Notwithstanding the opposition of the people to this novel tribunal, therefore the Popes, aided by the sovereigns of Europe, not only obtained its erection, but additional authority to the Inquisitors. These hitherto unprecedented judges were soon afterwards empowered, as the representatives of the Pope, to sit and pronounce sentence on those whom they stigmatized by the name of heretics. Their efforts were greatly assisted by Frederick II., King of the Romans, who, in 1224, issued no fewer than four edicts against heresy, addressed "to his beloved princes, the venerable archbishops, bishops, and other prelates of the Church; to the dukes, marquises, earls, barons, governors, judges, ministers, and all other his faithful subjects throughout the empire." In these edicts "he takes the Inquisitors under his protection, imposes on obstinate heretics the punishment of being burnt to death, and of perpetual imprisonment on the penitent, committing the cognizance of the crime to the ecclesiastical, and the condemnation of the criminals, as well as the infliction of the punishment, to the secular judges." The "Holy Office" soon extended its authority, and enlarged the number of its tribunals, in almost every kingdom of Europe where any were suspected of heresy. It was established in Toulouse in 1229, where it was first given in charge to the monks of the Cistercian order, and afterwards in 1233 to the Dominicans. Innocent IV. extended it to all Italy, except Naples, where its introduction was always opposed. In 1231, several Waldenses being discovered in the city of Rome, they were all either consigned to the flames, or imprisoned till they should retract their errors. It soon declined, however, in Italy, and even in Rome itself, till, in 1545, it was restored by Paul III. who created the Congregation of the Inquisition, composed of cardinals presided over by the Pope. From Toulouse the Inquisition was brought to Spain in the year 1233; but did not go out of the kingdom of Arragon, till after its union with that of Castile, when, in 1480, it was established in Seville by Ferdinand and Isabella, under the authority of Sixtus IV. It was afterwards extended to more distant provinces, and every where entrusted to the management of Dominican friars. Germany, Austria, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Dalmatia, Bosnia, and numerous other places, were soon compelled to receive these bloody tribunals. Portugal was subjected to its tyranny, in 1536; and, latterly, in 1571, Philip II. introduced it into America. "During the pontificate of Gregory," says the author of "Sketches of the Spanish Inquisition," "it was introduced into the Christian kingdoms of Spain, (meaning those parts of Spain where Christianity was professed, to distinguish them from those possessed by the Moors;) and the Dominicans of that country soon found an ample field for the exercise of their office among the Jewish and Moorish proselytes, whom interest or fear had drawn within