DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.63447#0364
348
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
The persecution of the “ Paterini ” was carried on with
the same relentless barbarity by all the other sovereigns
of Europe, and in Rome their extermination was made
the personal interest of the highest civil magistrate, the
Senator; for one-third of the property of the victims
became his by right, and the crime of “ leniency” to a
culprit was punished by a fine of two hundred silver
marks) During the minority of Louis IX, of France,
Blanche of Castille, the able but sanguinary Regent of
that kingdom, had, by “ordonnance”1 2 of 1228, established
the Tribunal of the Inquisition for the slaughter of such
Albigenses as had escaped Simon de Monfort; and some
years later, in 1239, the Count of Champagne burnt
alive, at Provins, one hundred and eighty-four heretics.
But these bloodthirsty savages were in good faith.
Frederick acted solely out of worldly policy. He was far
superior to the narrowness of the gloomy bigotry of his
age; his unremorseful cruelty deserves therefore to be
branded with a stigma of peculiar abhorrence, as a crime
undertaken in the hope of temporal and personal ag-
grandisement, and as having about it a meanness which
makes it more odious than that of a sincere bigot,
honestly persuaded his cruelty and robbery is acceptable
to God !
We must now turn to contemplate this versatile
monarch in his legislative character ; employed, with his
friend and counsellor, Pier delle Vigne, in researches of
past usages, laws, and traditions, preparatory to the com-
pilation of a code of law for Sicily, which should surpass
all heretofore known or remembered.
In the consideration of this question it must be borne
in mind that the establishment of a pure despotism was
the chimerical but ardent desire of Frederick. It had
been that of his predecessors ever since Charlemagne;
checked under the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, it re-
vived with gathered force under his grandson. All power,
1 Capitula contra hereticos, edita in Reg. Gregor. IX., Lib. iv.,
p. 109.
2 Ordonnance du Louvre. (Paris, 1723, folio, T. i., p. 50.)
THE HISTORICAL PAST OF ITALY.
The persecution of the “ Paterini ” was carried on with
the same relentless barbarity by all the other sovereigns
of Europe, and in Rome their extermination was made
the personal interest of the highest civil magistrate, the
Senator; for one-third of the property of the victims
became his by right, and the crime of “ leniency” to a
culprit was punished by a fine of two hundred silver
marks) During the minority of Louis IX, of France,
Blanche of Castille, the able but sanguinary Regent of
that kingdom, had, by “ordonnance”1 2 of 1228, established
the Tribunal of the Inquisition for the slaughter of such
Albigenses as had escaped Simon de Monfort; and some
years later, in 1239, the Count of Champagne burnt
alive, at Provins, one hundred and eighty-four heretics.
But these bloodthirsty savages were in good faith.
Frederick acted solely out of worldly policy. He was far
superior to the narrowness of the gloomy bigotry of his
age; his unremorseful cruelty deserves therefore to be
branded with a stigma of peculiar abhorrence, as a crime
undertaken in the hope of temporal and personal ag-
grandisement, and as having about it a meanness which
makes it more odious than that of a sincere bigot,
honestly persuaded his cruelty and robbery is acceptable
to God !
We must now turn to contemplate this versatile
monarch in his legislative character ; employed, with his
friend and counsellor, Pier delle Vigne, in researches of
past usages, laws, and traditions, preparatory to the com-
pilation of a code of law for Sicily, which should surpass
all heretofore known or remembered.
In the consideration of this question it must be borne
in mind that the establishment of a pure despotism was
the chimerical but ardent desire of Frederick. It had
been that of his predecessors ever since Charlemagne;
checked under the reign of Frederick Barbarossa, it re-
vived with gathered force under his grandson. All power,
1 Capitula contra hereticos, edita in Reg. Gregor. IX., Lib. iv.,
p. 109.
2 Ordonnance du Louvre. (Paris, 1723, folio, T. i., p. 50.)