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 294: INQUISITION of Germany in order to escape the suspicion of heresy, complied with this request, and made the execution of the sentences passed by the inquisitors obligatory. The procedure of the inquisitors differed in many particulars from that of the civil courts. In accordance with a decree of the councils of B6ziers and Nar- bonne, confirmed by Innocent IV. in 1254, the informers were never named to the accused; suspicion of heresy was considered a sufficient cause of arrest; accomplices and criminals were admitted as witnesses. If the accused denied the charges, he might be put to the tor- ture to obtain his confession. The regulations of the earlier inquisitions are found in the Di- rectorium Inquisitorum of Nicholas Eymeric, who for 42 years held the office of chief inquis- itor in Aragon, and died in 1399. It was first published at Barcelona in 1503 ; again at Rome, with a commentary by Pegna, in 1578; and has often been reprinted. The power of the in- quisition was greatly increased by the income which it derived from the property of the con- demned. Innocent IV. in 1252 assigned to it one third of such property, and ordered one third to be reserved for future uses; in the 15th century it was common for the inquisitors to claim the entire property. Until 1248 the inquisitorial courts were only transitory tribu- nals ; but from that date they became perma- nent, and the institution was successively intro- duced in this form into Italy, Spain, Germany, and the southern provinces of France. The people in the south of France rose repeatedly in rebellion, and took bloody vengeance on some of the inquisitors, as at Toulouse in 1245. The parliaments declared themselves against its proceedings as irregular and unpre- cedented, and several kings, as Philip IV. and Louis XL, limited its jurisdiction. Its influ- ence was also weakened by the schism of the 14th and the reformatory councils of the 15th century. After the reformation of the Kith century, Henry II., urged by Pope Paul IV., made an attempt to reestablish it, and even extorted the consent of the parliament to an edict of this kind; but it never regained strength, was wholly abolished by Henry IV., and has not been reintroduced. In Spain the inquisition was introduced soon after its es- tablishment in France. The Aragonese branch can be traced by authentic records as far back as the year 1232, and in the course of that cen- tury courts were established in the dioceses of Tarragona, Barcelona, Urgel, Lerida, and Ge- rona. At first it passed no sentence more se- vere than confiscation of property, and even this was restored if the accused abjured his opinions within a term called the " period of grace." Toward the close of the 15th century a new impulse was given to it by Cardinal Pe- dro Gonzalez de Mendoza, archbishop of Se- ville, and in time it assumed gigantic dimen- sions, becoming more absolute and independent than in any other state of Europe. The prob- ability of a union between the Jews and Moors against the Christians at that time excited in Spain considerable alarm. The Jews formed a largo proportion of the population, and held enormous wealth. Severe restrictive measures were passed against them by the civil authori- ties from time to time, and finally about 1477 certain of the clergy proposed to Ferdinand to establish the inquisition in Castile, with the primary object of searching out those who having been converted to Christianity had re- lapsed into Judaism, or who feigned conver- sion while secretly attached to the faith of their fathers. The king readily assented, and, the consent of Isabella having been reluctantly given, a papal bull was procured in 1478 au- thorizing the establishment of the tribunal. From this date forward Catholic writers regard the Spanish inquisition as a state tribunal, a character which is recognized by Ranke, Guizot, Leo, and even Llorente. In September, 1480, a royal edict appointed two Dominicans the first inquisitors, and the first court was estab- lished at Seville. They issued their first edict on Jan. 2, 1481, by which they ordered the arrest of several " new Christians," as converts were popularly called, who were suspected of heresy, and on Jan. 6 the first auto da fe was held, when six persons were burned alive. Ex- ecutions soon became frequent. Several of those who had been condemned as contuma- cious appealed to Pope Sixtus IV., who in Jan- uary, 1482, complained of the conduct of the two inquisitors, and recommended mildness and moderation. Soon after he appointed the archbishop of Seville apostolic judge of appeal for all Spain, with power to decide on all ap- peals from the judgments of the inquisition. In 1483 Torquemada became grand inquisitor general of all Spain, and at the same time Fer- dinand appointed a royal council of the su- preme inquisition (consejo de la supremo, in- quisition), of which the grand inquisitor was president of right and for life, with a bishop and two doctors at law as counsellors. Torque- mada in concert with the king framed the or- ganic laws of the new tribunal, styled instruc- tions, which consisted of 28 articles, and were promulgated at Seville in 1484. Additions were made to them in 1488 and 1498 ; and at last a new compilation of regulations, consist- ing of 81 articles, was made by the inquisitor general Valdez in 1561, which remained ever afterward the guide of Spanish inquisitors. All the penitents of the inquisition wore a peculiar habit, called sambenito (a corruption of saco bendito, "the blessed vest" of penitence), of which there were three different kinds for the three classes of condemned, and an equal num- ber for those who were doomed to suffer death. The auto da fe (act of faith) was, properly speaking, the public and solemn reading of the records of the court of inquisition, and of the sentence by it passed on persons found guilty ; but it is popularly understood of the public ceremonies accompanying their execution. The accused themselves, if living, were always pres-