Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/308

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296 INQUISITION INSANITY tugal and in its dependencies, Brazil and Gon. In Italy the inquisition never became as pow- erful as in France and Spain. It was intro- duced in 1233 against the Waldenses, and the chronicles of many Lombard towns mention the burning of heretics ; but their number seems to have been less considerable than in France and Spain. A celebrated inquisitor, Pietro di Verona, who exercised his office with great severity during 19 years, was slain in 1252. In the 16th century courts for the suppression of Protestant doctrines were established in Tus- cany, Venice, Milan, Parma, and other states ; but their sentences remained subject to the sanction of the temporal sovereign. A supreme tribunal of the inquisition for the whole church, called the "Congregation of the Holy Office," and consisting of six cardinals, was established by Paul III. at Eome in 1543 ; but beyond the limits of the Papal States the authority with which the pope invested it was never concealed to it by the temporal sovereigns. Sixtus V. in 1588 changed the name of the congregation to that of the " Holy Roman and universal Inqui- sition," and made it to consist of 12 cardinals, with several assessors, consultors, and qualifiers (who had to prepare the cases). The Roman inquisition was the mildest of all tribunals of this nature, no instance having occurred of the punishment of death being inflicted through its agency. Napoleon abolished the inquisition in all Italy in 1808. It was restored in the Papal States by Pius VII. in 1814, and in Tus- cany and Sardinia in 1833. Since the occupa- tion of Rome by the Italian government in 1870 the inquisition has been abolished in the kingdom of Italy. The body bearing the name of " Congregation of the Holy Office " is com- posed of 12 cardinals, presided over by the pope. They pronounce on all questions relating to faith and morals, but have at present none but spiritual jurisdiction. Outside of the ter- ritory of the Romanic nations the inquisition never gained a firm footing, In Germany it was established as early as 1231 ; but the severity of the first inquisitor, Conrad of Mar- burg, aroused so general and violent an indig- nation, that he himself was slain in 1233, and Germany remained for a long time without in- quisitorial courts. An attempt to revive it was made in the 14th century in consequence of the appearance of the Beghards. Charles IV. in 1369 supported the inquisitors by three edicts. Pope Gregory XI. in 1372 appointed for Ger- many five inquisitors, and Boniface IX. in 1399 increased their number for northern Germany alone to six. In 1484 it was greatly extended for the purpose of ridding Germany of sor- cerers and witches, but the reformation de- stroyed its power even in those portions of Germany which remained Catholic. Though attempts were made to restore it in Austria and Bavaria (1599), it never regained any con- siderable power, and since its abolition by Maria Theresa no trace of it has existed in Germany. In England, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark it was never permanently estab- lished ; and in Poland, where Pope John XXII. introduced it in 1327, it was of but short dura- tion. A general history of the inquisition, critical and impartial, is still wanting. A criti- cal survey of a number of works treating on the subject appeared in the "British Critic" in 1827, and was reprinted in the Philadelphia "Museum of Foreign Literature and Science" in the same year. See Limborch's " History of the Inquisition," translated by Chandler (London, 1731) ; Joseph de Maistre, Lettres aur Vinquisition espagnole (Paris, 1822) ; and W. II. Rule, "History of the Inquisition" (2 vols., London, 1874). INSANITY (Lat. insanitas, from in, privative, and sanitas, health or soundness), unsound- ness of mind. The term is usually applied to acquired unsoundness in contradistinction to that which is congenital, but treatises on the subject include the latter under the heads im- becility and idiocy. The legal relations of in- sanity will, be treated under the synonymous but mere technical legal term LUNACY. Locke says that "madmen do not appear to have lost the faculty of reasoning, but having joined to- gether some ideas very wrongly, they mistake them for truths, and they err as men do that argue right from wrong principles." It will be seen however, from an examination of cases, that not only are madmen the subjects of de- lusions and hallucinations, but that their rea- soning faculties are generally more or less de- ranged, and sometimes entirely perverted. The attempt to treat mental diseases from a purely psychological point of view has been the cause of much useless labor, and has resulted in many erroneous conclusions. Insanity appears to have been of rarer occurrence in ancient than in later times, and it is also seldom met with among primitive people of the present day. The occupations of both men and women in antiquity were not of a character calculated to excite cerebral disease, even if the predisposing causes had been present. It is, however, a matter of doubt whether insanity can be in- duced without a pathological basis, the ten- dency being to the opinion that it cannot. The earliest references to mental disease in anti- quity are the madness of Saul, the feigned madness of David, and that of Ulysses imme- diately before the Trojan war. Although sev- eral instances of real or feigned madness are mentioned by the ancients, their writings con- tain no account of any institutions devoted to the care of the insane, nor any laws for their protection. The opinions expressed by Plato in the "Timaaus" and " Phsedrus," in regard to the prophetic power of madness, which he looked upon as a sacred disease and full of blessings, are well known. Ancient Greek au- thors, especially Euripides, abound with allu- sions to the supposed power of Bacchus to pro- duce madness. Lycurgus, king of the Edones in Thrace, refused divine worship to Bacchus, for which the god visited him with madness.