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Authors: Stephen O’Shea
Tags: HIS013000
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dâAbbeville and Foulques de Saint-Georges believed, two prominent heretical sympathizers had taken shelter. Their names figured on the list of the doomed dozen that the consuls of the town had given up in the secret agreement. In the inquisitorsâ view, the freshly signed accord not only provided a chance to clean up the last of the Cathar vipers but also gave the Dominicans a golden opportunity to humiliate the Franciscans. As this was the first initiative taken by Brother Nicolas after the agreement had been reached, its target suggests that the Order of the Friars Minor had been no friend of the inquisitors in the years of sporadic strife leading up to the truce.
The party arrived at the outer portal of the convent, knocked at it repeatedly, and demanded entry. The great door eventually swung open, and they streamed into the courtyard. A second locked door gave entry into the convent proper. The kingâs representative pounded on the door. The Dominican then read out, loudly, the names of those he sought.
After a silence, a bell began ringing frantically, and torches blazed into life atop the building. The men at arms looked at each other, bewildered at the growing bedlam: the sound of distant shouts, then footfalls, dull thuds, and metal clanks, soft at first, but getting louder and louder.
The soldiers in the courtyard turned to the outer doorway they had just passed through. In the street leading to it an armed mob ran toward them, converging on the convent. The leader of the sergeants bellowed for the outer door to be closed. It was slammed shut and made fast with a great wooden bolt.
Crossbowmen appeared on the roof. A rain of missiles whizzed down into the courtyard. Rocks were thrown from windows in the upper gallery. At one of them, hurling stones and bellowing orders, was the ringleader of the ambush, a friar of Carcassonne named Bernard Délicieux. The trapped men hunched over instinctively to protect themselves.
âTraitors!â Bernard roared, urging the crowds to shout the same. The meaning was clear: those who cooperated with the inquisition betrayed the people of Carcassonne. There could be no better clarion of what the future held. The inquisitors may have signed an agreement with the consuls, but the disgruntled townsmen had at last found a dangerous leader, one who was fearless even before the power of the kingâfor Philip would soon hear that his agents had been called traitors. Willing to brave his displeasure was an unusual friar, heretofore a shadowy figure, a student in Montpellier, an obedient novice, then an accomplished, devout Franciscan whose talent, learning, and gifts at preaching had been recognized by the superiors of his Order. This exemplary friar clearly reveled in the risk, egging his Franciscan brothers to throw whatever they had at hand down at the soldiery, yelling up to the bowmen to keep up their fire, and, doubtless, cursing liberally at the trapped Dominican. This was the opening salvo of a campaign unlike any other in the history of the inquisition.
The day concluded as memorably as it had begun. Judging the courtyard to be a death trap, a sergeant lifted the bolt and swung open the friar of carcassonne | 67 the outer door of the convent. His men formed a wedge of slashing blades to protect the Dominican and the royal officer, hacking and fighting their way through the streets toward the river. As they reached the left bank of the Aude, the affray came to an end. The townsmen lowered their clubs and returned home, sated and no doubt immensely pleased with themselves. The party of the inquisitor, bloodied and battered but nonetheless alive to tell the tale at Bernardâs trial twenty years later, crossed the river and staggered up the slope to the embrace of the Cité. Nicolas dâAbbevilleâs hope that the city had been pacified by his deal-making was shattered.
The next day dawned with the realization that this had been not a rabble led
The party arrived at the outer portal of the convent, knocked at it repeatedly, and demanded entry. The great door eventually swung open, and they streamed into the courtyard. A second locked door gave entry into the convent proper. The kingâs representative pounded on the door. The Dominican then read out, loudly, the names of those he sought.
After a silence, a bell began ringing frantically, and torches blazed into life atop the building. The men at arms looked at each other, bewildered at the growing bedlam: the sound of distant shouts, then footfalls, dull thuds, and metal clanks, soft at first, but getting louder and louder.
The soldiers in the courtyard turned to the outer doorway they had just passed through. In the street leading to it an armed mob ran toward them, converging on the convent. The leader of the sergeants bellowed for the outer door to be closed. It was slammed shut and made fast with a great wooden bolt.
Crossbowmen appeared on the roof. A rain of missiles whizzed down into the courtyard. Rocks were thrown from windows in the upper gallery. At one of them, hurling stones and bellowing orders, was the ringleader of the ambush, a friar of Carcassonne named Bernard Délicieux. The trapped men hunched over instinctively to protect themselves.
âTraitors!â Bernard roared, urging the crowds to shout the same. The meaning was clear: those who cooperated with the inquisition betrayed the people of Carcassonne. There could be no better clarion of what the future held. The inquisitors may have signed an agreement with the consuls, but the disgruntled townsmen had at last found a dangerous leader, one who was fearless even before the power of the kingâfor Philip would soon hear that his agents had been called traitors. Willing to brave his displeasure was an unusual friar, heretofore a shadowy figure, a student in Montpellier, an obedient novice, then an accomplished, devout Franciscan whose talent, learning, and gifts at preaching had been recognized by the superiors of his Order. This exemplary friar clearly reveled in the risk, egging his Franciscan brothers to throw whatever they had at hand down at the soldiery, yelling up to the bowmen to keep up their fire, and, doubtless, cursing liberally at the trapped Dominican. This was the opening salvo of a campaign unlike any other in the history of the inquisition.
The day concluded as memorably as it had begun. Judging the courtyard to be a death trap, a sergeant lifted the bolt and swung open the friar of carcassonne | 67 the outer door of the convent. His men formed a wedge of slashing blades to protect the Dominican and the royal officer, hacking and fighting their way through the streets toward the river. As they reached the left bank of the Aude, the affray came to an end. The townsmen lowered their clubs and returned home, sated and no doubt immensely pleased with themselves. The party of the inquisitor, bloodied and battered but nonetheless alive to tell the tale at Bernardâs trial twenty years later, crossed the river and staggered up the slope to the embrace of the Cité. Nicolas dâAbbevilleâs hope that the city had been pacified by his deal-making was shattered.
The next day dawned with the realization that this had been not a rabble led
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