Despite clear instructions from Rome to punish blasphemers severely, profanity proved difficult to control in Malta where heavy swearing dates back at least three centuries.

The Inquisitors deemed profane words and actions in contempt of God, the Virgin Mary or the saints as blasphemous and much more offensive to God than superstition.

An edict by Pope Benedict XIV in 1745 condemning blasphemers, which was displayed in public places and read out in churches, is among the artefacts being exhibited at the Inquisitor’s Palace, in Vittoriosa, the only such edifice in the world still open to the public.

Preceded by the medieval and Spanish inquisition, the Roman one saw a series of 61 prelates being sent by the Holy See between the 16th and 18th centuries. Many became cardinals or governors and two were later popes: Pope Innocent XII and Pope Alexander VII. Their chasuble and red liturgical shoes are on display at the palace.

Much like today’s Papal Nuncio, the inquisitor was the representative, or apostolic delegate, of the Pope in Malta. His other role was that of supreme judge of the Holy Inquisition.

Curator Kenneth Cassar said the exhibition, organised by Heritage Malta and which will remain open until May 1, was meant to show how the inquisitors spent their days on the island.

The “star artefact” at the exhibition is a silver and wooden reliquary, featuring the flagellation of Christ, by Alessandro Algardi and Francois Duquesnoy, which Inquisitor Gregorio Salviati gave to Grand Master Emanuel Pinto.

There are also mid-16th century documents noting that the infiltration of Lutheran ideas was being felt even in Malta and the island needed an Inquisition Court.

Archives documenting thousands of cases heard by the court – dealing with magic spells, curses, blasphemy and reading prohibited books – are intact and come complete with exhibits seized by the court. One curious item is a stitched paper hat with magical Arab script on the inside confiscated between 1600 and 1605.

A certain Joseph Gellel had accused his master, Didacus Mifsud, of seeking a remedy for bad headaches from a Muslim slave.

The hat sits not far away from a silver ciborium which, containing consecrated hosts, had been stolen from the parish church of Bir Miftuħ in 1663 only to be found three days later at St James church, Valletta.

The receptacle was found thanks to a note, which is also on display at the museum, fixed to the door of S John’s conventual church indicating that the person who stole it was hidden in the house of a knight.

A paper hat with an Arab spell was among the artefacts seized by the Inquisition’s Court.

Contrary to common misperception, torture was only resorted to by the court in fewer than one per cent of the cases in a bid to ‘persuade’ the accused to admit the truth. Instead, the court would usually order the accused to say the rosary, go to Mass or confess their sins.

Punishment got harsher if they were repeat offenders and they could be jailed, sentenced to row on a vessel or be exiled. In more than 200 years, eight were sentenced to death.

The accused came from all walks of life. Among them was a confessor who abused a woman and was sentenced to seven years of rowing and the son of Maltese architect Girolamo Cassar, Vittorio, who was accused of practising a high level of magic and fortune telling.

Michelangelo Merisi di Caravaggio had been summoned to testify in the case of a person accused of sleeping with different women.

Apart from artefacts that tell the tale of the Roman Inquisition in Malta, the exhibition includes a 3D digital construction of the Inquisitor’s Palace that was built in the medieval times and continued to be extended until the High Baroque times.

This digital representation includes details found in a 1609 study plan of the building. Elevation plans discovered last year provide an insight into some of the palace’s furnishings.

The exhibition is being held in collaboration with the Mdina Cathedral Archives, the University of Malta and the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Floriana-Valletta clash

The centuries-old rivalry between the Furjaniżi and Beltin dates back to before the parish of Floriana was even set up.

A 1728 plan of Cittá Valletta, e suo Borgo della Floriana was presented to the inquisitor as proof that the town just outside the capital was separate from Valletta in a bid to allow Floriana residents to set up their own parish.

Apart from matters of faith, the inquisitor was often consulted as apostolic delegate and a special delegate of the Holy See to moderate or diplomatically solve issues.

One such problem was a jurisdictional controversy between Valletta and Floriana and the 1728 manuscript, found at the Cathedral Archives, in Mdina, and now on display at the Inquisitor’s Palace, is probably the earliest reference to a time-honoured rivalry.