Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/175

 THE WALDENSES. jga whole power of the State, as of old, to the support of the Inoui- sition.* ^ The correspondence which ensued would doubtless be interest- ing reading if It were accessible. Its purport, however, can read- ily be discerned in the Ordonnance of May 18, 1478, which marks in the most emphatic manner the supremacy which the State had obtained over the Church. The king assumed that his subjects of Dauphme were all good Catholics. In a studied tone of contemp- tuous insolence he alludes to the old Mendicants {vieux mendiens) styling themselves inquisitors, who vex the faithful with accusa- tions of heresy and harass them with prosecutions in the royal and ecclesiastical courts for purposes of extortion or to secure the confiscation of their property. He therefore forbids his officers to aid m making such confiscations, decrees that the heirs shall be re instated m all cases that have occurred, and in order to put a stop to the frauds and abuses of the inquisitors he strictly enjoins that for the future they shaU not be permitted to prosecute the inhabi- tants m any manner, f Such was the outcome of the efforts which, for two hundred and fifty years, the Church had unremittingly made to obtain des- potic control over the human mind. For far less than such defi- ance It had destroyed Eaymond of Toulouse and the civilization of Languedoo. It had built up the monarchy with the spoils of heresy, and now the monarchy cuffed it and bade it bury its In- quisition out of the sight of decent men. This put an end for a time to the labors of the Inquisition against the Waklenses of Dauphme but the troubles of the latter were by no means over. The death of Louis, m 1483, deprived them of their protector, and he Itahan pohcy of Charles VIII. rendered him less indifferent to the wishes of the Holy See. At the request of the Archbishop of Embrun, Innocent VIII. ordered the persecutions renewed The Franciscan Inquisitor, Jean Veyleti, whose excesses had caused the appeal to the throne in 1475, was soon again at work and had the satisfaction of burning both consuls of Freyssin^^i' ^ faithful Cathohcs, the ancient errors were readily brought to t Isambert, Anc. Loix Frang. X. 793-4.
 * Martene Ampl. Collect. II. 1506-7.