Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/65

 STUBBORNNESS OF HERESY. 49 there had been hopes that perhaps Eaymond's inconstancy might lead him to retrace the steps of the last few years. Moreover, his subjects had shared in the desire, manifested in his repeated mar- riage projects, that he should have an heir to inherit the lands not pledged in succession to his daughter. He was but in his fifty-first year, and the expectation was not unreasonable that his line might be perpetuated and the southern nationality be preserved. All this was now seen to be a delusion, and the most sanguine Cath- aran could look forward to nothing but a life of concealment end- ing in prison or fire. Yet the heretic Church stubbornly held its own, though with greatly diminished numbers. Many of its mem- bers fled to Lombardy, w^here, even after the death of Frederic II., the civic troubles and the pohcy of local despots, such as Ezzelin da Komano, afforded some shelter from the Inquisition. Yet many remained and pursued their wandering missions among the faithful, perpetually tracked by inquisitorial spies, but rarely be- trayed. These humble and forgotten men, hopelessly braving hardship, toil, and peril in what they deemed the cause of God, were true martyrs, and their steadfast heroism shows how little relation the truth of a rehgion bears to the self-devotion of its fol- lowers. Kainerio Saccone, the converted Catharan, who had the best means of ascertaining the facts, computes, about this time, that there were in Lombardy one hundred and fifty "perfected" refugees from France, while the churches of Toulouse, Carcas- sonne, and Albi, including that of Agen, then nearly destroyed, numbered two hundred more. These figures would indicate that a very considerable congregation of behevers still existed in spite of the systematic and ruthless proscription of the past twenty years. Their earnestness was kept alive, not only by the occa- sional and dearly-prized visits of the travelHng ministers, but by the frequent intercourse which was maintained with Lombardy. Until the disappearance of the sect on this side of th6 Alps, there is, in the confessions of penitents, perpetual allusion to these pil- grimages back and forth, which kept up the relations between the refugees and those left at home. Thus, in 1254, Guillem Fournier, in an interrogatory before the Inquisition of Toulouse, relates that he started for Italy with five companions, including two women. His first resting-place was at Coni, where he met many heretics ; then at Pavia, where he was hereticated bv Kavmond II.— 4