Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/78

 ^2 LANGUEDOC. and arbitrary as his predecessors, and when the people prepared an appeal to the king he promptly threw into jail the notary who drew up the paper. In their desperation they disregarded this warning ; a deputation was sent to the court, and this time they were listened to. May 13, 1291, Philippe addressed a letter to his Seneschal of Carcassonne reciting the injuries inflicted by the Inquisition on the innocent through the newly-invented system of torture, by means of which the living and the dead were fraud- ulently convicted and the whole land scandalized and rendered desolate. The royal officials were therefore ordered no longer to obey the commands of the inquisitors in making arrests, unless the accused be a confessed heretic or persons worthy of faith vouch for his being publicly defamed for heresy. A month later he reit- erated these orders even more precisely, and announced his inten- tion of sending deputies to Languedoc armed with full authority to make permanent provision in the matter. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of these manifestoes as marking a new era in the relations ^Detween the temporal and spiritual authorities. For far less than this all the chivalry and scum of Europe had been promised salvation if they would drive Eaymond of Toulouse from his inheritance.* It was probably to break in some degree the force of this unheard-of interference with inquisitorial supremacy that in Sep- tember, 1292, Guillem de Saint-Seine, Inquisitor of Carcassonne, ordered all the parish priests in his district for three weeks on Ordonnance as printed by Lauriere and Isambert is of 1287. As given by Vais- sette (IV Pr. 97-8) it is of 1291. A copy in Doat, XXXI. 266 (from the Regist. Curise Franci* de Carcass.), is dated 1297. Schmidt (Cathares I. 342) accepts 1287 • A Molinier (Vaissette, fid. Privat, IX. 157) confirms the date of 1291. The latter accords best with the series of events. 1287 would seem manifestly im- possible as Philippe was crowned January 6, 1286, at the age of seventeen, and would scarcely, in fifteen months, venture on such a step so defiant of all that was held sacred ; nor would Nicholas IV. in 1290 have praised his zeal in furthermg the Inquisition (Ripoll 11. 29), while 1297 seems incompatible with his subsequent ' action on the subject. In 1292 Philippe prohibited the capitouls of Toulouse from employmg tort- ure on clerks subject to the jurisdiction of the bishop, a prohibition which had to be repeated in 1307. - Baudouin, Lettres ingdites de Phihppe le Bel, pp. 16, 73.
 * There has been great confusion as to the date of Philippe's action. The