Note 25 — Front matter

The book, though existing in sundry MSS. (see Quétif and Échard, “Script. Ord. Pred.,” and Antonio, “Bibl. Script. Hispan.”), has never been printed, and I have not seen it; but its attitude may be guessed from Eymeric’s treatment of the subject in the “Directorium.” The statement (made by Antonio and others) that he was led to write it by the denial of his jurisdiction in the case of a certain Barcelonese Jew, can hardly be true, since the “Directorium” (pars ii., qu. 46) puts this episode “in the time of Pope Urban V.,” whose papacy began in 1362. A better explanation is suggested by Mr. Lea, when he tells us (“The Inquisition of the Middle Ages,” ii., 175) that “the sum of Eymerich’s activity during his long career is so small that it shows how little was left of heresy by this time. Occasional Fraticelli and Waldenses and renegade Jews or Saracens were all that rewarded the inquisitor, with every now and then some harmless lunatic whose extravagance unfortunately took a religious turn, or some over-subtle speculator on the intricacies of dogmatic theology.” A Paris MS. of Eymeric’s book begins (according to Quétif): “Incipit prologus in tractatum super daemonum invocatione, an scilicet daemones invocare sapiat haeresim manifeste, editum et confectum a F. Nicolas Eymerici ord. FF. Prædic.,” and bears at end its date: “perfectus anno D[omi]ni MCCCLIX.” The latter may refer only to the MS.; but the book must of course be at least as old. The title of the work is elsewhere given as “Contra adoratores et advocatores daemonum”; and the Escurial catalogue (cited by Antonio) calls it: “De jurisdictione Inquisitorum in et contra Christianos daemones invocantes.” Eymeric would seem to have completed or supplemented this by another: “De jurisdictione ecclesiae et inquisitorum contra infideles daemones invocantes” (see Quétif and Échard), and it is perhaps the latter that was called forth by the case of the Barcelona Jew.