MILAN.
By the treaty of Cambrai, in 1529, Francis I abandoned the Milanese to
Charles V and it thenceforth formed part of the Italian possessions of
Spain. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries it had been the hot-bed of
heresy and it was, in the thirteenth, one of the earliest scenes of
inquisitorial activity. It was there that Pietro di Verona sealed his
devotion with his blood and became the patron saint of the Holy Office.
With the gradual extermination of heresy, the Inquisition there as
elsewhere grew inert and, even after the new and threatening development
of the Reformation, when Paul III, in 1536, was alarmed by reports of
the proselyting zeal and success of Fra Battista da Crema, he had no
tribunal on which he could rely to suppress the heretic. In default of
this he commissioned Giovanni, Bishop of Modena, who was then in Milan,
together with the Dominican Provincial, to preach against the heretics
and to punish according to law those whom they might find guilty, at the
same time significantly forbidding the inquisitor and the episcopal
Ordinary to interfere.[227]
Even when the Inquisition was reorganized by Paul III, in 1542, it was
for some time inefficiently administered and lacked the secular support
requisite to its usefulness. This was especially felt in the Milanese
which, from its neighborhood to Switzerland and the Waldensian Valleys,
was peculiarly exposed to infection. The adventure which brought the
Dominican Fra Michele Ghislieri into notice and opened for him the path
to the papacy, shows the danger and difficulty of the situation. Heresy
was creeping through the Grisons, the Valtelline and the Val di
Chiavenna, forming part of the diocese of Como when, in 1550, Fra
Michele was sent thither as inquisitor to arrest its progress. He found
a dozen bales of heretic books consigned to a merchant in Como, to be
distributed throughout Italy where, in all the cities, there were said
to be agencies for the purpose. He seized the books in the custom-house,
whereupon the merchant complained to the episcopal vicar, who took
possession of them. Ghislieri wrote to the Roman Holy Office which cited
the vicar and the canons to appear; in place of obeying, they appealed
to Ferrando Gonzaga, Governor of Milan, and raised such a storm among
the people that Ghislieri’s life was in danger. Gonzaga summoned him to
come to him the next day; he started at night on foot and it was only
the accident of his taking the longer road that led him to escape an
ambush where he would have shared the fate of St. Peter Martyr. Gonzaga
threatened him with imprisonment, but finally allowed him to depart,
when he went to Rome and so impressed the cardinals of the Holy Office
that he was marked for promotion. It was not much better in 1561 when,
after being created Bishop of Mondovi, he visited his diocese and
returned dissatisfied, for he had been unable to secure the support of
the secular arm for the suppression of heresy.[228]
In Milan, we are told, there were many heretics, not only among the
laity but among the clergy, both regular and secular, some of whom seem
to have been publicly known and to have enjoyed the protection of the
authorities. In 1554 Archbishop Arcimboldo and Inquisitor Castiglione
united in issuing an Edict of Faith, comprehensive in its character,
promising for spontaneous confession and denunciation of accomplices the
reward of a fourth part of the fines and confiscations that might ensue.
Denunciation of heretics was also commanded, with assurance of secrecy
for the informer. This Edict is moreover of especial interest as
comprehending what is perhaps the earliest organization of censorship,
for it required the denunciation of all prohibited books and the
presentation by booksellers of inventories of their stocks, with heavy
penalties for omissions or for dealing in the prohibited wares.[229]
This zeal seems not to have aroused the secular authorities to a fitting
sense of their duties, for a brief of Paul IV, May 20, 1556, to Cardinal
Mandrusio, lieutenant of Philip II, recites how that son of iniquity,
the apostate Augustinian Claudio de Pralboino, had been condemned by the
inquisitor and handed over to the secular arm; how, while awaiting his
fate in the public prison, a forged order, purporting to be signed by
the inquisitor, had been fabricated by some lawyers, on the strength of
which he escaped and, in view of all this, the cardinal is urged to see
to the punishment of those concerned in the fraud, to lend all aid and
assistance to the inquisitor and to be watchful against the heresies
creeping in from the Grisons. It was doubtless with the hope of securing
greater efficiency that, in 1558, the Inquisition was taken from the
friars of San Eustorgio and confided to those of Santa Maria delle
Grazie and the Dominican Gianbattista da Cremona was appointed
inquisitor-general.[230]
In 1560, Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, in his twenty-second year, was,
through the nepotism of his uncle Pius IV, appointed to the great
archiepiscopate of Milan, which extended over all Lombardy. Sincere as
was his piety, he accepted an office which he did not fill, for he
remained in Rome until the severe virtue of Pius V, in 1566, required
him to reside in his see. His ceaseless labors to reform his people,
both clergy and laity, his self-devotion, his charity, earned for him
the honors of canonization and the admiration even of Jansenists, but
the zeal displayed in the enforcement of discipline upon unwilling
ecclesiastics found equal expression in the persecution of heretics. He
was, in fact, the incarnation of the Counter-Reformation, in combating
heresy by force as well as by depriving it, as far as possible, of its
_raison d’être_. In the early years of his archiepiscopate, during his
attendance on the papal court, the business of the Inquisition in Milan
was carried on in most slovenly fashion. This was not for lack of any
sensitiveness as to heresy for, when in July, 1561, the Franciscan
Guardian of Marignano, being delayed in making a sacramental confession,
exclaimed, in a fit of impatience, that confession to God sufficed, he
was arrested for such heretical speech and sent for trial to Milan,
under a guard of soldiers. They arrived at night and carried their
prisoner to the archiepiscopal palace, where they were told to take him
to the prison, but misunderstanding, as was said, their instructions,
they marched him to one of the city gates and let him go, whereupon he
naturally disappeared.[231] In that same month of July, Carlo’s uncle,
Giulio Cesare Borromeo, writes to him that the inquisitor has allowed to
escape a certain chief of the Lutherans, whom he had had infinite
trouble to seize; he would give a thousand ducats that the culprit had
not been brought to Milan for, as a relapsed, he was already convicted.
He shrewdly suspects complicity, but there is no remedy and great
scandal is to be expected.[232] Matters probably did not improve when,
in the Spring of 1563, the inquisitor Fra Angelo da Cremona involved
himself in a bitter quarrel with Andrea Ruberto, the archbishop’s vicar,
over a printer named Moscheno, whom he had cast into prison and whose
wife and work-people he threatened to arrest. It was a conflict of
jurisdiction, the vicar claiming concurrent action and the inquisitor
that his cognizance of the case was exclusive. The vicar appealed to the
archbishop and represented the inquisitor in no flattering terms. The
inquisitor wrote to the Roman Congregation that the vicar was a man
without fear of God and was interfering to protect a heretic who was
disseminating his heresies throughout the land; he had refused the
vicar’s request to communicate the proceedings, as he desired to
preserve the privileges of the Holy Office. Carlo counselled moderation
to his vicar and, as the latter was replaced the next year by Nicolò
Ormanetto, he was evidently worsted in the encounter.[233]
It is not surprising that this imperfect working of the machinery of
persecution should prove wholly unsatisfactory to Philip II. Twenty
years had elapsed since the reconstruction of the papal Inquisition, yet
in the Lombard province where, if anywhere, it should be active and
unsparing and where he had ordered his representatives to give it all
favor and assistance, it was proving manifestly unequal to its duties.
The natural remedy lay in taking it out of hands that proved incompetent
and in remodelling it after the Spanish fashion and this he resolved to
do. He applied to Pius IV for the necessary briefs, but met with some
delay. This was inevitable. The Roman Congregation had already ample
experience of the unyielding independence of the Spanish Suprema and it
could only look with disfavor on having to surrender to its rival so
important a portion of its own territory, with the inevitable result of
an endless series of broils in which it would probably often be worsted.
At that time however Philip’s request was equivalent to a command; it
was difficult to frame a plausible reason for refusal and Pius gave his
assent.[234] It was Philip’s intention that the Milanese Inquisition
should be organized on an imposing scale and he had a commission as
inquisitor issued to Gaspar Cervantes, an experienced Spanish
inquisitor, then Archbishop of Messina and recently elected to the see
of Salerno, but Pius delayed the confirmation for months. Cervantes was
at the council of Trent when he received the commission; he replied
that, as the decree requiring episcopal residence had been adopted, he
could not be absent from his see more than three months at a time, but
that, if the king considered his services at Milan essential, he would
resign the archbishopric. Archbishop Calini, who reports this from
Trent, August 23, 1563, adds that two ambassadors from Milan had just
arrived there to plead with the papal legates against the introduction
of the Spanish Inquisition in their city.[235]
In fact, as soon as the rumor spread of the impending change, there
arose an agitation which speedily grew to serious proportions and
threatened a repetition of the experiences of Naples. The people
declared that they would not submit peaceably. The municipal Council of
Sixty at once arranged to send envoys to Philip, to the pope, and to the
legates at Trent. The latter reached there, as we have seen, on August
22d and their instructions doubtless were the same as those prepared for
the envoys to the pope, representing that the existing Inquisition was
thoroughly manned and active and had the earnest support of the secular
authorities, while the mere prospect of introducing the Spanish
institution had so alarmed the people that many were already leaving the
city, threatening its depopulation if the project were persisted in and
the transfer of its commerce and industries to rival communities. The
envoys to the pope were also told to invoke the good offices of Cardinal
Borromeo and to point out that, as he was responsible for the
Inquisition and for the defence of the faith in Milan, the necessity for
a new organization would infer neglect of duty on the part of his
representatives.[236]
A Milanese agent of the Cardinal-Archbishop confirmed this in a letter
to him of August 25th, describing the great popular perturbation,
arising not from a consciousness of the existence of heresy but from
the disgrace of the imputation and the dread of the facilities offered
for the gratification of malignity, coupled with the destruction of the
families of the accused. It were to be wished that the virtue of the
people was equal to their devotion, for the ardor of their faith was
seen in the frequentation of the sacraments, the great demand for
indulgences and the performance of other pious works.[237] Further news
was sent to him, September 1st, by his confidential agent, Tullio
Albonesi, who reported that the governor, the Duke of Sessa, has not
wished the city to send envoys to Philip II, for he had already taken
measures to prevent the introduction of the dreaded tribunal. Still it
was desirable that the cardinal, on his part, should see that this
turned out to be successful, for the popular mind was so inflamed that
great disorder would be inevitable and it would be well for him to let
it be clearly seen that he had opposed the project so as to disabuse
those who asserted the contrary.[238] The municipal authorities trusted
the governor and promptly abandoned their purpose of sending envoys to
the king and to the pope. These had already been chosen and had arranged
for the journey, incurring expenses which had to be defrayed.
Accordingly, at a meeting of the Council of Sixty, held September 24th,
it was resolved that, as the governor had stopped them and taken upon
himself to deal with the king and the pope, the envoys should be repaid
the fifteen hundred ducats expended in preparations, on their
surrendering the articles purchased for the purpose, which were then to
be publicly sold at sound of trumpet in the Plaza delli Mercanti, as was
customary in such cases. Besides this there had already been spent a
hundred and ten ducats in twice sending letters to the pope and
cardinals.[239]
The mission to Trent had proved conspicuously serviceable, for the
popular resistance was efficiently seconded by the bishops assembled
there. Those of Lombardy dreaded to be exposed to the experience
endured by their Spanish brethren, humiliated in their dioceses by the
unrestrained autocracy of the inquisitors. Those of Naples argued that,
if the Spanish Inquisition were once installed in Milan, it would surely
be extended to Naples, with similar results to them. Those of the rest
of Italy felt that it could not then be refused to the princes of the
other states, while the papal legates recognized that in such case the
authority of the Holy See would be seriously crippled, for the
allegiance of the bishops would be transferred to their secular rulers
who could control them through the inquisitors and, in the event of
another general council, it would be the princes and not the pope that
would predominate in its deliberations. Earnest representations to this
effect were promptly sent to Rome and great was the relief in Trent when
word came that the pope was of the same opinion and would not assent to
the execution of the project.[240]
Even Philip’s fixity of purpose gave way before these obstacles, but he
delayed long before yielding. More than two months of anxiety followed,
until at length, on November 8th, he wrote to the Duke of Sessa that his
report as to the condition of Milan had been confirmed by letters
furnished by the Bishop of Cuenca. His dextrous management in preventing
the envoys from coming was praised and, in conformity with his
judgement, the Bishop-elect of Salerno was ordered not to leave Trent
and the efforts to obtain faculties for him from the pope were to be
abandoned. The duke was ordered to tell the people, as plausibly as he
could, that Philip had never had the intention of introducing any
innovation in the procedure of the Inquisition but only to appoint an
inquisitor of more authority and with larger revenue, who could do what
was necessary for the service of God in that infected time and dangerous
neighborhood. They could rely that there would be no change and the king
was confident that so Catholic and zealous a community would do its duty
as heretofore.[241] The whole letter shows how unwillingly he withdrew
from a position that had become untenable and how hard he strove to
obtain a capitulation with the honors of war.
Philip’s failure left the Milanese Inquisition in its unsatisfactory
condition. There was one burning question especially which refused to be
settled. Political considerations of the greatest moment required the
maintenance of friendly relations with the Catholic Cantons of
Switzerland, but the Catholic Cantons were deeply infected with heresy.
Moreover the financial interests of the Milanese called for free
commercial intercourse with their northern neighbors while, at the same
time, the rules of the Inquisition forbade the residence of heretics
and dealings with them. It was impossible to reconcile the
irreconcileable--to erect a Chinese wall between Lombardy and
Switzerland, as the Roman Holy Office desired, and at the same time to
retain the friendship of the Swiss and maintain contentment among the
Lombards. Intolerance had to yield to politics and commerce, but not
without perpetual protest. Tullio Albonesi writes, April 12, 1564, to
Cardinal Borromeo that he had presented to the Duke of Sessa the letter
asking him to cease employing those heretic Grisons, the Capitano
Hercole Salice and his sons and had remonstrated with him in accordance
with the information received from the inquisitor. The duke was to
depart for Spain the next day, but took time to explain that the pope
was misinformed as to his wishing to bring heretics to reside in the
Milanese; he had arranged to pay them in their own country for the
king’s service and had given them greater privileges of trade than were
accorded to the Grisons in general under the capitulations and, if this
did not please his Holiness, he must treat with the king about it.
Albonesi adds that he reported this to the inquisitor who concluded that
the only way to stop the trade of these heretics with the Milanese was
for the pope to appeal to Philip.[242] The next year we find the Bishop
of Brescia, in a letter to Borromeo, alluding to two persons in his
diocese suspected of heresy because they caused scandal by dealing with
the Grisons.[243]
How delicate were these international relations and how little the
Inquisition was disposed to respect them are manifest in an occurrence
some years later, after Cardinal Borromeo had come to reside in his see.
In visiting some Swiss districts of his province he promulgated some
regulations displeasing to the people, who sent an ambassador to
complain to the Governor of Milan. He took lodgings with a merchant and,
as soon as the inquisitor heard of his arrival, he arrested and threw
him in prison. This arrogant violation of the law of nations was a
peculiarly dangerous blunder and, as soon as news of it reached the
governor he released the envoy from prison and made him a fitting
apology, but word had already been carried to the Swiss, who made prompt
arrangements to seize the cardinal. Borromeo escaped by a few hours, and
his obnoxious regulations were never obeyed.[244] How completely, in his
eyes, all material interests were to be disregarded, in comparison with
the danger of infection from heresy, is to be seen in a pastoral letter
addressed, in 1580, to all parish priests--a letter which is moreover
instructive as to the extent to which the ecclesiastical jurisdiction
trespassed on the secular. He recites the danger to the faith arising
from those who, under pretext of business or other pretence, visit
heretical lands, where they may be perverted, and on their return spread
the infection, wherefore he orders that no one shall make such journeys
or visits without first obtaining a licence from him or from his
vicar-general or from the inquisitor. All who disobey this are to be
prosecuted by the Inquisition as suspect of heresy and are to be
penanced at discretion. This letter is to be read from the altar on
three feast-days and subsequently several times a year, while the
priests are further ordered to investigate and report within a month all
who are absent, the cause of their going and the length of their
stay.[245] The question was one which refused to be settled and was the
subject of repeated decrees by the Roman Congregation, which serve to
explain why the nations subjected to the Inquisition fell behind their
more liberal rivals in the race for prosperity.[246]
With the failure to introduce the Spanish Inquisition, Cardinal Borromeo
seems to have felt increased responsibility for the suppression of
heresy, prompting him to efforts to render the Milanese tribunal more
efficient. In his correspondence of 1564 and 1565, we find him paying
the salary of the inquisitor, enlarging the archiepiscopal prison with
the proceeds of confiscations and discussing the transfer of the
Inquisition from the monastery of le Grazie to the archiepiscopal
palace, where it would be more conveniently and honorably established.
He is also recognized as its head, for Fra Felice da Colorno, the
inquisitor of Como, asks his instructions about a box of books addressed
to the impious Vergerio, which he has found among those hidden by the
Rev. Don Hippolito Chizzuola.[247] In fact, the Inquisition of the
period seems to be a curious combination of the inquisitorial and
episcopal jurisdictions. As early as 1549 we find the Roman Congregation
giving to Antonio Bishop of Trieste a commission as its commissioner as
though the ordinary jurisdiction were insufficient.[248] In 1564 Gasparo
Bishop of Asti boasts to Cardinal Borromeo of his earnest labors in
keeping his diocese free of heresy, although the neighboring ones were
infected; in 1565 Costaciario Bishop of Acqui excuses himself for delay
in obeying the summons to the first provincial council (October 15th)
because he was engaged on an important trial of a heretic whom he had
imprisoned; in November of the same year Bollani Bishop of Brescia
writes in considerable dread of the Signory of Venice because he had
forced the podestà to abjure for some impudent and reckless speeches; he
throws the responsibility on the cardinal and begs that his letter may
be burnt. A few days later he seems much relieved, for the podestà has
apologized and he describes a curious assembly “la solita nostra
congrega della Santa Inquisizione,” which he was accustomed to hold
weekly in his palace, consisting of the inquisitor, the podestà, the
rettori (or Venetian governors) and some others, when the inquisitor
rejoiced them by reporting that there were but two heretics in the city,
one of whom was _mentecaptus_.[249]
Evidently Cardinal Borromeo was stimulating his suffragans to increased
zeal and activity and when, in 1566, he came to reside in Milan, his
ardor for the extermination of heresy grew apace, whether through his
own convictions or through the impetuous urgency of the new
Inquisitor-Pope, St. Pius V, whose aim was to subject the whole
Christian world to the Holy Office.[250] There is a curious memorandum
drawn up by Borromeo, detailing the matters to be enquired into in
episcopal visitations, which shows that the persecution of heresy, the
efficiency of the Inquisition, the avoidance of communication with
heretics and the observances of the faith were regarded by him as the
points of first importance.[251] In 1568 he was suddenly summoned to
Mantua as the most fitting person to put the Inquisition there into
working order. The duke, Guillelmo Gonzaga, was liberally inclined and
had long given trouble to the Holy Office. Pius V, soon after his
accession, in 1566, had been moved to pious wrath by his refusal to send
to Rome two heretics for trial. A threat to bring him to terms by open
war failed and Pius would have proceeded to extremities, had he not been
dissuaded by the other Italian princes.[252] He contented himself with
sending orders to the inquisitor there, Fra Ambrogio Aldegato, to clear
the city of heretics, who were numerous, but the frate was old; he
shrank from the struggle and, pleading age and infirmity, he asked to be
relieved. Pius gave him the bishopric of Casale and extended over Mantua
the jurisdiction of Fra Camillo Campeggio, styled Inquisitor-general of
Ferrara, who had doubtless been selected as a man of vigor for that
post, in view of the encouragement to the reform given not long before
by Renée de France, the Duchess of Ferrara. The new inquisitor was not
favorably regarded by Gonzaga, who interfered with the public penances
and abjurations imposed by him, who was slack in obeying his commands to
make arrests and who even allowed suspected heretics to escape.
Campeggio was more earnest than respectful in his remonstrances and
mutual ill-will increased until, on Christmas night of 1567, some sons
of Belial slew two Dominicans who had doubtless been overzealous in
aiding the inquisitor. No active efforts were made to detect the
assassins; some higher authority was evidently needed and Pius V, by a
brief of February 12, 1568, ordered Cardinal Borromeo to go there with
all speed, to bring the duke to obedience and to sit with the inquisitor
in the trial of cases. Borromeo lost no time in obeying the mandate and,
on his arrival he gave the duke to understand that the pope’s
determination was unalterable; he would rather see all Dominicans cut to
pieces, and all Dominican convents burnt, than that heresy should go
unpunished in Mantua. It required resolute action for there were
heretics high-placed in both Church and State; a company of sbirri had
to be borrowed from Bologna, but Borromeo succeeded in breaking down all
opposition. Already, by May 16th, he was able to report that his mission
was accomplished and that his presence was no longer needed. On May 21st
he writes that the duke has come humbly to the inquisitor to beg for
release from prison and sanbenito of two penitents, which was granted,
seeing that they had already been compelled to abjure publicly. As the
pope had rewarded Campeggio with the bishopric of Sutri and Nepi, the
duke had at once begged that the place might be filled by Fra Angelo,
the vicar of the Inquisition, to all of which the cardinal points
triumphantly as showing how the ducal temper had changed. Possibly some
explanation of this may be sought in a request from the duke that the
confiscations should be made over to him, which Borromeo was willing to
meet in so far as to suggest that he be allowed one half. Another reason
may perhaps be discerned in his apprehension of an attack by the Duke of
Savoy, for, on June 4th, Borromeo writes that he had asked for the
support of the papacy in such contingency. Be this as it may, Borromeo
was able in June to return to Milan, leaving the Inquisition firmly
established in Mantua.[253]
It is an indication of his predominating zeal for the extirpation of
heresy that when, on May 16th, he begged permission to return to Milan,
the reason he assigned was that he was wanted there for the
long-protracted trial of Nicholas Cid. This was a case which had for
years been occupying the Milanese Inquisition. The accused was
treasurer-general of the Spanish forces, in whose favor Cesare Gonzaga
wrote, November 2, 1565, to the cardinal, repeating what he had
frequently stated before, that it was a persecution arising from
malignity.[254] This ardor for the purity of the faith did not diminish
with time. In his second provincial council, held in 1569, the first
decree requires the bishops to promulgate an edict to be read in all the
parish churches, on the first Sundays in Lent and Advent, calling upon
all persons, under pain of excommunication, to denounce within ten days,
to the bishop or inquisitor, any case of heresy or of reading forbidden
books that may come to their knowledge. His own formula for this, in
1572, is very stringent, insisting on the denunciation of every heretic
act or suspicious word.[255]
It is evident that thus far the episcopal jurisdiction over heresy was
not superseded by the inquisitorial, but that both worked in harmony
and, between the two, it may be questioned whether the Milanese gained
much in escaping the Spanish Inquisition. As the Roman organization
perfected itself throughout Northern Italy, Milan naturally was a centre
of activity, as a sort of bulwark against the influence of Switzerland.
The troubles arising from the inevitable commercial intercourse with the
heretics, and the capitulations which provided for the residence of
traders on each side, continued to be a source of perpetual anxiety and
vigilance. Then the transit of merchandise had to be watched; everything
destined for Milan had to be opened and searched for heretic literature,
but packages in transmission were allowed to pass through, relying upon
examination at the points of destination. Correspondence by mail was
also the subject of much solicitude. In 1588 the Congregation of the
Inquisition was excited by the news that the heretic Cantons proposed to
establish in the Valtelline a school for instruction in their doctrines,
whereupon it wrote urgent letters and threatened to cut off all
intercourse if the project was not abandoned. In the same year it wrote
to the Milanese inquisitor favoring warmly the plan of rewarding those
who would capture and deliver to the tribunal heretic preachers and
promising to pay for “this holy and pious work” according to the
importance of the victims kidnapped, but it uttered a warning that this
had better not be attempted in the Grisons, for fear of reprisals that
would ruin the Catholic churches and monasteries there. In 1593 the
tribunal was reminded that, while the capitulations permitted the
residence of heretic merchants from the Grisons and Switzerland, the
privilege was confined to them and all others must be prosecuted and
punished. As for Milanese who desire to go to Switzerland, returning
home several times a year, they are to be watched, and licences are not
to be given to reside in places where they cannot have access to
Catholic priests. Then, in 1597, there was fresh excitement over an
edict of the Three Leagues, prohibiting the residence in the Valtelline
of foreign priests and friars. In 1599 the zeal of the Milanese tribunal
seems to have provoked reclamations on the part of the Swiss, for the
inquisitor was ordered not to molest the heretic merchants but to
observe the capitulations strictly. This was doubtless part of an
outburst of persecution for, in 1600, orders were given to seize and
retain the children of the heretics who had fled to Switzerland.[256]
It is evident that the Milanese tribunal had ample work in protecting
the faith from hostile invasion. Its activity continued under the
Spanish Hapsburgs until, in 1707, the genius of Prince Eugene won
Lombardy for Austria, as an incident in the War of the Spanish
Succession. It still existed on sufferance until the eighteenth century
was well advanced. In 1771 Maria Theresa foreshadowed the end by
ordering that no future vacancies should be filled and by suppressing
the affiliated Order of the Crocesignati, whose property was assigned to
the support of orphanages. This was followed by a decree of March 9,
1775, declaring that the existence of such an independent jurisdiction
was incompatible with the supremacy and good order of the State,
wherefore it was abolished and, as the inquisitors and their vicars
should die, their salaries should be applied to the orphanages.[257]
Thus passed away the oldest surviving Inquisition, which may be said to
date from 1232, when we find Fra Alberico commissioned as Inquisitor of
Lombardy.