A History of The Inquisition of The Middle Ages Volume III Part 51

[576] The Chronicler of Arras tells us that at this time there was no enforcement of the laws in Arras; every one did as he pleased, and no one was punished but the friendless. His statement is borne out by the cases of homicide and other crimes which he relates, and of which no notice was taken (Mem. de Jacques du Clercq, Liv. IV. ch. 22, 24, 40, 41). Yet vigorous search was made for the author of this pasquinade, and Jacotin Maupet.i.t was arrested by an usher-at-arms of the duke on the charge of writing it. He adroitly slipped out of his doublet, and sought asylum in three successive churches, finally succeeding in getting to Paris, where he const.i.tuted himself a prisoner of the Parlement, and returned to Arras free, to find that, meanwhile, his property had been confiscated and sold. (Ibid. ch. 24.) [577] The details of this case have, fortunately, been preserved for us in the Memoires de Jacques du Clercq, Livre IV., with the decree of Parlement in the appendix. Mathieu de Coussy (Chronique ch. 129) and Cornelius Zantfliet (Martene, Ampl. Coll. V. 501) also give brief accounts. Some details omitted by du Clercq are to be found in the learned sketch of Duverger, "La Vauderie dans les Etats de Philippe le Bon," Arras, 1885, which, it is to be hoped, will be followed by the more elaborate work promised by the author.

[578] Du Clercq, Liv. IV. ch. 10-11.

[579] Du Clercq, Liv. IV. ch. 14, 15, 28; Append, II.

[580] Du Clercq, Liv. IV. ch. 4, 8.

[581] Du Clercq, Liv. IV. ch. 6, 11, 14, 28.--A copy of Jean Taincture's tract is in the Bib. Roy. de Bruxelles, MSS. No. 2296.--About this time Jeannin, a peasant of Inchy, was executed at Cambrai, and at Lille Catharine Patee was condemned as a witch, but escaped with banishment, and the same was the case with Marguerite d'Escornay at Nivelles. One unfortunate, Noel Fern of Amiens, became insane on the subject, and after wandering over the land, accused himself at Mantes of belonging to the accursed sect. He was burned August 26, 1460. His wife, whom he had implicated, escaped sharing his fate by an appeal to the Parlement--Duverger, La Vauderie dans les Etats de Philippe le Bon, pp. 52-3, 84.

[582] Nider Formicar. Lib. V. c. 3, 4, 7.--Grimm's Teutonic Mythol. III. 1066.--Soldan, Geschichte der Hexenprocesse, Stuttgart, 1843, p. 186.--Bernardi Comensis de Strigiis c. 4.--Steph. Infessurae Diar. Urb. Romae ann. 1424 (Eccard. Corp. Hist. II. 1874-5).

Peter of Berne's efforts to purify his territory were fruitless, for we hear of witches burned in 1482 at Murten, Canton Berne (Valerius Anshelm, Berner-Chronik, Bern, 1884, I. 224).

[583] Duverger, La Vauderie dans les Etats de Philippe le Bon, p. 22.--Anon. Carthus. de Relig. Orig. c. 25-6 (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI. 57-9).--Jean Chartier, Hist. de Charles VII. ann. 1453.--Memoires de Jacques du Clercq, Liv. III. ch. 11.--D'Argentre, I. II. 251.--Soldan, Gesch. der Hexenprocesse, p. 198.--Lilienthal, Die Hexenprocesse der beiden Stadte Braunsberg, p. 70.

[584] Alonso de Spina, Fortalic. Fidei, fol. 284.--Bernardi Comens. de Strigiis c. 3.--Chron. Cornel. Zantfliet, ann. 1456 (Martene Ampl. Coll. V. 491).--Raynald. ann. 1459, No. 30.--Guill. Gruel, Chroniques d'Artus III. (Ed. Buchon, p. 405).

[585] Du Cange, s.v. Sortiarius.

[586] Mall. Malef. P. I. Q. i. c. 1.

[587] Mall. Malef. P. I. Q. xi.; P. II. Q. i. c. 4, 12; P. III. Q. 15.

[588] Mall. Malef. P. II. Q. i. c. 4.

Innocent's bull was not confined to Germany alone, but was operative everywhere. In an Italian inquisitorial manual of the period it is included in a collection of bulls "contra hereticam pravitatem," which also contains a letter on the subject from the future Emperor Maximilian, dated Brussels, November 6, 1486.--Molinier, Etudes sur quelques MSS. des Bibliotheques d'Italie, Paris, 1887, p. 72.

[589] Rapp, Die Hexenprocesse und ihre Gegner aus Tirol, pp. 5-8, 12-13, 143 sqq.--Mall. Maleficar. P. II. Q. 1, c. 12; P. III. Q. 15.

[590] Molitoris Dial. de Pythonicis Mulieribus c. 1, 10.

The absurd contrast between the illimitable powers ascribed to the witch and her personal wretchedness was explained under torture by the victims as the result of the faithlessness of Satan, who desired to keep them in poverty. When steeped in misery he would appear to them and allure them into his service by the most attractive promises, but when he had attained his end those promises were never kept. Gold given to them would always disappear before it could be used. As one of the Tyrolese witches in 1506 declared, "The devil is a Schalk (knave)." (Rapp, Die Hexenprocesse und ihre Gegner aus Tirol, p. 147.) [591] Diefenbach, the latest writer on witchcraft (Die Hexenwahn, Mainz, 1886). sees clearly enough that the witch-madness was the result of the means adopted for the suppression of witchcraft, but in his eagerness to relieve the Church from the responsibility he attributes its origin to the Carolina, or criminal code of Charles V., issued in 1531, and expressly a.s.serts that ecclesiastical law had nothing to do with it (p. 176). Other recent writers ascribe the horrors of the witch-process to the bull of Innocent VIII., and the Malleus Maleficarum (Ib. pp. 222-6). We have been able to trace, however, the definite development of the madness and the means adopted for its cure from the beliefs and the practice of preceding ages. It was, as we have seen, a process of purely natural evolution from the principles which the Church had succeeded in establis.h.i.+ng.

[592] Fontanon, Edicts et Ordonnances, IV. 237.--Isambert, XI. 190, 253.

[593] Cornel. Agrippa de Occult. Philos. Lib. I. c. 40; Lib. III. c. 33; Epistt. II. 38, 39, 40, 59; De Vanitate Scientiarum c. xcvi.

[594] Raynald. ann. 1457, No. 90.--P. Vayra, Le Streghe nel Canavese, op. cit. p. 250.--Mall. Maleficar. P. II. Q. i. c. 1, 12.--Ripoll IV. 190.--Pegnae Append. ad Eymeric. p. 105.--G.F. Pico, La Strega, p. 17.--Prieriat. de Strigimag. Lib. II. c. 1, 5.--Ang. Politian. Lamia, Colon. 1518.

[595] G. de Castro, II Mondo Secreto, IX. 128, 133, 135-6.--Mag. Bull. Rom. I. 440, 617.--Archiv. di Venezia, Misti, Concil. X. Vol. 44, p. 7.

[596] Michelet, La Sorciere, Liv. II. ch. iii.--P. Vayra, op. cit. p. 255.--Annal. Novesiens. ann. 1586 (Martene Ampl. Coll. IV. 717).--Paramo de Orig. Off. S. Inquis. p. 296.

[597] Von der Hardt I. XVI. 829.--Bernardi Comens. Lucerna Inquisit. s. v. Dubius.

[598] R. Bacon Opp., M.R. Series, J.S. Brewer's Preface, p. xlv.

[599] Op. Minus, M.R Series I. 326-30.--Compend. Studii Philosoph. VII.--Brewer. Preface, p. li.

[600] Brewer, Pref. p. xcviii.--Wadding. ann. 1278, No. 26; ann. 1284, No. 12.--Wood's Life of Bacon (Brewer, pp. xciv.-xcv.).--C. Muller, Die Anfange des Minoritenordens, pp. 104-5.

[601] Tocco, L'Heresia nel Medio Evo, p. 2.--J. Scoti Erigenae de Divis. Naturae I. 14; IV. 5.--Alberic. Trium Font. ann. 1225.

[602] Tocco, p. 4.

[603] Johann. Saresberiens. Metalog. II. 17.--Tocco, 26, 39, 40, 57.

[604] Bruckeri Inst.i.t. Hist. Philos. Ed. 1756, p. 530.--D'Argentre I. II. 258-84, 298, 302-4.--Baluz. et Mansi, II. 293-6.--Isambert, X. 664-72.

[605] D'Argentre I. I. 275, 285-90, 323-30, 337-40; I. II. 249, 255.--R. Lullii Lamentatio Philosophiae (Opp. Ed. 1651, p. 112).--Erasmi Encom. Moriae (Ed. Lipsiens. 1828, p. 365).--Maimonides, Guide des Egares P. III. ch. xxi. (Trad. Munk, III. 155).--Matt. Paris ann. 1201 (Ed. 1644, p. 144).

[606] Renan, Averrhoes et l'Averrhoisme, 3e Ed. 1866, pp. 152-3, 156-60, 168.

[607] Renan, pp. 22, 29-36, 167-9, 297.

[608] Th. Cantimpr. Bon. Univers. Lib. II. c. 47.--Matt. Paris ann. 1238.--Hist. Diplom. Frid. II. T. Y. pp. 339, 349.--Pelayo, Heterodoxos Espanoles, I. 507-8, 782-3.

One of these supposit.i.tious Traite des Trois Imposteurs, published at Yverdon in 1768, is written from a pantheistic standpoint, and not without a certain measure of learning. Although it quotes Descartes, there is a somewhat clumsy attempt to represent it as a translation of a tract sent by Frederic II. to Otho of Bavaria.

[609] Partidas, P. VII. t.i.t. xxvi. l. 1.--Concil. Tarraconens. ann. 1291 c. 8 (Martene Ampliss. Coll. VII. 294).--Renan, pp. 205-16.

[610] Matt. Paris ann. 1243 (p. 415).--S. Bonaventurae Serm. de decem Praeceptia II. (Opp. Venet. 1584, II. 617).--D'Argentre I. I. 158-9, 186-88.

[611] D'Argentre I. I. 177-83.

[612] D'Argentre I. I. 185, 212-13, 234.

[613] D'Argentre I. I. 214-15, 235-6.--Renan, pp. 467-70.--Eymeric. pp. 238, 241.

[614] Renan, pp. 318-20, 322, 325, 339, 342, 345-6.--Molinier, Etudes sur quelques MSS. des Bibliotheques d'Italie, p. 103.--Petrarchi Lib. sine t.i.tulo Epist. XVIII. Ejusd. contra Medic.u.m Lib. II. (Ed. Basil. 1581, p. 1098).--Decamerone, Giorn. I. Nov. 3.--Marina, Theorie des Cortes, Trad. Fleury, Paris, 1822, II, 515.

[615] Gerson. sup. Magnificat. Tract, IX. (Ed. 1489, 89f, 9lf).--Renan, p. 314.

[616] D'Argentre I. II. 342.--Alph. de Castro adv. Haereses, Lib. II. s. v. Angelus.

[617] For a luminous presentation of the influence of Humanism on the policy of the Church in the fifteenth century, see Creighton's History of the Popes, II. 333 sqq. It was one of the complaints of Savonarola that learning and culture had supplanted religion in the minds of those to whom the destinies of Christianity were confided until they had become infidels--"Vattene a Roma e per tutto il Cristianesimo; nelle case de' gran prelati e de' gran maestri non s'attende se non a poesie e ad arte oratoria ...Essi hanno introdotto fra noi le feste del diavolo; essi non credono a Dio, e si fanno beffe dei misteri della nostra religione" (Villari, Storia di Savonarola, Ed. 1887, I. 197, 199).

[618] Laurent. Vallae in Donat. Constant. Declam. (Fasciculus Rer. Expetendar. L. 132, Ed. 1690).--Bayle, s. v. Valle.--Raynald. ann. 1446, No. 9.--Paramo de Orig. Offic. S. Inq. p. 297.--Wagenmann, Real-Encykl. VIII. 492-3.--Creighton's Hist. of the Popes, II. 340.--aen. Sylv. Comment. in Dict. et Fact. Alfonsi Regis Lib. I.--Erasmi Epistt. Lib. IV. Ep. 7; Lib. VII. Ep. 3.--Reusch, Der Index der Verbotenen Bucher, I. 227.

The immediate conviction wrought by Valla's criticism of the Donation of Constantine is shown in aeneas Sylvius's defence of the temporal power, where he abandons Constantine entirely, basing the territorial claims of the Holy See on the gifts of Charlemagne, and its authority over kings on the power of the keys and the heads.h.i.+p granted to Peter (aen. Sylvii Opp. inedd. pp. 571-81). Yet the Church soon rallied and renewed its claims. Arnaldo Albertino, Inquisitor of Valencia, in alluding to the Donation of Constantine, says, in 1533, that Lorenzo Valla endeavored to dispute its truth, but that every one else is united in maintaining it, so that to deny it is to come near heresy (Arn. Albertini Repet.i.tio nova, Valentiae, 1534, col. 32-3). Curiously enough, he adds that it is a.s.serted in the bull Unam Sanctam, which is not the case (I. Extrav. Commun. Lib. I. t.i.t. viii.). In fact, Boniface VIII. founded his claims on Christ, and a reference to Constantine would only weaken them.

Valla's bitter and captious criticisms provoked sundry epigrams after his death.

"Nunc postquam manes defunctus Valla petivit, Non audet Pluto verba Latina loqui. Jupiter hunc caeli dignatus parte fuisset, Censorem linguae sed timet esse suae."

"Obe ut Valla silet solitus qui parcere nulli est! Si quaeris quid agat nunc quoque mordet humum."--(Bayle, l.c.).

[619] Raynald. ann. 1459, No. 31; ann. 1461, No. 9, 10.--aen. Sylvii Opp. inedd. pp. 453, 506-7, 524, 653.--B. Platinae Vit. Pauli III.--Creighton, Hist. of the Popes, II. 440; III. 39.

[620] Gregor. Heymburg. Confut. Primatus Papae (Fascic. Rer. Expetend. II. 117).--B. Platinae Vit. Pauli II.--Cantu, I. 186-7, 198.

Creighton (Hist. of the Popes, III. 276 sqq.) has printed from a Cambridge MS. a curious correspondence between Pomponio, while imprisoned in the Castle of Sant' Angelo, and his jailer, Rodrigo de Arevalo, afterwards Bishop of Zamora. It shows how fragile was the philosophy of the Platonists when exposed to real privations.

[621] Marsil. Ficin. Epistt. Libb. VIII., XI., XII. (Opp. Ed. 1561, I. 866-7, 931, 946, 962-3); De Christ. Relig. c. 11, 13, 22, 24, 26 (I. 15, 18, 25, 29); De Vita Coelitus comparanda Lib. III. c. 1, 2 (I. 532-33); In Platonem (II. 1390); In Plotinum c. 6, 7, 12, 15 (II. 1620-22, 1633, 1636).--Cantu, I. 179.

Yet we find him attributing a fever and diarrhoea to the influence of Saturn in the house of Cancer, for Saturn had been in his geniture from the beginning; and his cure he ascribes to a vow made to the Virgin.--Epistt. Opp. I. 644, 733.

[622] D'Argentre I. II. 250.--Cantu, I. 182, III. 699-700.

[623] J. Pic. Mirand. Vita, Conclusiones, Apologia, Alexand. PP. VI. Bull. Omnium Catholicor. (Opp. Basil. 1572). Cf. Cantu, I. 185.

[624] Concil. Lateran. V. Sess. VIII. (Harduin. IX. 1719).--Ripoll IV. 373.--Renan, pp. 53, 363.--P. Pomponatii Tract. de Immort. Animae c. xiv.--Cantu, I. 179-81.--Bayle, s. v. Pomponace, Note D.

The device by which philosophers escaped responsibility for their philosophy is ill.u.s.trated by the concluding words of Agostino Nifo's treatise De Coelo et Mundo, in 1514: "In qua omnibus pateat me ornnia esse locutum ut phylosophum: quae vero viderentur Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae dissonare illico revocamus, a.s.serentes ea incuria nostra proficisci non autem a malitia, quare nostras bas interpraetationes omnes et quascunque alias in quibusvis libris editis Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae submittimus."

And so Marsilio Ficino--"Nos autem in omnibus quae scribimus eatenus affirmari a n.o.bis aliisque volumus quatenus Christianorum theologorum concilio videatur"--De Immort. Animae, Lib. XVIII. c. 5.

Pompon.a.z.io winds up his treatise on the immortality of the soul with "Haec itaque sunt quae mihi in hac materia dicenda videntur. Semper tamen in hoc et in aliis subjiciendo sedi Apostolicae"--De Immort. Animae c. xv.

[625] P. Pomponatii Tract. de Immort. Animae c. iv., viii., xiv., xiv.--Prieriat. de Strigimagar. Lib. I. c. iv., v.--Llorente, Hist. de l'Inq. d'Espagne, ch. xv. Art. ii. No. 4.

[626] Renan, pp. 367-72.--Cantu, I. 183.

[627] Villari, Fra Girolamo Savonarola, Ed. 1887, T. II. p. 3.

[628] Cartas de D. Fr. Feyjoo, Carta XXII. (T. I. p. 180).

[629] Historia General de Mallorca, III. 40-2 (Palma, 1841).--Pelayo, Heterodoxos Espanoles, I. 514-15.--Nic. Anton. Bibl. Hispan. Lib. IX. c. iii. No. 73.

[630] Mariana, Hist. de Espana, Lib. XV. c. 4.--Hist. Gen. de Mallorca, I. 601, III. 44-6.--Nic. Anton. l. c. No. 74.--Wadding. ann. 1275, No. 12.

[631] Wadding. ann. 1293, No. 3; ann. 1215, No. 2, 5.--C. 1. Clement. v. 1.--Nic. Anton. I. c. No. 76.--Hist. Gen. de Mallorca, II. 1058-9, 1063; III. 64-5, 72.

[632] Nic. Anton. 1. c. No. 87-154.--Hist. Gen. de Mall. III. 68, 70, 96-8.--R. Lullii Art. Mag. P. IX. c. 52 (Opp. Ed. Argentorati, 1651, p. 438).

For an account of Lully's poetical works, see Chabaneau (Vaissette, Ed. Privat, x. 379).

[633] Hist. Gen. de Mall. III. 71, 78.--Pelayo, I. 530, 535, 537, 539.--Nic. Anton. 1. c. No. 82.--Gersoni Epist. ad. Bart. Carthus; Ejusd. De Exam. Doctr. P. II. Consid. 1.--Corn. Agrippae de Vanitate Scient. c. 9.--Hieron. Cardan, de Subtil. Rer. Lib. xv.--Mariana, Lib. xv. c. 4.

[634] Pelayo, I. 519-23.--R. Lullii Lamentat. Philosoph.

[635] Pelayo, I. 499, 528.--Hist. Gen. de Mall. III. 85.--D'Argentre I. I. 256-7, 259--Pegnae Append. ad Eymeric. pp. 67-8.--Bofarull. Doc.u.mentos, VI. 360.

[636] Eymeric. Direct. pp. 255-61.

Pegna says (p. 262) that in the MSS. of Eymerich's work the list of errors is fewer than in the printed text, and this is confirmed by Father Denifle (Archiv. fur Litt.-u. K. 1885, p. 143). Apparently the Dominicans of the fifteenth century, when they printed the Directorium, interpolated errors to aid them in the controversy over Lully.

[637] D'Argentre I. I. 258, 260.--Hist. Gen. de Mall. III. 82-4.--Pelayo, I. 784-5.

[638] Hist. Gen. de Mall. III. 59, 83-6.--Pelayo, I. 498, 787-88.--D'Argentre I. I. 259-61.--Nic. Anton. I. c. No. 78.--Ripoll II. 290.

[639] Hist. Gen. de Mall. III. 65-6, 92, 94-5.--Gabrieli Prateoli Elenchus Haeret. Colon. 1608, p. 423.--D'Argentre I. I. 259, 261.--Reusch, Der Index der verbotenen Bucher, I. 27-33.--Benedict. PP. XIV. De Servorum Dei Beatif. Lib. I. c. xl. -- 4.--Raynald. ann. 1372, No. 35.

In 1533 Arnaldo Albertino, Inquisitor of Valencia, complained bitterly of the injustice which ranked as a heretic such a man as Lully, who was inspired by G.o.d and was rather to be wors.h.i.+pped as a saint.--Albertini Repet.i.tio nova, Valentia, 1534, col. 406.

The publication of a complete critical edition of Lully's works has recently been commenced at Padua by D. Jeron. Rosello, under the patronage of the Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Austria.

[640] S. Augustin, De Genesi ad litteram Lib. XII. c. 35, 36; De Civ. Dei Lib. XXII. c. 29. Cf. De Doctr. Christ. Lib. I. c. 31; Epistt. cxviii. -- 14, clxix. -- 3 (Ed. Benedict.).--Matt. Paris ann. 1243 (p. 415).--Th. Aquinat. Sum. Suppl. Q. xcii.--S. Bonavent. Breviloq. VII. 5, 7; Centiloq. III. 50; Pharetrae IV. 50.--W. Preger, Zeitschrift fur die histor. Theol. 1869, pp. 41-2.

[641] C. 3, Clem. v. iii.--Ripoll II. 172.--Wadding. ann. 1331, No. 5.--Paul Lang. Chron. Citicens. (Pistor, I. 1207, 1210).--Gob. Person. Cosmodr. aet. VI. c. 71.--D'Argentre I. I. 315 sqq.--P. de Herenthals Vit. Joann. XXII. ann. 1333 (Muratori S. R. I. III. II. 501).--Guill. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1331.--Villani, X. 226.--Chron. Gla.s.sberger ann. 1331.

[642] W. Preger, Die Politik des Pabstes Johann XXII. pp. 14, 66, 69.--Alphons. de Spina Fortalic. Fidei Lib. II. Consid. xii.--Vitodurani Chron. (Eccard. Corp. Hist. I. 1806-7).--Martene Thesaur. I. 1383.--D'Argentre I. I. 316-17. 319-22.--Isambert, Anc. Loix Franc. IV. 387.--Guillel. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1333.--Raynald. ann. 1334, No. 27, 37, etc.--Wadding. ann. 1334, No. 14.--Villani, XI. 19.--Baluz. et Mansi, III. 350.--Grandes Chroniques, ann. 1334 (V. 97).

[643] Molinier, Etudes sur quelques MSS. des Bibliotheques d'Italie, p. 116.--Chron. Gla.s.sberger ann. 1334.--Benedict. XII Vit. Tert. ann. 1335-6 (Muratori S. R. I. III. II. 539-41).--Ejusd. Vit. Prim. ann. 1338 (Ibid. p. 534).--Eymeric. p. 421.--Concil. Florent. ann. 1439 P. II. Union. Decret. (Harduin. IX. 986).

A remark of aeneas Sylvius in 1453 shows that, notwithstanding these authoritative definitions, the old belief still lingered that the glory of the saints was postponed till the Day of Judgment (Opp. inedd.--Atti della Accad. dei Lincei, 1883, p. 567).

[644] S. Anselmi Cur Deus h.o.m.o Lib. II. c. xvi.; Ejusd. Lib. de Conceptu Virginali.--S. Bernardi Epist. 174, ad Canon. Lugdun.--D'Argentre I. II. 60.--Pet. Lombardi Sententt. Lib. III. Dist. iii. Q. 1.--Innoc. PP. III. Sermo XII. in Purif. S. Mariae.

[645] Pet. Blesens. Sermo XII., x.x.xIII.,x.x.xVIII.--S. Bonavent. Speculi Beatae Virginis c. i., ii., viii., ix.--The mediaeval conception of the Virgin, as the intercessor between G.o.d and man and the source of all good, is expressed by Fazio degli Uberti-- "Tu sola mitigasti la discordia Che fu tra Dio e l' uomo; e tu cagione Sei d' ogni bene che quaggiu si esordia."

[646] Thom. Aquin. Summ. I. ii. Q. 81, Art. 4; III. Q. 14, Art. 4, Q. 27.--D'Argentre I. I. 275.--Alvar. Pelag. de Planctu Eccles. Lib. II. Art 52.--Chron. de Saint-Just (Vaissette, Ed. Privat, VIII. 225).--Concil. Londin. ann. 1328 c. 2 (Harduin. VII. 1538).

The epitaph of Duns Scotus gives him the credit of defending the Immaculate Conception.

"Concepta est virgo primi sine labe parentis Hic tulit--" (Mosheim de Beghardis, p. 234.) [647] Religieux de S. Denis, Hist. de Charles VI. VII. 5; VIII. 2, 14; XXIII. 5.--Pelayo, Heterodoxos Espanoles, I. 536.

[648] Wadding. Addit. ad T. V. No. 16 (T. VII. p. 491); ann. 1439, No. 47-8.--Concil. Basil. Sess. x.x.xVI. (Harduin. IX. 1160).--Concil. Florent. Decr. pro Jacobinis (Harduin. IX. 1024-5).

[649] Concil. Avenionens. ann. 1457 (Harduin. IX. 1388).--D'Argentre I. II. 252.

[650] Wadding. ann. 1477, No. 1; ann. 1479, No. 17-18.--C. 1, 2, Extrav. Commun. III. xii.

[651] D'Argentre I. II. 331-5, 343-3.--Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1498.--Wadding. ann. 1500, No. 29.--Chron. Gla.s.sberger ann. 1501.

[652] Trithem. Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1497.--D'Argentre I. II. 336-40, 347.--Ripoll IV. 267.--Bernardi Comens. Lucerna Inquis. s.v. Haeresis, No. 23.

[653] I have followed a contemporary account of this curious affair--"De Quatuor Haeresiarchis in civitate Bernensi nuper combustis, A.D. 1509," 4to, sine nota (Stra.s.sburg, 1509), attributed to Thomas Murner. It accords sufficiently with the briefer reports of Trithemius (Chron. Hirsaug. ann. 1509) and Sebastian Brandt (Pauli Langii Chron. Citicens. ann. 1509), and that of the Chron. Gla.s.sberger ann. 1501, 1506, 1507, 1509.--Garibay, Compendio Historial de Espana, Lib. xx. cap. 13.

The Bernese community was piously devoted to the Virgin. In 1489 a certain Nicholas Rotelfinger was inconsiderate enough to declare that she helped the wicked as well as the good. For this he was obliged to stand a whole day in an iron collar and to make oath that he would personally seek the pope and bring home a written absolution.--Valerius Anshelm, Berner-Chronik, Bern, 1884, I. 355.

[654] Revocatio fratris Vuygandi Vuirt (apud Trebotes, sine anno).

[655] De Beatae Virginia Conceptione Ducentorum et s.e.xdecim Doctorum vera, tuta, et tenenda Sententia (sine nota. sed. c. 1500).--Concil. Trident. Sess. v. Decr. de Orig. Peccat. -- 5.--Pauli PP. IV. Bull. Super speculum (Mag. Bull. Rom. II. 343).--Pauli PP. V. Bull. Regis pacifici (Ibid. p. 392).--Ejusd. Const.i.t. Sanctissimus (Ib. p. 400).--Gregor. PP. XV. Const.i.t. Sanctissimus (Ib. p. 477).--Ejusd. Bull. Eximii (Ib. p. 478).--Prattica del Modo da procedersi nelle Cause del S. Offitio, cap. xix. (MSS. Bib. Reg. Monachens. Cod. Ital. 598.--MSS. Bib. Nat., fonds italien, 139).--Gage, New Survey of the West Indies, London, 1677, p. 266.

[656] Alph. de Castro de justa Haeret. Punitione Lib. I. c. viii. Dub. 4.--Carenae Tract. de Modo procedendi t.i.t. XVII. -- 9.

Yet in Spain the intense popular devotion to the Virgin rendered the Inquisition very sensitive in its reverence for her. In 1642 an inquisitor, Diego de Narbona, in his Annales Tractatus Juris alluded to an a.s.sertion of Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, Lib. VII.) that some persons believed that after the Nativity the Virgin was inspected by the midwife to prove her virginity. Although he condemned the statement as most indecent and dishonoring to the Virgin, his work was denounced to the Inquisition of Granada, which referred it to the Inquisitor-general. Narbona in vain endeavored to defend himself. It was shown that in the Index Expurgatorius of 1640 the pa.s.sage of Clement, as well as those in all other authors alluding to it, had been ordered to be borrado, or expunged, so that the very memory of so scandalous a tale might be lost. Narbona alleged in his defence a pa.s.sage in Padre Basilio Ponce de Leon, but the Inquisition showed that this had likewise been borrado, and, as every one who possessed a copy of a book containing a prohibited pa.s.sage was bound to blot it out and render it illegible, he was culpable in not having done so.--MSS. Bibl. Bodleian. Arch S. 130.