Beyond his work as an illustrator and his state-commissioned works, Jean-Paul Laurens developed his own iconographic cycles in his canvases. One rather unique subject became a recurrent motif in many of his easel works.
Taken from an 11th Century chronicle by R. de Coggeshole, the quarrels between the second Capetian sovereign and the church provided Laurens with his first theme. His famous portrayal of "L'Excommunication de Robert le Pieux" (Excommunication of Robert the Pious) (1875) presents a highly dramatised version of the sanction imposed on the king of France, guilty of having married his distant cousin, Berthe."L'Interdit" (The Interdict) - painted in the same year - shows abandoned corpses cut off from the grace of God outside a boarded up chapel door where the sacraments are no longer delivered - a warning about the ensuing disaster for France.
Repression of Albigensian heresy was Laurens' second favourite theme. It was above all through the character Bernard Délicieux that Laurens resurrected this part of French history as it was described at that time by the historian Bernard Haureau. His inspiration also came from the Latin manuscript of the inquisition trials. In "La Délivrance des emmurés de Carcassonne" (Freeing of the imprisoned of Carcassonne) (1879, Carcassonne town hall), Laurens illustrated the riots caused by the sermons of Délicieux, the brave Franciscan monk who stood up against the excesses of the religious courts in the 1300s. In a spectacular confrontation in "L'Agitateur du Languedoc" (The Agitator of Languedoc) (1887) he is in turn shown boldly facing the terrible judges. The series is concluded with the painting "Après la Question" (After the question) (1882), which soberly portrays the mortal remains of the monk being taken back to the dungeon after the torture.
The Inquisition is a theme that occurs in other works by Laurens. This subject preoccupied the 19th Century historians who unearthed the blackest episodes in history, for example L'Histoire critique de l'Inquisition d'Espagne (A critical history of the Spanish Inquisition) by Canon J. A. Llorente of Toledo. Charged with the same anticlerical fervour, the same urge to depict the dangers of religious intolerance and fanaticism, Laurens multiplied his variations on this theme with, for example, Les Murailles du Saint-Office (The walls of the Holy Office) (1883) depicting the role of the pope's hidden advisor; Le Pape et l'Inquisiteur (The Pope and the Inquisitor) (1882) showing Sixtus IV with Torquemada who is examining the Papal Bull making him Inquisitor General of Castilla and Aragon in 1483; Le Grand Inquisiteur chez les Rois catholiques (The Great Inquisitor in the time of the Catholic kings) (1886) depicting the decision to persecute Jews in the Spanish kingdom; Les Hommes du Saint-Office (Men of the Holy Office) (1889) showing the effectiveness of an entire institution at the service of repression in this tense portrayal of the inquisitors examining the files of those whose lives were in the balance.
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