Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/111

 INQUISITORIAL CONTUMACY. 95 of Albi, whom he names, had repeatedly appealed to him, aftei* more than eight years of imprisonment, to have their trials com- pleted either to condemnation or absolution. He therefore orders the trials proceeded with at once and the results submitted for confirmation to the Cardinals of Palestrina and Frascati, his for- mer commissioners. Bertrand de Bordes, Bishop of Albi, and Geof- froi d'Ablis contemptuously disregarded this command, because some of the prisoners named in it had died before its date, whence they argued that the papal letter had been surreptitiously ob- tained. When this contumacy reached the ears of Clement, some year or two later, he wrote to Geraud, then Bishop of Albi, and Geoffroi, peremptorily reiterating his commands and ordering them to try both living and dead. In spite of this, Geoffroi maintained his sullen contumacy. We have no means of know- ing the fate of most of these unfortunates, who probably rotted to death in their dungeons without their trials being concluded ; but of some of them we have traces, as related in a former chapter. After Clement and his cardinals had passed away, and no further interference was to be dreaded, in 1319 two surviving ones, Guillem Salavert and Isarn Colli, were brought out for further examination, when the former confirmed his confession and the latter retracted it as extorted under torture. Six months later, Guillem Calverie of Cordes, who had been imprisoned in 1301, was abandoned to the secular arm for retracting his confession (probably before Clement's cardinals), and Guillem Salavert was allowed to escape with wearing crosses, in consideration of his nineteen years' imprisonment without conviction. Even as late as 1328 attested copies made by order of the royal judge of Carcas- sonne, of inventories of personal property o/ Eaymond Calverie and Jean Baudier, two of the prisoners of 1299-1300, show that their cases were still the subject of litigation. Even more remark- able as a manifestation of contumacy is the case of Guillem Gar- ric, held in prison for compHcity in the attempt to destroy the records at Carcassonne in 1284. Eoyal letters of 1312 recite that his merits and piety had caused Clement Y. to grant him full par- don, wherefore the king restores to him and his descendants his confiscated castle of Monteirat. Yet the Inquisition did not re- lax its grip, but waited until 1321, when he was brought forth from prison, and in consideration of his contrition Bernard Gui