[Renaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 by John Addington Symonds]@TWC D-Link bookRenaissance in Italy, Volumes 1 and 2 CHAPTER III 29/124
Commission was sent out to all Dominicans, enjoining on them the prosecution of their task in every diocese. In 1484 a General Council was held, and the constitution of the inquisition was established by articles.
In these articles four main points seem to have been held in view.
The first related to the system of confiscation, fines, civil disabilities, losses of office, property, honors, rights, inheritances, which formed a part of the penitentiary procedure, and by which the crown and Holy Office made pecuniary gains. The second secured secrecy in the action of the tribunal, whereby a door was opened to delation, and accused persons were rendered incapable of rational defense.
The third elaborated the judicial method, so as to leave no loophole of escape even for those who showed a wish to be converted, empowering the use of torture, precluding the accused from choosing their own counsel, and excluding the bishops from active participation in the sentence.
The fourth multiplied the charges under which suspected heretics, even after their death might be treated as impenitent or relapsed, so as to increase the number of victims and augment the booty. The two most formidable features of the Inquisition as thus constituted, were the exclusion of the bishops from its tribunal and the secrecy of its procedure.
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