Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/31

 POSITION OF COUNT RAYMOND. 15 for he had been so long under the ban of the Church that no bishop hesitated for a moment in anathematizing him. Then, one of the conditions of the treaty of 1229 had been that within two years he should proceed to Palestine and wage war there with the infidel for five years. The two years had passed away without his per- forming the vow ; the state of the country at no time seemed to render so prolonged an absence safe, and for years a leading ob- ject of his policy was to obtain a postponement of his crusade or immunity for the non-observance of his vow. Moreover, from the date of the peace of Paris until the end of his hf e he earnestly and vainly endeavored to obtain from Rome permission for the sepul- ture of his father's body. These comphcations crippled him in multitudinous ways and exposed him to immense disadvantage in his fencing with the hierarchy. As early as 1230 he was taxed by the legate with inobservance of the conditions of the peace, and was forced to promise amend- ment of his ways. In 1232 we see Gregory IX. imperiously or- dering him to be energetic in the duty of persecution, and, possibly in obedience to this, during the same year, we find him personally accompanying Bishop Raymond of Toulouse in a nocturnal expe- dition among the mountains, which was rewarded with the capture of nineteen perfected heretics, male and female, including one of their most important leaders. Pagan, Seigneur de Recede, whose castle we saw captured in 1227. All these expiated their errors at the stake. Yet not long afterwards the Bishop of Tournay, as papal legate, assembled the prelates of Languedoc and formally cited Raymond before King Louis to answer for his slackness in carrying out the provisions of the treaty. The result of this was the drawing up of severe enactments against heretics, which he was obhged to promulgate in February, 1234. In spite of this, and of a letter from Gregory to the bishops ordering them no longer to excommunicate him so freely as before, he was visited within a twelvemonth with two fresh excommunications, for pure- ly temporal causes. Then came fresh urgency from the pope for the extirpation of heresy, with which Raymond doubtless made a show of compliance, as his heart was bent on obtaining from Rome a restoration of the Marquisate of Provence. In this he was strongly backed by King Louis, whose brother Alfonse was to be Raymond's heir, and towards the close of the year he sought an