The condemnation of obstinate heretics, and later on, of the relapsed, permitted no exercise of clemency. How many heretics were abandoned to the secular arm, and thus sent to the stake, is impossible to determine. However, we have some interesting statistics of the more important tribunals on this point. The portion of the register of Bernard de Caux which relates to impenitent heretics has been lost, but we have the sentences of the Inquisition of Pamiers (1318-1324), and of Toulouse (1308-1323). In nine _Sermones_ or _Autos-da-fé_[1] of the tribunal of Pamiers, condemning sixty-four persons, only five heretics were abandoned to the secular arm.
[1] The _Sermo generalis_ after which the sentences were solemnly pronounced by the Inquisitors was called in Spain _auto-da-fé_.
Bernard Gui presided over eighteen _autos-da-fé_, and condemned nine hundred and thirty heretics; and yet he abandoned only forty-two to the secular arm.[1] These Inquisitors were far more lenient than Robert the Bougre. Taking all in all, the Inquisition in its operation denoted a real progress in the treatment of criminals; for it not only put an end to the summary vengeance of the mob, but it diminished considerably the number of those sentenced to death.[2]
[1] Cf. the sentences of Bernard Gui in Douais, _Documents_, vol. i, p. ccv, and Appendix B.
[2] Even while the Inquisition was in full operation, the heretics who managed to escape the ecclesiastical tribunals had no reason to congratulate themselves. For we read that Raymond VII, Count of Toulouse in 1248, caused eighty heretics to be burned at Berlaiges, near Agen, after they had confessed in his presence, without giving them the opportunity of recanting.
We notice at Pamiers that only one out of thirteen, while at Toulouse but one in twenty-two, was sentenced to death. Although terrible enough, these figures are far different from the exaggerated statistics imagined by the fertile brains of ignorant controversialists.[1]
[1] Of course we do not here refer to honest historians like Langlois who estimates that one heretic out of every ten was abandoned to the secular arm (op. cit., p. 106). Dom Brial erroneously states in his preface to vol. xix of the _Recueil des Historiens des Gautes_ (p. xxiii) that Bernard Gui burned 637 heretics. This figure represented the number of heretics then known to be _condemned_, but only 40 of these were abandoned to the secular arm. The exact number is 42 out of 930. Cf. Douais, _Documents_, vol. i, p. ccv, and Appendix B.