The drum as an instrument of
torture and proclamation in the Holy Inquisition
in Spain.
Besides being a military instrument, from virtually its
introduction into the army, our instrument was also used by the Holy Office of
the Inquisition.
For what purpose? The oldest surviving document mentioning
our instrument in the Inquisition dates from 1496.
“Do not play drums or tambourines when the prisoners are to
be tortured.”[1]
This book by the Inquisitor of Murcia, Fermosino, from which
we have taken this information, also indicates that the drums were kept under
lock and key in the inaccessible Chamber of Secrets at the headquarters of the
Tribunals of the Holy Office of the Inquisition:
"In the Chamber of Secrets there were some chests and a
coffer and ten boxes or drums" [2]
Clearly, this indicates that drums were used by the Holy
Office of the Inquisition. We don't know what was done with them that would
have led to their use being prohibited in torture sessions; no evidence of this
has survived. We do know the phases of torture for the estimated 10% of
prisoners who suffered it:
"Torture has several parts, which are the admonition,
the sentence, going down to the chamber, undressing, placing the prisoner on
the rack, binding him, turning him around for the first time, and then the
method is excused; and it has been seen that confessions were obtained only
with the admonition."[3]
At what stage was the drum applied to this approximate 10%
of prisoners...?
However, evidence remains of its use as a town crier:
1-
The drum summoned the residents to hear the
edicts of the Holy Office, for example, to announce the visit of the Inquisitor
of the Tribunal to a town during his frequent travels through the villages and
cities within his jurisdiction.
The use of drums and other instruments in the Edicts of
Faith endowed the message to be transmitted with authority and imperative
force. Source: Juan Antonio Llorente, 1834.
2- The Holy Office employed drummers and town criers to
announce the summonses to the Autos-da-fé or to publicly read the sentences of
those who had been previously condemned, as for example in the Logroño
tribunal, where Licentiate Quintana, referring to the expenses of 1589, states
that:
"the town crier and the drummer who proclaimed the
edict of the Faith received two reales each" (AHN Book 789, fol. 292).
Similarly, we know that an Auto de Fe in Córdoba was
proclaimed with the accompaniment of drums, shawms, and trumpets [4]. Clearly,
the drum and other instruments, along with chants, provided the soundtrack for
the procession of the condemned to the stake.
[1] Rodríguez Fermosino. Compilation and summary of the
Instructions, agreements, Agreed Letters, decisions, order to prosecute, visits
and warnings ordered by the Lords Inquisitors General and Council of the Holy
and General Inquisition and decrees agreed by the Tribune, both for the causes
and cases of faith as well as for the exercise of the jurisdiction of the Holy
Office in civil and criminal matters, whose knowledge pertains to it by law,
and apostolic and royal privileges, and uses and customs, and for the good
government and administration of the treasury of the treasury, and also of some
briefs of the pontiffs and royal decrees of the Lords Kings of Castile granted
in favor of the Holy Office and its ministers, which have been found in the
Secret of the Inquisition of the Kingdom of Murcia from the year 1488, when the
Inquisition came to this city and the Kingdom, until 1673 inclusive. POST IN
ORDER OF ABCD BY THE ILLUSTRIOUS. S. D. NICOLAS RODRIGEZ DE FERMOSINO DEL CONº
DESV MAG. DELASANTA GENEL. INQVISN. Being an Ynquisidor in the Sto. Court of
the City of Murcia. Source: B.N.E
[2] In Fermonsino's manuscript, preserved in the National
Library of Spain, dated January 22, 1674. The allusion to drums is interesting,
as these were used by the Inquisition and kept in the Secret Room, or
restricted room, where all case documentation was stored. We know from a 1679
case (AHN Inquisition, leg. 521, file 26, ff. 42-49) concerning the forgery of
keys to access the Secret Room: “He has committed many very serious and
abominable crimes against the honor, authority, and respect of the Holy Office,
making, with other accomplices, false keys for the three locks of the door to
the Secret Room of this Inquisition… they opened another door… they found an
octavo book with black covers whose pages were made of parchment, and the
script appeared ancient and was written in Latin. In the Secret Room there were
some chests and a coffer and ten boxes or drums.” National Historical Archives
(AHN), Inquisition, file 521, file 26, pp. 42-49.
[3] AHN, Inquisition, file 2884. Taken from Martínez Peñas,
Leandro. “Torture as a Legal Instrument of the Holy Office,” in Revista de la
Inquisición. Intolerancia y Derechos Humanos, no. 26, pp. 169. 2022. Rey Juan
Carlos University.
[4] We have a description of an auto-da-fé of 1627 in
Córdoba by Rodrigo de Figueroa, collected in no. 19 (2015) of the Revista de la
Inquisición, “The public dissemination of the auto-da-fé”, article by Manuel
Torres Aguilar
