1824.] 



Alps and Pyrenees, exercising every 

 Mlicrc an authority witbout bounds, and 

 becoming formidable to kings, as well 

 as to their people. 



It is not easy to calculate the num- 

 bers of the A Ibigeois condemned to the 

 flames, or immolated on the altars of a 

 religion which breathes only mildness 

 and mercy, — characters impressed on it 

 by its divine founder. 



In 1215, Innocent III. convened 

 another General Council, which took 

 the name of the Fourth of the Lateran. 

 This pope had decrees enacted here 

 against heretics, much more extensive 

 and severe than those of the Council of 

 A''erona. The delegated inquisitors were 

 formally authorised to act, cither in con- 

 cert with the bishops or without them, 

 as had been already done: the death, 

 however, of the pope intervened ; and it 

 was reserved for his successors to raise 

 a more permanent superstructure on the 

 foundations which he had laid. 



Some months prior to the death of 

 Innocent, St. Dominic had repaired to 

 Rome; and. Lis zeal rendering him 

 agreeable, he procured from the pope a 

 license to found an order, that was |)ro- 

 fessedly to preach against heretics. 

 Hereupon Dominic tie Guzman pro- 

 ceeded to organize the fraternity known 

 by the name of Dominicans, imposing 

 on them the rules of St. Augustine. It 

 was this Dominic who set on foot an 

 armed body, sometimes called the sol- 

 <licrs of Christ, whose successors after- 

 wards made themselves terrible under 

 the name of Familiars of the Inquisition. 



The Dominicans were to live in soli- 

 tude anil retreat; to make vows of 

 l)overty in their clothing and monaste- 

 ries, as also of mendicity and huniilily ; 

 they were to renounce all the ties of re- 

 lationship and old acquaintance, so as to 

 bavc no consideration for any. Their 

 family-names were to be dropped. All 

 circumstances combined to render them 

 liard, inllexible, and pitiless ; for it was 

 meant to form a tribunal more rigorous 

 than any ever yet heard of. The crab- 

 bed austerity of their rules, as exempli- 

 fied on their own persons, must tend to 

 warp them from any feelings of compas- 

 sion towarils their neighbours. 



Honorius III. successor to Innocent, 

 was so well satisfied with the conduct of 

 St. Dominic and his companions, that 

 lie sanclioneil the propagation of the 

 order in all the stales of Christendom ; 

 and the DiimiMieaiis soon had esfablish- 

 munts in Spain and Italy. 'I'hc ]ni{ui- 



MoNTHLY Mag. No. 3i).'i. 



Mr. Prior on the Theatres^ S)-c. 303 



sition was not introduced into Spain at 

 the same time with the Dominican friars, 

 as many authors have reported : it was 

 not established there till about the year 

 1232. But already, about the year 1221, 

 symptoms of heresy appearing in the 

 capital of the states of the church, 

 Honorius had issued a decree against 

 heretics in Italy, and procured the 

 sanction of a civil law to it from the 

 Emperor Frederic II. Three years 

 after, the Inquisition was in full force 

 throughout all parts of Italy, except 

 tiie republic of Venice and the kingdom 

 of Naples and Sicily. 



(To be continued.) 



For the Monthly Mayazine. 

 OBSERVATIONS ill reference to thea- 

 TRES, their PERFOKMiiRS and per- 

 formances. 



THE question, whether the stage is 

 or is not good in its tendency to 

 society ? has been discussed at debating- 

 rooms, and in many periodical prints : 

 some have decided in favour of, and 

 others against, dramatic amusements. 

 Those who have defended the stage, all 

 allow that their defence rests upon pro- 

 priety of management in every depart- 

 ment of the theatre. Thus, sir, I 

 ground my remarks upon a like neces- 

 sity, that if the stage is useful in forming 

 a standard of taste, — if useful in holding 

 the mirror of fashion to mankind, — if 

 useful by delineating |)assions, and show- 

 ing the consequent relations to vvhicli 

 their influence is susceptible, — then its 

 crude redundancies and superfluous 

 emanations must of necessity require 

 examination, to be according to its 

 original object, and which ought, there- 

 fore, to be submitted to the closest and 

 most rigid scrutiny to be worthy of pub- 

 lic patronage. The office of the Lord 

 Chamberlain is to be censor nf the stage, 

 he acting in his Majesty's behalf, that 

 nothing improper shall appear in any 

 theatre. To jjrove that he is this censor, 

 it would only require that political 

 pieces should be submitted to his in- 

 spection. But are not national polities 

 incompatible with national morals? The 

 Chamberlain should examine a play as 

 to its moral influence: if this were fa- 

 vourable, no liarm could possibly arise 

 to injure its political impression towards 

 king or people. But, by the immoral 

 sentiments which are scattered upon the 

 stage, it is to be presumed that the 

 Cliambrrlain either is unacquainted 

 with the duties of his censorship, or 

 2 II inattentive 



