Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/103

 PHILIPPE'S COMPROMISE. 87 Dominican provincial, while Bernard Delicieux was foremost in the debate. It was on this occasion that he made his celebrated assertion that St. Peter and St. Paul would be convicted of heresy if tried with inquisitorial methods, and when the scandalized Bishop of Auxerre tartly reproved him, he stoutly maintained the truth of what he had said. Friar JN'icholas, the king's Dominican confessor, was suspected of exercising undue influence in favor of the Inquisition, and Bernard endeavored to discredit him by ac- cusing him of betraying to the Flemings all the secrets of the royal council. Geoffroi d'Abhs, the Inquisitor of Carcassonne, moreover, was ingratiating himself with Philippe at the moment by skilful negotiations to bring about a reconciliation with Kome.^ Phihppe patiently heard both sides, and recorded his conclu- sions in an edict of January 13, 1304, which was in the nature of a compromise. It recited that the king had come to Languedoc for the purpose of pacifying the country excited by the action of the Inquisition, and had had prolonged consultation on the subject w^th all who were entitled to express an opinion. The result thus reached was that the prisoners of the Inquisition should be visited by royal deputies in company with inquisitors ; the prisons were to be safe, but not punitive. In the case of prisoners not yet sen- tenced the trials were to be carried to conclusion under the con- joined supervision of the bishops and inquisitors, and this co-opera- tion was to be observed in the future, except at Albi, where the bishop, being suspected, w^as to be replaced by Arnaud JSTovelli, the Cistercian Abbot of Fontfroide. The royal officials were strictly ordered to aid in every way the inquisitors and episcopal ordinaries when called upon, and to protect from injury and violence the Dominicans, their churches and houses.f At Albi the change had the wished-for effect. IN'o more here- tics were found and no further prosecutions w^ere required. Yet the refusal of the king to entertain any project of reform other than his previous one of curbing the Inquisition with an illusory fonds latin, 4270, fol. 21, 73, 74, 158, 162, 278.-Molinier, L'Inq. dans le midi'de La France pp. 126-7.-Geoffroi d'Ablis had sufficient influence with the king to persuade him to found the Dominican convent of Poissy. t Vaissette, IV. Pr. 130-1.-MSS. Bib. Nat., fonds latin, 4270, fol 139
 * Grandjean, Registres de Benoit XL No. 1253-60, 1276 -MSS Bib Nat