§ 86. THE INQUISITION. ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE. 519
by the council of Vienne, 1312, to allow their Mohammedan subjects to practise the rites of their religion.1
The legislation, fixing the Inquisition as a Church institu tion and elaborating its powers, began with the synod of Tours in 1163 and the oecumenical council of 1179. A large step in advance was made by the council of Verona, 1184. The Fourth Lateran, 1215, and the council of Toulouse, 1229, formally established the Inquisition and perfected the organ ization. Gregory IX., Innocent IV., and Alexander IV. enforced its regulations and added to them. From first to last the popes were its chief promoters.
The synod of Tours, 1163, called upon the bishops and clergy to forbid the Catholics from mingling with the Albigenses and from having commercial dealings with them and giving them refuge. Princes were instructed to imprison them and confiscate their goods. The Third Lateran, 1179, extended the punishments to the defenders of heretics and their friends. It gave permission to princes to reduce heretics to slavery and shortened the time of penance by two years for those taking up arms against them. At the council of Verona, 1184, pope Lucius III. and the emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, joined in making common cause in the sacred undertaking and announced their attitude in the cathedral. Frederick had the law of the empire against heretics recited and threw his glove down upon the floor as a token that he would enforce it. Then Lucius announced the decree of the council, which enjoined bishops to visit, at least once a year, all parts of their sees, to try all suspects, and to turn them, if guilty, over to the civil authorities. Princes were ordered to take an oath to support the Church against heresy upon pain of forfeiting their dignities. Cities, refusing to punish offenders, were to be cut off from other cities and, if episcopal seats, were to be deprived of that honor.
Innocent III., the most vigorous of persecutors, was no sooner on the throne than he began to wage war against
lPaganijure sunt sub papce oledientia, 23, art. I.
520 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
heretical infection. In one letter after another, lie struck at it and commended military armaments for its destruction. The Fourth Lateran gave formal and tinal expression to Innocent's views. The third canon opens with an anathe matization of heretics of all names. It again enjoined princes to swear to protect the faith on pain of losing their lands. To all taking part in the extermination of heretics — ad hceretieorum exterminium — was offered the indulgence extended to the Crusaders in Palestine. All " believers " and also the entertainers, defenders, and friends of heretics were to be excommunicated and excluded from receiving their natural inheritance.1 Bishops were instructed to go through their dioceses once or twice a year in person or through repre sentatives for the purpose of detecting heresy, and in case of neglect, they were to be deposed.
For more than a century after Innocent, the enforcement of the rules for the detection and punishment of heretics form the continual subject of bulls issued by the Apostolic see and of synodal action especially in Southern France and Spain. Innocent IV. and Alexander IV. alone issued more than one hundred such bulls.2
The regulations for the episcopal supervision of the In quisition were completed at the synod of Toulouse, 1229. Bishops were commanded to appoint a priest and laymen to fer ret out heretics — inquirant hcereticos — in houses and rooms. They were authorized to go outside their sees and princes outside of their realms to do this work. But no heretic was to be punished till he had been tried before the bishop's tribunal. Princes were ordered to destroy the domiciles and refuges of heretics, even if they were underground. If heretics were found to reside on their lands without their
1 Credentes, prceterea receptores, defensores et fautores hcereticorum. Frederick II. , in his Constitution of 1220, uses these terms, and they became the accepted, legal form of statement. See Bernard Guy, pp. 176, 194, etc. The term "fautor" became the usual term, in the subsequent history of the Inquisition, for the abettors of heresy. The term " believers " is the technical term used for the Cathari, etc.
2 Between 1255-1258, Alexander IV., according to Flade, p. 1, issued no less than thirty-eight bulls against heretics.