§ 80. THE INQUISITION. ITS ORIGIN AND PURPOSE. 521
knowledge, such princes were to be punished. Men above fourteen and women above twelve were obliged to swear to inform on heretics. And all, wishing to avoid the charge of heresy, were bound to present themselves at the confessional at least once a year. As a protection against heretical in fection, boys above the age of seven were obliged to go to church every Sabbath and on festival days that they might learn the credo, the pater noster, and the ave Maria.
The legislation of the state showed its full sympathy with the rules of the Church. Peter of Aragon, 1197, banished heretics from his dominions or threatened them with death by fire. In 1226, Don Jayme I. of Aragon forbade all here tics entering his kingdom. He was the first prince to pro hibit the Bible in the vernacular Romancia, 1234. From an other source, whence we might have expected better things, came a series of severe edicts. At his coronation, 1220, Frederick II. spoke of heretics as the viperous sons of perfidy, and placed them under the ban of the empire.1 This law was renewed at Ravenna, 1232, and later in 1238, 1239. The goods of heretics were to be confiscated and to be diverted from their children, on the ground that it was a far graver thing to offend against the spiritual realm than to offend a temporal prince. Four years later, 1224, the emperor con demned them to the penalty of being burned, or having their tongues torn out at the discretion of the judge.2 The Sicilian Constitutions of 1231 made burning alive in the sight of the people the punishment for heretics previously condemned by the Church.3
1 Vipereos perfidice jilios. Frederick's oath ran Catharos, Patarenos, Sperouistas, Leonistias, Arnaldistas, Circumcisos et omnes hcereticos utriusque sexus quocumque nomine, censeantur perpetua damnamus infamia, diffidamus atque bannimns. See Breholles, II. 6, 7, and Mirbt, p. 137. Hefele says Torquemada himself could not have used more vigorous language than Frederick used on this occasion. V. 993.
2 Ignis judicio c-oncremandus, ut vel uUricibus flammis pereat aut eum linguae plectro deprivent. Breholles, II. 422 ; Mirbt, 138. Flade, p. 9, is wrong in saying that the first express mention of burning as the punish ment for heretics in Frederick's laws was in 1238.
3 The terms Frederick used at this time drew heavily upon the dictionary. He calls heretics fierce wolves, most wicked angels, children of depravity,
522 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
The princes and cities of Italy followed Frederick's ex ample. In Rome, after 1231, and at the demand of Gregory IX., the senator took oath to seize heretics pointed out by the Inquisition, and to put them to death within eight days of the ecclesiastical sentence. In Venice, beginning with 1249, the doge included in his oath the pledge to burn heretics. In France, the rules of the Inquisition were fully recognized in Louis IX. 's laws of 1228. The two great codes of Germany, the Sachsenspiegel and the Schwabenspiegel, ordered heretics burned to death.1 A prince not burning heretics was himself to be treated as a heretic. In England, the act for the burning of heretics — de comburendo hceretico — was not passed till a century later, 1401.
That the Church fully accepted Frederick's severe legisla tion, is attested by the action of Honorius III. who sent the emperor's edict of 1220 to Bologna with instructions that it be taught as part of the canon law. Frederick's subsequent legislation was commended by popes and bishops,2 and ordered to be inscribed in municipal statute books.
To more efficiently carry out the purpose of the Inquisi tion, the trial and punishment of heresy were taken out of the hands of the bishops and put into the hands of the mo nastic orders by Gregory IX. As early as 1227, this pope appointed a Dominican of Florence to proceed against the heretical bishop, Philip Paternon. In 1232, the first Domini cans were appointed inquisitors in Germany and Aragon.3
serpents deceiving the doves, serpents vomiting out poison. Bre"holles, IV. 5. Gregorovius, V. 162, says Frederick issued decrees against heretics every time he made peace with the pope. " His laws against heresy form the harshest contrast to his otherwise enlightened legislation."
1 For the Sachsenspiegel, see Mirbt, 139. The act of the Schwabenspiegel runs " where persons are believed to be heretics, they shall be accused before the spiritual court. When convicted, they shall be taken in hand by the secular court, which shall sentence them as is right, that is, they shall be burnt at the stake." Wackernagel's ed., p. 241, sqq.
2 Thus the Archbishop of Milan reenforced it at a provincial council, 1287. Hefele, VI. 253, and Lea, I. 322 sq. The synod of Mainz, 1233, instructed bish ops to scrupulously observe the imperial and papal edicts. Hefele, V. 1027.
'Frederick II. united in appointing the Dominicans inquisitors of Ger many. Bre"holles, IV. 298-301.