out of their confiscated property. Such measures
betoken an earnest desire to safeguard the health, and to a certain
degree the liberty of the prisoners. In fact, the documents we
possess prove that the condemned sometimes enjoyed a great deal of
freedom, and were allowed to receive from their friends an additional
supply of food, even when the prison fare was ample.

But in many places the prisoners, even before their trial, were
treated with great cruelty. "The papal orders were that they (the
prisons) should be constructed of small, dark cells for solitary
confinement, only taking care that the _enormis rigor_ of the
incarceration should not extinguish life."[1] But this last provision
was not always carried out. Too often the prisoners were confined in
narrow cells full of disease, and totally unfit for human habitation.
The Popes, learning this sad state of affairs, tried to remedy it.
Clement V was particularly zealous in his attempts at prison
reform.[2] That he succeeded in bettering, at least for a time, the
lot of these unfortunates, in whom he interested himself, cannot be
denied.[3]

[1] Lea, op. cit., vol. i, p. 491.

[2] He ordered that the prisons be kept in good condition, that they
be looked after by both Bishop and Inquisitor, each of whom was to
appoint a jailer who would keep the prison keys, that all provisions
sent to the prisoners should be faithfully given them, etc. Cf.
Decretal _Multorum querela_ in Eymeric, _Directorium_, p. 112.

[3] His legates Pierre de la Chapelle and Beranger fr Fredol visited
in April, 1306, the prisons of Carcassonne and Albi, changed the
jailers, removed the irons from the prisoners, and made others leave
the subterranean cells in which they had been confined. Douais,
_Documents_, vol. ii, p. 304 seq. Cf. Compayre, Etudes historiques
sur l'Albigeois, pp. 240-245.

If the reforms he decreed were not all carried out, the blame must be
laid to the door of those appointed to enforce them. History frees
him from all responsibility.

The part played by the Popes, the Councils, and the Inquisitors in
the infliction of the death penalty does not appear in so favorable a
light. While not directly participating in the death sentences, they
were still very eager for the executions of the heretics they
abandoned to the secular arm. This is well attested by both documents
and facts.

Lucius III, at the Council of Verona in 1184, ordered sovereigns to
swear, in the presenc