ABSTRACT
The legacy of partisan justice under Stalin, part of the long tradition from the czars, continued on in Soviet psycho-prisons. South Africa under apartheid provided all too many examples of both internments without trial and partisan show trials. Partisan trials have only one agenda, power, and one issue, expediency, which serves as the substitute for justice. If simplicity and certainty are legal virtues, partisan trials come with high recommendation. The inquisitorial process began with an oath, promise to answer all questions asked, to betray all heretics known, and to perform all penance imposed. While a legal procedure based on Roman and canon law developed long before an inquisition, from the thirteenth century on an institutional inquisition was employed by the papacy. While it is difficult to conclude that Fawkes and the others were framed in the Gunpowder Plot, it's equally difficult to ignore the partisan use Cecil made of the plot against the Jesuits and the Roman Catholics of England.
