Lectures on ecclesiastical history
Campbell, George, 1719-1796
ss ‘<.) “LECTURES ON LECTURE RKV.. aul) west ——————————— Havine discussed, in the two preceding lectures, what relates to the concealment of scripture, and of all the public offices of religion, by the use of an unknown tongue, and to the check given to the advancement of knowledge by the index expurga- torius, I intend, in this discourse, to consider the third grand expedient adopted by Rome for securing the eee obedience of her votaries, namely, persecution. Nothing is clearer, from the New Testament, than han ‘hte method of promoting the faith is totally unwarranted, as well by the great autbor, as by the first propagators of our religion. His disciples were sent out as sheep amidst wolves, exposed to the most ‘dreadful persecutions, but incapable of ever giving to their enemies a return in kind, in a consistency with this signa- ture of Christ’s servants: for in no change of circumstances will it suit the nature of the sheep to persecute the wolf. As it was not an earthly kingdom which our Lord came to establish, so it was not by carnal weapons that his spiritual warfare was to be conducted. ‘The means must be adapted to theend. My king- dom, said he, ts not of this world ; if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight. Worldly weapons are suited to the conquest of worldly kingdoms. But nothing can be worse adapted to inform the understanding, and conquer 'the heart, than such coarse implements. Lactantius says with rea- son, Defendenda est religio non occidendo, sed moriendo, non sevitia, sed patientia. ‘To convince, and to persuade, both by teaching and by example, was the express commission given to the apostles. ‘The only weapons which they were to employ, or which could be employed, for this purpose, were arguments and motives from reason and scripture. Their only armour, faith and patience, prudence and innocence, the comforts arising from the consciousness of doing their duty, and the unshaken hope of the promised reward. By means of this panoply, however ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 399 lightly it may be accounted of by those who cannot look beyond the present scene, they were, in the spiritual, that is, the most important sense, invulnerable; and by means of their faith, as the spring which set all their other virtues in motion, they ob- tained a victory over the world. Beside the declared enemies from without, pagans and infidel Jews, whom Christians had, from the beginning, to contend with, there arose very early, in the bosom of the church, as had been foretold by the apostles, certain internal foes, first to the primitive simplicity of Christian doctrine, and afterwards, by a natural progress, to the unity, sympathy, and love, which, as members of the same society, having one common head, they were under the strongest obligations to observe inviolate. From the very commencement of the church, the tares of error had by divine permission, for the exercise and probation of the faithful, been sown among the good seed of the word. The only reme- dies which had been prescribed by the apostles against those who made divisions in the Christian community, founding new sects, which conimonly distinguished themselves by the profession of some erroneous doctrine, or at least some idle and unedifying speculation, were, first, repeatedly to admonish them, and after- wards, when admonitions should prove ineffectual, to renounce their company, that is, to exclude them from their brotherhood, or excommunicate them: for the original import of these ex- pressions is nearly the same. On this footing matters remained till Constantine, in the beginning of the fourth century, embra- ced the.faith, and gave the church a sort of political establish- ment in the empire. ~ From the apologies of the fathers before that period, (so the dekertors of our religion written by them are named): it is evi- dent, that they universally considered. persecution for any opi- nions, whether true or false, as the heighth of injustice and op- pression. Nothing can be juster than the sentiment of Tertul- lian, which was, indeed, as far as appears, the sentiment of all the fathers of the first three centuries. For all Christians, in the ages of the martyrs, appear to have agreed in this, that the magistrate’s only object ought to be the peace and temporal prosperity of the commonwealth. But (such alas! is the depravity of human nature) when the church was put on a different footing, men began, not all at once, but gradually, to change their system in regard to those articles, and seemed strongly inclined to think, that there was no in- justice in retaliating upon their enemies, by employing those un- ‘hallowed weapons in defence of the true religion, which had ‘been so cruelly employed in support of a false: not considering, that by this dangerous position, that one may justly persecute in support of the truth, the right of persecuting for any opinions will be effectually secured to him who holds them, provided he have the power. For what is every man’s immediate standard of orthodoxy but his own opinions? And if he have a right to persecute in support of them, because of the ineffable importance of sound opinions to our eternal happiness, it must be even his — duty to do it when he can. For if that interest, the interest of the soul and eternity, come at all within the magistrate’s pro- vince, it is unquestionably the most important part of it. Now as it is impossible he can have any other*immediate directory, in tegard to what is orthodox, but his own opinions, and as the opinions of different men are totally different, it will be incum- bent, by the strongest of all obligations, on one magistrate to persecute in support of a faith, which it is equally incumbent on another by persecution to destroy. Should ye object, that the standard is not any thing so fleeting as opinion; it is the word of God, and right reason. This, if ye attend to it, will bring you back to the very same point which ye seek to avoid. The dictates both of scripture and of reason, we see but too plainly, are differently interpreted by different persons, of whose sin- cerity we have no ground to doubt. Now to every individual, ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 401 that only, amongst all the varieties of sentiments, can be his rule, which, to the best of his judgment, that is, in his opinion, _is the import of either. Nor is there a possibility of avoiding the recurrence at last.. But such is the intoxication of power, that men, blinded by it, will not allow themselves to look for- ward to those dreadful consequences. But to return to our narrative.. When the secular powers had changed sides, and were now come to be on the side of Christi- anity, this was the manner, on the subject of religion, in which some men.among the clergy began to argue. Princes ought to be considered in a twofold capacity ; one is, that of Christians, the other, that of princes, in both which characters they are bound to serve God: as Christians, by observing the divine commandments, like every other disciple of Christ: as princes, by purging the church of all schisms, heresies, and blasphemies, punishing all transgressors of the divine precepts, but more es- pecially those who, by the transgressions above mentioned, vio~ late the first table of the decalogue: for as those sins are com- mitted more immediately against God, they are much more hei- nous than theft, adultery, murder, or any sins committed against our neighbour. Now under the general denomination of sins of the first table, every sect (were their verdicts to be severally taken) would comprehend almost all the distinguishing tenets of every other sect. And though, in support of their plea, they might have many specious things to advance, they would all be found to lean on a false hypothesis. _ First, it is false, that the concerns of the soul and eternity fall under the cognizance and jurisdiction of the magistrate. To say that they do, is to blend the very different and hardly compatible characters of magistrate and pastor in the same per- son; or, which is worse, to graft the latter upon the former, the sure method of producing a most absurd and cruel despotism, such as obtains in all Mahometan countries: nor is that much better which prevails more or less in popish countries, especially a6 402 _ ‘LECTURES ON , in the ecclesiastical state, and in Spain'and Portugal, where'the magistrate is grafted on the pastor, or rather on the priest. Secondly, it is false, that spiritual concerns, if they did fall under the cognizance of the magistrate, . are capable ‘of being regulated by such expedients as are proper for restraining the injuries of violence and fraud, and preserving tranquillity and -good order in society. ‘Though, by coercion, crimes, which are outward and overt acts, may effectually be restrained, it is not by coercion that those inward effects can be produced, convic~ tion in the understanding, or conversion in the heart. Now these in religion are all in all. By racks and gibbets, fire and faggot, we may as rationally propose to mend the sight of a man who squints, or is purblind, as by these means to enlighten the infidel’s or the heretic’s understanding, confute, his errors, and bring him to the belief of what he disbelieved before. ‘That by such methods he may be constrained to profess what he disbe- lieves still, nobody can deny, or even doubt. But to extort a hypocritical profession, is so far from being to promote the cause of God and religion, that nothing, by the acknowledgment of men of all parties can stand more directly in opposition to it. Nihil est tam voluntarium quam religio, says Lactantius, in qua st animus sacrificantis aversus est, jam sublata, jam nulla est.. Thirdly, itis a false, though a very common notion, that errors concerning the divine nature and perfections ought to be denominated blasphemies, or considered as civil crimes. Blas- phemy, in regard to God, corresponds to calumny in regard to man. ‘The original name for both is the same. As the latter always implies what, in the language of the law, is called malus animus, a disposition to calumniate, so does the former. - Mere mistake, in regard to character, especially when the mistake is not conceived, by him who entertains it, to derogate from. the character, constitutes neither of those crimes. That no impu- tation, however, is commoner, can be ascribed solely to that malevolence, which bigotry and contention never fail to produce. Thus the arminian and the calvinist, the protestant and the pa- pist, the jesuit and the jansenist, throw and retort.on each other the unchristian reproach of blasphemy. Yet each is so far from intending to lessen, in the opinion of others, the honour of the divine majesty, that he is fully convinced that his own principles ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 403 are better adapted to raise it than those of his antagonist, and for that very reason he is so strenuous in maintaining them. But to blacken, as much as possible, the designs of an antago- nist, in order the more easily to bring odium on his opinions, is the too common, though detestable, resource of theological con- trovertists [a]. "I proceed to show the advances which, from time to time, were made, till that system of persecution which, in a great part of the world, still obtains, was brought to maturity, and esta- blished. For ages after the opinion first took place among Christians, that it was the magistrate’s duty to restrain heretics by the infliction of civil penalties, they retained so much mo- deration as not to think that the punishment could justly extend to death, or mutilation, or even to the effusion of blood. But now that the empire was become Christian, there gradually arose in it divers¢ laws against this new crime heresy, which are still extant in the codes of Theodosian and Justinian, imposing on the delinquents fines, banishments, or confisca- tions, according to the circumstances, and supposed degree, of the delinquency. All that regarded the execution of those laws, the trial, as well as the sentence, devolved on the magistrate. Only the nature of the crime, what was heresy or schism, was determined by the ecclesiastical judge. One step in an evil course naturally leads to another. ‘The first step was made when civil penalties were denounced against particular opinions and modes of thinking. ‘This may be considered as the first stage of the doctrine and practice of intolerance, in the Chris- tian’church. Nor could any thing be more explicitly, or more universally,’ condemned than this had been, by the fathers of the first three centuries, and several of the fourth. Humant . juris et naturalis potestatis est, said ‘Tertullian, in the begin- ning of the third century, wnicuique quod putaverit colere, and Hilary of Poitiers, in the fourth, in opposition to those who fa- voured the interposition of the magistrate. Deus cognitionem sui docuit, potius quam exegit, et operationum celestium admi- ratione, preceptis suis concilians auctoritatem coactam confiten- [a] For the scripture import of blasphemy, and the nature of that crime, see << Preliminary Dissertations to a Version of the Four Gospels,” by the Author, vol. 1. p. 395, &c. ce2 4.04: LECTURES ON di se aspernatus est voluntatem. Again, Deus universitatis est, obsequio non eget necessario, non requirit coactam confessionem ; non fallendus est sed promerendus, simplicitate querendus est, confessione discendus est, charitate amandus est, timore vener- andus est, voluntatis probitate retinendus est. At vero quid is- tud, quod sacerdotes timere Deum vinculis coguntur, penis ju- bentur 2? Sacerdotes carceribus continentur ? Men’s system of conduct may come, we see, to be totally reversed. But this is always the work of time. Every advance has its difficulty, and is made with hesitation. But one difficulty surmounted em- boldens a man, and renders it easier for him to surmount an- other. That again makes way for the next, and so on till the change be total. Several bishops and pastors, who had not yet been able to ee vest themselves of the more pure and harmless maxims of pri- mitive times, or rather of their divine master, who totally repro- bated all secular weapons in this warfare, thought, that after they had declared opinions heretical, and denied their commu. » nion to those who held them, they could not innocently inter- meddle further, or give information to the magistrate, dreading that such a conduct would be irreconcileable to the great law of charity. Others more hardy, (for there will always be such dif- ferences among men) resolved, by any means, to silence such as they could not confute, and to compel those to dissemble, whom they despaired of convincing: the plain language of which con- duct was, if we cannot make them better, we will make them worse,—if they will not be believers, they shall be hypocrites. And whoever will not be induced to be of what we account the family of God, we shall be sure to render twofold more the children of the devil than they were before.. People of this stamp, possessed of a pride, (misnamed zeal) which cannot brook contradiction, were forward in giving infor- mation to the magistrate on those whom they called heretics, and in prompting Mis where there appeared a remissness, to inflict the punishments which the imperial edicts had denounced. To such are these words of Hilary very pertinently addressed: Miser- ert licet nostre etatis laborem, et presentium temporum stultas opiniones congemiscere, quibus patrocinari Deo humana. cre- duntur, et ad tuendam Christi ecclesiam ambitione seculari Tabo- ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 405- ratur. Oro vos, episcopi, quibusnam suffragiis ad predican- dum evangelium apostoli usi sunt? Quibus adjuti potestatibus Christum predicaverunt, gentasque fere omnes ex idolis ad Deum transtulerunt ? Anne aliquam sibi assumebant e palatio dignitatem, hymnum Deo in carcere inter catenas et flagella cantantes ? Edictisque regis Paulus Christo ecclesiam con- gregabat ? Neron ese, credo, aut Vespasiano patrocinantibus, tuebatur, quorum in nos odiis confessio divine predicationis efloruit ? At nunc, proh dolor ! divinam fidem suffragia terrena commendant inopsque virtutis sue Christus, dum ambitio nomini suo conciliatur, arguitur. Terret exiliis et carceribus ecclesia, credique sibi cogit, que exiliis et carceribus credita est ; pendet a dignatione communicantium, que persequentium est conse- crata terrore; fugat sacerdotes, que fugatis est sacerdotibus propagata, diligi sese gloriatur a mundo, que Christi esse non potuit, nisi mundus eam odisset. ‘Such were the sentiments of St. Hilary, for he has obtained a place in the calendar, which I take notice of the rather, that we may perceive, in the stronger light, the different temperaments which prevailed in the saints _ acknowledged by Rome who belong to different ages. Light and darkness are not more opposite than the spirit of a St. Hilary, in the fourth century, and the spirit of a St. Dominic, the inventor of the inquisition, and the butcher of the Albi- genses, in the thirteenth. But this by the way. I return to the early times. stab happened, not often at first, that on account of sedition, real or pretended, the person accused of heresy was punished eapitally. ‘This, if people were not satisfied of the reality of the sedition, rarely failed, for some ages, to raise against the informers, especially if pastors, much clamour and scandal. Our ‘Lord’s words, I came not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them, had not yet totally lost their force among Christians. The spirit of the master, and that of the servant, made too glaring a contrast to escape the notice of those who had any knowledge and reflection. Indeed, for several ages, those ministers who thought themselves warranted to call in the secular arm, did not think themselves authorised to proceed so far, as to be aiding in what might affect either life or members. ‘They therefore abstained not only from giving information where there was any 406 LECTURES ON danger of this kind, but from appearing at the secular tribunal "in any capacity, unless that of intercessor in behalf of the ac- cused. And this office was not in them, as it is in the clergy of some Romish countries at present, under a disguise of mer- cy, quite transparent, a downright insult upon misery. But a long tract of time was necessary before matters could be brought to this pass. St. Martin, in France, (another instance of hu- manity and moderation, even in those whom Rome now adores as saints) excommunicated a bishop in the fifth century, for ac- cusing certain heretics to the usurper Maximus, by whose means he procured their death. ‘That worthy minister de- clared, that he considered any man as a murderer, who was ac- cessary to the death of another, for being unfortunate enough to be mistaken in his opinions. On this foot, however, things remained till the year 800. It belonged to councils and synods to determine what is heresy, but (except in what relates to church ensures) the trial, as well as the punishment of the sheretic, was in the magistrate. Neither was the punishment legally capital, unless when the heresy was accompanied with crimes against the state. That this pretence was often made without foundation, by men of an intolerant temper, there is little ground to doubt. About this time happened what is called the great schism of the east, the breach betwixt the Greek and the Latin churches, since which time, till the destruction of the eastern empire by the Turks, the cause of heresy and schism remained in the Greek churches on the same footing as before. In the west, however, it has undergone immense alterations; insomuch, that the popular sentiments concerning zeal and charity have long stood in direct opposition to those which obtained, and rendered the Christian character so completely amiable, as well as venerable, im the days of the martyrs. Indeed, for some centuries, particularly the eighth, ninth, and tenth, remarkable for nothing so much as the vilest superstition and grossest ig- norance, and for insurrections, revolutions, and confusions, every where, heretics and sectaries made but little noise, and were as little minded. With the revival of knowledge, even in its dawn, these also revived. ‘There is no human blessing without some foil. But considering the grossness of the reign- ‘ ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 407 ing superstition, one might be at a loss to say, whether any new absurdity could be, comparatively, pronounced an evil. Whatever served to rouse men out of their lethargy, seemed to promise good in its consequences. AOS LECTURES ON LECTURE XXVL 9) >)! Arren the year 1100, in consequence of the perpetual jars’ which had been betwixt the popes and emperors for more than fifty years back, and which still subsisted, and in consequence of the frequent wars and scandals in the Christian world, and the irreligious lives of the clergy, innumerable heretics sprang up, whose heresies (as they are called) were commonly levelled against ecclesiastical authority, the abuse of which was, indeed, so excessive, and so flagrant, as to. give but too much weight with every body, to the severest reproaches that could be utter- ed. All attacks upon received doctrines must ultimately affect the power by which they are established. But when the as= sault. is made directly on that power, the fabric of church au- thority is in the most imminent danger. The aim of the for- mer is only to make a breach in the wall of the edifice, but that of the latter is an attempt to sap the foundation. ‘As we have seen all along that the darling object of Rome is power, to which every other consideration is made to yield, we may be- lieve that attempts of this kind, would excite a more than ordi- nary resentment. ‘This, in fact, was the consequence: an un- usual degree of rancour in the ecclesiastics, more especially in the pontiff and his minions, mingled itself with their bigotry or mistaken zeal, (for it would be unjust to impute the effect to either cause separately) and produced the many bloody, and till then, unexampled scenes of cruelty, which ensued. The popes, ‘by letter, frequently excited the bishops as well as princes—the bishops instigated the magistrates, by all possible means, to sub- due or exterminate the enemies of the church. When the number of these enemies was so great, that it was impossible to attain this end by means of judicatories, civil or ecclesiastical, princes were enjoined, on pain of excommunication, interdict, deprivation, &c. to make war upon them, and extirpate them by -fire and sword. And in order to allure, by rewards, as well as ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. It was not till the year 1200 that the names inquisition into heresy, and inquisitor, were heard of. The bishops and their vicars being, in the pope’s apprehension, neither so fit nor so diligent as he desired and thought necessary in such a cause, there were, at that time, opportunely for his purpose, two new orders of regulars instituted, those of St. Dominic, and those of St. Francis, both zealously devoted to the church, and men with whom the advancement of Christianity, and the exaltation of the pontifical power, were terms perfectly synonymous. To St. Dominic, indeed, the honour of first suggesting the erection of this extraordinary court, the inquisition, is commonly as- eribed. It was not, however, in the beginning, on the same footing on which it has been settled since, and still continues. The first inquisitors were vested with a double capacity, not very happily conjoined in the same persons; one was, that of preachers, to convince the heretics by argument; the other, that of prosecutors, to instigate magistrates, without intermission, to employ every possible method of extirpating the contuma- cious, that is, all such as were unreasonable enough not to be convinced by the profound reasonings of those merciless fana- tics and wretched sophisters. I may add a third, that of being spies of Rome, on the bishops, on the secular powers, and on the people, both Romish and heretical. ‘They had it in charge to make strict inquiry, and report to his holiness the number and quality of the heretics, the zeal discovered in those called catholics, the diligence of the bishops, and the forwardness or backwardness, which they found in the secular powers, to com- ply with the desires of the pope. It was from this part of their charge in particular, that they were denominated inquisitors. They had, however, no tribunals. Only they stirred up judges to banish, or otherwise chastise those heretics, whom they brought before them. Sometimes they excited potentates to arm their subjects against them; at other times they addressed ’ themselves to the mob, and inflamed the populace whom they 410 ~ |. LECTURES.ON headed, to arm themselves,.and join together in extirpating them. For this purpose they put a.cross of cloth upon the gav- ments of those who were willing to devote. themselves to this. service, and-titled them crusaders. “This badge (for a badge,in. such cases is of great consequence, it matters little what it-be,, whether a-red cross, or a blue cockade) operated like a charm. on those holy idiots, (pardon the misapplication of the epithet holy in conformity to the style of the barbarians spoken of) and. gave the finishing stroke to their delusion. If they were in- flamed before, they now became infuriate, and raised to a super- celestial sort of virtue, which defies all the humbler restraints-of reason and humanity. In this way things continued till the year 1250, that is, for half a century. The attempts of the fathers inquisitors during that patie were greatly aided by the emperor Frederic II., who, in the. year 1224, being in Padua, had promulgated four edicts in re- lation to this matter, taking the inquisitors under his protection, imposing on obstinate heretics the punishment of fire, and per- petual imprisonment on the penitent, committing the cognizance. of the crime to the ecclesiastical, and the condemnation ofthe. criminal, to the secular judges. ‘This was the first law which made heresy capital. This, however, at first, by reason of the, circumstances of the times, and the differences which soon arose betwixt the pope and the emperor, had not all the effect that might have been expected from it. However, it proved very pernicious in example, in denouncing against heresy the punish- ment of death, to which, before that time, it had never been by law subjected. ‘The example was, besides, of a most cruel death; which, nevertheless, came gradually to be adopted, almost uni-. versally, into the laws of other countries. After the death of Frederic, which happened about the mid- dle of the century, pope Innocent IV. remaining, as it were, sole arbiter of affairs in Lombardy, and some other parts .of. ‘Italy, applied his mind to the extirpation of heresies, which, during the late troubles in the state, had increased exceedingly. And, considering the labour which had hitherto been employed in this service, by the Franciscan friars, as well as the Domini- can, whose zeal and diligence, unrestrained by either the respect of persons, or the fear of dangers, by any regards to justice, or / ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. Att feelings of humanity, recommended them highly to the pontiff; he judged it the surest remedy, to avail himself of their ardour and abilities, not as formerly, in preaching, or even enlisting crusaders, and inflicting military execution, but by erecting them into a standing athe) with very extensive authority, and no other charge chair that of the expurgation of heretical pravity. There were two objections against this expedient. One was, ‘hit this judicatory appeared an incroachment on the jurisdic- tion of the ordinary, or bishop of the place; the other was, that it was unprecedented, that the secular magistrate, to whom the punishment of heretics was committed, should be excluded from the trial and judgment. All the imperial laws hitherto, even the last severe law of Frederic, and the municipal statutes of every country, had put the cognizance of the fact, and the trial of the accused, though not the description of the crime, into the hands of the magistrate. For removing the first difficulty, the pope devised this temperament: he made the tribunal consist of the inquisitor, and the bishop of the place; wherein, however, the inquisitor was not only to be principal, but, in effect, every thing, the bishop having little more than the name of a judge. For removing the second, and in order to give some appearance of authority to the secular powers, they were allowed to appoint the officers to the inquisition, but still with the approbation of the inquisitors, and to send with the inquisitor, when he should go into the country, one of their assessors, whom the inquisi- tors should choose. A third part of the confiscations was to go to the community, in return for which the community was to be at all the expence of keeping the prisons, supporting the prison- ers, &c. These things made the magistrate, in appearance, co- “ ordinate with the inquisitor, but, in reality, his servant. The infliction of the legal punishment was also in the magistrate, after the heretic had been tried and condemned. by the inquisi- tors. But this was so much a thing of course, and which he well knew he could not avoid executing, without incurring the - vengeance of the church, that in this he was, in fact, no better ‘than the spiritual judge’s executioner. His office was, in no respect, magisterial, it was merely servile. On this footing the inquisition was erected in the year 1251, in those provinces in Italy most under the pope’s eye, Romania, 412 » ) LECTURES ON - Lombardy, Marea Trevigiana, and entrusted to Dominican friars. Afterwards it was extended to more distant provinces: Thirty-one rules, or articles, defining the powers and jurisdie+ tion, and regulating the procedure of this new judicatory, were devised; and all rulers and magistrates were commanded, by a bull issued for the purpose, to give, under pain of excommunica- tion and interdicts, punctual obedience, and every possible assist- ance to this holy court. ‘The inquisitors were ser nb to fulminate against the refractory. speek Afterwards, in the year 1484, king Febdinetia the extol having put a period to the reign of the Mahometans in Gra- nada, did, to purge his own, and his consort Elizabeth’s domi- nions, from both Moors and Jews, erect, with consent of pope Sextus IV., a tribunal of ‘inquisition in all the kingdoms pos- sessed by him, which took cognizance not only of judaism and mahometism, but also of heresy and witchcraft. The form of the judicatory then introduced, and still remaining there is, that the king nominates an ecclesiastic to be general inquisitor for all his dominions, and his holiness confirms him, if he ap- prove the choice; for he may reject him if he please. The m= quisitor named by the king, and confirmed by the pontiff, names the particular inquisitors destined for every place, who, before entering on their office, must obtain the royal approbation. The king, besides, deputes a council, or senate, over this business, who sit where the court resides, and of which the inquisitor general is president. This council has supreme jurisdiction, makes new regulations when it sees occasion, determines differé ences between particular inquisitors, punishes the faults of their officers, and receives appeals. From Spain it extended to its dependencies, and was introduced into Sicily, we and the Indies. weit Attempts, however, of this kind have not proved equally suc= cessful in all. Roman Catholic states, or even the greater part of them. It was never in the power of the pope to obtain the establishment of this tribunal in many of the most populous countries in subjection to the see of Rome. their immoderate severity, as well as their unbounded extortion and avarice, to which I may add, the propensity they showed, on every occasion, to extend, beyond measure, their own au- thority; insomuch, that they were proceeding to engross, on one pretext or other, all the criminal jurisdiction of the magis- trate. Under heresy, they insisted that infidelity, blasphemy, perjury, sorcery, poisoning, bigamy, usury, were comprehended. The other cause was, that the tribunal was found to be so burs densome, that the community refused to be at the expence. In several places it was found necessary to ease the public of this charge, and in order to abate somewhat of the excessive rigour, which had raised so much clamour against it, a greater share of the power was given to the bishop. ‘These things served to facilitate its introduction into ‘Tuscany and Arragon, and even into some cities of France; but in this last country it was not long permitted to remain. Nh - It is not entirely on the same footing in the different places where it has been received. In Spain and Portugal this scourge and disgrace of humanity glares, monster like, with its’ most frightful aspect. In Rome it is much more tolerable. Papal avarice has served to counterbalance papal tyranny, and, in de- fect of a better principle, produced what, if it do not deserve the name, has some of the good consequences of moderation. ‘The wealth of modern Rome arises very much from the constant re= sort of strangers of all countries and denominations, and, for the most part, of the higher ranks. Nothing would prove a more effectual check to that resort, and, consequently, to the unceasing influx of riches into that capital, than such a horrid tribunal as those which, from Lisbon and Madrid, diffuse a ter= ror which is felt in the utmost confines of those miserable king- doms. In Venice it is, indeed, as moderate as it is possible for a judicatory to be, which is founded on a principle not: more false than tyrannical, that men are responsible for their opinions to any human tribunal. But the particular constitution of that court was settled by an express stipulation between the pon- tiff and the state. The Venetian senate would not admit an inquisition into their dominions on any other terms, than such as secured at least some regard to justice and humanity in their proceedings, and prevented them from extending their jurisdic- 414) LECTURES ON tion beyond the original limits, or arriving at an independency on the secular powers. With so much caution and jealousy did that wise aristocracy guard against the a of the ‘vine? church. It is no more than doing justice to many Rola Catholic states to acknowledge, that they are almost as much enemies to that infernal tribunal, as even protestants themselves. Nor can I in this be justly accused of advancing any thing rashly: the tumults which the attempts to introduce it into some parts of Italy, Milan and Naples in particular, and afterwards into France, and other countries called catholic, and its actual expul- sion from some places, when, to appearance, settled, are the strongest evidences of the general sentiments of the people con- cerning it. It is only to be regretted, that those who, in this matter, think as we do, should be inconsistent enough to ima- gine, that a despotism, which required for its support such dia- bolical engines, could, with any propriety, be said to come from God. But’so far have those called Christians departed from the simplicity that is in Christ, that they will admit any rule for judging of the title of prophets, or teachers, in divine things, rather than the rule given by him whom they call Master. By their fruits ye shall know them. Do men gather grapes off thorns, or figs off thistles ? No test of a divine mission, if Jesus Christ’may be credited, is of any significance without this. It may not be improper to conshade our account of the origin of the inquisition, with a few things in illustration of the spirit in which it proceeds, that every one may have it in his power to judge, whether the relation it bears to the spirit of Christ be denominated more properly resemblance, or contrariety. | It is so far from following the rules of almost all other tribunals, where any regard is shown to equity, or the rights of human na- ture, that, in every respect, where the ecclesiastic power has not been checked by the secular, those rules have been reversed. The account is entirely just, as far as it goes, which is given by Voltaire of the Spanish inquisition, and he might have added, of the Portuguese, for both are on the same model. ‘ Their ** form of proceeding is an infallible way to destroy whomsoever “the inquisitors please.” And let it be observed, that they have strong motives for destroying a rich culprit, as their sen=— 7 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 415 tence of condemnation is followed by the confiscation of all his estate, real and personal, of which two-thirds go to the church, and one-third to the state; so that it may be said, with the — strictest propriety, that the judges themselves are parties, hav- ing a personal interest in the issue against the prisoner. ‘* The ‘* prisoners are not confronted with the accuser or. informer.” Nay, they are not so much as told who it is that informs. His name is kept secret to encourage the trade of informing. And, surely, a better expedient could not have been devised for pro= moting this dark business, than by thus securing at once conceal- ment and gratification, with impunity, to private malice, envy, and revenge. Further, “ there is no informer, or witness, who ‘is not listened to. A public convict, a notorious malefactor, *¢ an infamous person, a common prostitute, a child, are in the * holy office, though no where else, creditable accusers and wit- *‘ nesses. Even the son may depose against his father, the ‘‘ wife against her husband.” The detection of the grossest prevarication in the delator and witnesses is hardly ever punish- ed, unless with a very gentle rebuke; let it be observed, by the way, that to the profligate and abandoned they can be very gentle, for they dread, above all things, to do aught that might discourage informers, spies, and witnesses. And that there may be no risk of a want of information, they have, in all parts of the kingdom, spies of all different qualities, who are denomi- nated the familiars of the holy office, a place of which even men of high rank are sometimes ambitious, from different motives, some for the greater personal security, others because it em- powers them to take a severe revenge on their enemies, and others, no doubt, because they ink, they do God good service. The wretched prisoner is no more made acquainted with his crime than with his accuser. His being told the one, might possibly lead him to guess the other. To avoid this, he is compelled, by tedious confinement, in a noisome dungeon, where he never sees a face but the jailor’s, and is not permitted the use either of books, or of pen and ink, or, when confinement does not succeed, he is compelled, by a train of the most excruciating tortures, “ to inform against himself; to divine and to confess the crime “laid to his charge, of which often he is ignorant.” An ef- fectual method to bring nine-tenths of mankind to confess any 416 LECTURES ON thing, true or false, which may gratify their tormentors, and. put -an end to their misery. ‘* This procedure,” adds our historian, < unheard of till the institution of this court, makes the whole * kingdom tremble. Suspicion reigns in every breast. © _ Friend- « ship and openness are at an end. ‘The brother dreads his bro- * ther, the father his son. Hence taciturnity is become the *‘ characteristic of a nation endued with all the vivacity natural to “ the inhabitants of a warm and fruitfulclimate. To this tribu- ‘‘ nal we must likewise impute that profound ignorance of sound “¢ philosophy, in which Spain lies buried, whilst Germany, Eng- « Jand, France, and even Italy, have discovered so many.truths, “and enlarged the sphere of our knowledge. Never is hu- ¢¢ man atone so debased, as where ignorance is armed. with “¢ power.” In regard to the extent of power given to inquisitors by pont] bulls, and generally admitted by the secular authority in those countries where the inquisition is established, I shall give the few following instances out of many that might be produced. First, it is ordered, that the convicts be burnt alive, and in pub- lic; and that all they have be confiscated : all princes and rulers. who refuse their concurrence in executing these and the other sentences authorised by the church, shall be brought under cen- sure, that is, anathematized and excommunicated, their states or kingdoms laid under an interdict, &c. ‘The house also, i in which the heretic is apprehended must be razed to the ground, even though it be not his, but the property of a person totally unsuspected. ‘This ferocious kind of barbarity, so utterly irre- concileable to all the principles of equity, is, nevertheless, ex- tremely politic, as it is. a powerful means of raising horror.in the ignorant populace, and of increasing the awe of this tribunal.in men of all denominations, who must consider it as extremely dangerous to have the smallest connection with any person sus- pected of heresy, or so much as to admit him into their houses. 