the laws of their new
faith, if they happened to get well. Therefore, to safeguard them
against apostasy, they were strongly urged to make their salvation
certain by the _endura_. A manuscript of the Register of the
Inquisition of Carcassonne, for instance, tells us of a Catharan
minister who compelled a sick woman to undergo the _endura_, after he
had conferred upon her the Holy Spirit. He forbade any one "to give
her the least nourishment"... and as a matter of fact no food or
drink was given her that night or the following day, lest perchance
she might be deprived of the benefit of the _consolamentum_.

One of "the Perfected," named Raymond Belhot, congratulated a mother
whose daughter he had just "consoled," and ordered her not to give
the sick girl anything to eat or drink until he returned, even though
she requested it. "If she asks me for it," said the mother, "I will
not have the heart to refuse her." "You must refuse her," said "the
good man," "or else cause great injury to her soul." From that moment
the girl neither ate nor drank; in fact she did not ask for any
nourishment. She died the next Saturday.

About the middle of the thirteenth century, when the Cathari began to
give the consolamentum to infants, they were often cruel enough to
make them undergo the _endura_. "One would think," says an historian
of the time, "that the world had gone back to those hateful days when
unnatural mothers sacrificed their children to Moloch."

It sometimes happened that the parents of "the consoled" withstood
more or less openly the cruelty of "the Perfected."

When this happened, some of "the Perfected" remained in the house of
the sick person, to see that their murderous prescriptions were
obeyed to the letter. Or if this was impossible, they had "the
consoled" taken to the house of some friend, where they could readily
carry out their policy of starvation.

But as a general rule the "heretics" submitted to the _endura_ of
their own free will. Raymond Isaure tells us of a certain Guillaume
Sabatier who began the _endura_ in a retired villa, immediately after
his initiation; he starved himself to death in seven weeks. A woman
named Gentilis died of the _endura_ in six or seven days. A woman of
Coustaussa, who had separated from her husband, went to Saverdum to
receive the _consolamentum_. She at once began the _endura_ at Ax,
and died after an absolute fast of about twelve weeks. A certain
woman named Montaliva sub