put themselves to any expense; it is a pity that
so salutary an institution as ours should be so uncertain of its
future."[2]

[1] _Practica_,m 3 pars, p. 185.

[2] Langlois, op. cit., pp. 75-78.

Most historians have said little or nothing about the money side of
the Inquisition. Lea was the first to give it the attention it
deserved. He writes "In addition to the misery inflicted by these
wholesale confiscations on the thousands of innocent and helpless
women and children thus stripped of everything, it would be almost
impossible to exaggerate the evil which they entailed upon all
classes in the business of daily life."[1] There was indeed very
little security in business, for the contracts of a hidden heretic
were essentially null and void, and could be rescinded as soon as his
guilt was discovered, either during his lifetime or after his death.
In view of such a penal code, we can understand why Lea should write:
"While the horrors of the crowded dungeon can scarce be exaggerated,
yet more effective for evil and more widely exasperating was the
sleepless watchfulness which was ever on the alert to plunder the
rich and to wrench from the poor the hard-earned gains on which a
family depended for support."[2]

[1] Lea, op. cit., p. 522.

[2] Lea, op. cit., p. 480.

. . . . . . . .

This summary of the acts of the Inquisition is at best but a brief
and very imperfect outline. But a more complete study would not
afford us any deeper insight into its operation.

Human passions are responsible for the many abuses of the
Inquisition. The civil power in heresy trials was far from being
partial to the accused. On the contrary, it would seem that the more
pressure the State brought to bear upon the ecclesiastical tribunals,
the more arbitrary their procedure became.

We do not deny that the zeal of the Inquisitors was at times
excessive, especially in the use of torture. But some of their
cruelty may be explained by their sincere desire for the salvation of
the heretic. They regarded the confession of the suspects as the
beginning of their conversion. They therefore believed any means used
for that purpose justified. They thought that an Inquisitor had done
something praiseworthy, when, even at the cost of cruel torments, he
freed a heretic from his heresy. He was sorry indeed to be obliged to
use force; but that was not altogether his fault, but the fault of
the laws which he had to enforce.

Most men regard t