EXTRACTS FROM THE DEFENSE OF THE PRISONERS AT MALAGA
THE conduct and activity of the Roman Catholic advocates chosen to defend the cause of the Malaga prisoners, appears bold when compared with that of our Protestant rulers. In order that our countrymen may judge between the two, we give some extracts from the defense made in Malaga by the learned jurist Don Bernabé Davila y Berta., in the month of August, 1862.
Defense of Prisoners at Malaga
“D. Roque Meano and D. Francisco Mariano Lopez, —in the names of D. Jose Gonzalez Mejias and D. Antonio Carrasco Palomo, prisoners in the public prison of this city for the supposed crime of attempting to abolish or change the Roman Catholic and Apostolic religion in Spain—appeal against the accusation of the fiscal, in which he demands for our clients the penalty of nine years of penal servitude with accessories, and a payment of a part of the costs of the case...
“It is an eternal principle that a man cannot be forced to believe anything which his reason rejects or his will repels; and the Catholic religion—this religion of pure love, which has been founded by Jesus Christ in the external form of the Christian Church, which has amongst all social institutions borne the precious fruit of salvation on the earth, and to which Europe owes that pure humanity which lies at the root of its civilization—the example and the teacher of all other civilizations, which has awakened, by means of the instructions of its Divine Founder, the sentiment of human dignity in every man, under every sky, and in every social state; which has kindled the heavenly flame of love amongst men; which has drawn closer the bonds of universal brotherhood, and has been the best stimulant to the development of all the physical and moral forces with which human nature is gifted—this religion, we say, cannot be forced upon any one by material force or Moral violence, for the eternal designs of God have made it in harmony with the nature of the free and rational man. If there have been limitations and imperfections in the history of our country which have authorized prosecutions and punishments for religious opinions—if fanaticism and dogmatism once found their perfect, genuine, and severe representation in the tribunal of the Holy Office, which was clothed with immense privileges, and armed with an absurd private jurisdiction to defend the sublime principles of Christianity with the weapons of fire and tortures—these imperfections should forever be put away from among us, and these bygone times should never return, for every religious doctrine, and especially the Catholic, constitutes a subjective relation apart from and above the objective idea, which is the fatal basis of all intolerance, and which springs from an imperfect knowledge of God.
“Today the scene has quite changed—thanks to the advance of human reason and the salutary conclusions which the philosophy of our day has drawn from the history of the past. Progress has created a new world of ideas more in accordance with that Divine will, which must rule the earth until it be accomplished. Amongst these ideas shines the doctrine of the Divine Unity as taught by Jesus Christ and explained and illustrated fully in the whole life of the Teacher. Toleration is already a dogma throughout civilized Europe, and truly Christian society looks with horror upon slavery, tyranny, and the abominations of the middle ages, which can only be compared to the abominations and miseries of Paganism.
“This, then, is the reason of the just celebrity which this suit, and some others of the same character, have attained in other countries—of the general interest which ‘has been called forth in favor of those persecuted for their religious opinions, and expressed by almost the whole press here and abroad, and which has found a solemn echo of just complaint in some of the Parliaments of Europe.
“When some new symptoms of the old intolerance were remarked in our land—when, in this great age of the earthly life of humanity, the shadow of a half-living apparition of the past fell across the present—immediately the chill was felt by universal and most worthy interests, and since then all civilized nations have kept their eyes fixed upon us, and wait anxiously for the definite issue of these proceedings.
As by the fundamental code the State established the Roman Catholic and Apostolic religion as the only one of the Spanish nation, it is evident that no form of worship distinct from that consecrated to, and practiced by, the Catholic Church can be admitted into our land.
“We are not competent, nor is it our present business, to examine the causes and the reasons for this legal disposition, which we simply recognize as existing; it is sufficient for us to remark that the law limits the exterior liberty of the citizen in a very positive manner under these special circumstances, its precepts involving a prohibition of all public acts of any other worship or religious sect.
“But how can our clients be accused of having violated this law? We understand why the terrors of justice should visit the criminal who carries alarm, consternation, and tears to the heart of a family. We desire the punishment of him who destroys, usurps, or injures the property of another. We perceive the wisdom of inflicting a severe penalty upon those citizens who scandalously sow disorder and anarchy in society, upon those who scatter broadcast upon its surface the germs of evil and transcendental misery; but we cannot see how reason or the law can be so tortured as to be made to accuse any good citizens for the sole crime of not believing what the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church believes, and for having privately practiced the rites of any other religious sect.
“We concede at once that the intelligence of our clients is laboring under a lamentable delusion. The spirit always strives to attain truth, and in the heat of its constant thirst, and in the incessant struggle which it sustains, it may often stumble into error or fall into skepticism.
“Truth is not the cup which passes from lip to lip at the festal board, and therefore it would be very dangerous to seek the basis of crime in any of the frequent deliriums of human reason.
“We do not seek here for crime. The measure of the offense can only be the evil done to society— injuries which the public sustain; and if this sublime principle of science cannot be denied by sound logic, we must acknowledge that though the doctrines held by the accused and their co-religionists are not in accordance with all the dogmas of the Catholic faith, at least, the end which they propose to themselves is one extremely beneficial to society, and its tendency is an eminently moral one. As a proof, we take some articles of the statutes or organized rules of this secret association. The document is found in the 129th folio of the acts.
“Article 3. These members must set an example of morality, propriety, and manifested love to the gospel. Each must be a constant observer of these duties; a good parent and householder, a man without degrading vices, or propensities opposed to the teaching of the gospel. He should be discreet and courteous; in a word, an example to other Christians.
“Article 20. The Council must watch with special care over the religious instruction of those individuals who compose the association, striving to create a family in Christ, which shall be well taught in the gospel, an example to the age and worthy of their profession, to which end it must watch constantly those who have the direction of the congregations.'
“These are some of the requisites demanded from, and some of the duties imposed upon, the individuals of the Directive or Governing Council. We now quote two of the articles which refer to the brethren in general.
“Article 3. Every member (of the society) must remember that when he is received by his brothers in Christ, it is on the ground of his being a man of faith, and having laid aside all miserable ambitions.
“Article 4. Every brother must practice evangelical Christianity with all assiduity and zeal, and must not look with indifference on the afflictions of his brethren, nor of the rest of mankind; dedicating himself constantly to this duty, and giving by his own example the highest stimulus to others.'
“We have drawn special attention to these passages because they, and all the rest of the rules, show with perfect distinctness the humane and charitable objects of the association, as well as the beneficent tendency and the laudable aim of its members.
“This line of conduct is in strict accordance with the sublime precepts of the gospel. Separation from degrading and corrupting vices, sincere and earnest faith, progressive moral culture, domestic love, the renunciation of mean and low ambitions, the continual exercise of Christian charity, voluntary sacrifices for the alleviation of the miseries and sorrows of mankind; such is the summary of the spirit of those wise maxims which our clients inculcated, and which they practiced with scrupulous zeal
"We wait now with tranquility for the decision which will, we doubt not, be the free and complete absolution of our clients. Can we do other than expect it I Can we believe for one moment that after all the sorrows and griefs which our clients have already suffered for so long a time, they could be condemned to a terrible and undeserved punishment I No; the law is above all the shield of the citizens' rights, and in virtue of its precepts the innocent who are unjustly accused can always be defended.
“The punishment inflicted upon an innocent mat can never be repealed. The suffering of the honorable citizen who has not infringed the rights of others, and has not injured them, afflicts and troubles society in all its breadth and depth.
“Behind our clients stands all Europe interested in this case, which involves her own rights and liberties, and waiting with impatience for the denouement of this drama, which seems not to belong to our age. The august doctrines of progress, the continual teaching of history, and the almost divine inspiration of reason, proclaim with trumpet voice the triumph of this cause, which is the cause of justice and of right, the cause of humanity and civilization.
“We live in a time of conflict. The field is ever open to contrary ideas, but truth loses nothing in the struggle, but rather gains ground by discussion, and, with its beneficent influence, dissipates the dense obscurity of error, and raises at last the banner of triumph. Finally, let it not be forgotten that the Catholic faith rejects by its first principles all intolerance, knowing that intolerance has been the fatal origin of so many heresies and of some deep schisms in the very bosom of the universal church.
“Away, then, forever with intolerance and its evil root from our noble and beautiful soil, and flourish here forever with an absolute empire the fertile idea of the unity of God and the love of all mankind in God.”