the judgement place shall bee before him to whom the Defendant is subject But where there is no private interest but a publicke respect the Person is not looked after but the cause and though the Person bee Secular yet if the Cause bee Ecclesiasticall the Ecclesiasticall Iudge shall judge it So in these daies Matrimoniall Causes are esteemed to be Ecclesiasticall and therefore though the Person bee Secular yet are the Causes Iudged by the Bishops So Causes that are purely Secular as the administration of publicke Offices Causes of plenty of health offences which trouble the publicke rest doe belong unto the Secular power although the Persons bee Ecclesiasticall If the offence be mixt there is a mixt Magistrate instituted to whom without attending the quality of the Person belongeth to judge all matters of that kind And because that Heresie doth corrupt true Christian Doctrine it is an Ecclesiasticall offence and because it disturbeth the publicke rest it is Secular therefore there is a mixt Iudgement Seate appointed with an Ecclesiasticall judge and a Secular Assistant And in the practice of it there is no repect had of the questioned Person for then the Ecclesiasticall should Iudge the Priests and the Friars and the Magistrate should Iudge Secular men But the Heresie of the Secular man is as much against the Catholicke Doctrine as that of a Clarke and a Hereticke Priest or Frier troubleth the publicke Government as much or peradventure more than a Secular one And as the Secular office appoynted concerning Corporall health and if it finde an Ecclesiastical person bringing in of infected goods he doth not put over the judgemēt tothe Ecclesiastical judge but burneth the goods packeth away the suspected person because the publick temporall good is in uestion so the mixt office of the Inquisition doth not put over an Eclesiasticall Person but judgeth it because that the publicke good both spirituall and temporall is treated of And this is further confirmed because that though offences committed by Regular Friers are punished by their owne superiours yet they cannot entermeddle in cases of Heresie but goe to the Inquisition without regarding that the person is a regular It is yet made more manifest in that that cases of Heresie being more against Ecclesiasticall Persons than Secular ones in the agreements made with the Apostolicall Sea especially in the yeare 1551. they of Rome would have made that exception which being not made shewes that they have not held the generall Rule vid. that the Secular should meete in all cases This ninth Chapter besides that the justice of it requires the keeping of it ought also for divers other respects with all diligence be put in execution First because we have shewed above how necessary it is to a good government to have the Prince know of all occurences that happen in such matters for the great importance of maintaining Religion But if the Assistant should not meet at judgements against Ecclesiasticall Persons and these are the most important most dangerous and most frequent then the state of Religion within his Dominion should not be knowne which would be most absurd Secondly seldome happeneth a case of Heresie in an Ecclesiasticall person but a Secular is a confederate in it in which case one would not know what to doe for to divide the Contents of the cause it is impossible to leave a Secular person to a judgement meerely Ecclesiasticall is more unfitting There remaines nothing then but to have it judged before the ordinary mixed Tribunal and questionlesse if this way were once given under divers colours of annexed connexed dependent and emergent the Secular would be altogether excluded Therefore according to reason the most wise determination of the Senate named in this Chapter ought to be observed For proofe of the second part vid. that the Assistants shall bee present at the framing of Processes though the Denunciations be given in other places we must suppose the stile of that office to be approved by continuall custome and also by reason For if a person be denounced at the Tribunall of the Inquisition who hath his dwelling in another place and that he be not personally under that jurisdiction the Inquisior receives the Denuntiation examines the Witnesses and frames the Processe as farre as may be done in that place and so framed he sendeth it to the Inquisitor of the place where the delinquent liveth that the cause may be prosecuted and he dispatched It happened in the Yeare 1610. that Father Avaroldo a Capuchine was denounced at Rome for a certain opinion concerning Antichrist and from that Inquisition was the Processe sent to Brescia where the Father was The Inquisition of Brescia proceeded in the cause without the Assistance and answered the Governours who hearing the event did finde themselves agrieved with it that the Governours ought not to assist but onely in causes which were begun at the proper Tribunal but not when the Denunciation was given at Rome If this were admitted it would not onely be against reason and the lawfull custome but it would also be a secret to take away quite and with ease the Assistance The Inquisitors to take away that bond of having Assistants to increase their owne authority and to doe the better service to the Court of Rome would worke with the Denouncers under faire and appearing colours that the Denuntiation should not be given into that office but at Rome which would be easie being content to doe it either by Letter or Petition and in this manner in all causes the Secular should bee excluded But the legall definition is that as every office or Inquisition receives Denuntiations against the absent according to their owne Rites Formes and Customes so the proper office frames the Processe and gives sentence according to his It was needfull to take notice of this particular for feare least any deceived with shewes should be carried away to a publicke prejudice it being to be held for an infallible rule that the publicke representant must assist to every act done in that office without any exception The Exposition of the tenth Chapter THe tenth Chapter that the Representants shall assist at all the Acts of the Processe is necessary for the taking away of divers abuses which are brought in for in some places all the informative Processe was made without any assistance in others the whole defensive and in others after the denuntiation received by the Inquisitor alone and the Governours were called to the examination of witnesses All which wayes were prejudiciall since things once done are alleadged by example and so they goe on from the first to the second and in processe of time a custome is established which afterwards hath the force of Law But that which is of no lesse moment is that it being the Assistants charge to give the Prince notice of all occurrences and to protect the Subject if he were oppressed by the Ecclesiasticall he can doe neither the one nor the other without
where they had not the like power they did implore the secular ayde to punish them After the yeare 1100 by reason of the continuall unkindnesses which for fifty yeares before had bin betweene the Popes and the Emperours and lasted afterwards for a whole age untill 1200. with frequent Warres and scandals and the little Religious life of the Clergy there did arise an infinite number of Hereticks whose most common heresies were against the Popes Authority In those dayes the plague of heresie grew so fast that where the multitude exceeded there was a forced tolleration A Bishop where he could did proceed in those causes the Popes of Rome did with frequent Letters exhort and excite them to their duties neither untill the yeare 1200 was ever heard the name of the Office of the Inquisition or of Inquisitor against Heresie But the Bishops their Vicars being little able and lesse diligent to performe that which the Popes desired and had beene necessary to have beene done there were in those dayes most opportunely instituted the two Religious Orders of St. Dominick and St. Frances which in short time were filled up with the most zealous and learned Persons of that Age altogether given to the maintaining of the Church of Rome and the Pontificall authority whom the Popes using against Hereticks they sent them to Preach and to convert them to exhort the Princes and Catholicke Nations to persecute the obstinate and to informe themselves in each place of the number and quality of Hereticks of the Zeale of the Catholicks and diligence of the Bishops and to bring their relations to Rome from whence they had the names of Inquisitors Yet had they no Tribunall onely sometimes they would excite some Iudge to banish or punish those Hereticks which they found sometimes they would stirre up some Potent men to take Armes against them some times they did excite the people sowing a crosse of red cloth upon the garments of such as would dedicate themselves to such an action and would unite them and bring them on to the extirpacion of Hereticks and this lasted for the space of fifty yeares viz. untill the yeare one thousand two hundred and fifty This enterprize of the Fathers Inquisitory was much furthered by the Emperour Frederick the Second who in the yeare 1244. being in Padua set forth foure Proclamations concerning this matter receiving the Inquisitors into his protection and imposing the penalty of fire upon obstinate Hereticks and upon penitent ones perpetuall imprisonment committing the Cognisance thereof unto the Ecclesiasticall Persons and the condemning of them unto secular Iudges and this was the first Law that imposed punishment of death upon Hereticks which Law by reason of the cruell discords that arose in those dayes betweene the Emperour and three Popes successively did not bring forth that good effect of rooting out the sprung up Heresies but being all busied in Warres and dissentions as well the Popes and other Prelates as the Emperours and his Ministers Heresie had time to take roote and increase Finrlly the Emperour Frederick dying that same yeare and the businesse of Germany being in a confusion and Italy in an Interregnum which lasted three and twenty yeares Pope Innocent the Fourth remaining through the death of the Emperour as it were Arbitrator in Lombardy and some other parts of Italy applyed his whole study to the rooting out of Heresies which were much increased in these late troubles and having considered the good the Dominican and Franciscan Friers had done in this businesse Through their diligence having no respect of persons or dangers therein he held it as his onely remedy to imploy them not as before onely to Preach and assemble men marked with the Crosse and to doe extraordinary executions but with giving them a stable Authority and erecting them a firme Tribunall which should have care of nothing else To this two things opposed themselves the one was how they might without confusion take away cases of Heresie from the Episcopall jurisdiction which had alwayes judged them and set up an Office proper to them alone The other thing was how they might exclude the secular Magistrate to whose judgement was committed the punishing of Hereticks by the ancient Lawes of the Empire by the last Lawes of Frederick and by peculiar Statutes which each City was forced to make for feare of overthrowing her government in those great tumults To the first inconvenience the Pope found this remedy which was to make a Tribunall composed of th' Inquisitor and the Bishop in which th' Inquisitor should not onely be chiefe but all and the Bishop should have little more than a name in it and also to give some appearance of Authority to the secular Power he gave him leave to appoint Officers to the Inquisition but to be chosen by the Inquisitors themselves to send with the Inquisitor when any of his Assessors did goe about the Country but of the Election of the Inquisitor himselfe to apply one third part of goods confiscate to the Commonalty and such like things which in shew made the Magistrate the Inquisitors companion but in substance his Servant There remained to provide money for expences which would arise in keeping of Prisons and feeding of Prisoners for which it was ordered that the Comminalty should pay And so it was ordered he being in Brescia in the yeare 1251 and the Dominican Fryers were deputed Inquisitors in Lombardy Romanie and Marca Trivisana Seven Moneths after the Pope writ a Bull to all the Governors Councells and Commonalties of those three Provinces setting them downe one and thirty heads which they should observe for the prosperous successe of the new Office commanding that they should be Registred in the Commonalties Statute Bookes to be inviolably observed Then he gave the Inquisitors power to Excommunicate and interdict them if they did not observe them The Pope did not at that time extend himselfe any further to bring in th' Inquisition into other places of Italy or without saying that those three Provinces were most under his eyes and best of him beloved but the chiefe cause was because in these his Authority was great they having no Prince and each City governing it selfe wherein the Pope had also a part because hee had assisted them in these last Warres Yet for all this the Edict was not easily received whereupon Alexander the Fourth his successor seaven yeares after vid. in the yeare 1259. was constrained to moderate and renew it Commanding the Inquisitors neverthelesse with censures to force the Governors for to observe them For the same cause Clement the Fourth sixe yeares after that vid. 1265. did renew it in the same manner yet was it not fully executed so that foure other ensuing Popes were constrained to imploy themselves in over-cōming those difficulties which thwarted them in causing the Office to be admitted in some places These difficulties did arise from two heads The one was the undiscreet severity of the Friers Inquisitors their
Extortions and other grievances The other was because the Commonalties did refuse to beare the charges therefore they resolved to lay downe that pretence of having the charges borne by the Commonalty And for to temper the excessive rigor of the Inquisitors they gave some part of Power more unto the Bishop which was the cause of bringing in the Office with lesse difficulty into these three Provinces of Lombardye Romanie and Marca Trivisana and afterwards into Tuscan and so it passed into Arragon and into some Cities of Germany and France it was not brought into the Kingdome of Naples by reason of the small correspondency which was betweene the Popes and the Kings of that Kingdome It was soone taken out of France and Germany some of the Inquisitors being driven out of those places for their rigors and extortions and other some going away for want of employment For which cause they were also reduced to a small number in Arragon since they had not yet penetrated into other Kingdomes of Spaine In the yeare 1484. the Catholick King Ferdinand having extinguished the Kingdome of the Mahometans in Granata to purge his and his Wife Elizabeths Kingdomes from the Moores and Iewes newly converted erected with the consent of Pope Sixtus the Fourth a Tribunall of the Inquisition in all his Kingdomes of Spaine Sicily and Sardinia which were by him possessed in the forme which it lasteth into this present by which Tribunall are judged not onely these which are accused of Mahometisme or Iudaisme but also of Heresie The forme which was then brought in and doth yet last is that the King nameth an Inquisitor Generall throughout all his Kingdomes to the Pope and his Holinesse doth confirme him and for the rest the Court of Rome is not admitted to entermeddle any further The Inquisitor named by the King and confirmed by the Pope nameth the particular Inquisitors in every place which neverthelesse cannot enter into their charge without the Kings approbation The King also deputeth a Councell or Senate upon this businesse in that place where the Court is of which the supreme Inquisitor is President and this Counsell hath supreame jurisdiction consults of all the businesses makes new Orders when it seeth any need determines differences betweene particular Inquisitors punisheth the defects of the Officers heareth the appeales doth not put them over to any oath But the King hisroyal Councel would have the Inquisition to bee brought into the Kingdome of Naples subjected to that of Spaine as also in Sicilio Sardinia the Indies the Court of Rome would have it depending from it alleadging therefore besides the Pontificall spirituall Authority the Temporall superiority which the Pope hath in that Kingdome In the yeare 1547. Don Frederico di Toledo being Vice-roy there would overcome these difficulties and came to execution which thing excited such a commotion and sedition amongst the people that it was almost growne to a Warre betweene them and the presidiary Spaniards and the Spaniards getting the Victory being Masters of the Forts the tumult was quieted and the principals were punished some with death and some with exile Yet he left off his enterprize of bringing in the Inquisition not so much for feare of a new tumult as through the effectuall intercession of the Pope and Cardinals the thought of bringing to passe this their intent remaining still in Spaine and in Rome a resolution to oppose it so that to this day there is no Inquisition in all that Kingdome and if that any case happeneth it is dispatched by the Bishop or else it is delegated from Rome to some other Prelate who notwithstanding doth nothing unlesse hee have first leave from the Vice-roy In the Low Countries since the springing up of the Lutheran Sect the Hereticks were punished by the secular Magistrates without any other Office of Inquisition sometimes with death sometimes with banishment which Magistrates relenting from their rigor by reason of the multitude of Hereticks in the yeare 1550. the Emperour Charles the Fifth resolved to bring in the Inquisition after the Spanish manner and thereupon published a Decree but being advertised by Mary Queene of Hungary his Sister and Governesse of those States that all the forraigne Merchants would bee gone and the Cities would be without Trafficke he declared by another Edict that th' Inquisition should have no power upon strangers and for the Natives he did much mitigate the forme of it yet was it not put to execution according to the Emperours minde but onely unperfectly and the punishing of Hereticks for the most part rested in the Magistrate and slackned continually more and more Wherefore Philip King of Spaine tryed in the yeare 1569 and the yeares following againe the bringing in of the Spanish Inquisition after divers wayes but could by no meanes establish it by reason of divers resistances till that in the yeare 1567 it was by force of Armes established by the Duke of Alva and being brought in immediatly succeeded the Warres and was still more and more restrained both in scope and Authority untill it was brought to nothing in which state it remaineth at this present The beginning of the Inquisition of Venice THe Renowned City of Venice by Gods Grace kept it selfe untouched from the contagion of Heresie at all times before the yeare 1232. which thing is manifest by this that at the promotion of Duke Giacemo Theophilo in the yeare 1229. in which mention is made of the forme of proceeding and of the punishments and chastisements of many sorts of offenders Heresie is not named And in the yeare 1232. when the same Duke published the Statute wherein is ordained the punishment for many offences and especially of misdeeds and charming by Herbes there is no mention made of Heresie as certainely there would have bin if the City at that time had felt any such plague But after that Pope Innocent the Fourth tryed to deprive the Emperour Frederick the Second of the Empire Kingdomes and States which he possessed and a great part of Christendome being thereupon in Armes and all Lombardic in debate with the Marca Triviâ—iana and Romania then divided into favourers of the Pope and of the Emperour they were then infected with divers perverse Opinions and retiring themselves to Venice to live in security the wisedome of this Government in the yeare 1â—49 found a remedy to guard the City from being infected with that contagion that the rest of Italy was wherefore they determined to chuse honest discreet and Catholicke men to inquire against Hereticks and that the Patriarch of Grado Bishop of Castello and the other Bishops of the Dogie of Venice from Grado to Caverzere should judge of their Opinions and those that by any of the Bishops should be given out to be Hereticks should be condemned to the fire by the Duke and Councellors or the Major part of them which things are seene in the promotion of Duke Marino Moresini in the yeare 1249. But for feare least
given for the peoples benefit so that if it be diminished it remaines not so sufficient for the good and entire government and the subject receiveth wrong and the Divine Majesty is offended Although the Prince is not bound to his Subject to governe him yet to God hee is and the protection which hee hath of him though towards the subject it be a favour yet towards God it is a duty which cannot be performed without preserving whole and not suffering to be abated the publicke Authority The Office of the Inquisition as it is more holy and needfull than others so if it bee not well handled but abused it is more burthenous and hurtfull Where it is in the hands of just and prudent Church-men they should be incouraged to continue so by looking to them and observing of them for the opportunity of having power to worke after ones owne fancy may cause a Saint to over-runne his course But where the administerer hath all his requisite qualities it is necessary to withstand his excesses In times past it hath beene seene that Subjects have beene burthened with excessive rigours by those who under a shew of zeale have sought to make way for their ambition or to get unto themselves that which belonged to others Therefore it is needfull to marke that avarice or ambition should hurt no particular but a good Father and of a good conscience should seeke a remedy for it the indiscreet zeale which she causeth to bee in persons that are not conversant in worldly affaires hath neede of such a bridle In publicke affaires also the effects of ambition avarice or indiscretion are no lesse dangerous for when a Potentate hath not the favour of him that commands in Ecclesiasticall causes Religion is made a pretext to oppresse him In the yeare 1322. Pope John the 22. published a severe monitory against Mathew Vicount Lord of Milan condemning him of Heresie and under this pretence commanding the most famous Common-wealth that it should hold no commerce with him nor with his subjects although he had no other cause against the Vicount but that he tooke part with Lewis of Bavaria Emperour the Popes enemy And the same yeare the most Reverend Guido Rangoni Bishop of Ferrara and Frier Buono Inquisitor did admonish the most renowned Common-wealth that there should be no commerce held with Rinaldo and Obizo de Este or their adherents and subjects because they had condemned them for Hereticks neither was there any other cause but that they had recovered Ferrara which was possessed by the Popes In the yeare 1355. Malatesta and Galeotto Maltesti holding the City of Rimini Pope Innocent the sixt commanded Venice that no commerce should be held with them or with their adherents because he suspected them to be Hereticks The same Pope the same yeare used the same manner with the most famous Common-wealth against Francisco Ordelafo by reason of the Dominion of Forli and Gulielmo Manfredi because of Faenza caused also the Crociata to be preached against them Yet all these great stirres and condemnations of Heresie vanished into smoake so soone as the accused were contented to acknowledge those Lands held in disputation from the Pope A cleare and undoubted document to shew us that the imputation of Heresie was but onely to oppresse them and perforce bring them to yeeld to the fore designed humane changes But to come to Moderne things In the discords which Paul the Fourth had with King Philip the Second of Spaine which were of temporall businesses That Pope as well in consistory as treating with Ambassadors of Princes alwayes was wont to say and reply that the King and the Emperour his Father were Hereticks It was also seene in these late occasions that those Bookes which were writ in favour of the most renowned Common-wealths cause were forbidden by the Romish Inquisition and others ofth ' Ecclesiasticall State under the colour of Heresie although the things treated of were meerely temporall and approved by all Christian Kingdomes And Cardinall Bellarmin having some yeares since set forth a booke wherein he subjects Princes to the Pope in temporall affaires hee dares therein handle as Hereticks all those who say that the Prince in temporall Causes hath no other superior but God onely although that foure of the five parts of Catholicks doe beleeve it Which things cause us to beleeve that since some mens malice doe make use of this Office for humane ends which are not very honest it is needfull to looke how it is used and not suffer them to take such footing whereby they may abuse it Because then upon occasion when one would take order therein it is found to be too late In Milan where the Inquisition hath great Authority there happened about 1580 a dangerous case Cardinall Boromeo who afterwards was a Saint visiting of some places of the Diocesse of Milan and subject to the Suissers went ordering many things which bred some suspitions in those States wherefore they sent an Ambassadour to Milan to require the Governour to cause the Cardinall to come backe from those places least some alteration should happen The Ambassadour went to Milan and alighted at a Merchants house that he might the more commodiously goe and doe his Ambassage The Inquisitor heard of it and immediatly went with his Officers and carried him bound to Prison to his covent The Merchant reported what had happened to the Governour who presently caused the Ambassadour to be set at liberty honoured him and heard him The Swissers who had no sooner notice of imprisonment then of his delivery said openly that if the newes of his imprisonment had come alone without that of his deliverance they would have imprisoned the Cardinall to whom the Governour sent word of what was done The Cardinall yeelding to necessity went away and the new inventions were revoked These dangers shew that not onely malice may cause inconveniences but impudency also and undiscreet zeale Therefore it behoveth to watch carefully that the power of meeting at all actions of that Office be not diminished which God by his Providence hath hitherto preserved and by which meanes all publicke dangers and oppressions of the Subjects may be withstood It beeing then plainely shewne that the Office of the Inquisition is not ancient in Holy Church and that within this Dominion it was instituted in the same forme as it is now used by the Common-wealth it selfe as an Office properly belonging to it and established by agreement with the Apostolicke Sea and the reasons being unfolded which did move to this deliberation and the necessity which bindeth to keepe inviolated the forme alwayes established With these considerations the grounds of the first Chapter are sufficiently unfolded and proved The second and third Chapters neede not bee any better declared or proved The Exposition of the fourth Chapter THe fourth Chapter wherein is set downe the charge of the Assistance which ought to bee in foure cases requireth some considerations The first case to execute
and the blasphemy to be left unto their judging and they give two reasons for it The one is that when in the offence there is the principall and the accessory the principall draweth the other unto it but in hereticall blasphemies suspition of Heresie being the principall and belonging to the Inquisition the blasphemy also ought to belong unto it which is but the accessory The other is because it seemeth too cruell to them to have one offence punished with two sentences and doe alledge the common saying that there are not two Iudgements allowed against the same fault but these oppositions are easily answered The first because that suppose the suspition of Heresie were the principall which thing St. Thomas doth not allow yet neverthelesse it is not necessary that it should draw the blasphemy along with it since they are not so connexed together that they may not be severed and that one may not have judiciall knowledge of the one without knowledge of the other but the Secular may very well admit the Persons and examine him that is accused concerning the injurious words uttered against the Divine Majesty without going any further to examine what is his beliefe and what hee beareth in his minde Therefore there is no such connexion betweene the blasphemy and the enquiring of the Heresie but that they may be separated and each judged in the right and competent Court The like is to be said when holy and Divine words are had in derision as in transformed Psalmes in which the Secular takes notice onely of the injury done to God leaving it to the Inquisition to seeke whether it may thereby be supposed that the offender hath a perverse beliefe And in the offences done against holy Images with wounds and other stroakes it is a great deale plainer seeing that the Magistrate punisheth nothing but that externall act whereby Christ hath bin injuried in his Image leaving it to the Inquisition to search whether the offender have sinned because hee beleeveth some false Doctrine or onely through wilfull malice And to this purpose it is good to consider that Hereticall blasphemy is not the same as a sincere or cruell blasphemy most cruell is that which is most grievous and most abusive Most Hereticall that whence groweth the greatest suspicion of Heresie though in himselfe not so great The Inquisition regardeth the greatest suspicion which carrieth with it the greatest signification of there being an errour in the mind though in it selfe it were not so abusive and for this cause sometimes will make more matter of words spoken against Saints than against the divine Majesty The greatest punishment the Inquisition inflicts upon a blasphemer is Abjuration which punishment if it bee on a person of low degree may be said to be no punishment at all And therefore because offences of such importance should not passe unpunished with scandall and evill example the publicke determination that the Magistrate should punish the blasphemy and leave to the Inquisition the matters of Heresie is both just and necessary But that which seemeth absurd to some vid. that two Judgments should bee made in one cause is not inconvenient when the punishments which are inflicted are not of the same kind and the end of the wrongs is different the same Cause may be judged as civill and afterwards as criminall The end of a civill Judgment is to give every owne his owne the end of the criminall is to punish the Usurper So in cases of Blasphemy the end of the Inquisition is if the blasphemer have a false beleefe to teach him the true and absolve him from the censures he hath incurred by holding of the false The end of the Magistrate is no other but to punish the injury done to the divine Majesty The punishments which the Inquisition imposeth are spirituall as Abjurations Absolutions or Advisements The punishment which the Magistrate inflicts are corporall yea it may be said moreover that they doe not make two judgments in one Cause but in two severall Causes the Magistrate judging the offence of Blasphemy and punishing it with corporall punishment whereas the Inquisition forgoing the offence judgeth of the quality of the suspicion and punisheth it with spirituall punishment The Exposition of the two and twentieth Chapter THe two and twentieth Chapter mentioneth that some Inquisitors to extend their jurisdiction pretended that the offence of having two Wives did belong to their Office who doe alledge for reason that it is an abuse of Matrimony which is a Sacrament and that in Spaine the case is reserved to the Office of the Inquisition Contrary is the common Opinion of Civilians who seeing the the Lawes have imposed no punishment on this offence and the Canon Lawes doe not speake of it they conclude by necessary consequence that it belongeth to the Secular jurisdiction and this is observed in all Tribunals also in the state of Milan where the Inquisition hath more extended her Authority than in any other place of Italy the reason brought to the contrary that it is an abuse of the Sacrament of Matrimony concluded nothing for the first Wife taken in true matrimony hath the Sacrament annexed to it and in this there happeneth no abuse at all Then in taking of the second there is no Sacrament nor Matrimony nor any manner of Spirituall contract but a meere nullity done de facto non de jure so that there cannot be said to be any abuse of the Sacrament neither in the first nor in the second act Well may it be said that by the second wicked act of taking another Wife there is an injury done to the first which was a Sacrament and this is most true but the injury done to the Sacrament of Matrimony doth not belong to the Inquisition for adultery is an injury done to the Sacrament and yet it doth not belong to the Inquisition to judge of it And if any one would make having of two Wives a token of Heresie inferring that hee that doth it beleeves it to bee lawfull with this reason hee might draw all cases to the Inquisition for it may as well be said that the adulterer or the thiefe doe commit those wickednesses beleeving that they are lawfull things and amongst the rest wee should put into the Inquisition all Gipsies who get their life by stealing and much more your high-way robbers But contrariwise wee must alwayes suppose that every sinner hath a true beliefe and Catholicke Doctrine but doth sin either through frailty or through malice or through humane compassion and so ought to bee punished by his ordinary Iudge which ought also to bee observed in him that hath two Wives if there appeare no other token of a perverse beliefe And it is not true that in Spaine the case is absolutely reserved to the Inquisition yea it is ordinarily punished by the Secular by branding in the fore-head with a hot Iron But because the Iewes and Moores hold plurality of Wives to bee lawfull those
they connot bee subject to others Therefore it is not bee suffered that the Inquisition should search out what the Greekes doe or beleeve in secret And if they chance to heare that any lives or speakes scandalously of the Latins then have they a ready and easie way to helpe it by giving the Magistrate notice of it by whom justice shall bee administred and especially in a matter of such importance as to provide against scandals and tumults The Exposition of the sixe and twentieth Chapter THe sixe and twentieth Chapter that no man be publickly cited who is gone beyond the mountaines upon the imputation of any offence committed in those Countries seemeth at first sight to be a thing which cannot happen and happening to be of very small moment yet if that way were once given it would bee very frequent and of great importance Pope Clement the eight in the yeare 1595. made a Bull concerning Italians onely commanding that none no not for matters of Merchandise should goe into a place where there were not a Parish Priest and a publicke Church which exercised the Romish Rites unlesse hee had leave from the Inquisitors adding that those who had leave should bee bound to send every yeare a certificate over that they were confessed and had communicated To bring in the observance of this Bull as soone as any Italian comes beyond the mountaines presently the Iesuits come upon him for comming over without Licence and if he doth not yeeld unto them and promise them obedience they presently examine some adherent of his against him and frame a secret Processe against him which they send to Rome from which there is a processe writ to Rome to the Inquisitor of the place where hee was bred up to call him by publicke Citation This Citation in former times was wont to be made from the Inquisition of Rome but now they are beware of doing so because the Cities beyond the Hills doe revenge themselves by proceeding against some adherents of the Court of Rome and to avoyd this danger they cite no more to Rome but have him cited to the place of his bringing up This invention though it bee coloured with Religion aimeth at the making of the Court of Rome Mistris in Italy of Merchandises which come from beyond the Mountaines as three hundred yeares agoe it brought under it with a lesse pretence the Merchandises of the East It will not bee from the purpose to relate here what was then done and what was the event of it especially within this City that we may the better sinke into that which is now done It was ordered and commanded by the Governors that Infidels should be forbidden to carry Armes or any other instrument where with they might make Warre with Christians the Derree as honest was received by all men This ready obedience of the World gave Pope Clement the fifth hope of stepping yet one step further wherefore in the yeare of our Lord 1307. hee published a Bull and commanded that none might carry any Merchandise of any kind into the the Easterne Countries nor that there should any bee suffered to goe out of the Harbors for such a voyage upon paine of excommunication and other grievous penalties as well spirituall as temporall and amongst other that none hath carried or suffered any to bee carried of what kind soever might bee absolved unlesse hee first precisely paid so much as the principall which was transported amounted unto The difficulty if not impossibility of observing so strict an order was a cause that there were many offendors in Venice who during their life did little thinke of it but at the poynt of death to receive their absolution they left according to the Popes command order to have the offence satisfied Neither wanted there Confessors to urge it instantly denying also absolution to such as did not pay or give order to be paid so much as the principall of that whcih hee had carried into the East came unto Many who have beene that voyage severall times found themselves to owe more than they were worth at their houre of death Wherefore for the discharge of their Consciences they would by Will leave all they had to the Popes disposing The Heires and the Commissaries did deferre the executing of the Wills seeing they tended to the destruction of Families and of the Common-wealth especially there being some who held such Wills to be voyd and extinguished By this meanes in fifteene yeares the mony due to the Pope came to a summe sufficient to have emptied the City of money to which Pope Iohn the two and twentieth who was his successor applying his mind and gathering the money on all sides in the yeare 1322. sent Ardenato Largo and Falcone Castario Nuncioes to Venice to receive that which by Will was left to the Popes disposall constraining notaries and others to produce the Wills excommunicating them which did not deliver them Besides hee gave these Nuntioes Commission also to see to and to excommunicate all those which were alive that had sayled thither to absolve them paying the principall of the Merchandise which was carried thether These Nuntioes being come to Venice having erected a judgement Seate committed divers disorders amongst the which one was that they Excommunicated St. Marke his Proctors and above two hundred other Persons men and women for the aforesaid cause Those who were then consultors of the Common-wealth amongst which was one Andrea Bishop of Chiozza did advise that these Nuntioes actions were not Lawfull resolved to withstand them with apeales other remedies which were put in practice to that these Nuntioes attempts did take no effect Onely as it hapneth in such cases many inconveniences remained which continuing with great danger for the space of two yeares the Pope was forced to apply a remedy which was worse than the soare He made a Bull in the yeare 1324. confessing that his Nuntioes actions had bin disorderly suspended the censures by them pronouced and gave the Arch Bishop of Ravenna Commission to execute it commanding him afterwards that he should set downe a convenient time for men and women who had beene censured by the Nuntioes to appeare for that cause at the Court of Rome which was then at Avignon either in Person or by their Proctors to treate of their businesse excepting none but onely the Duke and the Commonalty It was a brave increase for the Court of Rome to have some 200. Persons or more to come thither at once for money matters of so great weight But what happened and whither the Pope were obeyed by few or many I cannot justifie But it is certaine that then there did arise an opinion which said that it was no sin to carry Merchandises to Infidels so they were not things for the use of Warre and therefore that the Pope could not hinder it which moved him in the yeare 1326. to make a Bull declaring them to be Hereticks which said that it was
Inquisitors that by meanes of the Confessors they may get them to worke the best effect they can and by this meanes the agreement is deluded and groweth out of use And that which is worse when an Index is printed within this City they doe endeavour to have those new prohibitions inserted in them which they also attempted to doe this yeare And if diligent care be not alwaies had as it is at this present they will one day set up a Court of Iustice and open a way to the destruction of the agreement Their intents to make themselves absolute Masters of Bookes and the respects wherefore the Secular power hath neede to watch to the end that they may not obtaine it though they doe not appeare at first sight yet with an easie consideration they are made manifest The matter of Bookes seemes to be a thing of small moment because it treats of words but through these words comes opinions into the world which cause partialities seditions and finally warres They are words it is true but such as in consequence draw after them Hosts ofarmed men In this matter the Romans cannot hide two high pretences which they have The first that so they may prohibit bookes not onely for cause of Religion but also for any of her cause The second that the Prince shall not have power within his owne state to forbid any bookes for any cause whatsoever and if that any be by them approved the Prince cannot hinder although he judge it to be dangerous but that within his Dominions it may be had printed and publickly sold And these two pretences taking once effect they should doe the Temporall power wrong in three notable particulars The first in prohibiting or corrupting Bookes which are good and profitable for the maintenance of a good government The second in prohibiting of Bookes which doe not belong to them to prohibit The third in hindring the Secular Power from removing what shall finde hurtfull to a good government Of which three prejudices we ought to treate particulary for to consider of the remedies About the first concerning the prohibition of Bookes which at Rome are not liked of though they bee good and godly because they maintaine Temporall Power It is a cleare thing that a Prince especially one that ruleth with the Arts of Peace useth this as a chiefe instrument to cause the people to beleeve this to be a firme truth vid. that the Prince is ordained by God and ruleth with Divine authority and the Subject consequently in conscience is bound to obey him and not doing it offendeth God that the duty of undergoing publicke burthens either personall in bearing office or reall in Tributes Customes or such like doth tye the Conscience and bindeth under the paine of sinning to restitution he that refuseth to beare them or doth defraud them Because that the Prince by the Divine Law is above any person that is within his Dominion and may lay a burthen on any mans estate when publicke necessity according to his judgement shall require it Everyone of himselfe without any greater discourse may judge how easily a State may be governed where the aforesaid Maximes as they are most true shall be so beleeved to bee and the disorders which most necessarily happen where contrary opinions are held Ofthese truths written by the Prophets taught by Christ and preached by the Apostles ancient Fathers bookes are also sull and good Divines doe hold them as they are necessary to be beleeved But as there were alwayes in Gods Church those who made use of Religion for worldly ends so the number of them is now sull These under a spiritual pretence but with an ambitious end and desire of worldly wealth would free themselves from the obedience due unto the Prince and take away the love and reverence due by the people to draw it to themselves To bring these things to passe they have newly invented a Doctrine which talkes of nothing but of Ecclesiasticall greatnesse liberty immunity and of her jurisdiction This Doctrine was unheard of untill about the yeare of 1300. neither is there any booke found concerning it before that time then did they beginne to write of it scatteringly in some bookes but there were not above two bookes which treated of nothing else but this untill the yeare 1400. and three untill the yeare â—500 After this time the number increased a little but it was tollerable After the yeare 1560. this Doctrine beganne to increase in such manner that they gave over writing as they did before of the Mysteries of the most Holy Trinity of the Creation of the World of the incarnation of Christ and other Mysteries of the Beliefe and there is nothing printed in Italy but Bookes in Diminution of Secular Authority and exhaltation of the Ecclesiasticall and such Bookes are are not printed by small numbers but by thousands Those people which have any learning can reade nothing else the Confessors likewise know none other Doctrine nor to bee approved of neede they any other Learning Whence comes in a perverse opinion universally that Princes and Magistrates are humane inventions yea and Tyranicall that they ought onely by compulsion to be obeyed that the disobeying of Lawes and defrauding the publicke revenewes doth not binde one unto sinne but onely to punishment and he that doth not pay if he can but flye from it remaines not guilty before the Divine Majesty and contrarywise that every becke of Ecclesiasticall persons without any other thought ought to be taken for a Divine Precept and binds the Conscience And this Doctrine perchance is the cause of all inconveniences which are felt in this Age. There want not in Italy pious and learned persons which hold the truth but they are not suffered to write nor to print Something comes written from another place but presently it is prohibited And little thought is taken of Hereticall Books especially those that treate of the Articles of Faith but if any one comes that defends the Prince his Temporall Authority and saith that Ecclesiasticall persons are also subject to publicke functions and punishable if they violate the publicke tranquility these are condemned bookes and persecuted more than others They have gelded the bookes of ancient Authors by new printing of them and taken out all which might serve for Tempoporall authority In the yeare 1607. they printed in Rome with publicke authority a Booke intituled Index Expurgatorius where they did note the places which in divers Authors ought to be cancelled in which book every one may with eyes behold what things are taken away or changed in many good Authors which did defend the Authority given by God to the Prince So that at this present in reading of a Booke a man can no more finde what the Authors meaning was but onely what is the Court of Romes who hath altered every thing And that above all things would be thought incredible if it were not seene in Print Pope Clement the eight