Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/75

 CONSPIRACY AT CARCASSONNE. 59 sustain their charges with specific proofs, and after a brief investi- gation their reiterated requests for relief were dismissed as frivo- lous. In the agitation against the Inquisition thus commenced, it must be borne in mind that heretics had little to do. By this time they were completely cowed and were quite satisfied if they could enjoy their faith in secret. The opposition arose from good Cath- olics, the magistrates of cities and substantial burghers, who saw the prosperity of the land withering under the deadly grasp of the Holy Office, and who felt that no man was safe whose wealth might arouse cupidity or whose independence might provoke re- venge. The introduction of the use of torture impressed the pop- ular imagination with special horror, and it was widely believed that confessions were habitually extorted by insufferable torment from rich men whose faith was unblemished. The cruel provisions which brought confiscation on the descendants of heretics, more- over, were peculiarly hard to endure, for ruin impended over every one against whom the inquisitor might see fit to produce from his records evidence of ancestral heresy. It was against these records that the next attempt was directed. Foiled in their appeal to the throne, the consuls of Carcassonne and some of its prominent ecclesiastics, in 1283 or 1284, formed a conspiracy to destroy the books of the Inquisition containing the confessions and deposi- tions. How far this was organized it would be difficult now to say. The statements of the witnesses conflict so hopelessly on material points, even as to dates, that there is little dependence to be placed on them. They were evidently extracted under torture, and if they are credible the consuls of the city and the archdeacon, Sanche Morlana, the episcopal Ordinary, GuiUem Brunet, other episcopal officials and many of the secular clergy were not only implicated in the plot, but were heretics in full affili- ation with the Cathari. Whether true or false they show that there was the sharpest antagonism between the Inquisition and the local Church. The whole has an air of unreality which ren- ders one doubtful about accepting any portion, but there must have been some foundation for the story. According to the evi- dence Bernard Garric, who had been a perfected heretic and a films major^ but had been converted and was now a familiar of the Inquisition, was selected as the instrument. He was ap- proached, and after some baro^ainino^ he aOTeed to deliver the