Nicolas Eymeric (alternate spellings include:, Nicolau or Nicolai and Emeric, Eimeric, Eymerici, Eymericus, or Eymerich; b. ca. 1320 - d. 4 January, 1399) was a Roman Catholic theologian and inquisitor general of the Inquisition of Aragon in the later half of the 14th century. He is best known for authoring the Directorium Inquisitorum .
Life
Education & Early Tenure as Inquisitor General
Nicolas Eymeric was born in Gerona c. 1320. He entered the local monestary of the Dominican Order on 4 August, 1334. Here, during his novitiate he was instructed in theology by the friar Dalamau Moner. In order to complete his studies, he went to Toulouse, and then to Paris, where he obtained his doctorate in 1352. He then returned to the monestary in Gerona where he replaced Moner as the teacher of theology.
In 1357, Eymeric replaced Nicola Roselli as the inquisitor general of Aragon, as Roselli had been raised to a cardinal. A year after obtaining the possition, Eymeric was given the honorific Chaplain of the Pope as a recognition of his dilligence in pursuing heretics and blasphemers. However, the zeal he displayed as inquisitor general earned him many enemies, including King Peter IV of Aragon. Peter IV sought to have Eymeric removed from office in 1360 when the inquisition interogated the Fransiscan spiritualist, Nicholas of Calabria. A further example of Eymeric as inquisitor gerneral is his sentance of the Jew, Astruc Dapiera in 1370. Dapiera was a native of Barcelona accused of sorcery. He was sentanced to publicly repent in a cathedral, and then to life imprisonment. Eymeric also introduced the practice of piercing a heretic's tongue with a nail so they could not blastpheme.
Eymeric was elected to be the vicar general of the Dominicans in Aragon in 1362 however, this election was contested by one Father Bernardo Ermengaudi who in addition to having a long standing dispute with Eymeric, was also politically backed by Peter VI. When called on to settle the matter, Pope Urban V, invalidated Eymeric's election on the grounds that the office of vicar general conflicted with the office of inquisitor general, however he did not confirm Ermengaudi in the possition, opting for a neutral third, Jacopo Dominici.
Peter IV's hostility toward Eymeric intensified in 1366 when Eymeric began to attack the written works of Raymond Lully and to harass his followers, who were known as Luilists. The king forbade Eymeric to preach in the city of Barcelona. Eymeric disobeyed covertly and subsequently supported the revolt of the diocese of Tarragona against the monarch. This conflict ended around 1376 when the local governor took 200 horsemen and encircled the Dominican monestary where Eymeric was residing. Eymeric fled to the papal court of Gregory XI in Avignon.
First Exile & Return
While living in Avignon, Eymeric completed his most famous work, the Directorium Inquisitorum. In 1377, he accompanied Gregory XI to Rome, where he remained until the pope's death in 1378. In the schism that erupted after the death of Gregory XI, Eymeric sided with Antipope Clement VII, and so returned to Avignon late in 1378. While living in Avignon, Eymeric conflicted with Vincent Ferrer, owing to the fact that Eymeric believed that Ferrer had begun to sympathize with Pope Urban VI, the pope in opposition to Clement VII.
Eymeric returned to Aragon in 1381. Where he discovered that in his absence, Bernardo Ermengaudi had assumed the possition of inquisitor general. Eymeric refused to recognize Ermengaudi in that office, and in 1383, acting as inquisitor general, notified the inhabitants of Barcelona that he had banned the works of Ramond Lully. Furious, Peter IV ordered Eymeric to be drowned, however the Queen, Eleanor of Sicily, influenced him to change the sentance to permenant exile. Once again, Eymeric ignored the sentance and remained in his native land, thanks largely to the support of Peter's son, John.
Peter IV died in 1386 and was succeeded by his son, John I, who recognized Eymeric's authority as inquisitor general. At first, John I favoured the repression of the Luilists, but this lasted only until 1388 when Eymeric decided to investigate the entire town of Valence for heresy. John I intervened to free the chancellor of the university, who had been imprisoned. The king then asked the church to reign in the violence of Eymeric and that the works of Lully be newly examined.
Second Exile & Return
After the violence at Valence, Eymeric took shelter from reprecusions from the king in a church, but two years later, retreated again to Avignon, where he remained until the death of John I. In Avignon, Eymeric devoted himself to the defence of the legitimacy of Clement VII as pope. He remained in Avignon after the death of Clement VII in 1394, writing in support of Clement's successor, Antipope Benedict XIII. After John's death in 1396, Eymeric returned to the Dominican monestary in Gerona, where he remained until his death on 4 January, 1399. His epitaph describes him as praedicator veridicus, inquisitor intrepidus, doctor egregius.
Writings
The Directorium Inquisitorum
Eymeric's most prominent and enduring work was the Directorium Inquisitorum, which he had composed as early as 1376. The Directorium Inquisitorum defined witchcraft, and described means for discovering witches. In compiling the book, Eymeric used many of the magic texts he had previously confiscated from accused sorcerors.
He describes various forbidden magical practices including the baptism of images, fumigating the head of a dead person, casting salt on fire, burning bodies of animals and birds, conjuring spirits, invoking unfamiliar names, mixing names of angels and demons. He considered sorcery involving demons to be heresy, and divided it into two categories: dulia or "false veneration" which involved mentioning devils in litany and asking for their intercession before God. And the more serious latria, "false worship", which included making sacrifices, praying, and lighting candles or incence to devils. Eymeric was among the first to condemn all forms of demonic conjuration. The common belief of the time was that even a saint might make a demonic pact, as exemplified by the story of Saint Theophilus, who made a pact with the devil to gain an eclesiastical possition.
In addition to describing common magical practices, Eymeric also described means of extracting a confession which included primitive psychological manipulation as well as outright torture. Regarding torture, Eymeric said, "Quaestiones sunt fallaces et inefficaces" meaning, "Torture is deceptive and ineffectual." He also forbade torturing a suspect twice over the same accusation. The Directorium Inquisitorum was to become the definitive handbook of proceedure for the Spanish Inquisition for over a century. It saw numerous printings, including a run at Barcelona in 1503 and one in Rome in 1578. These printings are now highly valuable original sources. In addition, the Directorium Inquisitorum was one of the primary forrunners of the better known Malleus Maleficarum.
Other Works
Although the Directorium Inquisitorum was Eymeric's only book length work, he wrote numerous tracts and papers on various theological and philosophical subjects.
A good deal of Eymeric's life and writings were taken with opposing the writings of Raymond Lully. Owing to Eymeric's work, Pope Gregory XI banned several of Lully's writings and issued a papal decree against some postulates derived from his works. He would later dedicate his Tractatus contra doctrinam Raymundi Lulli to Clement VII. In this document he indicated 135 heresies and 38 errors in the Luilists' theology. His Dialogus contra Lullistas is another example of his anti-Luilist works.
Eymeric also wrote numerous works, including his Tractatus de potestate papali (1383) defending the legitimacy of the Avignon popes, Clement VII and Benedict XIII.
References
- Brian A. Pavlac, Important Events for the Witch Hunts Retrieved 7 April, 2005
- J.P. Kirsch, Nicolas Eymeric at New Advent Retrieved 7 April, 2005
- Richard Gottheil & Meyer Kayserling, Astruc Dapiera at Jewish Encyclopedia Retrieved 8 April, 2005
- Nicolas Eymeric at Encyclopedia Britannica Retrieved 8 April, 2005
- Shantell Powell, Nicholas Eymeric, Papal Inquisitor of Aragon Retrieved 8 April, 2005
- Inquisition Retrieved 8 April, 2005
- Valerio Evangelisti, Historical Eymerich Retrieved 9 April, 2005
External Links
Text of the Directorium Inquisitorum in Latin
Text of the Directorium Inquisitorum in Portuguese
Valerio Evangelisti, an Italian novelist has written several science fiction books featuring Nicolas Eymeric. (Click here for an english translation.)
