Guillaume Pelhisson
Guillaume Pelhisson ( German Wilhelm Pelhisson ; † in the 13th century ) was a Dominican , chronicler and one of the first inquisitors of after the end of the Albigensian Crusade in southern France ( Languedoc furnished) Inquisition jurisdiction .
Life
In several letters from April 1233, Pope Gregory IX demanded . the provincial prior of the Dominicans in the archbishopric of Auch , Bordeaux , Bourges and Narbonne to take over the leadership of the Inquisition for the persecution and trial of the followers of heresy , the so-called Cathars . The Inquisition had already been established after the Albigensian Crusade in 1229, but was initially integrated into the conventional episcopal jurisdiction , which, however, had proven inadequate in the persecution of the Cathars. In the Dominican order of preachers, on the other hand, the Pope had recognized the intellectual challenge par excellence of heresy, to whom the leadership of the fight against it was now to be entrusted permanently. With this, the institutional inquisition jurisdiction was introduced in France in the strict sense. In the same year, 1233, the provincial priors of the order presented the papal legate Jean de Bernin with their lists of the names of the first friars who were to be entrusted with the management of the investigative procedures (Latin inquisitio ). Guillaume Pelhisson, originally from Toulouse , was nominated for the Diocese of Albi together with Arnaud Cathala . For Toulouse and Cahors it was Guillaume Arnaud and Pierre Seilan and for Carcassonne it was Ferrer and Pierre d'Alès . All of them were confirmed by the legate at the beginning of 1234.
Pelhisson was the official colleague of Arnaud Cathala and both were almost beaten to death by a mob in Albi in 1234 when Cathala wanted to exhume the body of a well-known Cathar woman from the local cemetery with his own hands as one of his official acts . In addition to around a dozen convictions for penitential trips to the Holy Land , Cathala and Pelhisson had two confessing Cathars surrendered to secular justice in the same year, which meant death at the stake ( Autodafé ). These are the first two death sentences on record that the Inquisition pronounced in Languedoc. With such measures, the Inquisition turned the population of the entire region against it. The tense situation in Toulouse escalated on November 5, 1235 with the violent expulsion of all Dominicans, inquisitors and secular clergy from the city. Pelhisson was personally present in the Dominican convent of Tolosan on that day and was chased out of the city with his confreres by the angry citizens over the Garonne bridges . Only after a sharp intervention by the Pope could the Dominicans and with them the Inquisitors move back into their convent in Toulouse on September 4th, 1236 and start their work. Pelhisson has now been assigned to Pierre Seilan for the Diocese of Cahors.
Guillaume Pelhisson wrote a chronicle of his work as an inquisitor in which he meticulously documented his work as well as the political events in Languedoc, of which he was an eyewitness. It begins in 1229 with the Council of Toulouse chaired by Romano Bonaventura , which decided to introduce the Inquisition, and ends in 1244 with the fall of Montségur .
expenditure
- English translation in: Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Southern France, 1100–1250 , ed. by Walter L. Wakefield, University of California Press 1974.
- French translation in: Guillaume Pelhisson, Chronique (1229–1244) suivie de récit des troubles d'Albi (1234) , ed. by Jean Duvernoy, Paris 1994.
literature
- Arno Borst : The Cathars. Freiburg 2000, ISBN 3-451-04025-5 .
- Malcom Lambert: History of the Cathars. The rise and fall of the great heretic movement. Darmstadt 2001, ISBN 3-89678-401-3 .
- Jörg Oberste: The "crusade" against the Albigensians. Heresy and Power Politics in the Middle Ages. Darmstadt 2003, ISBN 3-89678-464-1 .
- Michel Roquebert: The History of the Cathars, Heresy, Crusade and Inquisition in Languedoc. German translation by Ursula Blank-Sangmeister, Philipp Reclam jun. GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart 2012. (French first edition, Histoire des Cathares. Hérésie, Croisade, Inquisition du XIe au XIVe siècle. Éditions Perrin, Paris 1999).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Guillaume Pelhisson |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Wilhelm Pelhisson |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Dominican, inquisitor, chronicler |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 12th century or 13th century |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Toulouse |
| DATE OF DEATH | 13th Century |