orthodoxy--existed amongst the Greeks. The accusation of Melitus
against Socrates, compassing his death, says in so many words,
“Socrates is guilty because he does not recognise the gods of the
republic, and puts demoniacal extravagancies in their place.” The
judges, yielding to the influence of the democratic party, condemned
Socrates to drink hemlock, but the breath was scarcely out of his body
before the moderate men of all parties felt what an indignity had been
committed in the name of religion; it was not, however, in the cause
of religious tolerance, but by proving that Socrates had recognised
and worshipped the gods of the republic, that they obtained the
condemnation of Melitus his accuser, by way of reprisal.
At Rome as at Athens, we find the people full of suspicion and
merciless towards those who refused to bow down to the gods of the
republic; this was the cause of the cruel persecutions which, under
the Roman emperors, led to the martyrdom of thousands. It was in vain
that the Christians hid themselves in the recesses of the Catacombs to
pray to the true God and partake of the holy mysteries--it was in vain
that they rendered their lives irreproachable by fulfilling all their
duties as citizens--their religious creeds, contrary to that of the
State, could not be pardoned, and whenever they were discovered, they
either had to offer incense to the gods of the republic or suffer death
(Fig. 327). The mild Trajan replied to Pliny that it was unnecessary to
seek out the Christians, but that if they were denounced and refused
to change their faith, they must be punished. St. Ignatius, Bishop of
Antioch, was one of the many martyrs immolated during the reign of
Trajan, who allowed men of the highest honour and virtue, whose only
crime was their refusal to adore the image of the emperor and the pagan
idols, to be put to death.
[Illustration: Fig. 328.--St. Cecilia, and Valerian her
spouse.--At their feet are roses and lilies in bloom, and upon
each side of them is a palm-tree loaded with fruit, a symbol of
their victories and of their meritorious martyrdom. Upon one of
the palm-trees is a phœnix with a gloria around its head, the
ancient symbol of resurrection.--Mosaic taken from the Cemetery
of St. Sixtus, and preserved in the Church of St. Cecilia, at
Rome (Third or Fourth Century).]
Under the reign of Alexander Severus, many illustrious martyrs were
put to death: St. Cecilia, her husband, and her brother-in-law (Fig.
328) among the number. St. Cecilia was descended from a very ancient
family which dated back to the time of Tarquin the Proud; she belonged
to the same house as Metella, many of whose children were raised to
the honours of triumph and of the consulate in the heyday of the Roman
republic. Her parents gave her in marriage to a young Roman patrician,
named Valerian. But Cecilia had dedicated her virginity to God, and
her husband, converted to the faith by her arguments and entreaties,
respected her vow, and himself converted his brother Tiburcius. They
all three relieved their persecuted brethren, and this Christian
charity betrayed them. In spite of their distinguished birth, their
wealth and their connections, they were arrested, and their refusal to
sacrifice to the false gods led to their being condemned to death. We
find a multitude of analogous occurrences in Gaul (Figs. 329 and 330),
and also in the most distant provinces of the East.
[Illustration: Fig. 329.--St. Savin and St. Cyprian brought
before the Proconsul Maximus in 458, and confessing that they
were Christians.--Fresco in the Church of St. Savin (Vienne), the
oldest extant in France (Eleventh Century).--After the Drawings
of M. Gérard-Séguin.]
After the conversion of Constantine, when the religion of Christ was
recognised as that of the State, the secular arm at once placed itself
at the service of the Church to uphold the unity of the faith; but the
civil power, instead of limiting itself to seconding the ecclesiastical
authority in the repression of offences against the dogma as laid
down by the councils, sought to obtain a sovereign influence in all
the trials relating to religious matters, and hence arose deplorable
abuses. The Italian Inquisition, under the immediate direction of the
popes, made its appearance in the fifth century: Pope St. Leo, after
having ordered a juridical inquiry to be held concerning the Manicheans
who had taken refuge in Rome, stated, “What has been done is not
enough; the Inquisition must continue not only as an inducement for the
devout to hold fast by their faith, but in order that those who have
been led astray may be converted from their errors.” The primitive and
real object of the Inquisition was to discover errors in doctrine, to
stop them from being propagated, and to endeavour to enlighten and to
win back those who had been perverted by the apostles of error.
[Illustration: Fig. 330.--Martyrdom of SS. Savin and Cyprian,
their flesh being torn out with iron hooks.--Fresco in the Church
of St. Savin, Vienne (Eleventh Century).--After the Drawings of
M. Gérard-Séguin.]
In the twelfth century Pope Lucius III., with a view of checking
the progress of the Manicheans, who reappeared under the names of
Catharists, Patarenes, the Poor of Lyons, &c., ordered “through the
council of bishops, at the demand of the emperor (of Germany) and the
lords of his court, that every bishop should visit the districts of his
diocese which were suspected of containing heretics once or twice a
year.” They were to be denounced by every one, so that the bishop might
summon them before him, make them renounce their heresies, or inflict
upon them the punishment awarded by canonical law. Thus we see that
religious error was regarded as a breach of public order, and that the
princes looked upon the heretics as rebels or conspirators. This was in
keeping with the ideas of the Middle Ages, when the whole social system
reposed upon the Catholic faith. We must in fairness admit that, if the
Inquisition of Rome was the earliest, and the only one which outlasted
the Middle Ages, it was also the most moderate, for it alone never
ordered capital punishment.
The Inquisition was introduced into France through a heresy of Eastern
origin, which endeavoured to associate the pagan ideas of Armenian
Manicheism with the ceremonies of Christianity. Originally centred
at Toulouse and Albi (whence the name _Albigenses_), the new
heretics, numbering about one thousand and fifty, gradually made their
way into Perigord and the neighbouring provinces. Towards 1160 another
sect, the Waldenses, founded by Peter de Valdo or de Vaux, arose at
Lyons, and gave great trouble to the papacy. The Albigenses were
inferior in morality even to the Waldenses, and professed still more
dangerous opinions. Immediate followers of Manes the Persian, they
had adopted his doctrine of the double nature of man, of fatalism, of
the origin of good and evil, &c.--a monstrous doctrine, the direct
consequence of which was a life of unbridled license. In spite of the
pious efforts of King Robert (1022) and the sentence of condemnation
pronounced at the Council of Toulouse (1118), the Manichean heresy of
the Albigenses continued to spread throughout the southern provinces of
France, and obtained fresh adherents every day even amongst the clergy
and the nobility. Innocent III., elected sovereign pontiff in 1198,
took alarm at the danger to the Christian religion, and determined
to reduce these daring sectaries to obedience, openly protected as
they then were by the Counts of Toulouse, Foix, and Béarn, and by the
Viscount of Béziers. But, before resorting to physical force, he at
first tried persuasion.
[Illustration: Fig. 331.--St. Dominic handing to an envoy of
the Albigenses a book containing the profession of faith in the
Christian truths; to the right, this book having been cast into
the fire, is leaping out of the flames, whilst the heretic’s book
is being consumed.--Predella of the “Couronnement de la Vierge”
by Fra Angelico, in the Louvre (Fifteenth Century).]
Two monks, Guy and Raynier, of the Cistercian order, accordingly
repaired to the south of France to seek out these heretics. They were
the first commissioners of the Holy See to whom might properly belong
the title of _inquisitors_. The failure of their mission decided
Innocent III. to give full powers to Peter de Castelnau, Archdeacon
of Magliano, and to another Cistercian monk named Ralph. These two
monks, accompanied by Amalric, Abbot of Citeaux, preached against the
heresy of the Albigenses at Toulouse, Narbonne, Viviers, Carcassonne,
and Montpellier, but the heretics only displayed greater perseverance.
Peter de Castelnau and Brother Ralph, disheartened at this result,
enlisted in their difficult mission twelve brothers of their own order
and two distinguished Spanish prelates--Diego de Azeles, Bishop of
Osma, and the sub-prior of his cathedral, Dominic Guzman, who, having
witnessed the progress of heresy in Languedoc, went to Italy to obtain
the Holy Father’s permission to preach against it. Dominic had given
proof of a gentleness, zeal, and piety worthy of the apostles, and
the renown of his exemplary life was counted upon to give authority
to his preaching (Fig. 331). Yet he was no less unsuccessful than the
preceding commissioners sent by the pope. Insulted and mocked by an
ignorant and brutal populace, he could not help exclaiming, “O Lord,
let thy hand smite them, that thy punishment at least may open their
eyes!” The legate Peter de Castelnau, in despair at the failure of his
efforts to restore quietude and faith to men’s minds, determined to
address himself directly to the Count of Toulouse, Raymond VI., and to
formally demand of him to lend his aid to the papal legates, or else
to proclaim openly that he sided with the heretics. After an interview
during which bitter language was exchanged, two of the esquires of the
Count of Toulouse believed that they would be complying with their
master’s secret wishes by assassinating the courageous legate upon the
banks of the Rhône (1208). Innocent III., when the news of this murder
reached him, at once determined to set on foot a new crusade against
the Albigenses. He appointed Milon in the room of Peter de Castelnau,
and declared that he took under his immediate protection all the
faithful who should take up arms for the defence of the Church. The
Count of Toulouse did public penance, and his nephew Raymond Viscount
of Béziers was handed over to the papal legates. The town of Béziers,
taken by assault (July 22nd, 1209), was a scene of terrible carnage,
for the crusaders gave no quarter--twenty thousand inhabitants were
massacred without distinction of age or sex, and seven thousand were
burnt in a church in which they had taken refuge.
Simon de Montfort, who was at the head of the expedition, accepted
the effects of the Viscount of Béziers, and continued the war against
the heretics. In 1213, before the walls of Muret, he defeated Peter
II., King of Arragon, an ally of the Albigenses, who was besieging the
town, and he afterwards stripped the Count of Toulouse of his domains,
against the wish of Innocent III., who would have preferred that the
count’s hereditary rights, and still more those of his son, should have
been respected.
Simon was supported by Louis, son of Philip Augustus, who lost no time
in fulfilling the vow which he had made to take up arms against the
Manicheans of Languedoc, and, as the battle of Bouvines (1214) had
led to a five years’ truce between the Kings of France and England,
he joined the Catholic forces in the following year. In 1218 Toulouse
rose in revolt, and Simon de Montfort was mortally wounded by a
stone during the siege. His son Amaury put himself forward as heir to
his father’s domains, and endeavoured to establish his claims to the
countships of Béziers and Toulouse, but he eventually abandoned them in
favour of the French monarch. Very rigorous measures were taken to put
down the heretics. An order issued by the bishop of Toulouse decreed
that “the inhabitants of the districts infected with heresy shall pay
one mark in silver for every Waldensian found within their boundaries;
the house in which he is captured, those in which he has preached,
shall be razed to the ground, and the property belonging to the owner
of these houses confiscated. The goods of the pervert shall also be
confiscated, as well as those appertaining to any person neglecting to
wear or to display the two coloured crosses which should be sewn on to
the breast of the penitent’s garment.” The Holy See, on its part, was
not remaining inactive during this time, as in 1215 the fourth Lateran
Council had excommunicated the Manicheans, the Waldenses, and the
Albigenses. The third canon of that council declared that “the heretics
who are condemned shall be handed over to the secular arm, in order
that they may receive their merited punishment; the clerks shall be
previously unfrocked.”
Just before this council terminated its sittings, Dominic, presented to
Pope Innocent III., obtained, as a recompense for the services which
he had rendered to the Church militant, leave to found the order of
Preaching-Brothers, who from him took the name, by which they are more
generally known, of _Dominicans_.
Their pious founder battled against heresy with purely spiritual
weapons, and it is perhaps scarcely necessary to mention that he it was
who, with a view to obtaining the conversion of heretics, introduced
the custom of reciting the rosary. On his return to Toulouse, which
eventually became the centre of the Inquisition, he delegated to eight
provincials of his order, in France, Provence, Lombardy, Romagna,
Germany, Hungary, England, and Spain the special mission of preaching
against heresy. And, lastly, in 1229 Raymond VII., who had succeeded
to his paternal inheritance after doing public penance, was reconciled
to the Church and reinstated in his countship of Toulouse. His only
daughter married one of the king’s brothers, thus insuring the
transmission of his lands to the French crown.
[Illustration: Fig. 332.--Great Synagogue of Toledo (Third
Century), restored at different periods, and consecrated for
Catholic worship, under the name of Santa Maria Blanca, after
the expulsion of the Jews in 1405: now used as a military
storehouse.--After a Drawing by Don Manuel de Assas.]
Louis IX. lost no time in taking measures to consolidate the results
of this pacific arrangement. He addressed to all his subjects, in
the dioceses of Narbonne, Cahors, Rodez, Agen, Arles, and Nîmes, a
decree composed of ten clauses, by which it was sought to effect the
repression of heresy with the help of the secular clergy. Any one who
had been excommunicated for more than a year was to be compelled, by
seizure of his goods, to return to the Church. The tithes, which had
long been kept back, were re-established. The barons, the vassals, the
large towns and royal bailiwicks were sworn to observe and execute
this decree. Even the king’s brother, when he assumed possession of
the country, took the same oath for himself and his subjects. The
Inquisition soon appeared to be unnecessary in France, and, with the
consent of the Holy See, it suspended its action in the countship of
Toulouse in 1237.
In Spain, the Inquisition was royal rather than papal. If we would
understand the part played by this remarkable tribunal, it must be
remembered that Spain took seven centuries to conquer its independence
against the Moors and the Jews. These latter, while feigning a
readiness to be converted, none the less maintained their antipathy for
the Christian religion and their hatred of the Christians. Thus, when
Ferdinand and Isabella had the whole of Spain under their authority,
they considered it necessary to establish religious unity, in order
to preserve national unity, and the Moors and Jews were ordered to
quit the country or abjure their creeds (Figs. 332 and 333). The two
sovereigns, who looked at the question in a political light, had
established in their dominions a special Inquisition placed under their
immediate control. The popes protested at once against the pretension
of the Catholic monarchs to themselves superintend the Inquisition,
and, on the tribunal being formed, Pope Sixtus IV. recalled his
legate from the Spanish Court, which latter in turn withdrew its
ambassador from Rome. A reconciliation, however, was effected, and a
bull legalising the Spanish Inquisition was granted; but Pope Sixtus
IV. soon regretted what he had done when he came to know of its
excesses. The Spanish sovereigns, upon the other hand, did all they
could to prevent the appeals made by condemned heretics from being
heard at the Court of Rome, while the popes were obliged to employ
stratagem in order to protect the penitent heretics from the merciless
severity of the Inquisition. Llorente tells us that on many occasions
a great number of heretics received secret absolution by order of the
pope, but he further adds that these papal amnesties were not always
approved of by the Spanish government. Leo X. actually excommunicated
the Inquisitors of Toledo, and Charles V., when he became emperor,
pretended to lean in favour of the Lutheran reform in order to prevent
Leo from interfering any further with the Spanish Inquisition. This
Inquisition was assisted by three corporate bodies, namely, the Holy
Hermandad, the Cruciata, and the Militia of Christ.
[Illustration: Fig. 333.--Interior of the Ancient Mosque at
Cordova, now a Catholic Cathedral; built in the Eighth Century
by Abderhaman I., and altered for Catholic worship after the
conversion of the Moors; it is one of the largest and most
splendid monuments of Moorish architecture.]
The Holy Hermandad (a corruption of the Latin word _germanitas_,
confraternity) was at first an association of police officers employed
in the protection of the streets and highways. Originally established
in the three royal residences of Toledo, Cuidad-Real, and Talavera, it
eventually became a military force, whose chief mission was to put into
execution the orders of the Inquisition.
The Cruciata, a society composed of archbishops, bishops, and other
personages of mark, was entrusted, under various circumstances, with
the task of seeing that the laws of the Church were obeyed and carried
out amongst Catholics.
The Family of the Inquisition, or the Militia of Christ, created during
the pontificate of Honorius III., and analogous to the Order of the
Templars, placed its forces at the service of the Inquisitors, and its
pious zeal earned for it the good opinion of Pope Gregory IX.
As we have already mentioned, it was in 1481, during the reign of
Ferdinand and Isabella, that the Inquisition, provided with a new code
of regulations, acquired a formidable power. Chiefly intended to bring
to trial the Jews and the Moors who had again relapsed into paganism,
it was then that it got the name of _The Holy Office_, and was
superintended by a grand inquisitor-general and a council, termed
_The Supreme_, consisting of forty-five members. When the Holy
Office had a heretic, or any one suspected of being one, arrested, its
agents stripped the accused person of all he had about his person, and
took a detailed inventory of his clothing and furniture, in order that
they might be restored to him intact should he prove to be innocent.
The money so seized, whether in gold or silver, belonged by right
to the tribunal, and went to pay the costs of the procedure. These
formalities over, the accused person was taken to prison.
Of prisons, the Inquisition had several kinds: 1st, the _common_
prison, in which were confined persons accused merely of ordinary
misdemeanour, and who, consequently, were allowed to communicate with
their families and friends; 2nd, the _prison of mercy_ or _of
penitence_, which was set apart for those who were to be detained
only temporarily; 3rd, the _intermediate prison_, reserved for
those who had committed some ordinary delinquency which brought
them within the jurisdiction of the Holy Office; 4th, the _secret
prison_, the inmates of which were kept in solitary confinement.
The dungeons of the Inquisition were like all those constructed in the
Middle Ages.
After an incarceration which varied in length, the prisoner was
conducted, when the day of trial arrived, to the large audience hall,
which was hung with black, and adorned with a figure of Christ upon the
cross, the body being of ivory and the cross of ebony. At the extreme
end, before a circular table, sat the Inquisitor-general in a raised
chair covered with black velvet and surmounted by a canopy of the same
material. To his right and left, seats placed at a lower elevation were
reserved for the Inquisitors, who, with the secretary, composed the
tribunal. Two clerks of the court took down the questions put by the
president and the answers made by the accused; behind them stood the
spies of the Inquisition, and four men wearing long black robes, with
their faces concealed by a mask with openings for the mouth, the nose,
and the eyes.
The prisoner was seated upon a kind of raised stool placed opposite
the Inquisitor; when, after a long interrogatory, he failed to avow
his guilt, he was taken to the _torture-chamber_, preceded by the
Inquisitor and the four mysterious men in black who had been present
at the trial. Here he was again exhorted to abjure his errors, and,
if these fresh entreaties were powerless to move him, he was handed
over to the torturer, who put him to the torture with one of the four
agencies employed by justice--the cord, the scourge, fire, or water
(see the chapter on “Punishments,” in MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE
MIDDLE AGES).
The torture as used by the tribunals of the Inquisition did not
differ from that employed by the civil tribunals, which, using it
as unsparingly, scarcely attained a more satisfactory result, for
the victim steeled himself against the pain and generally refused
to reply to this interrogatory, though accompanied by inconceivable
tortures. The solemn delivery of the judgment of the Inquisition
and the execution of its sentences were preceded by a peculiar
ceremony, designated in Spain and its dependencies by the name of
_Auto-da-fé_, or Act of Faith. In most Auto-da-fés, the dismal
procession was headed by a double file of Dominican brothers, before
whom was carried the banner of the Holy Office (Fig. 334), with the
device, “_Justitia et misericordia_.” Behind them came the
condemned, followed by the spies of the Inquisition and the executioner.
[Illustration: Fig. 334.--An Auto-da-fé Procession, in Spain,
according to the ceremonial observed from the Fourteenth
Century.--Fac-simile of a large Engraving on copper in the work
of Philip of Limborch, entitled “Historia Inquisitionis:” folio,
Amsterdam, 1692.]
There were many kinds of _san-benito_ for different classes of
penitents. The first, for heretics who were reconciled to the Church
before sentence had been passed, consisted of a yellow scapulary,
with large reddish-coloured St. Andrew’s cross, and of a round
pyramid-shaped cap called _coroza_, of the same material as the
san-benito and with similar crosses; but no flames were represented
on the garments, as the accused by timely repentance had escaped the
punishment of burning (Fig. 335).
The second, for those who, sentenced to be burnt, had subsequently
recanted, was made up of a san-benito and a coroza of the same
material. The scapulary was covered with tongues of fire pointing
downwards, to indicate that the wearer (Fig. 336) would not be burnt
alive, inasmuch as he was to be strangled before being placed upon the
burning pile.
[Illustration: Fig. 335.--_San-benito._ Garment worn by
those who escaped burning by making a confession before being
sentenced.
Fig. 336.--_Fuego revolto._ Garment worn by those who
escaped being burnt alive by making a confession after they had
been condemned.
Fig. 337.--_Samarra._ Garment worn by those who, refusing to
confess, were about to be burnt.
Fac-simile of Engravings on Copper in the work of Philip of
Limborch, entitled “Historia Inquisitionis:” in folio, Amsterdam,
1592.]