Inquisition against the Cathars of the Languedoc
The Inquisition set up in the Languedoc was not the first Inquisition set up by the Roman Church. Bishops' Inquisitions had existed for centuries, but being local, never had the impact of later Papal Inquisitions. The Inquisition which is the subject of this page was the Medieval Inquisition, established informally by
Dominican under
Pope Innocent III in the early thirteenth century and formalised by later popes.
The more widely known
Spanish Inquisition was set up around two centuries later by their Catholic Majesties Ferdinand (of Aragon) and Isabella (of Castile). In later centuries another
Papal Inquisition would be created to exterminate Protestant ideas in Southern Europe. Like the Spanish Inquisition, it would follow the practices of the original medieval Inquisition in the Languedoc - the one we are talking about here.
The express purpose of this original medieval Inquisition was to discover and eliminate vestiges of
Cathar belief left in the wake of the
Cathar Crusades. During the crusades, ordinances had been passed which imposed new penalties for heresy. After the death of
Innocent III in 1216 Honorius sanctioned
Dominic Guzman's new religious order, popularly known as the
Dominicans after Dominic. The
Dominicans in turn created the first formal Inquisition. In 1233 the next pope, Gregory IX, charged the
Dominican Inquisition with the final solution: the absolute extirpation of the Cathars. Soon the
Franciscans would join in too, but it is
Dominic Guzman (St Dominic) and his followers who have left the legacy of bitterness that endures in the Languedoc into the third millennium.
By the end of the fourteenth century Catharism had been virtually extirpated...............................................
Many of the techniques developed by the Medieval Inquisition were picked up and used by later totalitarian regimes and police states. Among them are the creation of racial and religious ghettos; the forcible wearing of "badges of shame"; formalised propaganda and forgery; spying; seizure of property, threats, false promises, intimidation and torture; and disregard for what has long been regarded as natural justice.
It is difficult to find any technique of modern totalitarianism that was not pioneered by the Medieval Inquisition, right down to the good cop / bad cop routine; physical restraint; the separation of families; sexual humiliation; the use of agents provocateurs and listening tubes; false promises of leniency; and softening up new victims using psychological techniques such as leaving them for weeks, cold and hungry, isolated in cells within hearing distance of the torture chamber. Even water boarding was used.............................................
Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers.
The old Episcopal Inquisition continued in parallel with the new Papal Inquisition, so co-operative bishops were able to work hand-in-hand with papal Inquisitors. One notable example was
Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers.
Jacques Fournier a
Cistercian monk became Abbot of
Fontfroide Abbey. In 1317 he became Bishop of Pamiers. He undertook a rigorous hunt for Cathar believers, which won him praise from Catholic authorities, but alienated local people. He was an exceptional
Inquisitor. Uniquely "Monsignor Jacques" was interested in what had really happened, not just in obtaining convictions. He kept detailed records of his interrogations and managed to have them preserved to provide a treasure trove for historians. He made a name for himself by his skill as an Inquisitor during the period 1318-1325. He conducted a campaign against the last remaining Cathar believers in the village of
Montaillou, as well as others who questioned the Catholic faith................................................
In 1326, on the successful rooting out of what were believed to be the last Cathar adherents in the area, he was made Bishop of Mirepoix in the Ariège. A year later, in 1327, he was made a cardinal. He succeeded Pope John XXII (1316–34) as Pope in 1334, being elected on the first conclave ballot. His election as pope accounts for the fact that even a small proportion of his records survived into modern times since they were transferred to the Papal Archives...............
Bernard Delicieux
Pretty much the only Catholic churchman to have emerged from the whole of the Cathar period with any integrity (as measured by modern secular standards) was a
Franciscan friar called Bernard Delicieux.
Delicieux came from Montpellier, not then part of France.
He noted with some justification that there was no way of establishing one's innocence: "... if St. Peter and St. Paul were accused of 'adoring' heretics and were prosecuted after the fashion of the Inquisition, there would be no defence open for them."
Delicieux was involved in the case of Castel Fabre, a unique and revealing case in which a man was found not-guilty by the Inquisition. It is revealing in that the only reason that a defence could be mounted was that another arm of the Church stood to lose if a guilty verdict were returned. The facts of the case were that the
Dominicanswere trying to disinherit Castel's heirs on the grounds that he had been a Cathar - unlikely since he had been buried in a convent. The
Franciscans had evidence that he had left his worldly goods to them - again suggesting that he had not been a Cathar at all. If he was guilty then the
Dominicans would get the goods. If he were innocent the
Franciscans would get them. These unusual circumstances provided a unique opportunity for a genuine trial based on evidence - itself an interesting fact in that it showed that the Church new full well what a properly conducted trial looked like.....................
The Medieval Inquisition - Pope Gregory IX
A roving papal Inquisition had been set up in 1231 by Pope Gregory IX. He extended existing legislation against heretics and introduced the death penalty for them – indeed for anyone who dissented from his views. Initially intended to be temporary, this Inquisition was used to extirpate surviving Cathars in the Languedoc. Anyone accused or ‘defamed’ was treated as guilty, and no one once defamed got off without some punishment. After 1227 Inquisitorial commissions were granted only to the friars, usually to the
Dominicans. The Inquisition was now the ‘
Dominican Inquisition’.
Dominic Guzmán’s threats of slavery and death for the citizens of the Languedoc were fulfilled for a second time. First the massacres, now the Inquisition..............................
The Knights Templar
The trial of the Knights Templar demonstrates how unjust the Inquisition could be. The charges of heresy against them were almost certainly fabricated. No real evidence was ever produced to support the accusations. The best that could be managed was hearsay evidence such as that of a priest (William de la Forde) who had heard from another priest (Patrick de Ripon) that a Templar had once told him, under the inviolable seal of confession, about some rather improbable goings on.
Inquisitors obtained the most damning evidence through the use of torture. In countries where torture was not permitted, the Templars denied the charges, however badly they were otherwise treated and however long they were imprisoned. As soon as torture was applied the required confessions materialised. Inquisitors refused to attach their seals to depositions unless they included confessions, so that only one side of the case appeared in official records. In France, where torture was applied freely, there were many confessions, and also many deaths under torture. Accused persons who retracted their confessions faced death at the stake as relapsed heretics.............................
The Spanish Inquisition
The Medieval Inquisition was established in Barcelona in 1233. Five years later its authority was extended to Castile, Leon and Navarre. This was essentially an extension of the Inquisition established to extirpate the remnants of Catharism. Over 200 years later another inquisition was to appear : the
Spanish Inquisition. Their Roman Catholic Majesties, Ferdinand and Isabella, established it in 1479, with the explicit sanction of Pope Sixtus IV, who in 1483 also confirmed the
Dominican friar Thomas de Torquemada as Grand Inquisitor for Aragon and Castile. The Inquisition was initially directed against Jewish and Muslim converts who were suspected of returning to their own religion, and thus being guilty of apostasy. (Many had converted to Christianity only under threat of death.)
The process was much the same as that of the Medieval Inquisition, and indeed was deliberately modelled on it. It too was manned mainly by
Dominicans. They copied the methods of arrest, trial, punishment, staffing, and procedure, even down to the blessing of the instruments of torture..............................................
The Roman Inquisition
The Roman Inquisition, more correctly the
Congregation of the Inquisition, was set up in 1542 by Pope Paul III to help eradicate Protestantism from Italy. It was composed of cardinals, one of whom had proposed its establishment in the first place. He later became Pope himself, taking the name Paul IV. A keen opponent of the free exchange of ideas, he enjoys the distinction of having put even his own writings on the Index.
Procedures of the Roman Inquisition were no more just than those of earlier inquisitions, and executions became more common than in Spain. Freethinkers and scientists were added to the existing categories of victim for torture and execution. It was this inquisition that was responsible for burning the foremost philosopher of the Italian Renaissance, Giordano Bruno, in 1600; and for inducing the foremost scientist, Galileo, to recant under the threat of torture ............
