Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/177

 THE WALDENSES, jg. With a new king, in the person of Louis XII, there came a new phase m the affairs of the Waldenses. A conference was held m Fans before the royal chancellor, where envoys from Frevs- s,meres met Eostain the new Archbishop of Embrun, and deputies of the Parlement of Grenoble. It was resolved to send to the Ttl^T r '"'^f commissioners, with power to determine the status of the so-called heretics. They went to Freyssinieres and examined witnesses, who satisfied them that the population were good Cathohcs, m spite of the urgent assertions of the archbishop that they were notorious heretics. All the excommunications were removed, which put an end to the prosecutions. On October 12, 1502, Loms XII. confirmed the decision, and Alexander VI tj whose son, Casar Borgia, Louis had given the Duchy of Valeiiti nois, embracing the territory in question, was not disposed to run counter to the royal wishes. The Waldenses were, however un able to loosen the grip of the Archbishop of Embru; on the prl- erty which he had confiscated, in spite of positive orders fori restoration from the king, but at least they were allowed uMer until the crowdmg pressure of the Reformation forced them to a merger with the Oalvinists. In the Briansonnais, in sp'te of occasional burnings jieresy continued to spread until, in 1514 Antoine d'Estamg, Bishop of Angouleme, was sent thitker, when the measures he adopted, vigorously enforced by the ecular authorities, put an end to it in a few years.* pp 277-82.-D'Argentr6 1. 1. 105.-Leger, Hist, des feglises VaudoisesH 23 5 Fihppo de Boni, I Calabro-Valdesi n 71 -Cnmh« Tn!f„- !, t , Paris, 1887, I. 160-66, 169. ' ^"^ '^ ^""'^'^ '^'I'""^. The Waldensian legend relates that in the cavern of Aigue-Fraide the n„m thTk tl M^ri*" """^""'^' °^^'^°- f°- hundredlere iren b ri SXl?;^r9).^^^"^'^""^^~'-'^^ "^ exaggerated iir op. *cif p77'^-;"- ■ ^«'«-P«-'>. Hist. Waldens. B. „. eh. 3.-Chabrand, iL-n