Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/104

 88 LANGUEDOC. episcopal supervision was a grievous disappointment. Men nat- urally argued that if the Dominicans had done right they ought not to be insulted by the proposed episcopal co-operation ; and if they had done wrong they ought to be replaced. If any change was called for, the projected one was insufficient. So many hopes had been built upon the royal presence in the land, that the result caused universal dismay, which was not relieved by Phihppe's sub- sequent action. When he visited Carcassonne he was urged to see the unfortunate captives whose persecution had been the promi- nent cause of the troubles, but he refused, and sent his brother Louis to look at them. Worse than all, the citizens had designed to pro- pitiate him and demonstrate their loyalty by offering him some elaborate silver vessels. These Avere yet in the hands of the gold- smiths of Montpellier when the royal party came to Carcassonne, so they were sent after him to Beziers, where the presentation was made, a portion to him and the rest to the queen. She accepted the offering, but he not only rejected it, but, when he learned what the queen had done, forced her to return the present. This threw the consuls of Carcassonne into despair. Offerings of this kind from municipalities to the sovereign were so customary and their oTacious acceptance so much a matter of course, that refusal in this instance seemed to argue some most unfavorable intentions on the part of the king, Avhich was not unhkely, seeing that Ehas Patrice, the leading citizen of Carcassonne, had plainly told him when there that if he did not render them speedy justice against the Inquisi- tion they would be forced to seek another lord, and when Philippe ordered him from his presence the citizens obeyed Patrice's com- mand to remove the decorations from the streets. Imagining that he had been won over by the Dominicans and that his protection would be withdrawn, the prospect of being abandoned to the mercy of the Inquisition seemed so terrible that they wildly de- clared that if they could not find another lord to protect them they would burn the town and with the inhabitants seek some place of refuge. In consultation with Frere Bernard it was has- . tily determined to offer their allegiance to Ferrand, son of the King of Majorca. The younger branch of the House of Aragon, which drew its title from the Balearic Isles, held the remnants of the old French possessions of the Catalans, including Montpellier and Perpignan.