»2 LANGUEDOC. the land was still held by the Kings of Paris must be kept in view if we would understand Philippe's shifting pohcy.* The prosecutions of Albi caused general terror, for the victims were universaUy thought to be good Catholics, selected for spolia- tion on account of their wealth. The conviction was widespread that such inquisitors as Jean de Faugoux, GuiUem de Mulceone, Jean de Saint -Seine, Jean Galande, Nicholas d' Abbeville, and Foulques de Saint-Georges had long had no scruple in obtaining, by threats and torture, such testimony as they might desire against any one whom they might wish to ruin, and that their records were falsified, and filled with fictitious entries for that purpose Some years before, Frere Jean Martin, a Domimcan, had invoked the interposition of Pierre de Montbrun, Archbishop of Narbonne (died 1286), to put a stop to this iniquity. Some investigation was made, and the truth of the charges was estab- Ushed. The dead were found to be the special prey of these vult- ures, who had prepared their frauds in advance. Even the fierce orthodoxy of the Marechaux de la Foi could not save Gui de Levis of Mirepoix from this posthumous attack ; and, when Gautier de Montbrun, Bishop of Carcassonne, died, they produced from their records proof that he had adored heretics and had been hereticated on his death-bed. In this latter case, fortunately, the archbishop happened to know that one of the witnesses, Jourdain Ferrolh, had been absent at the time when, by his alleged testimony, he had seen the act of adoration. Frere Jean Martin urged the arch- bishop to destroy all the records and cause the Dommioans to be deprived of their functions, and the prelate made some attempt at Eome to effect this, contenting himself meanwhile with issuing some regulations and sequestrating some of the books. It was probably during this flurry that the Inquisitors of Carcassonne and Toulouse, Nicholas d' Abbeville and Pierre de Mulceone, hear- ing that they were likely to be convicted of fraud, retired with their records to the safe retreat of ProuiUe and busied themselves in making a transcript, with the compromising entries oniitted which they ingeniously bound in the covers stripped from the old volumes-t —
- Dn Puy, Hist, du Differend, Pr. 633 sqq. 653-4. -Martene Thesaur. I,
1320-36. t MSS. Bib. Nat., fonds latin, No. 4270, fol. 125-8, 139. I
