were
brought before a council at Paris; they were condemned and handed
over to the secular court of King Philip." The king was absent at the
time. On his return he had them all burned outside the walls of the
city.

In 1163 a council of Tours enacted a decree fixing the punishment of
heresy. Of course it had in view chiefly the Cathari of Toulouse and
Gascony: "If these wretches are captured," it says, "the Catholic
princes are to imprison them and confiscate their property."[1]

[1] Can. 4, Labbe, _Concilia_, vol. x, col. 1419.

This canon was applied probably for the first time at Toulouse in
1178. The Bishop began proceedings against several heretics, among
them a rich noble named Pierre Mauran, who was summoned before his
tribunal, and condemned to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. His
property was confiscated, although later on when he professed
repentance it was restored to him, on condition that he dismantle the
towers of his castles, and pay the Count of Toulouse a fine of five
hundred pounds of silver.

In this meantime the Cathari increased with alarming rapidity
throughout this region. Count Raymond V (1148-1194), wishing to
strike terror into them, enacted a law which decreed the confiscation
of their property, and death. The people of Toulouse quoted this law
later on in a letter to King Pedro of Aragon to justify their sending
heretics to the stake, and when the followers of Simon de Montfort
arrived in southern France, in 1209, they followed the example of
Count Raymond by sending heretics to the stake everywhere they went.

The authenticity of this law has been questioned, on account of its
unheard-of severity. But Pedro II, King of Aragon and Count of
Barcelona, enacted a law in 1197 which was just as terrible. He
banished the Waldenses and all other heretics from his dominions,
ordering them to depart before Passion Sunday of the following year
(March 23, 1198). After that day, every heretic found in the kingdom
or the county was to be sent to the stake, and his property
confiscated. It is worthy of remark, that in the king's mind the
stake was merely a subsidiary penalty.

In enacting this severe law, Pedro of Aragon declared that he was
moved by zeal for the public welfare, and "had simply obeyed the
canons of the Holy Roman Church." With the exception of the death
penalty by the stake, his reference to the canon law is perfectly
accurate. Pope Alexander III, who had been present at the Cou