Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/642

 626 CONCLUSION. prosecute simoniacs, and there is no trace in its records that it ever volunteered to do so. In fact, had any overzealous official at- tempted such uncalled-for work he would speedily have been brought to his senses, for simonv was not only the direct source of profit to the curia in the sale of preferment, but indirectly so in the sale of dispensations to those who had incurred its disabilities. It seems almost a contradiction in terms to speak of the Holy See issuing dispensations for heresy, and yet this was habitual. Leg- ates and nuncios, when despatched abroad, were empowered to gather a harvest among the faithful by issuing dispensations for all manner of disabilities and irregularities, and among these simony is conspicuously noted. This ceased when John XXII. systematized the sale of absolutions and drew everything to the papal penitentiary, when pardon for simony in a layman could be had for six grossi, in a cleric for seven, and in a monk for eight. It is easy to see why the Inquisition was not used to suppress a heresy so profitable in every aspect. Indeed, while under the canon law it was held to be a heresy, yet it was practically never treated as such. Guillaume Durand, in his Speculum Juris, writ- ten in 1271, gives formulas for the accusation, by private indi- viduals, of simoniacal bishops and priests and monks, but neither he nor his numerous commentators make the slightest allusion to it as subject to the procedure against heresy.' X Art. 1. — Gloss. Bernardi ; Gloss. Hostiens. (Eymeric. pp. 138, 143, 165). — Eymeric. p. 318.— Berger, Registres d'Inn. IV. No. 2977, 3010, 4668, 4718.— Thomas, Reg. de Boniface VIII. No. 547, 554, 557-8, 644, 726, 747.— Taxae Sac. Poenitent. Ed. Friedrichs, p. 35 ; Ed. Gibbings, p. 3 (cf. Van Espen, Dissert, in Jus Canon. noviss. P. hi. p. 699). — Durandi Specul. Juris Lib. rv. Partic. iv. Rubr. de Simonia. Clement IV. was exceptional in seeking to repress the acquisitiveness of the curia. When, in 1266. Jean de Courtenai was elected Archbishop of Reims, and encumbered his see with a debt of twelve thousand livres to pay the Sacred Col- lege, Clement promptly excommunicated him and summoned him to reveal the names of all who participated in the spoils. Yet Clement had no scruple in fol- lowing the example of his predecessor, Urban IV., in the negotiations which re- sulted in the crusade of Charles of Anjou against Manfred. Simon, Cardinal of S. Cecilia, sent to France for the purpose, was furnished with special powers to dispense for defects of age or birth or other irregularities in the acquisition of benefices, for holding pluralities, and for marriage within the prohibited grades,
 * C. 7, 20, 21 Deer. P. n. Caus. 1, Q. 1.— Th. Aquin. Summ. Sec. Sec. Q. 100,