Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Chuck Greif and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at DP Europe
(http://dp.rastko.net); produced from images of the
Bibliothèque nationale de France (BNF/Gallica) at
http://gallica.bnf.fr
Typographical errors were corrected (See note the end of the etext). The
spelling of names of people or places has not been corrected or
normalized. (note of etext transcriber.)
A HISTORY OF THE INQUISITION
VOL. II
A HISTORY OF
THE INQUISITION
OF
THE MIDDLE AGES.
BY
HENRY CHARLES LEA,
AUTHOR OF
"AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF SACERDOTAL CELIBACY," "SUPERSTITION AND
FORCE," "STUDIES IN CHURCH HISTORY."
_IN THREE VOLUMES_.
VOL. II
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE.
1901
Copyright, 1887, by HARPER & BROTHERS
_All rights reserved._
CONTENTS.
BOOK II.--THE INQUISITION IN THE SEVERAL LANDS OF CHRISTENDOM.
CHAPTER I.--LANGUEDOC.
Page
Obstacles to Establishing the Inquisition 1
Progress and Zeal of the Dominicans 6
First Appointment of Inquisitors.--Tentative Proceedings 8
Popular Resistance 12
Position of Count Raymond 14
Troubles at Toulouse.--Expulsion of the Inquisition 16
Its Return and Increasing Vigor 21
Suspended from 1238 to 1241 24
Condition of the Country.--Rising of Trencavel 25
Connection between Religion and State-craft 26
Pierre Cella's Activity in 1241-1242 30
Heretic Stronghold of Montségur 34
Massacre of Avignonet.--Its Unfortunate Influence 35
Count Raymond's Last Effort.--Triumph of the Inquisition 38
Raymond Reconciled to the Church 40
Fall of Montségur.--Heresy Defenceless 42
Increased Activity of the Inquisition 44
Raymond's Persecuting Energy.--His Death 46
Desperation of the Heretics.--Intercourse with Lombardy 49
Supremacy of Inquisition.--It Attacks the Count of Foix 52
Death of Alphonse and Jeanne in 1273 56
Rise of the Royal Power.--Appeals to the King 57
Popular Discontent.--Troubles at Carcassonne 58
Philippe le Bel Intervenes.--His Fluctuating Policy 62
Renewed Troubles at Carcassonne.--Submission in 1299 67
Prosecutions at Albi, 1299-1300 71
Inquisitorial Frauds.--Case of Castel Fabri 72
Frère Bernard Délicieux 75
Renewed Troubles.--Philippe Sends Jean de Pequigny 77
Philippe Tries to Reform the Inquisition 79
Troubles at Albi.--Conflict between Church and State 82
Philippe Visits Languedoc.--His Plan of Reform 86
Despair at Carcassonne.--Treasonable Projects 88
Appeal to Clement V.--Investigation 92
Abuses Recognized.--Reforms of Council of Vienne 94
Election of John XXII. 98
The Inquisition Triumphs.--Fate of Bernard Délicieux 99
Recrudescence of Heresy.--Pierre Autier 104
Bernard Gui Extirpates Catharism 107
Case of Limoux Noir 108
Results of the Triumph of the Inquisition 109
Political Effects of Confiscation 110
CHAPTER II.--FRANCE.
Inquisition Introduced in 1233 by Frère Robert le Bugre 113
Opposed by the Prelates.--Encouraged by St. Louis 115
Robert's Insane Massacres and Punishment 116
Inquisition Organized.--Its Activity in 1248 117
Slender Records of its Proceedings 120
Paris _Auto de fé_ in 1310.--Marguerite la Porete 123
Gradual Decadence.--Case of Hugues Aubriot 125
The Parlement Assumes Superior Jurisdiction 130
The University of Paris Supplants the Inquisition 135
Moribund Activity during the Fifteenth Century 138
Attempt to Resuscitate it in 1451 140
It Falls into utter Discredit 144
The French Waldenses.--Their Number and Organization 145
Intermittent Persecution.--Their Doctrines 147
François Borel and Gregory XI. 152
Renewed Persecutions in 1432 and 1441 157
Protected by Louis XI.--Humiliation of the Inquisition 158
Alternations of Toleration and Persecution 159
CHAPTER III.--THE SPANISH PENINSULA.
ARAGON.--Unimportance of Heresy there 162
Episcopal and Lay Inquisition Tried in 1233 163
Papal Inquisition Introduced.--Navarre Included 165
Delay in Organization 167
Greater Vigor in the Fourteenth Century 169
Dispute over the Blood of Christ 171
Nicolas Eymerich 174
Separation of Majorca and Valencia 177
Decline of Inquisition 178
Resuscitation under Ferdinand the Catholic 179
CASTILE.--Inquisition not Introduced there 180
Cathari in Leon 181
Independent Legislation of Alonso the Wise 183
Persecution for Heresy Unknown 184
Case of Pedro of Osma in 1479 187
PORTUGAL.--No Effective Inquisition there 188
CHAPTER IV.--ITALY.
Political Conditions Favoring Heresy 191
Prevalence of Unconcealed Catharism 192
Development of the Waldenses 194
Popular Indifference to the Church 196
Gregory XI. Undertakes to Suppress Heresy 199
Gradual Development of Inquisition 201
Rolando da Cremona 202
Giovanni Schio da Vicenza 203
St. Peter Martyr 207
He Provokes Civil War in Florence 210
Death of Frederic II. in 1250.--Chief Obstacle Removed 213
Assassination of St. Peter Martyr.--Use Made of it 214
Rainerio Saccone 218
Triumph of the Papacy.--Organization of the Inquisition 220
Heresy Protected by Ezzelin and Uberto 223
Ezzelin Prosecuted as a Heretic.--His Death 224
Uberto Pallavicino 228
The Angevine Conquest of Naples Revolutionizes Italy 231
Triumph of Persecution 233
Sporadic Popular Opposition 237
Secret Strength of Heresy.--Case of Armanno Pongilupo 239
Power of the Inquisition.--Papal Interference 242
Naples.--Toleration Under Normans and Hohenstaufens 244
The Inquisition Under the Angevines 245
Sicily 248
Venice.--Its Independence 249
Inquisition Introduced in 1288, under State Supervision 251
Decadence of Inquisition in Fourteenth Century 253
Disappearance of the Cathari.--Persistence of the Waldenses 254
Remnants of Catharism in Corsica and Piedmont 255
Persecution of the Waldenses of Piedmont 259
Decline of the Lombard Inquisition 269
Venice.--Subjection of Inquisition to the State 273
Tuscany.--Increasing Insubordination.--Case of Piero di Aquila 275
Continued Troubles in Florence 280
Tommasino da Foligno 281
Decline of Inquisition in Central Italy 282
The Two Sicilies.--Inquisition Subordinate to the State 284
CHAPTER V.--THE SLAVIC CATHARI.
Efforts of Innocent III. and Honorius III. East of the Adriatic 290
The Mendicant Orders Undertake the Task 293
Bloody Crusades from Hungary 294
Revival of Catharism 298
Endeavors of Boniface VIII. and John XXII. 299
Fruitlessness of the Work 301
Reign of Stephen Tvrtko 303
Catharism the State Religion 305
Advance of the Turks 306
Confusion Aggravated by Persecution 307
The Cathari Aid the Turkish Conquest 313
Disappearance of Catharism 314
CHAPTER VI.--GERMANY.
Persecution of Strassburg Waldenses in 1212 316
Spread of Waldensianism in Germany 318
Mystic Pantheism.--The Amaurians and Ortlibenses 319
Brethren of the Free Spirit or Beghards.--Luciferans 323
Conrad of Marburg.--His Character and Career 325
Gregory XI. Vainly Stimulates him to Persecution 329
Gregory Commissions the Dominicans as Inquisitors 333
The Luciferan Heresy 334
Conrad's Methods and Massacres 336
Antagonism of the Prelates 338
Assembly of Mainz.--Conrad's Defeat and Murder 340
Persecution Ceases.--The German Church Antagonistic to Rome 342
The Reaction Keeps the Inquisition out of Germany 346
Waldenses and Inquisition in Passau 347
Growth of Heresy.--Virtual Toleration 348
The Beguines, Beghards, and Lollards 350
The Brethren of the Free Spirit 354
Tendency to Mysticism.--Master Eckart 358
John of Rysbroek, Gerard Groot, and the Brethren of the Common Life 360
John Tauler and the Friends of God 362
Persecution of the Brethren of the Free Spirit 367
Antagonism between Louis of Bavaria and the Papacy 377
Subservience of Charles IV.--The Black Death 378
Gregarious Enthusiasm.--The Flagellants 380
Clement VI. Condemns Them.--They Become Heretics 383
Attempts to Introduce the Inquisition.--Successful in 1369 385
Persecution of Flagellants and Beghards.--The Dancing Mania 390
Beghards and Beguines Protected by the Prelates 394
Speedy Decline of the Inquisition 395
The Waldenses.--Their Extension and Persecution 396
Renewed Persecution of the Beghards 401
William of Hilderniss, and the Men of Intelligence 405
The Flagellants.--The Brethren of the Cross 406
Triumph of the Beghards at Constance 409
Renewed Persecution 411
Hussitism in Germany.--Coalescence with Waldenses 414
Gregory of Heimburg 417
Hans of Niklaushausen 418
John von Ruchrath of Wesel 420
Decay of the Inquisition.--John Reuchlin 423
Its Impotence in the Case of Luther 425
CHAPTER VII.--BOHEMIA.
Independence of Bohemian Church.--Waldensianism 427
Inquisition Introduced in 1257.--Revived by John XXII. 428
Growth of Waldensianism.--John of Pirna 430
Conditions Favoring the Growth of Heresy.--Episcopal Inquisition 433
The Precursors of Huss 436
Wickliff and Wickliffitism 438
John Huss Becomes the Leader of Reform 444
Progress of the Revolution.--Rupture with Rome 445
Convocation of the Council of Constance 453
Motives Impelling Huss's Presence 455
His Reception and Treatment 457
His Arrest.--Question of the Safe-conduct 460
Communion in both Elements 471
The Trial of Huss.--Illustration of the Inquisitorial Process 473
Exceptional Audiences Allowed to Huss 484
Extraordinary Efforts to Procure Recantation 486
The Inevitable Condemnation and Burning 490
Indignation in Bohemia 494
Jerome of Prague.--His Trial and Execution 495
CHAPTER VIII.--THE HUSSITES.
Inquisitorial Methods Attempted in Bohemia 506
Increasing Antagonism.--Fruitless Threats of Force 508
Parties Form Themselves.--Calixtins and Taborites 511
Sigismund Succeeds to the Throne.--Failure of Negotiations 514
Crusade Preached in 1420.--Its Repulse 516
Religious Extravagance.--Pikardi, Chiliasts 517
The Four Articles of the Calixtins 519
Creed of the Taborites 522
Failure of Repeated Crusades.--The Hussites Retaliate 525
Efforts to Reform the Church.--Council of Siena 527
Council of Basle.--Negotiation with the Hussites a Necessity 530
The Four Articles the Basis.--Accepted as the "Compactata" 533
The Taborites Crushed at Lipan 535
Difficulties Caused by Rokyzana's Ambition 536
Insincere Peace.--Sigismund's Reactionary Reign and Death 538
The Calixtins Secure Control under George Podiebrad 541
Rome Disavows the Compactata.--Giacomo della Marca in Hungary 542
The Use of the Cup the Only Distinction.--Capistrano Sent as
Inquisitor 545
His Projected Hussite Crusade Impeded by the Capture of
Constantinople 551
Efforts to Resist the Turks.--Death of Capistrano at Belgrade 552
Steady Estrangement of Bohemia.--Negotiations and Attacks 555
The Compactata Maintained in Spite of Rome 559
The Bohemian Brethren Arise from the Remains of the Taborites 561
Their Union with the Waldenses 564
Their Growth and Constancy under Persecution 566
APPENDIX OF DOCUMENTS 569
THE INQUISITION.
BOOK II.
THE INQUISITION IN THE SEVERAL LANDS OF CHRISTENDOM.
CHAPTER I.
LANGUEDOC.
The men who laid the foundations of the Inquisition in Languedoc had
before them an apparently hopeless task. The whole organization and
procedure of the institution were to be developed as experience might
dictate and without precedents for guidance. Their uncertain and
undefined powers were to be exercised under peculiar difficulties.
Heresy was everywhere and all-pervading. An unknown but certainly large
portion of the population was addicted to Catharism or Waldensianism,
while even the orthodox could not, for the most part, be relied upon for
sympathy or aid. Practical toleration had existed for so many
generations, and so many families had heretic members, that the
population at large was yet to be educated in the holy horror of
doctrinal aberrations. National feeling, moreover, and the memory of
common wrongs suffered during twenty years of bitter contest with
invading soldiers of the Cross, during which Catholic and Catharan had
stood side by side in defence of the fatherland, had created the
strongest bonds of sympathy between the different sects. In the cities
the magistrates were, if not heretics, inclined to toleration and
jealous of their municipal rights and liberties. Throughout the country
many powerful nobles were avowedly or secretly heretics, and Raymond of
Toulouse himself was regarded as little better than a heretic. The
Inquisition was the symbol of a hated foreign domination which could
look for no cordial support from any of these classes. It was welcomed,
indeed, by such Frenchmen as had succeeded in planting themselves in the
land, but they were scattered, and were themselves the objects of
detestation to their neighbors. The popular feeling is voiced by the
Troubadours, who delight in expressing contempt for the French and
hostility to the friars and their methods. As Guillem de Montanagout
says: "Now have the clerks become inquisitors and condemn men at their
pleasure. I have naught against the inquests if they would but condemn
errors with soft words, lead the wanderers back to the faith without
wrath, and allow the penitent to find mercy." The bolder Pierre
Cardinal describes the Dominicans as disputing after dinner over the
quality of their wines: "They have created a court of judgment, and
whoever attacks them they declare to be a Waldensian; they seek to
penetrate into the secrets of all men, so as to render themselves
dreaded."[1]
The lands which Raymond had succeeded in retaining were, moreover,
drained by the enormous sums exacted of him in the pacification. To
enable him to meet these demands he was authorized to levy taxes on the
subjects of the Church, in spite of their immunities, and this and the
other expedients requisite for the discharge of his engagements could
not fail to excite widespread discontent with the settlement and
hostility to all that represented it. That it was hard to extort these
payments from a population exhausted by twenty years of war is manifest
when, in 1231, two years after the treaty, the Abbey of Citeaux had not
as yet received any part of the two thousand marks which were its share
of the plunder, and it was forced to agree to a settlement under which
Raymond promised to pay in annual instalments of two hundred marks,
giving as security his revenues from the manor of Marmande.[2]
The Inquisition, it is true, was at first warmly greeted by the Church,
but the Church had grown so discredited during the events of the past
half-century that its influence was less than in any other spot in
Christendom. Even in Aragon the Council of Tarragona, in 1238, felt
itself compelled to decree excommunication against those who composed or
applauded lampoons against the clergy. The abuse of the interdict had
grown to such proportions that Innocent IV., in 1243, and again in 1245,
was obliged to forbid its employment throughout southern France, in all
places suspected of heresy, because it afforded to heretics so manifold
an occasion of asserting that it was used for private interests, and not
for the salvation of souls. During the troubles which followed after the
crusade of Louis VIII. the bishops had taken advantage of the confusion
to seize many lands to which they had no claim, and this involved them
in endless quarrels with the royal fisc in the territories which fell to
the king, while in those which remained to Raymond, the pious St. Louis
was forced to interfere to obtain for him a restoration of what they
obstinately refused to surrender. The Church itself was so deeply
tainted with heresy that the faithful were scandalized at seeing the
practical immunity enjoyed by heretical clerks, owing to the difficulty
of assembling a sufficient number of bishops to officiate at their
degradation, and Gregory IX. felt it necessary, in 1233, to decree that
in such cases a single bishop, with some of his abbots, should have
power to deprive them of holy orders and deliver them to the secular arm
to be burned--a provision which he subsequently embodied in the canon
law. Innocent IV., moreover, in 1245, felt called upon to order his
legate in Languedoc to see that no one suspected of heresy was elected
or consecrated as bishop. On the other hand, priests who were zealous in
aiding the Inquisition sometimes found that the enmities thus excited
rendered it impossible for them to reside in their parishes, as occurred
in the case of Guillem Pierre, a priest of Narbonne, in 1246, who on
this account was allowed to employ a vicar and to hold a plurality of
benefices. About the same time Innocent IV. felt obliged to express his
surprise that the prelates disobeyed his repeated commands to assist the
Inquisition; he has trustworthy information that they neglect to do so,
and he threatens them roundly with his displeasure unless they manifest
greater zeal. Bernard Gui, indeed, speaks of the bishops who favored
Count Raymond as among the craftiest and most dangerous enemies of the
inquisitors. The natural antagonism between the Mendicants and the
secular clergy was, moreover, increased by the pretension of the
inquisitors to supervise the priesthood and see that they performed
their neglected duty in all that pertained to the extension of the
faith. That under such circumstances the Dominicans employed in the
pious work should suffer constant molestation scarce needs the
explanation given by the pope that it was through the influence of the
Arch Enemy.[3]
Another serious impediment to the operations of the Inquisition lay in
the absence of places of detention for those accused and of prisons for
those condemned. We have already seen how the bishops shirked their duty
in providing jails for the multitudes of prisoners until St. Louis was
obliged to step in and construct them, and during this prolonged
interval the sentences of the inquisitors show, in the number of
contumacious absentees after a preliminary hearing, how impossible it
often was to retain hold of heretics who had been arrested.[4]
To undertake, in such an environment, the apparently hopeless task of
suppressing heresy required men of exceptional character, and they were
not wanting. Repulsive as their acts must seem to us, we cannot refuse
to them the tribute due to their fearless fanaticism. No labor was too
arduous for their unflagging zeal, no danger too great for their
unshrinking courage. Regarding themselves as elected to perform God's
work, they set about it with a sublime self-confidence which lifted them
above the weakness of humanity. As the mouthpiece of God, the mendicant
friar, who lived on charity, spoke to prince and people with all the
awful authority of the Church, and exacted obedience or punished
contumacy unhesitatingly and absolutely. Such men as Pierre Cella,
Guillem Arnaud, Arnaud Catala, Ferrer the Catalan, Pons de Saint-Gilles,
Pons de l'Esparre, and Bernard de Caux, bearded prince and prelate, were
as ready to endure as merciless to inflict, were veritable Maccabees in
the internecine strife with heresy, and yet were kind and pitiful to the
miserable and overflowing with tears in their prayers and discourses.
They were the culminating development of the influences which produced
the Church Militant of the Middle Ages, and in their hands the
Inquisition was the most effective instrument whereby it maintained its
supremacy. A secondary result was the complete subjugation of the South
to the King of Paris, and its unification with the rest of France.
If the faithful had imagined that the Treaty of 1229 had ended the
contest with heresy they were quickly undeceived. The blood-money for
the capture of heretics, promised by Count Raymond, was indeed paid when
earned, for the Inquisition undertook to see that this was done, but the
earning of it was dangerous. Nobles and burghers alike protected and
defended the proscribed class, and those who hunted them were slain
without mercy when occasion offered. The heretics continued as numerous
as ever, and we have already seen the fruitless efforts put forth by the
Cardinal Legate Romano and the Council of Toulouse. Even the university
which Raymond bound himself to establish in Toulouse for the propagation
of the faith, though it subsequently performed its work, was at first a
failure. Learned theologians were brought from Paris to fill its chairs,
but their scholastic subtleties were laughed at by the mocking Southrons
as absurd novelties, and the heretics were bold enough to contend with
them in debate. After a few years Raymond neglected to continue the
stipends, and for a time the university was suspended.[5]
The most encouraging feature of the situation, one, indeed, full of
promise, was the steady progress of the Dominican Order. It had outgrown
the modest Church of St. Romano, bestowed upon it by Bishop Foulques;
and in 1230 the piety of a prominent burgher of Toulouse, Pons de
Capdenier, provided for it more commodious quarters in an extensive
garden, situated partly in the city and partly in the suburbs. The
inmates of the convent, some forty in number, were always ready to
furnish champions of the Cross, whose ardent zeal shrank from neither
toil nor peril; and when, in 1232, the fanatic Bishop Foulques died and
was succeeded by the yet more fiery fanatic, the Dominican Provincial
Raymond du Fauga, the Order was fully prepared to enter upon the
exterminating war with heresy which was to last for a hundred years.[6]
The eager zeal of the friars did not wait to be armed with the organized
authorization of inquisitorial powers. Their leading duty was to combat
heresy, and their assaults on it were unintermitting. In 1231 a friar,
in a sermon, declared that Toulouse was full of heretics, who held their
assemblies there and disseminated their errors without hindrance.
Already the magistrates seem to have looked askance on these pious
efforts, for this assertion was made the occasion of a decided attempt
at repression. The consuls of the city met and summoned before them, in
the capitole, or town-hall, the prior, Pierre d'Alais. There they
roundly scolded and threatened him, declaring that it was false to
assert the existence of heresy in the town, and forbidding such
utterances for the future. Trivial as was the occurrence, it has
interest as the commencement of the ill-will between the authorities of
Toulouse and the Inquisition, and as illustrating the sense of municipal
pride and independence still cherished in the cities of the South. It
required but a few years' struggle to trammel the civic liberties which
had held their own against feudalism, but which could not stand against
the subtler despotism of the Church.[7]
Even thus early Dominican ardor refused to be thus restrained. Master
Roland of Cremona, noted as the first Dominican licentiate of the
University of Paris, who had been brought to Toulouse to teach theology
in the infant University, was scandalized when he heard of the insolent
language of the consuls, and exclaimed that it was only a fresh
incentive to preach against heresy more bitterly than ever. He set the
example in this, and was eagerly followed by many of the brethren. He
soon, too, had an opportunity of proving the falsity of the consuls'
disclaimer. It transpired that Jean Pierre Donat, a canon of the ancient
Church of Saint Sernin, who had recently died and been buried in the
cloister, had been secretly hereticated on his death-bed. Without
authority, and apparently without legal investigation, Master Roland
assembled some friars and clerks, exhumed the body from the cloister,
dragged it through the streets, and publicly burned it. Soon afterwards
he heard of the death of a prominent Waldensian minister named Galvan.
After stirring up popular passion in a sermon, he marched at the head of
a motley mob to the house where the heretic had died and levelled it to
the ground; then proceeding to the Cemetery of Villeneuve, where the
body was interred, he dug it up and dragged it through the city,
accompanied by an immense procession, to the public place of execution
beyond the walls, where it was solemnly burned.[8]
All this was volunteer persecution. The episcopal court was as yet the
only tribunal having power to act in such matters, and it, as we have
seen, could only authorize the secular arm to do its duty in the final
execution. Yet the episcopal court seems to have been in no way invoked
in these proceedings, and no protest is recorded as having been uttered
against such irregular enforcements of the law by the mob. There was, in
fact, no organization for the steady repression of heresy. Bishop
Raymond appears to have satisfied himself with an occasional raid
against heretics outside of the city, and to have allowed those within
it virtual immunity under the protection of the consuls, though he had,
in virtue of his office, all the powers requisite for the purpose, and
the machinery for their effective use could have readily been developed.
No permanent results were to be expected from fitful bursts of zeal, and
the suppression of heresy might well seem to be as far off as ever.
Urgent as was evidently the need of some organized body devoted
exclusively to persecution, the appointment of the first inquisitors,
in 1233, seems not to have been regarded as possessing any special
significance. It was merely an experiment, from which no great results
were anticipated. Frère Guillem Pelisson, who shared in the labors and
perils of the nascent Inquisition, and who enthusiastically chronicled
them, evidently does not consider it as an innovation worthy of
particular attention. It was so natural an evolution from the
interaction of the forces and materials of the period, and its future
importance was so little suspected, that he passes over its founding as
an incident of less moment than the succession to the Priory of
Toulouse. "Frère Pons de Saint Gilles," he says, "was made Prior of
Toulouse, who bore himself manfully and effectively for the faith
against the heretics, together with Frère Pierre Cella of Toulouse and
Frère Guillem Arnaud of Montpellier, whom the lord pope made inquisitors
against the heretics in the dioceses of Toulouse and Cahors. Also, the
Legate Archbishop of Vienne made Frère Arnaud Catala, who was then of
the Convent of Toulouse, inquisitor against the heretics." Thus
colorless is the only contemporary account of the establishment of the
Holy Office.[9]
How little the functions of these new officials were at first understood
is manifested by an occurrence, which is also highly suggestive of the
tension of public feeling. In a quarrel between two citizens, one of
them, Bernard Peitevin, called the other, Bernard de Solier, a heretic.
This was a dangerous reputation to have, and the offended man summoned
his antagonist before the consuls. The heretical party, we are told, had
obtained the upper hand in Toulouse, and the magistrates were all either
sympathizers with or believers in heresy. Bernard Peitevin was condemned
to exile for a term of years, to pay a fine both to the complainant and
to the city, and to swear publicly in the town-hall that he had lied,
and that de Solier was a good Catholic. The sentence was a trifle
vindictive, and Peitevin sought counsel of the Dominicans, who
recommended him to appeal to the bishop. Episcopal jurisdiction in such
a matter was perhaps doubtful, but Raymond du Fauga entertained the
appeal. A few years later, if any cognizance had been taken of the case
it would have been by the Inquisition, but now the inquisitors, Pierre
Cella and Guillem Arnaud, appeared as advocates of the appellant in the
bishop's court, and so clearly proved de Solier's heresy that the
miserable wretch fled to Lombardy.[10]
Similar indefiniteness of procedure is visible in the next attempt. The
inquisitors, Pierre and Guillem, began to make an inquest through the
city, and cited numerous suspects, all of whom found defenders among the
chief citizens. The hearings took place before them, but seem as yet to
have been in public. One of the accused, named Jean Teisseire, asserted
himself to be a good Catholic because he had no scruples in maintaining
marital relations with his wife, in eating flesh, and in lying and
swearing, and he warned the crowd that they were liable to the same
charge, and that it would be wiser for them to make common cause than to
abandon him. When he was condemned, and the viguier, the official
representative of the count, was about to conduct him to the stake, so
threatening a clamor arose that the prisoner was hurried to the bishop's
prison, still proclaiming his orthodoxy. Intense excitement pervaded the
city, and menaces were freely uttered to destroy the Dominican convent
and to stone all the friars, who were accused of persecuting the
innocent. While in prison Teisseire pretended to fall mortally sick, and
asked for the sacraments; but when the bailli of Lavaur brought to
Toulouse some perfected heretics and delivered them to the bishop,
Teisseire allowed himself to be hereticated by them in prison, and grew
so ardent in the faith under their exhortations that when they were
taken out for examination he accompanied them, declaring that he would
share their fate. The bishop assembled the magistrates and many
citizens, in whose presence he examined the prisoners. They were all
condemned, including Teisseire, who obstinately refused to recant, and
no further opposition was offered when they were all duly burned.[11]
Here we see the inquisitorial jurisdiction completely subordinate to
that of the bishop, but when the inquisitors soon afterwards left
Toulouse to hold inquests elsewhere they acted with full independence.
At Cahors we hear nothing of the Bishop of Querci taking part in the
proceedings under which they condemned a number of the dead, exhuming
and burning their bodies, and inspiring such fear that a prominent
believer, Raymond de Broleas, fled to Rome. At Moissac they condemned
Jean du Gard, who fled to Montségur, and they cited a certain Folquet,
who, in terror, entered the convent of Belleperche as a Cistercian monk,
and, finding that this was of no avail, finally fled to Lombardy.
Meanwhile Frère Arnaud Catala and our chronicler, Guillem Pelisson,
descended upon Albi, where they penanced a dozen citizens by ordering
them to Palestine, and in conjunction with another inquisitor, Guillem
de Lombers, burned two heretics, Pierre de Puechperdut and Pierre
Bomassipio.[12]
The absence of the inquisitors from Toulouse made no difference in the
good work, for their duties were assumed by their prior, Pons de
Saint-Gilles. Under what authority he acted is not stated, but we find
him, in conjunction with another friar, trying and condemning a certain
Arnaud Sancier, who was burned, in spite of his protests to the last
that he was a good Catholic, causing great agitation in the city, but no
tumultuous uprising.[13]
The terror which Pelisson boasts that these proceedings spread through
the land was probably owing not only to the evidence they afforded of an
organized system of persecution, but also to their introduction of a
much more effective method of prosecution than had heretofore been
known. The "heretic," so called, was the perfected teacher who
disdained to deny his faith, and his burning was accepted by all as a
matter of course, as also was that of the "credens," or believer, who
was defiantly contumacious and persisted in admitting and adhering to
his creed. Hitherto, however, the believer who professed orthodoxy seems
generally to have escaped, in the imperfection of the judicial means of
proving his guilt. The friars, trained in the subtleties of disputation
and learned in both civil and canon law, were specially fitted for the
detection of this particularly dangerous secret misbelief, and their
persistence in worrying their victims to the death was well calculated
to spread alarm, not only among the guilty, but among the innocent.
How reasonable were the fears inspired by the speedy informality of the
justice accorded to the heretic is well illustrated by a case occurring
in 1234. When the canonization of St. Dominic was announced in Toulouse
it was celebrated in a solemn mass performed by Bishop Raymond in the
Dominican convent. St. Dominic, however, desired to mark the occasion
with some more edifying manifestation of his peculiar functions, and
caused word to be brought to the bishop, as the latter was leaving the
church for the refectory to partake of a meal, that a woman had just
been hereticated in a house hard by, in the Rue de l'Olmet sec. The
bishop, with the prior and some others, hurried thither. It was the
house of Peitavin Borsier, the general messenger of the heretics of
Toulouse, whose mother-in-law lay dying of fever. So sudden was the
entrance of the intruders that the woman's friends could only tell her
"the bishop is coming," and she, who expected a visit from the heretic
bishop, was easily led on by Raymond to make a full declaration of her
heresy and to pledge herself to be steadfast in it. Then, revealing
himself, he ordered her to recant, and, on her refusal, he summoned the
viguier, condemned her as a heretic, and had the satisfaction of seeing
the dying creature carried off on her bed and burned at the place of
execution. Borsier and his colleague, Bernard Aldric of Drémil, were
captured, and betrayed many of their friends; and then Raymond and the
friars returned to their neglected dinner, giving thanks to God and to
St. Dominic for so signal a manifestation in favor of the faith.[14]
The ferocious exultation with which these extra-judicial horrors were
perpetrated is well reflected in a poem of the period by Isarn, the
Dominican Prior of Villemier. He represents himself as disputing with
Sicard de Figueras, a Catharan bishop, and each of his theological
arguments is clinched with a threat--
"E' s'aquest no vols creyre vec te 'l foc aizinat
Que art tos companhos,
Aras vuelh que m'respondas en un mot o en dos,
Si cauziras et foc o remanras ab nos."
"If you will not believe this, look at that raging fire which is
consuming your comrades. Now I wish you to reply to me in one word or
two, for you will burn in the fire or join us." Or again, "If you do
not confess at once, the flames are already lighted; your name is
proclaimed throughout the city with the blast of trumpets, and the
people are gathering to see you burn." In this terrible poem, Isarn
only turned into verse what he felt in his own heart, and what he saw
passing under his eyes almost daily.[15]
As the holy work assumed shape and its prospects of results grew more
encouraging, the zeal of the hunters of men increased, while the fear
and hatred of the hunted became more threatening. On both sides passion
was fanned into flame. Already, in 1233, two Dominicans, sent to Cordes
to seek out heretics, had been slain by the terrified citizens. At Albi
the people, excited by the burning of the two heretics already referred
to, rose, June 14, 1234, when Arnaud Catala ordered the episcopal bailli
to dig up the bones of a heretic woman named Beissera whom he had
condemned. The bailli sent back word that he dared not do it. Arnaud
left the episcopal synod in which he was sitting, coolly went to the
cemetery, himself gave the first strokes of the mattock, and then,
ordering the officials to proceed with the work, returned to the synod.
The officials quickly rushed after him, saying that they had been
ejected from the burial-ground by the mob. Arnaud returned and found it
occupied by a crowd of howling sons of Belial, who quickly closed in on
him, striking him in the face and pummelling him on all sides, with
shouts of "Kill him! he has no right to live!" Some endeavored to drag
him into the shops hard by to slay him; others wished to throw him into
the river Tarn, but he was rescued and taken back to the synod, followed
by a mass of men fiercely shouting for his death. The whole city,
indeed, seemed to be of one mind, and many of the principal burghers
were leaders of the tumult. It is satisfactory to learn that, although
Arnaud mercifully withdrew the excommunication which he launched at the
rebellious city, his successor, Frère Ferrer, wrought the judgment of
God upon the guilty, imprisoning many of them and burning others.[16]
In Narbonne disturbances arose even more serious, although special
inquisitors had not yet been sent there. In March, 1234, the Dominican
prior, François Ferrer, undertook a volunteer inquisition and threw in
prison a citizen named Raymond d'Argens. Fifteen years previous the
artisans of the suburb had organized a confederation for mutual support
called the Amistance, and this body arose as one man and forcibly
rescued the prisoner. The archbishop, Pierre Amiel, and the viscount,
Aimery of Narbonne, undertook to rearrest him, but found his house
guarded by the Amistance, which rushed upon their followers with shouts
of "Kill! kill!" and drove them away after a brief skirmish, in which
the prior was badly handled. The archbishop had recourse to
excommunication and interdict, but to little purpose, for the Amistance
seized his domains and drove him from the city. Both sides sought
allies. Gregory IX. appealed to King Jayme of Aragon, while a complaint
from the consuls of Narbonne to those of Nimes looks as though they were
endeavoring to effect a confederation of the cities against the
Inquisition, of whose arbitrary and illegal methods of procedure they
give abundant details. A kind of truce was patched up in October, but
the troubles recommenced when the prior, in obedience to an order from
his provincial, undertook a fresh inquisition, and made a number of
arrests. In December a suspension was obtained by the citizens appealing
to the pope, the king, and the legate, but in 1235 the people rose
against the Dominicans, drove them from the city, sacked their convent,
and destroyed all the records of the proceedings against heresy.
Archbishop Pierre had cunningly separated the city from the suburb,
about equal in population, by confining the inquisition to the latter,
and this bore fruit in his securing the armed support of the former. The
suburb placed itself under the protection of Count Raymond, who, nothing
loath to aggravate the trouble, came there and gave to the people as
leaders Olivier de Termes and Guiraud de Niort, two notorious defenders
of heretics. A bloody civil war broke out between the two sections,
which lasted until April, 1237, when a truce for a year was agreed upon.
In the following August the Count of Toulouse and the Seneschal of
Carcassonne were called in as arbitrators, and in March, 1238, a peace
was concluded. That the Church triumphed is shown by the conditions
which imposed upon some of the participators in the troubles a year's
service in Palestine or against the Moors of Spain.[17]
In Toulouse, the centre both of heresy and persecution, in spite of
mutterings and menaces, open opposition to the Inquisition was postponed
longer than elsewhere. Although Count Raymond is constantly represented
by the Church party as the chief opponent of the Holy Office, it was
probably his influence that succeeded in staving off so long the
inevitable rupture. Hard experience from childhood could scarce have
rendered him a fervent Catholic, yet that experience had shown him that
the favor and protection of the Church were indispensable if he would
retain the remnant of territory and power that had been left to him. He
could not as yet be at heart a persecutor of heresy, yet he could not
afford to antagonize the Church. It was important for him to retain the
love and good-will of his subjects and to prevent the desolation of his
cities and lordships, but it was yet more important for him to escape
the stigma of favoring heresy, and to avoid calling down upon his head a
renewal of the storm in which he had been so nearly wrecked. Few princes
have had a more difficult part to play, with dangers besetting him on
every side, and if he earned the reputation of a trimmer without
religious convictions, that reputation and his retention of his position
till his death are perhaps the best proof of the fundamental wisdom
which guided his necessarily tortuous course. Pierre Cardinal, the
Troubadour, describes him as defending himself from the assaults of the
worst of men, as fearing neither the Frenchman nor the ecclesiastic, and
as humble only with the good.[18]
He was always at odds with his prelates. Intricate questions with regard
to the temporalities were a constant source of quarrel, and he lived
under a perpetual reduplication of excommunications, for he had been so
long under the ban of the Church that no bishop hesitated for a moment
in anathematizing him. Then, one of the conditions of the treaty of 1229
had been that within two years he should proceed to Palestine and wage
war there with the infidel for five years. The two years had passed away
without his performing the vow; the state of the country at no time
seemed to render so prolonged an absence safe, and for years a leading
object of his policy was to obtain a postponement of his crusade or
immunity for the non-observance of his vow. Moreover, from the date of
the peace of Paris until the end of his life he earnestly and vainly
endeavored to obtain from Rome permission for the sepulture of his
father's body. These complications crippled him in multitudinous ways
and exposed him to immense disadvantage in his fencing with the
hierarchy.
As early as 1230 he was taxed by the legate with inobservance of the
conditions of the peace, and was forced to promise amendment of his
ways. In 1232 we see Gregory IX. imperiously ordering him to be
energetic in the duty of persecution, and, possibly in obedience to
this, during the same year, we find him personally accompanying Bishop
Raymond of Toulouse in a nocturnal expedition among the mountains, which
was rewarded with the capture of nineteen perfected heretics, male and
female, including one of their most important leaders, Pagan, Seigneur
de Bécède, whose castle we saw captured in 1227. All these expiated
their errors at the stake. Yet not long afterwards the Bishop of
Tournay, as papal legate, assembled the prelates of Languedoc and
formally cited Raymond before King Louis to answer for his slackness in
carrying out the provisions of the treaty. The result of this was the
drawing up of severe enactments against heretics, which he was obliged
to promulgate in February, 1234. In spite of this, and of a letter from
Gregory to the bishops ordering them no longer to excommunicate him so
freely as before, he was visited within a twelvemonth with two fresh
excommunications, for purely temporal causes. Then came fresh urgency
from the pope for the extirpation of heresy, with which Raymond
doubtless made a show of compliance, as his heart was bent on obtaining
from Rome a restoration of the Marquisate of Provence. In this he was
strongly backed by King Louis, whose brother Alfonse was to be Raymond's
heir, and towards the close of the year he sought an interview with
Gregory and succeeded in effecting it. His reconciliation with the
papacy appeared to be complete. His military reputation stood high, and
Gregory made use of his visit to confide to him the leadership of the
papal troops in a campaign against the rebellious citizens of Rome, who
had expelled the head of the Church from their city. Though he did not
succeed in restoring the pope, they parted on the best of terms, and he
returned to Toulouse as a favored son of the Church, ready on all points
to obey her behests.[19]
There he found matters rapidly approaching a crisis which tested to the
utmost his skill in temporizing. Passions on both sides were rising to
an uncontrollable point. At Easter, 1235, the promise of grace for
voluntary confession brought forward such crowds of penitent heretics
that the Dominicans were insufficient to take their testimony, and were
obliged to call in the aid of the Franciscans and of all the parish
priests of the city. Encouraged by this, the prior, Pons de
Saint-Gilles, commenced to seize those who had not come forward
spontaneously. Among these was a certain Arnaud Dominique, who, to save
his life, promised to betray eleven heretics residing in a house at
Cassers. This he fulfilled, though four of them escaped through the aid
of the neighboring peasants, and he was set at liberty. The
long-suffering of the heretics, however, was at last exhausted, and
shortly afterwards he was murdered in his bed at Aigrefeuille by the
friends of those whom he had thus sacrificed. Still more significant of
the dangerous tension of popular feeling was a mob which, under the
guidance of two leading citizens, forcibly rescued Pierre-Guillem Delort
from the hands of the viguier and of the Abbot of Saint-Sernin, who had
arrested him and were conveying him to prison. The situation was
becoming unbearable, and soon the ceremony of dragging through the
streets and burning the bodies of some dead heretics aroused an
agitation so general and so menacing that Count Raymond was sent for in
hopes that his interposition might avert the most deplorable
consequences. Thus far, although perhaps somewhat lacking in alacrity of
persecution, no serious charges could be laid against him. His
officials, his baillis and viguiers, had responded to all appeals of the
inquisitors and had lent the aid of the secular arm in seizing heretics,
in burning them, and in confiscating their property. Yet when he came to
Toulouse and begged the inquisitors to suspend for a time the vigor of
their operations he was not listened to. Then he turned to the papal
legate, Jean, Archbishop of Vienne, complaining specially of Pierre
Cella, whom he considered to be inspired with personal enmity to
himself, and whom he regarded as the chief author of the troubles. His
request that Cella's operations should be confined to Querci was
granted. That inquisitor was sent to Cahors, where, with the assistance
of Pons Delmont and Guillem Pelisson he vigorously traversed the land
and forced multitudes to confess their guilt.[20]
This expedient was of no avail. Persecution continued as aggressive as
ever, and popular indignation steadily rose. The inevitable crisis soon
came which should determine whether the Inquisition should sink into
insignificance, as had been the case with so many previous efforts, or
whether it should triumph over all opposition and become the dominating
power in the land.
Guillem Arnaud was in no way abashed by the banishment of his colleague.
Returning from a brief absence at Carcassonne, of which more anon, he
summoned for trial as believers twelve of the leading citizens of
Toulouse, one of them a consul. They refused to appear, and threatened
him with violence unless he should desist. On his persisting, word was
sent him, with the assent of Count Raymond, that he must either leave
the city or abandon his functions as inquisitor. He took council with
his Dominican brethren, when it was unanimously agreed that he should
proceed manfully in his duty. The consuls then ejected him by force from
the city; he was accompanied to the bridge over the Garonne by all the
friars, and as he departed the consuls recorded a protest to the effect
that if he would desist from the inquisition he could remain; otherwise,
in the name of the count and in their own, they ordered him to leave the
city. He went to Carcassonne, whence he ordered the Prior of
Saint-Étienne and the parish priests to repeat the citations to the
parties already summoned. This order was bravely obeyed in spite of
threats, when the consuls sent for the prior and priests, and after
keeping them in the town-hall part of a night, expelled them from the
town, and publicly proclaimed that any one daring to repeat the
citations should be put to death, and that any one obeying the summons
of an inquisitor should answer for it in body and goods. Another
proclamation followed, in which the name of Count Raymond was used,
prohibiting that any one should give or sell anything to the bishop, the
Dominicans, or the canons of Saint-Étienne. This forced the bishop to
leave the city, as we are told that no one dared even to bake a loaf of
bread for him, and the populace, moreover, invaded his house, beat his
clerks, and stole his horses. The Dominicans fared better, for they had
friends hardy enough to supply them with necessaries, and when the
consuls posted guards around their house, still bread and cheese and
other food was thrown over their walls in spite of the arrest of some of
those engaged in it. Their principal suffering was from lack of water,
which had to be brought from the Garonne, and as this source of supply
was cut off, they were unable to boil their vegetables. For three weeks
they thus exultingly endured their martyrdom in a holy cause. Matters
became more serious when the indomitable Guillem Arnaud sent from
Carcassonne a letter to the prior saying, that as no one dared to cite
the contumacious citizens, he was forced to order two of the friars to
summon them to appear before him personally in Carcassonne to answer for
their faith, and that two others must accompany them as witnesses.
Tolling the convent bell, the prior assembled the brethren, and said to
them with a joyful countenance: "Brethren, rejoice, for I must send
four of you through martyrdom to the throne of the Most High. Such are
the commands of our brother, Guillem the inquisitor, and whoever obeys
them will be slain on the spot, as threatened by the consuls. Let those
who are ready to die for Christ ask pardon." With a common impulse the
whole body cast themselves on the ground, which was the Dominican form
of asking pardon, and the prior selected four, Raymond de Foix, Jean de
Saint-Michel, Gui de Navarre, and Guillem Pelisson. These intrepidly
performed their duty, even penetrating when necessary into the
bed-chambers of the accused. Only in one house were they ill-treated,
and even there, when the sons of the person cited drew knives upon them,
the bystanders interfered.
There was evidently nothing to be done with men who thus courted
martyrdom. To gratify them would be suicidal, and the consuls decided to
expel them. On being informed of this the prior distributed among trusty
friends the books and sacred vessels and vestments of the convent. The
next day (Nov. 5 or 6, 1235) the friars, after mass, sat down to their
simple meal, during which the consuls came with a great crowd and
threatened to break in the door. The friars marched in procession to
their church, where they took their seats, and when the consuls entered
and commanded them to depart they refused. Then each was seized and
violently led forth, two of them who threw themselves on the ground near
the door being picked up by the hands and feet and carried out. Thus
they were accompanied through the town, but not otherwise maltreated,
and they turned the affair into a procession, marching two by two and
singing Te Deum and Salve Regina. At first they went to a farm belonging
to the church of Saint-Étienne, but the consuls posted guards to see
that nothing was furnished to them, and the next day the prior
distributed them among the convents of the province. That the whole
affair enlisted for them the sympathies of the faithful was shown by two
persons of consideration joining them and entering the Order while it
was going on.[21]
It is significant of the position which Guillem Arnaud's steadfastness
had already won for his office that to him was conceded the vindication
of this series of outrages on the immunity of the Church. Bishop Raymond
had joined him in Carcassonne without anathematizing the authors of his
exile, but now the anathema promptly went forth, November 10, 1235,
uttered by the inquisitor with the names of the Bishops of Toulouse and
Carcassonne appended as assenting witnesses. It was confined to the
consuls, but Count Raymond was not allowed to escape the responsibility.
The excommunication was sent to the Franciscans of Toulouse for
publication, and when they obeyed they too were expelled, in no gentle
fashion, and the rebellious city was virtually left without
ecclesiastics. Further excommunications followed, now including the
count, and Prior Pons de Saint-Gilles hastened to Italy to pour the
story of his woes into the sympathizing ears of the pope and the sacred
college. Gregory assailed the count as the chief offender. A minatory
brief of April 28, 1236, addressed to him, is couched in the severest
language. He is held responsible for the audacious acts of the consuls;
he is significantly reminded of the unperformed vow of the crusade; not
only has he failed to extirpate heresy according to his pledges, but he
is a manifest fautor and protector of heretics; his favorites and
officers are suspect of heresy; he protects those who have been
condemned; his lands are a place of refuge for those flying from
persecution elsewhere, so that heresy is daily spreading and conversions
from Catholicism are frequent, while zealous churchmen seeking to
restrain them are slain and abused with impunity. All this he is
peremptorily ordered to correct and to sail with his knights to the Holy
Land in the "general passage" of the following March. It scarcely
needed the reminder, which the pope did not spare him, of the labors
which the Church and its Crusaders had undergone to purge his lands of
heresy. He had too keen a recollection of the abyss from which he had
escaped to risk another plunge. He had gone as far as he dared in the
effort to protect his subjects, and it were manifest folly to draw upon
his head and theirs another inroad of the marauders whom the pope with a
word could let loose upon him to earn salvation with the sword.[22]
The epistle to Raymond was accompanied with one to the legate,
instructing him to compel the count to make amends and perform the
crusade. To Frederic II. he wrote forbidding him to call on Raymond for
feudal services, as the count was under excommunication and virtually a
heretic, to which the emperor replied, reasonably enough, that, so long
as Raymond enjoyed possession of fiefs held under the empire,
excommunication should not confer on him the advantage of release from
their burdens. King Louis was also appealed to and was urged to hasten
the marriage between his brother Alfonse and Raymond's daughter Jeanne.
With the spectre of all Europe in arms looming up before him Raymond
could do nothing but yield. When, therefore, the legate summoned him to
meet the inquisitors at Carcassonne he meekly went there and conferred
with them and the bishops. The conference ended with his promise to
return the bishop and friars and clergy to Toulouse, and this promise he
kept. The friars were duly reinstated September 4, after ten months of
exile. That Guillem Arnaud returned with them is a matter of course.[23]
Pierre Cella was still restricted to his diocese of Querci, and as
Guillem required a colleague, a concession was made to popular feeling
by the legate in appointing a Franciscan, it being imagined that the
comparative mildness of that Order might serve to modify the hatred felt
towards the Dominicans. The post was conferred on the provincial
minister, Jean de Notoyra, but his other duties were too engrossing, and
he substituted Frère Étienne de Saint-Thibery, who had the reputation of
being a modest and courteous man. If hopes were entertained that thus
the severity of the Inquisition would be tempered, they were
disappointed. The two men worked cordially together, with a single
purpose and perfect unanimity.[24]
Guillem Arnaud's activity was untiring. During his exile in Carcassonne
he occupied himself with the trial of the Seigneur de Niort, whom he
sentenced in February or March, 1236.[25] In the early months of 1237 we
hear of him in Querci, co-operating with Pierre Cella in harrying the
heretics of Montauban. During his absence there occurred a crowning
mercy in Toulouse, which threw the heretics into a spasm of terror and
contributed greatly to their destruction. Raymond Gros, who had been a
perfected heretic for more than twenty years, one of the most loved and
trusted leaders of the sect, was suddenly converted. Tradition relates
that a quarter of a century before he had been seized and consigned to
the stake, when the prophetic spirit of St. Dominic, foreseeing that he
would return to the Church and perform shining service in the cause of
God, rescued him from the flames. On April 2, without heralding, he
presented himself at the Dominican convent, humbly begged to be received
into the Church, and promised to do whatever should be required of him.
With the eagerness of an impassioned convert he proceeded to reveal all
that lifelong intercourse with the Cathari had brought to his knowledge.
So full were his recollections that several days were required to write
down all the names and facts that crowded to his lips. The lists were
long and embraced prominent nobles and citizens, confirming suspicion in
many cases, and revealing heresy in other quarters where it was wholly
unlooked for.
Guillem Arnaud hurried back from Montauban to take full advantage of
this act of Providence. The heretics were stunned. None of them dared to
deny the truth of the accusations made by Raymond Gros. Many fled, some
of whose names reappear in the massacre of Avignonet and the final
catastrophe of Montségur. Many recanted and furnished further
revelations. Long lists were made out of those who had been hereticated
on their death-beds, and multitudes of corpses were exhumed and burned,
with the resultant harvest of confiscations. It is difficult to
exaggerate the severity of the blow thus received by heresy. Toulouse
was its headquarters. Here were the nobles and knights, the consuls and
rich burghers who had thus far defied scrutiny and had protected their
less fortunate comrades. Now scattered and persecuted, forced to recant,
or burned, the power of the secret organization was broken irrevocably.
We can well appreciate the pious exultation of the chronicler as he
winds up his account of the consternation and destruction thus visited
upon the heretical community--"Their names are not written in the Book
of Life, but their bodies here were burned and their souls are tortured
in hell!" A single sentence of February 19, 1238, in which more than
twenty penitents were consigned _en masse_ to perpetual imprisonment,
shows the extent of the harvest and the haste of the harvesters.[26]
The Inquisition thus had overcome the popular horror which its
proceedings had excited; it had braved the shock and triumphed over the
opposition of the secular authorities, and had planted itself firmly in
the soil. After the harvest had been gathered in Toulouse it was evident
to the indefatigable activity of the inquisitors that they could best
perform their functions by riding circuit and holding assizes in all the
towns subject to their jurisdiction, and this was represented as a
concession to avert the complaints of those who deemed it a hardship to
be summoned to distant places. Their incessant labors began to tell.
Heretics were leaving the lands of Raymond at last and seeking a refuge
elsewhere. Possibly some of them found it in the domains which had
fallen to the crown, for in this year we find Gregory scolding the royal
officials for their slackness of zeal in executing sentences against
powerful heretics. Elsewhere, however, there was no rest for them. In
Provence this year Pons de l'Esparre made himself conspicuous for the
energy and effectiveness with which he confounded the enemies of the
faith; while Montpellier, alarmed at the influx of heretics and their
success in propagating their errors, appealed to Gregory to favor them
with some assistance that should effectively resist the rising tide, and
Gregory at once ordered his legate Jean de Vienne to go thither and take
the necessary measures.[27]
The progress of the Inquisition, however, was not destined to be
uninterrupted. Count Raymond, apparently reckless of the numerous
excommunications under which he lay, so far from sailing for Palestine
in March, had seized Marseilles, which was in rebellion against its
suzerain, the Count of Provence. This aroused anew the indignation of
Gregory, not only because of its interference with the war against the
Saracens in Spain and the Holy Land, but because of the immunity which
heretics would enjoy during the quarrel of the Christian princes. He
peremptorily ordered Raymond to desist from his enterprise on
Marseilles, and to perform his Crusader's vow. An appeal was made to
King Louis and Queen Blanche, whose intervention procured for Raymond
not only a postponement of the crusade for another year, but an order to
the legate empowering him to grant the count's request to take the
Inquisition entirely out of the hands of the Dominicans, if, on
investigation, he should find justification for Raymond's assertion that
they were actuated by hatred towards himself. Fresh troubles had arisen
at Toulouse. July 24, 1237, the inquisitors had again excommunicated the
viguier and consuls, because they had not arrested and burned Alaman de
Roaix and some other heretics, condemned _in absentia_, and Raymond was
resolved, if possible, to relieve himself and his subjects from the
cruel oppression to which they were exposed.[28]
In this his efforts were crowned with most unlooked-for success. May 13,
1238, he obtained a suspension for three months of all inquisitorial
proceedings, during which time his envoys sent to Gregory were to be
heard. They seem to have used most persuasive arguments, for Gregory
wrote to the Bishop of Toulouse to continue the suspension until the new
legate, the Cardinal-bishop of Palestrina, should examine into the
complaints against the Dominicans and consider the advisability of
granting Raymond's request that the business of persecution should be
confined, as formerly, to the bishops. Raymond's crusade was also
reduced to three years, to be performed voluntarily, provided he would
give to King Louis sufficient security that he would sail the following
year: by performing this, and making amends for the wrongs inflicted on
the Church, he was to earn absolution from his numerous
excommunications.[29]
The temporary suspension was unexpectedly prolonged, for, owing to
hostilities with Frederic II., the cardinal-legate's departure was
postponed for a year. When at least he came, in 1239, he brought special
orders to the inquisitors to obey his commands. What investigation he
made and what were his conclusions we have no means of knowing, but this
at least is certain, that until late in 1241 the Inquisition was
effectually muzzled. No traces remain of its activity during these
years, and Catholic and Catharan alike could draw a freer breath,
relieved of apprehension from its ever-present supervision and the
seemingly superhuman energy of the friars.[30]
We can readily conjecture the reasons which impelled its reinstatement.
Doubtless the bishops were as negligent as of old, and looked after
their temporalities to the exclusion of their duties in preserving the
purity of the faith. Doubtless, too, the heretics, encouraged by virtual
toleration, grew bolder, and cherished hopes of a return to the good old
times, when, secure under their native princes, they could safely defy
distant Paris and yet more distant Rome. The condition of the country
was, in fact, by no means reassuring, especially in the regions which
had become domains of the crown. The land was full of knights and barons
who were more or less openly heretics, and who knew not when the blow
might fall on them; of seigneurs who had been proscribed for heresy; of
enforced converts who secretly longed to avow their hidden faith, and to
regain their confiscated lands; of penitents burning to throw off the
crosses imposed on them, and to avenge the humiliations which they had
endured. Refugees, _faidits_, and heretic teachers were wandering
through the mountains, dwelling in caverns and in the recesses of the
forests. Scarce a family but had some kinsman to avenge, who had fallen
in the field or had perished at the stake. The lack of prisons and the
parsimony of the prelates had prevented a general resort to
imprisonment, and the burnings had not been numerous enough to notably
reduce the numbers of those who were of necessity bitterly opposed to
the existing order. Suddenly, in 1240, an insurrection appeared, headed
by Trencavel, son of that Viscount of Béziers whom we have seen
entrapped by Simon de Montfort and dying opportunely in his hands, not
without suspicion of poison. He brought with him from Catalonia troops
of proscribed knights and gentlemen, and was greeted enthusiastically by
the vassals and subjects of his house. Count Raymond, his cousin, held
aloof; but his ambiguous conduct showed plainly that he was prepared to
act on either side as success or defeat might render advisable. At first
the rising seemed to prosper. Trencavel laid siege to his ancestral town
of Carcassonne, and the spirit of his followers was shown when, on the
surrender of the suburb, they slaughtered in cold blood thirty
ecclesiastics who had received solemn assurance of free egress to
Narbonne.[31]
It required but a small force of royal troops under Jean de Beaumont to
crush the insurrection as quickly as it had arisen, and to inflict a
vengeance which virtually annihilated the _petite noblesse_ of the
region; but, nevertheless, the lesson which it taught was not to be
neglected. The civil order, as now established in the south of France,
evidently rested in the religious order, and the maintenance of this
required hands more vigorous and watchful than those of the self-seeking
prelates. A great assembly of the Cathari held in 1241, on the bank of
the Larneta, under the presidency of Aymeri de Collet, heretic Bishop of
Albi, showed how bold they had become, and how confidently they looked
to the future. Church and State both could see now, if not before, that
the Inquisition was a necessary factor in securing to both the
advantages gained in the crusades.[32]
Gregory IX., the founder of the Inquisition, died August 22, 1241. It is
probable that, before his death, he had put an end to the suspension of
the Inquisition and slipped the hounds from the leash, for his immediate
successor, Celestin IV., enjoyed a pontificate of but nineteen
days--from September 20 to October 8--and then followed an interregnum
until the election of Innocent IV., June 28, 1243, so that for nearly
two years the papal throne was practically vacant. Raymond's policy,
for the moment, had leaned towards gratifying the papacy, for he desired
from Gregory not only the removal of his four excommunications and
forbearance in the matter of the crusade, but also a dispensation to
enable him to carry out a contract of marriage into which he entered
with Sanche, daughter and heiress of the Count of Provence, not
foreseeing that Queen Blanche would juggle him in this, and, by securing
the brilliant match for her son Charles, found the House of
Anjou-Provence, and win for the royal family another large portion of
the South. Full of these projects, which promised so well for the
rehabilitation of his power, he signed, April 18, 1241, with Jayme I. of
Aragon, a treaty of alliance for the defence of the Holy See and the
Catholic faith, and against the heretics. Under such influences he was
not likely to oppose the renewal of active persecution. Besides, he had
been compromised in Trencavel's insurrection; he had been summoned to
answer for his conduct before King Louis, when, on March 14, he had been
forced to take an oath to banish from his lands the _faidits_ and
enemies of the king, and to capture without delay the castle of
Montségur, the last refuge of heresy.[33]
The case of the Seigneurs de Niort, powerful nobles of Fenouillèdes, who
had taken part in Trencavel's insurrection, is interesting from the
light which it throws upon the connection between the religion and the
politics of the time, the difficulties which the Inquisition experienced
in dealing with stubborn heresy and patriotism, and the damage inflicted
on the heretic cause by the abortive revolt. The three brothers--Guillem
Guiraud, Bernard Otho, and Guiraud Bernard--with their mother,
Esclarmonde, had long been a quarry which both the inquisitors and the
royal seneschal of Carcassonne had been eager to capture. Guillem had
earned the reputation of a valiant knight in the wars of the crusades,
and the brothers had managed to hold their castles and their power
through all the vicissitudes of the time. In the general inquisition
made by Cardinal Romano in 1229 they were described as among the chief
leaders of the heretics, and the Council of Toulouse, at the same time,
denounced two of them as enemies of the faith, and declared them
excommunicate if they did not submit within fifteen days. In 1233 we
hear of their having, not long before, laid waste with fire and sword
the territories of Pierre Amiel, Archbishop of Narbonne, and they had
assailed and wounded him while on his way to the Holy See, an exploit
which led Gregory IX. to order the archbishop, in conjunction with the
Bishop of Toulouse, to proceed against them energetically, while at the
same time he invoked the secular arm by a pressing command to Count
Raymond. It was probably under this authority that Bishop Raymond du
Fauga and the Provost of Toulouse held an inquest on them, in which was
taken the testimony of Pierre Amiel and of one hundred and seven other
witnesses. The evidence was conflicting. The archbishop swore at great
length as to the misdeeds of his enemies. They were all heretics. At one
time they kept in their Castle of Dourne no less than thirty perfected
heretics, and they had procured the assassination of André Chaulet,
Seneschal of Carcassonne, because he had endeavored to obtain evidence
against them. Other witnesses were equally emphatic. Bernard Otho on one
occasion had silenced a priest in his own church, and had replaced him
in the pulpit with a heretic, who had preached to the congregation. On
the other hand, there were not wanting witnesses who boldly defended
them. The preceptor of the Hospital at Puységur swore to the orthodoxy
of Bernard Otho, and declared that what he had done for the faith and
for peace had caused the death of a thousand heretics. A priest swore to
having seen him assist in capturing heretics, and an archdeacon declared
that he would not have remained in the land but for the army which
Bernard raised after the death of the late king, adding that he believed
the prosecution arose rather from hate than from charity. Nothing came
of this attempt, and in 1234 we meet with Bernard Otho as a witness to a
transaction between the royal Seneschal of Carcassonne and the Monastery
of Alet; but when the Inquisition was established it was promptly
brought to bear on the nobles who persisted in maintaining their feudal
independence in spite of the fact that their immediate suzerain was now
the king. In 1235 Guillem Arnaud, the inquisitor, while in Carcassonne,
with the Archdeacon of Carcassonne as assistant, cited the three
brothers and their mother to answer before him. Bernard Otho and Guillem
obeyed the summons, but would confess nothing. Then the seneschal seized
them; under compulsion Guillem made confession ample to warrant the
inquisitor in sentencing him to perpetual prison (March 2, 1236), while
Bernard, remaining obdurate, was condemned as a contumacious heretic
(February 13, 1236), and the seneschal made preparations to burn him.
Guiraud and his mother, Esclarmonde, were further condemned, March 2,
for contumacious absence. Guiraud, however, who had wisely kept at
large, began to fortify his castles and make warlike demonstrations so
formidable that the Frenchmen scattered through the land took alarm. The
Maréchal de la Foi, Levis of Mirepoix, stood firm, but the rest so
worked upon the seneschal that the brothers were released, and the
inquisitors had only the barren satisfaction of condemning the whole
family on paper--a disappointment alleviated, it is true, by gathering
for the stake a rich harvest of less formidable heretics, both clerks
and laymen. Equally vain was an effort made two years later by the
inquisitors to compel Count Raymond to carry out their sentence by
confiscating the lands of the contumacious nobles, but the failure of
Trencavel's revolt forced them to sue for peace. Bernard Otho was again
brought before the Inquisition, and Guillem de Niort made submission for
himself and brothers, surrendering their castles to the king on
condition that he would procure their reconciliation with the Church,
and that of their mother, nephews, and allies, and, failing to
accomplish this by the next Pentecost, that he would restore their
castles and grant them a month of truce to put themselves in defence.
King Louis ratified the treaty in January, 1241, but refused, when the
time came, to restore the castles, only agreeing to pay over the
revenues on consideration that the brothers should reside outside of
Fenouillèdes. Guillem died in 1256, when Louis kept both castles and
revenues, under pretext that the treaty had been a personal one with
Guillem. The new order of things by this time had become so firmly
established that no further resistance was to be dreaded. The extinction
of this powerful family is a typical example of the manner in which the
independence of the local seigneurie was gradually broken down by means
of the Inquisition, and the authority of crown and Church was extended
over the land.[34]
Under the reaction consequent upon Trencavel's failure, and emboldened
by the ruin of the local protectors of the people, the inquisitors
returned to their work with sharpened zeal and redoubled energy. Chance
has preserved for us a record of sentences pronounced by Pierre Cella,
during a circuit of a few months in Querci, from Advent, 1241, to
Ascension, 1242, which affords us a singularly instructive insight into
one phase of inquisitorial operations. We have seen that, when an
inquisitor visited a town, he proclaimed a "time of grace," during
which those who voluntarily came forward and confessed were spared the
harsher punishments of prison, confiscation, or the stake, and that the
Inquisition found this expedient exceedingly fruitful, not only in the
number of penitents which it brought in, but in the testimony which was
gathered concerning the more contumacious. The record in question
consists of cases of this kind, and its crowded calendar justifies the
esteem in which the method was held.[35]
Summarized, the record shows--
In Gourdon 219 sentences pronounced in Advent, 1241.
In Montcucq 84 " " " Lent, 1242.
In Sauveterre 5.
In Belcayre 7.
In Montauban 254 sentences pronounced in week before Ascension
(May 21-28, 1242).
In Moissac 99 " " " week of Ascension
(May 28-June 5, 1242).
In Montpezat 22 " " " Lent, 1242.
In Montaut 23 " " " " "
In Castelnau 11 " " " " "
---
Total 724
Of these penitents four hundred and twenty-seven were ordered to make
the distant pilgrimage to Compostella, in the northwestern corner of
Spain--some four hundred or five hundred miles of mountainous roads. One
hundred and eight were sent to Canterbury, this pilgrimage, in all but
three or four cases, being superimposed on that to Compostella. Only two
penitents were required to visit Rome, but seventy-nine were ordered to
serve in the crusades for terms varying from one to eight years.
The first thing that impresses one in considering this record is the
extraordinary speed with which the work was done. The whole was
despatched in six months, and there is no evidence that the labor was
continuous--in fact, it could not have been so, for the inquisitor had
to move from place to place, to grant the necessary delays, and must
have been frequently interrupted to gather in the results of testimony
which implicated recusants. With what reckless lack of consideration the
penances were imposed is shown by the two hundred and nineteen penitents
of Gourdon, whose confessions were taken down and whose sentences were
pronounced within the four weeks of Advent; and even this is outstripped
by the two hundred and fifty-two of Montauban, despatched in the week
before Ascension, at the rate of forty-two for each working-day. In
several cases two culprits are included in the same sentence.
Even more significant than this, however, are the enormous numbers--two
hundred and nineteen for a small town like Gourdon and eighty-four for
Montcucq. The number of these who were really heretics, both Catharan
and Waldensian, is large, and shows how thoroughly the population was
interpenetrated with heresy. Even more, however, were good Catholics
whose cases prove how amicably the various sects associated together,
and how impossible it was for the most orthodox to avoid the association
with heretics which rendered him liable to punishment. This friendly
intercourse is peculiarly notable in the case of a priest who confessed
to having gone to some heretics in a vineyard, where he read in their
books and ate pears with them. He was rudely reminded of his
indiscretion by being suspended from his functions, sent to Compostella
and thence to Rome, with letters from the inquisitors which doubtless
were not for his benefit, for apparently they felt unable to decide what
ought to be done for an offence so enormous. Even the smallest
derelictions of this sort were rigorously penanced. A citizen of
Sauveterre had seen three heretics entering the house of a sick man, and
heard that they had hereticated him, but knew nothing of his own
knowledge, yet he was subjected to the disgrace of a penitential
pilgrimage to Puy. Another, of Belcayre, had carried a message between
two heretics, and was sent to Puy, St. Gilles, and Compostella. A
physician of Montauban had bound up the arm of a heretic and was
subjected to the same three pilgrimages, and the same penance was
inflicted on a woman who had simply eaten at a table with heretics. The
same was prescribed in several cases of boatmen who had ignorantly
transported heretics, without recognizing them until the voyage was
under way or finished. A woman who had eaten and drunk with another
woman who she heard was a heretic was sentenced to the pilgrimages of
Puy and St. Gilles, and the same penance was ordered for a man who had
once seen heretics, and for a woman who had consulted a Waldensian about
her sick son. The Waldenses had great reputation as skilful leeches, and
two men who had called them in for their wives and children were
penanced with the pilgrimages of Puy, St. Gilles, and Compostella. A man
who had seen heretics two or three times, and had already purchased
reconciliation by a gift to a monastery, was sent on a long series of
pilgrimages, embracing both Compostella and Canterbury, besides wearing
the yellow cross for a year. Another was sent to Compostella because he
had once been thrown into company with heretics in a boat, although he
had left them on hearing their heresies; and yet another because, when a
boy, he had spent part of a day and night with heretics. One who had
seen heretics when he was twelve years old was sent to Puy; while a
woman who had seen them in her father's house was obliged to go to Puy
and St. Gilles. A man who had seen two heretics leaving a place which he
had rented was sent to Compostella, and another who had allowed his
Waldensian mother to visit him and had given her an ell of cloth was
forced to expiate it with pilgrimages to Puy, St. Gilles, and
Compostella.[36] The list might be prolonged almost indefinitely, but
these cases will suffice to show the character of the offence and the
nature of the grace proffered for voluntary confession. There is no
pretence that any of these particular culprits themselves were not
wholly orthodox, but the people were to be taught that the toleration
which had existed for generations was at an end; that the neighborly
intercourse which had established itself between Catholic and Catharan
and Waldensian was in itself a sin; that the heretic was to be tracked
and captured like a wild beast, or at least to be shunned like a leper.
When such was the measure meted out to spontaneous penitents within the
time of grace, with harsher measures in reserve for those subsequently
detected, we can easily imagine the feelings inspired by the Inquisition
in the whole population, without distinction of creed, and the terror
common to all when the rumor spread that the inquisitors were coming.
Scarce any one but was conscious of some act--perhaps of neighborly
charity--that rendered him a criminal to the awful fanaticism of Pierre
Cella or Guillem Arnaud. The heretics themselves would look to be
imprisoned for life, with confiscation, or to be burned, or sent to
Constantinople to support the tottering Latin Empire; while the
Catholics were likely to fare little better on the distant pilgrimages
to which they were sentenced, even though they were spared the sterner
punishments or the humiliation of the saffron cross. Such a visit would
bring, even to the faithful, the desolation of a pestilence. The
inquisitors would pass calmly on, leaving a neighborhood well-nigh
depopulated--fathers and mothers despatched to distant shrines for
months or years, leaving dependent families to starve, or harvests
ungathered to be the prey of the first-comer, all the relations of a
life, hard enough at the best, disturbed and broken up. Even such a
record as that of Pierre Cella's sentences rendered within the time of
grace shows but a portion of the work. A year or two later we find the
Council of Narbonne beseeching the inquisitors to delay rendering
sentences of incarceration, because the numbers of those flocking in for
reconciliation after the expiration of the term of grace were so great
that it would be impossible to raise funds for their maintenance, or to
find stones enough, even in that mountainous land, to build prisons to
contain them.[37] That a whole vicinage, when it had timely notice,
should bind itself in a league to defeat the purpose of the inquisitors,
as at Castelnaudary, must have been a frequent experience; that, sooner
or later, despair should bring about a catastrophe like that of
Avignonet was inevitable.
* * * * *
Montségur for years had been the Mount Tabor of the Cathari--the place
of refuge in which, as its name implies, they could feel secure when
safety could be hoped for nowhere else. It had been destroyed, but early
in the century Raymond de Péreille had rebuilt it, and for forty years
he held it as an asylum for heretics, whom he defended to the utmost of
his ability. In 1232 the Catharan bishops Tento of Agen and Guillabert
de Castres of Toulouse, with a number of ministers, foreseeing, in the
daily increasing pressure of persecution, the necessity of some
stronghold which should serve as an asylum, arranged with Raymond that
he should receive and shelter all fugitives of the sect and guard the
common treasure to be deposited there. His castle, situated in the
territories of the marshals of Mirepoix, had never opened its gates to
the Frenchmen. Its almost inaccessible peak had been sedulously
strengthened with all that military experience could suggest or earnest
devotion could execute. Ever since the persecutions of the Inquisition
commenced we hear of those who fled to Montségur when they found the
inquisitor's hand descending upon them. Dispossessed knights, _faidits_
of all kinds, brought their swords to its defence; Catharan bishops and
ministers sought it when hard pressed, or made it a resting-place in
their arduous and dangerous mission-work. Raymond de Péreille himself
sought its shelter when, compromised by the revelations of Raymond Gros,
he fled from Toulouse, in 1237, with his wife Corba; the devotion of his
race to heresy being further proved by the fate of his daughter
Esclarmonde, who perished for her faith at the stake, and by the
Catharan episcopate of his brother Arnaud Roger. Such a stronghold in
the hands of desperate men, fired with the fiercest fanaticism, was a
menace to the stability of the new order in the State; to the Church it
was an accursed spot whence heresy might at any moment burst forth to
overspread the land again. Its destruction had long been the desire of
all good Catholics, and Raymond's pledge to King Louis, March 14, 1241,
to capture it had been one of the conditions on which his suspicious
relations with Trencavel had been condoned. In fact, he made some show
of besieging it during the same year, but success would have been most
damaging to the plans which he was nursing, and his efforts can scarce
have been more than a cover for military preparations destined to a far
different object. The French army, after the suppression of the rising,
also laid siege to Montségur, but were unable to effect its
reduction.[38]
On Ascension night, 1242, while Pierre Cella was tranquilly winding up
his work at Montauban, the world was startled with the news that a
holocaust of the terrible inquisitors had been made at Avignonet, a
little town about twelve leagues from Toulouse. The stern Guillem Arnaud
and the courteous Étienne de Saint-Thibery were making, like their
colleague Pierre Cella, a circuit through the district subjected to
their mercy. Some of their sentences which have been preserved show that
in November, 1241, they were laboring at Lavaur and at Saint-Paul de
Caujoux, and in the spring of 1242 they came to Avignonet.[39] Raymond
d'Alfaro was its bailli for the count, who was his uncle through his
mother, Guillemetta, a natural daughter of Raymond VI. When he heard
that the inquisitors and their assistants were coming he lost no time in
preparing for their destruction. A swift messenger was despatched to the
heretics of Montségur, and in answer to his summons Pierre Roger of
Mirepoix, with a number of knights and their retainers, started at once.
They halted in the forest of Gaiac, near Avignonet, where food was
brought them, and they were joined by about thirty armed men of the
vicinage, who waited with them till after nightfall. Had this plot
failed, d'Alfaro had arranged another for an ambuscade on the road to
Castelnaudary, and the fact that so extensive a conspiracy could be
organized on the spot, without finding a traitor to betray it, shows how
general was the hate that had been earned by the cruel work of the
Inquisition. Not less significant is the fact that on their return to
Montségur the murderers were hospitably entertained at the Château de
Saint-Félix by a priest who was cognizant of their bloody deed.
The victims came unsuspectingly to the trap. There were eleven in all.
The two inquisitors, with two Dominican friars, and one Franciscan, the
Benedictine Prior of Avignonet, Raymond de Costiran, Archdeacon of
Lezat, a former troubadour, of whose verses only a single obscene song
remains, a clerk of the archdeacon, a notary, and two apparitors--in all
a court fully furnished for the despatch of business. They were
hospitably received and housed in the castle of the count, where on the
morrow they were to open their dread tribunal for the trembling
inhabitants. When darkness came a selected band of twelve, armed with
axes, left the forest and stole cautiously to a postern of the castle,
where they were met by Golairan, a comrade of d'Alfaro, who assured
himself that all was right, and returned to see what the inquisitors
were doing. Coming back, he reported that they were drinking; but a
second visit, after an interval, brought the welcome news that they were
going to bed. As though apprehensive of danger, they had remained
together in the great hall, and had barricaded the door. The gate was
opened, the men of Montségur were admitted and were joined by d'Alfaro,
armed with a mace, and twenty-five men of Avignonet, and the fact that
an esquire in the service of the inquisitors was with him indicates that
there was treachery at work. The hall-door was quickly broken down, the
wild band of assassins rushed in, and, after despatching their victims,
there was a fierce chorus of gratified vengeance, each man boasting of
his share in the bloody deed--d'Alfaro especially, who shouted "_Va be,
esta be_," and claimed that his mace had done its full duty in the
murderous work. Its crushing of Guillem Arnaud's skull had deprived
Pierre Roger de Mirepoix, the second in command at Montségur, of the
drinking-cup which he had demanded as his reward for the assistance
furnished. The plunder of the victims was eagerly shared between the
assassins--their horses, books, garments--even to their scapulars. When
the news reached Rome, the College of Cardinals made haste to express
their belief that the victims had become blessed martyrs of Jesus
Christ, and one of the first acts of Innocent IV., after his
installation in June, 1243, was to repeat this declaration; but they
never were canonized, in spite of frequent requests to the Holy See, and
of the numerous miracles which attested their sanctity in the popular
cult, until, in 1866, Pius IX. gave them tardy recognition.[40]