Filipe Nery Xavier

"Filipe Nery Xavier, in his periodical Gabinete Literatorio mentions an instance in which under the orders of the Inquisition an entire family of Bassein were burnt at stake and their home razed to the ground. He writes : “ In this same district (Bassein) we discovered in 1840, a part of a flat stone raised in 1786 on the site of » house which the Inquisition had ordered to be razed to the ground. This carried an inscription which read as follows : ‘“ They, being dogmatists of the said sect, practised rites and ceremonies with the participation of many other persons, and for this were condemned by the Holy Office and being delivered to secular justice burnt in the Auto de Fé celebrated on December 80, 1747, It was ordered that their houses should be demolished and ploughed with salt and this stone erected in detestation of the said crimes.” This action was according to the rule laid down in the code of the Inquisition.’ F. Nery Xavier states that in 1865 this stone was lying on the road broken in two parts."