TRIUMPH OF THE INQUISITION. 39 Narbonne. King Louis, however, was equal to the occasion, and allowed the allies no time to concentrate their forces. His victo- ries over the English and Gascons at Taillebourg and Saintes, July 19 and 23, deprived Kaymond of all hope of assistance from that quarter. Pestilence forced the withdrawal of the main army of Louis, but a force under the veteran Imbert de Beaujeu operated actively against Raymond, who, without help from his allies and deserted by many of his vassals, was obliged to lay down his arms, December 22. When suing for peace he pledged himself to extir- pate heresy and to punish the assassins of Avignonet with an effu- siveness which shows the importance attached to these conditions. The sagacity and moderation of King Louis granted him easy terms, but one of the stipulations of settlement was that every male inhabitant over the age of fifteen should take an oath to assist the Church against heresy, and the king against Raymond, in case of another revolt. Thus the purity of the faith and the supremacy of the foreign domination were once again recognized as inseparably allied.* The triumph of both had been secured. This ended the last serious effort of the South to recover its independence. Hence- forth, under the treaty of Paris, it was to pass irrevocably into the hands of the stranger, and the Inquisition was to have unre- stricted opportunity to enforce conformity in religion. It was in vain that Raymond again, at the Council of Beziers, April 20, 1248, summoned the bishops of his dominions — those of Toulouse, Agen, Cahors, Albi, and Rodez — urging them personally or through proper deputies, whether Cistercians, Dominicans, or Franciscans, to make diligent inquisition after heresy, and pledged the assistance of the secular arm for its extirpation. It was equally in vain that, immediately on the accession of Innocent lY., in June, a deputation of Dominicans, frightened by the warning of Avignonet, earnestly alleged many reasons why the dangerous burden should be lifted from their shoulders. The pope peremp- torily refused, and ordered them to continue their holy labors, even at the risk of martyrdom, f
- Vaissette, III. 434-7, 439. — Teulet, Layettes, II. 470, 481-2, 484, 487, 488.
489, 493, 495, etc. t Vaissette, III. Pr. 425. — Ripoll 1. 118. Innocent's bull is dated July 10,
