Baring-Gould’s sources: Gallican Martyrologies. Venerated on this day at Marseilles and Toulouse. Authorities: — Various notices of his Life, collected in “ Hist Litt&aire de la France,” xviiL p. 586 seq.t and Fauriel, “ Hist de la Po&ie Proven^ale,” it p. 69 scq.] Fulk was bom at Marseilles between 1160 and 1170. His father was a merchant of Venice, who had retired from business to Marseilles, and who died, leaving Fulk a considerable fortune. The old biographer of the troubadour relates his entry into life in sufficiently remarkable terms, which, if vague, indicate from the beginning the character of the young man, ready to do his utmost to push his way in the world. “ Folquet,” says he, “showed himself greedy of honour and renown, and began to attend on powerful barons, going, coming, and plotting with them.”
When Richard Cceur-de-Lion was on his way to Syria, he made some stay at Marseilles before going on to Genoa, where he was to embark. Fulk insinuated himself into his good graces. His power as a singer and poet, the tender, passionate, and sensual pictures he drew of love, charmed the hot-blooded prince. Fulk was already in favour with Alphonso II., king of Aragon, Alphonso VII., king of Castille, and Raymond V., count of Toulouse. But he chiefly attached himself to Barral de Beaux, seigneur of Marseilles, with whose wife he was enamoured; and he resided in the court of this nobleman, enjoying his hospitality and making love to his wife.
Fulk was married, but his wife was sorely neglected. Azalais de Roche Martine, wife of Barral de Beaux, was the subject of his tenderest lays.
[Dec. a* Proven9al traditions diverge as to the result of his suit of this lady. According to one account, he could “ jamais trouver merd, ni obtenir aucun bien en droit d’amour from the object of his passion; and, in disgust, he tinned to make love to Laura de Saint Jorlan, sister of de Beaux, a lady remarkable for her beauty and grace. But the other account is that he made love to both ladies at once, and that Azalais cast him off because she found that his fickle heart was already turning to the fresher charms of Laura, and that she could not retain him, though she had accorded him eveiy favour. Anyhow, he made his rejection by Azalais the subject of poetical laments, and prosecuted with vigour his siege of the heart and virtue of his patron’s sister. And then he pursued with the same ardour the conquest of Eudoxia, wife of William, count of Montpellier.
Azalais died, and shortly after her, died also Barral de Beaux, her husband. Richard Cceur-de-Lion was already dead, so were his patrons* Alphonso of Aragon, and Raymond of Toulouse. His youth was past, his locks were tinged with grey, the fires of amorous passion began to grow cold. His ambition was unsated with the conquest of a name as a sweet singer, and some triumphs in love. He determined to push his fortunes in another career. He retired from the world, made his profession in the monastery of Toronet in Provence, of the Order of Citeaux, and was elected abbot in 1200.
Five years later he was appointed to the episcopal see of Toulouse [a bishop’s “see” is his diocese, named from his seat (Latin sedes)], which he occupied till 1231, the year of his death. He was bishop during the war against the Albigenses, and against his own flock he exercised the ferocity of a wolf rather than the tenderness of a shepherd. “There is no act of treachery or cruelty throughout the war, in which the Dec. »sO S. Fulk.
bishop of Toulouse was not the most forward, sanguinary, unscrupulous." 1 The historian of his life, in the “ Histoire Littdraire de la France,” says of him: “ After having given half of his life to gallantry, he gave up, without restraint, the remainder of his life to the cause of tyranny, murder, and spoliation, and unhappily he profited by it... Loving women passionately, a ferocious apostle of the Inquisition, he did not give up the composition of verses which bore the impress of his successive passions.”
In Toulouse he organized a strong confraternity to root out with armed force the heretics, usurers, and Jews. They attacked, and in their religious zeal pillaged and demolished houses, and enriched themselves with the spoil. Raymond, count of Toulouse, was in arms against Simon de Montfort, who invaded Provence under the banner of the Cross to carve out for himself and his needy followers a principality. Fulk hastened to his camp to bless his undertaking and to exult at the chastisement of the heretics as it took place before his eyes, under the remorseless sword of the crusader. We need not follow the details of this hideous and wicked war, and see the bishop steep in blood and infamy his sacred office. He was at the fourth council of the Lateran [St. John Lateran, the pope’s cathedral in Rome], 1215, to goad on the wavering Innocent III. to the destruction of the count of Toulouse, whom Fulk hated with deadly animosity.
The bishop and Guy de Montfort together plundered Toulouse. The people rose in revolt and expelled them. De Montfort again forced his way within the walls, and was again repelled, after having set the city on fire in many places. Then Bishop Fulk offered mediation. “I swear by God and the holy Virgin, and the body of the Redeemer, by my whole Order, the abbot, and other dignitaries, that I [Dec. as.
give you good counsel, better have I never given. If the count inflict on you the least wrong, bring your complaints before me, and God and I will see you righted.” The citizens, trusting the word of their bishop, consented to give hostages of good conduct and restore the prisoners they had taken, and even to surrender their arms. No sooner were they in his power than De Montfort extorted from the citizens 30,000 marks of silver, demolished the walls of the city, and systematically plundered it house by house.
After the treaty by which Raymond VII., count of Toulouse, surrendered his principality, he remained with the barren dignity of sovereign, but without a voice in the fate of a large though concealed part of his subjects. Bishop Fulk of Toulouse, as far as actual power, was master of the land, and he held it crushed into subjection and misery by means of his council, the Inquisition. Heresy could no longer hold itself erect, and be professed without fear by the nobles of the land. The Inquisition of Toulouse under Fulk “ drew up a code of procedure, a Christian code, of which the base was a system of delation, at which the worst of the pagan emperors might have shuddered as iniquitous; in which the sole act deserving of mercy might seem to be the Judas-like betrayal of the dearest and most familiar friend, of the kinsman, the parent, the child.”1 Fauriel says of Fulk’s poetic abilities: “Among the best troubadours, there is perhaps not one who surpasses Fulk of Marseilles in delicacy of spirit, in elegance, and artifice of diction. But one already perceives through this elegance and artifice, the signs of the decadence of Proven9al poetry.” 1 Milman, b. xi. c. x; the forms of procedure in Martene and Durand, Thesaurus Anecdot. T.V. “ Their authenticity ia hayond dispute. Nothing that the sternest or most passionate historian has revealed, nothing that the most impressive romance writer could have imagined, can surpass the cold systematic treachery and cruelty of these, so called, judicial formularies.” Dec. i*] S. Fulk.
Fulk died on the festival of the Nativity of Him who came to bring “ peace on earth, and good-will to men." He is placed by Dante in Paradise.1 The poet was surely not quite right when he makes the minstrel bishop say of himself in life, “ I did bear impression of this heaven, that now bears mine.”
‘Cam. is. S. John the Divine. See pt SOT. December a6. S. Stephen, D.M. at Jerusalem; a.d. 33. S. Dionysius, Pope at Pome; a.d. 369.
S. Zeno, B. 0/ Majuma; 4 tk cent. S. Zosimus, Pope at Rome; a.d. 418. S. Jar lath, B, 0/ Tuam in Ireland; circ. a.d. 560. S. Ildefonsus, B. 0/ Toledo; a.d. 667.
