1198-1229 - Albigenses
The Cathari, who received the name of Albigenses from the city Albi, or Albigua, found powerful protectors in many French counts, - the most powerful (next to the King of Arragon,1 who divided with the King of France the suzerainty of the country) was the ill-fated Raymond VI, Count of Toulouse, who was destined to lose both his territory and fame in the coming struggle. To put a stop to their devastations, the Church made use of various means. Synods repeatedly opposed them by severe edicts; and ecclesiastical superiors set missions on foot for the conversion of the seduced people. Nevertheless, the heresy continued to enlarge its boundaries.
At the epoch of Innocknt III's accession to the papal throne, three years before the close of the 12th century (Jan. 1198) the forms of heretical opinion and organization were rife in every state and province of Latin Christendom. The Cathari were powerful in the papal territory itself. Pope Innocent III. was fully justified in saying, "The Albigenses are worse than the Saracens." In the age of the Crusades; each Pope was ready to proclaim one ; Christendom was longing to emulate the deeds and avenge the failure of Richard Coeur de Lion and his comrades ; Europe was full of soldiers trained in that school of cruelty and licence; and princes and nobles could be tempted by conquests easier and nearer at hand than those which had failed them in the East. Here was an enemy of the Christian faith in the fairest part of Christendom, whose wealth and provinces were already coveted. The warlike bishops of France, themselves threatened by the heretics, made common cause with their brother prelates of the South ; and in the first ranks of the Crusade appear the archbishops of Reims, Sens, and Rouen. Adventurers of all classes were tempted by the hope of plunder and the promise of salvation. The clergy and monks everywhere preached this new way of attaining everlasting life; and the numbers gathered for the Crusade were too large for any accurale computation.
The people of Beziers, in their prince's absence, refused to surrender - and Catholics joined with heretics in declaring that, rather than surrender, they would be drowned in the sea - they would eat their wives and children: "Then" - replied the abbot Arnold - "there shall not be left one stone upon another; fire and sword shall devour men, women, and children:" and when the city was taken by storm, and the legate was asked how the Catholics should be distinguished, he answered, "Slay all! God will know his own." (July 2, 1209). A great council at Montpellier (January 8,1215), chose Simon de Montfort prince and sovereign of all Languedoc ; and this decision was confirmed by the Fourth General Council of the Lateran, after vehement protests from the dispossessed princes and much vacillation on the part of Innocent. (November, 1215.)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
