After these preliminaries, of which the results were carefully recorded, he was asked whether he knew, presumed or suspected the cause of his arrest. With rare exceptions, the reply was in the negative and then followed what was known as the first of three monitions. There is no trace of these in the earliest trials, but toward 1490 an informal monition makes its appearance and the Instructions of 1498, in requiring the formal accusation to be presented within ten days after arrest, prescribed that within that time the necessary admonitions shall be given.[105] In 1525 a letter of Manrique shows that these monitions then were three, but they still were negligently observed, and in trials from that time until 1550 they vary from none to three.[106]
After the Instructions of 1561, the three monitions became the established rule in cases of heresy, while one sufficed in lighter matters. The formula was formidable. The accused was told that, in the Holy Office, no one was arrested without sufficient evidence of his having done or witnessed something contrary to the faith or to the free exercise of the Inquisition, so that he must believe that he has been brought hither on such information. Therefore, by the reverence due to God and his glorious and blessed Mother, he was admonished and charged to search his memory and confess the whole truth as to what he feels himself inculpated, or knows of other persons, without concealment or false-witness, for in so doing he will discharge his conscience as a Catholic Christian, he will save his soul and his case will be despatched with all speed and befitting mercy, but otherwise justice will be done. At intervals a second and a third monition were given, the last one ending with the warning that the fiscal desired to present an accusation against him, and it would be for his benefit, both for the relief of his conscience and for the favorable and speedy despatch of his case, if he would tell the truth before its presentation, as thus he could be treated with the mercy which the Holy Office was wont to show to good confessors; otherwise he was warned that the fiscal would be heard and justice would be done.[107]
This brought an exceedingly effectual pressure to bear upon the anxious prisoner, especially when the system of delay, whether calculated or merely procrastinating, left him for months, and perhaps years, to lie in his cell, shut out from the world, brooding over his fate, and torturing himself with conjectures as to the evidence so confidently assumed to be conclusive against him. He was simply admonished to discharge his conscience, being kept in the dark as to the crimes of which he was accused, and left to search his heart and guess as to what he had done to bring him before the terrible tribunal. This had the further utility that in many cases it led to confession of derelictions unknown to the prosecution, his impassible judges coldly accepting his revelations and remanding him to his cell with fresh adjurations to search his memory and clear his conscience.