SANDRA SKANDERLIĆ

Work from Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463.-1494.)

„At last the best of artisans ordained that the creature to whom He had been able to give nothing proper to himself should have joint possession of whatever had been peculiar to each of the different kinds of being. He therefore took man as a creature of indeterminate nature and, assigning him a place in the middle of the world, addressed him thus: “Neither a fixed abode nor a form that is thine alone nor any function peculiar to thyself have we given thee, Adam, to the end that according to thy longing and according to thy judgment thou mayest have and possess what abode, what form, and what functions thou thyself shalt desire. The nature of all other beings is limited and constrained within the bounds of laws prescribed by Us. Thou, constrained by no limits, in accordance with thine own free will, in whose hand We have placed thee, shalt ordain for thyself the limits of thy nature. We have set thee at the world’s center that thou mayest from thence more easily observe whatever is in the world. We have made thee neither of heaven nor of earth, neither mortal nor immortal, so that with freedom of choice and with honor, as though the maker and molder of thyself, thou mayest fashion thyself in whatever shape thou shalt prefer. Thou shalt have the power to degenerate into the lower forms of life, which are brutish. Thou shalt have the power, out of thy soul’s judgment, to be reborn into the higher forms, which are divine.”

ORATION ON THE DIGNITY OF MAN

O supreme generosity of God the Father, O highest and most marvelous felicity of man! To him it is granted to have whatever he chooses, to be whatever he wills. Beasts as soon as they are born (so says Lucilius) bring with them from their mother’s womb all they will ever possess. Spiritual beings, either from the beginning or soon thereafter, become what they are to be for ever and ever. On man when he came into life the Father conferred the seeds of all kinds and the germs of every way of life. Whatever seeds each man cultivates will grow to maturity and bear in him their own fruit. If they be vegetative, he will be like a plant. If sensitive, he will become brutish. If rational, he will grow into a heavenly being. If intellectual, he will be an angel and the son of God. And if, happy in the lot of no created thing, he withdraws into the center of his own unity, his spirit, made one with God, in the solitary darkness of God, who is set above all things, shall surpass them all.“

POPE INNOCENT VIII.

Papal bull issued by Pope Innocent VIII.

Desiring with supreme ardor as pastoral solicitude requires, that the catholic faith in our days everywhere grow and flourish as much as possible, and that all heretical pravity be put far from the territories of the faithful.  We freely declare and anew decree this by which our pious desire may be fulfilled, and all errors being rooted out by our toil as with the hoe of a wise laborer, zeal and devotion to this faith may take deeper hold on the hearts of the faithful themselves.

It has recently come to our ears, and not without great pain to us, that in some parts of upper Germany, as well as in the provinces, cities, territories, regions and dioceses of Mainz, Köln, Trier, Salzburg and Bremen, many persons of both sexes, heedless of their own salvation and forsaking the catholic faith, give themselves to devils, male and female, and by their incantations, charms and conjuring, and by other abominable superstitions and sortileges, offences, crimes and misdeeds, ruin and cause to perish the offspring of women, the foal of animals, the products of the earth, the grapes of vines and the fruits of trees, as well a men and women, cattle and flocks, and herds and animals of every kind, and hinder men from begetting and women from conceiving, and prevent all consummation of marriage; that moreover they deny with sacrilegious lips the faith they received in holy baptism; and that at the instigation of the enemy of mankind, they do not fear to commit and perpetrate many other abominable offences and crimes, at the risk of their own souls, to the insult of the divine majesty and to the pernicious example and scandal of multitudes.  And although our beloved sons Henricus Institorus Kramer and Jacobus Sprenger of the order of Friars Preachers, professors of theology, have been and still are deputed by our apostolic letters as inquisitors of heretical pravity, the former in the aforesaid parts of upper Germany, including the provinces, cities, territories, dioceses and other places as above, and the latter throughout certain parts of the course of the Rhine; nevertheless certain of the clergy and of the laity of those parts, seeking to be wise above what is fitting, because in the said letter of deputation that aforesaid provinces, cities, dioceses, territories and other places, and the persons and offences in question were not individually and specifically named, do not blush obstinately to assert that these are not at all included in the said parts and that therefore it is illicit for the aforesaid inquisitors to exercise their office of inquisition in the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories and other places aforesaid, and that they ought not to be permitted to proceed to the punishment, imprisonment and correction of the aforesaid persons for the offences and crimes above named.  Wherefore in the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories and places aforesaid, such offences and crimes not without evident damage to their souls and risk of external salvation, go unpunished.

We therefore desiring, as is our duty, to remove all impediments by which in any way the said inquisitors are hindered in the exercise of their office, and to prevent the taint of heretical pravity and of other like evils from spreading their infection to the ruins of others who are innocent, the dioceses, territories and places aforesaid in the said parts of upper Germany may not be deprived of the office of the inquisition which is their due, to hereby decree by virtue of our apostolic authority, that it shall be permitted to the said inquisitors of these regions to exercise their office of inquisition and to proceed to the correction, imprisonment and punishment of the aforesaid persons for their said offences and crimes, in all respects and altogether precisely as if the provinces, cities, territories, places, persons and offences aforesaid were expressly named in the said letter.  And, for the greater sureness, extending the said letter and deputation to the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories, places, persons and crimes aforesaid, we grant to the said inquisitors that they or either of them, joining with them our beloved son Johannes Gremper, cleric of the diocese of Constance, master of arts, their present notary, or any other notary public who by them or by either of them shall have been temporarily delegated in the provinces, cities, dioceses, territories and places aforesaid, may exercise against all persons, of whatsoever condition and rank, and said office of the inquisition, correcting, imprisoning, punishing and chastising according to their deserts, those persons whom they shall find guilty as aforesaid.

And they shall also have full and entire liberty to propound and preach to the faithful the word of God, as often as it shall seem to them fitting and proper, in each and all the parish churches in the said provinces, and to do all things necessary and suitable under the aforesaid circumstances, and likewise freely and fully to carry them out.

And moreover we enjoin by apostolic writ on our venerable brother, the Bishop of Strasburg, that either in his own person or through some other or others solemnly publishing the foregoing wherever, whenever and how often so ever he may deem expedient or by these inquisitors or either of them may be legitimately required, he permit them not to be molested or hindered in any manner whatsoever by any authority whatsoever in the matter of the aforesaid and of this present letter, threatening all opposers, hinderers, contradictors and rebels of whatever rank, state, decree, eminence, nobility, excellence or condition they may be, and whatever privilege of exemption they may enjoy, with excommunication, suspension, interdict and other still more terrible sentences, censures and penalties as may be expedient, and this without appeal and with power after due process of law of aggravating and reaggravating these penalties, by our authority as often as may be necessary, and to this end calling in aid if need be of the secular arm.

And this, all other apostolic decrees and earlier decisions to the contrary notwithstanding; or if to any, jointly or severally, there has been granted by this apostolic see, exemption from interdict, suspension or excommunication, by apostolic letters not making entire, express and literal mention of the said grant of exemption; or if there exist any other indulgence whatsoever, general or special, of whatsoever tenor, by failure to name which or to insert it bodily in the present letter the carrying out of this privilege could be hindered or in any way put off, or any of whose whole tenor special mention must be made in our letters. Let no man therefore, dare to infringe this page of our declaration, extension, grant and mandate, or with rash hardihood to contradict it.  If any presume to attempt this, let him know that he incurs the wrath of almighty God and of the blessed apostles Peter and Paul.

Given in Rome at St. Peter’s in the year of Our Lord’s incarnation 1484, on the month of December, in the first year of our pontificate.