re of positive law, but arose generally and spontaneously, and its
adoption by the legislator was only the recognition of a popular
custom."[570] "Confession of heresy became a matter of vital importance,
and no effort was deemed too great, no means too repulsive, to secure
it. This became the center of the inquisitorial process, and it is
deserving of detailed consideration, not only because it formed the
basis of procedure in the Holy Office, but also because of the vast and
deplorable influence which it exercised for five centuries on the whole
judicial system of continental Europe."[571] In the second half of the
twelfth century burning had become, by custom, the usual punishment for
heretics. The purpose was universally regarded as right and pious, and
the means was thought wise and correct. Therefore the whole procedure
went forward on a course of direct and consistent development.[572] It
was first decreed in positive law in the code of Pedro II, of Aragon, in
1197. In the laws of Frederick II, in 1224, the punishment was death by
burning or loss of the tongue. In 1231, in Sicily, burning was made
absolute. In 1238 the stake was made the law of the empire against
heresy. In 1270 Louis IX made it the law of France.[573] "Dominic and
Francis, Bonaventura and Thomas Aquinas, Innocent III and St. Louis,
were types, in their several ways, of which humanity, in any age, might
well feel proud, and yet they were as unsparing of the heretic as
Ezzelino da Romano was of his enemies. With such men it was not hope of
gain or lust of blood or pride of opinion or wanton exercise of power,
but sense of duty, and they but represented public opinion from the
thirteenth to the seventeenth century."[574] That is to say, that the
virtues of the individuals were overruled by the vices of the mores of
the age.

+253. The shares of the church and the masses.+ The steps of the process
by which the Christian church was made an organization to enforce
uniformity of confession by bodily pain, that is, in fact, by murder,
demand careful attention. Back of all the popular demands for
persecution there was the teaching of the church in antecedent periods
and a crude popular logic of detestation and destruction. Then the
outbreak of persecution appears as a popular act with lynching
executions. At this point the church, by virtue of its teaching and
leading functions, ought to have repressed excessive zeal and guided the
popular frenzy. It did