#17 The Forgotten Testimony of Raymond de la Côte

Source: Vat. Lat. MS. 4030, pp. XIIIv-XVIIv, Vatican Apostolic Library, Diocese of Pamiers, Inquisition of Jacques Fournier, Bishop of Pamiers, 1318–1325.

A. D. 1319-1320

The following testimony is preserved in the Vatican Library and records the interrogations of Raymond de la Côte, a Waldensian deacon tried during the Inquisition of Bishop Jacques Fournier (later Pope Benedict XII).

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I. Errors Against the Roman Church

[The formal charge list extracted from Raymond’s interrogations]

Raymond said that the Roman church is not the church of Christ.

He said that the Roman church errs in the faith of Christ by teaching that oaths are lawful, and that whoever teaches that swearing is permissible errs in the same way. He said that the pope, by compelling men to swear, and the whole Roman church, by enforcing the same, commits sin.

He said that a man who is pursued unto death by another — and who does not ultimately take that other person’s life in return — is a martyr of Christ. He said that the one doing the pursuing kills a just and innocent person, and is thereby a companion of those who stoned Stephen and shed the blood of all the saints, from the blood of Abel the just unto the blood of Zacharias.

He said that if the Roman church excommunicates a man because he refuses to swear, that man is not truly excommunicated before God.

He said that purgatory does not exist.

He said that a man is bound to obey only what God has directly commanded. The commands of the pope carry no binding authority. Where the pope’s commands exceed God’s commands, they are not to be followed.

He said that the Roman church is the malignant church — that it errs in the faith — and that it does not have legitimate power to administer the sacraments.

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II. The Two Errors Concerning Baptism

Raymond said that the sacrament of baptism is not valid unless the one being baptized receives it as a conscious act of personal faith. Without faith present in the recipient, the sacrament accomplishes nothing and is not binding.

He said that the baptism administered by the Roman church to infants is therefore of no value — because infants are incapable of faith, and a sacrament received without faith saves no one.

He said that the only baptism which saves is that received by one who has first believed, in accordance with the words of the Lord: He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.

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III. The Final Refusal to Recant

[Sessions of 29 January and 31 January 1320, Castle of Alemans]

After his interrogations were complete, Raymond was brought before Bishop Fournier on the 29th of January, 1320, at the castle of Alemans, with Brother Gualbardus de Pomiis present as deputy inquisitor of Carcassonne.

The bishop, wishing to draw Raymond back from his errors, caused authorities from sacred scripture to be read to him and arguments to be put before him at length. Raymond responded that he had considered these arguments carefully — but that he would not revoke a single article of what he had declared.

He said furthermore that he would in no manner receive orders from the Roman church, nor render obedience to the pope.

Two days later, on the 31st of January, Raymond was brought before the bishop a final time and asked once more whether he was willing to live according to the precepts of the Roman church. He said that he would not. He would not receive her orders. He would not obey the pope.

The bishop, seeing that Raymond would not revoke his positions, would not correct or amend them, would not add to or retract from them in any particular, and would not abandon the positions of his fellow Waldensians, determined to proceed to definitive sentence.

Raymond declared that he was ready.

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IV. The Outcome

Raymond de la Côte was burned at the stake for his beliefs in A. D. 1320.