[315] For arguments ascribing the responsibility to Frederick, see Havet (passim) and J. Ficker, Die Gesetzliche Einführung der Todesstrafe für Ketzerei in Mittheilungen des Instituts für oesterreichische Geschichtsforschung (1880), pp. 177-226, 430-1. See also C. Moeller in Revue d’histoire ecclésiastique (Louvain, vol. xiv, 1913); Les Bûchers et les Autos-da-fé de l’Inquisition depuis le Moyen Age (pp. 720-51), esp. pp. 725-6; Maillet, op. cit., p. 87, and De Cauzons, op. cit., vol. i, pp. 293-7: ‘La théorie qui met sur le dos de Frédéric II la responsabilité des mesures de répression sanglante, du bûcher en particulier, est née de tendances apologétiques mal comprises, car vouloir concilier l’Inquisition avec nos idées modernes est une chimère.’ Also Tanon, op. cit., p. 462. These laws ‘n’en sont pas moins eu une grande importance pour le temps où elles ont été rendues, en présence des difficultés que l’Église rencontrait, en Italie aussi bien qu’en France, de la part des autorités laïques, pour assurer la répression de l’hérésie, en donnant à cette répression la sanction nouvelle de l’autorité impériale elles devaient aider puissamment l’Église à vaincre ces résistances.’
[316] See Maillet, op. cit., in ch. ii; Douais, L’Inquisition, ch. 5, esp. pp. 141-2; also De Cauzons, vol. i, pp. 296-7 n., and Moeller, op. cit., pp. 727-8.
[317] Lea, vol. i, pp. 227-8. ‘We can imagine the smile of amused surprise with which Gregory IX or Gregory XI would have listened to the dialectics with which the Comte Joseph de Maistre proves that it is an error to suppose, and much more to assert, that Catholic priests can in any manner be instrumental in compassing the death of a fellow creature.’
[318] Havet, p. 174; Douais, L’Inquisition, p. 122.
[319] Havet, p. 176; Acton, op. cit., p. 555.
[320] Acton, op. cit., p. 557. ‘The five years of his abode in Rome changed the face of the Church.... Very soon after Saint Raymond appeared at the Papal court, the use of the stake became law, and the inquisitorial machinery had been devised and the management given to the priors of the order. When he departed he left behind him instructions for the treatment of heresy, which the Pope adopted and sent out whenever they were wanted.... Until he came, in spite of much violence and many laws, the popes had imagined no permanent security against religious error, and were not formally committed to death by burning. Gregory himself, excelling all the priesthood in vigour and experience, had for four years laboured, vaguely and in vain, with the transmitted implements. Of a sudden, in these successive measures, he finds his way, and builds up the institution which is to last for centuries. That this mighty change in the conditions of religious thought and life, and in the functions of the order was supported by Dominicans, is probable. And it is reasonable to suppose that it was the work of the foremost Dominican then living, who at that very moment had risen to power and predominance at Rome.’
[321] See De Cauzons, vol. i, pp. 301-3.
[322] Frédéricq, Corpus, vol. i, pp. 78-80, No. 80, Capitula Senatoris Annibaldi et populi Romani edicta contra Patarenos. See Gregorovius, City of Rome, vol. vi, pt. 1, pp. 156-61. Heretics were at this time numerous in the States of the Church, Viterbo, Perugia and Orvieto; also in Lombardy. Some of these, the Arnoldists at any rate, were also Ghibellines. ‘The Inquisition now became another instrument in the hands of the Pope for the subjection of the people.’
[323] Mansi, vol. xxiii, pp. 586 et seq.
[324] Council of Rheims, 1148, Frédéricq, Corpus, vol. i, No. 31; Montpellier, 1162, ibid., No. 35; Lateran, 1179, ibid., No. 47.