CHAP. have resisted their enemies very vigorously by the IV. aid of their subjects, whose loyalty was unalterably

Barbarities

pal party.

firm, and who knew it was a religious duty to be faithful to their temporal sovereigns. In those feudal times, Raymond, rather than Philip, was sovereign of the people of Toulouse: the spirit of the protestants was strong and powerful; and even the Romanists, who were mixed with them, were perfectly disposed to unite in the common defence. But I find not in all the account of the war a single instance of a prince or leader, who was faithful to the cause of God as such. No wonder then that the chiefs sunk under the load of oppression, and suffered themselves, repeatedly to be the dupes of Roman perfidy. The Christians had then no other part to act, after having discharged the duty of faithful subjects and soldiers, but to suffer with patience the oppressions of Antichrist.

Three hundred thousand pilgrims, induced by the of the Pa- united motives of avarice and superstition, filled the country of the Albigenses with carnage and confusion for a number of years. The reader, who is not versed in history of this kind, can scarcely conceive the scenes of baseness, perfidy, barbarity, indecency, and hypocrisy, over which Innocent presided; and which were conducted partly by his legates, and partly by the infamous earl Simon of Montfort. But let it suffice to have said this in general: it is more to our purpose to observe the spirit of the people of God in these grievous tribulations. The castle of Menerbe on the frontiers of Spain, for want of water, was reduced to the necessity of surrendering to the pope's legate. A certain abbot undertook to preach to those who were found in the castle, and to exhort them to acknowledge the pope. But they interrupted his discourse, declaring that his labour was to no purpose.

Particu

larly of

my of Montfort

Earl

Simon and the legate then caused a great fire to be kindled; and they burned a hundred and forty per

These martyrs died in triumph, CENT.

XIII

Castle of

sons of both sexes. praising God that he had counted them worthy to suffer for the sake of Christ. They opposed the Simon legate to his face, and told Simon, that on the last takes the day, when the books should be opened, he would Menerbe. meet with the just judgment of God for all his cruelties. Several monks entreated them to have pity on themselves, and promised them their lives if they would submit to the popedom. But the Christians "loved not their lives to the death*:" only three women of the company recanted.

Castle of

A. D.

1210.

Another castle, named Termes, not far from Me- Also the nerbe, in the territory of Narbonne, was taken by Termes, Simon in the year 1210. "This place," said Simon, "is of all others the most execrable, because no mass has been sung in it for thirty years." A remark, which gives us some idea both of the stability and numbers of the Waldenses: the very worship of popery, it seems, was expelled from this place. The inhabitants made their escape by night, and avoided the merciless hands of Simon.

A single act of humanity, exercised by this general on the principles of chivalry, toward several women, whose persons he preserved from military insult and outrage, is the only one of the kind recorded of him.

But the triumphing of the wicked is short: after he had been declared sovereign of Toulouse, which he had conquered, General of the armies of the Church, its Son, and its Darling, after he had pressed and tyrannized over the Albigenses by innumerable confiscations and exactions, he was slain in battle in the year 1218.

op

Earl Raymond, whose life had been a scene of great calamity, died of sickness in the year 1222, in a state of peace and prosperity, after his victory over Simon. We are told, that, though political and humane motives at first alone influenced his

* Rev. xii. 7.

Simon slain,

A. D.

1218.

IV.

Innocent

III. died,

CHAP. conduct, he at length saw the falsity of the popish
doctrine. No man, surely, was ever treated with
more injustice by the popedom,-not to mention
that his memory is clouded with the suspicion of
the murder before-mentioned *. But I know no
evidence of his religious knowledge and piety.
His
persecutor, Innocent, died in 1216; and the famous
Dominic, who, according to the assertion of our
author Perrin, was active in the inquisition, and
was accustomed to the destruction which Simon had
begun by arms, died in the year 1220.

A. D.

1216.

Dominic
died,

A. D.

1220.

Almaric,

the Son of

Simon of

to the

French,

A. D.

1224.

Amalric of Montfort, the son of Simon, wearied
out with the war, resigned to Lewis VIII. the son
Montfort, and successor of Philip, all his possessions and pre-
resigns his tensions in the country of the Albigenses; in recom-
Albigensian
possessions pense of which, the French king made him constable
of France, in the year 1224. This was the step
which proved the ruin of the Albigenses. The
French monarchy was now interested in their de-
struction; and though Lewis VIII. died soon after,
and Lewis IX. his son and successor, was a minor,
yet the capacity of the regent, the queen mother,
was found equal to the work of aggrandizing the
crown at the expense of the Albigenses. Raymond,
the heir of his father's miseries, was treated with
the most merciless barbarity; and, after a series of
sufferings, died of a fever at Milan.

Alphonsus, brother of Lewis IX. was put into
possession of the earldom of Toulouse. Joan, the
only daughter of the late earl Raymond, had been
delivered, when only nine years old, to the French
court, that she might, when of age, be married to
Alphonsus. Thus secular and ecclesiastical ambition
united to oppress the Churches of Christ. The monk
Reinerius, whom we have had occasion repeatedly
was inquisi- to quote, acted as inquisitor in the year 1250.
tor, There is evidence of the extreme violence of per-
A. D. secution continued against the Albigenses, now

Reinerius

1250.

* See page 486 of this vol.

CENT.

XIII.

altogether defenceless, to the year 1281. Long before this, in the year 1229, a council was held at Toulouse, one of the canons of which was, that the This perselaity were not allowed to have the Old or New cution conTestament in the vulgar tongue, except a psalter or lent till the like; and it forbad men even to translate the about Scriptures.

tinued vio

A. D.

1281.

The first

place,

A. D.

This is the first instance in the popedom which I meet with, of a direct prohibition of the books of instance of Scripture to the laity. Indirectly the same thing a direct prohibition had long been practised. What an honour was this of the scripcanon to the cause of the Albigenses! What a con- tures to the Laity took fession of guilt on the side of the Romanists! The people of God were thus, at length, for the most part, exterminated in Toulouse, and found no other resource but, by patient continuance in well-doing, to commit themselves to their God and Saviour. Antichrist, for the present, was visibly triumphant in the south-west parts of France, and the witnesses "clothed in sackcloth," there consoled themselves with the hope of heavenly rest, being deprived of all prospect of earthly enjoyments.

It may not be improper to mention here, that our famous monkish historian, Matthew Paris, relates, that the Albigenses set up a person named Bartholomew for pope, who resided in the neighbourhood of Toulouse, consecrated bishops, and governed their churches; and that in one battle the Albigenses lost a hundred thousand men, with all their bishops.

These stories easily confute themselves; nor is it necessary to observe, that the ignorance of M. Paris, in French history, is palpably glaring. The only use which I would make of this fiction is to show, how unsafe it is to rely on rumours, concerning subjects which affect the passions of mankind, published by persons who live in places very distant from the scene of action; and to guard the minds of those among ourselves, who hear stories concerning profes

1229.

CHAP.

IV.

had six

sors of godliness, propagated by men, who are unacquainted with the grounds of religious controversy. The valley Dauphiny is a province of France, which was of Pragela very full of the Waldenses, who inhabited vallies on churches, both sides of the Alps. On the Italian side, the A. D. valley of Pragela in particular had, in our author's 1618. time, in 1618, six churches, each having its pastor, and every pastor having the care of several villages, which appertained to his church. The oldest people in them, Perrin observes, never remembered to have heard mass sung in their country. The valley itself was one of the most secure retreats of the Waldenses, being environed on all sides with mountains, into whose caverns the people were accustomed to retreat in time of persecution. Vignaux, one of their preachers, used to admire the integrity of the people, whom no dangers whatever could seduce from the faith of their ancestors. Their children were catechised with the minutest care; and their pastors not only exhorted them on the sabbaths, but also, on the week days went to their hamlets to instruct them. With inuch inconvenience to themselves, these teachers climbed the steepest mountains to visit their flocks. The word of God was heard with reverence: the voice of prayer was common in private houses, as well as in the churches: Christian simplicity and zeal abounded; and plain useful learning was diligently cultivated in the schools.

Cruelties of A monk inquisitor, named Francis Borelli, in the the Inquisitor Borelli, year 1380, armed with a bull of Clement VII. underA. D. took to persecute the godly Waldenses. In the 1380. space of thirteen years he delivered a hundred and

fifty persons to the secular power, to be burned at Grenoble. In the valley of Fraissiniere and the neighbourhood, he apprehended eighty persons, who also were burned. The monkish inquisitors adjudged one moiety of the goods of the persons condemned to themselves, the rest to the temporal