Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/46

 ^Q LANGUEDOC. Under the reaction consequent upon Trencavel's failure, and emboldened by the ruin of the local protectors of the people, the inquisitors returned to their work with sharpened zeal and re- doubled energy. Chance has preserved for us a record of sen- tences pronounced by Pierre Cella, during a circuit of a few months in Querci, from Advent, 1241, to Ascension, 1212, which affords us a singularly instructive insight into one phase of inquis- itorial operations. We have seen that, when an inquisitor isited a town, he proclaimed a '' time of grace," during which those who voluntarily came forward and confessed were spared the harsher punishments of prison, confiscation, or the stake, and that the In- quisition found this expedient exceedingly fruitful, not only in the number of penitents which it brought in, but in the testimony which was gathered concerning the more contumacious. The rec- ord in question consists of cases of this kind, and its crowded cal- endar justifies the esteem in which the method was held."* Summarized, the record shows — In Gourdon 219 sentences pronounced in Advent, 1241. InMontcucq.... 84 " " " Lent, 1242. In Sauveterre.... 5. In Belcayre 7. In Montauban .. 254 sentences pronounced in week before Ascension (May 21- 28, 1242). InMoissac .... 99 " " " week of Ascension (May 28-June 5,1242). InMontpezat.... 22 " " " ^"f ' ^^f ' In Montaut 23 " " t1 u « " " " In Castelnau .... H Total 724 II 252 No 2241.-Vaissette,III. 383, 422-3; Pr. 385, 397-99.-Ripon VII. 9.- Potthast No. 9024.-Pelisso Chron. pp. 28-9.-Coll. Doat, XXL 163-164, 166 ; XXIV. 81. ^,^^, ., , not specify that the cases are of voluntary penitents within the time of grace, there is no risk in assuming this. The penances are all of the kind provided for such penitents; and in one case (fol. 220) it is mentioned that the party had not come in within the time, which would infer that the rest had done so. Besides, the extraordinary speed with which the business was transacted is wholly in- compatible with prosecutions of accused persons striving to mamtam their m- nocence.
 * The document is in the Collection Doat,;XXI. 185 sqq.-Althongh it does