Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/101

 REHABILITATION OF PEQUIGNY. 85 which side his sympathies lay- At Perugia, while the pope was conducting the solemnities of Pentecost, May 17, 1304, Pequigny ventured to enter the church. Benedict saw him, and, pointing to him, said to his marshal, P. de Brayda, "Turn out that Patarin!" an order which the marshal zealously obeyed. The significance of the incident was not small, and after the death of both Bene- dict and Pequigny, Geoffroi d'Ablis caused a notarial instrument recounting it to be drawn up and duly authenticated as one of the documents of the process. The climate of Italy was very un- healthy for Transmontanes. Morieres died at Perugia, and Pe- quigny followed him at Abruzzo, September 29, 1304, the anni- versary of his excommunication. Having remained for a year under the ban for impeding the Inquisition, he was legally a heretic, and his burial in consecrated ground is only to be ex- plained by the death of Benedict a short time before. Geoffroi d'Ablis demanded that his bones be exhumed and burned, while Pe- quigny's sons carried on the appeal for the rehabilitation of his memory. The matter dragged on till Clement Y. referred it to a commission of three cardinals. These gave a patient hearing to both sides, who argued the matter exhaustively, and submitted all the necessary documents and papers. At last, July 23, 1308, they rendered their decision to the effect that the sentence of excommunication had been unjust and iniquitous, and that its revocation should be pubHshed in all places where it had been announced. Geoffroi fruitlessly endeavored to appeal from this, which was the most complete justification possible of all that had been said and done against the Inquisition, emphasized by Clem- ent's cutting refusal to listen to his statements — " It is false: the land never wished to rebel, but Avas in evil case in consequence of the doings of the Inquisition," while a cardinal told him that for fifty years the people had been goaded to resistance by the excesses of his predecessors, and that when a corrective was ap- phed they only added evil to evil.* Benedict XI. had given other proofs of partisanship. It is true that in answer to the complaints of the oppressed people he Hist. Conv. Praedie. (Martene Ampl. Coll. VI. 510-11). -MSS. Bib. Nat. fonds latin, 4270, fol. 88, 109, 122.
 * Arch, de rinq. de Care. (Doat, XXXI. 10; XXXII. 114). — Bern. Guidon.