108 
INQUIS 
gences, to extirpate all, whom he thought proper to call 
heretics, by fire and fword. This exhortation was re¬ 
peated with new' acceffions of fervour and earneftnefs the 
year following, when Pierre de Caltelnau, the legate of 
this pontiff, and his inquifitor in France, w'as put to death 
by the patrons of the people, called heretics. Not long 
after this, the Ciftertian monks, in the name of this pope, 
proclaimed a crufade againft the heretics throughout the 
whole kingdom of France, and a ftorm feemed to be ga¬ 
thering againft them on all fides. Raymond VI. earl of 
Thouloufe, in whole tenitories Caftelnau had been tnaf- 
facred, was folemnly excommunicated, and, to deliver 
liimfelf from this ecclefiaftical maledidlion, changed fides, 
and embarked in the ctulade now mentioned. In the year 
12.09, a formidable army of crofs-bearers commenced 
againft the heretics, who were comprehended under the 
general denomination of Albigenfes, an open war, which 
they carried on with the utmoft exertions of cruelty, 
though with various fuccefs, for feveral years. The chief 
director 6f this ghoftly war was Arnald, abbot of the Cif- 
tertians, and legate of the Roman pontiff; and the com¬ 
mander-in-chief of the troops employed in this expedi¬ 
tion was Simon earl of Montford. Raymond VI. earl of 
Thouloufe, who, confulting his fafety rather than his con¬ 
fidence, had engaged in the crulade againft the heretics, 
was obliged again to change fides, and to attack their per- 
fiecutors; for Simon, who had embarked in this war, not fio 
much from a principle of zeal for religion, or of averfion 
to the heretics, as from a defire of augmenting his for¬ 
tune, call a greedy eye upon the territories of Raymond, 
and his felfilh views were feconded and accomplifhed by 
the court of Rome. After many battles, fieges, and a 
multitude of other exploits, conducted with the mod in¬ 
trepid courage and the moft abominable barbarity, he re¬ 
ceived from the hands of Innocent III. at the council of 
theLateran, A. D. 1215, the county of Thouloufe and the 
other lands belonging to that earl, as a reward for his 
zeal in fupporting the caufe of God and of the church. 
About three years after this, he loft his life at the fiege of 
Thouloufe. Raymond, his valiant adverfary, died in the 
year 1222. 
Thus were the two chiefs of this deplorable war taken 
off the fcene ; but this removal was far from extinguiffi- 
ing the infernal flame of perfecution on the fide of the 
pontiffs, or calming the reftlefs fipirit of faction on that 
of the pretended heretics. Raymond VII. earl of Thou¬ 
loufe, and Amalric earl of Montford, fiucceeded their fa¬ 
thers at the head of the contending parties, and carried on 
the war with the utmoft vehemence, and with fiuch various 
fuccefs, as rendered the iffue for fome time doubtful. 
The former feemed at firft more powerful than his adver¬ 
fary, and the Roman pontiff Honorius III. alarmed at the 
vigorous oppofition he made to the orthodox legions, en¬ 
caged Louis VIII. king of France, by the moft pompous 
promifes, to march in perfon with a formidable army 
againft the enemies of the church. The obfequious mo¬ 
narch liltened to the folicitations of the lordly pontiff, 
and embarked with a confiderable military force in the 
caufe of the church ; but did not live to reap the fruits of 
his zeal. His engagements, however, with the court of 
Rome, and his furious defigns againft the heretics, were 
executed with the greateft alacrity and vigour by his Ion 
and lucceffor Louis the Saint; fo that Raymond, preffed 
on all tides, was obliged, in the year 1229, to make peace 
upon the moft diladvantageous terms, even by making a 
ceffior, of the greateft part of his territories to the French 
monarch, after having facrificed a confiderable portion of 
them as a peace-offering to the church of Rome. This 
treaty of peace gave a mortal blow to the caufe of herefy, 
and dilperfed the champions that had appeared in its de¬ 
fence ; the inquiiition was eifablifhed at Thouloufe, and 
the heretics were not only expofed to the pious cruelties 
of Louis, but, what was ftill more fhockir.g, Raymond 
'liimfelf, who had formerly been their patron, became their 
perfecutor, and treated them upon all occafions with the 
pjolt inhuman feverity. It is true, this prince broke the 
I T I O N. 
engagements into which he had entered by the treaty 
above mentioned, and renewed the war againft Louis and 
the inquifitors, who abufed their viftory and the power 
they had acquired in the moft odious manner. But this 
new effort in favour of the heretics was attended with 
little or no effeff ; and the unfortunate earl of Thouloufe, 
the laft reprefentative of that noble and powerful houfe, 
dejefted and exbaufted by the lofles he had fuitained, and 
the perplexities in which he was involved, died, in the 
year 1249, without male iffue. 
In all the countries where the inquifition was eftablifh- 
ed, the people itood in fo much fear of it, that parents de¬ 
livered up their children, hufbands their wives, and mafters 
their fervants, to its officers, without daring in the leaft 
to murmur. The prifoners were kept for a long time, 
till they themfelves turned their own accufers, and de¬ 
clared the caufe of their imprifonment; for they were 
neither told their crime nor confronted with witneffes. 
As foon as they were imprifoned, their friends went into 
mourning, and fpoke of them as dead, not daring to foli- 
cit their pardon, left they fliould be brought in as accom¬ 
plices. When there was no fhadow of proof againft the 
pretended criminal, he was fcmetimes difcbarged, after 
fuffering the moft cruel tortures, a tedious and dreadful 
imprifonment, and the lofs of the greateft part of his ef¬ 
fects. The fentence againft the prifoners was pronounced 
publicly, and with extraordinary folemnity. For the coa- 
clufion of this horrid fcene, fee Act of Faith , vol i. p. 98. 
The eftabliihmcnt of the inquifition in Spain in- 
eluded above 3000 officers, and was attended with an. 
expence of upwards of a million fterling per annum. 
When Bonaparte invaded Spain a' fhort time fince, he 
decreed that the inquifition.had ceafed. to exijl! With -what 
tranfport would this declaration have been received fome 
years ago; but now, in confequence of the political cir- 
cumftances which have led to ibis event, we feem to con¬ 
template it with fcarcely any feelings of joy. Yet we 
ought to congratulate the world that, out of the mafs of 
evils with which Europe has of late been fo grievoufly 
afflicted, this good, at leaft, has arifen; and it is a fource 
of fome confolation that the enemy, in his lawlefs ftrides 
to univerfal empire, has, in this one inftance, ferved the 
caufe of humanity, and, probably without finlpecting it, 
has opened the door for the extenfion of proteftantifm. 
Perfecution is the caufe of Satan ; toleration is that of 
Truth. What happier omen can offer itfelf, than the de¬ 
termination of governments not to diffionour Chriftianity 
by any fire-and-faggot logic ? What is more promifing 
than to fee religionilts, of alb perfuafions, declaiming the 
employment of violence and cruelty in church-matters, 
and leaving the iffue of theological controverfy to be de¬ 
cided by enlightened reafon and the authority of the Holy 
Scriptures ? Do we look back with horror on the loul- 
appalling Icenes of inquifitorial atrocity ? have our hearts 
been torn and convulfed with agony by the mere recital of 
the tortures and auto-da-fes, inflifted by order of that 
which has been falfely called the Holy Office? Then what 
ought to be our tranfport on being allured that this bloody 
tribunal is overturned, and that it no longer remains to 
alarm, torment, and enllave mankind ! Herein Bonaparte 
has been “the minifter of God for good;” herein he has 
“ not borne the fword in vain ;” and, ftrongly as we repro¬ 
bate the wicked invafion of Spain, we cannot but regard 
him, in his deftruftion of the inquifition, as an inftrument 
in the hand of Providence for the furtherance of the protef- 
tant faith. And the flatterers of Bonaparte have drawn a 
contrail between his conduct and that of the Englilh, who 
are reprefented as fending their armies to Spain for the pur- 
pofe of protecting the inquifition, which he had abolilhed. 
It is unnecefiary to combat this mis-llatement, and to draw 
4 picture of our generous efforts to aid the caufe of a peo¬ 
ple ftruggling for their independence againft French ag- 
greffion ; yet it is to he lamented that we loft the oppor-. 
tunity of gaining to ourfelves the honour of abalilhing 
the inquifition, by making its immediate fuppreffion the 
condition of our affiilance. 
3 Lamentable 
