 skilful | |
(=skillful)adj.灵巧的,熟练的 | |
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134 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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135 levied | |
征(兵)( levy的过去式和过去分词 ); 索取; 发动(战争); 征税 | |
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136 monastery | |
n.修道院,僧院,寺院 | |
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137 monasteries | |
修道院( monastery的名词复数 ) | |
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138 ecclesiastics | |
n.神职者,教会,牧师( ecclesiastic的名词复数 ) | |
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139 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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140 peremptory | |
adj.紧急的,专横的,断然的 | |
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141 immunities | |
免除,豁免( immunity的名词复数 ); 免疫力 | |
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142 authorize | |
v.授权,委任;批准,认可 | |
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143 sarcastic | |
adj.讥讽的,讽刺的,嘲弄的 | |
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144 logic | |
n.逻辑(学);逻辑性 | |
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145 proceeding | |
n.行动,进行,(pl.)会议录,学报 | |
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146 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
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147 perplexed | |
adj.不知所措的 | |
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148 expeditious | |
adj.迅速的,敏捷的 | |
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149 plundering | |
掠夺,抢劫( plunder的现在分词 ) | |
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150 mischief | |
n.损害,伤害,危害;恶作剧,捣蛋,胡闹 | |
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151 wreck | |
n.失事,遇难;沉船;vt.(船等)失事,遇难 | |
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152 amicably | |
adv.友善地 | |
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153 prudently | |
adv. 谨慎地,慎重地 | |
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154 prudent | |
adj.谨慎的,有远见的,精打细算的 | |
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155 profane | |
adj.亵神的,亵渎的;vt.亵渎,玷污 | |
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156 idols | |
偶像( idol的名词复数 ); 受崇拜的人或物; 受到热爱和崇拜的人或物; 神像 | |
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157 idol | |
n.偶像,红人,宠儿 | |
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158 niches | |
壁龛( niche的名词复数 ); 合适的位置[工作等]; (产品的)商机; 生态位(一个生物所占据的生境的最小单位) | |
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159 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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160 tapers | |
(长形物体的)逐渐变窄( taper的名词复数 ); 微弱的光; 极细的蜡烛 | |
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161 taper | |
n.小蜡烛,尖细,渐弱;adj.尖细的;v.逐渐变小 | |
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162 repel | |
v.击退,抵制,拒绝,排斥 | |
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163 tumult | |
n.喧哗;激动,混乱;吵闹 | |
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164 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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165 alteration | |
n.变更,改变;蚀变 | |
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166 regiments | |
(军队的)团( regiment的名词复数 ); 大量的人或物 | |
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167 altercation | |
n.争吵,争论 | |
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168 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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169 lodgings | |
n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
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170 commodious | |
adj.宽敞的;使用方便的 | |
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171 monarch | |
n.帝王,君主,最高统治者 | |
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172 redress | |
n.赔偿,救济,矫正;v.纠正,匡正,革除 | |
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173 censure | |
v./n.责备;非难;责难 | |
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174 ridicule | |
v.讥讽,挖苦;n.嘲弄 | |
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175 concealed | |
a.隐藏的,隐蔽的 | |
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176 captivity | |
n.囚禁;被俘;束缚 | |
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177 caressed | |
爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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178 reverence | |
n.敬畏,尊敬,尊严;Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称;v.尊敬,敬畏,崇敬 | |
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179 modesty | |
n.谦逊,虚心,端庄,稳重,羞怯,朴素 | |
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180 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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181 gallant | |
adj.英勇的,豪侠的;(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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182 abject | |
adj.极可怜的,卑屈的 | |
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183 bigoted | |
adj.固执己见的,心胸狭窄的 | |
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184 submission | |
n.服从,投降;温顺,谦虚;提出 | |
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185 mantle | |
n.斗篷,覆罩之物,罩子;v.罩住,覆盖,脸红 | |
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186 ushered | |
v.引,领,陪同( usher的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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187 elegance | |
n.优雅;优美,雅致;精致,巧妙 | |
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188 opulence | |
n.财富,富裕 | |
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189 bestow | |
v.把…赠与,把…授予;花费 | |
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190 refreshment | |
n.恢复,精神爽快,提神之事物;(复数)refreshments:点心,茶点 | |
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191 unravelled | |
解开,拆散,散开( unravel的过去式和过去分词 ); 阐明; 澄清; 弄清楚 | |
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192 contrive | |
vt.谋划,策划;设法做到;设计,想出 | |
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193 evade | |
vt.逃避,回避;避开,躲避 | |
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194 requisite | |
adj.需要的,必不可少的;n.必需品 | |
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195 embellished | |
v.美化( embellish的过去式和过去分词 );装饰;修饰;润色 | |
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196 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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197 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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198 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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199 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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200 ware | |
n.(常用复数)商品,货物 | |
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201 interval | |
n.间隔,间距;幕间休息,中场休息 | |
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202 luxurious | |
adj.精美而昂贵的;豪华的 | |
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203 saluted | |
v.欢迎,致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 );赞扬,赞颂 | |
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204 procure | |
vt.获得,取得,促成;vi.拉皮条 | |
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205 procured | |
v.(努力)取得, (设法)获得( procure的过去式和过去分词 );拉皮条 | |
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206 dagger | |
n.匕首,短剑,剑号 | |
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207 daggers | |
匕首,短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
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208 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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209 discourse | |
n.论文,演说;谈话;话语;vi.讲述,著述 | |
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210 banish | |
vt.放逐,驱逐;消除,排除 | |
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211 banished | |
v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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212 drowsiness | |
n.睡意;嗜睡 | |
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213 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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214 circumference | |
n.圆周,周长,圆周线 | |
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215 shudder | |
v.战粟,震动,剧烈地摇晃;n.战粟,抖动 | |
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216 augments | |
增加,提高,扩大( augment的名词复数 ) | |
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217 contemn | |
v.蔑视 | |
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218 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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219 enjoining | |
v.命令( enjoin的现在分词 ) | |
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220 bereaved | |
adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去(希望、生命等)( bereave的过去式和过去分词);(尤指死亡)使丧失(亲人、朋友等);使孤寂;抢走(财物) | |
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221 transacting | |
v.办理(业务等)( transact的现在分词 );交易,谈判 | |
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222 preservation | |
n.保护,维护,保存,保留,保持 | |
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223 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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224 delicacy | |
n.精致,细微,微妙,精良;美味,佳肴 | |
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225 obliterated | |
v.除去( obliterate的过去式和过去分词 );涂去;擦掉;彻底破坏或毁灭 | |
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226 entail | |
vt.使承担,使成为必要,需要 | |
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227 infamy | |
n.声名狼藉,出丑,恶行 | |
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228 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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229 everlasting | |
adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的 | |
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230 expiration | |
n.终结,期满,呼气,呼出物 | |
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231 delightful | |
adj.令人高兴的,使人快乐的 | |
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232 costly | |
adj.昂贵的,价值高的,豪华的 | |
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233 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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234 meandering | |
蜿蜒的河流,漫步,聊天 | |
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235 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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236 pensive | |
a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的 | |
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237 eldest | |
adj.最年长的,最年老的 | |
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238 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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239 adjourn | |
v.(使)休会,(使)休庭 | |
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240 collation | |
n.便餐;整理 | |
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241 accosted | |
v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 );跟…搭讪;(乞丐等)上前向…乞讨;(妓女等)勾搭 | |
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242 sumptuous | |
adj.豪华的,奢侈的,华丽的 | |
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243 syllable | |
n.音节;vt.分音节 | |
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244 dismal | |
adj.阴沉的,凄凉的,令人忧郁的,差劲的 | |
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245 consternation | |
n.大为吃惊,惊骇 | |
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246 enchantment | |
n.迷惑,妖术,魅力 | |
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247 extravagant | |
adj.奢侈的;过分的;(言行等)放肆的 | |
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248 scanty | |
adj.缺乏的,仅有的,节省的,狭小的,不够的 | |
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249 redeem | |
v.买回,赎回,挽回,恢复,履行(诺言等) | |
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250 tyrant | |
n.暴君,专制的君主,残暴的人 | |
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251 farce | |
n.闹剧,笑剧,滑稽戏;胡闹 | |
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252 strictly | |
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地 | |
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253 demonstrations | |
证明( demonstration的名词复数 ); 表明; 表达; 游行示威 | |
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254 housekeeper | |
n.管理家务的主妇,女管家 | |
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255 chambers | |
n.房间( chamber的名词复数 );(议会的)议院;卧室;会议厅 | |
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256 pregnancy | |
n.怀孕,怀孕期 | |
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257 annually | |
adv.一年一次,每年 | |
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258 almighty | |
adj.全能的,万能的;很大的,很强的 | |
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259 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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260 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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261 miseries | |
n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 );痛苦的事;穷困;常发牢骚的人 | |
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262 narrative | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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263 libidinous | |
adj.淫荡的 | |
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264 villains | |
n.恶棍( villain的名词复数 );罪犯;(小说、戏剧等中的)反面人物;淘气鬼 | |
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265 villain | |
n.反派演员,反面人物;恶棍;问题的起因 | |
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266 destitute | |
adj.缺乏的;穷困的 | |
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267 avarice | |
n.贪婪;贪心 | |
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268 piety | |
n.虔诚,虔敬 | |
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269 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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270 hypocrisy | |
n.伪善,虚伪 | |
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271 equitable | |
adj.公平的;公正的 | |
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272 tyrants | |
专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 ); 暴君似的人; (古希腊的)僭主; 严酷的事物 | |
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273 fangs | |
n.(尤指狗和狼的)长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 );(蛇的)毒牙;罐座 | |
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274 amiable | |
adj.和蔼可亲的,友善的,亲切的 | |
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275 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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276 vivacity | |
n.快活,活泼,精神充沛 | |
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277 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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278 inveighed | |
v.猛烈抨击,痛骂,谩骂( inveigh的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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279 ridiculed | |
v.嘲笑,嘲弄,奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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280 exterminate | |
v.扑灭,消灭,根绝 | |
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281 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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282 incurring | |
遭受,招致,引起( incur的现在分词 ) | |
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283 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
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284 martyr | |
n.烈士,殉难者;vt.杀害,折磨,牺牲 | |
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285 malice | |
n.恶意,怨恨,蓄意;[律]预谋 | |
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286 persecution | |
n. 迫害,烦扰 | |
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287 scriptures | |
经文,圣典( scripture的名词复数 ); 经典 | |
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288 citation | |
n.引用,引证,引用文;传票 | |
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289 doctrines | |
n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 );教义;学说;(政府政策的)正式声明 | |
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290 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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291 consonant | |
n.辅音;adj.[音]符合的 | |
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292 engrossed | |
adj.全神贯注的 | |
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293 wreak | |
v.发泄;报复 | |
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294 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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295 uncommon | |
adj.罕见的,非凡的,不平常的 | |
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296 abstruse | |
adj.深奥的,难解的 | |
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297 denomination | |
n.命名,取名,(度量衡、货币等的)单位 | |
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298 eloquence | |
n.雄辩;口才,修辞 | |
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299 umbrage | |
n.不快;树荫 | |
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300 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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301 expound | |
v.详述;解释;阐述 | |
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302 explicit | |
adj.详述的,明确的;坦率的;显然的 | |
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303 apprehended | |
逮捕,拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 ); 理解 | |
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304 treacherous | |
adj.不可靠的,有暗藏的危险的;adj.背叛的,背信弃义的 | |
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305 embezzled | |
v.贪污,盗用(公款)( embezzle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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306 justified | |
a.正当的,有理的 | |
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307 precepts | |
n.规诫,戒律,箴言( precept的名词复数 ) | |
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308 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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309 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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310 flux | |
n.流动;不断的改变 | |
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311 Portuguese | |
n.葡萄牙人;葡萄牙语 | |
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312 conversed | |
v.交谈,谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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313 privately | |
adv.以私人的身份,悄悄地,私下地 | |
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314 superstitions | |
迷信,迷信行为( superstition的名词复数 ) | |
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315 prudence | |
n.谨慎,精明,节俭 | |
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316 consigned | |
v.把…置于(令人不快的境地)( consign的过去式和过去分词 );把…托付给;把…托人代售;丟弃 | |
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317 testament | |
n.遗嘱;证明 | |
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318 cardinal | |
n.(天主教的)红衣主教;adj.首要的,基本的 | |
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319 trampled | |
踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
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320 stimulated | |
a.刺激的 | |
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321 abetter | |
n.教唆者,怂恿者 | |
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322 tormented | |
饱受折磨的 | |
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323 kindled | |
(使某物)燃烧,着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 ); 激起(感情等); 发亮,放光 | |
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324 haven | |
n.安全的地方,避难所,庇护所 | |
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325 propensity | |
n.倾向;习性 | |
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326 rambled | |
(无目的地)漫游( ramble的过去式和过去分词 ); (喻)漫谈; 扯淡; 长篇大论 | |
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327 prosecuted | |
a.被起诉的 | |
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328 ashore | |
adv.在(向)岸上,上岸 | |
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329 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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330 embark | |
vi.乘船,着手,从事,上飞机 | |
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331 sergeants | |
警官( sergeant的名词复数 ); (美国警察)警佐; (英国警察)巡佐; 陆军(或空军)中士 | |
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332 notary | |
n.公证人,公证员 | |
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333 conjured | |
用魔术变出( conjure的过去式和过去分词 ); 祈求,恳求; 变戏法; (变魔术般地) 使…出现 | |
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334 extort | |
v.勒索,敲诈,强要 | |
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335 motives | |
n.动机,目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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336 embarkation | |
n. 乘船, 搭机, 开船 | |
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337 junto | |
n.秘密结社;私党 | |
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338 traitor | |
n.叛徒,卖国贼 | |
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339 upbraided | |
v.责备,申斥,谴责( upbraid的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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340 obviate | |
v.除去,排除,避免,预防 | |
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341 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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342 license | |
n.执照,许可证,特许;v.许可,特许 | |
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343 haughty | |
adj.傲慢的,高傲的 | |
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344 credentials | |
n.证明,资格,证明书,证件 | |
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345 abate | |
vi.(风势,疼痛等)减弱,减轻,减退 | |
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346 consultation | |
n.咨询;商量;商议;会议 | |
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347 constrained | |
adj.束缚的,节制的 | |
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348 sustenance | |
n.食物,粮食;生活资料;生计 | |
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349 pint | |
n.品脱 | |
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350 likeness | |
n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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351 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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352 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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353 conformity | |
n.一致,遵从,顺从 | |
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354 prevarication | |
n.支吾;搪塞;说谎;有枝有叶 | |
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355 riveted | |
铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 ); 把…固定住; 吸引; 引起某人的注意 | |
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356 sledge | |
n.雪橇,大锤;v.用雪橇搬运,坐雪橇往 | |
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357 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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358 steadfast | |
adj.固定的,不变的,不动摇的;忠实的;坚贞不移的 | |
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359 courageously | |
ad.勇敢地,无畏地 | |
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360 confessions | |
n.承认( confession的名词复数 );自首;声明;(向神父的)忏悔 | |
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361 delinquent | |
adj.犯法的,有过失的;n.违法者 | |
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362 inevitably | |
adv.不可避免地;必然发生地 | |
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363 nourishment | |
n.食物,营养品;营养情况 | |
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364 confirmation | |
n.证实,确认,批准 | |
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365 refreshments | |
n.点心,便餐;(会议后的)简单茶点招 待 | |
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366 raisins | |
n.葡萄干( raisin的名词复数 ) | |
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367 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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368 beholding | |
v.看,注视( behold的现在分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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369 loathsome | |
adj.讨厌的,令人厌恶的 | |
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370 devoured | |
吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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371 mortification | |
n.耻辱,屈辱 | |
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372 miserably | |
adv.痛苦地;悲惨地;糟糕地;极度地 | |
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373 scotch | |
n.伤口,刻痕;苏格兰威士忌酒;v.粉碎,消灭,阻止;adj.苏格兰(人)的 | |
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374 canonical | |
n.权威的;典型的 | |
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375 supremacy | |
n.至上;至高权力 | |
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376 stipulated | |
vt.& vi.规定;约定adj.[法]合同规定的 | |
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377 molested | |
v.骚扰( molest的过去式和过去分词 );干扰;调戏;猥亵 | |
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378 presumptuously | |
adv.自以为是地,专横地,冒失地 | |
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379 miraculously | |
ad.奇迹般地 | |
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380 trumpery | |
n.无价值的杂物;adj.(物品)中看不中用的 | |
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381 retarded | |
a.智力迟钝的,智力发育迟缓的 | |
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382 conversion | |
n.转化,转换,转变 | |
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383 professed | |
公开声称的,伪称的,已立誓信教的 | |
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384 thereby | |
adv.因此,从而 | |
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385 opprobrious | |
adj.可耻的,辱骂的 | |
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386 enraged | |
使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 ); 歜; 激愤 | |
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387 supercilious | |
adj.目中无人的,高傲的;adv.高傲地;n.高傲 | |
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388 pedantic | |
adj.卖弄学问的;迂腐的 | |
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389 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
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390 glutted | |
v.吃得过多( glut的过去式和过去分词 );(对胃口、欲望等)纵情满足;使厌腻;塞满 | |
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391 figs | |
figures 数字,图形,外形 | |
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392 maxims | |
n.格言,座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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393 Christians | |
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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394 conversant | |
adj.亲近的,有交情的,熟悉的 | |
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395 victuals | |
n.食物;食品 | |
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396 abortive | |
adj.不成功的,发育不全的 | |
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397 inspection | |
n.检查,审查,检阅 | |
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398 blasphemous | |
adj.亵渎神明的,不敬神的 | |
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399 abjure | |
v.发誓放弃 | |
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400 tragical | |
adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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401 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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402 revolve | |
vi.(使)旋转;循环出现 | |
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403 slumbers | |
睡眠,安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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404 enquired | |
打听( enquire的过去式和过去分词 ); 询问; 问问题; 查问 | |
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405 conjectured | |
推测,猜测,猜想( conjecture的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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406 interfered | |
v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 );调停;妨碍;干涉 | |
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407 interfere | |
v.(in)干涉,干预;(with)妨碍,打扰 | |
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408 brink | |
n.(悬崖、河流等的)边缘,边沿 | |
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409 momentous | |
adj.重要的,重大的 | |
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410 perilous | |
adj.危险的,冒险的 | |
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411 virtuous | |
adj.有品德的,善良的,贞洁的,有效力的 | |
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412 munificence | |
n.宽宏大量,慷慨给与 | |
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413 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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414 elude | |
v.躲避,困惑 | |
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415 bullied | |
adj.被欺负了v.恐吓,威逼( bully的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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416 compliance | |
n.顺从;服从;附和;屈从 | |
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417 interpretation | |
n.解释,说明,描述;艺术处理 | |
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418 dominion | |
n.统治,管辖,支配权;领土,版图 | |
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419 dominions | |
统治权( dominion的名词复数 ); 领土; 疆土; 版图 | |
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420 homage | |
n.尊敬,敬意,崇敬 | |
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421 disdain | |
n.鄙视,轻视;v.轻视,鄙视,不屑 | |
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422 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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423 gulf | |
n.海湾;深渊,鸿沟;分歧,隔阂 | |
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424 guilt | |
n.犯罪;内疚;过失,罪责 | |
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425 vestige | |
n.痕迹,遗迹,残余 | |
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426 colossal | |
adj.异常的,庞大的 | |
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427 subjugation | |
n.镇压,平息,征服 | |
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428 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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429 defiance | |
n.挑战,挑衅,蔑视,违抗 | |
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430 tardy | |
adj.缓慢的,迟缓的 | |
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431 seizure | |
n.没收;占有;抵押 | |
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432 dungeons | |
n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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433 scourge | |
n.灾难,祸害;v.蹂躏 | |
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434 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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435 exhaustion | |
n.耗尽枯竭,疲惫,筋疲力尽,竭尽,详尽无遗的论述 | |
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436 countenances | |
n.面容( countenance的名词复数 );表情;镇静;道义支持 | |
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437 subdued | |
adj. 屈服的,柔和的,减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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438 exulting | |
vi. 欢欣鼓舞,狂喜 | |
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439 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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440 persecuted | |
(尤指宗教或政治信仰的)迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 ); 烦扰,困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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441 disturbances | |
n.骚乱( disturbance的名词复数 );打扰;困扰;障碍 | |
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442 mutual | |
adj.相互的,彼此的;共同的,共有的 | |
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443 moorish | |
adj.沼地的,荒野的,生[住]在沼地的 | |
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444 moors | |
v.停泊,系泊(船只)( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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445 celebrity | |
n.名人,名流;著名,名声,名望 | |
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446 ministry | |
n.(政府的)部;牧师 | |
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447 sophism | |
n.诡辩 | |
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448 traitorous | |
adj. 叛国的, 不忠的, 背信弃义的 | |
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449 delusion | |
n.谬见,欺骗,幻觉,迷惑 | |
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450 lull | |
v.使安静,使入睡,缓和,哄骗;n.暂停,间歇 | |
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451 consistency | |
n.一贯性,前后一致,稳定性;(液体的)浓度 | |
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452 authentic | |
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的 | |
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453 slaughter | |
n.屠杀,屠宰;vt.屠杀,宰杀 | |
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454 attainable | |
a.可达到的,可获得的 | |
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455 recollect | |
v.回忆,想起,记起,忆起,记得 | |
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456 gleaned | |
v.一点点地收集(资料、事实)( glean的过去式和过去分词 );(收割后)拾穗 | |
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457 swell | |
vi.膨胀,肿胀;增长,增强 | |
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458 effigy | |
n.肖像 | |
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459 penance | |
n.(赎罪的)惩罪 | |
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460 confiscation | |
n. 没收, 充公, 征收 | |
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461 taint | |
n.污点;感染;腐坏;v.使感染;污染 | |
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462 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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463 consummate | |
adj.完美的;v.成婚;使完美 [反]baffle | |
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464 grandeur | |
n.伟大,崇高,宏伟,庄严,豪华 | |
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465 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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