THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
II. The Inquisition in the Middle Ages: By the terms of their negotiations at Verona in 1184, Pope Lucius III. and Emperor Frederick i. Organi- Barbarossa converted the episcopal inzationand quisition into a universal institution, Competence, to be unconditionally supported by the temporal power. This was the period when a new and dangerous doctrine, commingling Christian and pagan elements in the manner of the ancient Gnostic speculations, diffused itself by way of the East, and lent its aid to popular religious antagonism that was constantly inflamed by the conditions of the worldly fashioned hierarchy (manifested by the Patarenes, Arnold of Brescia, the Waldenses, and others).* By 1179, the followers of the new doctrine had become so numerous, especially in southern France (see New Manicheans) that Alexander III. urged the plan of suppressing them forcibly. Innocent III. (d. 1216) organized a systematic religious war against them; and among the agencies everywhere employed were the episcopal inquisitions, with their modes of operation guaranteed by the agreement at Verona and the ready support of all temporal tribunals. However, this form of the Inquisition appeared even to Honorius III. (d. 1227) subject to obstruction, and not swift or comprehensive enough in its workings, for want of centralization. He and his successor, Gregory IX., grasped the entire procedure in a single hand, thus creating the new form of papal inquisition, which now received the specific name of Sanctum officium in distinction from the episcopal office. The most exact information as to this institution is furnished by Eymerich's Directorium. The officers are accountable directly to the pope. It is not the bishop who stands at their head, but the grand inquisitor, who is reinforced with notaries, consultors on the judicial side, servants and attendants of every sort (e.g., jailers) on the practical side. In the Venetian Republic, each case was tried with a supplementary attendance of three " learned in heresy," who safeguarded the interests of the State. The new institution was accorded important privileges, in fact, full power in the ecclesiastical province; the officers, being commissioned by the pope directly, were independent of the bishops, and, protected by high prerogatives, were inviolable and immune. All their privileges were newly confirmed to them in 1458 by the bull Injunctum nobis, and again in 1570 by the constitution Sacrosanctoe Romance ecclesice. After the Dominican order had arisen in the thirteenth century, and its adherents had shown themselves exceptionally qualified, the office was transferred to them especially, though not to the exclusion of members of other orders. The :nquisitors' official powers were great, including sentence of excommunication and interdict, suspension of those under suspicion, and adjudication of all sorts of Exemption (q.v.). The trial pro-
* There is no evidence that Arnold of Brescia or the Waldenses commingled pagan elements with Christian. On the contrary, they combated with the utmost decision the pagan elements that had been incorporated in the doctrines and practise of the dominant Church They appear to have been absolutely free from Manichean or Gnostic tendencies.
ceedings were held either in special court rooms or in the official diocesan court. For the trial in its different stages, for the imposition of the penalty, and the like, the most exact prescriptions are extant, and these were continually supplemented as occasion demanded. But for all the exceedingly detailed form of procedure, much was left to the inquisitor's discretion. The new papal tribunal encroached in various ways upon the sphere of the episcopal inquisition, and conflicts of jurisdiction arose, which the popes did not always find it easy to adjust, because, in any case, the episcopal inquisition was not to be abrogated. Nevertheless, in a critical case, the higher authority was lodged in the inquisitor, and his executive scope was more extended than that of the episcopal officials. Charges of heresy against bishops, and even nuncios, were subject to the papal inquisitors.
The unconditional support of the secular arm
was invoked for the papal inquisition by virtue of
the Veronese agreement (though this
2. Rela- was not properly made for that end). tiontothe The secular arm was "executor," or
Secular " minister " of the inquisition. The
Powers, popes constantly strove to get the cooperation of the secular powers embodied in state laws, municipal statutes, and the like. To this end Innocent IV., in the bull Ad exstirpanda, conceded to the State a portion of the property to be confiscated; and the State in return assumed the odium and burden of inflicting the penalty, even to capital execution, if need were. The first instance of an execution under imputation of heresy was supplied in 385 by the usurper Maximus (see Priscillian) — an event by no means approved by Augustine. While the Veronese agreement left the question open, King Peter of Aragon, as early as 1197, threatened the death penalty against heretics who did not submit to the decree of expulsion; and in the course of the thirteenth century this threat was enforced in the widest terms. Even the Emperor Frederick II., " free-thinking " man though he was reputed to be, decreed the death penalty for Lornbardy in 1224; for Sicily in 1230; and, with Gregory IX., for Rome in 1231. The sentence itself was determined, as might be expected, by the ecclesiastical (papal) court; whereupon the execution was committed to the temporal authorities. Hence it is possible for certain apologists of the Roman Church to urge that the Church of Rome has never shed blood (cf . Die Selbstbiographie des Cardinals Bellarmins, ed. J. J. I. von Dollinger and F. H. Reusch, pp. 233 sqq., Bonn, 1887).
This new form of the Inquisition was now made
effective with iron strictness in Italy, France, the
Netherlands, and England. In Italy,
3. In Italy, which, especially in the north and
central regions, was honeycombed with
heresy, the situation was managed by Innocent III.
At Viterbo, for example, proceedings were instituted
with unexampled severity against the Paterenes in
1207 (cf. Muratori, Rerum Italicarum scriptores,
Hi., 1, Milan, 1723). The civil strife that was
stirred up led repeatedly — as at Viterbo in 1265,
in Parma, 1277 — to the expulsion of the inquisitors;
they were even slain, as Peter Martyr at Verona in