A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume IILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume II
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
Calverie to bring back Raymond André, or some other perfected heretic.
At Genoa he met Bertrand Fabri, who had been sent on the same errand by
Guillem Golfier. They proceeded together and met other old
acquaintances, now refugees, who conducted them to a spot where, in a
wood, were several houses of refuge for heretics. The lord of the place
gave them a Lombard, Guglielmo Pagani, who returned with them. In 1309
Guillem Falquet confessed at Toulouse to having been four times to Como,
and even to Sicily, organizing the Church. He was caught while visiting
a sick believer, and condemned to imprisonment in chains, but managed to
escape in 1313. At the same time was sentenced Raymond de Verdun, who
had likewise been four times to Lombardy.[55]
The proscribed heretics, thus nursing their faith in secret, gave the
inquisitors ample occupation. As their ranks were thinned by persecution
and flight, and as their skill in concealment increased with experience,
there could no longer be the immense harvests of penitents reaped by
Pierre Gella and Bernard de Caux, but there were enough to reward the
energies of the friars and to tax the adroitness of their spies. The
organization of the Inquisition, moreover, was gradually perfected. In
1254 the Council of Albi carefully revised the regulations concerning
it. Fixed tribunals were established, and the limitations of the
inquisitorial districts were strictly defined. For Provence and the
territories east of the Rhone, Marseilles was the headquarters,
eventually confided to the Franciscans. The rest of the infected regions
were left to the Dominicans, with tribunals at Toulouse, Carcassonne,
and Narbonne; and, from such fragmentary documents as have reached us,
at this time the Inquisition at Carcassonne rivalled that of Toulouse in
energy and effectiveness. For a while safety was sought by heretics in
northern France, but the increasing vigor of the Inquisition established
there drove the unfortunate refugees back, and in 1255 a bull of
Alexander IV. authorized the Provincial of Paris and his inquisitors to
pursue the fugitives in the territories of the Count of Toulouse. At the
same time the special functions of the inquisitors were jealously
guarded against all encroachments. We have seen how, in its early days,
it was subjected to the control of papal legates, but now that it was
firmly established and thoroughly organized it was held independent; and
when the legate Zoen, Bishop of Avignon, in 1257, endeavored, in virtue
of his legatine authority, which fourteen years before had been so
absolute, to perform inquisitorial work, he was rudely reminded by
Alexander IV. that he could do so if he pleased in his own diocese, but
that outside of it he must not interfere with the Inquisition. To this
period is also to be ascribed the complete subjection of all secular
officials to the behests of the inquisitors. The piety of St. Louis and
the greed of Alphonse of Poitiers and Charles of Anjou rivalled each
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