et earum haeresim framea
conterens_, auct. Jacobo Sprengero, Lugduni, 1660, pars ii, quaest. i,
cap. ii, p. 108, col. 2.

[2] We must interpret in the same sense the decree of the Council of
Constance pronouncing the penalty of the stake against the followers
of John Huss, John Wyclif and Jerome of Prague. Session xxiv, no. 23,
Harduin, _Concilia_, vol. viii, col. 896 et seq. The Council here
indicates only the usual punishment for the relapsed, without really
decreeing it.

. . . . . . . .

It is evident that the theologians and canonists were simply
apologists for the Inquisition, and interpreters of its laws. As a
rule, they tried, like St. Raymond Pennafort and St. Thomas, to
defend the decrees of the Popes. We cannot say that they succeeded in
their task. Some by their untimely zeal rather compromised the cause
they endeavored to defend. Others, going counter to the canon law,
drew conclusions from it that the Popes never dreamed of, and in this
way made the procedure of the Inquisition, already severe enough,
still more severe, especially in the use of torture.

CHAPTER IX
THE INQUISITION IN OPERATION

We do not intend to relate every detail of the Inquisition's action.
A brief outline, a sort of bird's-eye view, will suffice.

Its field, although very extensive, did not comprise the whole of
Christendom, nor even all the Latin countries. The Scandinavian
kingdoms escaped it almost entirely; England experienced it only once
in the case of the Templars; Castile and Portugal knew nothing of it
before the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella. It was almost unknown in
France--at least as an established institution--except in the South,
in what was called the county of Toulouse, and later on in Languedoc.

The Inquisition was in full operation in Aragon. The Cathari, it
seems, were wont to travel frequently from Languedoc to Lombardy, so
that upper Italy had from an early period its contingent of
Inquisitors. Frederic II had it established in the two Sicilies and
in many cities of Italy and Germany. Honorius IV (1285-1287)
introduced it into Sardinia.[1] Its activity in Flanders and Bohemia
in the fifteenth century was very considerable. These were the chief
centers of its operations.

[1] Potthast, no. 22307; _Registres d'Honorius IV_, published by
Maurice Prou, 1888, no. 163.

Some of the Inquisitors had an exalted idea of their office. We
recall the ideal portrait of the perfect Inquisitor drawn by Bern