A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages: Its Organization and Operation
Henry Charles Lea, LL. D
Number of quotes: 60
Book ID: 237 Page: 1
Section: 3A2A
The judicial use of torture was as yet happily unknown, and the current substitute of a barbarous age, the Ordeal, was resorted to with frequency which shows how ludicrously helpless were the ecclesiastics called upon to perform functions so novel.
Quote ID: 5924
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 2
Section: 3A2A
How great was the perplexity of ignorant prelates, debarred from this ready method of seeking the judgement of God, may be guessed by the expedient which had, in 1170, been adopted by the good Bishop of Besancon, when the religious repose of his diocese was troubled by some miracle-working heretics. He is described as a learned man, and yet to solve his doubts as to whether the strangers were saints or heretics, he summoned the assistance of an ecclesiastic deeply skilled in necromancy and ordered him to ascertain the truth by consulting Satan. The cunning clerk deceived the devil into a confidential mood and learned that the strangers were his servants; they were deprived of the satanic amulets which were their protection, and the populace, which had previously sustained them, cast them pitilessly into the flames.
Quote ID: 5925
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 4
Section: 3A2A
In 1114 the Bishop of Soissons, after convicting some heretics by the water ordeal, went to the Council of Beauvais to consult as to their punishment; but during his absence the people, fearing the lenity of the bishops, broke into the jail and burned them.
Quote ID: 5926
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 4
Section: 3A2A
Charlemagne’s civilizing policy, however, made efficient use of all instrumentalities capable of maintaining order and security in his empire, and the bishops assumed an important position in his system. They were ordered, in conjunction with the secular officials, zealously to prohibit all superstitious observances and remnants of paganism.
Quote ID: 5927
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 5
Section: 3H
During the troubles which followed the division of the empire, as the feudal system arose on the ruins of the monarchy, gradually the bishops threw off not only dependence on the crown, but acquired extensive rights and powers in the administration of the canon law, which now no longer depended on the civil or municipal law, but assumed to be its superior. Thus came to be founded the spiritual courts which were attached to every episcopate and which exercised exclusive jurisdiction over a constantly widening field of jurisprudence. Of course all errors of faith necessarily came within their purview.
Quote ID: 5928
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 8
Section: 2A3
At the commencement of the tenth century, as the bishop reached each parish in his visitation, the whole body of the people was assembled in a local synod. From among these he selected seven men of mature age and approved integrity who were then sworn on relics to reveal without fear or favor whatever they might know or hear, then or subsequently, of any offence requiring investigation.
Quote ID: 5929
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 9
Section: 3A2A
In 1184, all archbishops and bishops were ordered, either personally or by their archdeacons or other fitting persons, once or twice a year to visit every parish where there was suspicion of heresy and compel two or three men of good character, or the whole vicinage if necessary, to swear to reveal any reputed heretic, or any person holding secret conventicles, or in any way differing in mode of life from the faithful in general.
Quote ID: 5930
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 10
Section: 3A2A
We have already seen how utterly this effort failed to arouse the hierarchy from their sloth. The weapons rusted in the careless hands of the bishops, and the heretics became ever more numerous and more enterprising, until their gathering strength showed clearly that if Rome would retain her domination she must summon the faithful to the arbitrament of arms.
Quote ID: 5931
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 10
Section: 3H
This utterance of the supreme council of Christendom was as ineffectual as its predecessors. An occasional earnest fanatics was found, like Foulques of Toulouse or Henry of Strassburg, who labored vigorously in the suppression of the heresy, but for the most part the prelates were as negligent as ever.
Quote ID: 5932
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 18
Section: 3A2A
When the papal Inquisition was commenced, Frederic hastened, in 1232, to place the whole machinery of the State at the command of the inquisitors, who were authorized to call upon any official to capture whomsoever they might designate as a heretic, and hold him in prison until the Church should condemn him, when he was to be put to death.This fiendish legislation was hailed by the Church with acclamation.
Quote ID: 5933
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 18
Section: 3A2A
It became the duty of the inquisitors to see that this was done, to swear all magistrates and officials to enforce them, and to compel their obedience by the free use of excommunication. In 1222, when the magistrates of Rieti adopted laws conflicting with them, Honorius at once ordered the offenders removed from office: in 1227 the people of Rimini resisted, but were coerced to submission; in 1253, when some of the Lombard cities demurred, Innocent IV promptly ordered the inquisitors to subdue them.
Quote ID: 5934
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 19
Section: 3H
Finally, they were incorporated in the latest additions to the Corpus Juris as part of the canon law itself, and, technically speaking, they may be regarded as in force to the present day.
Quote ID: 5935
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 19
Section: 3A2B
In the territories which remained to Count Raymond his vacillating course gave rise to much dissatisfaction, until, in 1234, he was compelled to enact, with the consent of his prelates and barons, a statute drawn up by the fanatic Raymond du Fauga of Toulouse which...decreed confiscation against every one who failed, when called upon, to aid the Church in the capture and detention of heretics.
Quote ID: 5936
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 19/20
Section: 3A2A,3A2B
In Aragon, Don Jayme I., in 1226, issued an edict prohibiting all heretics from entering his dominions. In 1234, in conjunction with his prelates, he drew up a series of laws instituting an episcopal Inquisition of the severest character, to be supported by the royal officials; in this appears for the first time a secular prohibition of the Bible in the vernacular. All possessing any books of the Old or New Testament, “in Romancio,” are summoned to deliver them within eight days to their bishops to be burned, under pain of being held suspect of heresy.….
The State was rendered completely subservient to the Church in the great task of exterminating heresy.
Quote ID: 5937
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 20
Section: 3H
In Rome, in 1231, Gregory IX drew up a series of regulations which was issued by the Senator Annibaldo in the name of the Roman people. Under this, the senator was bound to capture all who were designated to him as heretics, whether by inquisitors appointed by the Church or other good Catholics, and to punish them within eight days after condemnation. Of their confiscated property one third went to the detector, one third to the senator, and one third to repairing the city walls. Any house in which a heretic was received was to be destroyed, and converted forever into a receptacle of filth.
Quote ID: 5938
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 21
Section: 3H
Not satisfied with the local enforcement of these regulations, Gregory sent them to the archbishops and princes throughout Europe, with orders to put them in execution in their respective territories, and for some time they formed the basis of inquisitorial proceedings.
Quote ID: 5939
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 37
Section: 3A2A
Not only this, indeed, but every individual was bound to lend his aid when called upon, and any slackness of zeal exposed him to excommunication as a fautor of heresy, leading after twelve months, if neglected, to conviction as a heretic, with all its tremendous penalties.
Quote ID: 5940
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 65
Section: 3H
The organization of the Inquisition was simple, yet effective. It did not care to impress the minds of men with magnificence, but rather to paralyze them with terror.….
Every detail in the Inquisition was intended for work and not for show.
Quote ID: 5941
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 77
Section: 3A2A,3A2B
Not the least important among the functionaries of the Inquisition were the lowest class - the apparitors, messengers, spies, and bravos, known generally by the name of familiars.….
Not only did they enjoy the immunity from secular jurisdiction attaching to all in the service of the Church, but the special authority granted by Innocent IV, in 1245, to the inquisitors to absolve their familiars from acts of violence rendered them independent even of the ecclesiastical tribunals.
….
Thus panoplied, they could tyrannize at will over the defenseless population, and it is easy to imagine the amount of extortion which they could practice with virtual impunity by threatening arrest or accusation at a time when falling into the hands of the Inquisition was about the heaviest misfortune which could befall any man, whether orthodox or heretic.
Quote ID: 5942
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 81
Section: 3H
The oath of obedience which the inquisitor was empowered and directed to exact of all holding official station was no mere form. Refusal to take it was visited with excommunication, leading to prosecution for heresy in case of obduracy, and humiliating penance on submission.
Quote ID: 5943
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 82
Section: 3A2A
In addition to this the Inquisition had, to a greater or less extent, at its service the whole orthodox population, and especially the clergy. It was the duty of every man to give information as to all cases of heresy with which he might become acquainted under pain of incurring the guilt of fautorship. It was further his duty to arrest all heretics.….
The parish priests, moreover, were required, whenever called upon, to cite their parishioners for appearance, either publicly from the pulpit or secretly as the case might require, and to publish all sentences of excommunication. They were likewise held to the duty of surveillance over penitents to see that the penances enjoined were duly performed, and to report any cases of neglect.
Quote ID: 5944
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 84
Section: 3H
As the inquisitors from the beginning were chosen rather with regard to zeal than learning, and as they maintained a reputation for ignorance, it was soon found requisite to associate with them in the rendering of sentences men versed in the civil and canon law.
Quote ID: 5945
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 87
Section: 3A2A
In the rudimentary Inquisition of Florence, in 1245, where the inquisitor Ruggieri Calcagni and Bishop Ardingho were zealously co-operating, and no assembly of experts was required, we find the heretics sentenced and executed day by day, singly or in twos or threes.
Quote ID: 5946
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 95
Section: 3H
The procedure of the episcopal courts, as described in a former chapter, was based on the principles of the Roman law, and whatever may have been its abuses in practice, it was equitable in theory, and its processes were limited by strictly defined rules. In the Inquisition all this was changed.….
As a judge, he was vindicating the faith and avenging God for the wrongs inflicted on him by misbelief. He was more than a judge, however, he was a father-confessor striving for the salvation of the wretched souls perversely bent on perdition. In both capacities he acted with an authority far higher than that of an earthy judge. If his sacred mission was accomplished, it mattered little what methods were used.
Quote ID: 5947
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 101
Section: 3A2A
No prescription of time barred the Church in these matters, as the heirs and descendants of Gherardo of Florence found when, in 1313, Fr` Grimaldo the inquisitor commenced a successful prosecution against their ancestor who had died prior to 1250.
Quote ID: 5948
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 102
Section: 3A2A
Had the proceedings been public, there might have been some check upon this hideous system, but the Inquisition shrouded itself in the awful mystery of secrecy until after sentence had been awarded and it was ready to impress the multitude with the fearful solemnities of the auto de fé.
Quote ID: 5949
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 102
Section: 3A2A
Paramo, in the quaint pedantry with which he ingeniously proves that God was the first inquisitor and the condemnation of Adam and Eve the first model of the inquisitorial process, triumphantly points out that he judged them in secret, thus setting the example which the Inquisition is bound to follow, and avoiding the subtleties which the criminals would have raised in their defense, especially at the suggestion of the crafty serpent.
Quote ID: 5950
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 103
Section: 3A2A
When the mass of surmises and gossip, exaggerated and distorted by the natural fear of the witnesses, eager to save themselves from suspicion of favoring heretics, grew sufficient for action, the blow would fall. The accused was thus prejudged. He was assumed to be guilty, or he would not have been put on trial, and virtually his only mode of escape was by confessing the charges made against him, abjuring heresy, and accepting whatever punishment might be imposed on him in the shape of penance. Persistent denial of guilt and assertion of orthodoxy, when there was evidence against him, rendered him an impenitent, obstinate heretic, to be abandoned to the secular arm and consigned to the stake.
Quote ID: 5951
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 105
Section: 3A2A
They all agree, moreover, in holding delation of accomplices as the indispensable evidence of true conversion. Without this, the repentant heretic in vain might ask for reconciliation and mercy; his refusal to betray his friends and kindred was proof that he was unrepentant, and he was forthwith handed over to the secular arm, exactly as in the Roman law a converted Manichæan who consorted with Manichæans without denouncing them to the authorities was punishable with death.
Quote ID: 5952
Time Periods: 47
Book ID: 237 Page: 114
Section: 3A2A
A heretic priest, thrown into prison by his bishop, proved obstinate, and the most eminent theologians who labored for his conversion found him their match in disputation. Believing that vexation brings understanding, they at length ordered him to be bound tightly to a pillar. The cords eating into the swelling flesh caused such exquisite torture that when they visited him the next day he begged piteously to be taken out and burned. Coldly refusing, they left him for another twenty-four hours, by which time physical pain and exhaustion had broken his spirit. He humbly recanted, retired a Paulite monastery, and lived an exemplary life.
Quote ID: 5953
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 117
Section: 3A2A
Torture, moreover, except among the Wisigoths, had been unknown among the barbarians who founded the commonwealths of Europe, and their system of jurisprudence had grown up free from its contamination.….
Yet it rapidly won its way in Italy, and when Innocent IV, in 1252, published his bull Ad extirpanda, he adopted it, and authorized its use for the discovery of heresy
Quote ID: 5954
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 119
Section: 3A2A
Torture saved the trouble and expense of prolonged imprisonment; it was a speedy and effective method of obtaining what revelations might be desired, and it grew rapidly in favor with the Inquisition, while its extension throughout secular jurisprudence was remarkably slow.
Quote ID: 5955
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 120
Section: 3A2A
The inquisitors, however, were too little accustomed to restraint in any form to submit long to this infringement on their privileges. It is true that disobedience rendered the proceedings void, and the unhappy wretch who was unlawfully tortured without episcopal…. consultation could appeal to the pope, but this did not undo the work; Rome was distant, and the victims of the Inquisition for the most part were too friendless and too helpless to protect themselves in such illusory fashion.
Quote ID: 5956
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 121
Section: 3H
One of the most shocking abuses of the system, the torture of witnesses, was left to the sole discretion of the inquisitor, and this became the accepted rule.
Quote ID: 5957
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 122
Section: 3A2A
In the administration of torture the rules adopted by the Inquisition became those of the secular courts of Christendom at large.
Quote ID: 5958
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 123
Section: 3A2A
According to rule, torture could be applied but once, but this, like all other rules for the protection of the accused, was easily eluded. It was only necessary to order, not a repetition, but a “continuance” of the torture, and no matter how long the interval, the holy casuists were able to continue it indefinitely; or a further excuse would be found in alleging that additional evidence had been discovered, which required a second torturing to purge it away.
Quote ID: 5959
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 125
Section: 3A2A
The inquisitorial process as thus perfected was sure of its victim. No one whom a judge wished to condemn could escape.….
It placed every man’s life or limb at the mercy of any enemy who could suborn two unknown witnesses to swear against him.
Quote ID: 5960
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 136
Section: 3A2A
Occasionally, also, we find a conscientious judge like Bernard Gui carefully sifting evidence, comparing the testimony of different witnesses, and tracing out incompatibilities which proved that one at least was false.
Quote ID: 5961
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 137
Section: 3A2A
There is, perhaps, only a consistent exhibition of inquisitorial logic in the dictum of Zanghino, that a witness who withdraws testimony adverse to a prisoner is to be punished for false-witness, while his testimony is to stand, and to receive full weight in rendering judgement.A false-witness, when detected, was treated with as little mercy as a heretic. As a symbol of his crime two pieces of red cloth in the shape of tongues were affixed to his breast and two to his back, to be worn through life.
Quote ID: 5962
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 138
Section: 3A2A
The assembly of experts held at Pamiers for the auto of January, 1329, decided that, in addition to imprisonment, either lenient or harsh, according to the gravity of the offence, the offenders should make good any damage accruing to the accused. This was an approach to the talio, and the principle was fully carried out in 1518 by Leo X in a rescript to the Spanish Inquisition, authorizing the abandonment to the secular arm of false witnesses who had succeeded in inflicting any notable injury on their victims.
Quote ID: 5963
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 139
Section: 3A2A
All this is in cruel contrast with the righteous care to avoid injustice prescribed for the ordinary episcopal courts. In them, the Council of Lateran orders that the accused shall be present at the inquisition against him, unless he contumaciously absents himself; the charges are to be explained to him, that he may have the opportunity of defending himself; the witnesses’ names, with their respective evidence, are to be made public, and all legitimate exceptions and answers be admitted, for suppression of names would invite slander, and rejection of exceptions would admit false testimony. The suspected heretic, however, was prejudged. The effort of the inquisitor was not to avoid injustice, but to force him to admit his guilt and seek reconciliation with the Church. To accomplish this effectually the facilities for defence were systematically reduced to a minimum.
Quote ID: 5964
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 140
Section: 3A2A
Innocent III, in a decretal embodied in the canon law, had ordered advocates and scriveners to lend no aid or counsel to heretics and their defenders, or to undertake their causes in litigation.
Quote ID: 5965
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 141
Section: 3A2A
It is no wonder, therefore, that finally, inquisitors adopted the rule that advocates were not to be allowed in inquisitorial trials. This injustice had its compensation, however, for the employment of counsel, in fact, was likely to prove as dangerous to the defendant as to his advocate, for the Inquisition was entitled to all accessible information, and could summon the latter as a witness, force him to surrender any papers in his hands, and reveal what had passed between him and his client.
Quote ID: 5966
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 141
Section: 3A2A
Everyone feared arrest and prosecution if he took the least part in an opposition to the dreaded inquisitor.
Quote ID: 5967
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 145
Section: 3A2A
Practically every avenue of escape was closed to those who fell into the hands of the inquisitor.
Quote ID: 5968
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 155/156
Section: 3A2A
Technically, therefore, the list of penalties available to the inquisitor was limited. He never condemned to death, but merely withdrew the protection of the Church from the hardened and impenitent sinner who afforded no hope of conversion, or from him who showed by relapse that there was no trust to be placed in his pretended repentance. Except in Italy, he never confiscated the heretic’s property; he merely declared the existence of a crime which, under the secular law, rendered the culprit incapable of possession. At most he could impose a fine, as a penance, to be expended in good works.
Quote ID: 5969
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 161
Section: 3A2A
The pilgrimages, which were regarded as among the lightest of penances, were also mercies only by comparison. Performed on foot, the number of commonly enjoined might well consume several years of a man’s life, during which his family might perish.
Quote ID: 5970
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 180
Section: 3A2A
The severest penance the inquisitor could impose was incarceration. It was, according to the theory of the inquisitors, not a punishment, but a means by which the penitent could obtain, on the bread of tribulation and water of affliction, pardon from God for his sins, while at the same time he was closely supervised to see that he persevered in the right path and was segregated from the rest of the flock, thus removing all danger of infection. Of course it was only used for converts. The defiant heretic who persisted in disobedience, or who pertinaciously refused to confess his heresy and asserted his innocence, could not be admitted to penance, and was handed over to the secular arm.
Quote ID: 5971
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 183
Section: 3A2A
In the harsher confinement, or “murus strictus,” the prisoner was thrust into the smallest, darkest, most noisome of cells, with chains on his feet - in some cases chained to the wall. This penance was inflicted on those whose offences had been conspicuous, or who had perjured themselves by making incomplete confessions, the matter being wholly at the discretion of the inquisitor.
Quote ID: 5972
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 194
Section: 3A2A
The same spirit pursued the descendants. In the Roman law the crime of treason was pursued with merciless vindictiveness, and its provisions are constantly quoted by the canon lawyers as precedents for the punishment of heresy, with the addition that treason to God is far more heinous than that to an earthly sovereign. It was, perhaps, natural that the churchman, in his eagerness to defend the kingdom of God, should follow and surpass the example of the emperors.
Quote ID: 5973
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 196
Section: 3A2A
Underlying all these sentences was another on which they, and, indeed, the whole power of the Inquisition, were based in last resort - the sentence of excommunication.
Quote ID: 5974
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 198
Section: 3A2A
One of the earliest acts of Innocent III, in his double capacity of temporal prince and head of Christianity, was to address a decretal to his subjects of Viterbo, in which he says,“In the lands subject to our temporal jurisdiction we order the property of heretics to be confiscated; in other lands we command this to be done by the temporal princes and powers, who, if they show themselves negligent therein, shall be compelled to do it by ecclesiastical censures. Nor shall the property of heretics who withdraw from heresy revert to them, unless some one pleases to take pity on them. For as, according to the legal sanctions, in addition to capital punishment, the property of those guilty of majestas is confiscated, and life simply is allowed to their children through mercy alone, so much the more should those who wander from the faith and offend the Son of God be cut off from Christ and be despoiled of their temporal goods, since it is a far greater crime to assail spiritual than temporal majesty.”
This decretal, which was adopted into the canon law, is important as embodying the whole theory of the subject. In imitation of the Roman law of majestas, the property of the heretic was forfeited from the moment he became a heretic of committed an act of heresy.
….
If he recanted, it might be restored to him purely in mercy.
Quote ID: 5976
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 200
Section: 3A2A
The relation of the Inquisition to confiscation varied essentially with time and place. In France the principle derived from the Roman law was generally recognized, that the title to property devolved to the fisc as soon as the crime had been committed. There was therefore nothing for the inquisitor to do with regard to it. He simply ascertained and announced the guilt of the accused and left the State to take action.
Quote ID: 5977
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 216/217
Section: 3A2A
The cruelty of the process of confiscation was enhanced by the pitiless methods employed. As soon as a man was arrested for suspicion of heresy, his property was sequestrated and seized by the officials, to be returned to him in the rare cases in which his guilt might be declared not proven. This rule was enforced in the most rigorous manner, every article of his household gear and provisions being inventoried, as well as his real estate. Thus, whether innocent or guilty, his family were turned out-of-doors to starve or to depend upon the precarious charity of others- a charity chilled by the fact that any manifestation of sympathy was dangerous. It would be difficult to estimate the amount of human misery arising from this source alone.
Quote ID: 5978
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 230
Section: 3A2A
Like confiscation, the death-penalty was a matter with which the Inquisition had theoretically no concern. It exhausted every effort to bring the heretic back to the bosom of the Church. If he proved obdurate, or his conversion was evidently feigned, it could do no more. As a non-Catholic, he was no longer amenable to the spiritual jurisdiction of a Church which he did not recognize, and all that it could do was to declare him a heretic and withdraw its protection.
Quote ID: 5979
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 231
Section: 3A2A
The remorseless logic of St. Thomas Aquinas rendered it self-evident that the secular power could not escape the duty of putting the heretic to death, and that it was only the exceeding kindness of the Church that led it to give the criminal two warnings before handing him over to meet his fate.
Quote ID: 5980
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 237
Section: 3A2A
The continuous teachings of the Church led its best men to regard no act as more self-evidently just than the burning of the heretic, and no heresy less defensible than a demand for toleration.
Quote ID: 5981
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 237
Section: 3A2A
As we shall see, under Nicholas IV and Celestine V, the strict Franciscans were preeminently orthodox; but when John XXIV stigmatized as heretical the belief that Christ lived in absolute poverty, he transformed them into unpardonable criminals whom the temporal officials were bound to send to the stake, under pain of being themselves treated as heretics.
Quote ID: 5982
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 253
Section: 3A2A
The worst popes of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries could scarce have dared to shock the world with such an exhibition as that with which John XXII glutted his hatred of Hughes Gerold, Bishop of Cahors.….
Certain it is that no sooner did he mount the pontifical throne than he lost no time in assailing his enemy. May 4, 1317, the unfortunate prelate was solemnly degraded at Avignon and condemned to perpetual imprisonment. This was not enough. On a charge of conspiring against the life of the pope he was delivered to the secular arm, and in July of the same year he was partially flayed alive and then dragged to the stake and burned.
Quote ID: 5983
Time Periods: 7
Book ID: 237 Page: 254
Section: 3A2A
When it came to the turn of the Cardinal of Venice, Urban intrusted the work to an ancient pirate, whom he had created Prior of the Order of St. John in Sicily, with instructions to apply the torture till he could hear the victim howl; the infliction lasted from early morning till the dinner-hour, while the pope paced the garden under the window of the torture-chamber, reading his breviary aloud that the sound of his voice might keep the executioner reminded of the instructions.
Quote ID: 5984
Time Periods: 7
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