Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/207

 UTILITY OF THE INQUISITION. 191 cance of the terrible bulls Ad extirpanda, described in a previous chapter. It was possibly with a view thus to utilize the force of both Orders that the Inquisitions of northern and central Italy were divided between them, and their respective provinces permanent- ly assigned to each. Nor perhaps would we err in recognizing an object in the assignment to the Dominicans, who were regarded as sterner and more vigorous than their rivals, of the province of Lombardy, which not only was the hot-bed of heresy, but which retained some recollections of the ancient independence of the Ambrosian Church, and was more susceptible to imperial influ- ences from Germany. With the development of the laws against heresy, and the or- ganization of special tribunals for the application of those laws, it was soon perceived that an accusation of heresy was a peculiar- ly easy and efficient method of attacking a political enemy. No charge was easier to bring, none so difficult to disprove — in fact, from what we have seen of the procedure of the Inquisition, there was none in which acquittal was so absolutely impossible where the tribunal was desirous of condemnation. When employed po- litically the accused had the naked alternative of submission or of armed resistance. No crime, moreover, according to the ac- cepted legal doctrines of the age, carried with it a penalty so se- vere for a potentate who was above all other laws. Besides, the procedure of the Inquisition required that when a suspected her- etic was summoned to trial, his first step was humbly to swear to stand to the mandates of the Church, and perform whatever penance it should see fit to impose in case he failed to clear him- self of the suspicion. Thus an immense advantage was gained over a political enemy by merely citing him to appear, when he was obliged either to submit himself in advance to any terms that might be dictated to him, or, by refusing to appear, expose him- self to condemnation for contumacy with its tremendous temporal consequences. It mattered little what were the grounds on which a charge of heresy was based. In the intricate intrigues and factional strife which seethed and boiled in every Italian city, there could be no lack of excuse for setting the machinery of the Inquisition in motion whenever there was an object to be attained. With the