RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Inquisition
1245, who thus became the saint of the Inquisition. " But this occasioned frightful vengeance If
the complaints became too loud, a pope did indeed now and then serve a note of reproof on the inquisitor; but it does not appear that so much as one pope wished to lop the institution's rankest outcrops" (Dollinger, ut sup.)- For the detailed procedure, cf. Lea, vol. ii., chap. iv. A special arrangement prevailed at Venice in the interest of the State, but a milder policy in this case was exceptional. Moreover, the pope appointed the inquisitor whom the Senate classed as an officer of the State by granting him a " provision " or salary; and the extent of his influence on the " learned in heresy " depended entirely on the Roman Curia's influence over the Senate itself.
In France the Inquisition's most appalling operation began in the thirteenth century (see New
Manichbans, II.; Innocent III.), 4. France, and did not reach an end with the
annihilation of the Albigenses. The people endured the yoke with extreme reluctance; in 1242 a desperately goaded multitude assailed the inquisitors in the territory of Avignon. (Those then slain were canonized by Pius IX. in Sept., 1866; and he did the same thing, in the year following, for the atrocious Spanish inquisitor, Pedro Arbues.) The attitude of the French kings to the Inquisition shows various phases. Louis IX. (Saint Louis) promulgated a mandate in 1228 which binds the temporal sovereignty to unconditional collaboration with the Inquisition; on the other hand, Philip the Fair decreed, in 1290, that due circumspection should be observed in the matter of arresting alleged heretics. The violent reactions of the tortured people and various royal edicts had at last their effect; and in time the complete revolution brought forth by the Great Schism and the growing independence of the French nation made an end of the Inquisition in France sooner than in other lands.
Meanwhile the Inquisition in Spain blossomed out with peculiar fulness. It is, to be sure, an error to
ascribe to it, with Hefele (Cardinal 5. Spain. Ximenez, Tubingen, 1844) and Ranke,
the character of a royal court of justice; for, as the Jesuits Grisar and Orti y Lara prove, it is altogether ecclesiastical, having only certain special state privileges and a certain influence being allowed the king in the choice of inquisitors. It developed from the thirteenth century, on the background of persecution of Moors and Jews. Prior to the sixteenth century, its principal operation was against the Maranos or alleged converts from Judaism to Christianity. The inquisitorgeneral, Tomas de Torquemada (q.v.), appointed by Pope Sixtus IV., outdid all precedents in the way of executions and confiscations; it was under him, in Saragossa, that Arbues came to his bloody end. To say naught of the fact that the national character was favorable to it, the Spanish Inquisition underwent a peculiar development on three sides: in the first place, it had a royally acknowledged head in the inquisitor-general; in the second place, under the inquisitor-general, the Consejo de la suprema acted uniformly for all Spain, with
assistance from the state authorities; in the third place, while the king's influence on the tribunal was undoubtedly large, it was never exerted against the interests of the Church — on the contrary, the presence of the king or of his representative at the autos da fe imparted to these the quality of great spectacles authorized by the State, almost popular festivals. It is impossible to estimate the number of the victims. Llorente's data are questioned, and may be disregarded. However, from the Inquisitor Paramo's treatise De origine et -progressu inquisitionis (Madrid, 1598), p. 140, it appears that in forty years (1480-1520), at Seville, 4,000 were burned, and 30,000 " penitents " were sentenced to various penalties.
In Germany, Conrad of Marburg (q.v.) was to bring the institution to its flower. But the wrath of the people slew him and his assistant, 6. Ger- Droso, just as their activity began to many, the ripen (1233). Hence in Germany the Nether- Inquisition, for the most part, failed lands, and to attain to thoroughgoing activity. England. Nevertheless, until the fifteenth century a good many instances of separate procedures occur. The acts collected by Fr6d6ricq show what was ordained for Germany and the Netherlands in common. This author gives the directions of Gregory IX., addressed to the bishops, in 1233, to the effect that they shall catch the " little foxes " — that is, the heretics ostensibly converted; while a whole series of similar ordinances ensues to the time of the bull Summis desiderantes in 1484, by the terms of which the special activity of the Inquisition was directed against Witchcraft (q.v.). It was furthermore directed against the " Waldenses " along the Rhine, in Bavaria and Austria, in Bohemia, and as far as the mark of Brandenburg and Pomerania, as well as against sects of every kind in the Netherlands. It had waged a fearful war of extermination in North Germany, in the district of Bremen, 1233, against the Stedingi (q.v.). From the exact information in Fr6de>icq's work, it appears that the extent of the bloody doings at Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Utrecht, and other cities was greater than previously known. During the period before the Reformation, England was less affected by the Inquisition. It first became active against the Lollards (q.v.). In 1401 Henry IV. had parliament confirm the statute De haretico comburendo.
III. The Inquisition and the Counter-Reformation: In 1542 Cardinal Caraffa, subsequently Pope Paul IV., reorganized the Roman Inquisi- 1. The tion after the pattern of the Spanish. Reforma- He himself assumed the direction of tion Sup- the Holy Office created by the bull pressed Licet ab initio. The executive proin Italy, cedure was to be centralized at Rome, primarily for all Italy; and the outcome was to be guaranteed by uniform, ruthless, and swift operation. The new organization, having at its disposal the entire influence of the Roman Curia over every state of Italy, by the time of Pius V. had made an end of the Reformation in that country (see Italy, the Reformation in); its advocates were either incarcerated or killed, or
Inquisition Inscriptions