THE WALDENSES. -^^^ heretic is to be accused to his bishop, who is to have him examined by experts.* How completely the Waldenses dropped out of sight in the struggles of the Great Schism is seen in a bull of Alexander Y., in 1409, to Frere Pons Feugeyron, whose enormous district ex- tended from MarseiUes to Lyons and from Beaucaire to the Yal d'Aosta. This comprehended the whole district which Francois Borel and Yicente Ferrer found swarming with heretics. The^in- quisitor is urged to use his utmost endeavors against the schismatic followers of Benedict XIII. and Gregory XII., against the increas- ing numbers of sorcerers, against apostate Jews and the Talmud, but not a word is said about Waldenses. They seem to have been completely forgotten. f After the Church had reorganized itself at the Council of Con- stance it had leisure to look after the interests of the faith, although Its energies were mostly monopohzed by the Hussite troubles In 1417 we hear of Catharine Sauve, an anchorite, burned at Mont- pellier for Waldensian doctrines by the deputy -inquisitor, Frere Raymond Cabasse, assisted by the Bishop of Maguelonne! The absence of persecution had by no means been caused by a diminu- tion m the number of heretics. In 1432 the Council of Bourses complained that the Waldenses of Dauphine had taxed themselves to send money to the Hussites, whom they recognized as brethren • and there were plenty of them to be found by any one who took the trouble to look after them. On August 23, of this same year we have a letter from Frere Pierre Fabri, Inquisitor of Embrun to the Councd of Basle, excusing himself for not immediately obey- ing a summons to attend it on the ground of his indescribable poverty, and of his preoccupations in persecuting the Waldenses In spite of the great executions which he had abeady made he describes them as flourishing as numerously as ever in the valleys ot J^reyssmieres, Argentiere, and Bute, which had been almost de- populated by the ferocious raids of Francois Borel. He now has in lis dungeons of Embrun and Briancon six relapsed heretics, who have revealed to him the names of more than ^ve hundred others whom he is about to seize, and whose trials will be a work of time,
- Miroir de Souabe, ch. 89 (Ed. Matile, Neuchatel, 1843).
t Wadding, ann. 1409, No. 12.
