Hunted down by the Inquisition and quickly abandoned by the
nobles of the district, the Albigenses became more and more
scattered, hiding in the forests and mountains, and only
meeting surreptitiously. There were some recrudescences of
heresy, such as that produced by the preaching (1298-1509)
of the Catharist minister, Pierre Authier -- the people, too,
made some attempts to throw off the yoke of the Inquisition
and the French,1 and insurrections broke out under the
leadership of Bernard of Foix, Aimerv of Narbonne, and,
especially, Bernard Delicieux at the beginning of the 14th
century. But at this point vast inquests were set on foot
by the Inquisition, which terrorized the district. Precise
indications of these are found in the registers of the Inquisitors,
Bernard of Caux, Jean de St Pierre, Geoffroy d'Ablis, and
others. The sect, moreover, was exhausted and could find
no more adepts in a district which, by fair means or foul,
had arrived at a state of peace and political and religious
unity. After 1330 the records of the Inquisition contain but
few proceedings against Catharists. (See also under CATHARS.)
Note
1 These they often confounded and a heretic is described as
saying: "Clergy and French, they are one and the same thing."
AUTHORITIES.
See C. Schmidt's Histoire de la secte des
Cathares ou Albigeois (Paris, 1849), which is still the
most important work on the subject. The following will be
found useful:
D. Vaissete, Histoire de Languedoc, vols. iii.
iv. vii. viii. (new edition)
Ch. Molinier, L'Inquisition
dans le Midi de la France (Paris, 1880), and the other
works by the same author
L. Tanon, Histoire des tribunaux
de l'Inquisition en France (Paris, 1893).
Les Albigeois,
leurs origines (Paris, 1878), by Douais, should be read with
caution.
Of the sources, which are very numerous, may be
mentioned:
the Liber Sententiarum of the Inquisition of
Carcassonne, published by Ph. van Limborch at the end of his
Historia Inquisitionis (Amsterdam, 1692): other registers of
the inquisition analysed at length by Ch. Molinier, op cit.,
some published in vol. ii. of the Documents pour l'histoire
de l'Inquisition (Paris, 1900), by C. Douais
numerous texts
concerning the last days of Albigensianism, collected by M.
Vidal, "Les derniers ministres albigeois," in Rev. de quest.
histor. (1906).
See also the Rituel cathare, ed. by Cunitz
(Jena, 1852)
the Nouveau Testament en provencal, ed. by
Cledat (Paris, 1887)
and the very curious Debat d'Yzarn
et de Sicart de Figueiras, ed. by P. Meyer (1880).
On
the ethics of the Catharists, see Jean Guiraud, Questions
d'histoire et d'archeologie chretienne (Paris, 1906)
and
P. Alphandery, Les idees morales chez les heterodoxes
latins au debut du XIIIe siecle (Paris, 1903). (P. A.)
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