take erected in the public square
with a cross in front of it; and in spite of the Archbishop's
protest, they required the heretics either to reverence the cross
they had blasphemed, or to enter the flaming pile. Some were
converted, but the majority of them, covering their faces with their
hands, threw themselves into the flames, and were soon burned to
ashes.

Few details have come down to us concerning the fate of the
Manicheans arrested at this time in Sardinia and in Spain;
_exterminati sunt_, says a chronicler.[1]

[1] "Exterminati sunt," says Raoul Glaber, _Hist_., lib. ii, cap.
xii, _Hist. des Gaules_, vol. x, p. 23. _Exterminati_ may mean
banished as well as put to death. The context, however, seems to
refer to the death penalty.

The Cathari of Toulouse were also arrested, and executed. A few years
later, in 1114, the Bishop of Soissons arrested a number of heretics
and cast them into prison until he could make up his mind how to deal
with them. While he was absent at Beauvais, asking the advice of his
fellow-bishops assembled there in council, the populace, fearing the
weakness of the clergy, attacked the prison, dragged forth the
heretics, and burned them at the stake. Guibert de Nogent does not
blame them in the least. He simply calls attention to "the just zeal"
shown on this occasion by "the people of God," to stop the spread of
heresy.

In 1144 the Bishop of Liege, Adalbero II, compelled a number of
Cathari to confess their heresy; "he hoped," he said, "with the grace
of God, to lead them to repent." But the populace, less
kindly-hearted, rushed upon them, and proceeded to burn them at the
stake; the Bishop had the greatest difficulty to save the majority of
them. He then wrote to Pope Lucius II asking him what was the proper
penalty for heresy.[1] We do not know what answer he received.

[1] Letter of the church of Liege to Pope Lucius II, in Martene,
_Amplissima collectio_, vol. i, col. 776-777.

About the same time a similar dispute arose between the Archbishop
and the people of Cologne regarding two or three heretics who had
been arrested and condemned. The clergy asked them to return to the
Church. But the people, "moved by an excess of zeal," says an
historian of the time, seized them, and despite the Archbishop and
his clerics led them to the stake. "And marvelous to relate,"
continues the chronicler, "they suffered their tortures at the stake,
not only with patience, but with joy."[2]