A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, in 3 Volumes^Top5

About the Book

Henry Charles Lea's three volume The History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages is still widely regarded by scholars in the field as one of the outstanding works of scholarship on the subject. In Volume 1, Lea presents background information about the Inquisition - the events which occurred to prompt the church to establish the Inquisition, the ideas about the role of the church and government ...

About the Author

Henry Charles Lea ---

Henry Charles Lea was one of the most respected historians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and an expert on the medieval Catholic church and the Spanish Inquisition despite receiving little formal education and never holding an academic position. Interested in science from childhood, he had already published several articles that added new data to the fields of chemistry and conchology--the study of shells--by the age of fifteen. When the strain of working at his father`s publishing company, Lea & Blanchard, led to a long illness when he was twenty-two, the youth turned to the study of history. Lea recovered to eventually become head of the family firm and changed the name to H. C. Lea & Company. He was elected president of the American Historical Association in 1903. Lea was also much involved in political issues, and several U.S. presidents sought his advice. His writings include the multivolume works A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages (1888) and A History of the Inquisition of Spain (1906-07), as well as An Historical Sketch of Sacerdotal Celibacy in the Christian Church (1867), Is There a Roman Catholic Church? An Excursus in Scholastic Theology (1891), and The Inquisition in the Spanish Dependencies (1908). In addition, he compiled Materials Toward a History of Witchcraft, a three-volume collection edited by Arthur C. Howland and published in 1939.

Contents

Volume I

CHAPTER I. — THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER II. — HERESY.

CHAPTER III. — THE CATHARI.

CHAPTER IV. — THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADES.

CHAPTER V. — PERSECUTION.

CHAPTER VI. — THE MENDICANT ORDERS.

CHAPTER VII. — THE INQUISITION FOUNDED.

CHAPTER VIII. — ORGANIZATION.

CHAPTER IX. — THE INQUISITORIAL PROCESS.

CHAPTER X. — EVIDENCE.

CHAPTER XI. — THE DEFENCE.

CHAPTER XII. — THE SENTENCE.

CHAPTER XIII. — CONFISCATION.

CHAPTER XIV. — THE STAKE.

APPENDIX

Volume II

CHAPTER I. — LANGUEDOC.

CHAPTER II. — FRANCE.

CHAPTER III. — THE SPANISH PENINSULA.

CHAPTER IV. — ITALY.

CHAPTER V. — THE SLAVIC CATHARI.

CHAPTER VI. — GERMANY.

CHAPTER VII. — BOHEMIA.

CHAPTER VIII. — THE HUSSITES.

Volume III

CHAPTER I. — THE SPIRITUAL FRANCISCANS.

CHAPTER II. — GUGLIELMA AND DOLCINO.

CHAPTER III. — THE FRATICELLI.

CHAPTER IV. — POLITICAL HERESY UTILIZED BY THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER V. — POLITICAL HERESY UTILIZED BY THE STATE.

CHAPTER VI. — SORCERY AND OCCUL T ARTS.

CHAPTER VII. — WITCHCRAFT.

CHAPTER VIII. — INTELLECT AND FAITH.

CHAPTER IX. — CONCLUSION.

APPENDIX OF DOCUMENTS

INDEX

An Excerpt from the Book

FROM VOLUME I Two witnesses were usually assumed to be necessary for the condemnation of a man of good repute, though some authorities demanded more. Yet when a case threatened to fail for lack of testimony, the discretion of the inquisitor was the ultimate arbitrator; and it was agreed that if two witnesses to the same fact could not be had, single witnesses to two separate facts of the same general character would suffice. When there was only one witness in all, the accused was still put on...