The Constitutions of the Emperor Frederick II are in J. L. A. Huillard-Bréholles, Historia diplomatica Friderici Secundi (Paris, 1852-61).
III
Histories of the Inquisition
There are two useful histories of comparatively early date:
J. Marsollier, Histoire de l’Inquisition (Cologne, 1693).
P. à Limborch, Historia Inquisitionis (Amsterdam, 1692). The English version is History of the Inquisition (tr. S. Chandler, London, 1731). The latter is used in this book except when the Liber sententiarum, only printed in the original, is referred to. Limborch’s, although avowedly a propaganda work, is still of value, because it was based on the treatises of inquisitors, making particularly full use of Eymeric, and it is easy to make proper allowance for the avowed bias.
In 1817 appeared the first version (a French translation) of the great work on the Spanish Inquisition by J. A. Llorente under the title, Histoire critique de l’Inquisition d’Espagne. The original Spanish text was not published till 1822. Only the introduction and first four chapters are relevant to the mediæval Inquisition.
English writers have been mainly interested in the Spanish Inquisition, as founded by Ferdinand and Isabella, and in the Inquisition in Portugal. English seamen and traders suffered at their hands, either in the Peninsula or its dependencies, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. See, for example, English Merchants and the Spanish Inquisition in the Canaries (Royal Historical Society, ed. L. de Alberti, A. B. Wallis Chapman, 1912); R. Dugdale’s A Narrative of popish cruelties; or a new account of the Spanish Inquisition (1680) in Harleian Miscellany, vol. vii, p. 105; J. Stevens, The Ancient and Present State of Portugal ... containing ... A curious Account of the Inquisition (London, 1705). Later English writers show a similar strongly Protestant bias, e.g. F. B. Wright, A History of Religious Persecution from the Apostolic to the Present Time; and of the Inquisitions of Spain, Portugal and Goa (1816); W. H. Rule, History of the Inquisition (London, 1868). Only the first nine chapters of the last-named book are concerned with the Middle Ages.
All previous works were superseded by the monumental labours of the American historian, H. C. Lea, in his
Superstition and Force (Philadelphia, 1866; 4th ed., 1892).
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages (New York, 1887).
A History of the Inquisition of Spain (New York, 1906-7).
The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies (New York, 1908).
Chapters in the Religious History of Spain connected with the Inquisition (Philadelphia, 1893).
Together, these volumes represent an immense fund of learning and the most painstaking research. For this reason it will be long indeed before they are superseded. They have been adversely criticized, as being marred by strong anti-Catholic prejudice. Colour is undoubtedly lent to the charge by the rather unfortunate fact that the History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages opens with an account of the abuses of the mediæval Church and that the whole argument of the book appears as though largely based upon these initial contentions. Lea is also inclined to be biased in favour of all heretics as against their persecutors. But while in detail he may be open to criticism and his attitude is quite clearly Protestant, the great bulk of his work remains unshaken. The Romanist point of view with regard to it should, however, be studied. It is summarized, for example, in P. M. Baumgarten, H. C. Lea’s Historical Writings: a critical inquiry (New York, 1909), and will be found incidentally in the works of recent Catholic historians of the Inquisition (q.v. infra). There are admirable critiques of Lea’s work in: