Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/123

 CATHARISM SUPPRESSED. jq^ About St. John's Day (June 24), 1309, he found refuge with Per- rin Maurel of Belpech, near Castelnaudari, where he lay for five weeks or more. Thither came his daughter Guillelma, who re- mained with him a short time, and the two departed together. The next day he was captured. Perrin Maurel was likewise'^seized, and with customary fidelity stoutly denied everything until Pierre Autier, in prison, advised him in December to confess.^ This triumph was followed in October by the capture of Amiel de Perles, who forthwith placed himself in endura, refusing to eat or drink, and, as he was fast sinking, to prevent the stake from bemg robbed of its prey, a special mito defe was hurriedly arrano-ed for his burning, October 23. While yet his strength lasted, how- ever, Bernard Gui enjoyed the ghastly amusement of making the two heresiarchs in his presence perform the act of heretical '^ado> ration."f Pierre Autier was not burned until the great auto defe of April 1310, when Geoffroi d'Ablis came from Carcassonne to share in the trmmph. The heresiarch had not sought to conceal his faith but had boldly declared his obnoxious tenets and had pronounced the Church of Kome the synagogue of Satan. That he was sub- jected to the extremity of torture, however, there can be no rea- sonable doubt-not to extract a confession, for this was super- fluous, but to force him to betray his disciples and those who had given him refuge. His intimate acquaintance with all the heretics ot the land was a source of information too important for Bernard GUI to shrink from any means of acquiring it ; and the copious detads thus obtained are alluded to in too manv subsequent sen- tences for us to hesitate as to the methods by which the heresi- arch was brought to place his friends and associates at the mercy 01 his tormentors.:]: This may be said to close the bloody drama of Catharism in Languedoc. Armed with the revelations thus obtained, Bernard Gui and Geoffroi d'Ablis required but a few years more to con- vert or burn the remnant of Pierre Autier's disciples Avho could be caught, and to drive into exile those who eluded their spies ^o new and self-devotecUniss ionaries arose to take his place, and t Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. p. 37. X Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos. pp. 59, 60, 64, 73, 74, 75, 92-3, 132.
 * Molinier, op. cit. p. 157.-Lib. Sententt. Inq. Tolos, p. 102