Page:Margaret of Angoulême, Queen of Navarre (Robinson 1886).djvu/202

Rh found necessary to invent the Inquisition to destroy it. In his History of Popular Pantheism, M. Auguste Jundt has printed a singular account of the Vaudois left by Étienne de Belleville, a Dominican, who had charge of this Inquisition of 1233.

"They absolutely refuse," the Inquisitor relates, "to obey the Roman Church, which they call the impure Babylon of the Apocalypse. For them, all good men are priests, having received from God the ordination which ecclesiastics receive from men. They teach that it is sufficient to confess to God, and that God alone has the right to excommunicate."

Splendid and difficult saying! Often enough must the innocent and persecuted Vaudois have laid this precept, in sore extremity, to heart! "God alone has the right to excommunicate."

"And," proceeds De Belleville, "they believe not in prayers for the dead, since for them Purgatory is only in this life."

Ah! Étienne de Belleville, worthy Inquisitor, do you believe that any dogma could declare more crucial sufferings to purify a tainted soul than those with which you visited these Vaudois on earth? What else to them, indeed, did you make their life but one long Purgatory, one perpetual fear and horror, one lasting torment?

"For them Purgatory is in this world alone. They reject alike oaths and lies. They deny the right to execute justice or to make war, except on evil spirits. They allow meat on fast days and work on Saints' days; for, according to them, there are no other Saints than good men and women, here on earth. Likewise, they hold it for a sin to adore the cross or the body of Christ, or to pay Peter's pence; they call rich priests