This article has had a long gestation period, and has been much transformed in the process. Earlier versions were read at the International Congress on Medieval Studies in Michigan on 9 May 1986, and at the annual meeting of the Medieval Academy of America in Philadelphia on 7 April 1988, but I have since reformulated the argument. I am grateful to John Freed, Henry A. Kelly, Robert E. Lerner, E. William Monter, and Barbara Newman for their suggestions, and to David d'Avray for his help.

¹ Kieckhefer, Richard, Repression of heresy in medieval Germany, Philadelphia-Liverpool 1979CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

² Ibid. 5.

³ Murray, Alexander, ‘The epicureans”, in Boitani, Piero and Torti, Anna (eds), Intellectuals and writers in fourteenth-century Europe, Tübingen–Cambridge 1986, 138–63Google Scholar, remarks that there were many regional ‘inquisitions”, highly uneven in their efficiency, although he conceives them as forming ‘the inquisition”, and suggests that the local agencies were in fact ‘accountable to central supervisors”. The question of institutionalisation as I am defining it, however, is not central to Murray's argument.

⁴ Hamilton, Bernard, The medieval Inquisition, New York 1981, 9Google Scholar. Segl, Peter (ed.), Die Anfänge der Inquisition im Mittelalter, mit einem Ausblick aufdas 20. Jahrhundert und einem Beitrag über religiöse Intoleranz im nichtchristlichen Bereich, Cologne 1993Google Scholar, is a valuable collection of articles, rich in material on the specific conditions in which early inquisitors worked, but on p. 3 Segl too argues against my earlier work without showing nuanced comprehension of the issues. He repudiates what he takes to be my position, then acknowledges that there was no central ecclesiastical inquisitorial authority, but emphasises that there was a negotium inquisitionis in the sense of ‘die “Sache” bzw. das “Geschäft der Inquisition””; he seems fundamentally unclear on how this point differs from my own. Segl's unclarity may rest in part on a difference between English and German usage. German conventions for use of capitalisation and the definite article may make die Inquisition easier than ‘the Inquisition” to excuse as an abstraction, or an institution in the broadest sense, covering a multitude of specific historical phenomena; the German may thus to that extent be less problematic than the English term, which more unambiguously denotes a bureaucratic structure, although I would not want to exaggerate the difference in usage. (Segl also indicates that he has disagreements about matters of detail, but neither here nor elsewhere has he specified the points he has in mind–although he makes it clear that he sees little value in a concise overview–so it is difficult to evaluate his critique.)

⁶ Peters, Edward, Inquisition, new York 1988Google Scholar. See my review in Speculum lxvi (1991), 674–7.

⁸ Kelly, Henry Ansgar, ‘Inquisition and the prosecution of heresy: misconceptions and abuses”, Church History lviii (1989), 439–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Inquisitorial due process and the status of secret crimes”, in Chodorow, Stanley (ed.), Proceedings of the Eighth International Congress of Medieval Canon Law, Vatican City 1992, 408–28Google Scholar. Kelly rightly insists that, strictly speaking, we should not refer to inquisitiones heretice pravitatis and inquisitores heretice pravitatis as ‘inquisitions” and ‘inquisitors” without qualification: we should speak, rather, of ‘heresy inquisitions” and ‘heresy inquisitors”, thus acknowledging that there were other kinds. Having followed this usage at the beginning of this article, I use the abbreviated form thereafter, since it is not so much incorrect as incomplete, and the context should (I trust) leave no doubt about which inquisitions and inquisitors I have in mind.

⁷ Lea, H. C., A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, New York 1888, i. 397fGoogle Scholar.

⁸ Jeremy Cohen argues the merits of ‘the Inquisition” as a catch-all category, in The friars and the Jews: the evolution of medieval anti-Judaism, Ithaca 1982, 44Google Scholar (see also p. 77). Few historians would deny that heuristic constructs can in principle be useful, but a construct applied to one historical period should:(1) not simply be a term borrowed from an earlier or later period with which it remains primarily associated (we cannot dignify naked anachronism by dressing it up as a historical construct, and if we refer to ‘the medieval Inquisition” we only encourage anachronistic reading of our sources, even if we try to counteract our own mischief by acknowledging that the medieval Inquisition was somehow different from later Inquisitions); (2) preferably be put in an explicitly abstract form (such as ‘feudalism” or ‘courtly love”) to minimise the danger of its being confused with a concrete reality; and (3) enable us to say things we cannot otherwise say, or provide helpful structure for otherwise unmanageable data. ‘The Inquisition” in a medieval context meets none of these criteria, and points only toward incorrect understanding, by suggesting systematic organisation and built-in regularity of function in settings where these did not exist. Its only function is thus to perpetuate error.

⁹ Hamilton, , The medieval Inquisition, 95Google Scholar.

¹⁰ Weber, Max, Economy and society: an outline of interpretive sociology, trans. Roth, Guenther and Wittich, Claus, New York, 1968, iii. 956Google Scholar. For commentary on Weber's idea of bureaucratisation see Dalby, Michael T. and Wertham, Michael S. (eds), Bureaucracy in historical perspective, Glenview, Ill., 1971Google Scholar.

¹¹ This formulation excludes series of agents who are appointed intermittently, who assemble staffs only for specific occasions, whose supervision comes only from external authorities (for example, bishops, superiors within the order, or others who do not form part of the institution in question), or who interact with each other only occasionally or as they choose.

¹² I do not mean to imply that the developments I will be discussing here constitute in any sense the primary background to these later developments. For antecedents to the rise of the Spanish Inquisition one must look chiefly at prior relations between inquisitors and the Iberian monarchies: see especially Ludwig Vones, ‘Krone und Inquisition: das aragonesische Königtum und die Anfänge der kirchlichen Ketzerverfolgung in den Ländern der Krone Aragòn”, in Segel, , Die Anfänge der Inquisition im Mittelalter, 195–233Google Scholar. My point here is simply that the idea of inquisitors forming a collectivity was itself not altogether without medieval precedent.

¹³ De Dieu, Jean-Pierre, ‘The Inquisition and popular culture in New Castile”, in Haliczer, Stephen (ed. and trans.), Inquisition and society in early modem Europe, London 1987, 132Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Moore, R. I., The formation of a persecuting society: power and deviance in western Europe, 950–1250, Oxford, 1987Google Scholar.

¹⁵ Tedeschi, John, ‘The dispersed archives of the Roman Inquisition”, in Henningsen, Gustav and Tedeschi, John (eds), The Inquisition in early modern Europe: studies on sources and methods, DeKalb 1986, 15f, 20Google Scholar.

¹⁶ Gustav Henningsen, ‘The archives and the historiography of the Spanish Inquisition”, ibid. 55.

¹⁷ Charles Amiel, ‘The archives of the Portuguese Inquisition: a brief survey”, ibid. 81, 87, 89.

¹⁸ The standard guide on this topic is still Lea, History of the Inquisition, i, esp. ch. viii, but for a fuller and more schematically structured account see Henner, Camillo, Beiträge zur Organisation und Competenz der päpstlichen Ketzergerichte, Leipzig 1890Google Scholar. Darwin, Francis, ‘The organization of the Holy Office”, Church Quarterly Review cxxii (1936), 196–239Google Scholar, is also useful. Most other surveys show a great deal of interest in procedure but very little in organisation.

¹⁹ Information on appointments is contained in the registers of the Dominican master generals, for example the Registrum litterarum Raymundi de Capua, 1386–1399, [et] Leonardi de Mansuetis, 1474–1480, ed. Reichert, Benedictus Maria, Leipzig 1911Google Scholar, and the Registrum litterarum Jr. Raymundi de Vineis Capuani, magistri ordinis 1380–1399, ed. Kaeppeli, Thomas, Rome 1937Google Scholar.

²⁰ Lea, , History of the Inquisition, i. 379–81Google Scholar.

²¹ Davidsohn, Robert, ‘Un libro di entrate e spese dell'Inquisitore Fiorentino (1322–1329)”, Archivo Storico Italiano ser. 5, xxvii (1901), 352Google Scholar, gives evidence of a Florentine inquisitor who sent a messenger to a Lombard colleague for information about someone's record as a heretic.

²² Lea, , History of the Inquisition, i. 424fGoogle Scholar. See also the articles by Kelly cited above n. 6.

²³ Walther, Helmut G., ‘Ziele und Mittel päpstlicher Ketzerpolitik in der Lombardei und im Kirchenstaat 1184–1252”, in Segl, Die Anänge der Inquisition, 127Google Scholar. The text is in the Bullarium diplomatum et privilegiorum sanctorum romanum pontificum, ed. Cocquelines, Charles, new edn, Turin 1857–1872, iii. 552–8Google Scholar. On the interpretation of the phrase universitas vestra, see below n. 81. Walther also cites Paolini, Lorenzo (ed.), Il ‘De officio inquisitionis”: la procedura inquisitoriale a Bologna e a Ferrara nel Trecento, Bologna 1976Google Scholar, but this work provides equally little evidence for the argument.

²⁴ Southern, R. W., Western society and the Church in the Middle Ages, Harmondsworth 1970, 133–69Google Scholar.

²⁵ For the role of papal judges delegate, and the influence of the papal Curia on judicial developments in western Christendom, see especially Othmar Hageneder, Die geistliche Gerichtsbarkeit in Ober- und Niederösterreich: von den Anfängen bis zum Beginn des 15. Jahrhunderts, Graz-Vienna-Cologne 1967, reviewed by Patschovsky, Alexander in Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters xxi (1968), 578–80Google Scholar. Figueira, Robert C. is working on the question of institutionalisation among papal legates; ‘“Legatus apostolice sedis”: the pope's “alter ego” according to thirteenth-century canon law”, Studi medievali ser. 3, xxvii (1986), 527–74Google Scholar, is one product of this research.

²⁶ Ladurie, Emmanuel Le Roy, Montaillou: the promised land of error, trans. Bray, Barbara, New York 1978, 66Google Scholar.

²⁷ Boyle, Leonard E., ‘Montaillou revisited: mentalité and methodology”, in Raftis, J. A. (ed.), Pathways to medieval peasants, Toronto 1981, 120Google Scholar.

²⁸ On this point see Ladurie, Le Roy, Montaillou, pp.xiii–xivGoogle Scholar.

²⁹ It was precisely circumstances of this kind that might lead a bishop to appoint someone else to inquisitorial office. See for example Perarnau, Josep, ‘Documents de tema inquisitorial del bisbe de Barcelona, Fra Ferrer d'Abella (1334–1344)”, Revista Catalana de Teologia v (1980), 471Google Scholar: ‘Cum…simus pluribus aliis arduis negociis occupati racione nostri officii pastoralis, propter que non possemus personaliter vaccare dicte inquisicioni iugiter, ut deceret; idcirco vobis…in dicta inquisicione et omnibus pertinentibus ad eandem…comitimus plenarie vices nostras”.

³⁰ Darwin, , ‘The organization of the Holy Office”, 203Google Scholar.

³¹ Guenée, Bernard, Between Church and State: the lives of four French prelates in the late Middle Ages, trans. Goldhammer, Arthur, Chicago 1991, 57fGoogle Scholar. See p. 58 for the possible overlap between inquisitorial and episcopal functions; a possibility that Guenée does not consider is that the inquisitorial office was temporarily vacant. Secular or ecclesiastical authorities who took an interest in the repression of heresy could, of course, put pressure on inquisitors to apply themselves diligently. For the case of Aragon, where the crown took such an active interest, see Vones, , ‘Krone und Inquisition”, 196fGoogle Scholar.

³² Gonnet, Giovanni, ‘Bibliographical appendix: recent European historiography on the medieval Inquisition”, in Henningsen and Tedeschi, The Inquisition in early modern Europe, 205Google Scholar.

³³ Merlo, Grado G., Eretici e inquisitori nella società piemontese del Trecento, Turin 1977, 126fGoogle Scholar., while focusing on the specific question of notaries, gives a good picture of patterns in prosecution.

³⁴ Darwin, , ‘The organisation of the Holy Office”, 202Google Scholar, summarises the situation in the Franciscan province of Provence in 1418: ‘we find a solitary Inquisitor in charge of the ecclesiastical provinces and dioceses of Aries, Aix, Embrun, Lyon, Bellay, Vienne, Grenoble, Maurienne, Valence, Viviers, Die, Avignon, Auch, as well as the Tarantaise, the Venaissin, Dauphiné, Orange, Forcalquier – a state of congestion somewhat relieved, in 1458, by transference of the northern districts to Inquisitors chosen by the Franciscan Provincial of Burgundy”.

³⁵ Ben-Yehuda, Nachman, ‘Witchcraft and the occult as boundary maintenance devices”, in Neusner, Jacob and others (eds), Religion, science, andmagic in concert andin conflict, New York 1989, 234Google Scholar.

³⁶ Cohn, Norman, Europe's inner demons: an enquiry inspired by the Great Witch-Hunt, New York 1975, 116, 128–30, 138Google Scholar, deals with the connections between Catharism and witchcraft.

³⁷ Kieckhefer, , Repression of heresy, 53–73Google Scholar.

³⁸ In her review of my Repression of heresy, this Journal xxxii (1981), 94fGoogle Scholar.

³⁹ Haskins, C. H., ‘Robert le Bougre and the beginnings of the Inquisition in Northern France”, in his Studies in mediaeval culture, Oxford 1929, 193–244Google Scholar; Patschovsky, Alexander, ‘Zur Ketzerverfolgung Konrads von Marburg”, Deutsches Archiv fur Erforschung des Mittelallers xxxvii (1981), 641–93Google Scholar, and ‘Konrad von Marburg und die Ketzer seiner Zeit”, in Sankt Elisabeth: Fürstin, Dienerin, Heilige: Aufsätze, Dokumentation, Katalog, Sigmaringen 1981, 70–7Google Scholar; Kolmer, Lothar, ‘…ad terrorem multorum: die Anfänge der Inquisition in Frankreich”, in Segl, Anfänge der Inquisition, 77–102Google Scholar; and Dietrich Kurze, ‘Anfänge der Inquisition in Deutschland”, ibid. 131–93.

⁴⁰ Darwin, , ‘The organization of the Holy Office”, 203–15Google Scholar.

⁴¹ See Cauzons, Thomas de, Histoire de l'Inquisition en France, Paris 1909–1912, ii. 127Google Scholar.

⁴² Lecler, Joseph, Vienne, Paris 1964, 149f.Google Scholar, appropriately deals with this legislation under the council's efforts at reform of the Church; there is little reason to think that this reform was more effective than others.

⁴³ See Ammann, Hartmann, ‘Der Innsbrucker Hexenprocess von 1485”, Zeitschrift des Ferdinandeums für Tirol und Vorarlberg ser. 3, xxxiv (1980), 1–87Google Scholar, and Dienst, Heide, ‘Lebensbewältigung durch Magie: Alltägliche Zauberei in Innsbruck gegen Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts”, in Kohler, Alfred and Lutz, Heinrich (eds), Alltag im 16. Jahrhundert: Studien zu Lebensformen in mitteleuropäischen Städlen, Vienna 1987, 80–116Google Scholar. On Kramer's career see Peter Segl, ‘Heinrich Institoris: Persönlichkeit und Werk”, in idem (ed.), Der Hexenhammer: Enlstehung und Umfeld des Malleus maleficarum von 1487, Vienna 1988, 103–26.

⁴⁴ Hsia, R. Po-chia, Trent, 1475: stories of a ritual murder trial, New Haven 1992Google Scholar, relates the involvement at Trent of a Dominican cited as Henry of Schlettstadt. Kramer was born in that town and was attached to the convent there. His connections in Italy, although not specifically in Trent, are well established. Quellen und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte des Hexenwahns und der Hexenverfolgung im Mittelalter, ed. Hansen, Joseph, Bonn 1901, 366Google Scholar, cites the permission given to Kramer (referred to as ‘Henricus Sartoris [ sic] de Sletstat”) on 22 June 1474, to remain in Rome through the end of the Jubilee year 1475.

⁴⁶ See Baroja, Julio Caro, The world of the witches, trans. Glendinning, Nigel, London 1964, esp. pp. 99–111Google Scholar, 143–98; Dieu, De, ‘The Inquisition and popular culture”, 143Google Scholar; and E. William Monter and John Tedeschi, ‘Toward a statistical profile of the Italian inquisitors, sixteenth through eighteenth centuries”, in Henningsen, and Tedeschi, , The Inquisition in early modern Europe, 142Google Scholar. Levack, Brian P., in The witch-hunt in early modern Europe, London 1987, 85–90Google Scholar, has argued that witch trials tended to be least vigorous in lands with centralised judicial institutions (such as England), and most savage in places where justice was left to local authorities (such as Scotland).

⁴⁶ Patschovsky, Alexander, Quellen zur böhmischen Inquisition im 14. Jahrhundert, Weimar 1979, 17f. 116Google Scholar.

⁴⁷ Biondi, Albano, ‘Lunga durata e microarticolazione nel territorio di un Ufficio dell'Inquisizione: il “Sacro Tribunale” a Modena (1292–1785)”, Annali dell'Istituto Storico Italo-Germanico in Trento viii (1982), 76Google Scholar. I am grateful to Daniel Bornstein for calling this piece to my attention.

⁴⁸ See Merlo, , Eretici, 125Google Scholar, ‘una bursa magna corii ad portandum scripturas officii”, which at least suggests the intention to keep records systematically and ensure their ready availability.

⁴⁹ Contreras, Jaime and Henningsen, Gustav, ‘Forty-four thousand cases of the Spanish Inquisition (1540–1700): analysis of a historical data bank”, in Henningsen and Tedeschi, The Inquisition in early modern Europe, 106, 108Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ Michel, Robert, ‘Le procés de Matteo et de Galeazzo Visconti: l'accusation de sorcellerie et d'hérésie: Dante et l'affaire de l'envoûtement (1320)”, Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire xxix (1909), 322Google Scholar.

⁵¹ Ibid. 324, cf. 308, ‘omnibus religiosis habentibus officium predicationis”.

⁵² Ibid. 322.

⁵³ Ibid. 315: ‘impedit inquisitores ne exerceant officium suum in terris quas occupat”; 316, ‘impedit ne officium inquisitionis libere fiat et ne inquisitores libere possint discurrere pro officio exercendo”, and ‘capi fecit inquisitorem hereticorum et spoliari euntem pro suo officio ad conferendum cum inquisitoribus”; p. 322: ‘impedivit officium inquisitionis heretice pravitatis”. The nature of the obstruction becomes particularly clear in charges against Galeazzo Visconti, ibid. 308: ‘non permisit officiates inquisitoris gaudere privileges et gratiis consuetis, scilicet portationis armorum et exemptione[sic in edn] ab exercitu, nee permisit inquisitorem eligere officiales secundum quod videbatur ipsi inquisitori”.

⁵⁴ Ibid. 318.

⁵⁵ Cf. Boak, A. E. R., ‘Officium”, in Wissowa, Georg and others (eds), Paulys Real-Encyclopädie der classischen Altertumswissenschaft, new edn, xxxiii, Stuttgart 1936, 2045–55Google Scholar: ‘Officium im staatsrechtlichen Sinne bedeutet 1. den Dienst oder die Amtstellung irgendeines öffentlichen…Beamten…, und 2. die Gesamtheit der Angestellten, durch welche ein Beamter sein Amt ausübt, sein Stab.”

⁵⁶ Heintschel, Donald E., The mediaeval concept of an ecclesiastic office: an analytical study of the concept of an ecclesiastical office in the major sources and printed commentaries from 1140–1300, Washington 1956Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ DuCange, Carolus de Fresne Dominus, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, revised edn, Niort 1883–1887, vi. 37fGoogle Scholar.

⁵⁸ Likewise in non-technical and secular contexts. For example, in Andreas Capellanus on Love i. 6, dialogue H, ed. and trans. Walsh, P. G., London 1982, 198fGoogle Scholar.; when Andreas has a lady declare, ‘correptionis…officium non assumam”, we are not to suppose that she is declining a post in some amatory bureaucracy. Walsh translates, ‘I will not…take on the task of correction”.

⁵⁹ The essential early documents are assembled in Texte zur Inquisition, ed. Selge, Kurt-Viktor, Gütersloh 1967Google Scholar. The earliest ones actually do not even speak of inquisitores, but refer to individuals sent out to conduct inquisitiones in the sense of inquiry into heresy. If Gregory had heard himself cited as ‘founder of the Inquisition”, he would rightly have been puzzled. This notion recurs in the literature, for example in Thomson, Williell R., Friars in the cathedral: the first Franciscan bishops, 1226–1261, Toronto 1975, 18Google Scholar.

⁶⁰ For example Corpus docutnentorum Inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis Meerlandicae, ed. Fredericq, Paul, i, Ghent—s 'Gravenhage 1889, i. 134Google Scholar.

⁶¹ Eymericus, Nicolaus, Directorium inquisitorum, ed. Peña, Francesco, Rome 1585, 602Google Scholar: ‘Statutum…per quod negotium inquisitionis haereticae pravitatis…contigerit impediri”; p. 605: ‘sanctae inquisitionis negotia” and ‘statuta, per quae inquisitionis negotium seu officium…impediatur”; p. 609: ‘ubi contigerit pro inquisitionis seu fidei negotio congregationem fieri”.

⁶² Fredericq, , Corpus documentorum, i. 166Google Scholar: ‘statuimus nullis extunc, nisi qui quadragesimum etatis annum attigerint, officium Inquisitionis predicte committi inquisitoribus”; cf. ibid. 219, and Eymericus, , Directorium, 576, 613, 622Google Scholar.

⁶³ Fredericq, , Corpus documentorum, i. 94, 110, 126Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ It could be used equivalently as the subject of the same verbs in the passive voice. Clement IV arranged for appointment of inquisitors in 1266, and urged that they ‘strive diligently to fulfill the business (or function) of inquisition” (‘inquisitionis officium…studeant exequi diligenter”), adding that ‘we wish them to have full power and authority to carry out the aforesaid business” (‘praefatum officium exequi…potestatem et auctoritatem plenarie habere volumus”): Fredericq, , Corpus documentorum, i. 134Google Scholar; cf. i. 92, 126f., 136, 166, 220, 224, 226, 237, 259, 260, 321, 324, 335, 456. The phrase officium Inquisitionis et executionem ejus is an adaptation of such usage, found ibid. i. 213 (cf. 227f.). Of the instances of officium as object of an active verb in Eymericus, Directorium, one on p. 593 particularly interesting: ‘Utrum Inquisitor…notarium…possit cogere ad exequendum tabellionatus officium, quo ad ea, quae concernunt inquisitionis officium haereticae pravitatis”. The parallel between the two officia here suggests forcefully that both terms refer to personal function. See also the preceding note for cases of officium with committere.

⁶⁵ A pope will instruct that something be done, for example, so that the officium inquisitionis ‘may flourish”: Fredericq, Corpus documentorum, i. 123, 165, 205, 207.

⁶⁶ For example ‘in commisso vobis…inquisitionis officio…laborantes” (ibid. i. 286); cf. pp. 156, 159: ‘ad Inquisitionis officium pertinere”; p. 166: ‘circa premissum Inquisitionis officium…instituta”; p. 209f.: ‘in sancto officio Inquisitionis et executione…assistere”; and p. 257: ‘statuta pro Inquisitonis officio…ediderunt”.

⁶⁷ Imperial documents speak of ‘privileges, statutes, favours, indulgences, exemptions, immunities, liberties”, and so forth, given officio inquisitionis seu inquisitoribus (ibid. 212), which might mean ‘to the Office of the Inquisition” or ‘for the business of inquisition” Cf. p. 227 (‘inquisitori et officio Inquisitionis…providere”) and Mario Esposito, ‘Un “Auto de feè” à Chieri en 1412”, Revue d'histoire eccleèsiastique, xlii (1947), 425 (‘sub pena…quinquaginta marcharum argenti…pro tertia parte officio inquisitionis [applicanda]”).

⁶⁸ The trial records speak frequently of a domus, notarius, career, defensor, litere et acta, promotor, scripta vel instrumenta, or stylus of the officium inquisitionis. See for example Historia Fratris Dulcini Heresiarche di anonimo sincrono, e de secta illorum qui se dicunt esse de ordine apostolorum di Bernardo Gui, ed. Segarizzi, Arnaldo, Città di Castello 1907, 60Google Scholar (‘carcer officii inquisitionis”), 53–61 (‘domus”); Fredericq, , Corpus documentorum, i. 217Google Scholar(‘literae et acta”), 223, 259 (‘stylus”), 227 (‘defensores”), 331 (‘promotor”); Eymericus, , Directorium, 417Google Scholar(‘directorium”), 447 (‘notarius”, ‘scriptor”), 591 (‘impeditores”); Merlo, , Eretici e inquisitori, 125Google Scholar(‘scripturae”). See also the interesting examples in Eymericus, , Directorium, 597Google Scholar(‘ne praetextu officii Inquisitionis…pecuniam extorqueant”), 744 (‘Extravagantes…in favorem fidei et officii Inquisitionis”).

⁶⁹ Merely two examples are Esposito, ‘Un “Auto de feè” 423: ‘inquisitor…deputatus per inquisitionem quam facimus de hereticis”; Le registre d'inquisition de Jacques Fournier, èvêque de Pamiers (1318–1325), ed. Duvernoy, Jean, Toulouse 1965, i. 146Google Scholar: ‘notario infrascripto, qui curaverunt singulariter ad sancta Dei Evangelia et secundum statuta canonica tenere secreta presentis inquisitionis, et requisiti assistere et dare consilium eidem domino episcopo…in inquisitione presenti”.

⁷⁰ The protocols and other documents speak of the stilus inquisitionis, libri inquisitionis, notarii inquisitionis, carceres inquisitionis heretice pravitatis, and negotia inquisitionis–for example, Documenta pour servir à l'histoire de l'Inquisition dans le Languedoc, ed. Douais, Célestin, Paris 1900, ii. 309, 335, 338f.Google Scholar; The Inquisition at Albi, 1290–1300: text of register and analysis, ed. Davis, Georgene W., New York 1948, 263, 265f.Google Scholar; Fredericq, , Corpus documentorum, i. 166, 217Google Scholar(‘notarius”, ‘notariatus”); L'Inquisileur Gcoffroy d'Ablis el Us Cathares du Comtè de Foix (1308–1309), ed. Pales-Gobilliard, Annette, Paris 1984, 108, 368Google Scholar(‘hospicium”), 130 and passim (‘domus”), 156 (‘liber”).

⁷¹ Both documents in Segarizzi, , Historia Fratris Dulcini, 51–3Google Scholar.

⁷² Ibid. 61, 71. The more recent edition, Acta, S. Officii Bononie ab anno 1291 usque ad annum 1310, ed. Paolini, Lorenzo and Orioli, Raniero, Rome 1982Google Scholar, has inquisitionis instead of inquisitoris in the relevant passage. The lectio difficilior of Segarizzi's edition, however, is borne out by the manuscript; the abbreviation used (inquisit') is one that the manuscript (at least the portion to which I have had access) uses elsewhere for inquisitoris and not for inquisitionis. See Douais, Documents pour servir à l'histoire de l'Inquisition, 312, where ‘per inquisitorem et ministros inquisitionis” is followed by ‘per inquisitorem et ministros ejusdem”.

⁷³ Multorum querela, Clementinae, lib. 5, tit. 3, c. 1, Corpus iuris canonici, ed. Friedberg, Emil, 2nd edn, Leipzig 1881, cols 1181fGoogle Scholar.

⁷⁴ For example Segarizzi, , Historia, 68Google Scholar(‘mandata sancte romane ecclesie et dicti inquisitoris et eius vicarii”).

⁷⁵ For a parallel, see Hexter, J. H. on Machiavelli, 's use of stato, in The vision of politics on the eve of the Reformation: More, Machiavelli, and Seyssel, New York 1973, 150–78Google Scholar.

⁷⁶ Peter Segl's use of the plural in this sense, in ‘Zur Einführung”, 5, with no relevant supporting documents, seems unwarranted. To be sure, phrases such as ‘inquisicionis negocia tangentibus” do occur, for example Davis, , The Inquisition at Albi, 266Google Scholar, but with clear reference to the ‘affairs of inquisition” rather than ‘the offices of the Inquisition”.

⁷⁷ Segarizzi, , Historia, 1–14Google Scholar.

⁷⁸ Ibid. 83–9, and Pales-Gobilliard, L'Inquisiteur Geoffroy d'Ablis, 152, 202, 228–30, 276, 282, 308, 344, 352, 354, 358, 362.

⁷⁹ See Perarnau, , ‘Documents de tema inquisitorial”, 464Google Scholar; see also the references to an Inquisitor Dominicanus and to Ludovicus Pisanus inquisitor in Analetta de S. Bernardino Senensi, no. 10, Ada sanctorum, Maii., v, Antwerp 1685, 308.

⁸⁰ Eymericus, , Directorium, 88Google Scholar.

⁸¹ Incidentally, Clement IV's bull Turbato corde, addressed to all the Dominican and Franciscan inquisitors throughout Europe, issues commands to universitas vestra, which in medieval as in classical Latin means simply ‘all of you”. But Synan, Edward A., The popes and the Jews in the Middle Ages, New York 1965Google Scholar, evidently supposing that the inquisitors made up an universitas in the alternative sense of a legal corporation, has the pope referring instead to ‘your organisation”. Innocent IV used the same phrase in his Ad extirpanda, addressed to the secular rulers in various parts of Italy, who obviously could not have constituted a single universitas in the sense of a corporation.

⁸² Inquisitors were, of course, accountable to the Curia, and in so far as the actual delegation of inquisitors was left to authorities within the religious orders they were subject to their religious superiors even qua inquisitors.

⁸³ See especially Given, James, ‘The inquisitors of Languedoc and the medieval technology of power”, American Historical Review xciv (1989), 336–59CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁸⁴ Patschovsky, Alexander, Die Anfänge einer städigen Inquisition in Böhmen: ein Prager Inquisitoren-Handbuch aus der ersten Hälfte des 14. Jahrhunderts, Berlin 1975Google Scholar. See also his Quellen. On the nature and significance of Patschovsky's work see Lerner, Robert E., ‘A case of religious counter-culture: the German Waldensians”, American Scholar lv (1986), 234–47Google Scholar. Patschovsky's more recent article, ‘Über die politische Bedeutung von Häresie und Häresieverfolgung im mittelalterlichen Böhmen”, in Segel, , Die Anfänge der Inquisition, 235–51Google Scholar, is a highly interesting and provocative survey of various political dimensions of inquisitorial action.

⁸⁵ Patschovsky, , Quellen zur böhmischen Inquisition, 23Google Scholar. I quot e here th e translation given in Lerner, , ‘A case of religious counter-culture”, 238Google Scholar.

⁸⁶ Patschovsky, mentions the lack of evidence after the mid fourteenth century in Quellen Zur böhmischen Inquisition, 122Google Scholar. Even the reference to a Dominican inquisitor hereticorum named Nicholas from the diocese of Prague (p. 114) serves as evidence only for the friar's appointment as inquisitor, not for his activity in this office. Molnàr, Amedeo, ‘Zu den Anfängen der ständigen Inquisition in Böhmen,” Communio Viatorum XX (1977), 33–8Google Scholar, also cites indirect evidence of heresy trials in the later fourteenth century: the testimony of Master Jerome in 1409. But this evidence does not at all demonstrate the continuous operation of a specifically papal Inquisition (or papal inquisitors) in Bohemia, because the jurisdiction responsible for the trials in question is unspecified.

⁸⁷ Lea, , History of the Inquisition, i. 374–84Google Scholar.

⁸⁸ Davidsohn, , ‘Un libro di entrate e spese”, 346Google Scholar.

⁸⁹ Merlo, , Eretici, 128Google Scholar. Perarnau, , ‘Documents de tema inquisitorial”, 458Google Scholar, also speaks of notaries as appointed ad casum.

⁹⁰ For example Segarizzi, , Historia, 68Google Scholar(‘notarius inquisitoris”, ‘inquisitor et eius vicarii”), 81 (‘familiares inquisitoris”); Pales-Gobilliard, L'Inquisiteur Geoffroy d' Ablis, 130 and passim (‘locum tenentes inquisitoris”); Fredericq, , Corpus documentorum, i. 212Google Scholar(‘inquisitores ac ipsorum officiales”), 213 (‘inquisitoribus vel nuntiis ipsorum”).

⁹¹ On the delegation of inquisitorial responsibility see Lea, , History of the Inquisition, i. 374–6.Google ScholarPerarnau, , ‘Documents de tema inquisitorial”, 457Google Scholar, 475–7, gives evidence of inquisitorial vicegerents, but not of interaction among them and the inquisitor at whose behest they functioned.

⁹² See, for example, Patschovsky, Alexander, ‘Zeugnisse des Inquisitors Hinrich Schoenvelt in einer Nicolaus-Eymericus-Handschrift”, in Jenks, Stuart and others (eds), Historiae, Vera Lex: Studien zu mittelalterlkhen Quellen: Festschrift fur Dietrich Kurze zu seinem65. Geburtstag am 1. Januar iggy, Cologne 1993, 275Google Scholar: ‘Cum per absenciam inquisitorum…in locis pluribus experiamur sepissime catholice fidei contraria suboriri, que per eorum presenciam validius extirpantur, nosque simus arduis negociis plurimis sancte ecclesie dei in presenciarum taliter occupati, quod ad dyoc(esim) N. ad presens accedere seu in eadem moram pro sancto inquisicionis negocio sufficientem trahere non valemus, idcirco vobis, de cuius zelo sciencia et discrecione fiduciam in domino gerimus pleniorem, in negocio fidei…committimus plenarie et simpliciter vices nostras.”

⁹³ Dossat, Yves, Les crises de l'Inquisition toulousaine au XIIIe siécle (1233–1273), Bordeaux 1959, 89fGoogle Scholar.

⁹⁴ Nalle, Sara, ‘Popular religion in Cuenca on the eve of the Catholic Reformation”, in Haliczer, , Inquisition and society, 73Google Scholar.

⁹⁵ For example Patschovsky, , Quellen zur bohmischen Inquisition, 35Google Scholar, 116; see also his Die Anfdnge einer stdndigen Inquisition, 49, 87, 149, 165, 170–92, 175, 181, 206f.

⁹⁶ See ibid. 93f., 116, and my review in Speculum lvi (1981), 899–901.

⁹⁷ Fredericq, , Corpus documentorum, i. 165f., 205, 207, 210, 220, 260Google Scholar. The case for exceptional development would be stronger if the wording more clearly implied agency - for example if the documents read ‘donee officium inquisitionis possideat carceres suos”. (See below n. 105.)

⁹⁸ Lea, , History of the Inquisition, i. 397fGoogle Scholar.

⁹⁹ Alatri, Mariano da, ‘L'inquisizione a Firenze negli anni 1344/46 da un'istruttoria contro Pietro da I'Aquila”, in Villapadierna, Isidorus a (ed.), Miscellanea Melchior de Pobladura, i, Rome 1964, 245Google Scholarn. 122: ‘liberans et absolvens eundem…adeo quod deinceps ipsc…per ipsum inquisitorem, subcessores suos aut dictum offitium, occasione dicte pecuniarie penitentie, gravari non possit aut quomodolibet molestari”.

¹⁰⁰ See Segarizzi, , Historia Fratris Dulcini, 62Google Scholar. The two participles here suggest different translations: it might seem most natural to say that these goods were confiscated for an agency but that they were applied to its business, but the text gives only one dative, the meaning of which remains ambiguous.

¹⁰¹ Further in the same unwieldy sentence is the phrase, ‘in omnibus et singulis quae officium inquisitionis et executionem ejus respiciunt”, which obviously refers to a function or responsibility and its execution.

¹⁰² Ibid. 230.

¹⁰³ Eymericus, , Directorium, 437 (‘in opprobrium et iactura m officii inquisitionis, et verecundiam, et ruborem Inquisitoris”)Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁴ For usage in which qfficium parallels another abstraction, see ibid. 439: ‘ne inquisitionis officium deludatur, et sacramentum paenitentiae contemnatur”.

¹⁰⁵ Davidsohn, , ‘Un libro di entrate e spese”, 353Google Scholar One other possible exception is a decree from the Emperor Charles iv in 1369, printed (from Mosheim) in Fredericq, , Corpus documentorum, i. 220Google Scholar: ‘cum officium Inquisitonis in partibus Alemanniae nullam domum, domicilium, turrim fortem pro custodia et captivitate suspectorum de haeresi et examinandorum in fide necnon pro immunrandis…quibusdam haereticis… [habeat].” In this sentence, however, the required active verb is oddly lacking.

¹⁰⁶ Fussenegger, Geroldus, ‘De manipulo documentorum ad usum inquisitoris haereticae pravitatis in Romandiola saec. XIII”, Archivum Franciscanum Historicum xliv (1951), 81, 83Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁷ Segarizzi, , Hisloria, 64Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁸ Lea, , History of the Inquisition, i. 305–68Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁹ On this incident and the broader context of relations between Dominicans and townspeople, see Vicaire, Marie-Humbert, Les ‘Jacobins” dans la vie de Toulouse aux XIIIe et XIVe siécles: confèrence donnèe le 14 octobre 1986, salle du Sènèchal, dans le cadre du sixiéme centenaire de la dèdicace de I'Èglise des Jacobins, 1385–1085, Toulouse 1987, and ‘L'action de l'enseignement et de la prèdication des Mendiants vis-á-vis des cathares,” in Effacement du Catharisme? (XIHe-XIVe s.), Toulouse 1985, 277–304Google Scholar.

¹¹⁰ Tedeschi, John, ‘Preliminary observations on writing a history of the Roman Inquisition”, in Church, F. Forrester and George, Timothy (eds), Continuity and discontinuity in church history, Leiden 1979, 245Google Scholar.

¹¹¹ For an interesting comment on how the centralised communication network within the Dominican order could work at cross purposes with regional collaboration, and for a useful warning against assuming homogeneity within this order, see Walther, , ‘Ziele und Mittel pâpstlicher Ketzerpolitik”, in Segl, , Die Anfange der Inquisition, 122Google Scholar.

¹¹² Louisa Burnham has called this factor to my attention on the basis of her research in the Doat Collection, the relevant contents of which are surveyed in Manselli, Raoul, Spirituels et bèguins du Midi, trans. Duvernoy, Jean, Toulouse1989, 263–67Google Scholar.

¹¹³ See for example the exemplary caution that Kurze, Dietrich exercises even in speaking (reluctantly) of die Inquisition, in ‘Anfange der Inquisition in Deutschland”, 131fGoogle Scholar.