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In 1233, Gregory IX was not
satisfied with sending his missionaries to the centre
and north of the French Kingdom. The south was
particularly affected by heretical movements. The
situation became so worrying for the Holy See that the
Inquisition, which had been conferred upon the
Dominicans of Toulouse, presided over fixed tribunals at
Toulouse and Carcassonne. The inquisitors resided in the
same house in which the tribunal was set up. It was
referred to as the House of the Inquisition, in which the archives were also stored.
These buildings had their own prison, known as the wall. If
the wall was overcrowded with prisoners, the
inquisitors could always use the episcopal prison.
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The Order of the Dominicans was created
in Toulouse in the house of Pierre Cella in the spring of
1215. One year later, as the preaching friars were leaving the
house, the building was besieged by the inquisitorial
administration and renamed the House of the Inquisition.
The name of the road, route de Narbonnaise, was changed
to rue de l'Inquisition. A tribunal of the faith
was in place up until 1575, before being replaced by a curacy.
Under pressure from Loménie de Brienne, Archbishop of
Toulouse, the curacy was abolished in 1771, "as its name
alone is too odious in an enlightened century and under the
reign of such a righteous monarch ". The chapel was subsequently
taken over by the Combes brothers before all the buildings
became the property of the Jesuits in 1832. A few years
later, the Réparatrices de Marie inherited the gloomy house with
its dark past. It was not until 1953 that 11 rue de
l'Inquisition became 8 Place du Parlement!
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On the first floor of the house,
there is a passage within the ramparts that provides
direct access to the Tower of Justice. The archives were
stored in this gallery of the
Inquisition.
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Judges could refer to the manuals for help
in performing their duties, such as Bernard Gui's Pratica Inquisitionis.
Bernard Gui was Inquisitor for Toulouse around 1310 and was responsible for
sending 18 heretics to the stake and sentencing 65 to life imprisonment.
He was the last Grand
Inquisitor for the south of France, even though representatives of
the faith continued to be appointed to invariably minor positions
during the 14th and 15th centuries. Nevertheless, the following
century was characterised by a resurgence in the repression,
which was not only directed towards heresy but particularly towards
cases of witchcraft. The Parliament of Toulouse is reported to
have sent 400 sorcerers to the stake in 1577.
The
Treaty of Paris also stipulated the creation of a
university in Toulouse to contribute to the fight against heresy
by training professional preachers from the Saint Dominique order.
This fairly controversial responsibility was, however, rather quickly entrusted to the
monastery of the Dominican friars, and the school was
subsequently limited to teaching the main arts.
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Montségur Castle represented one
of the strongholds for Cathar heresy
in the Languedoc region. Even Raymond VII found refuge
there. In 1243, the royal troops besieged the
fortress. After a yearlong fight, the refugees surrendered.
Nevertheless, the 200 Cathars refused to convert to Catholicism. Enclosed
at the foot of the castle, they were
all burnt alive on 16 March 1244. Although Montségur
is by no means the largest stake in the
history of the Inquisition, it still symbolises the
spot where the greatest figures in Catharism in the
Languedoc region met their death. A stele commemorates
the death of the Cathar refugees who refused
to renounce their faith.
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The
Tribunals of the
Inquisition gradually disappeared in Europe during the
Enlightenment. Even in 1908, there was still a pontifical
congregation in charge of judging all faith and moral-related issues. It was created in 1542
by Pope Paul III, under the name of the Supreme Congregation of
the Inquisition, to counter the progress of the Reformation. In 1965,
Paul VI changed the jurisdiction, methods and even the name
of the congregation, which is now called the Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith.
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