Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/305

 INQUISITION 293 INQIJISITIOX, or Holy Offlee, a tribunal estab- lished in various Roman Catholic countries to search out and to try persons accused of her- esy, as well as certain other offences against morality or the canons of the church. The first formal sanction of the inquisition by a papal bull was in the 13th century; but long before that heresy had been declared a crime, and in- quisitors, or inquirers after heretics, had been appointed by Christian princes. Constantino the Great, the first emperor who made Chris- tianity a state religion, made heresy a state of- fence, and repeatedly banished those who re- fused submission to his decisions in doctrinal controversies. Athanasins, the defender of or- thodoxy, and Arius shared in turn the same fate. Under him and his sons commissions were also issued against the Donatists, who were visited with the most rigorous punish- ment. The terms " inquisition " and " inquisi- tors " appear for the first time in history in con- nection with the searching out and punishment of heretics under Theodosius I., who in 382 published an edict against the Maniehreans and other sects. A law of Honorius in 398 threat- ened the professors of certain heresies, in par- ticular the priests of the Montanists and Euno- mians, with banishment and death if they per- sisted in bringing people together. The decrees for the extermination of heathenism were even more severe. Heathen sacrifices were forbidden by Constantius II. in 353, under pain of death. Theodosius I. in 392 proclaimed every form of idolatry a crime, and every attempt to learn the secrets of the future by animal sacrifices high treason. Theodosius II. remitted capital punishment in 423, but again enforced the law against heathen sacrifices in 426. Most of the earlier fathers were opposed to the punishment of heretics by the secular arm, and particularly to the infliction of death. Chrysostom and Augustine approved of their being confined or exiled, but only Jerome and Leo the Great were in favor of the death penalty. The first instance in which the blood of a heretic was shed by the solemn forms of law occurred in 385, when Priscillian, the leader of a Gnostic sect in Spain, was put to death by the sword, at the instigation of Bishop Idacius. The church was struck with horror at the act ; Ida- cius was excommunicated and died in exile. Justinian, in his code, provided certain penal- ties for dissenters from the orthodox creed as expounded by the " four holy synods " of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon ; and from this code the future legislation against heretics was derived. For several centuries all cases of heresy came before the ordinary courts ; but in the course of time the examination of the charge of heresy devolved upon bishops, who handed over those who remained obdu- rate to the secular courts for punishment. Sometimes, however, ecclesiastical councils specified the punishment to be inflicted on cer- tain classes of heretics. The organization and development of the synodal courts in the 8th and 9th centuries systematized also the pro- ceedings against heretics ; but no special ma- chinery for the purpose was devised until the spread in the llth and 12th centuries of the Euchites, Bogomiles, Paulicians, Waldenses, and the various sects comprised under the com- mon name of Albigenses. This excited the alarm of the civil as well as the ecclesiastical authorities, heresy being regarded at the time as a crime against the state no less than against the church. At the beginning of the 13th century Innocent III. sent several Cistercian monks as his legates to the south of France, in order to force the great feudatories of Pro- vence and Narbonne into a war against the Al- bigenses, and to assist the bishops in searching out the heretics and in giving them over to punishment. The fourth council of Lateran in 1215 enjoined upon the synodal courts the searching out of heresy and its suppression as a duty, and may therefore be regarded as hav- ing established the legal foundation of inquisi- torial courts. The bishops were called upon either to visit personally or to send delegates into every parish suspected of heresy, and to cause several, or if necessary all, of the inhabitants to swear that they would inform against heretics as well as those attending secret meetings ; all who refused to take this oath should be suspected of heresy themselves. These arrangements were confirmed and enlarged by the synod of Toulouse (1229), which issued on this point 45 proposi- tions, among which were the following : " Any prince, lord, bishop, or judge, who shall spare a heretic, shall forfeit his lands, property, or office ; and every house in which a heretic ia found shall be destroyed. Heretics or persons suspected of heresy shall not be allowed the assistance of a physician, or of any of their as- sociates in 'crime, even though they may be suffering under a mortal disease. Sincere pen- itents shall be removed from the neighborhood in which they reside, if it is suspected of here- sy ; they shall wear a peculiar dress, and for- feit all public privileges until they receive a papal dispensation. Penitents who have re- canted through fear shall be placed in confine- ment." The synod also enjoined upon the bishops to bind in every parish a priest and two, three, or more laymen by oath to search out heretics. But as many bishops were ac- cused of being either remiss or partial, Gregory IX. transferred the inquisition to the Domini- cans, first in 1232 in Austria and Aragon, and next in 1233 in Lombardy and southern France. The persons thus empowered and sent by the pope to different countries were denominated collectively "inquisitorial missions." To aid the inquisitors in the exercise of their office, a guild was founded after 1229, called the inili- tiajetv, Christi contra hcereticos. The church, however, contented itself with the examination of the heretics, and called on the secular arm to carry the sentences into execution. Louis IX. of France from attachment to the church, and Raymond VII. of Toulouse and Frederick II.