The case of Castel Fabri might have passed unnoticed, like
thousands of others, had it not chanced to bring into collision with
the Inquisition the lector of the convent of Carcassonne. Bernard
Délicieux was no ordinary man, in fact a contemporary assures us
that in the whole Franciscan Order there were few who were his
equals. Entering the Order about 1284, his position of lector or
teacher shows the esteem felt for his learning, for the Mendicants
were ever careful in selecting those to whom they confided such
functions; and, moreover, we find him in relations with the leading minds of the age, such as Raymond Lully and Arnaldo de
Vilanova. His eloquence made him much in request as preacher;
his persuasiveness enabled him to control those with whom he
came in contact, while his enthusiastic ardor prompted him to
make any sacrifices necessary to a cause which had once enlisted
his sympathies. He was no latitudinarian or time-server, for when
the split came in his own Order he embraced, to his ruin, the side
of the Spiritual Franciscans, with the same disregard of self as he
had manifested in his dealings with the Inquisition. He was no
admirer of toleration, for he devoutly wished the extermination of
heresy, but experience and observation had convinced him that
in Dominican hands the Inquisition was merely an instrument of
oppression and extortion, and he imagined that by transferring it
to the Franciscans its usefulness would be preserved while its evils
would be removed. Boniface VIII., as we have seen, about this
time replaced the Franciscan inquisitors of Padua and Vicenza with
Dominicans for the purpose of repressing similar evils, and in the
jealousy and antagonism between the two orders the converse
operation might seem worth attempting in Languedoc. In the
hope of alleviating the sufferings of the people, Bernard devoted
himself to the cause for years, incurring obloquy, persecution, and
ingratitude. Those whom he sought to serve allowed him to sell
his books in their service, and to cripple himself with debt, while
the enmities which he excited hounded him relentlessly to the
death. Yet in the struggle he had the sympathies of his own
Order which everywhere throughout Languedoc manifested itself
had given it to his queen, through whom it had come to him. The royal officials asserted that the gift had only been for life, and had seized it again, but Philippe de Valois abandoned it to the claimant.—Vaissette, Éd. Privat, X. Pr. 831-3.
