Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/350

 334: POLITICAL HERESY.— THE STATE. de Brienne, Duke of Athens, all the proceeds which they had col- lected, and all that they might collect for a year to come.* Thus disappeared, virtually without a struggle, an organization which was regarded as one of the proudest, wealthiest, and most formidable in Europe. It is not too much to say that the very idea of its destruction could not have suggested itself, but for the facilities which the inquisitorial process placed in able and un- scrupulous hands to accomplish any purpose of violence under the form of law. If I have dwelt on the tragedy at a length that may seem disproportionate, my apology is that it affords so per- fect an illustration of the helplessness of the victim, no matter how high-placed, when once the fatal charge of heresy was preferred against him, and was pressed through the agency of the Inquisi- tion. The case of the learned theologian, Jean Petit, Doctor of Sor- bonne, is of no great historical importance, but it is worth noting as an example of the use made of the charge of heresy as a weapon in political warfare, and of the elastic definition by which heresy was brought to include offences not easily justiciable in the ordi- nary courts. Under Charles YI. of France the royal power was reduced to a shadow. His frequently recurring fits of insanity rendered him incapable of governing, and the quarrels of ambitious princes of the blood reduced the kingdom almost to a state of anarchy. Es- pecially bitter was the feud between the king's brother, Louis, Duke of Orleans, and his cousin, Jean sans Peur of Burgundy. Yet even that age of violence was startled when, by the procure- ment of Jean sans Peur, the Duke of Orleans, in 1407, was assas- sinated in the streets of Paris — a murder which remained un- avenged until 1419, when the battle-axe of Tanneguy du Chatel balanced the account on the bridge of Montereau. Even Jean sans Peur felt the need of some apology for his bloody deed, and he sought the assistance of Jean Petit, who read before the royal court a thesis — the Justificatio Duels Burgundim — to prove that he had acted righteously and patriotically, and that he deserved
 * Regest. Clement. PP. V. T. V. p. 235 (Romas, 1887).