Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/313

 STUBBORNNESS OF HERESY. 297 and waste of their substance. In spite of these sacrifices, as the churches and castles which they had built were not strong enough to resist siege, the land could not be retained in the faith • it had wholly relapsed into heresy, and there was no hope of its volun- tary redemption. The church of Kalocsa had been thoroughly exhausted, and it was now rewarded by placing the recalcitrant region under its jurisdiction, in the expectation that some future crusade might be more fortunate. Innocent IV. had, a few months earlier, ordered Bela to undertake a decisive struggle with the Cathari, but JSTinoslav appealed to him, protesting that he had been since his conversion a faithful son of the Church, and had only accepted the aid of the heretics because it was necessary to preserve the independence of the Banate. Moved by this Inno cent instructed the Archbishop of Kalocsa to abstain from further persecution. He ordered an investigation into the faith and ac- tions of Ninoslav, and gave permission to use the Glagolitic writ- ing and the Slavic tongue in the celebration of Catholic service recognizing that this would remove an obstacle to the propaga- twn of the faith. Ninoslav's last years were peaceful, but after his death, about 1250, there were civil Avars stimulated bv the an- tagonism between Catharan and Catholic. He was succeeded by Frijesda, who had remained Catholic since his conversion in 1233 Under pretence of supporting Prijesda, Bela intervened, and by 1254 he had again reduced Bosnia to subjection, leading, doubtless, to active pei^ecution of heresy, although the transfer of the see or i>osnia to Kalocsa was not carried into effect * It was about this time that Eainerio Saccone gives us his com- putation of the Perfects in many of the Catharan churches. In Constantinople there were two churches, a Latin and a Greek the former comprising fifty Perfects. The latter, together with those of Bulgaria Roumama, Slavonia, and Dalmatia, he estimates at about five hundred. This would indicate a very large number o believers, and shows how unfruitful had been the kbors and the wars which had continued for more than a generation. In fact although Bela's long reign lasted until 1270, he failed utterly in his efforts to extirpate heresy. On the contrary, the Cathari grew