Untitled - Shattering Denial

THE INQUISITION 253
ments are favorable or hostile to her, she must pursue
her course and carry on her work of salvation under
them all.
"
Heresy," writes Jean Guiraud,
"
in the Middle Ages
was nearly always connected with some anti-social sect.
In a period when the human mind usually expressed itself
in a theological form, socialism, communism, and anarchy
appeared under the form of heresy. By the very nature
of things, therefore, the interests of both Church and
State were identical; this explains the question
of the
suppression of heresy in the Middle Ages/ 1
We are not surprised, therefore, that when Church and
State found themselves menaced by the same peril, they
agreed on the means of defence.
total number of heretics burned or imprisoned the dis
If we deduct from the
turbers of the social order and the criminals against the
common law, the number of condemned heretics will be-
very small.
Heretics in the Middle Ages were considered amenable
to the laws of both Church and State. Men of that
time could not conceive of God and His revelation with
out defenders in a Christian kingdom. Magistrates were
considered responsible for the sins committed against the
law of God. Indirectly,
therefore, heresy was amenable
i
Jean Guiraud, La repression de Pheresie au moyen tige, in the Questions
d archeologie
et tfhistoire, p. 44-