INQUISITION, THE. 



INQUISITION, Till: 



! 



be allowed to remain in the date of Milan; that any person 

 might by handi on a heretic and bring him before tin- niagis- 

 traUe; that those who were convicted u heretics by the Ecclesi- 

 astical Court nhoiikt be executed by the pnetor within ten days, 

 their houM pulled down, and their property confiscated to the com- 

 munity." (Calchi, ' HUtorue Patrue,' b. xiii. ; Corio, ' Storia di Milano,' 

 put it, p. 72 ; Verri, Storia di Milano/ ch, ix.1 No lew than fiftcvn 

 ecu of heretic., with linage name., are enumerated by theee histo- 

 rians a* having been discovered within the state of Milan. The arch- 

 erf Milan at the time was Enrico da Settala, who exerted hinuelf 

 in rooting out the heretic*, and having probably exceeded all 



t he wu t last banished by the council of the republic, for 



which the council and the podesU were excommunicated by the pope, 

 In the inscription on the tomb of this archbishop, it was stated th.it 

 WMIJ appointed inquisitor, ha destroyed the heretics." It was about 

 the year 1233 that Pope Gregory IX. laid down the rules and d>-hn. .1 

 the jurisdiction of the inquisitors court*, which he sent ;to various 

 countries, under the name of Inquisitorial Missions. He appointed as 

 chief inquisitor in Lombardy, Pietro da Verona, a Dominican monk, 

 who was strenuously seconded by the then podesti of Milan, Oldrado 

 daTresseno, who consigned to the flame* numerous heretics. The 

 likeness of this podestfwas, not many yean since, and probably is 

 still, seen, sculptured in relief in the facade of the hall of the municipal 

 council at Milan, with an inscription recording, among other things, 

 that he had burnt the heretics as in duty bound : " Catharos, ut 

 debuit, uxit," The chronicler Fiauima says, that he was the first who 

 put heretics to death in Milan. By degrees inquisitors were sent by 

 the popes to most Italian cities and states, where, with the consent of 

 the local authorities, they established their tribunal, and had their 

 officers, notaries, informen, and other agents. Dominican monks were 

 generally employed as inquisitors, as the principal object of the insti- 

 tution of their order was to defend the orthodox faith by arguing and 

 .reaching against heresy, on which account they are styled " Fratres 

 .'ncdicatores," or brother preachen. The inquisitor Pietro da Verona, 

 in the course of nineteen years, burnt a great number of heretic* 

 throughout Lombardy, banished or frightened away a still greater 

 number, and confiscated their property. A certain Confaloniere of 

 Alliate, being warned that he was on Fra Pictro's list, conspired with 

 several of his friends, who lay in wait for the inquisitor, and on the 

 6th of April, 1252, as he was returning from Como to Milan, in com- 

 pany with another Dominican, they killed him near Barlaasina, and 

 wounded his companion, who died a few days after. The inquisitor 

 was shortly after canonized by Pope Innocent IV., under the title of 

 St. Peter Martyr. In 1277, another Dominican, brother Pagano da 

 Lecco, was killed in the same manner in Valtullina. 



The chroniclers of the various cities of Lombardy record the acts of 

 the inquisiton, and the number of heretics and witches whom they 

 put to death at particular times. The chronicle of Munlto states that 

 brother Antonio da Casale, inquisitor of Como, in 1416, sent three 

 hundred heretics to the stake in one single year. Tartarotti states 

 that in the year T485 forty-one witches were burned at Como. Borto- 

 lomco Spina, ' De Strigibus,' ch. 13, states that in the diocese of Como 

 the number of those who were tried annually by the Inquisition ex- 

 ceeded one thousand ; that the inquisitor employed eight, ten, and 

 Hi more vicars, and that almost every year about one hundred 

 ions were burned. (' Lettere del Conte Qymbattista Oiovio all' Abate 

 ttinclli,' letter vi.) 



The Inquisition was introduced into Rome as well as other parts of 

 Italy by Gregory IX., and entrusted to the Dominicans, but it was a 

 long time before it was established as a distinct and permanent court. 

 Inquisitors were apjwinted by the pope on particular occasions, who 

 visited the various provinces and towns, proclaiming to all persons the 

 obligation they were under of informing against those whom they knew 

 or suspected of being heretics, under pain of excommunication. At 

 the same time they also made it known that all persons guilty of 

 heresy who came of themselves before the inquisitor within a certain 

 fixed period, and accused themselves and professed repentance, should 

 receive absolution and be only subject to a canonical penance. These 

 penances were public, humiliating, and very severe, as may bo seen by 

 a letter of St. Dominic concerning a heretic whom he had converted, 

 by the act* of the council of Boners, in 1283, and of the council of 

 Tamcona in 1242. After the expiration of the period of grace, the 

 inquisitor proceeded ex-ojffio against those who were denounced, the 

 name of the informer being Kept secret: he examined witnesses 

 privately in presence of a notary and two priests, and having taken 

 down the evidence in writing, h.e read it over to the witnesses, 

 who were asked whether they confirmed what had been read. 

 If there appeared to be sufficient- grounds for proceeding against the 

 sxniil, the inquisitor ordered his arrest by the munici|nl officers, and 

 he was taken to the convent of the Dominican*, if there w<u one in the 

 town, or to the prison of the ecclesiastical court. He wan then interro- 

 gated by the inquisitor, and his answen might be used afterwards as 

 evidence against him. If the accused denied the charge of heresy, he 

 was supplied with a copy of the instruction and depositions, 1ml with- 

 out the names of the accuser and witnesses, and with the omission of 

 mi> li circumstance* as might discover them. The accused having made 

 his answer or defence, which was taken down in writing, if he denied 

 the charges, the inquisitor, together with the bishop of the diocese or 



bis delegate, if they thought proper, ordered him to be put to the tor- 

 ture in order t<> obtain his confession. The torture might be repeated 

 three times, but it was afterwards ordered to be applied only once ; 

 this regulation, however, was often evaded by sunprmling the torments 

 and then resuming them, and considering the whole as one torture. 

 If in the end there were not sufficient grounds for the ciivi< 

 the prisoner, he was declared to be " suspected of heresy," was obliged 

 to make a public abjuration of all heresies, and was subject to certain 

 penalties, according to the nature of the case. If the accused was con- 

 victed of heresy, but professed his repentance, he was condemned to 

 prison for life a penalty which, however, might be mitigatol 

 inquisitor. But if he was a relajauil, that is to say, had been tried 

 before, and found guilty or only strongly suspected, there was no 

 mercy for him : be was " relaxatus ; " that is to say, given over 

 lay magistrate, who, according to the civil and canon laws, was bound 

 to put him to death upon the sentence of the inquisitor which declared 

 him a heretic. The only favour shown to the relapsed heretic who 

 confessed and abjured his guilt was, to be strangled before he was 

 burnt. If the convicted heretic was not relapsed, but impenitent, a 

 respite of the sentence was granted in order to effect his conversion, 

 and if he at last abjured his life was spared, and he was sentenced to 

 perpetual imprisonment. If he persisted in his impenitence, he was 

 publicly burned alive. Such were the principal characteristics i tin' 

 old or delegated Inquisition as it existed from the 13th century to the 

 latter part of the 15th, and the regulations of which are found in the 

 ' Directorium Inquisitorum ' of Friar Nicholas Eynieric, a native of 

 Catalonia, and a Dominican monk of the 14th century, who held the 

 office of chief inquisitor in Aragon for 42 yean. 



The Inquisition had nearly fallen into disuse in the kingdom of 

 Aragon in the 15th century, in consequence of the total extinction - i' 

 the heretical sects in the south of France, whose spreading on the other 

 side of the Pyrenees had occasioned the introduction of the iuqui.-i- 

 tional courts into Catalonia and Aragon. In the kingdoms of Castile 

 and Leon, and of Portugal, the Inquisition had not yet taken perma- 

 nent root. But towards the end of the 15th century the Holy Office 

 was introduced into Spain under a new and more appalling form, and 

 became consolidated and permanent, and more absolute and independent 

 than in any other country of Europe. This is what is designated by 

 Llorente and other writers by the name of the ' Modern or Spanish 

 Inquisition.' 



Alfonso de Hodeja, prior of the Dominican convent of Seville, and 

 Friar Philip de Barberis, inquisitor of the kingdom of Sicily, which 

 was then subject to the crown of Aragon, suggested to Ferdinand and 

 Isabella, in 1477, the establishment of the Inquisition in Sp.-iin l'"r tin- 

 purpose of punishing those Christians who secretly relapsed to the 

 Jewish faith. The converts, or children of converts, from Judaism, 

 were looked upon with dislike aad mistrust by the old Christians ; and 

 many of thorn were at the same tiine among the wealthiest merchants 

 and monied men of Spain, and as such* had numerous debtors. Reports 

 were spread of their secret meetings with those who had remained 

 Jews, of their profaning the images of Jesus Christ, and even crucifying 

 Christian children. Ferdinand easily listened to the suggestion ; but 

 Isabella, a princess of mild character, hesitated for some tin 

 without her consent nothing could be effected in the dominions of the 

 crown of Castile. Means were at last found to alarm her conscience : 

 she was told that the interests of religion required her acquiescence, and 

 accordingly she solicited, by means of her ambassador at Rome, a papal 

 bull, authorising the establishment of the Inquisition hi the kingdom of 

 Castile. The bull, despatched from Rome in November, 1478, authorised 

 Ferdinand and Isabella to appoint two or three bishops or other digni- 

 taries of the Church, aged at least forty years, of irreproachable cli.i 

 graduates in theology and the canon law, who were to be coiiiinis-i.-n- .1 

 to seek after and discover, throughout the dominions of the Spanish 

 sovereigns, all apostates, heretics, and their abettors, with full 

 to proceed against them according to law and custom. Isabella, h<>\\- 

 ever, suspended the execution of the bull for two yean, desiring at the 

 same time that measures of persuasion should be adopted to warn the 

 relapsed converts of their error and of their danger. A catechism was 

 composed expressly for them, and several pamphlets against Judaism 

 were issued. In 1480 the Cortes of Castile assembled at Toledo, and 

 passed several restrictive measures against the Jews, with the \ 

 checking their intercourse with the Christians. Nothing, however, was 

 said in that assembly about the Inquisition. At last, in Sept. 

 1480, Ferdinand and Isabella, who were then staying at Medina del 

 Campo, appointed two Dominicans as inquisiton, with an assessor and 

 a fiscal attorney ; and on the 9th of October a royal order was 

 despatched to the governon of provinces to furnish the new inqui- 

 sitors and their retinue with everything necessary for their journey to 

 Seville; and at the same time their privileges were declared, which 

 were the same as those granted by the Emperor Frederic 1 1. to the 

 inquisitors in Italy in the 13th century. The inquisitors established 

 their court in the Dominican convent of St. Paul of Seville, whence, 

 on the 2nd of January, 1481, they issued their first edict, by which 

 they ordered the arrest of several " new Christians," as they were 

 styled, who were strongly suspected of heresy, and the sequestration 

 of their property, denouncing the pain of excommunication against 

 those who favoured or abetted them. The number of prisoners soon 

 became so great that, the Dominican convent not being large enough 



