THE SPREAD OF THE INQUISITION THROUGH EUROPE
By the willing labours of the two Mendicant orders the Inquisition was
introduced into most of the countries of Europe during the course of
the thirteenth century. Sometimes the two co-operated, as for example
in Aragon, Navarre, Burgundy and Lorraine. But there was a good deal of
jealousy between them, and sometimes friction, so that it was generally
found expedient to assign Franciscans and Dominicans to different
areas. Thus the former were given the eastern portion of France
south of the Loire; the latter the western. Italy was also divided,
each order being allotted carefully defined districts by Innocent
IV in 1254. Northern France, Germany and Austria were entrusted to
Dominicans; eastern countries, Bohemia and Dalmatia, to Franciscans.
The tribunal met with varying measures of success in the different
countries of Europe, and in early days encountered considerable
opposition and other difficulties in each.
In Languedoc the way for the Inquisition had been well prepared by
the Albigensian Crusade: yet even so it was far from smooth. The
zealous proceedings of Guillem Arnaud and his assistants provoked the
bitterest popular resistance.[333] An assistant, Ferrer, was expelled
from Narbonne; Arnaud himself from Toulouse. But his unconquerable
spirit, assisted by Gregory IX’s support, triumphed over popular
hatred. Particularly in 1241 and 1242 the inquisitors were exceedingly
active, so much so that in desperation certain Cathari set upon Arnaud
and several others and did them to death. Not by such means could
the Inquisition be worsted. The Count of Toulouse, who had been
planning to reassert his independence, was forced to become completely
reconciled to the papacy, and as an outward and visible sign of
submission to take up arms against his own subjects by besieging the
last fortress of Catharism in the land, the fortress of Montségur.
The fall of Montségur and the holocaust of heretics which followed
it, together with improved organization, enabled the Inquisition to
make better headway. A new difficulty, however, arose in 1290 in the
shape of strong protests against the alleged cruelties and injustices
of two inquisitors, Nicholas d’Abbeville and Fulk de Saint-Georges.
The complaint that Nicholas had condemned the innocent and wrung
false confessions by cruelty was laid before Philip IV. There was
particularly strong feeling aroused by the posthumous proceedings
taken against a noted citizen of Carcassonne, a great friend of the
Franciscans, named Fabri, who was accused of having been hereticated
on his death-bed. The defence of Fabri’s memory was undertaken by a
remarkable man, a Franciscan, named Bernard Délicieux. The inquisitors
represented Délicieux as a deliberate adversary of their tribunal;
but when in 1301 Philip sent two representatives into Languedoc to
inquire into the causes of trouble, they called to their assistance the
resolute Franciscan, who suggested the suspension of the inquisitors
pending investigation. The case was argued out before the King, who
came to the conclusion that the complaint had been justified, that the
inquisitors had been guilty of grave excesses, of lawless exactions
and the manipulation of evidence, and took the unprecedented step of
removing both Nicholas d’Abbeville and Fulk de Saint-Georges. At the
same time he deprived the inquisitors of the right to make arbitrary
arrests. Philip’s attitude towards the activities of the tribunal
in Languedoc was not based upon principle, but was dependent upon
the varying circumstances of his quarrel with Boniface VIII. Thus
when, as at this time, French king and pontiff were quarrelling, it
was demonstrated that the Inquisition in France existed only on
sufferance and that its peculiar privileges, derived from the papacy,
automatically ceased during such disagreement. On the other hand, in
1304, when a reconciliation between the combatants had been effected,
a compromise was arranged: whereby it was settled that royal officials
should give every assistance to the inquisitors, when called upon
to do so; but on the other hand these officials were to visit the
inquisitorial prisons, and to prevent abuses, and independent action on
the part of inquisitors without the co-operation of the bishops was to
cease.
It was not long before complaints against the Inquisition were
renewed—the most important charge being that good Catholics were
forced into pleading guilty to heresy by the use of torture and
imprisonment.[334] This time an appeal was made to the Pope, Clement V,
who sent two cardinals to investigate at Carcassonne and Bordeaux.[335]
They seem to have discovered many abuses in the management of the
prisons and to have become satisfied of the genuineness of some at
any rate of the allegations against the tribunal; and Clement made a
praiseworthy attempt at reform. In 1312 the Council of Vienne[336]
issued a number of canons to this end, known as Clementines, which
required that in the infliction of torture the inquisitors must have
the concurrence of the bishop, also in the supervision of prisons.
Excommunication was threatened against any who should abuse his power
in order to satisfy personal animus or greed. The restrictions imposed
on inquisitorial action by the Clementines were most bitterly resented
by the great inquisitor Bernard Gui.[337]
With the death of Clement such vexation disappeared. The Clementines
were indeed republished by John XXII, but it was at once clear that
he had no desire to interfere with the Inquisition. The feeling of
freedom enjoyed by the Inquisition in Languedoc is evidenced by its
triumph over its former enemy, Délicieux. During the days of Pope
Clement he had been suffered to live in peace; now he was charged
with having impeded justice and with having compassed the death of
Benedict XI by poison. Overcome by repeated tortures, he threw himself
upon the mercy of the court; found guilty on the first charge, he
was condemned to perpetual imprisonment. This event in 1319 marked
the victory of the Inquisition in Languedoc. Now without fear of
opposition it could prosecute its labours in persecution, systematized,
unremitting, relentless. Heresy was extirpated, the finishing touch
to the Albigensian Crusades supplied, and the distinctive features of
south-eastern France, as far as possible, blotted out. The irony of
the situation is that in accelerating this process the Inquisition
was unconsciously assisting the aggrandizement of the royal power of
France, with whose centralizing policy the existence of so powerful an
independent tribunal was eventually found to be incompatible.
The beginnings of the attempt to extirpate heresy north of the Loire
are associated with the hated name of Robert le Bugre who, armed with
a somewhat vague authority from Gregory IX, is found active from the
year 1233 in La Charité, Péronne, Cambrai, Douai, Lille, his aim—it has
been said—‘not to convert but to burn.’[338] He aroused the jealousy
of the bishops, who informed the Pope that heresy was non-existent in
their provinces. The results of Robert’s enthusiastic labours convinced
Gregory that the episcopal assurances had been misleading, that heresy
was in reality rampant, so that he entrusted his delegate with a
special commission and ordered the bishops to support him. Thus fully
recognized, the inquisitor traversed Flanders, Champagne, Burgundy
in a passion of religious energy, finding many victims and producing
widespread consternation. But his career was a short one: found guilty
of numerous excesses, he was deprived of his commission and relegated
to prison.
After this we do not hear of holocausts. There was, in reality, little
heresy in northern France, and the Dominicans, to whom the scouring
of heretics in the country was entrusted, had not a great deal to do.
Their labours, however, received the whole-hearted support of Louis
IX, who liberally supplied them with money; their tribunal was well
organized, the officers vigilant. The first _auto-da-fé_ recorded to
have taken place in Paris occurred in May, 1310, when a woman called
Marguerite la Porète was the principal victim. She had written a book,
the thesis of which was that the sanctified soul could without sin
satisfy all the cravings of the flesh. Her followers would appear to
have been the chief prey of French inquisitors in the latter part of
the century.
There are illustrations during this period of the efficacy of the
Inquisition even against powerful personages, most notably perhaps
Hugh Aubryot, _prévôt_ of Paris[339] and builder of the Bastille, who,
incurring the animosity of the University of Paris, found himself
brought up on a flimsy charge and condemned to perpetual imprisonment;
but in France the Inquisition did not rest on very secure foundations.
It might be useful when heresy was rife and the proceedings of
inquisitorial confiscations brought money into the royal exchequer; but
success in coping with heresy, that is to say efficiency on the part
of the tribunal, rendered it no longer an object of solicitude to the
crown.[340]
By far the most notable fact concerning the Inquisition in France
was its dependence on the crown. An interesting illustration of its
subordination was given in 1322, when the tribunal absolved a certain
abbot from the charge of heresy. The _procureur-général_ was not
satisfied with this finding and appealed against it, not to the Pope,
but to the Parlement. The matter was one clearly coming within the
province of a spiritual, not a temporal court, yet the Parlement calmly
assumed jurisdiction at the instance of the royal officer. A yet more
outstanding case arose in 1330, when Philip sent a representative,
de Villars, to redress encroachments by ecclesiastical courts upon
royal courts in Toulouse. Being ordered to produce his registers by de
Villars, the inquisitor of Toulouse appealed not to the Pope but to the
King. In 1334 Philip, making known his royal pleasure that inquisitors
shall enjoy their ancient privileges, makes it clear that they are to
be regarded as derivative from the crown. The inquisitor is looked
upon as a royal official.[341] The two most noteworthy inquisitorial
trials in France were both of a political nature, the state making use
of inquisitorial machinery for its own ends, those of the Templars
and Jeanne d’Arc. The great Schism, and still more the Pragmatic
Sanction of Bourges, by weakening the hold of the papacy, enlarging the
independence of the Gallican Church, and aggrandizing the Parlement
still further weakened the position of the Inquisition. Not only the
Parlement but the University of Paris was a formidable antagonist and
rival. The latter arrogating to itself a supremacy in theological
matters, regarding itself as arbiter in all matters of doctrinal
speculation, acquired the authority which the Inquisition lost. The
tribunal was still active in the fifteenth century, but it was finding
the question of expenses a difficult problem, and the growth of
indifference to the penalty of excommunication made its task harder.
An effort was made by Nicholas V in 1451 to restore the former powers
of the Inquisition and a wide definition was given to its authority.
In France, however, it had lost too much in prestige to allow of its
being revivified.[342] When Protestantism entered the country in the
sixteenth century it was not the Inquisition that was employed against
it, but the University of Paris and the so-called _chambre ardente_ of
the Parlement—national institutions under royal control. The days of
the Inquisition in France were over.
The history of the Inquisition in Germany opens with the careers of
Conrad of Marburg and Conrad Tors, who carried on a fanatical crusade
against Waldenses and different pantheist sects, of which the Amaurians
and Luciferans were the chief, the methods of their persecution being
purely arbitrary and leaving the accused practically no opportunity
of defence. Conrad of Marburg’s execrated existence was terminated
by his murder in 1233.[343] That inquisitors were working in Germany
through the latter part of the thirteenth century we know; but they
do not appear to have accomplished much. After the publication of the
Clementines, however, new efforts were made to suppress the Beghards
and similar unauthorized associations, but the work seems to have been
carried out rather by episcopal courts than by friars specially deputed
by the pope. It was not until 1367 that, with the appointment by Urban
V of two Dominicans, a thorough attempt was made to organize the papal
inquisition in Germany. Pressure was brought to bear upon the Emperor
Charles IV, and in 1369 he issued edicts extending the fullest possible
authority to the papal delegates with a view to the eradication of the
Beghards. Under threat of severe punishment all prelates were enjoined
to obey the orders of the inquisitors with a good grace, while in
order that their privileges might be secured certain high nobles were
appointed to protect the inquisitors and to deal with any complaints
they might make. Later on, Charles IV entrusted the Inquisition with a
new power, that of censorship, for the Beghards derived much of their
influence from the circulation of pamphlets in the vernacular.
Fortified by the imperial favour, Kerlinger, the principal delegate,
displayed great energy at Magdeburg, Erfurt, Mühlhausen, etc.; and
notwithstanding the occasional opposition of a jealous episcopate
the Inquisition had made such good progress by 1372 that it had
apparently succeeded in driving its enemies out of northern and central
Germany. These were the days of the Flagellants and of the dancing
mania as well as of Beghards and the Brethren of the Free Spirit.
There certainly seemed to be no less need of organized repression;
nevertheless the Inquisition in Germany after the days of Kerlinger
tended to lose ground. Complaints made against its recent proceedings
were found on investigation by Gregory XI to be well founded, and the
papal disapprobation armed the episcopate against their rivals. As
in France, so in Germany, the Schism had the effect of still further
reducing the influence of the Inquisition. Persecution of Brethren
of the Free Spirit continued late into the fifteenth century: but
heresies far more formidable than the mystic antinomianism which had
been the characteristic heresy of Germany were about to dawn. The
intellectual force in men such as Johann Wessel, Reuchlin and Erasmus
had infinitely greater power than a perverted pantheism. And when
Lutheranism took hold upon Germany, there was no powerful Inquisition
to check it. Had there existed in Germany such a tribunal as had
stamped out Catharism in Languedoc, it might, so far as we can tell,
have succeeded in silencing Luther, while he was still an unknown monk
of Wittenberg, before he had come to apprehend the full significance
and the ultimate developments of his famous theses. But when the hour
came of the Church’s greatest danger from heresy in Germany, the weapon
which it had used with such tremendous effect in earlier days had been
hopelessly blunted.
The publication of Frederick II’s Constitutions and the activities
of Gregory IX introduced a new era of intolerance into Italy, where
apparently tolerance had hitherto been the rule. Inquisitorial activity
started in Florence and in Rome; it was carried further afield by
several perfervid champions, of whom the best known was Peter Martyr,
the scene of whose labours was first Milan, then Florence. In Florence
persecution had become so menacing that a formidable rising was
provoked. This was the occasion of Piero’s coming to Florence, where he
at once formed a company on the model of one he had created in Milan
for the protection of Dominicans, giving it the title of the _Compagnia
della Fede_. The Florentine inquisitor, with this protection, proceeded
with his persecutions and a bloody conflict was provoked, which was as
much one between Guelph and Ghibelline as between orthodox and heretic.
Peter Martyr led the banners of the faith with such good effect that
the forces of heresy were badly beaten and the city reclaimed for Pope
and Inquisition. He was next engaged as inquisitor in Cremona and again
in Milan. Though there is no record of his proceedings there, that he
was as ardent a persecutor as before seems proved by his assassination
at Milan in 1252.
As a practical memorial of the martyr’s enthusiasm a voluntary
association similar to those which Piero had himself founded in Milan
and Florence was formed among the upper classes of the principal
Italian cities, the name _crocesegnati_ being given to them, for the
protection and assistance of inquisitors. As devoted and determined a
champion as even Peter Martyr had been was found in Rainerio Saccone
of Vicenza, who undertook the task of combatting heresy in Lombardy,
where it was very strong owing to large migrations from Languedoc.
Reorganizing and strengthening the Lombard Inquisition, he achieved
considerable success with the assistance of Innocent IV, who at this
time issued the bull _Ad extirpanda_.[344] With the accession of
Alexander IV activity in Lombardy was still further increased. The
number of inquisitors was doubled, and Rainerio announced that hitherto
he had shown incomparable mildness, henceforth he would be rigorous.
The chief obstacle—a formidable one—to the complete success of the
tribunal in Lombardy was the power of the two great Ghibelline nobles,
Eccelin da Romano and Uberto da Pallavicino, into whose territories not
even a determined inquisitor dared enter. A crusade against the former,
organized by Alexander, after varying fortunes proved successful, and
the March of Treviso, hitherto closed to the Inquisition, was laid
completely open.
A yet greater success was achieved by the Holy See in 1266, when
Charles of Anjou triumphed over the Ghibellines at Benevento and the
kingdom of Sicily passed into full obedience to the papacy. Two years
later the last of the Hohenstaufen in a futile attempt to regain Italy
for his house perished on the field of Tagliacozzo, and with him the
last chance of the imperial faction. Uberto had espoused the cause
of Conradin and the young prince’s failure involved the downfall of
the Lombard noble. The story of the fortunes of the Inquisition in
Italy being largely that of the fortunes of Guelph in the strife
with Ghibelline, this Guelph triumph naturally gave a great impetus
to the Inquisition. It had now practically no political obstacle to
face, and it immediately extended its operations into all Ghibelline
territories, and although there were occasional outbursts against it,
as in Parma in 1279, when the populace attacked the convent of the
Dominicans and burned the registers of the Inquisition, still the
setbacks were not serious. Ghibelline districts were particularly
attacked, and it was said that in such centres it was impossible to
feel safe, as in the eyes of the Church Ghibelline was apt to mean
heretic.[345] It should, on the other hand, be noted that even during
the period of the Inquisition’s greatest ascendancy in Italy, there
are instances of papal lenity in mitigation of the full rigour of the
tribunal’s practice.[346] In certain parts of Italy the Inquisition
did not thrive as in Lombardy and the Papal States. When Charles of
Anjou established himself in the Neapolitan kingdom, one of his first
proceedings was to plant the Inquisition there, and he gave it his own
personal assistance in prosecuting its labours. On the other hand,
it remained somewhat dependent on the crown and did not enjoy the
whole-hearted support of the local magistrates. Perhaps more serious
was the natural obstacle presented by the mountainous character of the
country. In the island of Sicily the Inquisition had at no time much
influence.
In another Italian state the Inquisition never succeeded in obtaining
a thorough hold—Venice, ever zealous for its independence of outside
control. When Gregory IX started his campaign against heresy, the
republic held aloof; the Constitutions of Frederick II were not
incorporated in its laws. Persecution indeed existed and the ordinary
bishop’s court existed as elsewhere in Christendom; but the Council,
a secular body, maintained a supervision in cases of heresy. The
Inquisition was not permitted to enter, and in consequence Venice
became an asylum of refuge for heretics from other parts of Italy. But
in 1288 Nicholas V ordered the _signoria_ to respect the laws of Pope
and Emperor and facilitate the work of the Inquisitor of Treviso in
whose province Venice ought to come.[347] According to the recognized
principles of the age the attitude of the republic was indefensible.
Venice, accordingly, gave way, but was able to effect a compromise,
whereby the Inquisition was admitted, but on the other hand the edicts,
imperial and ecclesiastical, were still not placed among the statutes
of the city and the republic supervised the financial arrangements,
defraying the expenses of the inquisitors, but at the same time
receiving the profits of confiscations. Thus one of the most prolific
sources of inquisitorial abuses was cut off, and at the same time
the power of the purse retained supreme control for the state, the
imposition of such important restrictions allowed the Inquisition no
such prestige in Venice as it enjoyed in Lombardy. We find it at times
being deliberately ignored by the _signoria_, and by the middle of the
fifteenth century it had almost entirely lost such influence as it had
possessed after the compromise of 1288.
In spite of its obtaining only partial ascendancy in certain states,
the Inquisition achieved its purpose in Italy with marked success.
Catharism lasted longer there than in Languedoc, being found in
Piedmont in the late years of the fourteenth century; but it was
harried energetically, and early in the next century it was to all
intents and purposes extinct. Waldensianism lasted longer, having a
much greater hold over the country. In 1352 we find that the Waldensian
Church in Turin is flourishing and its numbers so great that no attempt
is made at concealment. Gregory XI made special efforts to suppress the
sect in Piedmont, but without complete success. The next century saw
another strenuous effort made by Yolande, the regent of Savoy, who with
the co-operation of the inquisitor of Dauphiné undertook a campaign
for the extermination of the Waldenses, all her officials being by the
Duchess’s orders placed at the disposal of the inquisitors. For a time
the persecuted in Savoy were under the aegis of Louis XI’s protection;
but on his death persecution was carried on assiduously. In 1488 an
attempt was made to put down the Waldenses by force of arms, but the
18,000 men to whom the task was entrusted met with a crushing defeat.
The respite thus secured did not, however, last long, and in 1510 we
find the Inquisition strengthened by the loan of troops by the secular
power and using every means in its power against the heretics. In the
Alpine valleys the sect was never stamped out by the Inquisition and
remained in existence there until the terrible Vaudois massacres of
1655. But as a result of the persistent persecution, emigration on a
considerable scale was continually taking place, the majority of those
who took flight finding a refuge in Calabria and Apulia, where the arm
of the tribunal scarcely ever extended.
The great Schism was disastrous in weakening the respect felt in Italy
not only for the papacy, but the Church as a whole, and the Inquisition
inevitably suffered in consequence.
The fame of the Inquisition in the Spanish peninsula has been so
great that it has almost wholly eclipsed its fame anywhere else in
Europe, and its history has been in every way peculiar. It acquired an
altogether unique position there; enjoyed an extraordinary prestige
and unexampled success. It earned an undying notoriety. It became, as
nowhere else in Europe, a national institution, closely identified with
the monarchy, but also popular, a possession of which the people were
proud. It was a terror to the foreigner; it made the name of Spaniard
feared all over the world. It had played a great part in welding the
Peninsula together, in driving out alien elements, producing national
homogeneity. It played, then, a large part in Spanish history, and
obtained a very marked influence on the national mind and character.
But the Inquisition which is so famous or infamous in Spain was
the creation of Ferdinand and Isabella. It was a quite distinctive
institution, much more monarchical than papal, and it was not directly
the offspring of the tribunals that had existed in the Peninsula in the
Middle Ages.
The most remarkable fact concerning the Spanish Inquisition is that
this country in which the Inquisition most abundantly flourished, the
country which won for itself easy pre-eminence for its close fidelity
to the Church, its zealous and implacable intolerance of any sort of
dissent, was originally equally pre-eminent for its tolerance. The
ardour of persecution in Spain was not due to something ingrained in
the national character; it was to a very large extent the offspring of
the methods pursued by the Holy Office; and the deep implanting of the
Holy Office was due to deliberate policy on the part of the Spanish
monarchy from the days of Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella.[348] In
the Middle Ages the civilization of Spain was very largely Saracen.
From such sources south of the Pyrenees came that distinctive culture
of Languedoc, out of which heresy had so luxuriantly sprung. From a
non-Christian people came the philosophy, the mediæval, astronomical,
botanical knowledge, the art and fancy and the industrial skill and
trading enterprise of the country. Moreover Jew and Christian met and
did business together. So long as such intermingling of different
races, religions, civilizations continued the soil was not favourable
to the success of such an institution as the Holy Office. Heterogeneity
is productive of tolerance. The Inquisition’s day could only come
with the determination to drive out the other elements and to make
the Peninsula European in race, Christian in religion and ideas. The
success of that policy had to wait for the union of the two crowns of
Aragon and Castile. Prior to that, the Inquisition obtained success
in Aragon only, being unknown in Castile and Leon, while in Portugal,
though there were inquisitors in the country from 1576 onwards, they
appear to have been singularly inactive.
In Aragon[349] persecution was originally organized by the state, both
Alfonso II and Pedro II promulgating severe legislation against heresy,
though a sort of Inquisition, consisting partly of clergy, partly of
laity, was established by a statute issued at Tarragona in 1233. The
real beginnings of the Inquisition in Aragon are, however, to be traced
from the intervention of the redoubtable Raymond of Peñaforte, a year
or two after this. He was instrumental in introducing members of his
own order to deal with heresy; and in 1238 Gregory IX entrusted the
prosecution of heretics to the Mendicant orders in Aragon. In 1242 a
very important Council held at Tarragona formulated rules of procedure
for the guidance of inquisitors.[350] The Aragonese Inquisition did
not, however, show great activity until the opening of the fourteenth
century. Its activity then produced popular protest, and in 1325 the
Cortes, with the royal assent, prohibited inquisitorial methods of
torture. It is doubtful if this was intended to apply to ecclesiastical
as well as lay courts. If it was, it had no lasting results, as can be
seen from Eymeric’s ‘Directorium.’[351]
This very remarkable inquisitor assumed office in Aragon about 1360.
With the most genuine and most exalted conceptions of the dignity and
importance of his position, he put forward the utmost claims for the
Holy Office; yet from the internal evidence of his treatise itself,
it does not seem to have flourished in Aragon in his day. He makes
loud complaints of its poverty. But the fact that so little came into
its exchequer from confiscations and that so ardent and active an
inquisitor should apparently have accomplished so little seems mainly
to prove that heresy was not a serious menace in Aragon at this time.
In the next century the history of the Aragonese Inquisition is neither
interesting nor important, and the end of that period brings us to the
era of Torquemada and the organization of a great Inquisition for the
united kingdoms of Spain.
In Eastern Europe[352] the Inquisition never succeeded in obtaining
much of a foothold. The main stronghold of Catharism was in lands east
of the Adriatic, but here the papacy possessed but scant authority.
A practically abortive attempt was made to deal with the heretics in
1202; but in the twenties the Mendicants in their untiring zeal, using
Hungary as their base and with the armed support of Calomar, Duke of
Croatia and Dalmatia, waged successful warfare against the Bosnian
Cathari until the retirement of the crusaders in 1239. Their withdrawal
meant that no effectual result was achieved, and Catharism remained
powerful not only in Bosnia, but Dalmatia, Bulgaria, and Roumania. The
bishops of Bosnia found themselves compelled to leave the country. In
1298 an attempt made by Boniface VIII, to establish an Inquisition
in the lands south of Hungary from the Danube to Macedonia, came to
nothing. But in 1320 an inquisitor named Fabiano, with the assistance
of the king of Hungary, made some progress against the heretics, and
a further effort was made in 1336 by Dominicans with the co-operation
of the Hungarian king. Though in 1378 Urban V congratulated Louis of
Hungary and the friars on having restored two thousand heretics to the
fold, four years later that monarch himself complains that practically
all his subjects are Cathari, good Catholics being very sparse in
numbers.
In 1407 Sigismund made an attempt to establish himself in Bosnia,
his cause obtaining papal recognition as a crusade against Turks and
Manichæans; but his attempt ended in failure. In 1432 an Observative
Franciscan, Giacomo della Marca, already well known as a stalwart
persecutor of heretics in Italy, embarked upon a missionary enterprise
in Slavonia, and is said by his eloquence to have made numerous
converts; but his success was short-lived, as he was recalled by
Sigismund to help in the religious troubles of Bohemia. After the days
of Sigismund there was little chance of success for missionary or
inquisitor beyond the Adriatic. The flow of the Ottoman advance swept
over the Balkans, and the Cathari were converted not to Catholicism but
to the faith of Islam.
The Inquisition did not make its appearance in Bohemia until late,
the first inquisitors being appointed in 1318, when they were also
appointed for Poland, Cracow and Breslau. There is hardly any record of
what they did. In 1335 Benedict XII made fresh efforts, and between
1350 and 1380 there was considerable activity against heretics, but
it was the activity of the ordinary episcopal courts, not of a papal
inquisition. There was a large diffusion of Waldensianism in the
country; apparently early in the century there had been a certain
number of Luciferans. With the Church in Bohemia in a low state of
efficiency and the rise of the anti-sacerdotal movement which led to
Husitism, the task of repression was a difficult one, and there was
no Inquisition. One of the causes of the indignation of the Czechs at
the treatment of Hus at Constance was the fact that Bohemia had had
virtually no experience of the Inquisition and was ignorant of its
methods and procedure.
After the silencing of the two great heresiarchs, the Council
commissioned the Bishop of Litomysl with inquisitorial powers for the
extirpation of heresy in Bohemia; but as the Czechs were ravaging the
Bishop’s territories at the time he dared not show face. The next
expedient of the Council was the arrangement that Husite heretics
should appear before special inquisitors in the Roman Curia. As it was
in the highest degree unlikely that any Husites, particularly after
the fate of Hus and Jerome, would quit their own country to answer
charges of heresy, this was a futile proceeding, as was the next—a
formal citation to 450 nobles, who had signed a protest against the
burning of Hus, to appear before the Council on the charge of heresy.
It was evident that no Inquisition could exist in Bohemia as long as
the country remained rebellious, predominantly schismatic. The success
of the Inquisition invariably required the support of popular opinion,
magisterial acquiescence, or armed force. Neither of the first two
being forthcoming, the last expedient had to be tried. A crusade was
preached against the heretic people, to which only one upshot was
anticipated. But the anti-Husite crusade ignominiously failed, and the
Czech people kept the Inquisition from entering their borders.
In Scandinavian lands the Inquisition never penetrated, and it only
once, for a very brief period, made its appearance in the British
Isles. This was in connection with the suppression of the Templars.
At first when the horrible accusations which led to the undoing of
the great military order were bruited about, Edward II refused to
credit them, the record of the order in England giving no colour to
the charges. When, however, Clement V issued his bull, _Pastoralis
praeeminentiae_, in which he stated that the heads of the order had
made confession of the crimes imputed to the iniquitous knights,
and called upon the potentates of Europe to take action for their
suppression, the English king ordered the apprehension of the Templars
in England and the sequestration of their property. No further action
was taken. But in September 1309 two papal commissioners, who had
been appointed more than a year previously, made their appearance.
Instructions were issued that all Templars not yet seized should be
brought to London, York, or Lincoln, where the commissioners with
the co-operation of the bishops of the respective dioceses were to
hold inquiries. Similar orders were also dispatched to Scotland and
Ireland, where the inquisitors appointed delegates. The proceedings
in London began on October 20, 1309. The Templars, on examination,
one and all protested the innocence of the order; outside witnesses,
as a whole, gave the same testimony. The object of the inquisitors
being conviction, this was most unsatisfactory. Progress was much
better on the Continent, where torture was employed; torture they
must use also in England, therefore. They obtained from the King an
order to the custodians of the prisons to allow the inquisitors to do
with the bodies of the Templars what they pleased, in accordance with
ecclesiastical law.
Still only meagre results were obtained and Clement became indignant.
He wrote to Edward saying that he had heard that he had refused the use
of torture as being contrary to the laws of his kingdom. No law could
be permitted to over-ride the canon law, and in interfering with the
work of the Inquisition the King had been guilty of a very serious
offence. He was offered remission of sins if he would withdraw his
prohibition of torture. Thus urged, Edward again sanctioned the use
of ‘ecclesiastical law,’ but this time mentioned torture expressly,
explaining that he gave his sanction in deference to the wishes of the
Pope. Even thus the inquisitors could not make headway. They were on
alien soil in England; the country took ill to the special tribunal and
its methods. All that they achieved was that the knights eventually
confessed themselves so ‘defamed’ for heresy as to make it impossible
for them to make the ‘canonical purgation’ and therefore undertook to
perform any penances enjoined upon them. Such were the total results
attained by the Inquisition in England.
Persecution of heretics there had been before, under the Assize
of Clarendon; persecution in plenty there was after, under _De
Haeretico Comburendo_ and in the days of the Tudors; but the
persecuting authority was always the State—no such international,
papally-controlled tribunal as the Holy Office. Mary Tudor might have
achieved a large measure of success in her Romanist policy had she been
able to make more use of those international agencies, of which Jesuit
propaganda and the Holy Office were the two chief, which provided the
sinews of the Counter-Reformation movement. As it was, the British
Isles remained free from inquisitorial influence; their judicial
customs and principles of justice being uncontaminated by those
methods of procedure by _inquisitio_, by the use of torture, which the
example of the Holy Office introduced into so many civil courts on the
Continent.