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The Inquisition of the Middle Ages
Starting in the 13th century, scattered inquisitorial episodes slowly began to take on a particular shape and to become a terrifying and powerful system. Chronicles the origin and development of the inquisitorial process in western Europe--its structure, its methods of interrogation and trial and its treatment of evidence.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1887
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June 7, 2024
VOLUME 3 OF A THREE-VOLUME SET
Henry Charles Lea (1825-1909) was an American historian, civic reformer, and political activist. He also wrote a 4-volume ‘A History of the Inquisition of Spain.” This third volume was originally published in 1887. Following are some representative quotations from the book.
“While the mission of both Orders [Dominicans and Franciscans] was to redeem the Church from the depth of degradation into which it had sunk, the Dominicans were more especially trained to take part in the active business of life. They therefore … accommodated themselves to the world, like the Jesuits of later days, and the worldliness which necessarily came with success awakened little antagonism within the organization. Power and luxury were welcomed and enjoyed... It was otherwise with the Franciscans… Absolute poverty and self-abnegation were its primal principles, and it inevitably drew to itself the intellects which sought a refuge from the temptations of life in self-absorbing contemplation… and in the renunciation of all that renders life attractive to average human nature. As the organization grew in wealth and power there were necessarily developed within its bosom antagonisms in two directions.” (Ch. I)
“Persecution, as usual, had the immediate effect of scattering the heretics, of confirming them in the faith, and of developing the heresy into a more decided antagonism towards the Church.” (Ch. II) “As heresy… waxed and grew more and more threatening, and the struggle for its suppression increased in bitterness and took an organized shape under a formidable body of legislation, and as the application of the theory of indulgences gave to the Church an armed militia ready for mobilization without cost whenever it chose to proclaim danger to the faith, the temptation to invoke the fanaticism of Christendom for the defence or extension of its temporal interests inevitably increased in strength.” (Ch. IV)
“With the development of the laws against heresy, and the organization of special tribunals for the application of those laws, it was soon perceived that an accusation of heresy was a peculiarly easy and efficient method of attacking a political enemy. No charge was easier to bring, none so difficult to disprove—in fact… there was none in which acquittal was so absolutely impossible where the tribunal was desirous of condemnation. When employed politically the accused had the naked alternative of submission or of armed resistance... Thus an immense advantage was gained over a political enemy by merely citing him to appear, when he was obliged either to submit himself in advance to any terms that might be dictated to him, or, by refusing to appear, expose himself to condemnation for contumacy with its tremendous temporal consequences.” (Ch. IV)
“There is, firstly, the extreme inherent improbability that a rich, worldly, and ambitious body of men like the Templars should be secretly engaged in the dangerous and visionary task of laying the foundations of a new religion, which would bring them no advantage if they succeeded in supplanting Christianity… Secondly… the Templars … would be wary in initiating strangers; they would exercise extreme caution as to the admission of members, and only reveal to them their secrets by degrees… Thirdly, if a new dogma were thus secretly taught as an indispensable portion of the Rule… The witnesses who confessed to initiation would all tell the same story and give the same details. Thus … the inherent improbability that the Templars could be embarked in an enterprise so insane, in place of which we have only confessions extracted by the threat or application of torture…” (Ch. V)
“Thus the more closely the enormous aggregate of testimony is examined the more utterly worthless it appears, and this is confirmed by the fact that nowhere could compromising evidence be obtained without the use of inquisitorial methods… In view, therefore, of the extreme improbability of the charge, of the means employed to obtain proof for its support, and the lack of coherence in the proof so obtained, it appears to me that no judicial mind in possession of the facts can hesitate to pronounce a sentence, not merely of not proven, but of acquittal.” (Ch. V)
“Charles, to his eternal dishonor, made no effort to save the woman [Joan of Arc] to whom he owed his crown… The English … could have tried Joan summarily in a secular court for sorcery and burned her out of hand, but to obtain possession of her they had been obliged to call in the ecclesiastical authorities and the Inquisition, and they were too little familiar with trials for heresy to recognize that inquisitorial proceedings were based on the assumption of seeking the salvation of the soul and not the destruction of the body. When they saw how the affair was going a great commotion arose at what they inevitably regarded as a mockery. Joan’s death was a political necessity, and their victim was eluding them though in their grasp.” (Ch. V.) “The platform for the sermon and the pile for the execution had been erected … On her head was placed a high paper crown inscribed “Heretic, Relapsed, Apostate, Idolater,” and she was carried to the stake… Thus Joan passed away, but the spirit which she had aroused was beyond the reach of bishop or inquisitor. Her judicial murder was a useless crime.” (Ch. V)
“Few things are so indestructible as a superstitious belief once fairly implanted in human credulity. It passes from one race to another and is handed down through countless generations; it adapts itself successively to every form of religious faith; persecution may stifle its outward manifestation, but it continues to be cherished in secret, perhaps the more earnestly that it is unlawful. Religion may succeed religion, but the change only multiplies the methods by which man seeks to supplement his impotence by obtaining control over supernatural powers, and to guard his weakness by lifting the veil of the future. The sacred rites of the superseded faith become the forbidden magic of its successor… Europe thus was the unhappy inheritor of an accumulated mass of superstitions which colored the life and controlled the actions of every man.” (Ch. VI)
“There is no very precise line of demarcation to be drawn between the more pretentious magic and the vulgar details of witchcraft.. historically speaking, the witchcraft with which we now have to deal is a manifestation of which the commencement cannot be distinctly traced backward much beyond the fifteenth century. Its practitioners were … but ignorant peasants, for the most part women, who professed to have skill to help or to ban… and were feared and hated accordingly… Thus the innocent devices of the wise-women … came to be regarded as implying demon-worship. When this conception once came to be firmly implanted in the minds of judges and inquisitors, it was inevitable that with the rack they should extort from their victims confessions in accordance with their expectations… Ludicrous as all this may seem, every one of these details has served as the basis of charges under which countless human beings have perished in the flames.” (Ch. VII)
“[Theology] assumed to know and define all the secrets of the universe, and yet it was constantly growing, as ingenious or daring thinkers would suggest new theories or frame new deductions from data already settled. Hosts of these were condemned; the annals of an intellectual centre like the University of Paris are crowded with sentences pronounced against novel points of faith and their unlucky authors. Occasionally, however, some new dogma would arise, would be vehemently debated, would refuse to be suppressed, and would finally triumph after a more or less prolonged struggle, and would then take its place among the eternal verities which it was heresy to call in question.” (Ch. VIII)
“One function of the Inquisition remains to be considered—the censorship of the press... the emperor, in 1369, empowered the inquisitors and their successors to seize and burn all such books, and to employ the customary inquisitorial censures to overcome resistance… With the gradual revival of letters books assumed more and more importance as a means of disseminating thought, and this increased rapidly after the invention of printing. It became a recognized rule with the Inquisition that he into whose hands an heretical book might fall and who did not burn it at once or deliver it within eight days to his bishop or inquisitor was held vehemently suspect of heresy. The translation of any part of Scripture into the vernacular was also forbidden. It was not, however, until 1501 that any organized censorship of the press seems to have been thought of, and even then Germany was the only land where the issue of dangerous and heretical books was considered to require it.” (Ch. VIII)
“More important was the nonfeasance of the Inquisition with respect to simony. This was the corroding cancer of the Church throughout the whole of the Middle Ages—the source whence sprang almost all the evils with which she afflicted Christendom. From the highest to the lowest, from the pope to the humblest parish priest, the curse was universal. Those who had only the sacraments to sell made a trade of them. Those whose loftier position … had no shame in offering their wares in open market, and preferment thus obtained filled the Church with mercenary and rapacious men whose sole object was to swell their purses by extortion and to find enjoyment in ignoble vices… its inevitable result was to plunge society deeper and deeper into corruption, as unity of faith was enforced by persecution.” (Ch. IX)
“The review which we have made of the follies and crimes of our ancestors has revealed to us a scene of almost unrelieved blackness. We have seen how the wayward heart of man, groping in twilight, has under the best of impulses inflicted misery and despair on his fellow-creatures while thinking to serve God…. Yet such a review, rightly estimated, is full of hope and encouragement… Human development is slow and irregular… and it is only by comparing periods removed by a considerable interval of time that the movement can be appreciated… We have seen that the Ages of Faith, to which romantic dreamers regretfully look back, were ages of force and fraud, where evil seemed to reign almost unchecked… Imperfect as are human institutions to-day, a comparison with the past shows how marvellous has been the improvement, and the fact that this gain has been made almost wholly within the last two centuries, and that it is advancing with accelerated momentum, affords to the sociologist the most cheering encouragement.” (Ch. IX)
Lea’s series of books on the Inquisition are “must reading” for anyone seriously studying the institution.
Henry Charles Lea (1825-1909) was an American historian, civic reformer, and political activist. He also wrote a 4-volume ‘A History of the Inquisition of Spain.” This third volume was originally published in 1887. Following are some representative quotations from the book.
“While the mission of both Orders [Dominicans and Franciscans] was to redeem the Church from the depth of degradation into which it had sunk, the Dominicans were more especially trained to take part in the active business of life. They therefore … accommodated themselves to the world, like the Jesuits of later days, and the worldliness which necessarily came with success awakened little antagonism within the organization. Power and luxury were welcomed and enjoyed... It was otherwise with the Franciscans… Absolute poverty and self-abnegation were its primal principles, and it inevitably drew to itself the intellects which sought a refuge from the temptations of life in self-absorbing contemplation… and in the renunciation of all that renders life attractive to average human nature. As the organization grew in wealth and power there were necessarily developed within its bosom antagonisms in two directions.” (Ch. I)
“Persecution, as usual, had the immediate effect of scattering the heretics, of confirming them in the faith, and of developing the heresy into a more decided antagonism towards the Church.” (Ch. II) “As heresy… waxed and grew more and more threatening, and the struggle for its suppression increased in bitterness and took an organized shape under a formidable body of legislation, and as the application of the theory of indulgences gave to the Church an armed militia ready for mobilization without cost whenever it chose to proclaim danger to the faith, the temptation to invoke the fanaticism of Christendom for the defence or extension of its temporal interests inevitably increased in strength.” (Ch. IV)
“With the development of the laws against heresy, and the organization of special tribunals for the application of those laws, it was soon perceived that an accusation of heresy was a peculiarly easy and efficient method of attacking a political enemy. No charge was easier to bring, none so difficult to disprove—in fact… there was none in which acquittal was so absolutely impossible where the tribunal was desirous of condemnation. When employed politically the accused had the naked alternative of submission or of armed resistance... Thus an immense advantage was gained over a political enemy by merely citing him to appear, when he was obliged either to submit himself in advance to any terms that might be dictated to him, or, by refusing to appear, expose himself to condemnation for contumacy with its tremendous temporal consequences.” (Ch. IV)
“There is, firstly, the extreme inherent improbability that a rich, worldly, and ambitious body of men like the Templars should be secretly engaged in the dangerous and visionary task of laying the foundations of a new religion, which would bring them no advantage if they succeeded in supplanting Christianity… Secondly… the Templars … would be wary in initiating strangers; they would exercise extreme caution as to the admission of members, and only reveal to them their secrets by degrees… Thirdly, if a new dogma were thus secretly taught as an indispensable portion of the Rule… The witnesses who confessed to initiation would all tell the same story and give the same details. Thus … the inherent improbability that the Templars could be embarked in an enterprise so insane, in place of which we have only confessions extracted by the threat or application of torture…” (Ch. V)
“Thus the more closely the enormous aggregate of testimony is examined the more utterly worthless it appears, and this is confirmed by the fact that nowhere could compromising evidence be obtained without the use of inquisitorial methods… In view, therefore, of the extreme improbability of the charge, of the means employed to obtain proof for its support, and the lack of coherence in the proof so obtained, it appears to me that no judicial mind in possession of the facts can hesitate to pronounce a sentence, not merely of not proven, but of acquittal.” (Ch. V)
“Charles, to his eternal dishonor, made no effort to save the woman [Joan of Arc] to whom he owed his crown… The English … could have tried Joan summarily in a secular court for sorcery and burned her out of hand, but to obtain possession of her they had been obliged to call in the ecclesiastical authorities and the Inquisition, and they were too little familiar with trials for heresy to recognize that inquisitorial proceedings were based on the assumption of seeking the salvation of the soul and not the destruction of the body. When they saw how the affair was going a great commotion arose at what they inevitably regarded as a mockery. Joan’s death was a political necessity, and their victim was eluding them though in their grasp.” (Ch. V.) “The platform for the sermon and the pile for the execution had been erected … On her head was placed a high paper crown inscribed “Heretic, Relapsed, Apostate, Idolater,” and she was carried to the stake… Thus Joan passed away, but the spirit which she had aroused was beyond the reach of bishop or inquisitor. Her judicial murder was a useless crime.” (Ch. V)
“Few things are so indestructible as a superstitious belief once fairly implanted in human credulity. It passes from one race to another and is handed down through countless generations; it adapts itself successively to every form of religious faith; persecution may stifle its outward manifestation, but it continues to be cherished in secret, perhaps the more earnestly that it is unlawful. Religion may succeed religion, but the change only multiplies the methods by which man seeks to supplement his impotence by obtaining control over supernatural powers, and to guard his weakness by lifting the veil of the future. The sacred rites of the superseded faith become the forbidden magic of its successor… Europe thus was the unhappy inheritor of an accumulated mass of superstitions which colored the life and controlled the actions of every man.” (Ch. VI)
“There is no very precise line of demarcation to be drawn between the more pretentious magic and the vulgar details of witchcraft.. historically speaking, the witchcraft with which we now have to deal is a manifestation of which the commencement cannot be distinctly traced backward much beyond the fifteenth century. Its practitioners were … but ignorant peasants, for the most part women, who professed to have skill to help or to ban… and were feared and hated accordingly… Thus the innocent devices of the wise-women … came to be regarded as implying demon-worship. When this conception once came to be firmly implanted in the minds of judges and inquisitors, it was inevitable that with the rack they should extort from their victims confessions in accordance with their expectations… Ludicrous as all this may seem, every one of these details has served as the basis of charges under which countless human beings have perished in the flames.” (Ch. VII)
“[Theology] assumed to know and define all the secrets of the universe, and yet it was constantly growing, as ingenious or daring thinkers would suggest new theories or frame new deductions from data already settled. Hosts of these were condemned; the annals of an intellectual centre like the University of Paris are crowded with sentences pronounced against novel points of faith and their unlucky authors. Occasionally, however, some new dogma would arise, would be vehemently debated, would refuse to be suppressed, and would finally triumph after a more or less prolonged struggle, and would then take its place among the eternal verities which it was heresy to call in question.” (Ch. VIII)
“One function of the Inquisition remains to be considered—the censorship of the press... the emperor, in 1369, empowered the inquisitors and their successors to seize and burn all such books, and to employ the customary inquisitorial censures to overcome resistance… With the gradual revival of letters books assumed more and more importance as a means of disseminating thought, and this increased rapidly after the invention of printing. It became a recognized rule with the Inquisition that he into whose hands an heretical book might fall and who did not burn it at once or deliver it within eight days to his bishop or inquisitor was held vehemently suspect of heresy. The translation of any part of Scripture into the vernacular was also forbidden. It was not, however, until 1501 that any organized censorship of the press seems to have been thought of, and even then Germany was the only land where the issue of dangerous and heretical books was considered to require it.” (Ch. VIII)
“More important was the nonfeasance of the Inquisition with respect to simony. This was the corroding cancer of the Church throughout the whole of the Middle Ages—the source whence sprang almost all the evils with which she afflicted Christendom. From the highest to the lowest, from the pope to the humblest parish priest, the curse was universal. Those who had only the sacraments to sell made a trade of them. Those whose loftier position … had no shame in offering their wares in open market, and preferment thus obtained filled the Church with mercenary and rapacious men whose sole object was to swell their purses by extortion and to find enjoyment in ignoble vices… its inevitable result was to plunge society deeper and deeper into corruption, as unity of faith was enforced by persecution.” (Ch. IX)
“The review which we have made of the follies and crimes of our ancestors has revealed to us a scene of almost unrelieved blackness. We have seen how the wayward heart of man, groping in twilight, has under the best of impulses inflicted misery and despair on his fellow-creatures while thinking to serve God…. Yet such a review, rightly estimated, is full of hope and encouragement… Human development is slow and irregular… and it is only by comparing periods removed by a considerable interval of time that the movement can be appreciated… We have seen that the Ages of Faith, to which romantic dreamers regretfully look back, were ages of force and fraud, where evil seemed to reign almost unchecked… Imperfect as are human institutions to-day, a comparison with the past shows how marvellous has been the improvement, and the fact that this gain has been made almost wholly within the last two centuries, and that it is advancing with accelerated momentum, affords to the sociologist the most cheering encouragement.” (Ch. IX)
Lea’s series of books on the Inquisition are “must reading” for anyone seriously studying the institution.
March 25, 2019
I loved this. But I love history. When thinking of the inquisition most people think burning of witches but there was mostly persecution against peaceful gnostics and even jews.
July 30, 2022
My three stars is harsh. I could be convinced to give it four. And then I would say that four is being kind.
This is a work originally published in 1888. On the positive side, the research that went into this history probably has only rarely been improved upon. Lea draws almost exclusively from primary sources and he cites these with religious discipline.
He organizes his work systematically rather than narratively. This is likely a function of his era. Being a prodigious publisher, Lea certainly knew what his reading audience wanted. So, instead of telling the story or stories of the Inquisition, he broke down the institution by themes and analyzed these in turn. This has the effect of providing a thorough examination of the topics. However, it is cumbersome. The many pages provided on the sentence of confiscation are undeniably valuable, for example, but they are also just boring.
This approach also can be somewhat dizzying as the reader is constantly rewinding and fast-forwarding through the centuries of the Middle Ages, often in the same excruciatingly long paragraph.
I love history and books like these play an important role as repositories of detail. It is this detail that holds the drama of good storytelling accountable to fact. All too often, traditional historians have felt that you cannot be a servant of both story and detail. Lea has chosen the latter unapologetically. This is commendable, but then again, you can't give a 250 page encyclopedia entry a "must read" style review.
This is a work originally published in 1888. On the positive side, the research that went into this history probably has only rarely been improved upon. Lea draws almost exclusively from primary sources and he cites these with religious discipline.
He organizes his work systematically rather than narratively. This is likely a function of his era. Being a prodigious publisher, Lea certainly knew what his reading audience wanted. So, instead of telling the story or stories of the Inquisition, he broke down the institution by themes and analyzed these in turn. This has the effect of providing a thorough examination of the topics. However, it is cumbersome. The many pages provided on the sentence of confiscation are undeniably valuable, for example, but they are also just boring.
This approach also can be somewhat dizzying as the reader is constantly rewinding and fast-forwarding through the centuries of the Middle Ages, often in the same excruciatingly long paragraph.
I love history and books like these play an important role as repositories of detail. It is this detail that holds the drama of good storytelling accountable to fact. All too often, traditional historians have felt that you cannot be a servant of both story and detail. Lea has chosen the latter unapologetically. This is commendable, but then again, you can't give a 250 page encyclopedia entry a "must read" style review.
July 10, 2017
Good. No doubt outdated by modern scholarship and the language is flowery by today's standards, but it's a great overview of the heresies and the Church's reaction over time. Will keep as a reference.
August 1, 2015
Although I liked this book it was a difficult read. It was thoroughly researched and contained interesting details surrounding the Inquisition. However, the vocabulary is Victorian and required frequent appeals to a dictionary in order to decipher the archaisms. The book also assumed a substantive knowledge of medieval and renaissance history.
I would suggest reading only Volumes I and III but for history scholars the book is an excellent source for information prior to recent revelations from the Vatican.
I would suggest reading only Volumes I and III but for history scholars the book is an excellent source for information prior to recent revelations from the Vatican.
August 7, 2016
I read the abridgement by M. Nicholson.
February 12, 2016
The writing style is absolutely gorgeous!!!!!
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews