Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/318

 302 THE SLAVIC CATHARI. enact laws against heresy, but these were not enforced. A century had passed since the Inquisition was founded, and yet the duties ot persecution had not even then been learned on the shores of the Adriatic The work seemed further than ever from accomplish- ment The Cathari continued to multiply under the avowed pro- tection of Stephen and his magnates. A gleam of light appeared, however, when, in 1337, the Croatian Count Kelipic, a bitter enemy of Stephen, offered his services to Benedict, who joyfully accepted them, and summoned all the Croatian barons to range themselves under his banner in aid of the pious labors of Fabiano and his col- leao-ues War ensued between Bosnia and Croatia, of the details of which we know httle, except that it brought no advantage to the faith, until it threatened to spread.* Stephen's position, in fact, was becoming precarious, io the east was Stephen Dusan the Great, who styled himself Emperor of Servia, Greece, and Bulgaria, and who had shown himself un- friendly since the union of Herzegovina with Bosnia. To the north was Charles Robert, who was preparing to take part m the war. It is true that the Venetians, desirous to keep Hungary away from their Adriatic possessions, were ready to form an alliance with Stephen, but the odds against him were too great. He probably intimated a readiness to submit, for when, in 1339, Benedict sent the Franciscan General Gherardo as legate to Hungary, Charles Eobert convoyed him to the Bosnian frontier, where Stephen re- ceived him with all honor, and said that he was not averse to extir- pating the Cathari, but feared that in case of persecution they would call in Stephen Dusan. If hberally supported by the pope and King of Hungary he would run the risk. In 1340 Benedict promised him the help of all Catholics, and he aUowed himself to be converted, an example followed by many of the magnates. It was quite time, for Catholicism had yirtuaUy disappeared from Bosnia where the churches were mostly abandoned and torn down. Gherardo hastened to follow up his advantage by sending mission- aries and inquisitors into Bosnia. That there was no place there, however, for the methods of the Inquisition, and that persuasion, not force, was required, is seen by the legends which recount how • Tbeiner Monument. Slavor. Merid. 1. 174, 175.-Wadding. ann. 1331, No. 4 ; ann. 1337, No. l.-Raynald. ann. 1335, No. 62.-Klaic, pp. 157-8.