Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 2.djvu/83

 VARYING POLICY OF PHILIPPE. g^ England. A truce was thus patched up with Philippe, who has- tened to manifest his good-will to the Holy See by abandoning his subjects again to the inquisitors. In the Liber Sextus of the Decretals, pubhshed by Boniface March 3, 1298, the pope included, with customary imperiousness, a canon commanding the absolute obedience of all secular officials to the orders of inquisitors under penalty of excommunication, which if endured for a year carried with it condemnation for heresy. This was his answer to the French monarch's insubordinate legislation, and Philippe at the moment was not inchned to contest the matter. In September he meekly enclosed the canon to his officials with instructions to obey it in every point, arresting and imprisoning all whom inquisi- tors or bishops might designate, and punishing all whom they might condemn. A letter of Frere Arnaud Jean, Inquisitor of Pamiers, dated March 2, of the same year, assuring the Jews that they need dread no novel measures of severity, would seem to in- dicate that the royal protection had been previously withdrawn from them. The good understanding between king and pope lasted until 1300, when the quarrel broke out afresh with greater acrimony than ever. In December of that year the provisions of Cler^c^aa^ooB were renewed by the bull Nuper ex roMonahUihus followed by the short one, of which the authenticity is disputed &*r^fe^o^tmi.«, asserting Philippe's subjection in temporal affairs and calling forth his celebrated rejoinder, Seiat Ua maxima fatui- tas. Ihe strife continued with increasing violence till the seizure of Boniface at Anagni, September 8, 1303, and his death in the lollowmg month.* Under this varying policy the fate of the people of Languedoc was hard. Nicholas d'AbbeviUe, the Inquisitor of Carcassonne was a man of inflexible severity, arrogantly bent on pushing his prerogatives to the utmost. He had an assistant worthy of hL in Foulques de Saint-Georges, the Prior of the Convent of Albi which was under his jurisdiction. He had virtuaUy another assistant m the bishop, Bernard de Castanet, who delighted to act as inquisi- tor, impelled alike by fanaticism and by greed, for, as we have