CHAPTER IV.

THE ALBIGENSIAN CRUSADES.

The Church admitted that it had brought upon itself the dangers which

threatened it--that the alarming progress of heresy was caused and

fostered by clerical negligence and corruption. In his opening address

to the great Lateran Council, Innocent III. had no scruple in declaring

to the assembled fathers: "The corruption of the people has its chief

source in the clergy. From this arise the evils of Christendom: faith

perishes, religion is defaced, liberty is restricted, justice is trodden

under foot, the heretics multiply, the schismatics are emboldened, the

faithless grow strong, the Saracens are victorious;" and after the

futile attempt of the council to strike at the root of the evil,

Honorius III., in admitting its failure, repeated the assertion. In fact

this was an axiom which none were so hardy as to deny, yet when, in

1204, the legates whom Innocent had sent to oppose the Albigenses

appealed to him for aid against prelates whom they had failed to coerce,

and whose infamy of life gave scandal to the faithful and an

irresistible argument to the heretic, Innocent curtly bade them attend

to the object of their mission and not allow themselves to be diverted

by less important matters. The reply fairly indicates the policy of the

Church. Thoroughly to cleanse the Augean stable was a task from which

even Innocent's fearless spirit might well shrink. It seemed an easier

and more hopeful plan to crush revolt with fire and sword.[102]

We have seen how promptly and persistently Innocent took in hand the

heretics of Italy, nor were his dealings with those beyond the Alps

less active and decisive, though they manifest an evident desire to do

exact justice, and not to confound the innocent with the guilty. The

Nivernois had long been noted as a deeply infected district. The

troubles occasioned by Catharism at Vezelai in 1167 have already been

alluded to, and the sharp repression of heresy then had put an end to

its outward manifestation without destroying its germs. Towards the end

of the century Bishop Hugues of Auxerre earned the title of the Hammer

of Heretics by his energy and success in persecution; and though he was

likewise noted for avarice, usurpation of illegal rights, oppression of

his flock, and ferocity in ruining those who had offended him, his zeal

for the faith covered the multitude of sins, hardly needing the urgency

with which, in 1204, Innocent commanded him to clear his diocese of

heresy. By the pitiless employment of confiscation, exile, and the stake

he labored to purify it, but the evil was stubborn and constantly

reappeared. The chief propagator was an anchorite named Terric who dwelt

in a cavern near Corbigny, where he was finally surprised and burned,

through the exertions of Foulques de Neuilly, but the infection was not

confined to the poor and humble. In 1199 we find the Dean of Nevers and

the Abbot of St. Martin of Nevers appealing to Innocent from

prosecutions commenced against them, and the answers of the pope show

both his anxious desire that they should have full opportunity to prove

their innocence, and the uncertainty and cumbrous nature of the

ecclesiastical procedure of the time. In 1201 Bishop Hugues was more

successful with a criminal of equal importance, the knight, Everard of

Châteauneuf, to whom Count Hervey of Nevers had intrusted the

stewardship of his territories. In this case, the Legate Octavian called

a council in Paris, comprising many bishops and theologians, for his

trial; he was convicted principally on the testimony of Bishop Hugues

and was handed over to the secular arm and burned, after a respite for

the purpose of rendering an account of his office to Count Hervey. His

nephew, Thierry, an equally hardened heretic, escaped to Toulouse, where

five years later we find him a bishop among the Albigenses, who were

gratified in having a Frenchman as an accomplice. La Charité was an

especially active centre of heresy in the Nivernois, and from 1202 to

1208 there are frequent appeals to Innocent from its citizens, showing

that Rome was regarded as more indulgent than the local courts; and the

papal decisions continue to manifest a laudable desire to prevent

injustice. All this proved inefficient, and it was one of the first

places to which, in 1233, an inquisitor was sent. At Troyes, in 1200,

five male and three female Catharans were burned; and at Braisne, in

1204, a number were similarly put to death, among whom was Nicholas, the

most renowned painter in France.[103]

In 1199 another danger threatened the Church in Metz, where Waldensian

sectaries were found in possession of French translations of the New

Testament, the Psalter, Job, and other portions of Scripture, which they

contumaciously studied with unwearied perseverance and refused to

abandon at the command of their parish priests; nay, they were hardy

enough to assert that they knew more of Holy Writ than their pastors,

and that they had a right to the consolation which they found in its

perusal. The case was somewhat puzzling, since the Church as yet had had

no occasion to interdict formally the popular reading of the Bible, and

these poor folk were not accused of any definite heretical tenets.

Innocent, therefore, when applied to, admitted that there was nothing

condemnable in the desire to understand Scripture, but he added that

such is its profundity that even the learned and wise are unequal to its

comprehension, and consequently it is far beyond the grasp of the simple

and illiterate. The people of Metz were therefore exhorted to abandon

these reprehensible practices and return to a proper degree of respect

for their pastors if they wished pardon for their sins, with a

significant threat of compulsion in case of further obstinacy; and when

the simple and illiterate folk proved deaf to this command, a commission

was sent to the Abbot of Citeaux and two others, to proceed to Metz and

put a stop, without appeal, to these unlawful studies--with what success

we may infer from the fact that in 1231 the heretics of Trèves were

found in possession of German versions of Holy Writ.[104]

It was the stronghold of heresy in southern France, however, which

rightly gave rise to chief concern in Rome, and to this Innocent

resolutely bent his energies. Raymond VI. of Toulouse, in the full vigor

of mature manhood, at the age of thirty-eight, had, in January, 1195,

succeeded his father in the possession of territories which rendered him

the most powerful feudatory of the monarchy and almost an independent

sovereign. Besides the county of Toulouse, the duchy of Narbonne

conferred on him the dignity of first lay peer of France. He was

likewise suzerain, with more or less direct authority, of the Marquisate

of Provence, the Comtat Venaissin and the counties of St. Gilles, Foix,

Comminges, and Rodez, and of the Albigeois, Vivarais, Gévaudan, Velai,

Rouergue, Querci, and Agenois. Even in distant Italy he was known as the

greatest count on earth, with fourteen counts as his vassals, and his

troubadour flatterers assured him that he was the equal of emperors--

Car il val tan qu'en la soa valor

Auri' assatz ad un emperador.

Even after the sacrifice of a major part of the possessions of the

house, his son, Raymond VII., at his splendid Christmas court of 1244,

conferred the honor of knighthood on no less than two hundred nobles. So

far as matrimonial alliances can have weight, Raymond VI. was

strengthened with them on every side, for he was of close kindred to the

royal houses of Castile, Aragon, Navarre, France, and England. His

fourth wife was Joan of England, whom he married in 1196 in pursuance of

a favorable treaty with her brother Richard, thus relieving him of the

enmity of that redoubtable warrior, who, as Duke of Aquitaine, had

pressed his father hard. Yet that treaty with Richard gave secret

offence to Philip Augustus, destined to bear bitter fruit thereafter.

Almost at the same time he was liberated from another formidable

hereditary foe by the death of Alonso II. of Aragon, whose large

possessions and still larger pretensions in southern France had at times

almost threatened the extinction of the house of Toulouse. With his

successor, Pedro II., Raymond's relations were most friendly, cemented

in 1200 by his marriage with Pedro's sister Eleanor, and in 1205 by the

engagement of his young son, Raymond VII., with Pedro's infant daughter.

Though the distant sovereignty of France troubled him but little, yet

the friendliness manifested to him on his accession by Philip Augustus

was a not unimportant element in the prosperity which on every side

seemed to give him assurance of a peaceful and fortunate reign. Thus

secured against external aggression and confident of the future, he

recked little of an excommunication which had been fulminated against

him in 1195 by Celestin III. on account of the invasion of the rights of

the Abbey of St. Gilles--an excommunication which Innocent III. removed

shortly after his accession, but not without words of reproof and

warning which Raymond defiantly disregarded, thus laying the foundation

of a quarrel destined to result so disastrously. Though not a heretic,

his indifference on religious questions led him to tolerate the heresy

of his subjects. Most of his barons were either heretics or favorably

inclined to a faith which, by denying the pretensions of the Church,

justified its spoliation or, at least, liberated them from its

domination. Raymond himself was doubtless influenced by the same motive,

and when, in 1195, the Council of Montpellier anathematized all princes

who neglected to enforce the Lateran canons against heretics and

mercenaries, he paid no attention to its utterances. It would, in fact,

have required the most ardent fanaticism to lead a prince so

circumstanced to provoke his vassals, to lay waste his territories, to

massacre his subjects, and to invite assault from watchful rivals, for

the purpose of enforcing uniformity in religion and subjugation to a

Church known only by its rapacity and corruption. Toleration had endured

for nearly a generation; the land was blessed with peace after almost

interminable war, and all the dictates of worldly prudence counselled

him to follow in his father's footsteps. Surrounded by one of the gayest

and most cultured courts in Christendom, fond of women, a patron of

poets, somewhat irresolute of purpose, and enjoying the love of his

subjects, nothing could have appeared to him more objectless than a

persecution such as Rome held to be the most indispensable of his

duties.[105]

The condition of the Church in his dominions might well excite the

indignation of a pontiff like Innocent III., who conscientiously

believed in the full measure of its awful authority and imprescriptible

rights. A chronicler assures us that among many thousands of the people

there were but few Catholics to be found; and although this is doubtless

an exaggeration, we have seen in the preceding chapter what rapid

strides heresy had made. How utterly discredited the Church had become,

and how loss of respect for the spirituality had led to spoliation of

the temporality is shown by the condition of the episcopate of the

capital, Toulouse. Bishop Fulcrand, who died in 1200, is described as

living perforce in apostolical poverty like a private citizen. His

tithes had been seized by the knights and the monasteries; his

first-fruits by the parish priests, and his only revenue was derived

from a few farms and from the public baking-oven over which he retained

a feudal right. In his extremity he brought suit against his own chapter

to compel them to assign to him the income of a single prebend as a

means of livelihood. When he visited the parishes, he was obliged to beg

an escort from the lords of the lands over which he passed. When

Fulcrand's wretched life came to an end, uninviting as the episcopate

seemed to be, it was the subject of a bitter and disgraceful contest

which ended in the success of Raymond de Rabastens, Archdeacon of Agen,

whose career was even more miserable than that of his predecessor.

Perhaps his poverty might excuse the unblushing simony with which he

sought to augment his revenues; but when he had pledged or parted with

all the remaining possessions of his see to defray the expenses of a

fruitless litigation with Raymond de Beaupuy, one of his vassals, he was

rightly adjudged a wicked and slothful servant, and was deposed with an

annual assignment of thirty livres toulousains to keep him from beggary.

His successor, Foulques of Marseilles, a distinguished troubadour who

had renounced the world and become Abbot of Florèges, used to relate

that when he took possession of the see he was obliged to water his

mules at home, having no one to send with them to the common

watering-place on the Garonne. Foulques was a man of different temper,

whose ruthless bigotry in time carried fire and sword throughout his

diocese.[106]

The evil was constantly increasing, and unless checked it seemed only a

question of time when the Church would disappear throughout all the

Mediterranean provinces of France. Yet it must be said for the credit of

the heretics that there was no manifestation of a persecuting spirit on

their part. The rapacity of the barons, it is true, was rapidly

depriving the ecclesiastics of their revenues and possessions; as they

neglected their duties, and as the law of the strongest was

all-prevailing, the invader of Church property had small scruple in

despoiling lazy monks and worldly priests whose numbers were constantly

diminishing; but the Cathari, however much they may have deemed

themselves the Church of the future, seem never to have thought of

extending their faith by force. They reasoned and argued and disputed

when they found a Catholic zealous enough to contend with them, and they

preached to the people, who had no other source of instruction; but,

content with peaceable conversions and zealous missionary work, they

dwelt in perfect amity with their orthodox neighbors. To the Church this

state of affairs was unbearable. It has always held the toleration of

others to be persecution of itself. By the very law of its being it can

brook no rivalry in its domination over the human soul; and, in the

present case, as toleration was slowly but surely leading to its

destruction, it was bound by its sense of duty no less than of

self-preservation to put an end to a situation so abhorrent. Yet, before

it could resort effectually to force it was compelled to make what

efforts it could at persuasion--not of heretics, indeed, but of their

protectors.

Innocent was consecrated February 22, 1198, and already by April 1st we

find him writing to the Archbishop of Ausch, deploring the spread of

heresy and the danger of its becoming universal. The prelate and his

brethren are ordered to extirpate it by the utmost rigor of

ecclesiastical censures, and if necessary by bringing the secular arm to

bear through the assistance of princes and people. Not only are heretics

themselves to be punished, but all who have any dealings with them, or

who are suspect by reason of undue familiarity with them. In the

existing posture of affairs, the prelates to whom these commands were

addressed can only have regarded them with mingled derision and despair;

and we can readily imagine the replies in which they declared their zeal

and lamented their powerlessness. Innocent probably was aware of this in

advance and did not await the response. By April 21st he had two

commissioners ready to represent the Holy See on the spot--Rainier and

Gui--whom he sent armed with letters to all the prelates, princes,

nobles, and people of southern France, empowering them to enforce

whatever regulations they might see fit to employ to avert the imminent

peril to the Church arising from the countless increase of Cathari and

Waldenses, who corrupted the people by simulated works of justice and

charity. Those heretics who will not return to the true faith are to be

banished and their property confiscated; these provisions are to be

enforced by the secular authorities under penalty of interdict for

refusal or negligence, and with the reward for obedience of the same

indulgences as those granted for a pilgrimage to Rome or Compostella;

and all who consort or deal with heretics or show them favor or

protection are to share their punishment. It was apparently an

after-thought when Rainier, six months later, was empowered to remove

the source of the evil by reforming the churches and restoring

discipline. Rainier's powers evidently proved insufficient, and in July,

1199, they were enlarged, both as a reformer and a persecutor, and he

was appointed legate, to be received and obeyed with as much reverence

as the pope himself. About this time there appeared to be a gleam of

success in the application of William, Lord of Montpellier, for a legate

to assist him in suppressing heresy; but though William was a good

Catholic this special manifestation of zeal was due to his anxiety to

obtain the legitimation of the children of a second wife whom he had

married without legally divorcing a previous one, and as Innocent

refused to sanction the wrong, no great results were to be anticipated

for religion. A vigorous show of reform was also commenced by attacking

two high-placed and notorious offenders, the archbishops of Narbonne and

Ausch, whose personal wickedness, negligence, and toleration of heresy

had reduced the Church in their provinces to a most deplorable state;

but as these proceedings dragged on for ten or twelve years before the

removal of the sinners could be effected, no immediate purification

could be hoped for by the most sanguine.[107]

In fact, for a time at least, these spasmodic efforts at reform only

rendered matters worse. Angered and humiliated by the powers conferred

on the representatives of Rome, and alarmed at the attempts to punish

their evil lives, the local prelates were in no mood to second the

exertions put forth for the eradication of heresy, and at one time it

would even seem as though they might be driven to make common cause with

the heretics, in opposition to the Holy See, in order to protect

themselves and their clergy. Rainier had fallen sick in the summer of

1202 and had been replaced by Pierre de Castelnau and Raoul, two

Cistercian monks of Fontfroide, who succeeded, after infinite trouble,

by threats of the royal vengeance, in persuading the magistracy of

Toulouse to swear to abjure heresy and expel heretics, in return for an

oath pledging immunity and the preservation of the liberties of the

city; but no sooner were their backs turned than heresy was as flagrant

as before. Encouraged by this apparent success, they undertook the task

of obtaining a similar oath from Count Raymond. This they finally

accomplished, with equally slender result, but the process showed what

assistance they might expect from the hierarchy. When they summoned the

Archbishop of Narbonne to accompany them to the Count of Toulouse for

the purpose, he not only refused, but declined to aid them in any way,

and it was only after long entreaty that he would even furnish them a

horse for the journey. With the Bishop of Béziers their success was no

better. He likewise declined to go with them to Raymond; and when they

asked his co-operation in summoning the consuls of Béziers to abjure

heresy and defend the Church against heretics, he not only withheld it,

but impeded their efforts; and though he finally promised to

excommunicate the magistrates for contumacy, he never did so, in spite

of the fact that heresy so predominated in the town that the viscount

was obliged to authorize the cathedral canons to fortify the Church of

St. Peter for fear that the heretics would seize it. Possibly he was

deterred by the example made of his neighbor, Berenger, Bishop of

Carcassonne, who, in consequence of threatening his flock for heresy,

was expelled the city and a heavy fine imposed on any one who should

have dealings with him.[108]

Evidently pope and legate were of small account in the chaos which

reigned in Languedoc. The prelates refused to be reformed, and yet the

legates, in their disputations with the heretics, were so continually

answered with references to the evil lives of the clergy that they

recognized reformation as a condition precedent to any peaceable

conversion of the people. The heretics were daily growing bolder, as if

to show their scorn of the futile efforts of Innocent. About this very

time Esclairmonde, sister of the powerful Count of Foix, with five other

ladies of rank, was "hereticated" in a public assemblage of Cathari,

where many knights and nobles were present, and it was remarked that the

count was the only one who did not give the heretical salute or

"veneration" to the ministrants. Even Pedro the Catholic of Aragon

presided over a public debate at Carcassonne, between the legates and a

number of leading heretics, which had no result. The situation was

desperate, and Innocent may be pardoned if he reached the conclusion

that a deluge was needed to cleanse the land of sin and prepare it for a

new race.[109]

Enough time had been lost in half-measures while the evil was daily

increasing in magnitude, and Innocent proceeded to put forth the whole

strength of the Church. To the monks of Fontfroide he adjoined as chief

legate the "Abbot of abbots," Arnaud of Citeaux, head of the great

Cistercian Order, a stern, resolute, and implacable man, full of zeal

for the cause and gifted with rare persistency. Since the time of St.

Bernard the abbots of Citeaux had seemed to feel a personal

responsibility for the suppression of heresy in Languedoc, and Arnaud

was better fitted for the work before him than any of his predecessors.

To the legation thus constituted, at the end of May, 1204, Innocent

issued a fresh commission of extraordinary powers. The prelates of the

infected provinces were bitterly reproached for the negligence and

timidity which had permitted heresy to assume its alarming proportions.

They were ordered to obey humbly whatever the legates might see fit to

command, and the vengeance of the Holy See was threatened for slackness

or contumacy. Wherever heresy existed, the legates were armed with

authority "to destroy, throw down, or pluck up whatever is to be

destroyed, thrown down, or plucked up, and to plant and build whatever

is to be built or planted." With one blow the independence of the local

churches was destroyed and an absolute dictatorship was created.

Recognizing, moreover, of how little worth were ecclesiastical censures,

Innocent proceeded to appeal to force, which was evidently the only

possible cure for the trouble. Not only were the legates directed to

deliver all impenitent heretics to the secular arm for perpetual

proscription and confiscation of property, but they were empowered to

offer complete remission of sins, the same as for a crusade to the Holy

Land, to Philip Augustus and his son, Louis Cœur-de-Lion, and to all

nobles who should aid in the suppression of heresy. The dangerous

classes were also stimulated by the prospect of pardon and plunder,

through a special clause authorizing the legates to absolve all under

excommunication for crimes of violence who would join in persecuting

heretics--an offer which subsequent correspondence shows was not

unfruitful. To Philip Augustus, also, Innocent wrote at the same time,

earnestly exhorting him to draw the sword and slay the wolves who had

thus far found no one to withstand their ravages in the fold of the

Lord. If he could not proceed in person, let him send his son, or some

experienced leader, and exercise the power conferred on him for the

purpose by Heaven. Not only was remission of sins promised him, as for

a voyage to Palestine, but he was empowered to seize and add to his

dominions the territories of all nobles who might not join in

persecution and expel the hated heretic.[110]

Innocent might well feel disheartened at the failure of this vigorous

move. He had played his last card and lost. The prelates of the infected

provinces, indignant at the usurpation of their rights, were less

disposed than ever to second the efforts of the legates. Philip Augustus

was unmoved by the dazzling bribes, spiritual and temporal, offered to

him. He had already had the benefit of an indulgence for a crusade to

the Holy Land, and had probably not found his spiritual estate much

benefited thereby; while his recent acquisitions in Normandy, Anjou,

Poitou, and Aquitaine, at the expense of John of England, required his

whole attention, and might be endangered by creating fresh enmities in

too sudden a renewal of conquest. He took no steps, therefore, in

response to the impassioned arguments of Innocent, and the legates found

the heretics more obdurate than ever. Pierre de Castelnau grew so

discouraged that he begged the pope to permit him to return to his

abbey; but Innocent refused permission, assuring him that God would

reward him according to the labor rather than to the result. A second

urgent appeal to Philip in February, 1205, was equally fruitless; and a

concession in the following June, to Pedro of Aragon, of all the lands

that he could acquire from heretics, and a year later of all their

goods, was similarly without result, except that Pedro seized the Castle

of Escure, belonging to the papacy, which had been occupied by Cathari.

If something appeared to be gained when at Toulouse, in 1205, some dead

heretics were prosecuted and their bones exhumed, it was speedily lost,

for the municipality promptly adopted a law forbidding trials of the

dead who had not been accused during life, unless they had been

hereticated on the death-bed.[111]

The work might well seem hopeless, and all three legates were on the

point of abandoning it peremptorily in despair, even Arnaud's iron will

yielding to the insurmountable passive resistance of a people among whom

the heretics would not be converted and the orthodox could not be

stimulated to persecution. Bishop Foulques of Toulouse used to relate

that in a disputation at which he was present the Cathari were, as

usual, vanquished, when he asked Pons de Rodelle, a knight renowned for

wisdom and a good Catholic, why he did not drive from his lands those

who were so manifestly in error. "How can we do it?" replied the knight.

"We have been brought up with these people, we have kindred among them,

and we see them live righteously." Dogmatic zeal fell powerless before

such kindliness; and we can readily believe the monk of Vaux-Cernay,

when he tells us that the barons of the land were nearly all protectors

and receivers of heretics, loving them fervently and defending them

against God and the Church.[112]

The case seemed desperate, when a new light fell as though from heaven

upon those groping blindly in the darkness. About mid-summer in 1206 the

three legates met at Montpellier, and the result of their conference was

a determination to withdraw from the thankless labor. By chance, a

Spanish prelate, Diego de Azevedo, Bishop of Osma, arrived there on his

return from Rome, where he had vainly supplicated Innocent to permit his

resignation of his bishopric in order that he might devote his life to

missionary work among the infidel. On learning the decision of the

legates, he earnestly dissuaded them, and suggested their dismissing

their splendid retinues and worldly pomp and going among the people,

barefooted and poor like the apostles, to preach the Word of God. The

idea was so novel that the legates hesitated, but finally assented, if

an example were set them by one in authority. Diego offered himself for

the purpose and was accepted, whereupon he sent his servitors home,

retaining only his sub-prior, Domingo de Guzman, who had already, on the

voyage towards Rome, converted a heretic in Toulouse. Arnaud returned to

Citeaux to hold a general chapter of the order and to obtain recruits

for the missionary work, while the other two legates with Diego and

Dominic commenced their experiment at Caraman, where for eight days they

disputed with the heresiarchs Baldwin and Thierry, the latter of whom we

have seen driven from the Nivernois some years before. We are told that

they converted all the simple folk, but that the lord of the castle

would not allow the two disputants to be expelled.[113]

Further colloquies of similar character are recorded, occupying the

autumn and winter, and, with the opening of spring, in 1207, Arnaud had

held his chapter and obtained numerous volunteers for the pious work,

among them no less than twelve abbots. Taking boats, they descended the

Saone to the Rhone, without horses or retinue, and proceeded to their

field of labor, where they separated into twos and threes, wandering

barefoot among the towns and villages and seeking to gather in the lost

sheep of Israel. For three months they thus labored diligently, like

real evangelists, finding thousands of heretics and few orthodox, but

the harvest was scanty and conversions rarely rewarded their pains--in

fact, the only practical result was to excite the heretics to renewed

missionary zeal. It speaks well for the tolerant temper of the Cathari

that men who had been invoking the most powerful sovereigns of

Christendom to exterminate them with fire and sword, should have

incurred no real danger in a task apparently so full of risk. The

missionaries had to complain of occasional insult, but never were even

threatened with injury, except perhaps, at Béziers, Pierre de Castelnau,

who seems to have attracted to himself the special dislike of the

sectaries. It shows, moreover, the zealous care with which the Church

restricted the office of preaching that the legates, in spite of the

extraordinary powers with which they were clothed, felt obliged to apply

to Innocent for special authority to confer the license to teach in

public on those whom they deemed worthy. The favorable answer of the

pope was in reality one of the important events of the century, for it

gave the impulsion out of which eventually grew the great Dominican

Order.[114]

Pierre de Castelnau left his colleagues and visited Provence to make

peace among the nobles, in the hope of uniting them for the expulsion of

heretics. Raymond of Toulouse refused to lay down his arms until the

intrepid monk excommunicated him and laid his dominions under interdict,

finally reproaching him bitterly to his face for his perjuries and

other misdeeds. Raymond submitted in patience to this reproof, while

Pierre applied to Innocent for confirmation of the sentence. By this

time, in fact, Raymond had acquired the special hatred of the papalists,

through his obstinate neglect to persecute his heretical subjects, in

spite of his readiness to take what oaths were required of him.

Notwithstanding his outward conformity to orthodoxy, they accused him of

being at heart a heretic, and stories were circulated that he always

carried with him "perfected" heretics, disguised in ordinary vestments,

together with a New Testament, that he might be "hereticated" in case of

sudden death; that he had declared that he would rather be like a

certain crippled heretic living in poverty at Castres than be a king or

an emperor; that he knew that he would in the end be disinherited for

the sake of the "Good Men," but that he was ready to suffer even

beheading for them. All this and much more, including exaggerated gossip

as to his undoubted frailties, was diligently published in order to

render him odious, but there is no proof that his religious indifference

ever led him to deviate from the faith, and no accusation that he had

ever interfered with the legates in their mission. They were free to

make what converts they could by persuasion or argument, but he

committed the unpardonable crime of refusing at their bidding to plunge

his dominions in blood.[115]

Innocent promptly confirmed the sentence of his legate, May 29, 1207, in

an epistle to Raymond which was an unreserved expression of the passions

accumulated through long years of zealous effort frustrated in its

results. In the harshest vituperation of ecclesiastical rhetoric,

Raymond was threatened with the vengeance of God here and hereafter. The

excommunication and interdict were to be strictly observed until due

satisfaction and obedience were rendered; and he was warned that these

must be speedy, or he would be deprived of certain territories which he

held of the Church, and if this did not suffice, the princes of

Christendom would be summoned to seize and partition his dominions so

that the land might be forever freed from heresy. Yet in the recital of

misdeeds which were held to justify this rigorous sentence there was

nothing that had not been for two generations so universal in Languedoc

that it might almost be regarded as a part of the public law of the

land. He had continued to wage war when desired by the legates to make

peace, and had refused to suspend operations on feast-days or holidays;

he had violated his oaths to purge his land of heresy, and had shown

such favor to heretics as to render his own faith vehemently suspected;

in derision of the Christian religion he had bestowed public office on

Jews; he had despoiled the Church and ill-treated certain bishops; he

had continued to employ the robber bands of mercenaries and had

increased the tolls. Such is the summary of crime alleged against him,

which we may reasonably assume to cover everything possibly susceptible

of proof.[116]

Innocent waited awhile to prove the effect of this threat and the

results of the missionary effort so auspiciously started by Bishop

Azevedo. Both were null. Raymond, indeed, made peace with the Provençal

nobles, and was released from excommunication, but he showed no signs of

awakening from his exasperating indifference on the religious question,

while the Cistercian abbots, disheartened by the obstinacy of the

heretics, dropped off one by one, and retired to their monasteries.

Legate Raoul died, and Arnaud of Citeaux was called elsewhere by

important affairs. Bishop Azevedo went to Spain to set his diocese in

order and return to devote his life to the work; but he, too, died when

on the point of setting out. He had left behind him the saintly Dominic,

who was quietly bringing together a few ardent souls, the germs of the

great Order of Preachers, and Pierre de Castelnau remained as the sole

representative of Rome until Raoul was replaced by the Bishop of

Conserans. Everything thus had been tried and had failed, except the

appeal to the sword, and to this Innocent again recurred with all the

energy of despair. A milder tone towards Philip Augustus with regard to

his matrimonial complications between Ingeburga of Denmark and Agnes of

Meran might predispose him to vindicate energetically the wrongs of the

Church; but, while condescending to this, Innocent now addressed, not

only the king, but all the faithful throughout France, and the leading

magnates were honored with special missives. November 17, 1207, the

letters were sent out, pathetically representing the incessant and

alarming growth of heresy and the failure of all endeavors to bring the

heretics to reason, to frighten them with threats, or to allure them

with blandishments. Nothing was left but an appeal to arms; and to all

who would embark in this good work the same indulgences were offered as

for a crusade to Palestine. The lands of all engaged in it were taken

under the special protection of holy Church, and those of the heretics

were abandoned to the spoiler. All creditors of Crusaders were obliged

to postpone their claims without interest, and clerks taking part were

empowered to pledge their revenues in advance for two years.[117]

Earnest and impassioned as was this appeal, it fell, like the previous

one, upon deaf ears. Innocent had for years been invoking the religious

martial ardor of Europe in aid of the Latin kingdoms of the East, and

that ardor seemed for a time exhausted. Philip Augustus coolly responded

that his relations with England did not allow him to let the forces of

his kingdom be divided, but that, if he could be assured of a two years'

truce, then, if the barons and knights of France wanted to undertake a

crusade, he would permit them, and aid it with fifty livres a day for a

year. Apparently the present effort was destined to prove as inefficient

as the former one had been, when a startling incident suddenly changed

the whole aspect of affairs. The murder of the legate Pierre de

Castelnau sent a thrill of horror throughout Christendom like that

caused by the assassination of Becket thirty-eight years before. Of its

details, however, the accounts are so contradictory that it is

impossible to speak of it with precision. This much we know, that Pierre

had greatly angered Raymond by the bitterness of his personal

reproaches; that the count, aroused by the sense of impending danger in

the fresh call for a crusade, had invited the legates to an interview at

St. Gilles, promising to show himself in all things an obedient son of

the Church; that difficulties arose in the conference, the demands of

the legates being greater than Raymond was willing to concede. The

Romance version of the catastrophe is simply that, during the

conference, Pierre became entangled in an angry religious dispute with

one of the gentlemen of the court, who drew his dagger and slew him;

that the count was greatly concerned at an event so deplorable, and

would have taken summary vengeance on the murderer but for his escape

and hiding with friends at Beaucaire. The story carried to Rome by the

Bishops of Conserans and Toulouse, who hastened thither to inflame

Innocent against Raymond, was that, wearied with the count's

tergiversations, the legates announced their intentions to withdraw,

when he was heard to threaten them with death, saying that he would

track them by land and water. That the Abbot of St. Gilles and the

citizens, unable to appease his wrath, furnished the legates with an

escort, and they reached the Rhone in safety, where they passed the

night. While preparing to cross the river in the morning (January 16,

1208), two strangers, who had joined the party, approached the legates,

and one of them suddenly thrust his lance through Pierre, who, turning

on his murderer, said, "May God forgive thee, for I forgive thee!" and

speedily breathed his last; and that Raymond, so far from punishing the

crime, protected and rewarded the perpetrator, even honoring him with a

seat at his own table. The papal account, it must be owned, is somewhat

impaired in effect by the remark that Pierre, as a martyr, would

certainly have shone forth in miracles but for the incredulity of the

people. It may well be that a proud and powerful prince, exasperated by

continued objurgation and menace, may have uttered some angry

expression, which an over-zealous servitor hastened to translate into

action, and Raymond, certainly, never was able to clear himself of

suspicion of complicity; but there are not wanting indications to show

that Innocent eventually regarded his exculpation as satisfactory.[118]

The crime gave the Church an enormous advantage, of which Innocent

hastened to make the most. On March 10 he issued letters to all the

prelates in the infected provinces commanding that, in all churches, on

every Sunday and feast-day, the murderers and their abettors, including

Raymond, be excommunicated with bell, book, and candle, and every place

cursed with their presence was declared under interdict. As no faith was

to be kept with him who kept not faith with God, all of Raymond's

vassals were released from their oaths of allegiance, and his lands were

declared the prey of any Catholic who might assail them, while, if he

applied for pardon, his first sign of repentance must be the

extermination of heresy throughout his dominions. These letters were

likewise sent to Philip Augustus and his chief barons, with eloquent

adjurations to assume the cross, and rescue the imperilled Church from

the assaults of the emboldened heretics; commissioners were sent to

negotiate and enforce a truce for two years between France and England,

that nothing might interfere with the projected crusade, and every

effort was made to transmute into warlike zeal the horror which the

sacrilegious murder was so well fitted to arouse. Arnaud of Citeaux

hastened to call a general chapter of his Order, where it was

unanimously resolved to devote all its energies to preaching the

crusade, and soon multitudes of fiery monks were inflaming the passions

of the people, and offering redemption in every church and on every

market-place in Europe.[119]

The flame which had been so long kindling burst forth at last. To

estimate fully the force of these popular ebullitions in the Middle

Ages, we must bear in mind the susceptibility of the people to

contagious emotions and enthusiasms of which we know little in our

colder day. A trifle might start a movement which the wisest could not

explain nor the most powerful restrain. It was during the preaching of

this crusade that villages and towns in Germany were filled with women

who, unable to expend their religious ardor in taking the cross,

stripped themselves naked and ran silently through the roads and

streets. Still more symptomatic of the diseased spirituality of the time

was the Crusade of the Children, which desolated thousands of homes.

From vast districts of territory, incited apparently by a simultaneous

and spontaneous impulse, crowds of children set forth, without leaders

or guides, in search of the Holy Land; and their only answer, when

questioned as to their object, was that they were going to Jerusalem.

Vainly did parents lock their children up; they would break loose and

disappear; and the few who eventually found their way home again could

give no reason for the overmastering longing which had carried them

away. Nor must we lose sight of other and less creditable springs of

action which brought to all crusades the vile, who came for license and

spoil, and the base, who sought the immunity conferred by the quality of

Crusader. This is illustrated by the case of a knave who took the cross

to evade the payment of a debt contracted at the fair of Lille, and was

on the point of escaping when he was arrested and delivered to his

creditor. For this invasion of immunity the Archbishop of Reims

excommunicated the Countess Matilda of Flanders, and placed her whole

land under interdict in order to compel his release. How this principle

worked to secure the higher order of recruits was shown when Gui, Count

of Auvergne, who had been excommunicated for the unpardonable offence of

imprisoning his brother, the Bishop of Clermont, was absolved on

condition of joining the Host of the Lord.[120]

Other special motives contributed in this case to render the crusade

attractive. There was antagonism of race, jealousy of the wealth and

more advanced civilization of the South, and a natural desire to

complete the Frankish conquest so often begun and never yet

accomplished. More than all, the pardon to be gained was the same as

that for the prolonged and dangerous and costly expedition to Palestine,

while here the distance was short and the term of service limited to

forty days. Paradise, surely, could not be gained on easier terms, and

the preachers did not fail to point out that the labor was small and the

reward illimitable. With Christendom fairly aroused by the murder of the

legate, there could be no doubt, therefore, as to the result. Whether

Philip Augustus contributed, in men or money, is more than doubtful, but

he made no opposition to the service of his barons, and endeavored to

turn his acquiescence to account in the affair of his divorce, while he

declined personal participation on the ground of the threatening aspect

of his relations with King John and the Emperor Otho. He significantly

warned the pope, however, that Raymond's territories could not be

exposed to seizure until he had been condemned for heresy, which had not

yet been done, and that when such condemnation should be pronounced it

would be for the suzerain, and not for the Holy See, to proclaim the

penalty. This was strictly in accordance with existing law, for the

principle had not yet been introduced into European jurisprudence that

suspicion of heresy annulled all rights--a principle which the case of

Raymond went far to establish, for the Church without a trial stripped

him of his possessions and then decided that he had forfeited them,

after which the king could only acquiesce in the decision. Scruples of

this kind, however, did not dampen the zeal of those whom the Church

summoned to defend the faith. Many great nobles assumed the cross--the

Duke of Burgundy and the Counts of Nevers, St. Pol, Auxerre, Montfort,

Geneva, Poitiers, Forez, and others, with numerous bishops. With time

there came large contingents from Germany, under the Dukes of Austria

and Saxony, the Counts of Bar, of Juliers, and of Berg. Recruits were

drawn from distant Bremen on the one hand, and Lombardy on the other,

and we even hear of Slavonian barons leaving the original home of

Catharism to combat it in its seat of latest development. There was

salvation to be had for the pious, knightly fame for the warrior, and

spoil for the worldly; and the army of the Cross, recruited from the

chivalry and the scum of Europe, promised to be strong enough to settle

decisively the question which had now for three generations defied all

the efforts of the faithful.[121]

All this was, necessarily, a work of time, and Raymond sought in the

interval to conjure the coming storm. Roused at last from his dream of

security, he recognized the fatal position in which the murder of the

legate had placed him, and if he could save his dignities he was ready

to sacrifice his honor and his subjects. He hastened to his uncle,

Philip Augustus, who received him kindly and counselled submission, but

forbade an appeal to his enemy, the Emperor Otho. Raymond, however, in

his despair, sought the emperor, whose vassal he was for his territories

beyond the Rhone, obtaining no help, and incurring the ill-will of

Philip, which was of much greater moment. On his return, learning that

Arnaud was about to hold a council at Aubinas, Raymond hurried thither

with his nephew, the young Raymond Roger, Viscount of Béziers, and

endeavored to prove his innocence and make his peace, but was coldly

refused a hearing, and was referred to Rome. Returning much

disconcerted, he took counsel with his nephew, who advised resisting the

invasion to the death; but Raymond's courage was unequal to the manly

part. They quarrelled, whereupon the hot-headed youth commenced to make

war on his uncle, while the latter sent envoys to Rome for terms of

submission, and asked for new and impartial legates to replace those who

were irrevocably prejudiced against him. Innocent demanded that, as

security for his good faith, he should place in the hands of the Church

his seven most important strongholds, after which he should be heard,

and, if he could prove his innocence, be absolved. Raymond gladly

ratified the conditions, and earnestly welcomed Milo and Theodisius, the

new representatives of the Church, who treated him with such apparent

friendliness that, when Milo subsequently died at Arles, he mourned

greatly, believing that he had lost a protector who would have saved him

from his misfortunes. He did not know that the legates had secret

instructions from Innocent to amuse him with fair promises, to detach

him from the heretics, and when they should be disposed of by the

Crusaders, to deal with him as they should see fit.[122]

He was played with accordingly, skilfully, cruelly, and remorselessly.

The seven castles were duly delivered to Master Theodisius, thus fatally

crippling him for resistance; the consuls of Avignon, Nîmes, and St.

Gilles were sworn to renounce their allegiance to him if he did not obey

implicitly the future commands of the pope, and he was reconciled to the

Church by the most humiliating of ceremonies. The new legate, Milo, with

some twenty archbishops and bishops, went to St. Gilles, the scene of

his alleged crime, and there, June 18, 1209, arrayed themselves before

the portal of the Church of St. Gilles. Stripped to the waist, Raymond

was brought before them as a penitent, and swore on the relics of St.

Gilles to obey the Church in all matters whereof he was accused. Then

the legate placed a stole around his neck, in the fashion of a halter,

and led him into the Church, while he was industriously scourged on his

naked back and shoulders up to the altar, where he was absolved. The

curious crowd assembled to witness the degradation of their lord was so

great that return through the entrance was impossible, and Raymond was

carried down to the crypt where the martyred Pierre de Castelnau lay

buried, whose spirit was granted the satisfaction of seeing his humbled

enemy led past his tomb with shoulders dropping blood. From a

churchman's point of view the conditions of absolution laid upon him

were not excessive, though well known to be impossible of fulfilment.

Besides the extirpation of heresy, he was to dismiss all Jews from

office and all his mercenary bands from his service; he was to restore

all property of which the churches had been despoiled, to keep the roads

safe, to abolish all arbitrary tolls, and to observe strictly the Truce

of God.[123]

All that Raymond had gained by these sacrifices was the privilege of

joining the crusade and assisting in the subjugation of his country.

Four days after the absolution he solemnly assumed the cross at the

hands of the legate Milo and took the oath--"In the name of God, I,

Raymond, Duke of Narbonne, Count of Toulouse, and Marquis of Provence,

swear with hand upon the Holy Gospels of God that when the crusading

princes shall reach my territories I will obey their commands in all

things, as well as regards security as whatever they may see fit to

enjoin for their benefit and that of the whole army." It is true that in

July, Innocent, faithful to his prearranged duplicity, wrote to Raymond

benignantly congratulating him on his purgation and submission, and

promising him that it should redound to his worldly as well as spiritual

benefit; but the same courier carried a letter to Milo urging him to

continue as he had begun; and Milo, on whom Raymond was basing his

hopes, soon after, hearing a report that the count had gone to Rome,

warned his master, with superabundant caution, not to spoil the game.

"As for the Count of Toulouse," writes the legate, "that enemy of truth

and justice, if he has sought your presence to recover the castles in my

hands, as he boasts that he can easily do, be not moved by his tongue,

skilful only in his slanders, but let him, as he deserves, feel the hand

of the Church heavier day by day. After I had received security for his

oath on at least fifteen heads, he has perjured himself on them all.

Thus he has manifestly forfeited his rights on Melgueil as well as the

seven castles which I hold. They are so strong by nature and art that,

with the assistance of the barons and people who are devoted to the

Church, it will be easy to drive him from the land which he has polluted

with his vileness." Already the absolution which had cost so much was

withdrawn, and Raymond was again excommunicated and his dominions laid

under a fresh interdict, because he had not, within sixty days, during

which he was with the Crusaders, performed the impossible task of

expelling all heretics, and the city of Toulouse lay under a special

anathema because it had not delivered to the Crusaders all the heretics

among its citizens. It is true that subsequently a delay until

All-Saints' (Nov. 1) was mercifully granted to Raymond to perform all

the duties imposed on him; but he was evidently prejudged and

foredoomed, and nothing but his destruction would satisfy the implacable

legates.[124]

Meanwhile the Crusaders had assembled in numbers such as never before,

according to the delighted Abbot of Citeaux, had been gathered together

in Christendom; and it is quite possible that there is but slight

exaggeration in the enumeration of twenty thousand cavaliers and more

than two hundred thousand foot, including villeins and peasants, besides

two subsidiary contingents which advanced from the West. The legates had

been empowered to levy what sums they saw fit from all the ecclesiastics

in the kingdom, and to enforce the payment by excommunication. As for

the laity, their revenues were likewise subjected to the legatine

discretion, with the proviso that they were not to be coerced into

payment without the consent of their seigneurs. With all the wealth of

the realm thus under contribution, backed by the exhaustless treasures

of salvation, it was not difficult to provide for the motley host whose

campaign opened under the spirit-stirring adjuration of the vicegerent

of God--"Forward, then, most valiant soldiers of Christ! Go to meet the

forerunners of Antichrist and strike down the ministers of the Old

Serpent! Perhaps you have hitherto fought for transitory glory; fight

now for everlasting glory; you have fought for the world; fight now for

God! We do not exhort you to perform this great service to God for any

earthly reward, but for the kingdom of Christ, which we most confidently

promise you!"[125]

Under this inspiration the Crusaders assembled at Lyons about St. John's

day (June 24, 1209), and Raymond hastened from the scene of his

humiliation at St. Gilles to complete his infamy by leading them against

his countrymen, offering them his son as a hostage in pledge of his good

faith. He was welcomed by them at Valence, and, under the supreme

command of Legate Arnaud, guided them against his nephew of Béziers. The

latter, after a vain attempt at composition with the legate, who sternly

refused his submission, had hurriedly placed his strongholds in

condition of defence and levied what forces he could to resist the

onset.[126]

The war, it should be observed, despite its religious origin, was

already assuming a national character. The position taken by Raymond and

the rejected submission of the Viscount of Béziers, in fact, deprived

the Church of all colorable excuse for further action; but the men of

the North were eager to complete the conquest commenced seven centuries

before by Clovis, and the men of the South, Catholics as well as

heretics, were virtually unanimous in resisting the invasion,

notwithstanding the many pledges given by nobles and cities at the

commencement. We hear nothing of religious dissensions among them, and

comparatively little of assistance rendered to the invaders by the

orthodox, who might be presumed to welcome the Crusaders as liberators

from the domination or the presence of a hated antagonistic faith.

Toleration had become habitual and race-instinct was too strong for

religious feeling, presenting almost the solitary example of the kind

during the Middle Ages, when nationality had not yet been developed out

of feudalism and religious interests were universally regarded as

dominant. This explains the remarkable fact that the pusillanimous

course of Raymond was distasteful to his own subjects, who were

constantly urging him to resistance, and who clung to him and his son

with a fidelity that no misfortune or selfishness could shake, until the

extinction of the House of Toulouse left them without a leader.

Raymond Roger of Béziers had fortified and garrisoned his capital, and

then, to the great discouragement of his people, had withdrawn to the

safer stronghold of Carcassonne. Reginald, Bishop of Béziers, was with

the crusading forces, and when they arrived before the city, humanely

desiring to save it from destruction, he obtained from the legate

authority to offer it full exemption if the heretics, of whom he had a

list, were delivered up or expelled. Nothing could be more moderate,

from the crusading standpoint, but when he entered the town and called

the chief inhabitants together the offer was unanimously spurned.

Catholic and Catharan were too firmly united in the bonds of common

citizenship for one to betray the other. They would, as they

magnanimously declared, although abandoned by their lord, rather defend

themselves to such extremity that they should be reduced to eat their

children. This unexpected answer stirred the legate to such wrath that

he swore to destroy the place with fire and sword--to spare neither age

nor sex, and not to leave one stone upon another. While the chiefs of

the army were debating as to the next step, suddenly the camp-followers,

a vile and unarmed folk as the legates reported, inspired by God, made a

rush for the walls and carried them, without orders from the leaders and

without their knowledge. The army followed, and the legate's oath was

fulfilled by a massacre almost without parallel in European history.

From infancy in arms to tottering age, not one was spared--seven

thousand, it is said, were slaughtered in the Church of Mary Magdalen to

which they had fled for asylum--and the total number of slain is set

down by the legates at nearly twenty thousand, which is more probable

than the sixty thousand or one hundred thousand reported by less

trustworthy chroniclers. A fervent Cistercian contemporary informs us

that when Arnaud was asked whether the Catholics should be spared, he

feared the heretics would escape by feigning orthodoxy, and fiercely

replied, "Kill them all, for God knows his own!" In the mad carnage and

pillage the town was set on fire, and the sun of that awful July day

closed on a mass of smouldering ruins and blackened corpses--a holocaust

to a deity of mercy and love whom the Cathari might well be pardoned for

regarding as the Principle of Evil. To the orthodox the whole was so

manifestly the work of God that the Crusaders did not doubt that the

blessing of Heaven attended their arms. Indeed, other miracles were not

wanting to encourage them. Although in their senseless havoc they

destroyed all the mills within their reach, bread was always

miraculously plentiful and cheap in the camp--thirty loaves for a denier

was the ordinary price; and during the whole campaign it was noted as

an encouragement from heaven that no vulture, or crow, or other bird

ever flew over the host.[127]

Similar good-fortune had attended the smaller crusading armies on their

way to join the main body. One, under the Viscount of Turenne and Gui

d'Auvergne, had captured the almost impregnable castle of Chasseneuil

after a short siege. The garrison obtained terms and were allowed to

depart, but the inhabitants were left to the discretion of the

conquerors. The choice between conversion and the stake was offered

them, and, proving obstinate in their errors, they were pitilessly

burned--an example which was generally followed. The other force, under

the Bishop of Puy, had put to ransom Caussade and St. Antonin, and was

generally censured for this misplaced avaricious mercy. Such terror

pervaded the land that when a fugitive came to the Castle of Villemur

falsely reporting that the Crusaders were coming and would treat it like

the rest, the inhabitants abandoned it under cover of the night and

themselves set it on fire. Innumerable strongholds, in fact, were

surrendered without a blow, or were found vacant, though amply

provisioned and strengthened for a siege, and a mountainous region

bristling with castles, which would have cost years to conquer if

obstinately defended, was occupied in a campaign of a month or two. The

populous and mutinous town of Narbonne, to save itself, adopted the

severest laws against heresy, raised a large subvention in aid of the

crusade, and surrendered sundry castles as security.[128]

Without dallying over the ruins of Béziers, the Crusaders, still under

the guidance of Raymond, moved swiftly to Carcassonne, a place regarded

as impregnable, where Raymond Roger had elected to make his final stand.

The wiser heads among the invaders, looking to a permanent occupation of

the country, had no desire to repeat the example already given, and have

on their hands a land without defences. Arriving before the walls on

August 1st, only nine days after the sack of Béziers, a regular siege

was commenced. The outer suburb, which was scarce defensible, was

carried and burned after a desperate resistance. The second suburb,

strongly fortified, cost a prolonged effort, in which all the resources

of the military art of the day were brought into play on both sides, and

when it was no longer tenable the besieged evacuated and burned it.

There remained the city itself, the capture of which seemed hopeless.

Tradition related that Charlemagne had vainly besieged it for seven

years and had finally become its master only by a miracle. Terms were

offered to the viscount; he was free to depart with eleven of his own

choosing, if the city and its people were abandoned to the discretion of

the Crusaders, but he rejected the proposal with manly indignation.

Still, the situation was becoming insupportable; the town was crowded

with refugees from the surrounding country; the summer had been cursed

with drought, and the water supply had given out, causing a pestilence

under which the wretched people were daily dying by scores. In his

anxiety for peace the young viscount allowed himself to be decoyed into

the besieging camp, where he was treacherously detained as a

prisoner--dying shortly after, it was said, of dysentery, but not

without well-grounded suspicions of foul play. Deprived of their chief,

the people lost heart; but to avoid the destruction of the city, they

were allowed to depart, carrying with them nothing but their sins--the

men in their breeches and the women in their chemises--and the place was

occupied without further struggle. Curiously enough, we hear nothing of

any investigation into their faith, or any burning of heretics.[129]

The siege of Carcassonne brings before us two men, with whom we shall

have much to do hereafter, representing so typically the opposing

elements in the contest that we may well pause for a moment to give them

consideration. These are Pedro II. of Aragon and Simon de Montfort.

Pedro was the suzerain of Béziers, and the young viscount was bound to

him with ties of close friendship. Though when appealed to in advance

for aid he had declined, yet when he heard of the sack of Béziers he

hurried to Carcassonne to mediate if possible for his vassal, though his

efforts were fruitless. He was everywhere regarded as a model for the

chivalry of the South. Heroic in stature and trained in every knightly

accomplishment, he was ever in the front of battle; and on the

tremendous day of Las Navas de Tolosa, which broke the Moorish power in

Spain, it was he, by common consent, among all the kings and nobles

present, who won the loftiest renown. In the bower he was no less

dangerous than in the field. His gallantries were countless, and his

licentiousness notorious, even in that age of easy morals. He was

munificent to prodigality, fond of magnificent display, courteous to all

comers, and magnanimous to all enemies. Like his father, Alonso II.,

moreover, he was a troubadour, and his songs won applause, none the less

hearty, perhaps, that he was a liberal patron of rival poets. With all

this his religious zeal was ardent, and he gloried in the title of el

Catolico. This he manifested not only in the savage edict against the

Waldenses, referred to in a previous chapter, but by an extraordinary

act of devotion to the Holy See. In 1085 his ancestor, Sancho I., had

placed the kingdom of Aragon under the special protection of the popes,

from whom his successors were to receive it on their accession and to

pay an annual tribute of five hundred mancuses. In 1204 Pedro II.

resolved to perform this act of fealty in person. With a splendid

retinue he sailed for Rome, where he took an oath of allegiance to

Innocent, including a pledge to persecute heresy. He was crowned with a

crown of unleavened bread, and received from the pope the sceptre,

mantle, and other royal insignia, which he reverently laid upon the

altar of St. Peter, to whom he offered his kingdom, taking in lieu his

sword from Innocent, subjecting his realm to an annual tribute, and

renouncing all rights of patronage over churches and benefices. As an

equivalent for all this he was satisfied with the title of First Alferez

or Standard-bearer of the Church and the privilege for his successors of

being crowned by the Archbishop of Tarragona in his cathedral church.

The nobles of Aragon, however, regarded this as an inadequate return for

the taxes occasioned by his extravagance and for the loss of Church

patronage, and their dissatisfaction was expressed in forming the

confederation known as La Union, which for generations was of dangerous

import to his successors. Impulsive and generous, Pedro's career reads

like a romance of chivalry, and, with such a character, it was

impossible for him to avoid participating in the Albigensian wars, in

which he had a direct interest, owing to his claims upon Provence,

Montpellier, Béarn, Roussillon, Gascony, Comminges, and Béziers.[130]

In marked contrast with this splendid knight-errantry was the solid and

earnest character of de Montfort, who had distinguished himself, as was

his wont, at the siege of Carcassonne. He was the first to lead in the

assault on the outer suburb; and when an attack upon the second had been

repulsed and a Crusader was left writhing in the ditch with a broken

thigh, de Montfort with a single squire leaped back into it, under a

shower of missiles, and bore him off in safety. The younger son of the

Count of Evreux, a descendant of Rollo the Norman, he was Earl of

Leicester by right of his mother the heiress, and had won a

distinguished name for prowess in the field and wisdom and eloquence in

the council. Religious to bigotry, he never passed a day without hearing

mass; and the true-hearted affection which his wife, Alice of

Montmorency, bore him, shows that his reputation for chastity--a rare

virtue in those days--was probably not undeserved. In 1201 he had joined

the crusade of Baldwin of Flanders; and when, during the long detention

in Venice, the Crusaders sold their services to the Venetians for the

destruction of Zara, de Montfort alone refused, saying that he had come

to fight the infidel and not to make war on Christians. He left the host

in consequence, made his way to Apulia, and with a few friends took ship

to Palestine, where he served the cross with honor. It is curious to

speculate what change there might have been in the destiny of both

France and England had he remained with the crusade to the capture of

Constantinople, when he, and his yet greater son, Simon of Leicester,

might have founded principalities in Greece or Thessaly and have worn

out their lives in obscure and forgotten conflicts. When the

Albigensian crusade was preached, one of the Cistercian abbots who

devoted himself most earnestly to the work was Gui of Vaux-Cernay, who

had been a Crusader with de Montfort at Venice. It was owing to his

persuasion that the Duke of Burgundy took the cross on the present

occasion, and he was the bearer of letters from the duke to de Montfort

making him splendid offers if he would likewise take up arms. At de

Montfort's castle of Rochefort, Gui found the pious count in his

oratory, and set forth the object of his mission. De Montfort hesitated,

and then, taking up a psalter, opened it at random and placed his finger

on a verse which he asked the abbot to translate for him. It read:

"For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all

thy ways. They shall bear thee in their hands, that thou hurt not

thy foot against a stone" (Ps. XCI. 11, 12).

The divine encouragement was manifest. De Montfort took the cross, which

was to be his life's work, and the brilliant valor of the Catalan knight

proved no match for the deep earnestness of the Norman, who felt himself

an instrument in the hand of God.[131]

* * * * *

With the capture of Carcassonne the Crusaders seem to have felt that

their mission was accomplished; at least, the brief service of forty

days which sufficed to earn the pardon was rendered, and they were eager

to return home. The legate naturally held that the conquered territory

was to be so occupied and organized that heresy should have no further

foothold there, and it was offered first to the Duke of Burgundy and

then successively to the Counts of Nevers and St. Pol, but all were too

wary to be tempted, and alleged in refusal that the Viscount of Béziers

had already been sufficiently punished. Then two bishops and four

knights, with Arnaud at their head, were appointed to select the one on

whom the confiscated land should be bestowed; and these seven, under the

manifest influence of the Holy Ghost, unanimously selected de Montfort.

We may well believe, from his reputation for sagacity, that his

unwillingness to accept the offer was unfeigned, and that after prayers

had proved unavailing, he yielded only to the absolute commands of the

legate, speaking with all the authority of the Holy See. He made it a

condition, however, that the continued and efficient support which he

foresaw would be requisite should be given him. This was duly promised,

with little intention of fulfilment. The Count of Nevers, between whom

and the Duke of Burgundy a mortal quarrel had arisen, withdrew almost

immediately after the capture of Carcassonne, and with him the great

body of the Crusaders. The duke remained for a short time, when he

likewise turned his face homewards, and de Montfort was left with but

about forty-five hundred men, mostly Burgundians and Germans, for whose

services he was obliged to offer double pay.[132]

De Montfort's position was perilous in the extreme. It mattered little

that in August, during the full flush of success, the legates had held a

council in Avignon which ordered all bishops to swear every knight,

noble, and magistrate in their dioceses to exterminate heresy, or that

such an oath had already been forced upon Montpellier and other cities

which were trembling before the wrath to come. Such oaths, extorted by

fear, were but an empty form, and the homage which de Montfort received

from his new vassals was equally hollow. It is true that he regulated

his boundaries with Raymond, who promised to marry his son with de

Montfort's daughter, and he styled himself Viscount of Béziers and

Carcassonne, but Pedro of Aragon refused to receive his homage, and

secretly comforted the castellans who still held out with promises of

early assistance, while others who had submitted revolted, and castles

which had been occupied were recaptured. The country was recovering from

its terror. An annoying partisan warfare sprang up; small parties of his

men were cut off, and his rule extended no farther than the reach of his

lance. At one time it was with difficulty that he restrained those who

were with him in Carcassonne from flight; and when he set forth to

besiege Termes it was almost impossible to find a knight willing to

assume command of Carcassonne, so dangerous was the post considered. Yet

with all this he succeeded in subduing additional strongholds, and

extended his dominion over the Albigeois and into the territory of the

Count of Foix. He hastened, moreover, to acquire the good graces of

Innocent, whose confirmation of his new dignity was requisite, and whose

influence for further succor he earnestly implored. All tithes and

first-fruits were to be rigorously paid to the churches; any one

remaining under excommunication for forty days was to be heavily fined

according to his station; Rome, in return for the treasures of salvation

so lavishly expended, was to receive from a devastated land an annual

tax of three deniers on every hearth, while a yearly tribute from the

count himself was vaguely promised. To this, in November, Innocent

replied, full of joy at the wonderful success which had wrested five

hundred cities and castles from the grasp of heretics. He graciously

accepted the offered tribute, and confirmed de Montfort's title to both

Béziers and Albi, with an adjuration to be sleepless in the extirpation

of heresy; but he could scarce have appreciated the Crusader's perilous

position, for he excused himself from efficient aid on the score of

complaints which reached him from Palestine that the succor sorely

needed there had been diverted to subdue heretics nearer home. He

therefore only called upon the Emperor Otho, the Kings of Aragon and

Castile, and sundry cities and nobles from whom no real aid could be

expected. The archbishops of the whole infected region were directed to

persuade their clergy to contribute to him a portion of their revenues,

and his troops were exhorted to be patient and to ask no pay until the

following Easter; neither of which requests were likely to yield

results. Somewhat more fruitful was the release of all Crusaders from

any obligations which they might have assumed to pay interest on sums

borrowed; but the most practical measure was one which forcibly

illustrates the friendly and confidential intercourse which had existed

between the heretics and the clergy in southern France, for all abbots

and prelates throughout Narbonne, Béziers, Toulouse, and Albi were

directed to confiscate for de Montfort's benefit all deposits placed by

obstinate heretics for safe-keeping in their hands, the amount of which

was said to be considerable.[133]

After losing most of his conquests, de Montfort's position became more

hopeful towards the spring of 1210, as his forces were swelled by the

arrival of successive bands of "pilgrims"--as these peaceful folk were

accustomed to style themselves--and his ambitious views expanded. The

short term for which the cross was assumed rendered it necessary to turn

the new-comers to immediate account, and de Montfort was unceasingly

active in recovering his ground and in reducing the castles which still

held out. It is not worth our while to follow in detail these exploits

of military religious ardor, which, when successful, were usually

crowned by putting the garrison to the sword and offering the

non-combatants the choice between obedience to Rome and the stake--a

choice which gave occasion to zealous martyrdom on the part of hundreds

of obscure and forgotten enthusiasts. Lavaur, Minerve, Casser, Termes,

are names which suggest all that man can inflict and man can suffer for

the glory of God. The spirit of the respective parties was well

exhibited at the capitulation of Minerve, where Robert Mauvoisin, de

Montfort's most faithful follower, objected to the clause which spared

the heretics who should recant, and was told by Legate Arnaud that he

need not fear the conversion of many, as ample experience had shown

their prevailing obstinacy. Arnaud was right; for, with the exception of

three women, they unanimously refused to secure safety by apostasy, and

saved their captors the trouble of casting them on the blazing pyre by

leaping exultingly into the flames. If the playful zeal of the pilgrims

sometimes manifested itself in eccentric fashion, as when they blinded

the monks of Bolbonne and cut off their noses and ears till there was

scarce a trace of the human visage left, we must remember the sources

whence the Church drew her recruits, and the immunity which she secured

for them, here and hereafter.[134]

If Raymond had fancied that he had skilfully saved himself at the

expense of his nephew of Béziers, he had at last discovered his

mistake. Arnaud of Citeaux had fully resolved upon his ruin, and de

Montfort was eager to extend his lordship and the purity of the faith.

Already, in the autumn of 1209, the citizens of Toulouse had been

startled by a demand from the legate to surrender all whom his envoys

might select as heretics, under pain of excommunication and interdict.

They protested that there were no heretics among them; that all who were

named were ready to purge themselves of heresy; that Raymond V. had, at

their instance, passed laws against heretics, under which they had

burned many and were burning all who could be found. Therefore they

appealed to the pope, naming January 29, 1210, as the day for the

hearing. At the same time de Montfort had notified Raymond that unless

the legate's demands were conceded he would assail him and enforce

obedience. Raymond replied that he would settle the matter with the

pope, and lost no time in appealing in person to Philip Augustus and the

Emperor Otho, from whom he received only fair words. On reaching Rome he

was apparently more fortunate. He had a strong case. He had never been

convicted, or even tried, for the crimes whereof he was accused; he had

always professed obedience to the Church and readiness to prove his

innocence, according to the legal methods of the age, by canonical

purgation; he had undergone cruel penance as though convicted, and had

been absolved as though forgiven, since when he had rendered faithful

and valuable service against his friends and had made what reparation he

could to the churches which he had despoiled. He boldly asserted his

innocence, demanded a trial, and claimed the restoration of his castles.

Innocent seems at first to have been touched by the wrongs inflicted on

him and the ruin impending over him; but if so the impression was but

momentary, and he returned to the duplicity which thus far had worked so

well. The citizens of Toulouse he pronounced to have justified

themselves, and ordered their excommunication removed. As regards

Raymond, he instructed the Archbishops of Narbonne and Arles to assemble

a council of prelates and nobles for the trial which Raymond so

earnestly demanded. If there an accuser should assert his heresy and

responsibility for the murder of Pierre de Castelnau, both sides should

be heard and judgment be rendered and sent to Rome for final decision;

if no formal accuser appeared, then fitting purgation should be assigned

to him, on performance of which he should be declared a good Catholic

and his castles be restored. All this was fair seeming enough, yet it is

impossible not to see the purposed deceit in an accompanying letter to

the legate Arnaud, praising him warmly for what had been done and

explaining that the conduct of the matter had been ostensibly intrusted

to the new commissioner, Master Theodisius, merely as a lure for

Raymond; or, to use the pope's own words, that the legate was to be the

hook of which Theodisius was the bait. Instructions were also given as

to some minor matters, and to lull Raymond to a more complete sense of

security, on his final audience Innocent presented him with a rich

mantle and with a ring which he drew from his own finger.[135]

Joy reigned in Toulouse when the count returned, bringing with him the

removal of the interdict and the promise of a speedy settlement of the

troubles. Legate Arnaud entered fully into the spirit of his

instructions and suddenly became friendly and affectionate. We even hear

of a visit paid by him and de Montfort to Raymond in Toulouse, where

they were magnificently received; and Raymond, it is said, was persuaded

to give the citadel of the town, known as the Château Narbonnois, as a

residence to the legate, from whose hands it passed into those of de

Montfort, costing eventually the lives of a thousand men for its

recapture. Arnaud, moreover, exacted a promise of one thousand livres

toulousains from the citizens before he would give effect to the papal

letters removing the interdict; when one half was paid, he gave them his

benediction, but a delay in raising the other half caused him to renew

the interdict, which cost them much trouble to remove.[136]

Master Theodisius joined the legate at Toulouse, as we are told by a

fiercely orthodox eye-witness, for the purpose of consulting with him as

to the most plausible excuse for eluding Innocent's promise to Raymond

of an opportunity of purgation, for they foresaw that he would purge

himself and that the destruction of the faith would follow. The readiest

method of attaining this pious object lay in Raymond's failure to

perform the impossible task assigned him of clearing his lands of

heresy; but in order to avoid the appearance of premeditated

unfairness, the solemn mockery was arranged of assigning him a day three

months distant, to appear at St. Gilles and offer his purgation as to

heresy and the murder of the legate--a warning being added about his

slackness in persecution. At the appointed time, in September, 1210, a

number of prelates and nobles were assembled at St. Gilles, and Raymond

presented himself with his compurgators in the full confidence of a

final reconciliation with the Church. He was coolly informed that his

purgation would not be received; that he was manifestly a perjurer in

not having executed the promises to which he had repeatedly sworn, and

his oath being worthless in minor matters, it could not be accepted in

charges so weighty as those of heresy and legate-murder, nor were those

of his accomplices any better. A man of stronger character would have

been roused to fiery indignation at this contemptuous revelation of the

deception practised on him; but Raymond, overwhelmed with the sudden

destruction of his illusions, simply burst into tears--which was duly

recorded by his judges as an additional proof of his innate depravity,

and he was promptly again placed under the excommunication which it had

cost him such infinite pains to remove. For form's sake, however, he was

told that when he should clear the land of heresy and otherwise show

himself worthy of mercy, the papal commands in his favor would be

fulfilled. The Provençal was evidently no match for the wily Italians;

and Innocent's approbation of this cruel comedy is seen in a letter

addressed by him to Raymond, in December, 1210, expressing his grief

that the count had not yet performed his promises as to the

extermination of heretics, and warning him that if he did not do so his

lands would be delivered to the Crusaders. Another epistle by the same

courier to de Montfort, complaining of the scanty returns of the

three-denier hearth-tax, shows that even Innocent kept an eye on the

profitable side of persecution; while exhortations addressed to the

Counts of Toulouse, Comminges, and Foix, and Gaston of Béarn, requiring

them to help de Montfort, with threats of holding them to be fautors of

heresy in case they resisted him, showed how completely all questions

were prejudged and that they were doomed to be delivered up to the

spoiler.[137]

Raymond at length began to see what all clear-visioned men must long

before have recognized, that his ruin was the deliberate purpose of the

legates. Had the nobles of Languedoc been united at the beginning, they

could probably have offered successful resistance to the spasmodic

attacks of the Crusaders, but they were being devoured one by one, while

Raymond, their natural leader, was kept idle with delusive hopes of

reconciliation. The restoration of his castles was hopeless, and it was

time for him to prepare himself as best he could for the inevitable war.

With this object, to unite his subjects, he circulated a list of

conditions which he said had been proposed to him at a conference in

Arles, in February, 1211--conditions which were onerous and degrading to

the last degree to the people as well as to himself--which would have

placed the whole territory and its population under the control of the

legates and of de Montfort, would have branded every inhabitant,

Catholic as well as heretic, noble as well as villein, with the mark of

servitude, and would have banished Raymond to the Holy Land virtually

for life. Whether such demands were really made or not, their effect was

great upon the people, who rallied around their sovereign and were ready

for any self-sacrifice.[138]

That the list of conditions was supposititious is rendered probable by

other negotiations in which Raymond desperately strove to avert the

inevitable rupture. In December, 1210, we find him at Narbonne in

conference with the legates, de Montfort, and Pedro of Aragon, where

impracticable terms were offered him, and where Pedro finally consented

to receive de Montfort's homage for Béziers. Shortly afterwards another

meeting was held at Montpellier, equally fruitless, except for de

Montfort, who made a treaty with Pedro and received from him his infant

son Jayme, to be held as a hostage. Even in the spring of 1211 Raymond

again visited de Montfort at the siege of Lavaur and allowed provisions

to be supplied for a while to the Crusaders from Toulouse, although he

had fruitlessly endeavored to prevent the marching of a contingent

which the Toulousains furnished to the besiegers. Almost as soon as

Lavaur was taken, May 3, 1211, de Montfort fell upon his territories and

captured some of his castles, apparently without defiance or declaration

of war, when he made a last miserable effort of submission by offering

his whole possessions except the city of Toulouse, to be held by the

legate and de Montfort as security for the performance of what might be

demanded of him, reserving only his life and his son's right of

inheritance. Even these terms were contemptuously rejected. He had so

abased himself that he seems to have been regarded as no longer an

element of weight in the situation. Besides, the Count of Bar was

speedily expected with a large force of Crusaders, whose forty-days'

term was to be utilized to the utmost, and the siege of Toulouse was

resolved on.[139]

As soon as the citizens heard of this design they sent an embassy to the

Crusaders to deprecate it. They had been reconciled to the Church, and

had assisted at the siege of Lavaur, but they were sternly told that

they would not be spared unless they would eject Raymond from the city

and renounce their allegiance to him. This they refused unanimously. All

the old civic quarrels were forgotten, and as one man they prepared for

resistance. It is a noteworthy illustration of the strength of the

republican institution of the civic commune, that the siege of Toulouse

was the first considerable check received by the Crusaders. The town was

well fortified and garrisoned; the Counts of Foix and Comminges had come

at the summons of their suzerain, and the citizens were earnest in

defence. They not only kept their gates open, but made breaches in the

walls to facilitate the furious sallies which cost the besiegers

heavily. The latter retired, June 29th, under cover of the night, so

hastily that they abandoned their sick and wounded, having accomplished

nothing except the complete devastation of the land--dwellings,

vineyards, orchards, women and children were alike indiscriminately

destroyed in their wrath--and de Montfort turned from the scene of his

defeat to carry the same ravage into Foix. This final effort of

self-defence was naturally construed as fautorship of heresy and drew

from Innocent a fresh excommunication of Raymond and of the city for

"persecuting" de Montfort and the Crusaders.[140]

Encouraged by his escape, Raymond now took the offensive, but with

little result. The siege of Castelnaudary was a failure, and a good deal

of desultory fighting occurred, mostly to the advantage of de Montfort,

whose military skill was exhibited to the best advantage in his

difficult position. The crusade was still industriously preached

throughout Christendom, and his forces were irregularly renewed with

fresh swarms of "pilgrims" for forty-days' service, so that he would

frequently find himself at the head of a considerable army, which again

would soon melt away to a handful. To utilize this varying stream of

strangers of all nationalities in a difficult country which was bitterly

hostile required capacity of a high order, and de Montfort proved

himself thoroughly equal to it. His opponents, though frequently greatly

superior in numbers, never ventured on a pitched battle, and the war was

one of sieges and devastations, conducted on both sides with savage

ferocity. Prisoners were frequently hanged, or less mercifully blinded

or mutilated, and mutual hate grew stronger and fiercer as de Montfort

gradually extended his boundaries and Raymond's territories grew less

and less. The defection of his natural brother Baldwin, whom he had

always treated with suspicion, and who had been won over by de Montfort

when captured at Montferrand, before the siege of Toulouse, had been a

severe blow to the national cause; how deeply felt was seen when, in

1214, he was treacherously given up and Raymond hanged him, with

difficulty granting his last prayer for the consolations of

religion.[141]