Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

XIII.

CENT. ARNAUD, inquisitors of heretical pravity at Tholouse, PART II. and afterwards proceeded in every city, where the Dominicans had a convent, to constitute officers of the same nature, chosen from among the monks of that celebrated order [f]. From this period we are to date the commencement of the dreadful tribunal of the inquisition, which in this and the following ages subdued such a prodigious multitude of heretics, part of whom were converted to the church by terror, and the rest committed to the flames without mercy. For the Dominicans erected, first at Tholouse, and afterwards at Carcassone and other places, a tremendous court, before which were summoned not only beretics, and persons suspected of heresy, but likewise all who were accused of magic, sorcery, judaism, witchcraft, and other crimes of that kind. This tribunal, in process of time, was erected in the other countries of Europe, though not every where with the same success [g]. V.

[f] ECHARD & PERCINUS loc. citat.

[8] The accounts we have here given of the first rise of the Inquisition, though founded upon the most unexceptionable testimonies and the most authentic records, are yet very different from those that are to be found in most authors. Certain learned men tell us, that the Tribunal of the Inquisition was the invention of St DOMINIC, and was first erected by him in the city of Tholouse: that he, of consequence, was the first inquisitor: that the years of its institution is indeed uncertain; but that it was undoubtedly confirmed in a solemn manner, by INNOCENT III. in the council of the Lateran, in the year 1215. See Jo. ALB. FABRICIUS, in his Lux Evangelii toti orbi exoriens, p. 569.— PHIL. LIMBORCHI Historia Inquisit. lib. i. c. x. p. 39. and the other writers mentioned by FABRICIUS. I will not affirm, that the writers who give this account of the matter have advanced all this without authority; but this I will venture to say, that the authors, whom they have taken for their guides, are not of the first rate in point of merit and credibility. LIMBORCH, whose History in the Inquisition is looked upon as a most important and capital work, is generally followed by modern writers in their accounts of that odious tribunal. But, however laudable that historian may have been in point of fidelity and diligence,

XIII.

V. The method of proceeding in this court ofC EN T. inquisition was at first simple, and almost in every PART II. respect similar to that which was observed in the ordinary courts of justice [b]. But this simplicity was gradually changed by the Dominicans, to whom experience suggested several new methods of augmenting the pomp and majesty of their spiritual tribunal, and who made such alterations in the forms of proceedings, that the manner of taking

ligence, it is certain, that he was but little acquainted with the ecclesiastical history of the middle age; that he drew his materials, not from the true and original sources, but from writers of a second class, and thus has fallen, in the course of his history, into various mistakes. His account of the origin of the inquisition is undoubtedly false; nor does that which is given by many other writers approach nearer to the truth. The circumstances of this account, which I have mentioned in the beginning of this note, are more especially destitute of all foundation. Many of the Dominicans, who, in our times, have presided in the court of inquisition, and have extolled the sanctity of that pious institution, deny, at the same time, that DOMINIC was its founder, as also that he was the first inquisitor, nay, that he was an inquisitor at all. They go still farther, and affirm, that the court of inquisition was not erected during the life of St DOMINIC. Nor is all this advanced inconsiderately, as every impartial inquixer into the proofs they allege will easily perceive. Nevertheless, the question, Whether or not St DOMINIC was an inquisitor? seems to be merely a dispute about words, and depends entirely upon the different significations of which the term inquisitor is susceptible. That word, according to its original meaning, signified a person invested with the commission and authority of the Roman pontif to extirpate heresy and oppose its abettors, but not cloathed with any judicial power. But it soon acquired a different meaning, and signified a person appointed by the Roman pontif to proceed judicially against heretics and such as were suspected of heresy, to pronounce sentence according to their respective cases, and to deliver over to the secular arm such as persisted obstinately in their errors. In this latter sense DOMINIC was not an inquisitor; since it is well known that there were no papal judges of this nature before the pontificate of GREGORY IX. but he was undoubtedly an inquisitor in the original sense

that was attached to that term.

[b] The records, published by the Benedictines in their Histoire Gener. de Languedoc, tom. iii. p. 371. shew the simplicity that reigned in the proceedings of the inquisition at its first Institution.

XIII. PART II.

CEN T. taking cognizance of heretical causes became totally different from that which was usual in civil affairs. These friars were, to say the truth, entirely ignorant of judicial matters; nor were they acquainted with the procedures of any other tribunal, than that which was called, in the Roman church, the Tribunal of penance. It was therefore after this, that they modelled the new court of Inquisition, as far as a resemblance between the two was possible; and hence arose that strange system of inquisitorial law, which, in many respects, is so contrary to the common feelings of humanity, and the plainest dictates of equity and justice. This is the important circumstance by which we are enabled to account for the absurd, imprudent, and iniquitous proceedings of the inquisitors, against persons that are accused of holding, what they call, heretical opinions.

The rights VI. That nothing might be wanting to render and privi- this spiritual court formidable and tremendous, leges grant-the Roman pontifs persuaded the European inquisition. princes, and more especially the Emperor FRE

ed to the

DERIC II. and LEWIS IX. king of France, not only to enact the most barbarous laws against heretics, and to commit to the flames, by the ministry of public justice, those who were pronounced such by the inquisitors, but also to maintain the inquisitors in their office, and grant them their protection in the most open and solemn manner. The edicts to this purpose issued out by FREDERIC II. are well known; edicts every way proper to excite horror, and which rendered the most illustrious piety and virtue incapable of saving from the cruellest death such as had the misfortune to be disagreeable to the inquisitors [i]. These abominable laws were not, how

ever,

[i] The law of the emperor FREDERIC, in relation to the inquisitors, may be seen in LIMBORCH's History of the Inquisi

PART II.

ever, sufficient to restrain the just indignation ofc E N T. the people against these inhuman judges, whose XIII. barbarity was accompanied with superstition and arrogance, with a spirit of suspicion and perfidy, nay, even with temerity and imprudence. Accordingly they were insulted by the multitude in many places, were driven, in an ignominious manner, out of some cities, and were put to death in others; and CONRAD of Marpurg, the first German inquisitor, who derived his commission from GREGORY IX. was one of the many victims that were sacrificed upon this occassion to the vengeance of the public [k], which his incredible barbarities had raised to a dreadful degree of vehemence and fury [1].

tion, as also in the Epistles of PIERRE DE VIGNES, and in Bzo-
VIUS RAYNALDUS, &c. The edict of St Lewis, in favour
of these ghostly judges, is generally known under the title of
Cupientes; for so it is called by the French lawyers on account
of its beginning with that word. It was issued out in the year
1229, as the Benedictine monks have proved sufficiently in their
Hist. Generale de Languedoc, tom. iii. p. 378. 575. It is also
published by CATELIUS, in his Histor. Comit. Tolosanor. p. 340.
and in many other authors. This edict is as severe and inhu-
man, to the full, as the laws of FREDERIC II. For a great
part
of the sanctity of good king LEWIS consisted in his furious
and implacable aversion to heretics, against whom he judged it
more expedient to employ the influence of racks and gibbets,
than the power of reason and argument. See Du FRESNE,
Vita Ludovici a Joinvillio scripta, p. 11. 39.

[k] The life of this furious and celebrated inquisitor has been composed from the most authentic records that are extant, and also from several valuable manuscripts by the learned JOHN HERMAN SCHMINKIUS. See also WADDING. Annal. Minor. tom. ii. p. 151. 355. & ECHARD Scriptor. Dominican. tom. i. P. 487.

[1] The Abbé FLEURY acknowledges the brutal barbarity of this unrelenting inquisitor, who, under the pretext of heresy, not only committed to the flames a prodigious number of nobles, clerks, monks, hermits, and lay-persons of all ranks, but moreover caused them to be put to death, the very same day they were accused, without appeal. See FLEURY, Hist Eccles. livr. lxxx, sect. xxiv.

VOL. III.

Τ

VII.

CENT.
XIII

Severer methods

are en

ployed a

gainst

the

VII. When INNOCENT III. perceived that the PART II labours of the first inquisitors were not immediately attended with such abundant fruits as he had fondly expected, he addressed himself, in the year 1207, to PHILIP AUGUSTUS, king of France, and to the leading men of that nation, soliciting them heretics. by the alluring promise of the most ample indulgences, to extirpate all, whom he thought proper to call heretics, by fire and sword [m]. This exhortation was repeated with new accessions of fervour and earnestness, the year following, when PIERRE DE CASTELNAU, the legate of this pontif, and his inquisitor in France, was put to death by the patrons of the people, called heretics [n]. Not long after this, the Cistertian monks, in the name of this pope, proclaimed a crusade against the heretics throughout the whole kingdom of France, and a storm seemed to be gathering against them on all sides: RAYMOND VI. earl of Tholouse, in whose territories CASTELNAU had been massacred, was solemnly excommunicated, and, to deliver himself from this ecclesiastical malediction, changed sides, and embarked in the crusade now mentioned. In the year 1209, a formidable army of cross-bearers commenced against the heretics, who were comprehended under the general denomination of Albigenses [o],

an

[m] INNOCENTII III. Epistola, Lib. x. Epist. 49. [n] Id. ibid. Lib. xi. Ep. 26, 27, 28, 29.-Acta Sanctor. Mart. tom. i. p. 411.

[o] The term Albigenses is used in two senses, of which the one is general, and the other more confined. In its more general and extensive sense it comprehends all the various kinds of heretics who resided at this time in Narbonne-Gaul, i. e. in the southern parts of France. This appears from the following passage of PETRUS SARNENSIS, who, in the Dedication of his His tory of the Albigenses to Innocent III. expresses himself thus: Tolosani et aliarumcivitatum, et castrorum bæretici, et defensores eorum generaliter Albigenses vocantur. The same author divides afterwards the Albigenses into various sects (Cap. ii. p. 3 & 8.)

of

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »