Page:History of Freedom.djvu/597

 A HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION 553

and exercising its domination, not against obscure men without a literature, but against bishop and archbishop, nuncio and legate, primate and professor; against the general of the Capuchins and the imperial preacher; against the first candidate in the conclave, and the presi- dent of the æcumenical council. Under altered conditions, the rules varied and even principles \vere modified. Mr. Lea is slow to take counsel of the voluminous moderns, fearing the confusion of dates. When he says that the laws he is describing are technically still in force, he makes too little of a fundamental distinction. In the ,eye of the polemic, the modern Inquisition eclipses its pre- decessor, and stops the way. The origin of the Inquisition is the topic of a lasting controversy. According to common report, Innocent I I I. founded it, and made Saint Dominic the first inquisitor; and this belief has been maintained by the Dominicans against the Cistercians, and by the Jesuits against the Dominicans themselves. They affirm that the saint, having done his work in Languedoc, pursued it in Lombardy: (( Per civitates et castella Lombardiae circuibat, praedicans et evangelizans regnum Dei, atque contra haereticos in- quirens, quos ex odore et aspectu dignoscens, condignis suppliciis puniebat JJ (Fontana, MOnU1Jlenta Donzinicana, 16). He transferred his powers to Fra Moneta, the brother in whose bed he died, and who is notable as having studied more seriously than any other divine the system which he assailed: "Vicarium suum in munere inquisitionis delegerat dilectissimum sibi B. Monetam, qui spiritu illius loricatus, tanquam leo rugiens contra haereticos surrexit. . . . Iniquos cum haereticos ex corde insectaretur, illisque nullo modo parceret, sed igne ac ferro consumeret." l\loneta is suc- ceeded by Guala, who brings us àown to historic times, when the Inquisition flourished undisputed: "Facta pro- motione Guallae constitutus est in eius locum generalis inquisitor P. F. Guidottus de Sexto, a Gregorio Papa IX., qui innumeros propemodum haereticos igne consumpsit JJ (Fontana, Sacyzt1n Theatru1Jz DOllzillicanUlIl, 595). Sicilian inquisitors produce an imperial privilege of December 1224,