Catalogue of a Collection of Original Manuscripts Formerly Belongimg To
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INTEODUCTION. THE history of the rise and progress of the HOLY INQTJISITION has always demanded and enjoyed very great interest, and this for many self-evident reasons which it is unnecessary to discuss in this place. Established by the Church with a view to the detection and punishment of those who entertained erroneous sentiments, dangerous to the Christian Faith and Eeligion in general, first in France on the occasion of the heresies of the Albigeois or Albigenses,* the Inquisition appears to have gradually found a settlement in other countries, Spain, Portugal and Italy. A few years ago the late Marquesa of Bute, who had visited Tenerife with the object of recruiting his health, had his attention directed to the study of the language of the native inhabitants of that island; and the researches with which I was subsequently entrusted in the prosecu- tion of that literary labour resulted in ascertaining the existence in prívate hands of the extensive collection of original manuscrípts relating to the Inquisition, of which this Catalogue contains the description. It was hoped that some sentences, or even a few words, in the native language might be found in their pages, the verbatim reports of examination of natives by the médium of * A valuable MS. relating to this phase of the Inquisition is preservad in the British Museum. Eg. MS. 1897. Tractatus de practica ofBcii Inquisitionis herética pravitatis, máxime in paitibus Tholosanis, Carcassonensibus, Albiensibus, et in provincia Narbonensi, et circumvicinis diocesibus. In Five Parts. By Bernardns Guidonis of the Friars-Preackers, Inquisitor General of Toulouse. Circo 1320. viii INTfíODUCTION. interpreters, of whom there must at one time have been a considerable number; but tKis wish resulted in dis- appointment, for the very little help thus obtained is unappreciable. But the contents of the MSS. had aroused the interest of the Marquess, and he eventually acquired two several collections, the one consistiug of thirty-six, the other of forty folio books, which, with the Egerton MS. 1512, preserved in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, make up the total of seventy-seven volumes, all that are now extant after the deplorable destruction of the remainder of the muniments of the Canary Inquisition in the middle of last century. Many of these MSS. were in a perishing condition, the ravages of the weevil and the bookworm, the inferior character of the paper, and the corrosive nature of the ink used by the notaries, had combined to render the writing very frequently illegible, and the paper in many places was falling to pieces. Eepairs have, however, been carefully carried out, and the MSS. to-day are prepared to endure for centuries under proper circumstances of security. The Inquisition, without doubt, owes its origin to the innate human desire for safety in the truth, which distinguishes Christianity from all other forms of faith and religious belief. If men are safe, they charitably desire that others should also be safe ; henee arises the heroism with which missionary labours have ever been associated: they fear whatever may imperil the safety of others, and long to clear it away; henee comes persecu- tion and even torture to ascertain the deepest depths of the lapse. If they make a convert, they save a soul which would otherwise be too dangerous to be left either to itself for its own damnation, or to infect others with the contagión of indiíFerence or unorthodoxy; henee spring the prison, the secret cell, the torture, the scaífold, and the stake. Pope Innocent III. (A.D. 1198—1216) and Pope Honorius III. (A.D. 1216—1227)nominated Saint Dominic INTRODUCTION. ix the first Inquisitor General. Several jears later, we are told, than Dominic's death, which took place in A.D. 1233, Pope Gregorj IX. (A.D. 1227—1241) appointed two religious of that order to exercise the same functions. Pope Clement VIL (A.D. 1523—1534), under Francis I., King of France, again nominated an Inquisitor on the occasion of the Germán heresies; but with the exception of a lingering life at Toulouse, where a smaU Dominican Convent, which was called the Inquisition because the Inquisitor made his abode there, the Inquisition soon ceased in France. The Inquisition in Rome, or the " Congregation of the ^ Holy OíEce," as it is called, consists of the Pope as head, a body of twelve cardinals as judges, cónsultors or advó cales employed in the examination of books, opinions, and actions of persons to whom their attention may have been directed, and numerous other officers. In Spain the Inquisition was established generally in A.D. 1448, under the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, with much the same powers and authority as the Congregation of the Holy Office already spoken of Customary procedure in Spain was that the king forwarded the ñame of an Inquisitor General to the Pope, and the Pope ratified the appoint- ment This personage thus designated proceeded to commission other Inquisitors, who were required to be provided with royal sanction before they could exercise their offices. The king, too, appointed a council or senate charged with sovereign jurisdiction in aU aflFairs touching the Inquisition. Some writers divide the Inquisition history into three periods, plaeing in the first aU proceedings anterior to the thirteenth century, in the second the Dominican Inquisi tion already mentioned, starting from the Council of Toulouse in 1229; and lastly the Spanish Inquisition from the year 1480, which developed the theory of Spanish claim to poHtical religious supremacy throughout Europe. X INTRODUCTION. Six principal cases belong rightly to the jurisdiction of this tribunal, viz. :— 1. Heresy. 2. Suspicion of heresy. 3. Protection of heresy. 4. Black magic, sorcery, witchcrafts and enchantment. 5. Blasphemy involving heresy or anything which deals therewith; and 6. Injury done to the Inquisition or to any of the members thereof and resistance to the execution of its orders. These cases were brought before the notice of the Inquisition by four ways :— 1. Public rumour. 2. Testification of witnesses. 3. Self-accusation of culpable persons desirous of reformation ; and 4. By means of investigation carried on by persons employed for that purpose by the Holy Office. Books were carefuUy kept of all the proceedings, being apparently made up from time to time by clerks to whom the records, processes, and other documents were delivered, and who took notes of all that was said or done while the audience was going on. Other books * contain the inventories of prisoners' goods, the accounts of their maintenance, the result of the periodical visitation of the prisons, and a variety of information by means of which a very faithful and accurate view may be taken by an impartial investigator of the proceedings of the Inquisition. The greatest ignorance appears to have prevailed with regard to the principies which governed the practice of the Inquisition, among writers of past ages, who have not only covered the office with abuse and vituperation, but disseminated the falsest and most misleading state- ments concerning' it. Millares does not stand alone in this * See Vol. V. (2«á Series); Yol. X. (Isí Series); Vols. IX., X. (2rad Señes) ; Vol. XX. (Isí Series), and others. INTEODUCTION. xi respect. For example, PeeíFel, in his Abrégé de ÜHistoire d'Allemagne, Paris, 1754, mentions in his notice of the years 1231-1234 the " Terrible inquisition contre de prétendus hérétiques de toute espéce et de toute qualité, qui furent tous brulés sans aucun examen ni forme de proeés. Le Frere Conrad, Domini- cain, et chef des Inquisiteurs, fut assassinó par quelques gentilshommes, et á sa mort finirent les exécutions." That the Inquisition did not alone practise the bar- barities which were, to common knowledge, concomitant with suspicion and criminal investigation, is abundantly proved. The foUowing interesting extracts from an unpublished source, ülustrating how witchcraft and faith- healing were suppressed ia Switzerland, are taken from a manuscript entitled : " Anecdotes et antiquités d'une partie du Valláis et spécialement des Dizains de Monthey et de St. Maurice, recueillies par M. Cle'ment, vicaire, en 1806-7," in the possession of Mr. N. E. Hamilton, of Champéry :— (p. 33.) " Anno 1619, Nobilis Jacobus Quartery, nomine incliti Domini Antonii Quartery ducis pro domino duce Sabaudiae in Pedemontio et tuno castellani jurisdictionis Salvani, jussit (nempe dictus nobilis Jacobus) cremari tres de dicta jurisdictione sortilegii accusatos," etc. (p. 39.) " Die 14 Julii, 1622, Mauritia Bovard Vallis Illiaci {Val d'Illiez) et Íncola Montheoli {Monthey) capite plexa est Seduni, per specialem gratiam ei factam per Reverendissimum ac illustrissimum dominum Episcopum Sedunensem, eo quod igne viva comburi mereretur, ad quod su[p]plicium damnata fuerat; quíB Mauritia Bovard uxor Claudii du feu Vallis Illiaci á pluribus videbatur et habebatur sancta, ita ut rumor et fama ejusdem optimse sanctitatis per multas regiones volaverat ob singularem ejus piam medicinam quam profitebatur erga non paucos diversis et periculosis morbis laborantes, immo á mediéis ipsis etiam doctioribus derelictos tanquam insanabiles, illa vero sub colore quo(d)dam pietatis et voti characteribus, signis, peregrinationibus aliisque hujuscemodi, sanos arte diabólica red[a]ebat. Illa autem saepe mónita á praefato Reverendissimo Domino Episcopo Sedunensi et á raultis alus ecclesiasticis personis, ut hanc damnabilem sanandi artem relinqueret et secundum ecclesiasticas sanctioaes pió et salutari medicamento uteretur; illa vero pertinaciter semper arte suá utebatur, ac xii INTRODUCTION. tándem ob ejus inobedientiam adducta fuit Seduni ad arcem majorisB viñeta, et ut moris est interrógala et a térra elevata, noluit quidquam fateri, sed tándem dicebat sanctam Trinitatem ei quandoque locutam fuisse in trinis personis indif[f]erenter, et quod absurdissimum est, se genuisse puerum absque ullo humano semine, quod confirmavit ejusdem maritus (Claudius du feu), licet multis tentatus tormentis, quod plañe legitur velle dici beata et saucta in operibus suis miranda et excusari á sua diabólica fraude et arte, multa deuique de ea possunt dici et narrari sed multa similia volumina." .