[295] Mansi, vol. xxii, pp. 989-90.
[296] See De Cauzons, vol. i, p. 395; P. Fournier, Les Officialités au Moyen Age (Paris, 1880), pp. 266-9.
[297] Ludovico à Paramo, pp. 27, 31, 49.
[298] Luchaire, op. cit., p. 71. ‘En 1204, il enleva aux évêques, pour la donner aux légats, la juridiction ordinaire en matière d’hérésie, première esquisse du procédé d’où sortira l’Inquisition.’ To which M. Douais rightly retorts: ‘Il n’est pas exact de dire que le Pape enleva aux évêques la juridiction ordinaire en matière d’hérésie. Il ne leur enleva rien.’ L’Inquisition, p. 67. See, however, De Cauzons, vol. i, p. 414. ‘Sans enlever donc aux évêques le droit de juger les hérétiques, les rescrits romains constituaient, à côté de leur tribunal, un pouvoir, pouvant juger lui aussi, avec des juges d’une juridiction plus étendue que le leur, ayant le droit d’exiger des chefs des diocèses l’obéissance à leur autorité. Il suffisait d’assurer à ce tribunal nouveau les moyens d’exécuter ses sentences et de le rendre permanent, pour avoir l’Inquisition.’
[299] For claim that Dominic was the first inquisitor, see Ludovico à Paramo, pp. 95-6; Douais, L’Inquisition, pp. 25-6; De Cauzons, vol. i, p. 421 n. Dominic was certainly more than a missionary preacher; he examined and condemned heretics. See Acton, op. cit., p. 554.
[300] It has been said, truly, that it is neither the crime, nor the procedure, nor the penalty that makes the inquisitor in the strict sense; but his character as a permanent judge-delegate for the cause of heresy. Douais, L’Inquisition, pp. 37-8.
[301] For text of commission to Conrad, see Frédéricq, Corpus, vol. i, p. 71, No. 72. ‘ ... diligenter et vigilanter inquiras heretica pravitate infectos in partibus memoratis, ut per illos, ad quos pertinet, zizania valeat de agro Domini extirpari.’ Douais on this comments (op. cit., p. 53 n.), ‘Si Conrad eut été inquisiteur, c’est à lui que ce soin eût d’abord incombé comme juge.’ The argument is invalid. The appeal to the assistance of the secular arm is normal and certainly does not prove Conrad not to have been an inquisitor. See Lea, vol. ii, p. 319, ‘This was in effect an informal commission as inquisitor-general for Germany’; and De Cauzons, vol. i, p. 449.
[302] For text of the bull, Ille humani generis, see Mansi, vol. xxiii, pp. 74-5; Frédéricq, Corpus, vol. i, No. 83, pp. 82-3. The Friars are urged to demolish the heretics who ‘sicut cancer serperent in occulto, & velut vulpes latentes niterentur vineam Domini Sabaoth demoliri.’
[303] Lea, vol. i, p. 328. Cf. Tanon, op. cit., p. 175, who considers that Lea does not attach sufficient importance to these bulls.
[304] The first bull delegating inquisitorial powers to the Brothers Minor in collective fashion is apparently one issued by Innocent IV, Jan. 13, 1246. See Frédéricq, Corpus, vol. i, No. 122.