Excrement

“ If one drooped In the lovely Court—her dark glance dim, her feet Faint in the dance—the guiltless criminal Passed forth an exile from that Paradise, Lest he should see and suffer at her woe. Bright-eyed intendants watched to execute Sentence on such as spake of the harsh world Without, where aches and plagues were, tears and fears, And wail of mourners, and grim fume of pyres. ”

“ But if claiming a field by the inscription of a title, be a crime deserving of excommunication in a priest,—when for two whole centuries the pontiffs have been meditating nothing but wars, effusion of blood, slaughter of armies, storming and pillaging cities, the destruction of nations, the devastation of kingdoms, for the sole purpose of seizing the dominions of others,—what excommunications can be sufficient for the punishment of such examples? ”

“ In expiation of which crime it has been ordered by the Court that the said women shall be presently conducted, with halters about their necks, to the usual place of punishment, and shall there be fastened by the Executioner to a gallows, and be hanged, strangled, killed, and burnt, until their flesh and bones are reduced to ashes, and the ashes shall be scattered ”

“ In thee have they taken gifts to shed blood; thou hast taken usury and increase, and thou hast greedily gained of thy neighbors by extortion, and hast forgotten Me, saith the Lord God.—They have used the gifts of God for evil purposes, even to slay God's holy martyrs; they have even practised extortion upon those close to them. ”

“ But if, even then, he do not better himself—if he understands how great the penalty is —he shall be subject to excommunication. But, if he is a wicked man, he shall be given over to corporal punishment.
24. What ought to he the measure of the excommunication. According to the amount of the fault the measure of the excommunication or of the discipline ought to be extended: which amount of the faults shall be determined by the judgment of the abbot. If any brother, however, be taken in lighter faults, he shall be prevented from participating at table. ”

“ Is extermination an example of the mercy of priests and their gods, "whose justice is subservient to mercy," "whose punishments originate in his abhorrence to sin,"—and whose commands to massacre, to butcher, and to exterminate, "are only benevolent warnings?"—You dare Mr. Paine to prove, that the young women were kept for debauchery; and you triumphantly add, "that if he does, you will allow Moses to be the horrid monster he describes him, and the Bible a book of lies, wickedness, and blasphemy." ”

“ Scarce three or four days were past, after this horrible fact, when the Almighty Judge, who had heard the cries of the tormented wretch, suffered the evil one suddenly to possess this barbarous and inhuman homicide, so that those cruel hands which had punished to death his innocent servant, were the tormentors of his own body: for he beat himself, and tore his flesh, after a miserable manner, till he lost the very shape of a man ”

“ They would see in how many ways one may consent to the open sin of another, for he consents who co-operates, who defends, who gives counsel, and sanctions, and also who neglects to threaten and rebuke.
Now, in regard to the interdict with which, on account of the sin of a single man, or of a number, the clergy vex Christ's common people—plebs. [9] For by the three censures, excommunication, suspension and interdict, for their own exaltation they keep the laity at their feet, increase their avarice, protect wickedness and prepare the way for antichrist. ”

“ Sentence is passed, and the wretched beings are doomed to receive punishment according to the nature of their crimes. Some are made to tread on burning sands, or sharp-edged stones. Others are rolled among thorns and spikes and putrefying flesh. Others are dragged along the roughest places by cords passed through the tender parts of the body. ”

“ You will perpetually hear vigorous protests against the justice of some particular sentence, but you will very rarely (but for the fear of such a negative I should say never) find men saying ‘just or unjust, the cruelty of the execution is so revolting that I protest against it.’ Men believed something with regard to the whole doctrine of expiation, of penal arrangements which they have not described to us and which we cannot understand save through the glimpses, sidelights, and guesses through what they imagine to be their plainest statements. ”

“ At the appointed moment a screw is suddenly turned by the executioner, stationed behind the condemned, and instantaneous death follows. This would seem to be more merciful than hanging, whereby death is produced by the lingering process of suffocation, to say nothing of the many mishaps which so often occur upon the gallows. ”

“ The wretch sees this implement of destruction swinging to and fro above him, and every moment the keen edge approaching nearer and nearer: at length it cuts [Pg 126] the skin of his nose, and gradually cuts on, until life is extinct. It may be doubted if the Holy Office, in its mercy, ever invented a more humane and rapid method of exterminating heresy, or ensuring confiscation! This, let it be remembered, was a punishment of the secret tribunal, A. D., 1820!! ”

“ The sentence in the case of a woman was, that she be burned to death, and in the case of a man, that he be drawn to the place of execution and there hanged by the neck until he be dead. [8] To mitigate the sufferings of felons at the stake, the executioner usually fastened one end of a cord to the stake, and bringing this cord around the neck of the woman, pulled it tightly the moment the torch was applied, and continued the strain until life was extinct, which, unless the cord was sooner burnt asunder, generally happened before the condemned had suffered much from the intensity of the flames. ”

“ And we order that, on the day of the auto, an effigy representing his person shall be placed on the scaffold, with a mitre of condemnation and a sanbenito bearing on one side the insignia of the condemned and on the other a placard with his name, which effigy, after the reading of this our sentence, shall be delivered to the secular arm and justice, and his bones shall be disinterred, if they can be distinguished from those of faithful Christians, and be delivered to the said justice to be publicly burnt, in detestation of such great and grievous crimes. ”

“ I understand the matter thus, O judges:—when any man is accused of extortion, if there be a contest between any parties as to who may best be entrusted with the prosecution, these two points ought to be regarded most especially; first, whom they, to whom the injury is said to have been done, wish most to be their counsel; and secondly, whom he, who is accused of having done those injuries, would least wish to be so. ”

“ EXTEND, when the files of a line, or the divisions of a column are to occupy a greater space of ground, they are said to extend their front or line. Extended order is applicable to the light infantry.
EXTORTION, the act of obtaining money or property by violence or unjust means: taking advantage of the ignorance or peculiar circumstances of a purchaser, to demand more than a fair price for an article. All sutlers, or camp followers, who are guilty of extortion in the sale of necessaries, are punishable by a general or regimental court-martial. ”

“ In the power of excommunication you have a weapon more effective than any wielded by that emperor to save these poor suppliants from impending famine produced by the ravages of little beasts, which spare neither the corn nor the vines, ravages like those of the boar that laid waste the environs of Calydon, as related by Homer in the first book of the Iliad, or those of the foxes sent by Themis to Thebes, which destroyed the fruits of the earth and the cattle and assailed even the husbandmen themselves. ”

“ Torture is freely employed in judicial proceedings; and the unhappy victim may either have the bones of his legs dislocated or bent, his calves reduced to rags by blows from a heavy plank, the flesh of his thighs cut through by the continuous friction of a rough cord, or his whole body agonized by a prolonged suspension by the arms. ”

“ If persons under twenty years of age accuse themselves, after the term of grace, and it is proved that they were drawn into error by their parents, a light punishment shall be inflicted.
10. The Inquisitors shall declare in their act of reconciliation, the exact time when the offender fell into heresy, that the portion of property to be confiscated may be ascertained.
11. If a heretic, while in prison, demands absolution, and appears to feel true repentance, it may be granted, imposing at the same time perpetual imprisonment. ”

“ Whilst the king himself set so notable an example of extortion, we may be sure that his commissioners, spies, and tools of all sorts were not slack in this business of ferreting out and putting through the torture of their secret courts the unhappy subjects of every corner of the kingdom who had any substance to prey upon. ”

“ Now I must tell you, that the place of torture is generally an underground and very dark room, to which one enters through several doors. There is a tribunal erected in it, where the Inquisitor, Inspector, and Secretary sit. When the candles are lighted, and the person to be tortured is brought in, the [Pg 246] executioner, who is waiting for him, makes an astonishing and dreadful appearance. He is covered all over with black linen garments down to his feet and tied close to his body. ”

“ But those persons who have fought, and those who are called their seconds, [15] shall incur the penalty of excommunication, and the forfeiture of all their property, and of perpetual infamy, and are to be punished as homicides, according to the sacred canons; and if they have perished in the conflict itself, they shall for ever be deprived of ecclesiastical sepulture. ”

“ The Design of those who first appointed Executions to be public, was to add the Punishment of Shame to that of Death; in order to make the Example an Object of greater Terror. But Experience hath shewn us that the Event is directly contrary to this Intention. Indeed a competent Knowledge of Human Nature might have foreseen the Consequence. To unite the Ideas of Death and Shame is not so easy as may be imagined. ”

“ The Inquisitors shall sign the decree of arrest, and address it to the grand alguazil of the holy office. When it relates to a formal heresy, this measure shall be immediately followed by the sequestration of the denounced person's property. If several persons are to be imprisoned, a decree shall be expedited for each individual, to be separately executed, and a note shall be entered in the trial, stating the day on which the decree of arrest was delivered, and the person who received it. ”

“ The explosion, which had been so long restrained from a feeling of respect to the court of justice, now burst forth like thunder from the breasts of all present; the court itself did not seek to restrain the feelings of the audience. ”

“ The great Cause of this Evil is the Frequency of Executions: The Knowledge of Human Nature will prove this from Reason; and the different Effects which Executions produce in the Minds of the Spectators in the Country where they are rare, and in London where they are common, will convince us by Experience. The Thief who is hanged to Day hath learnt his Intrepidity from the Example of his hanged Predecessors, as others are now taught to despise Death, and to bear it hereafter with Boldness from what they see to Day. ”

“ A faded and somewhat droll survival of ecclesiastical excommunication and exorcism is the custom, still prevailing in European countries and some portions of the United States, of serving a writ of ejectment on rats or simply sending them a friendly letter of advice in order to induce them to quit any house, in which their presence is deemed undesirable. ”

“ And those who, by chance, shall scorn to acquiesce, shall be most sternly compelled to do so through excommunication against their persons, and interdict against their land; unless the maliciousness of the injuries shall be so great, that the persons themselves ought not to have the benefit of such peace. ”

“ He purifies, it is said, those who are charged with drinking intoxicating liquor, eating flesh, or crossing the sea, if such persons subject themselves to his jurisdiction. If they do not, he does not even exercise the power of excommunication, which he nominally possesses. ”

“ All ranks and conditions of men, from the mitred prelate to the humblest cottager, and from the king upon the throne to the beggar at his gates, all were firm believers in this terrible infatuation. Judicial tribunals became courts of inquisition, and thousands of the innocent and unoffending were suspected to be guilty, and put to death. ”

“ Excommunication had real terrors when a frightened world was willing to execute its penalties—when the object of the censure was cut off from the services of religion and was regarded as a pariah and an outlaw. ”

“ In an attempt to bring executions in line with our evolving standards of decency, we have adopted increasingly less painful methods of execution, and then declared previous methods barbaric and archaic. ”

“ A confession obtained by fear or fraud is pronounced invalid, and no one who has confessed his own crime is to be believed with respect to that of another.1813 Such a principle, combined with the gradual564 growth of the trial by jury, doubtless preserved the law from the contamination of inquisitorial procedure, though, as we have seen, torture was extensively employed for purposes of extortion by marauders and lawless nobles during periods of civil commotion. ”

“ All the cunning fence between judge and culprit, all the fraud, all the torture of body and mind so ruthlessly employed to extort unwilling confessions, were not necessarily used for the mere purpose of securing a victim, for the inquisitor was taught to be as earnest with the recalcitrants against whom he had sufficent testimony as with the cases in which evidence was deficient. ”