Mathieu
	Translated by David Burr, History Department, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA.

The following confession is translated from Collection Doat, vol. 27, ff. 85v-87r. The Latin text can be found here.

The Lord Mathieu, rector of the church at Belvèse¹ in the diocese of Narbonne, as is established by his confession made in legitimate judicial proceedings conducted in the year 1320,² says that seven years before his confession, at the time when he was still a cleric and not yet a priest, he heard a public sermon by Friar Raymond Déjean at Montréal in which he said that persecutions and injuries were still being suffered for the faith. After the sermon Mathieu asked Raymond why he had said in his sermon that Raymond himself would suffer for the faith, since he was not planning to go overseas where the enemies of the faith are found. Raymond replied, saying to the group of listeners who were participating in the conversation, "The enemies of the faith are among us, for the church by which we are governed is the very thing symbolized by the great whore concerning which the Blessed John³ speaks in the Apocalypse. It persecutes Christ's ministers and his poor. Can you not see that we do not dare to go openly among our brethren? Later the aforesaid friar Raymond Déjean said that there had been no true pope since Celestine, whom those poor had in Cilicia, or his successor, and the cardinals and prelates; and that is the true church. Mathieu did not believe these words, as he said. He later joined the aforesaid friar Raymond Déjean on a long, meandering trip to FONCIANUM,⁴ where they stopped. On the trip he heard from this same friar Raymond that the host offered at the altar by the priest assumed divinity which descended from heaven like a dove and lived with the host, remaining up to reception of the host. Upon reception of the host it disappeared. Mathieu did not believe these errors, as he said.

Again, he heard from someone whom he names who was condemned and burned as a heretic that the status of a beguin was better than any status of religious orders, priesthood or matrimony. Again, he heard elsewhere from that same friar, Raymond Déjean, that we have had no pope after Pope Celestine, but he did not believe it, as he said.

He heard the aforesaid errors seven years or more before his confession, before he was promoted to sacred orders; but he has not come without being called or cited, nor was he accused or informed upon by anyone. Asked why he concealed the aforesaid so long he replied that he was on the verge of coming to confess them on many occasions, and he actually did come to Carcassonne to reveal all, but he was prevented from doing so by the inquisitor's absence. He always intended to reveal it, and his failure to do so stemmed from mere negligence, not malice, as he says.

He was summoned in another sermon and his confession was judged by counselors to be insufficient. Suspected of belief in heresy, he was placed in prison and kept there for some time so that he would give a fuller confession. When called into judgment he wished to confess nothing more, but with his own hand he wrote a document which offered many excuses, alleging that at that time the error of the beguins and friars minor was not as clear as it is at present, and begging that he be dealt with mercifully and not brought to grief.

In fact his wishes were granted. He was not sentenced with the others. Instead his sentence is found at the end of the document (at folios110v-111v) in a special category including only one other person, a man who was given particularly lenient treatment because he had cooperated in the capture of other heretics. Mathieu's sentence emphasizes that, although he withheld information for some time, he finally volunteered it without being summoned. He is required to go on pilgrimage, when it is possible for him, to the churches of Ste. Marie de Puy and de Valverte, and to pay £20 Turenensium for the construction of a chapel in a place to be designated by the inquisitor's lieutenant, Lord Germain.

¹Latin Bellovidere.

²The date, sub anno domini millesimo trecentesimo vicesimo, must be wrong, omitting the final number. All the confessions of those sentenced along with Mathieu are dated between 1324 and 1328, but only one is from 1328, and he was not a beguin. Neither were those from 1324. Every one of the beguins sentenced that day other than Mathieu was interrogated in late 1325 or early 1326, so Mathieu probably was too.

³The text actually says Bertrandus Ioannes, not Beatus Ioannes, but it must be an error.

⁴Latin Foncianum. What is the modern town?

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