Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/661

 MATERIAL FOR IMPROVEMENT. (545 than Scripture. Such a theocracy, practically deeming itself as superior to its God, when it had overcome all dissidence, could have but one result.* When we consider, however, the simple earnestness with which such multitudes of humble heretics endured the extremity of out- rage and the most cruel of deaths, in the endeavor to ascertain and obey the will of God in the fashioning of their lives, Ave recog- nize what material existed for the development of true Christian- ity, and for the improvement of the race, far down in the obscurer ranks of society. We can see now how greatly advanced might be the condition of humanity had that, leaven been allowed to penetrate the whole mass in place of being burned out with fire. Unorganized and unresisting, the heretics were unable to with- stand the overwhelming forces arrayed against them. Power and place and wealth were threatened by their practical interpre- tation of the teachings of Christ. The pride of opinion in the vast and laboriously constructed theories of scholastic theology, the con- scientious belief in the exclusive salvation obtainable through the Church alone, the recognized duty of exterminating the infected sheep and preserving the vineyard of the Lord from the ravages of heretical foxes, all united to form a conservatism against which even the heroic endurance of the sectaries was unavailing. Yet there are few pages in the history of humanity more touching, few records of self-sacrifice more inspiring, few examples more in- structive of the height to which the soul can rise above the weak- nesses of the flesh, than those which we may glean from the frag- mentary documents of the Inquisition and the scanty references of the chroniclers to the abhorred heretics so industriously tracked and so pitilessly despatched. Ignorant and toiling men and wom- en — peasants, mechanics, and the like — dimly conscious that the system of society was wrong, that the commands of God were perverted or neglected, that humanity was capable of higher de- velopment, if it could but find and follow the Divine Will ; striving each in his humble sphere to solve the inscrutable and awful prob- lems of existence, to secure in tribulation his own salvation, and to help his fellows in the arduous task— these forgotten martyrs of — Bernardi Comens. Lucerna Inquis. s. v. Hceresis, No. 21.
 * Pet. Alliacens. Principium in Cursum Biblise (Fascic. Rer. Expetend. II. 516).