or as a penitent
before his confessor. He had no reason to fear his judge. For,
properly speaking, he did not inflict punishment.

"The mission of the Inquisition," writes Lea, "was to save men's
souls; to recall them to the way of salvation, and to assign salutary
penance to those who sought it, like a father-confessor with his
penitent. Its sentences, therefore, were not like those of an earthly
judge, the retaliation of society on the wrongdoer, or deterrent
examples to prevent the spread of crime; they were simply imposed for
the benefit of the erring soul, to wash away its sin. The Inquisitors
themselves habitually speak of their ministrations in this sense."[1]

[1] Lea, op. cit., p. 459.

But "the sin of heresy was too grave to be expiated simply by
contrition and amendment."[1] The Inquisitor, therefore, pointed out
other means of expiation: "The penances customarily imposed by the
Inquisition were comparatively few in number. They consisted,
firstly, of pious observances--recitation of prayers, frequenting of
churches, the discipline, fasting, pilgrimages, and fines nominally
for pious uses,--such as a confessor might impose on his ordinary
penitents." These were for offences of trifling import. "Next in
grade are the _poenae confusibiles_,--the humiliating and degrading
penances, of which the most important was the wearing of yellow
crosses sewed upon the garments; and, finally, the severest
punishment among those strictly within the competence of the Holy
Office, the _murus_ or prison."[2]

[1] Lea, ibid., p. 463.

[2] Lea, ibid., p. 462.

If the heretic refused to abjure, his obduracy put an end to the
judge's leniency, and withdrew him at once from his jurisdiction.

"The Inquisitor 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."[1]

[1] Lea, ibid., p. 460.

It was at this juncture that the State intervened. The ecclesiastical
judge handed over the heretic to the secular arm, which simply
enforced the legal penalty of the stake. However, the law allowed the
heretic to abjure even at the foot of the stake; in that case his
sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

It is hard to conceive of a greater responsibility than that of a
mediaeval Inquisitor. The life or death of the heretic was pract