Produced by David McClamrock
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK
LONDON, BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS 1915
Nihil Obstat. THOMAS J. SHAHAN, S.T.D.
Imprimatur. + JOHN M. FARLEY, D.D Archbishop of New York.
NEW YORK, June 24, 1907.
Copyright, 1907, by BERTRAND L. CONWAY
All Rights Reserved
First Edition, February, 1908 Registered, May, 1908 New and Cheaper
Edition, September, 1915
In the print edition of this book, footnote numbers began with 1 oneach page, and the footnotes appeared at the bottom of each page. Inthis electronic edition, the footnotes have been re-numberedbeginning with 1 for each paragraph, and they appear directly belowthe paragraph that refers to them. A very few ascertainable errorshave been caught and corrected. All else is intended to correspond asclosely as possible to the contents of the print edition.
THERE are very few Catholic apologists who feel inclined to boast ofthe annals of the Inquisition. The boldest of them defend thisinstitution against the attacks of modern liberalism, as if theydistrusted the force of their own arguments. Indeed they have hardlyanswered the first objection of their opponents, when they instantlyendeavor to prove that the Protestant and Rationalistic critics ofthe Inquisition have themselves been guilty of heinous crimes. "Why,"they ask, "do you denounce our Inquisition, when you are responsiblefor Inquisitions of your own?"
No good can be accomplished by such a false method of reasoning. Itseems practically to admit that the cause of the Church cannot bedefended. The accusation of wrongdoing made against the enemies theyare trying to reduce to silence comes back with equal force againstthe friends they are trying to defend.
It does not follow that because the Inquisition of Calvin and theFrench Revolutionists merits the reprobation of mankind, theInquisition of the Catholic Church must needs escape all censure. Onthe contrary, the unfortunate comparison made between them naturallyleads one to think that both deserve equal blame. To our mind, thereis only one way of defending the attitude of the Catholic Church inthe Middle Ages toward the Inquisition. We must examine and judgethis institution objectively, from the standpoint of morality,justice, and religion, instead of comparing its excesses with theblameworthy actions of other tribunals.
No historian worthy of the name has as yet undertaken to treat theInquisition from this objective standpoint. In the seventeenthcentury, a scholarly priest, Jacques Marsollier, canon of the Uzès,published at Cologne (Paris), in 1693, a Histoire de l'Inquisitionet de son Origine. But his work, as a critic has pointed out, is"not so much a history of the Inquisition, as a thesis written with astrong Gallican bias, which details with evident delight thecruelties of the Holy Office." The illustrations are taken fromPhilip Limborch's Historia Inquisitionis.[1]
[1] Paul Fredericq, Historiographie de l'Inquisition, p. xiv.Introduction to the French translation of Lea's book on theInquisition.
Henry Charles Lea