gation or
a revival as a new creation. The mediaeval Inquisition strove to control
states, and was an engine of government. The modern strove to coerce the
Protestants, and was an engine of war. One was subordinate, local,
having a kind of headquarters in the house of Saint Dominic at Toulouse.
The other was sovereign, universal, centred in the Pope, and exercising
its domination, not against obscure men without a literature, but
against bishop and archbishop, nuncio and legate, primate and professor;
against the general of the Capuchins and the imperial preacher; against
the first candidate in the conclave, and the president of the
oecumenical council. Under altered conditions, the rules varied and even
principles were modified. Mr. Lea is slow to take counsel of the
voluminous moderns, fearing the confusion of dates. When he says that
the laws he is describing are technically still in force, he makes too
little of a fundamental distinction. In the eye of the polemic, the
modern Inquisition eclipses its predecessor, and stops the way.

The origin of the Inquisition is the topic of a lasting controversy.
According to common report, Innocent III. founded it, and made Saint
Dominic the first inquisitor; and this belief has been maintained by the
Dominicans against the Cistercians, and by the Jesuits against the
Dominicans themselves. They affirm that the saint, having done his work
in Languedoc, pursued it in Lombardy: "Per civitates et castella
Lombardiae circuibat, praedicans et evangelizans regnum Dei, atque
contra haereticos inquirens, quos ex odore et aspectu dignoscens,
condignis suppliciis puniebat" (Fontana, _Monumenta Dominicana_, 16). He
transferred his powers to Fra Moneta, the brother in whose bed he died,
and who is notable as having studied more seriously than any other
divine the system which he assailed: "Vicarium suum in munere
inquisitionis delegerat dilectissimum sibi B. Monetam, qui spiritu
illius loricatus, tanquam leo rugiens contra haereticos surrexit....
Iniquos cum haereticos ex corde insectaretur, illisque nullo modo
parceret, sed igne ac ferro consumeret." Moneta is succeeded by Guala,
who brings us down to historic times, when the Inquisition flourished
undisputed: "Facta promotione Guallae constitutus est in eius locum
generalis inquisitor P.F. Guidottus de Sexto, a Gregorio Papa IX., qui
innumeros propemodum haereticos igne consumpsit" (Fontana, _Sacrum
Theatrum Dominicanum_, 595). Sicilian i