A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume ILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume I
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
the elements, he told the citizens, should conspire to destroy them,
without sparing age or sex, leaving their memory an eternal shame, the
punishment would be inadequate. He ordered obedience to be refused to
the newly-elected municipality, which was to be deposed; that the
bishop, who had been ejected, should be received back, that the laws
against heresy should be enforced, and that if all this was not done
within fifteen days the people of the surrounding towns and castles were
commanded to take up arms and make active war upon the rebellious city.
Even this was insufficient. Two years later, in February, 1207, there
were fresh troubles, and it was not until June of that year, when
Innocent himself came to Viterbo, and all the Patarins fled at his
approach, that he was able to purify the town by tearing down all the
houses of the heretics and confiscating all their property. This he
followed up in September with a decree addressed to all the faithful in
the Patrimony of St. Peter, ordering measures of increasing severity to
be inscribed in the local laws of every community, and all podestà, and
other officials to be sworn to their enforcement under heavy penalties.
Proceedings of more or less rigor commanded in Milan, Ferrara, Verona,
Rimini, Florence, Prato, Faenza, Piacenza, and Treviso show the extent
of the evil, the difficulty of restraining it, and the encouragement
given to heresy by the scandals of the clergy.[89]
It was in southern France, however, that the struggle was deadliest and
the battle was fought to its bitter end. There the soil, as we have
seen, was the most favorable, and the growth of heresy the rankest.
Early in the century we find open resistance at Albi, when the bishop,
Sicard, aided by the Abbot of Castres, endeavored to imprison obstinate
heretics and was baffled by the people, leading to a dangerous quarrel
between the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions. About the same time,
Amelius of Toulouse tried milder methods by calling in the aid of the
celebrated Robert d'Arbrissel, whose preaching, we are told, was
rewarded with many conversions. In 1119 Calixtus II. presided over a
council at Toulouse which condemned the Manichæan heresy, but was forced
to content itself with sentencing the heretics to expulsion from the
Church. It is perhaps remarkable that when Innocent II., driven from
Rome by the antipope Pier-Leone, was wandering through France and held a
great council at Reims in 1131, no measures were taken for the
repression of heresy; but when restored to Rome he seems to have
awakened to the necessity of action, and in the Second General Lateran
Council, in 1139, he issued a decisive decree which is interesting as
the earliest example of the interpellation of the secular arm. Not only
were the Cathari condemned and expelled from the Church, but the
temporal authorities were ordered to coerce them and all those who
favored or defended them. This policy was followed up in 1148 by the
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