Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/41

 THE INQUISITION SUSPENDED AND RESTORED. 25 owing to hostilities with Frederic II., the cardinal-legate's depart- ure was postponed for a year. "When at last he came, in 1239, he brought special orders to the inquisitors to obey his commands. What investigation he made and what were his conclusions we have no means of knowing, but this at least is certain, that until late in 1241 the Inquisition was effectually muzzled. No traces remain of its activity during these years, and Catholic and Catha- ran ahke could draw a freer breath, reheved of apprehension from its ever-present supervision and the seemingly superhuman energy of the friars.* We can readily conjecture the reasons which impelled its re- instatement. Doubtless the bishops were as negligent as of old, and looked after their temporaUties to the exclusion of their duties in preserving the purity of the faith. Doubtless, too, the heretics, encouraged by virtual toleration, grew bolder, and cherished hopes of a return to the good old times, when, secure under their native princes, they could safely defy distant Paris and yet more distant Eome. The condition of the country was, in fact, by no means reassuring, especially in the regions which had become domains of the crown. The land was full of knights and barons who were more or less openly heretics, and who knew not when the blow might fall on them; of seigneurs who had been proscribed for heresy; of enforced converts who secretly longed to avow their hidden faith, and to regain their confiscated lands ; of penitents burning to throw off the crosses imposed on them, and to avenge the humiliations which they had endured. Refugees, faidits, and heretic teachers were wandering through the mountains, dwelhng in caverns and in the recesses of the forests. Scarce a family but had some kinsman to avenge, who had fallen in the field or had perished at the stake. The lack of prisons and the parsimony of the prelates had prevented a general resort to imprisonment, and the burnings had not been numerous enough to notably reduce the numbers of those who were of necessity bitterly opposed to the existing order. Suddenly, in 1240, an insurrection appeared, head- ed by Trencavel, son of that Yiscount of Beziers whom we have seen entrapped by Simon de Montfort and dying opportunely in Vaissette, Til. 411.
 * Arch. Nat. de France J. 430, No. 19, 20. — Guill. Pod. Laurent, c. 43.—