The Inquisition : $b a political and military study of its establishmentNickerson, Hoffman
History
The Inquisition : $b a political and military study of its establishment
Nickerson, Hoffman
Albigenses; Christian heresies -- History -- Middle Ages, 600-1500; Inquisition; Prohibition
Although this last has already been quoted in another chapter,
nevertheless it may be well to repeat it here. “Until the Lord Legate
(Arnaut Amalric) shall otherwise ordain” the unhappy man is to fast
forever “from flesh, eggs, cheese and all which comes from flesh
except at Easter, Pentecost and Christmas, when he shall eat some to
protest against his former errors.” He is to keep three Lents each
year, “fasting and abstaining from fish, unless from bodily infirmity
or the heat of the weather he shall be dispensed.” As make-weights,
he is to be beaten with rods upon his bare back, three Sundays
running, by his village priest; he is forever to wear a distinctive
dress marked with crosses to designate him as a former heretic, hear
mass every day “if possible” and vespers as well on festival days,
recite seventy paternosters a day and twenty in the middle of the
night. How this last provision was to be enforced unless some almost
equally unfortunate soul stayed awake to watch him is not stated.
Finally, once a month he is to show the parchment on which all this
is written to the village priest.
So much for the documents. The tradition is that the Saint secured
the release of a certain heretic who had been convicted and sentenced
to be burnt, acting on the strength of his own personal belief that
this particular culprit would eventually repent. Twenty years after,
the tradition goes on to say, the man did repent, and died in the
odour of sanctity, clad in Dominican habit.
For our purposes, the point of all three pieces of evidence is that
the power to loose implies an intimate connection with the power to
bind. The President of the United States and the Governors of States,
who have the pardoning power, are themselves the chief executive
officers of the nation and the States, and it is their sworn duty to
see that the laws are enforced. In St. Dominic’s case, the verdict is
conclusive. Virtually every reputable scholar of the present day is
agreed upon the point, including Roman Catholics writing under the
_nihil obstat_ and _imprimatur_ of Cardinals and Archbishops.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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