As I approach the main entrance of Birgu I keep reminding myself how impressive it is now but how much more so it must have seemed in the 16th century.
On the left as you enter there is a fascinating museum which leads down to the underground shelters built deep beneath ground during World War II. Down narrow corridors and steps there are dormitories and even a birthing room. Each stone has a tale to tell in this place.
Certainly these walls were designed to keep out invaders and there is a majesty about them. Walled defences that have layers of protection.
The side streets are pretty and distinctively Maltese. The Inquisitor's palace is not far from the main gate and is one of very few that have survived in the world still open to the public.
Inside the ground floor is a pleasant garden, obviously a pleasant place to retreat to after a tiring day investigating and torturing victims. The kitchen is large and spacious with an oven down one side.
The staircase is spectacular and grand, this was the way to impress guests and to state ones importance.
Looking back down the stairs gives another perspective. Note the chair which would be used to carry the really important around the city from venue to venue.
Two of the Inquisitors here in Malta went on to become popes. Fabia Chigi became Pope Alexander VII in 1655. There is a photo of him on the wall.
When inquisitor he would have worn this costume below, a rather terrifying outfit to be confronted with. I think the outfit was designed with confession in mind.
Pope Alexander VII did not get good press by some. Here is an account, by a contemporary that knew him, that starts out well but ends badly.
"In the first months of his elevation to the Popedom, he had so taken upon him the profession of an evangelical life that he was wont to season his meat with ashes, to sleep upon a hard couch, to hate riches, glory, and pomp, taking a great pleasure to give audience to ambassadors in a chamber full of dead men's sculls, and in the sight of his coffin, which stood there to put him in mind of his death. [His] extraordinary devotion and sanctity of life I found was so much esteemed that the noise of it spread far and near. But so soon as he had called his relations about him he changed his nature. Instead of humility succeeded vanity; his mortification vanished, his hard couch was turned into a soft featherbed, his dead men's sculls into jewels, and his thoughts of death into ambition — filling his empty coffin with money as if he would corrupt death, and purchase life with riches."
I suspect piety is a hard act to maintain, but some of the faces of the Inquisitors look like rather evil characters indeed. I keep wondering is it just me or do some of them look seriously disturbed?
I am one to talk, I take a bad photo myself but seriously, these guys were painted so surely with artistic skill they could have made them look more human.
All I can say is I would not like to be questioned by these characters while implements of torture were lying around conveniently placed. Being found in possession of books on their index of forbidden texts would have been enough to get you into serious trouble. Kepler's scientific treaty on the movement of the planets etc would have certainly got you strapped to something painful. Galileo's championing of the planets moving around the sun resulted in him being tried and suffering house imprisonment for the rest of his life. But there were a whole range of things that could get you into trouble. (see below)
It's quite a list and the last one could include informing the inquisition of the sins of others. By not doing so you could get into real trouble. In Malta the major sins seem to centre around witchcraft/evil eye etc. Mostly it appeared the use of love potions was common. This activity was hard to stamp out despite the intensity of their best endeavours. Pope Alexander VII, when inquisitor ,so filled the cells with people to investigate they ran out of room to put their suspects. The longest serving Inquisitor in Malta was Paolo Passionei (1743-1754). Unfortunately, he had several nasty secrets of his own which caused some difficulties.
"He was guilty of 'Loose living' including
fornication. Inquisitor Passionei secretly had a mistress, and he became the
father of two females .... When in 1749 the Pope requested him to go
to Switzerland as an Apostolic Nuntio he refused, being afraid that
his scandalous life would become public! He left Malta on 1754 and
was unfrocked. "
It's a tricky business this judging of others, not perhaps a healthy spiritual exercise. "Let he who is without sin throw the first stone..." applies surely?
The inquisitors lived in some comfort.
The room in which they interrogated suspects had a rather unpleasant feel to it. The torture implements in the dungeon down below must have helped loosen tongues.
There is a special staircase to the prison cells below which meant they could be taken secretly to and fro without being seen by others. The cells themselves had tiny low doors and small high windows.
The contrast between the prison cells with their cramped quarters down below to the luxury above is stark.
Strange to find in one building such marked differences only a staircase away. Below all dark and tortured while above all light and comfort.
John Foxe
When you think about the inquisition it is hard to find positive things to say about this period. Lessons have to be learnt from history and until we do it seems society will never progress. I liked this piece by― Alfred Whitney Griswold in Essays on Education,
“Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.”
