o De Montfort, who
laid siege to Toulouse, and was killed before he could take the city.
The war was then carried on by _Louis the Lion_, who had succeeded his
father as Louis VIII. in 1223, though only to reign three years, as he
died of a fever caught in a southern campaign in 1226. His widow,
Blanche, made peace in the name of her son, _Louis IX._, and Raymond was
forced to give his only daughter in marriage to one of her younger sons.
On their death, the county of Toulouse lapsed to the crown, which thus
became possessor of all southern France, save Guienne, which still
remained to the English kings. But the whole of the district once
peopled by the Albigenses had been so much wasted as never to recover
its prosperity, and any cropping up of their opinions was guarded
against by the establishment of the Inquisition, which appointed
Dominican friars to _inquire_ into and exterminate all that differed
from the Church. At the same time the order of St. Francis did much to
instruct and quicken the consciences of the people; and at the
universities--especially that of Paris--a great advance both in thought
and learning was made. Louis IX.'s confessor, Henry de Sorbonne,
founded, for the study of divinity, the college which was known by his
name, and whose decisions were afterwards received as of paramount
authority.

9. The Parliament of Paris.--France had a wise ruler in Blanche, and a
still better one in her son, _Louis IX._, who is better known as _St.
Louis_, and who was a really good and great man. He was the first to
establish the Parliament of Paris--a court consisting of the great
feudal vassals, lay and ecclesiastical, who held of the king direct, and
who had to try all causes. They much disliked giving such attendance,
and a certain number of men trained to the law were added to them to
guide the decisions. The Parliament was thus only a court of justice and
an office for registering wills and edicts. The representative assembly
of France was called the States-General, and consisted of all estates of
the realm, but was only summoned in time of emergency. Louis IX. was the
first king to bring nobles of the highest rank to submit to the judgment
of Parliament when guilty of a crime. Enguerrand de Coucy, one of the
proudest nobles of France, who had hung two Flemish youths for killing a
rabbit, was sentenced to death. The penalty was commuted, but the
principle was established. Louis's uprightness and wisdom gai