A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume IILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume II
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
In 1356 Roselli was created Cardinal of S. Sisto, and was succeeded
after a short interval by Nicolas Eymerich, the most noteworthy man of
whom the Aragonese Inquisition can boast, although after more than
thirty years of service he ended his days in disgrace and exile. Trained
in varied learning, and incessant in industry, of his numerous works but
one has had the honors of print--his “Directorium Inquisitorum,” in
which, for the first time, he systematized the procedure of his beloved
institution, giving the principles and details which should guide the
inquisitor in all his acts. The book remained an authority to the last,
and formed the basis of almost all subsequent compilations. Eymerich’s
conception of the model inquisitor was lofty. He must be fully
acquainted with all the intricacies of doctrine, and with all the
aberrations of heresy--not only those which are current among the common
people, but the recondite speculations of the schools, Averrhoism and
Aristotelian errors, and the beliefs of Saracen and Tartar. At a time
when the Inquisition was declining and falling into contempt, he boldly
insisted on its most extreme prerogatives as an imprescriptible
privilege. If he assumed that the heretic had but one right--that of
choosing between submission and the stake--he was in this but the
conscientious exponent of his age, and his writings are instinct with
the conviction that the work of the inquisitor is the salvation of
souls.
From Eymerich’s lament over the difficulty of providing for the expenses
of an institution so necessary to the Church, it is evident that the
kings of Aragon had not felt it their duty to support the Holy Office,
while the bishops, he tells us, were as firm as their brethren in other
lands in evading the responsibility which by right was incumbent on
them. The confiscations, he adds, amounted to little or nothing, for
heretics were poor folk--Waldenses, Fraticelli, and the like. In fact,
so far as we can gather, the sum of Eymerich’s activity during his long
career is so small that it shows how little was left of heresy by this
time. Occasional Fraticelli and Waldenses and renegade Jews or Saracens
were all that rewarded the inquisitor, with every now and then some
harmless lunatic whose extravagance unfortunately took a religious turn,
or some over-subtle speculator on the intricacies of dogmatic theology.
Thus, early in his career, about 1360, Eymerich had the satisfaction of
burning as a relapsed heretic a certain Nicholas of Calabria, who
persisted in asserting that his teacher, Martin Gonsalvo of Cuenca, was
the Son of God, who would live forever, would convert the world, and at
the Day of Judgment would pray for all the dead and liberate them from
hell. In 1371 he had the further gratification of silencing, by a
decision of Gregory XI., a Franciscan, Pedro Bonageta. The exact
relation between the physical matter of the consecrated host and the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account