It is easy, in fact, to imagine the terror into which a community would be thrown when an inquisitor suddenly descended upon it and made his proclamation. No one could know what stories might be circulating about himself, which zealous fanaticism or personal enmity might exaggerate and carry to the inquisitor, and in this orthodox and heretic would suffer alike.

All scandals passing from mouth to mouth would be brought to light. All confidence between man and woman would disappear. Old grudges would be satisfied in safety. To him who had been heretically inclined the terrible suspense would grow day by day more insupportable, with the thought that some careless word might have been treasured up to be revealed by those who ought to be nearest and dearest to him, until at last he would yield and betray others rather than be betrayed himself.

Gregory IX boasted that, on at least one occasion, parents were led to denounce their children, and children their parents, husbands their wives, and wives their husbands ... each revelation led to others, until the invisible net extended far and wide, and not the least of the benefits arising were the extensive confiscations that were sure to follow.

London, 1963, pp 124-125.