Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/42

 25 LANGUEDOC. ills hands, not without suspicion of poison. He brought with him from Catalonia troops of proscribed knights and gentlemen, and was greeted enthusiastically by the vassals and subjects of his house. Count Eaymond, his cousin, held aloof ; but his ambigu- ous conduct showed plainly that he was prepared to act on either side as success or defeat might render advisable. At first the ris- ing seemed to prosper. Trencavel laid siege to his ancestral town of Carcassonne, and the spirit of his followers was shown when, on the surrender of the suburb, they slaughtered in cold blood thirty ecclesiastics who had received solemn assurance of free egress to IS^arbonne.* It required but a small force of royal troops under Jean de Beaumont to crush the insurrection as quickly as it had arisen, and to inflict a vengeance which virtuaUy annihilated the petite noblesse of the region ; but, nevertheless, the lesson which it taught was not to be neglected. The civil order, as now established m the south of France, evidently rested in the religious order, and the maintenance of this required hands more vigorous and watch- ful than those of the self-seeldng prelates. A great assembly of the Cathari held in 1241, on the bank of the Larneta, under the presidency of Aymeri de Collet, heretic Bishop of Albi, showed how bold they had become, and how confidently they looked to the future. Church and State both could see now, if not before, that the Inquisition was a necessary factor in securing to both the advantages gained in the crusades.f Gregory IX., the founder of the Inquisition, died August 22, 1241 It is probable that, before his death, he had put an end to the suspension of the Inquisition and shpped the hounds from the leash for his immediate successor, Celestin IV., enjoyed a pontifi- cate of but nineteen days -from September 20 to October 8- and then followed an interregnum until the election of Innocent lY., June 28, 1243, so that for nearly two years the papal throne sette III 420 -Bern. Guidon. Vit. Gregor. PP. IX. (Muratori S. R. I. Ill, 574). -Teulet' Layettes, II. 457. It was not until 1247 that Trencavel released the ■ consuls of B^ziers from their allegiance to him. - Mascaro, Libre de Memorias, ^""VrMolinier (Vaissette, ^d. Privat, VII. 448-61). - Douais, Les Albigeois, Paris, 1879; Pieces iustif. No. 4.
 * Guill Pod. Laur. c. 43.-Guill. Nangiac. Gest. S. Ludov. ann. 1239.-Vais-