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HISTORY OF MALTA.

an inquisitor to Malta, who should decide to wh^t lengths the bi-shop’s jurisdiction should extend. The council of the order, to pre-serve its authority, exacted a promise from the sovereign pontiff,that the officer sent from the court of Rome should never act butin conjunction with the grand-master, the bishop, the prior of thechurch, and the vice-chancellor of the order; by which means thisnew tribunal was divided between the inquisitor and the principalofficers of the state. But this prudent arrangement lasted a veryshort time. The inquisitors, as will be seen in the course of this his-tory, from a spirit of emulation so common among themselves, andon pretence of maintaining the authority of the holy see, contrivedto get fresh assessors; and, in order to become absolute in their tri-bunal, endeavoured to establish a degree of dominion in the island jand frequently struggled hard to make it supercede the legitimateone. To effect this purpose, they pursued the following method:Any Maltese Avho was desirous of throwing off the authority of theorder, might address himself to the office of the inquisition, whichimmediately presented him with a brevet of independence, to whichwas given the name of patent. Those who took out this patent werecalled the patentees of the inquisition; which implied, that, in con-sequence of the said patent, they, and all their family, were underthe immediate protection of the holy see : so that, in all causes,either civil or criminal, the patentee w r as first tried in Malta, by thetribunal of the inquisition; and, if the condemned party thoughtproper to make a last appeal to the court of Rome, he was theretried a second time, by a tribunal called la Rotta: their persons, too,