Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/27

 SUMMARY PROCEEDINGS. H a case occurring in 1234. When the canonization of St. Dominic was announced in Toulouse it was celebrated in a solemn mass performed by Bishop Eaymond in the Dominican convent. St. Dominic, however, desired to mark the occasion with some more edifying manifestation of his peculiar functions, and caused word to be brought to the bishop, as the latter was leaving the church for the refectory to partake of a meal, that a woman had just been hereticated in a house hard by, in the Rue de I'Olmet sec. The bishop, with the prior and some others, hurried thither. It was the house of Peitavin Borsier, the general messenger of the here- tics of Toulouse, whose mother-in-law lay dying of fever. So sud- den was the entrance of the intruders that the woman's friends could only tell her " the bishop is coming," and she, who expected a visit from the heretic bishop, was easily led on by Raymond to make a full declaration of her heresy and to pledge herself to be steadfast in it. Then, revealing himself, he ordered her to recant, and, on her refusal, he summoned the viguier, condemned her as a heretic, and had the satisfaction of seeing the dying creature car- ried off on her bed and burned at the place of execution. Borsier and his colleague, Bernard Aldric of Dremil, w^ere captured, and betrayed many of their friends ; and then Raymond and the fri- ars returned to their neglected dinner, giving thanks to God and to St. Dominic for so signal a manifestation in favor of the faith. ^ The ferocious exultation with which these extra-judicial hor- rors were perpetrated is well reflected in a poem of the period by Isarn, the Dominican Prior of Yillemier. He represents himself as disputing with Sicard de Figueras, a Catharan bishop, and each of his theological arguments is clinched with a threat — " E' s'aquest no vols creyre vec te '1 foe aizinat Que art tos companhos. Aras vuelh que m' respondas en un mot o en dos, Si cauziras et foe o remanras ab nos." " If you will not believe this, look at that raging fire which is con- suming your comrades. Now I wish you to reply to me in one word or two, for you will burn in the fire or join us." Or again, " If you do not confess at once, the flames are already lighted ;
 * Pelisso Chron. pp. 23-5.