John Coustos 

John Coustos was a Freemason who was tortured by the Inquisition of the Catholic Church in Lisbon, Portugal.

He was a native of Switzerland and was taken by his parents to England in 1716.

He was a lapidary by profession.

He practiced Freemasonry and a woman told the Inquisition about him being a Freemason at a confessional.

The Inquisition captured him in March of 1743.

He was put in a dungeon.

He was charged with speaking injuriously toward the Catholic Religion which he denied.

The Inquisition demanded the Masonic Secrets which of course he would not reveal to them.

He was deemed a heretic and told that he must become a Roman Catholic before it was too late.

He was then tortured on the rack to the point that his judges deemed that if he died from the tortures it would make him guilty of self murder.

Other tortures followed but he was finally released when King George II demanded and secured his release as he was a British Subject.

He was released in October of 1744.

See "The Story of Freemasonry" by Sibley, pages 21-23.