The Friar of Carcassonne (38 page)

*
(partly because defending a heretic cast a cloud of suspicion on the
defender):
The inquisition was not the first, and will not be the last, tribunal or committee before whom testifying in favor of a target of prosecution amounts to an implicit admission of guilt. Once an enemy of the people has been designated, seeing his or her defenders as accomplices occurs as a reflex. A sterling example of this process concerns the seventeenth-century witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts, as dramatized by Arthur Miller in
The Crucible
.

*
On July 4, 1300:
Testimony of Bernard Délicieux, in Duvernoy,
Le
procès
, pp. 50, 124. Friedlander,
The Hammer
(pp. 55–56), relies as well on the Latin text of the appeal published in Hauréau,
Bernard Déli–cieux
, pp. 167–175.

*
the Franciscan believed that the registers contained a mountain of
lies:
See the Afterword.

*
Bernard Délicieux . . . nailed his appeal to the door:
Dmitrewski, “Fr. Bernard Délicieux, O.F.M,”
Archivum Franciscanum Historicam
, 17, p. 196. Citing Hauréau,
Bernard Délicieux
, p. 167.

*
He then addressed the crowd that had gathered:
Hauréau,
Bernard
Délicieux
, p. 7.

8. T
HE
B
ISHOP OF
P
AMIERS

*
They absented themselves frequently . . . , according to Bernard at his
trial, laboriously recopying and “fixing” the registers:
Testimony of Bernard Délicieux, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 112.

*
The leadership of the Bourg had lived up to the letter, if not the spirit,
of its conditions:
Friedlander,
The Hammer
, p. 38.

*
carved out of the diocese of Toulouse in 1295:
Jacques Paul, “Jacques Fournier inquisiteur,”
Cahiers de Fanjeaux
, 26, 1991, p. 43.

*
“more handsome than any man”:
Cited in Read,
The Templars
, p. 257.

*
a bastard, a counterfeiter, and a statue:
Georges Digard,
Philippe le Bel
et le Saint-Siège de 1285 à 1304
, Paris, 1936, p. 53.

*
“useless to the Church”:
Digard,
Philippe le Bel
, p. 61.

*
The first
enquêteurs
had been Franciscan friars:
Burr,
Spiritual Franciscans
, p. 5.

*
the great magistrate from Amiens fell under the spell of the friar of
Carcassonne:
Testimony of Bernard Fenasse, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 182. Fenasse stated that in 1302 Picquigny was, rather incredibly, dissuaded from rushing back to his king to help in the campaign in Flanders. Délicieux came in on him as he was preparing his armor and persuaded him to stay and deal with the problems of Languedoc. Also, testimony of Arnaud Garsie (p. 78), Bernard Audiguier (p. 175), Peire Pros (p. 194: “You couldn't bring up any matter with [Picquigny] unless in the company of Brother Bernard”).

*
He first traveled to meet Picquigny and Leneveu in Toulouse:
Duvernoy,
Le procès
: testimony of Raimond Baudier (p. 179) and Bernard Fenasse (p. 183).

*
The dwelling still belonged to Raimond Costa:
Friedlander,
The Hammer
, p. 16.

*
one of their recalcitrant witnesses emerged from the dungeon to testify
with both arms irredeemably broken:
Digard,
Philippe le Bel
, p. 59.

9. T
HE
K
ING AT
S
ENLIS

*
a series of accusations concerning his sexual proclivities:
These accusations were amplified by the people of Albi during the investigation of the inquisition called by Pope Clement V in 1307–8.

*
Bernard possessed a trump, in the person of Jean de Picquigny:
Alone among Bernard's biographers, Friedlander makes the case that Picquigny and Délicieux crafted the friar's manner of presentation beforehand. The inference makes perfect sense: the stakes were high, no expense had been spared, this was the south's one best chance.
The
Hammer
, p. 93.

*
Picquigny, Délicieux, and the men of Albi and Carcassonne entered
the great hall in Senlis:
Details of the audience contained in Duvernoy,
Le procès
: testimony of Guillaume Fransa of Albi (p. 59), Pierre de Castanet of Albi (p. 65), Bernard Délicieux (pp. 106, 125).

95
An inquisitor had even preached that heresy had spread through the
malevolence of the king of France:
Duvernoy,
Le procès
, Charge #6 of the forty-four-item accusation drawn up by Castanet (p. 35), testimony of Guillaume Fransa (p. 60).

*
Bernard cited the swath cut by Foulques de Saint-Georges through
the honest womanhood of Languedoc:
Duvernoy,
Le procès
, Charge #4 of the forty-four-item accusation drawn up by Castanet (p. 35), testimony of Guillaume Fransa (p. 60).

*
the king did not consent to receive the Dominicans until five days
after the friar's speech:
Final judgment on Bernard Délicieux, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 125.

*
Délicieux testified that when they had tried to enter the hall earlier,
the king shooed them away with an angry gesture:
Testimony of Bernard Délicieux, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 109.

*
The constable of France and the archbishop of Narbonne, Gilles
Aycelin . . .were charged with the investigation:
Testimony of Bernard Délicieux, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 125.

*
“Fr. Foulques, of the Order of the Preaching Friars”:
King Philip's letter cited in Hauréau,
Bernard Délicieux
, p. 39, and Friedlander,
The
Hammer
, p. 96.

10. A
FTERMATH

*
the king's displeasure with their bishop was so great as to render any
further inquisition in Albi unlikely:
Testimony of Arnaud, Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 201 (“Yes, and since then [Senlis] no one's been arrested for heresy in Albi”).

*
His flock awaited him in the square before the construction site of
Ste. Cécile . . . the portraits of St. Dominic and St. Peter Martyr were
torn down by a mob:
The source for Castanet's return and the woes of the Dominicans of Albi is Bernard Gui,
De fundatione et prioribus conventum
Provinciarum Tolosanae et Provinciae ordinis Praedicatorum
. Duvernoy translated the relevant passages and thoughtfully included them in an appendix to the trial of Bernard Délicieux.
Le procès
, pp. 219–224.

*
If the transfer of the famous friar was meant as a diplomatic sop thrown
to the Dominicans:
Dmitrewski, “Fr. Bernard Délicieux, O.F.M.,” 17, p. 198.

*
he set about increasing his renown . . . by going on extensive preaching
tours to the smaller centers of Languedoc and Périgord:
Hauréau,
Bernard Délicieux
, p. 51.

*
The people of Albi, however, had no doubt that Fresquet had been
murdered on Castanet's order:
Given,
Inquisition and Medieval Society
, p. 132. Also, testimony of Peire Pros, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 193.

*
Once settled near the royal court:
Testimony of Bernard Délicieux, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 115.

*
Bernard had been delegated to attend the Estates General in place of
the Franciscan provincial of Languedoc:
Testimony of Bernard Délicieux, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 125.

11. T
HE
W
EAVER OF
B
RUGES

*
“I thought that I alone was Queen”:
George William Thomson Omond,
Belgium
, London, 1908, p. 41.

*
one itinerant preacher of Antwerp . . . stated that the rich man, even
if he be virtuous, was no better than a whore:
Henri Pirenne,
Histoire
de Belgique
, vol. 1, Brussels, 1909, p. 373.

*
Leliaert, or “Lilies” . . . Clauwerts, or “Claws:”
David Nicholas,
Medieval
Flanders
, London, 1992, p. 190.

*
“a violent and haughty man”:
Pirenne,
Histoire de Belgique
, vol. 1, p. 406.

*
the thick muck riddled with waterlogged traps set by the Flemish:
The great Belgian historian Pirenne complained that almost immediately after the debacle French chroniclers began making excuses for their defeat by claiming that the Flemings had set traps, of which there was no evidence aside from the assertions made by these sore-loser apologists. Worse, these stories launched a French historiographical tradition in which Flemish trickery is often cited as the main cause of the setback for Philip the Fair. However annoying that tradition, there really is no reason why the Flemings would
not
have set traps. They were the underdogs faced with heavily armed knights, they knew the terrain, and, as had been shown in the Bruges Matins, the townsmen were clever and ruthless.

*
five hundred of these items retrieved from the fallen noblemen:
Nicholas,
Medieval Flanders
, p. 193.

*
Pieter de Coninck . . . was now King Peter of Flanders:
Pirenne,
Histoire
de Belgique
, vol. 1, p. 425. Also, testimony of Albert de Lavalette at Bernard's trial, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 167.

*
holding on to only the prizes of Lille, Béthune, and Douai:
By the Treaty of Athis-sur-Orge, June 23, 1305, thereby ensuring the existence of a French Flanders.

12. T
HE
S
ERMON

*
King Philip sent a letter in the spring of 1303 to his subjects in Cordes
and Albi:
Friedlander,
The Hammer
, p. 113.

*
Riot and murderous assault were by no means uncommon in the
rough-and-tumble
medieval city:
Given devotes a large section to the use of riot as a means of resistance in
Inquisition and Medieval Society
, pp. 112–117.

*
The grand civic processions on holy days . . . which was hard-won but
extremely fragile in the face of seething jealousy and status envy:
A civic procession of the eighteenth century, a descendant of the medieval iteration, is brilliantly taken apart by Robert Darnton in the chapter “A Bourgeois Puts His World in Order: The City as Text” of
The
Great Cat Massacre: And Other Episodes of French Cultural History
, New York, 1985, pp. 145–190.

*
the Church sponsored a Truce of God movement:
The first such agreement was signed in the year 1027, in the Roussillon village of Toulouges, the church of which proudly bears a plaque celebrating the Peace and Truce of God (
Pau i Treva de Deu
, in Catalan).

*
Henry II's harsh penance over the killing of Thomas Becket:
Walking barefoot, in sackcloth and ashes, to Canterbury, whipped by monks along the way. A similar public flogging was administered to him in Caen.

*
The inquisitor Bernard Gui contemptuously called Patrice “the little
king”:
Gui,
De fundatione
,
Le procès
, p. 223.

*
witnesses described the high-handed tactics and royal pretensions of
Patrice:
Duvernoy,
Le procès
: testimony of Albert de Lavalette (p. 167) and Drouin de Montchevrel (p. 169).

*
Picquigny summoned his guests to the house of Raimond Costa, the
absentee troublemaker turned bishop in the Kingdom of Majorca:
Testimony of Bernard Délicieux, in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 131.

*
“My good fellow, here is your agreement”:
Testimony of Gui Sicre in Duvernoy,
Le procès
, p. 163. In this deposition Sicre said he was about to leave the house when Délicieux entered and asked to see the document.

*
Each household of the town was instructed to have one or two
members present to hear what Brother Bernard had to say:
Hauréau,
Bernard Délicieux
, pp. 53–54.

*
His listeners were medieval men and women, prone to outbursts of
emotion and sudden accesses of depair or joy:
One of the foundation texts of medieval mentality remains Johan Huizinga,
The Autumn of the
Middle Ages
, trans. Rodney J. Payton and Ulrich Mammitzsch, Chicago, 1996. (Its original English publication is entitled:
The Waning of
the Middle Ages: A Study of Forms of Life, Thought and Art in France and
the Netherlands at the Dawn of the Renaissance
.) Although nearly a century old (it was first published in Dutch in 1919) with some of its conclusions debated, Huizinga's study opens an imaginative window into the mind and emotions of late medieval man.

*
A tear welled up, then slowly rolled down his cheek:
The remarkable sermon was clearly remembered in 1319. Duvernoy,
Le procès
: Charges #20, #21, and #22 of the sixty-item accusation drawn up by Gui (p. 42), evidence entered in the court record (p. 49), testimony of Bernard Délicieux (p. 53), Pierre Vital (p. 153), Arnaud Marsend (p. 170) and Raimond Arnaud (p. 176).