VIII 

 THE CAUSES OF PERSECUTION 



IN the first series of his admirable essays on 

 contemporary literature, M. Scherer re- 

 minds us that in 1841 Lacordaire wrote a 

 biography of St. Dominic, in order to prove 

 that he was not the founder of the Inquisition. 

 " Strange are the vicissitudes of opinion," ob- 

 serves the critic. " The Bollandists saw a title 

 of honour where the modern Dominican sees a 

 blemish which he would fain wipe away. While 

 the former scornfully asked what there can be 

 criminal or shameful in delivering heretics to 

 the torture, Lacordaire complains of the calum- 

 nies which have injured, in the eyes of posterity, 

 the reputation of the chief of his order." * The 

 case is indeed a striking one ; but the vicis- 

 situdes of opinion which it illustrates are in 

 no way temporary or accidental, but are symp- 

 tomatic of a general and progressive change in 

 the tempers and opinions of civilized men. The 

 interval of a century or more between the ear- 

 lier Bollandists and Lacordaire marked a new 

 era in this change of temper, in so far as perse- 

 1 fctudes sur la litter ature contemporaine, i. 159. 



