Note 53 — BOOK XII. CONCERNING THE PREVENTION OF OFFICIAL OPPRESSION, AND THE THOROUGH EXTINCTION OF HERETICAL SECTS.

This pleasing homily, which precedes a collection of the most atrocious laws ever devised for the suppression of human thought and the persecution of heretics—with the sole exception of the rules of the Inquisition, of which it is the prototype—is extremely edifying. The confidence and assurance of a heavenly recompense, expressed by the pious king in whose name this edict was promulgated, reveals the degrading superstition of the time, and the absolute domination of the monarch by his spiritual advisers.—[Ed.]