Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/53

 THE MASSACRE A BLUNDER. 37 Like the murder of the legate Pierre de Castelnau, in 1208, the massacre of Avignonet was a fatal error. Its violation of the tra- ditionai sanctity of the ecclesiastic sent a thrill of horror even among those who had small sympathy with the cruelty of the In- quisition, while the deliberateness of its planning and its unspar- ing ferocity gave color to the behef that heresy was only to be extirpated by force. Sympathy, indeed, for a time might well change sides, for the massacre was practically unavenged. Frere Ferrer, the Inquisitor of Carcassonne, made due inquest into the affair, and after the capture of Montsegur, in 1244, some of the participants confessed all the details, but the real culprits escaped. Count Eaymond, it is true, when he had leisure from pressing business, hanged a few of the underlings, but we find Eaymond d'Alfaro, in 1247, promoted to be Yiguier of Toulouse, and repre- senting his master in the proceedings with regard to the burial of the old count, and, finally, he was one of the nine witnesses to Raymond's last will. Another ringleader, Guillem du Mas-Saintes- PueUes, is recorded as taking the oath of allegiance to Count Al- fonse, in 1249, after the death of Raymond. Guillem's participa- tion in the murders has special interest, as showing the antagonism created by the violence of the Inquisition, for in 1233, as Bailli of Lavaur, he had dutifully seized a number of heretics and carried them to Toulouse, where they were promptly burned.* The massacre of Avignonet came at a time peculiarly unfortu- nate for Count Raymond, who was nursing comprehensive and far-reaching plans, then ripe for execution, for the rehabilitation of his house and the independence of his land. He could not es- cape the responsibility for the catastrophe which public opinion 4o.-Peyrat, Les Albigeois et I'lnquisition, II. 304.-Diez,Leben und Werke der Troubadours, p. 491.-Ripoll I. 117. - Analecta Franciscana, Quaracchi 1887 II. 65. ' * The Catholic tradition at Avignonet was that some of the inquisitors" follow- ers escaped to the church, where they were massacred with a number of Catholic inhabitants who had sought refuge there. In consequence of this pollution the church remained unused for forty years, and the anniversary of its reconciliation, on the first Tuesday in June, was still, in the last century, celebrated with illu- minations and rejoicing as a local feast (Bremond ap. RipoU 1. c). 19.-Molinier, L'Ensevelissement de Raimond VI. p. 21.— Vaissette, :&d. Privatj
 * Vaissette, III. 456.-Guill. Pod. Laur. c. 45.-Molinier ap. Pelisso Chron pt