Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/299

 DECLINE OF THE INQUISITIOIN. 283 ly ridiculing it. When the schism was healed at Constance, one of the earhest efforts of Martin Y. was directed against the Frati- ceUi, whose increase in the Roman province he especially depre- cated. In his bull on the subject, I^ovember 14, 1418, he com- plained that when inquisitors endeavored to exercise their office against the heretics the latter would claim the jurisdiction of some temporal lord and then threaten and insult their persecutors, so that the latter were afraid to perform their functions. Martin's only remedy was practically to supersede the inquisitors by special appointments, and this naturally sank the institution to a deeper degradation. Thus in 1424, when there were three Fraticelli to be tried in Florence, Martin placed the matter in the hands of Fra Leonardo, a Dominican professor of theology. Still the office of inquisitor continued to be sought and appointments to be made with more or less regularity, from motives which can easily be conjectured; but of activity against heresy there is scarce a trace. How unimportant its functions had become in Bologna may be gathered from the fact that in 1461 the inquisitor, Gabriele of Barcelona, was sent to Rome by his superiors to teach theology in the convent of Minerva, when Pius IT. authorized him to appoint a vicar to discharge his duties during his absence. Ten years afterwards the Bolognese inquisitor, Frd Simone da l^ovara, was fortunate enough to lay hands on a man named Guizardo da Sas- suolo, who was suspected of heresy. So completely were such proceedings forgotten that he felt obliged to apply for instructions to Paul II., who congratulated him on the capture, ordered him to proceed according to the canons, and desired the episcopal vicar to co-operate. Heretics evidently had grown scarce, and the in- quisitorial functions had fallen into desuetude.* In Rome, when there really was a heresiarch to condemn, there No. ll.-Archiv. di Firenze, Prov. S. Maria Novella, 1424, Ap. 24.-Waddino-' ann. 1437, No. 33; ann. 1438, No. 26; ann. 1439, No. 57; ann. 1440, No 26 • ann* 1441, No. 61; ann. 1452, No. 30; ann. 1471, No. 11; ann. 1496, No. 7.-Rinoll VII. 89, 100. ^ Fra Gabriele, the Inquisitor of Bologna, in the same year, 1461, in which he was sent to Rome, expended twenty-three lire ten sol. in havin- a copy made of ^ym^nch'^ Directorium Inqmsitionls.-Demfle, Archiv fiir Litteratur- etc 1885 p. 144. '
 * Tamburini, Storia Gen. dell' Inquisizione, 11. 433-6.-Raynald. ann 1418