Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/142

 ^26 FRANCE. Pierre de Mercalme, who was Provincial of Toulouse from 1350 to 1363jthat during more than two years of this period he also served as inquisitor.'^ In the Xorth we hear little of the Inquisition durmg this period. The English wars, in fact, must have seriously interfered with its activitv, but we have an evidence that it was not neglect- ing its dutv in a complaint made by the Provincial of Pans to Clement Yi.,in 1351, that the practice of excepting the territories of Charles of Anjou from the commissions issued to inquisitors de- prived the provinces of Touraine and Maine of the blessings of the institution and allowed heresy to flourish there, whereupon the pope promptly extended the authority of Frere GuiUaume Chev- aher and of all future inquisitors to those regions.f With the return of peace under Charles le Sage the Inquisition had freer scope. The Begghards, or Brethren of the Free Spirit, undeterred by the martvrdom of Marguerite la Porete, had con- tinued to exist in secret. In September, 1365, Urban Y. notified the prelates and inquisitors throughout France that they were ac- tively at work propagating their doctrines, and he sent detaded information as to their tenets and the places where they were to be found to the Bishop of Paris, with orders to communicate it to his fellow-prelates and the Inquisition. If any immediate response to this was made, the result has not reached us, but in 1372 we find Frere Jacques de More, " inquisiteur des Bougres^' busy m eradicating them. They called themselves the Company of Pov- erty, and were popularly known by the name of Turelupms ; as m Germany, they were distinguished by their peculiar vestments, and they propagated their doctrines largely by their devotional writ- ings in the vernacular Charles Y. rewarded the labors of the m- quisitor with a donation of fifty francs, and received the thanks of Gregory XL for his zeal. The outcome of the affair was the burn- ing of the books and garments of the heretics in the swine-market beyond the Porte Saint-Honore, together with the female leader of he sect, Jeanne Daubenton. Her male coUeague escaped by death in prison, but his body was preserved in quickhme for hf- ^ Vaissette, fid. Privat, X. Pr. 782-3, 792, 802, 813-14.-Arch de I'fivOchg dlbi (Doat, XXXV. 130).-Vaissette, IV. 184.-Marteue Ampl. Coll. VI. 433. t RipoU II. 236.