To give efficacy to these measures, Pope Innocent III. sent two of his legates into France, viz. the famous REINERIUS, (whom I have already had frequent occasion to mention) and GUIDO, the founder of the order of Hospitallers, to stimulate the clergy to greater diligence, to watch the conduct of the nobles, and on the detection of any of the heretics, to demand the most summary proceedings against them-enjoining his legates to transmit him by messenger or letter, the fullest information they could procure, that thus, being more particularly informed, he might the better know how to proceed against them.

Our learned countryman, Archbishop Usher, to whom we are under great obligations for the pains he took to explore the affairs of this dark period, and to illustrate the history of the Waldensian churches, gives us a very amusing account of the strain of preaching which prevailed throughout those catholic countries at that period. The preachers had one favorite text, viz. Psalm xciv. 16. "Who will rise up for me against the evil doers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity?” And it is probable that the sermon was as uniform as the text, for we are told they generally concluded thus: "You' see, most dear brethren, how great the wickedness of the heretics is, and how much mischief they do in the world. You see also, how tenderly, and by how many pious methods the church labours to reclaim them. But with them they all prove ineffectual, and they fly to the secular power for their defence. Therefore our holy mother, the church, though with reluctance and grief, calls together against them the christian army. If then you have any zeal for the faith; if you are touched with any concern for the honour of God; if you would reap the benefit of this great indulgence, come and receive the sign of the cross, and join yourselves to the army of the crucified Saviour."

As the country of Toulouse was the principal place of rendezvous for the Albigenses, and as they abounded there in immense numbers, the Pope evinced the utmost solicitude to prevail upon Count Raymond to expel them from his dominions. But all his entreaties to induce the latter, either to banish so large a number of his peaceable subjects, or even to persecute them, proving fruitless, he or▾ dered him to be excommunicated as a favourer of heretics. He sent his legate with letters to many of the prelates, commanding them to make inquisition against the heretical Albigenses in France, to destroy them and convert their protectors. He also wrote to Philip, king of France, reminding him that it was his duty to take arms against those heretics, and to use all his power to suppress them, that by thus labouring to stem the progress of heresy, he might purge himself from all suspicion of being tainted therewith in his own person. Twelve abbots of the Cistercian order, accompanied with the Pope's legate, went preaching the cross against the Albigenses, and promising, by the authority of his holiness, a plenary remission of their sins, to all who took on them the crusade. The famous, or, more properly speaking, the infamous Dominic, the founder of the inquisition, joined himself to this association, and, while engaged on this murderous expedi tion, he is said to have digested the plan of that iniquitous

court.

The efforts of Reinerius, and his associates, not answering the sanguine expectations of the Pope, and the scheme of Dominic for establishing the inquisition, being communicated to him, the latter, in the year 1216, transmitted his letters patent, creating Dominic inquisitor general, which was confirmed by the council of Lateran in the same year. Having received these letters, and being thus armed with authority, Dominic, on a certain day, in the midst of a large concourse of people, in the church of St. Pṛullian,

announced in one of his sermons, that "he was raised by the Pope to a new office; adding, that he was resolved to defend, with his utmost vigour, the doctrines of the faith; and that if the spiritual and ecclesiastical arms were not sufficient for this end, it was his fixed determination to call in the aid of the civil magistrate, to excite and compel the catholic princes to take arms against heretics, that the very memory of them might be entirely destroyed."

A nobleman in the vicinity of Narbonne, having about this time been converted to the catholic faith, the inquisitors obtained possession of his house or castle, where they fixed their court, and commenced the operations of that iniquitous system. On the one hand, they offered to converts the remission of all their sins, plenary indulgences, and various other privileges; and on the other, the obstinate were branded, imprisoned, and tortured. Multitudes were allured by these deceitful pretexts to enrol themselves under the banners of St. Dominic, vainly imagining, that they could thus make compensation for their sins.

Dominic framed a code of regulations for the preservation and proper government of this crusading fraternity. One was, that such as entered upon this warfare should take an oath, that they would endeavour with all their might to recover, defend, and protect the rights of the church, against all who should presume to usurp them; and that they would expose themselves and their estates in defence of the ecclesiastical immunities, by taking up arms as often as they should be called upon to do it, by the prelate of the war, an honour at that time vested in Dominic himself, and subsequently in the masters general of the Dominican order. If any of them were married, an oath was required from their wives, that they would not persuade their husbands to forsake the war for the support of the ecclesiastical privileges, promising them eternal life as the reward of so pious a service. To distinguish them

from laics, a peculiar dress was devised for both the men and their wives, consisting of white and black colours, but of different make. None were to be admitted to this sacred warfare, without a previous rigorous examination of his life, manners, and faith-whether he had paid his debts, forgiven his enemies, and made his will, that he might be the more ready for the battle, and also whether he had obtained leave from his wife before a notary and proper witnesses. The wives of those that were slain in the expedition promised that they would never marry again. All this, no doubt, was highly ridiculous; but it imposed an air of sacredness upon the thing which took with the vulgar, and rendered the crusade so popular, that numbers entered into it with avidity, hoping by the slaughter of heretics, and the plunder of their goods, to ensure their admission into heaven.*

With all this, however, the cause proceeded but slowly. The Pope was dissatisfied. The measures of Dominic and his adherents, seemed to him but as the sprinkling of water, which only aggravated and extended the flame of heresy. He, therefore, denounced open and more violent war; invited the catholic princes and nobles to take up arms, and commissioned his ministers to preach the same indulgences, and to offer terms of every kind, as advantageous as those that were granted when levies were made for crusading to Asia.†

The court of Rome, however, with a view to preserve at least the semblance of decency, thought it expedient, before proceeding to compulsory measures with the Albigenses, to try to reclaim them to the church by the more gentle and reasonable methods of persuasion, and the latter formed the resolution of defending their own principles. They consequently gave the bishops to understand that

• Limborch's Inquisition, ch. xi.

+ See Vol. I. ch. iv. sect. 4.

some of their pastors were ready to discuss the subject with them in open conference, provided the thing could be conducted with propriety. They explained their notions of propriety by proposing that there should be moderators on each side, vested with authority to prevent tumult and preserve order and regularity-that the conference should be held in some place to which all parties concerned might have free and safe access-and lastly, that a particular subject should be agreed upon between the disputants, which should be steadily prosecuted until it was fully discussed and determined, and that the party which could not maintain it by an appeal to the Scriptures, the only standard of faith to Christians, should own themselves vanquished.

The proposal was so reasonable that it could not with decency be rejected; it was therefore accepted by the bishops and monks. The place of conference agreed upon was Montreal, near Carcassone, in the year 1206. The umpires on the catholic side were the bishops of Villeneuse and Auxere-and on that of the Albigenses, R. de Bot, and Anthony Riviere. On the part of the latter, several pastors were appointed to manage the debate, of whom Arnold Hot was the principal. He arrived first at the appointed place. A bishop of the name of Eusus met him on behalf of the papacy, accompanied by the renowned Dominic, two of the pope's legates, and several other of the catholic clergy. The points which Arnold undertook to prove were, that the mass and transubstantiation were idolatrous and unscriptural--that the church of Rome was not the spouse of Christ-and that its polity was of a pernicious and wicked tendency. Arnold drew up certain propositions upon those points, which he transmitted to the bishop, who required fifteen days to answer them, which was granted. On the appointed day, the bishop appeared, and produced a large manuscript, which