Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/171

 THE WALDENSES. jgg futmen, and in 1376 he endeavored to secure a share in the con- fiscations, but King Charles refused to divide them, though in 1378 he at last agreed to give the inquisitors a yearly stipend for their own support, similar to that paid to their brethren at Toulouse * AU other devices being exhausted, Gregory at last had recourse to the unfailmg resource of the curia— an indulgence There is somethmg so appalHngly grotesque in tearing honest, industrious tolk from their homes by the thousand, in thrusting them into dungeons to rot and starve, and then evading the cost of feeding- them by presenting them to the faithful as objects of charity, that the proclamation which Gregory issued August 15, 1376 is per haps the most shameless monument of a shameless age— ' "To all the faithful in Christ: As the help of prisoners is counted amon. ri r'. ' . ; " °' "^^ '"*'■"' *° '"•'■■"f""^ -^-t «^« incarcerated of an kmds who suffer from poverty. As we learn that our beloved son, the In- hll c' Tr rf' " ^■"P"^^"^'^ f°' safe-keeping or punishment many he etics and those defamed for heresy, who in consequence of their poverty can not be sustamed m prison unless the pious liberality of the faithftl shall assist them as a work of charity : and as we wish that these prisoners shall not star" feihfnHn or-T' :, '""T""' " *^ ^""^ P"^°"^= °°-' '- -<J«- that the' farthful in Christ may through devotion lend a helping hand, we admonish ask and exhort you all, enjoining it on you in remission of your sins, that from the goods which God has given you, you bestow pious alms and grateful chariry fo the food of these prisoners, so that they may be sustained by your help, and you th. ough this and other good works inspired by God, may attain etern^Jl blessed Imagination refuses to picture the horrors of the economicallv constructed jails where these unfortunates were crowded to wear out their dreary lives, wliile their jailers vainly begged for the miserable pittance that should prolong their agonies. Yet so far was Gregory from being satisfied with victims in number far beyond his ability to keep, that, December 28, 1875, he bitterlv scolded the officials of Dauphin.^ for the neghgent manner in which they obeyed the king's commands to aid the inquisitors-a com- plaint which he reiterated May IS, 1376. From some expressions m these letters it is permissible to assume that this whole inhuman Loil FrTnJTv.Tor- "'• -'-^''^^- ^- ^^^^ ^o. 21-3.-Isambert, Anc. t Wadding, ano. 1376, No. 3.