At all times and in all places religion, which is the basis of society, has had to be protected and fostered in the public interest. This is why most men, especially those placed in authority, have always attached the highest importance to philosophical ideas and opinions, and still more to religious ideas. In fact, experience has shown only too plainly since the formation of civilised States, that a change of religious belief necessarily brings about a social transformation, and that a political revolution is but the putting into practice of a theory invented and propounded by a more or less hostile and mischievous philosophy; hence the established principle which ordains that human and divine law should alike be respected. It would therefore be erroneous to regard the Inquisition as an exceptional and abnormal fact, peculiar to the Middle Ages. The search into religious creeds--for such is the meaning of the word _inquisition_--was not only a natural consequence of the existence of forms of religion, but an imperious function of government. All history--of antiquity as well as that of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance--bears witness to this fact. It is consoling to find that, as a general rule, even in the midst of the fiercest persecutions, there were men of lofty views and generous sentiments who did not hesitate to protest with undaunted courage against the tyrannical and sanguinary excesses, by means of which it was attempted to impose upon nations and upon individuals a religious conviction which ought to be the offspring of reason, and which should be the sole result of liberty of conscience. [Illustration: Fig. 327.--Funereal Lamp from the Catacombs, representing a young Christian woman crowned with the palm leaves of martyrdom.--Terra-cotta of the Third Century, in the Vatican Museum.] The Inquisition--that is to say, the research of religious orthodoxy--existed amongst the Greeks. The accusation of Melitus against Socrates, compassing his death, says in so many words, “Socrates is guilty because he does not recognise the gods of the republic, and puts demoniacal extravagancies in their place.” The judges, yielding to the influence of the democratic party, condemned Socrates to drink hemlock, but the breath was scarcely out of his body before the moderate men of all parties felt what an indignity had been committed in the name of religion; it was not, however, in the cause of religious tolerance, but by proving that Socrates had recognised and worshipped the gods of the republic, that they obtained the condemnation of Melitus his accuser, by way of reprisal.