Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/80

 ,g4 LANGUEDOC. •embrace Judaism, and Frere GuiUaume d'Auxerre, in 1285, quali- fied as ''Inquisitor of Heretics and Apostate Jews in France," it is evident that these cases formed a large portion of inquisitorial business. As the Jews were peculiarly defenceless, this jurisdic- tion gave wide opportunity for abuse and extortion which was doubtless turned fully to account. Philippe owed them protec- tion, for in 1291 he had deprived them of their own judges and ordered them to plead in the royal courts, and now he proceeded to protect them in the most emphatic manner. To Simon Brise- tete, Seneschal of Carcassonne, he sent a copy of the bull Turhato corde, with instructions that while this was to be implicitly obeyed, no Jew was to be arrested for any cause not specified therein, and, if there was any doubt, the matter was to be referred to the royal council. He further enclosed an Ordonnance directing that no Jew in France was to be arrested on the requisition of any person or friar of any Order, no matter what his office might be, without notifying the seneschal or bailli, who was to decide whether the case was sufiiciently clear to be acted upon without reference to the royal council. Simon Brisetete thereupon ordered all officials to defend the Jews, not to allow any exactions to be imposed on them whereby their ability to pay their taxes might be impaired, and not to arrest them at the mandate of any one without informing him of the cause. It would not have been easy to limit more skilfully the inquisitorial power to oppress a despised class.* Philippe had thus intervened in the most decided manner, and the oppressed populations of Languedoc might reasonably hope for permanent refief, but his subsequent policy befied their hopes. It vaciUated in a manner which is only partiaUy expUcable by the - Mao- Bull. Roman. 1. 151, 155, 159.— Archivio di Napoli, Registro 20, Lett. B fol 91 -MSS Bib. Nat., fonds latin. No. 14930, fol. 227-8.-Wadding. ann. 1290 No '5 6.-C. 13, Sexto Y. 2.-C0II. D6at, XXXII. 127; XXXVII. 193, 206, 209, 242, 255, 258.-Wadding. ann. 1359, No. l-3.-Lib. Scntcntt. Inq. Tolos. P- 230. In 1288 Philippe had already ordered the Seneschal of Carcassonne to pro- tect the Jews from the citations and other vexations inflicted on them by the ecclesiastical courts (Vaissette, ^d. Privat, IX. Pr. 232). Yet in 1306 he had all the Jews of the kingdom seized and exiled, and forbidden to return under pain of death (GuiU. Nangiac. Contin. ann. 1306).