THE history of the Inquisition naturally divides itself into
two portions, each of which may be considered as a whole. The
Reformation is the boundary-line between them, except in Spain,
where the New Inquisition was founded by Ferdinand and Isa-
bella. In the present work I have sought to present an impartial
account of the institution as it existed during the earlier period.
For the second portion I have made large collections of material,
through which I hope in due time to continue the history to its
end.

The Inquisition was not an organization arbitrarily devised
and imposed upon the judicial system of Christendom by the
ambition or fanaticism of the Church. It was rather a natural --
one may almost say an inevitable -- evolution of the forces at
work in the thirteenth century, and no one can rightly appreciate
the process of its development and the results of its activity with-
out a somewhat minute consideration of the factors controlling
the minds and souls of men during the ages which laid the founda-
tion of modern civilization. To accomplish this it has been neces-
sary to pass in review nearly all the spiritual and intellectual
movements of the Middle Ages, and to glance at the condition
of society in certain of its phases.

At the commencement of my historical studies I speedily be.
came convinced that the surest basis of investigation for a given
period lay in an examination of its jurisprudence, which presents
without disguise its aspirations and the means regarded as best

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