Martyr speaks of the illustrious pagans. This father, after highly applauding Socrates, and a few more who resembled him, inclines to think that they are not fixed in _hell_. But the Benedictine editor takes infinite pains to clear the good father from the shameful imputation of supposing that a _virtuous pagan might be saved_ as well as a Benedictine monk[52]! The adverse party, who were either philosophers or reformers, received all such information with great suspicion. Anthony Cornelius, a lawyer in the 16th century, wrote a small tract, which was so effectually suppressed, as a monster of atheism, that a copy is now only to be found in the hands of the curious. This author ridiculed the absurd and horrid doctrine of _infant damnation_, and was instantly decried as an atheist, and the printer prosecuted to his ruin! Cœlius Secundus Curio, a noble Italian, published a treatise _De Amplitudine beati regno Dei_, to prove that heaven has more inhabitants than hell, or in his own phrase, that the _elect_ are more numerous than the _reprobate_. However we may incline to smile at these works, their design was benevolent. They were the first streaks of the morning-light of the Reformation. Even such works assisted mankind to examine more closely, and hold in greater contempt, the extravagant and pernicious doctrines of the domineering papistical church. INQUISITION. In the civil and canon law, inquisition implies a manner of proceeding for the discovery of some crime by the sole office of the judge, in the way of search, examination, or even torture. It is also used in common law for a like process in the king’s behalf, for the discovery of lands, profits, and the like; in which sense it is often confounded with the office of the _Inquisition, or the Holy Office_, Which denotes an ecclesiastical jurisdiction established in Spain, Portugal, and Italy, for the trial and examination of such persons as are suspected to entertain any religious opinions contrary to those professed in the church of Rome. It is called _inquisition_ because the judges of their office take cognizances of crime or common report, without any legal evidence, except what they themselves fish out.