Page:A History of the Knights of Malta, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem.djvu/532

498 Inquisition, who, under the title of grand-inquisitor, became ever after a source of discord and uneasiness. This official was originally despatched in consequence of an appeal made by La Cassière to Gregory XIII. against the bishop. Differences had before this sprung up between the Grand-Masters and the bishops of Malta, as the functions and powers of the latter had never been very clearly defined, and were often the cause of a collision between themselves and the government. The intervention of the grand-inquisitor, so far from alleviating this evil, added yet another most fertile source of quarrel to those already existing. Instead of two there were now three heads in the island, and although both the bishop and the inquisitor acknowledged the supremacy of the Grand-Master, yet, by their acts, they almost invariably proved that that recognition was more nominal than real.

At the time when this new ecclesiastical authority was first despatched to Malta, the Pope had, at the request of the council, directed that he was not to act independently, but that in all matters affecting church discipline a tribunal was to be formed, in which he was to be associated with the Grand-Master, the vice- chancellor, the bishop, and the prior of the church. It was not long, however, before the ambitious grand-inquisitor, supported, as lie was, by the Pope, gradually usurped for himself an independent and separate tribunal. With the object of extending his authority, and to free it from all control on the part of the Grand-Master, he adopted the following method. Any Maltese who desired to throw off his allegiance was given a patent, issued from the office of the inquisitor, by which he became a direct subject of the Inquisition, and was no longer liable to any of the secular tribunals of the island. The .bishop of Malta, in his turn, gradually adopted a similar measure, and by a simple tonsure freed even laymen from all other control than his own. These abuses did not, of course, spring into full vigour at once, but they became by degrees so glaring that it appeared as though the chief of the Order would eventually lose all authority in the island of which he was the nominal sovereign.

Whilst La Cassière was contending with these rival functionaries the external relations of his government were at the same time giving him much cause for uneasiness. A dispute broke