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The history of the popes, from the close of the middle ages : drawn ...

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VIGILANCE OF THE INQUISITION. j^:)<br />

with. Gazini's successor administered <strong>the</strong> inquisition with<br />

so great mildness that none <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> records have anything to<br />

say about his activities. Protestantism at Faenza was<br />

practicaDy at an end.^<br />

On July 20th, 1566, Tiepolo tells us how, during <strong>the</strong> pre-<br />

vious conclave a casket containing notes for <strong>the</strong> Inquisition<br />

had been stolen <strong>from</strong> Cardinal Ghislieri, <strong>the</strong> reigning Pope ;<br />

this was later on recovered, to his great satisfaction, because<br />

it would have entailed many imprisonments, both in and<br />

out <strong>of</strong> Rome. 2 This casket may have been a fiction <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />

popular imagination, but it is at any rate a fact that <strong>the</strong> Pope<br />

watched with <strong>the</strong> greatest care for every sign <strong>of</strong> heresy,<br />

especially in Italy, and his vigilance extended even fur<strong>the</strong>r<br />

than that. It was said, so Arco wrote after <strong>the</strong> Pope had<br />

read to him a letter received <strong>from</strong> German}^ which stated<br />

that <strong>the</strong> government in Austria was composed <strong>of</strong> ten Pro-<br />

testants and two Catholics, that <strong>the</strong> Pope had his spies everywhere<br />

;^ that if <strong>the</strong> former Grand Inquisitor had eyes and<br />

ears even beyond <strong>the</strong> Alps, in his own country he did not<br />

altoge<strong>the</strong>r trust to <strong>the</strong> vigilance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> tribunals in <strong>the</strong> various<br />

cities ; that when he did not receive information <strong>from</strong> any<br />

place concerning heretical tendencies he thought that <strong>the</strong><br />

^ <strong>The</strong>re were also heretics in o<strong>the</strong>r parts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Papal States.<br />

Cf. Tiepolo, September 25, 1568 (Mutinelli, I., 79), for <strong>the</strong><br />

disturbances and destruction <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sacred im<strong>ages</strong> at Amandola ;<br />

Cantu, Eretici, III., 719, for <strong>the</strong> heretics executed at Bologna in<br />

1567 and 1568 ; Bertolotti, Martiri, 41, for <strong>the</strong> heretics <strong>from</strong><br />

Bologna and Forli condemned in Rome in 1567 ; cf. Wachler,<br />

G. Rehdiger und seine Buchersammlung in Breslau (1828), 14 ;<br />

*brief <strong>of</strong> February 2, 1569 " Thomae de Arimino O. Praed. depu-<br />

tato in inquisitorem in Arimin., Pisaur. et Fanens. civitatibus,"<br />

Archives <strong>of</strong> Briefs, Rome.<br />

- Mutinelli, I., 49.<br />

^ " *Mi vien ancora detto, che ha non solo in Italia, ma anco<br />

fuori dTtalia per tutti i regni et .stati spie, che gli danno minuto<br />

raguaglio della vita et costumi de'principi, de ministri loro, et di<br />

quelli che sono loro appresso." Arco, July 13, 1566, State<br />

Archives, Vienna.

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