The first step was to obtain leave for the
treat in contemplation from the sovereign.
Charles the Sixth, the third king of Sicily of
the name. He writes in Spanish from Prague
on the 7th of, July, 1723, "not only approving
the celebration, but with splendid liberality
promising that the royal treasury should supply
the expenses necessary for carrying it out wiih
all possible punctuality and splendour."

Then the 6th of April, 1724, is fixed by the
Inquisitors as the great day. And Don Francesco
Perino, clad in a gown of crimson velvet,
and mounted on a horse caparisoned with gold
brocaded trappings, and attended by the constables
of the senate, all in crimson velvet
gowns, and further attended by trumpeters,
pipers, drummers, and cymbal-players, is sent
to ride through the city and make proclamation
of the intended Public Act, with due notice of
time and place. He also proclaims the indulgences
promised by the Holy Father to all
those who shall be present on the occasion.
Everybody is invited; " taking note, however,
that they are to come in the best clothes that
they can wear, in order to appear duly decorated
for the great lustre of the occasion, and glory
of God."

There is first to be a great procession from
the Palace of the Inquisition to the theatre
prepared for the celebration of the "Act of
Faith," carrying the great "green cross" of
the Inquisition, which will be erected on the
altar in the theatre on that day, and will remain
there all that night in custody of officers
of the Inquisition. Special invitations are sent
to all the civil and ecclesiastical bodies to take
part in the procession. Only to the "bare-
footed Augustines " no invitation is sent, for
"reasons of convenience and propriety," i.e.,
because the man to be burned was one of their
body. Specially the company of "La Vergine
Assunta" was invited not only to be present,
but to perform their part of the show. They
were instituted for the express purpose of endeavouring
to save the souls of those condemned
by the Inquisition, by convincing them of their
errors. The company of the " Assuntu'' would
have been terribly affronted if they had not
been duly invited to play their part in the
spectacle. They kept twelve theologians specially
trained to hunt down heresy into its last
retreats. And all of these were brought to
bear upon the obstinate heretics, a couple at a
time at first, and then as the last hour drew
near, all twelve together!

On the following day, the 6th, there is to be
another great and solemn procession, on the
occasion of bringing the prisoners from the
prison of the Inquisition to the theatre.
Everybody in Palermo, who had any sort of
civil or religious status whatsoever, is to take
part in this; a great number of them on
horseback, many carrying huge lighted tapers
of yellow wax, and all in the fullest of full
dress.

Then we have a detailed description of the
theatre: not the place where the last scene
of all, the actual burning, was to take place,
but that in which the reading of the sentences
with great pomp, and in the presence of almost
all the city, was to be performed. Thence the
prisoners were to be taken, with more " pride,
pomp, and circumstance," to another spot hard
by.

This theatre was erected on a large open
space immediately on the south side of the
cathedral. Every detail of the construction,
with the measurements of every part, is
given by Canon Mongitore. We may, however,
content ourselves with a general notion
of the arrangement and appearance of
the whole. In the old book, from which the
reprint has been made, and which may still
be seen in the Magliabecchian library, there
is a large illustration, not reproduced in the
reprint.

Supposing a wooden building of vast size to
have been raised, much in the form of an ordinary
theatre, let the reader represent to himself
a huge and lofty throne occupying the
centre of what in such a theatre would be the
stage. This is for the three Inquisitors, with
lower seats by the side of, and beneath it, for
their principal officials. A series of compartments,
very much in the nature of the boxes
in a theatre, but more extensive, occupy the
place of the ordinary boxes; except that at one
part of the semicircle there is an open space
left void, in order to allow a free view of the
proceedings to a distinguished portion of the
rank and fashion of Palermo, who occupy the
balconies and windows of a neighbouring
palace. All this range of boxes is assigned to
the various public bodies of the city. Two
large galleries, however, are set apart, one for
the Princess Roecaporita, and one for the
Princess Resuttana, and the ladies in great
numbers invited by them.

In the middle of the space occupied by the
orchestra in theatres destined to less holy purposes,
is an isolated stage, high, but of small
dimensions. This is to be occupied by the prisoners
one at a time. There are twenty-eight
of them; but only two are to be burned. The
others having abjured their errors, and become
reconciled to the Church, are to receive their
sentences to minor punishments. These six-
and-twenty, of both sexes, are accused, for the
most part, of bigamy and fortune-telling; the
men mainly of the first; the women of the
second, crime. And they are condemned to
various terms of seclusion, imprisonment,
banishment, forced labour, and in every case
to a sort of pillory procession through the
city. There is a species of dock at the back
part of the pit for all these prisoners, and
leading from that to the high stage in the
middle of the orchestra is a raised pathway—
much like that used by flying-leap performers
with the trapeze—along which the criminals
are to be brought one by one to take their
stand on the high stage, while their crimes are
rehearsed and their sentences read. The hero
and heroine of the day are reserved to the
last; the other twenty-six are evidently regarded
by all the assemblage as mere obstructions