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A HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION

VOL. I.




A HISTORY OF

THE INQUISITION

OF

THE MIDDLE AGES.

BY

HENRY CHARLES LEA,
AUTHOR OF
"AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SACERDOTAL CELIBACY," "SUPERSTITION AND FORCE,"
"STUDIES IN CHURCH HISTORY."

_IN THREE VOLUMES_.

VOL. I.

NEW YORK:

HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE.

Copyright, 1887, by HARPER & BROTHERS.

_All rights reserved._




PREFACE.


The history of the Inquisition naturally divides itself into two
portions, each of which may be considered as a whole. The Reformation is
the boundary-line between them, except in Spain, where the New
Inquisition was founded by Ferdinand and Isabella. In the present work I
have sought to present an impartial account of the institution as it
existed during the earlier period. For the second portion I have made
large collections of material, through which I hope in due time to
continue the history to its end.

The Inquisition was not an organization arbitrarily devised and imposed
upon the judicial system of Christendom by the ambition or fanaticism of
the Church. It was rather a natural--one may almost say an
inevitable--evolution of the forces at work in the thirteenth century,
and no one can rightly appreciate the process of its development and the
results of its activity without a somewhat minute consideration of the
factors controlling the minds and souls of men during the ages which
laid the foundation of modern civilization. To accomplish this it has
been necessary to pass in review nearly all the spiritual and
intellectual movements of the Middle Ages, and to glance at the
condition of society in certain of its phases.

At the commencement of my historical studies I speedily became convinced
that the surest basis of investigation for a given period lay in an
examination of its jurisprudence, which presents without disguise its
aspirations and the means regarded as best adapted for their
realization. I have accordingly devoted much space to the origin and
development of the inquisitorial process, feeling convinced that in this
manner only can we understand the operations of the Holy Office and the
influence which it exercised on successive generations. By the
application of the results thus obtained it has seemed to me that many
points which have been misunderstood or imperfectly appreciated can be
elucidated. If in this I have occasionally been led to conclusions
differing from those currently accepted, I beg the reader to believe
that the views presented have not been hastily formed, but that they are
the outcome of a conscientious survey of all the original sources
accessible to me.

No serious historical work is worth the writing or the reading unless it
conveys a moral, but to be useful the moral must develop itself in the
mind of the reader without being obtruded upon him. Especially is this
the case in a history treating of a subject which has called forth the
fiercest passions of man, arousing alternately his highest and his
basest impulses. I have not paused to moralize, but I have missed my aim
if the events narrated are not so presented as to teach their
appropriate lesson.

It only remains for me to express my thanks to the numerous friends and
correspondents who have rendered me assistance in the arduous labor of
collecting the very varied material, much of it inedited, on which the
present work is based. Especially do I desire to record my gratitude to
the memory of that cultured gentleman and earnest scholar, the late Hon.
George P. Marsh, who for so many years worthily represented the United
States at the Italian court. I never had the fortune to look upon his
face, but the courteous readiness with which he aided my researches in
Italy merit my warmest acknowledgments. To Professor Charles Molinier,
of the University of Toulouse, moreover, my special thanks are due as to
one who has always been ready to share with a fellow-student his own
unrivalled knowledge of the Inquisition of Languedoc. In the Florentine
archives I owe much to Francis Philip Nast, Esq., to Professor Felice
Tocco, and to Doctor Giuseppe Papaleoni; in those of Naples, to the
Superintendent Cav. Minieri Riccio and to the Cav. Leopoldo Ovary; in
those of Venice to the Cav. Teodoro Toderini and Sig. Bartolomeo
Cecchetti: in