Section 806

Synod of Verona, in 1184, certain directions were given j to the bishops " concerning heretics," who at this time formed a verv formidable enemy of the Komisli Church, more especially in the south of France. The sects had become so numerous that some of them, such as the Cathari (q. v.), the Albigenses (q. v.), and the Walden- sians (q. v.), threatened the verj^ existence of the papal hierarchy, and this led Innocent III (q. v.) in 1198 to dispatch the Cisteroians Eaineri and Guido, and in 1206 Peter of Castehiau and Raoid, as papal legates to France, to assist the bishops and the civil authorities in punish- ing all heretics with the utmost rigor. But, to eiface forever the last vestige of heresy. Innocent III deter- mined to make a permanent institution of the Inquisi- tion, "the most formidable of all the formidable engines devised by popery to subdue the souls and bodies, the reason and the consciences of men, to its sovereign will." Accordmgly, the fourth Lateran Council (1215) made the persecution of heretics the chief business of synodal courts, in the form that every archbishop or bishop should visit, either personally, or through the archdea- con, or some other suitable person, the parish in which, according to rumor {in quafumafuerit), there were her- etics, and put under oath two or three of the inhabitants of irreproachable character, or, if necessarj% all the in- habitants, to point out those who were known as here- tics, or those who held secret meetings, or departed from the faithful in their walk and conduct. The refusal to take oath justified the suspicion of heresy, kcei-etica; pravitaHs; the careless bishop was deposed (comp.Bie- ner, Beitrdge z. d. Gesch.des hquisitionsprozesses [Lpz. 1827], p. 60 sq.). In name, the bishops still conducted the matter, but the legates had supervision over them, and, in fact, conducted the persecution of heretics. In 1229 the Council of Toulouse confirmed this decision of the fourth Lateran Council, and published forty-five de- crees to complete the institution of episcopal inquisition (see Mansi, xxiii, 192 ; Planck, Oesch. d. Kirchl. Geaell- schaflsverfmmng, iv, 2d half, 463 sq.). It was decided that each bishop shoidd appoint in each district one priest and two or three laymen in good standing, who should devote themselves exclusively to ferreting out heretics, and then deliver them up to the archbishops, bishops, or other authorities for punishment. Every one guilty of concealing a heretic forfeited thereby his land jiossessions or offices; the house in which a heretic was found was to be torn down. In case of sickness, however severe, no heretic or unbeliever was to be al- lowed the aid of a physician ; penitents were to leave their home, to wear a peculiar dress, and could hold no office except by a special dispensation from the pope. But, notwithstanding these rigid and definite regula- tions, and notwithstanding the great zeal of the legates in urging the execution of the laws by the bishops, the see of Home did not even approach the desired end. To accomplish this more certaiidy, the affairs of the In- quisition were taken from the bishops, and made a papal tribunal, and the bishops themselves were subjected to it. Accordingly, Gregory' IX ai)i)ointed, in 1232, in Ger- many, Aragonia, and Austria, in 1233 in Lombardy and South France (see Beziers, anno 1233, in JMansi, xxiii, 269 sq.; Kaynald, Amml. a. 12.33, n. 59 sq.), the Domin- icans (q. V.) permanent papal inquisitors (later also the Franciscans became such). "The solitude and retire- ment of which these monks made iirofession, but of which, as it a])])eared in the sctiuel. they sixm liegan to tire, afforded them leisure to attend incessantly to this new calling. The meanness of their dress, the poverty of ili( ir monasteries, and, above all, the public mendicity and humility to which they bound themselves, could not fail to make the office of inquisitors one that flatter- ed any relic of natural ambition which might yet lurk within their minds. The general renunciation which they made, even of the names of the families from which they sprang, must have gone a great way towards sti- fling those sentiments which the ties of kindred and civil connections generally inspire. Besides, the auster-