Need of A general council.  The Inquisition had made the papal system irresistible.  All opposition must be punished with death by fire.  A mere thought, without having betrayed itself by outward sign, was considered as guilt.  As time went on, this practice of the Inquisition became more and more atrocious.  Torture was resorted to on mere suspicion.  The accused was not allowed to know the name of his accuser.  He was not permitted to have any legal adviser.  There was no appeal.  The Inquisition was ordered not to lean to pity.  No recantation was of avail.  The innocent family of the accused was deprived of its property by confiscation; half went to the papal treasury, half to the inquisitors.  Life only, said Innocent iii., was to be left to the sons of misbelievers, and that merely as an act of mercy.  The consequence was, that popes, such as Nicolas iii., enriched their families through plunder acquired by this tribunal.  Inquisitors did the same habitually.

The struggle between the French and Italians for the possession of the papacy inevitably led to the schism of the fourteenth century.  For more than forty years two rival popes were now anathematizing each other, two rival Curias were squeezing the nations for money.  Eventually, there were three obediences, and triple revenues to be extorted.  Nobody, now, could guarantee the validity of the sacraments, for nobody could be sure which was the true pope.  Men were thus compelled to think for themselves.  They could not find who was the legitimate thinker for them.  They began to see that the Church must rid herself of the curialistic chains, and resort to a General Council.  That attempt was again and again made, the intention being to raise the Council into a Parliament of Christendom, and make the pope its chief executive officer.  But the vast interests that had grown out of the corruption of ages could not so easily be overcome; the Curia again recovered its ascendency, and ecclesiastical trading was resumed.  The Germans, who had never been permitted to share in the Curia, took the leading part in these attempts at reform.  As things went on from bad to worse, even they at last found out that all hope of reforming the Church by means of councils was delusive.  Erasmus exclaimed, “If Christ does not deliver his people from this multiform ecclesiastical tyranny, the tyranny of the Turk will become less intolerable.”  Cardinals’ hats were now sold, and under Leo X. ecclesiastical and religious offices were actually put up to auction.  The maxim of life had become, interest first, honor afterward.  Among the officials, there was not one who could be honest in the dark, and virtuous without a witness.  The violet-colored velvet cloaks and white ermine capes of the cardinals were truly a cover for wickedness.