212 VI. CHAP. ceded to the Church.* The fortifications of Toulouse and of the other towns were to be demolished, the castle of that capital was to be garrisoned by the king; finally, the count was to permit the extermination of heretics in his dominions, and himself to assume the cross and depart for the Holy Land. At the price of such concessions Raymond was reconciled to the Church, though he was to remain prisoner in the Louvre until the fortresses were given up. "It was a pity," says Puy Laurens, "to see so great a man, who for so long had resisted so many and such great nations, led naked to the altar, in his shirt, his arms and feet bare." The king in restoring Raymond to the county of Toulouse for life, gave that part of the province of Albi, which he had retained, to Philip de Montfort, who took the title of Count of Castres. This complete triumph of the Roman Church and churchmen over Toulouse, at the same time that they were uncontrolled masters of the court of France, encouraged them to erect an imperishable monument of their sense of justice, morality, and Christian charity. Bishops and doctors, and the court of France at their instigation, promulgated a series of laws, canons and directions for the discovery and extermination of heretics, which far surpasses in atrocity, in deceit, in immorality and sanguinary cruelty, any code of laws that ever was ordained or acted upon even by the most ruthless and barbarous pagans. This monument of Latin Christianity in the thirteenth century is known as the Holy Inquisition, at the head of which were the monks of the order of St. Dominick. These deputed three or four ecclesiastics to proceed to each district, and to make inquiry into the lives of such of the inhabitants as were or had been suspected of heresy. Testimony to this effect was to be collected, but the names of the wit * This was the origin of the Papal sovereignty of Avignon. nesses, as well as their depositions, were carefully concealed from the victims. These were committed to prison, and directions were drawn up for their treatment, so infamous as almost to defy belief. Every means that the most cunning treachery could suggest, and the most unscrupulous falsehood allow, were employed to entrap the accused into confession. At one time they were menaced with death, at another promised pardon. They were in turns cajoled and threatened, encouraged and intimidated, and deprived of nourishment, in order to make physical weakness lead to moral prostration. Confessions against themselves, their pastors, and their eminent men, were to be elicited from them by successive and scientific torture. Even when they had abjured errors, they were to be tricked into some expression of lingering attachment to them, and they were then immediately condemned to the flames. Those who, at sight of the flames or in fear of death, recanted, were consigned to perpetual imprisonment in the dungeons of the Inquisition. There was not a decree, a judgment, or an atrocity committed by the ignorant revolutionists of 1792, which had not been anticipated by the clergy of 1230, in Languedoc. Whoever concealed a heretic, was condemned to loss of life and property. Whoever did not confess and receive the Sacrament from a Romish priest once in three months, was declared suspect, which meant condemned to death. And to crown this worthy code of the Jacobin clergy, the Bible, with the Old and New Testament, was proscribed -an act certainly as prudent as consistent; for who could. read a single chapter of the life and acts of Christ, without being struck by the utter contrast between these and the acts of the Church which professed to preach and to follow his precepts? The victorious portion of France, and that class of the northern population, the feudal nobles, who aided the Church to impose their rule of terror over the CHAP. ᏙᏞ CHAP. South, suffered severely for their reckless oppression. VI. For it was in a great measure the conquest of the The extension of the power of the French monarch over Languedoc rendered the discontent and resistance of the noblesse of the north less formidable. Still it continued, and in 1230 the Count of Brittany received the aid of an English army, headed by Henry the Third in person. The principal means of defeating this English invasion, as well as French rebellion by Blanche, were to bribe the most eminent and influential in the hostile camp. Thus in England she contrived to make Hubert de Burgh her friend; and the chronicles insist that it was done by bribery. Hubert, therefore, did his utmost to prevent Henry's sailing with an efficient force to Brittany, and both in England and on the Continent endeavoured to have the repeated offers of Poitevin, Angevin, and Norman barons to Henry rejected. Another important personage won by Blanche was the * Esprit des Lois, livre 28. c. 34. VI. Count de la Marche, Hugh de Lusignan, who, on this CHAP. occasion, instead of following the standard of the King and the Count of Brittany, remained amongst the lieges of France. Blanche by this means benumbed the activity of the allies; and Louis, placing himself at the head of an army to resist them, marched into Brittany and took a few insignificant places. The King of England remained quiet at Nantes, whilst the chiefs of his army, perceiving that neither the monarch nor Hubert de Burgh would hear of fighting, abandoned themselves to festivity. The war was terminated by the retreat of the English, and by a truce for three years concluded with the Count of Brittany. This truce is known by the name of St. Aubin, after the castle in which it was concluded. To pacify the east as well as west of France, it was necessary to induce Thibaud of Champagne to promise to proceed to the Holy Land with a hundred knights. Nothing less would satisfy his enemy, Philip of Boulogne, to whom the Duke of Burgundy and almost all the noblesse in this respect adhered. It was evident that the nobles attributed to the councils of Thibaud the very anti-feudal modes of government adopted by Blanche. On this occasion. Louis and the queen-mother swore "that they would restore their rights to the nobles, and judge each according to established custom and claims." The remaining years of the king's minority passed with few events. A quarrel of the court with the Archbishop of Rouen, with the municipalty of Beauvais, and University of Paris were the principal. In all these Louis, under the influence of his mother, vindicated the rights of the crown in a harsh, unscrupulous manner, very different from what became the rule of his conduct when he enjoyed full power and judgment. In this interval, too, Thibaud of Champagne succeeded to the kingdom of Navarre by the death of his uncle. The prospect of such a succession no doubt had rendered VI. CHAP. him more pliant to the demands of the French aristocracy. Philip Hurepel had excited a competitor even for Champagne, in the person of Alix, Queen of Cyprus. But Thibaud was delivered from Philip's enmity by his death. He made a compromise with Alix, and on departing to assume the crown of Navarre ceded the counties of Chartres, Blois, Sancerre, and Chateaudun to the crown of France, which thus made a valuable acquisition, whilst Thibaud was crowned King of Navarre in 1234. As the king in 1236 approached the age of his majority, the queen-mother negotiated for him a marriage with Margaret, eldest of the four daughters of Raymond Berenger, Count or Marquis of Provence. The great recommendation doubtless was that this prince had no son, and that the marriage thus offered those chances of succession which the rulers of France knew so well to turn to its advantage. The destruction of the court of Toulouse had rendered that of Aix the capital of the south. It was the haunt of troubadours who celebrated the charms of the Countess Beatrice, daughter of Thomas of Savoy. Blanche demanded 10,000 marks dowry with the princess, and the fortress of Tarascon as a guarantee for the sum being paid. To these terms the Count of Provence acceded, and Louis espoused Margaret. Henry the Third of England, some time after, married another sister. Although Blanche negotiated and arranged this marriage, she was exceedingly jealous of the young queen's acquiring any political influence; and she even endeavoured to prevent the young spouses from being too much in each other's company. They were obliged to have recourse to stolen interviews to avoid her anger, and to make their attendants warn them of the queen-mother's coming, in order that they might not be surprised together. Blanche, in thus monopolizing influence and retaining power, had no great aim to pursue. The continuation |