Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/172

 „g FRANCE. business had shocked even the duU sensibilities of that age of ^^o- lence Yet in spite of aU that had been aocomphshed the heretics remained obstinate, and in 1877 Gregory indignantly chronicles their increase, while reproaching the inquisitors with their slack- ness in performing the duties for which they had been appointed. What effect on the future of the Waldenses a continuance of Greo-ory's remorseless energy would have wrought can only be matter of conjecture. He died March 27, 1378, and the Great Schism which speedily followed gave the heretics some relief, dur- ing which they continued to increase, although in 1380 Clement VII renewed the commission of Borel, whose activity was un- abated until 1393, and his victims were numbered by the hundred. A good many conversions rewarded his labors, and the converts were allowed to retain their property on payment of a certain sum of money, as shown by a list made out in 1385. In 1393 he is said to have burned a hundred and fifty at Grenoble m a single day San Vicente Ferrer was a missionary of a different stamp, and his self -devoted labors for several years in the Waldensian valleys won over numerous converts. His memory is still cher- ished there, and the village of Puy-Saint Vincent, with a chapel dedicated to him, shows that his kindly ministrations were not altogether lost.f, , , ,.• The Waldenses by this time were substantially the only heretics with whom the Church had to deal outside of Germany, ihe French version of the Schwabenspugel, or South German municipal code, made for the Eomande speaking provinces of the empire is assignable to the closing years of the century, and it attests the predominance of Waldensianism in its chapter on heresy, by tnms- lating the KcU=zer (Catharus) of the original by vaudms. Even "Leschandus" (Childeric III.) is said to have been dethroned by Pope Zachary because he was a protector of vaudois. That at this period the Inquisition had become inoperative m those regions where it had once been so busy is proved by the episcopal tribunals ■being alone referred to as having cognizance of such cases-the » Wadding. an«. 1375, No. 24 ; ann. 1376, No. 2.-Arch. de rinq. de Carcass. '"TpS^s^'waTdenses, translated by Lennard, London, 1624, Bk^2 pp. 18, 19 - Leger, Hist, des tglises Vaudoises II. 26.-Cliabrand, op. cit. pp. 39, 40.