ELECTION OF CLEMENT V. 91 The death of Benedict XI., in July, 1304, had given fresh hopes to the sufferers from the Inquisition. There was an inter- regnum of nearly a year before the election of his successor, Clement Y., June 5, 1305. During this period a petition to the CoUege of Cardinals was presented by seventeen of the religious bodies of the Albigeois, including the canons of the cathedral of Albi, those of the church of St. Salvi, the convent of Gaillac, etc., imploring in the most pressing terms the Sacred College to inter- vene and avert the fearful dangers threatening the community. The land, they declare, is Catholic, the people are faithful, cher- ishing the religion of Eome in their hearts, and professing it with their lips. Yet so fierce are the dissensions between them and the inquisitors, that they are aroused to wrath and are eager to put to the sword those whom they have learned to regard as enemies. Doubtless the inquisitors had taken advantage of the revulsion consequent upon the fruitless treason of Carcassonne and of the altered attitude of the king. Phihppe thenceforth interfered no further, save to urge his representatives to renewed vigilance in enforcing the laws against heretics and the disabihties inflicted upon their descendants. It was not only the treason of Carcas- sonne which indisposed him to interfere ; from 1307 onward he needed the indispensable aid of the Inquisition to carry out his designs against the Templars, and he could afford neither to an- tagonize it nor to limit its powers.* The Sacred College, monopohzed by electioneering intrigues, paid no heed to the imploring prayer of the Albigensian clergy,' but when the year's turmoil was ended by the triumph of the French party in the election of Clement Y. the hopes raised by the death of his predecessor might reasonably seem destined to fruition. Bertrand de Goth, Cardinal-Archbishop of Bordeaux, was a Gascon by birth, and, though an English subject, was doubt- less more famihar than the Italians with the miseries and needs of Languedoc. His transfer of the papacy to French soil was also to the insults offered to the Dominicans during the troubles of Carcassonne when those who ventured into the streets were followed with cries of "Coac Coac !" " ad modum corvV'—^m. No. 4270, fol. 281.
- Arch, de rhotel-de-ville d'Albi (Doat, XXXIV. 42). -Arch, de FJEvgche
d^Albi(Doat, XXXTI. 81).
