Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/29

 POPULAR RESISTANCE: 13 In Narbonne disturbances arose even more serious, although special inquisitors had not yet been sent there. In March, 1234, the Dominican prior, Frangois Ferrer, undertook a volunteer in- quisition and threw in prison a citizen named Eaymond d'Argens. Fifteen years previous the artisans of the suburb had organized a confederation for mutual support called the Amistance, and this body arose as one man and forcibly rescued the prisoner. The archbishop, Pierre Amiel, and the viscount, Aimery of JS^arbonne, undertook to rearrest him, but found his house guarded by the Amistance, which rushed upon their followers with shouts of " Kill ! kill !" and drove them away after a brief skirmish, in which the prior was badly handled. The archbishop had recourse to ex- communication and interdict, but to little purpose, for the Amis- tance seized his domains and drove him from the city. Both sides sought allies. Gregory IX. appealed to King Jayme of Aragon, while a complaint from the consuls of IS'arbonne to those of JN'imes looks as though they were endeavoring to effect a confederation of the cities against the Inquisition, of whose arbitrary and illegal methods of procedure they give abundant details. A kind of truce was patched up in October, but the troubles recommenced when the prior, in obedience to an order from his provincial, undertook a fresh inquisition, and made a number of arrests. In December a suspension was obtained by the citizens appeahng to the pope, the king, and the legate, but in 1235 the people rose against the Dominicans, drove them from the city, sacked their convent, and destroyed all the records of the proceedings against heresy. Arch- bishop Pierre had cunningly separated the city from the suburb, about equal in population, by confining the inquisition to the lat^ ter, and this bore fruit in his securing the armed support of the former. The suburb placed itself under the protection of Count Eaymond, who, nothing loath to aggravate the trouble, came there and gave to the people as leaders OHvier de Termes and Gui- raud de Niort, two notorious defenders of heretics. A bloody civil war broke out between the two sections, which lasted until April, 1237, when a truce for a year was agreed upon. In the following August the Count of Toulouse and the Seneschal of Carcassonne were caUed in as arbitrators, and in March, 1238, a peace was concluded. That the Church triumphed is sho^^T^ by the conditions which imposed upon some of the participators