1826, ] History of the Spanish Inquisition. 469 
‘supreinacy. >| Rome had:but:three steps to take; and-be supreme over the 
-world=the subjection: of the Greek church, the abolition of the:fealty to 
‘the German emperors; and the extinction of the reformed. » The last was 
-the most essential;! and :it'was;commenced without loss of time. 
_ The suppression’ of presumed heresy had been: hitherto committed. to 
the bishops; and-many violent and sanguinaty measures had: been adopted 
under their authority ;) but Pope Innocent saw that the sweeping extinc- 
-tion»of those Christians was not to be entrusted to their hands. Indo- 
lence, old: age; the |want:of military means, the fear of retaliation, the 
natural reluctance to embrue themselves in the blood of their people, 
inust-have disqualified the majority of the stationary episcopal servants 
of Rome from lending themselves to its full vengeance. It is to be 
‘hoped, for the honour of our species, that there were many restrained 
by holier:motives. But the Pope determined on forming an order of 
official agénts) who should not fail him; an agency which was to be inde- 
pendent:of: the bishops; to communicate directly and solely with the 
-court.of Rome; to be free from all other authority; to circulate from 
‘kingdom to kingdom, through the whole Christian world, in chase of the 
Reformed ; and’ to be invested with the unquestioned power of trying 
-and sentencing all « heretics,” even to the extremities of torture and 
‘death. 
This system was commenced by sending out two monks as commis- 
-sioners through Narbonne: Gaul, to ‘inquire into and report the sgate 
of the Albigenses.”. ‘These were the first members of that scourge of the 
~-earth, the Inquisition. The name was not yet given, nor was the 
system itself yet regularly formed ; but the foundation was complete. 
> (But our ‘business is with the Spanish Inquisition—the most perma- 
nent of all| the-forms’taken by this horrible tribunal, the most inter- 
woven with ‘the government, the most complete-and regular in its ma- 
chinery;: and:the,most sweeping and insatiable in its slaughter. | It 
» emanated directly from Rome. In 1232, Pope Gregory the [Xth ad- 
»dressed.a’ brief tothe Archbishop of Tarragona, exhorting him to oppose 
»othe:progress: of heresy by every means in his power. The Archbishop 
sent the brief to! the provincial of the Dominicans, and the first Spanish 
_ Inquisition, was; founded in the diocese of Lerida. It was augmented 
with successive privileges by a long line of Popes, and. was rapidly 
erected into ‘the pride of popery and curse of Spain. 
'.The nature.of this tribunal was to engross all crimes, and to turn 
every thing that could impede its tyranny, or be made the material of 
its ambition, into.a‘crime. The list contained no less than fifteen classes, 
- under which it was scarcely possible for any human act to escape 
becoming an object of vengeance. 
The first, was heresy in general, including the suspicion of heresy ; 
jas\the Inquisitors said, that it was only by falling on the suspected, that 
theycould have a chance of crushing the guilty! The second was 
_ sorcery,,- The.third, the invocation of demons. The fourth, to remain 
-lenger.than,a year without seeking absolution after excommunication. 
=, The, fifth\was\ schism, The sixth, the concealment. of heretics... The 
, seventh; opposition to, the officers. The eighth, the refusal of the nobles 
"to swear that they would expel heretics from their states. The ninth, the 
negligence of governors in defending their towns against heretics. The 
_ tenth, the refusal to repeal statutes contrary to the will of the tri- 
~~ bunal. The eleventh, the assistance of heretics by lawyers. The 
