Untitled - Shattering Denial

THE INQUISITION 119
the first, moreover, to establish an extraordinary and per
manent tribunal for heresy trials an institution which
afterwards became known as the monastic Inquisition.
The prosecution and the punishment of heretics in every
diocese was one of the chief duties of the bishops, the
natural defenders of orthodoxy. While heresy appeared
at occasional intervals, they had little or no difficulty in
fulfilling their duty. But when the Cathari and the
Patarins had sprung up everywhere, especially in southern
Italy and France and northern Spain, the secrecy of
their movements made the task of the bishops extremely
hard and complicated. Rome soon perceived that they
were not very zealous in prosecuting heresy. To put
an end to this neglect, Lucius III jointly with the emperor
Frederic Barbarossa and the bishops of his court enacted
a decretal at Verona in 1184, regulating the episcopal
inquisition.
All bishops and archbishops were commanded to visit
personally once or twice a year, or to empower their arch
deacons or other clerics to visit every parish in which
heresy was thought to exist. They were to compel two
or three trustworthy men, or, if need be, all the inhabi
tants of the city, to swear that they would denounce
every suspect who attended secret assemblies, or whose
manner of living differed from that of the ordinary Catho
lic. After the bishop had questioned all who had been