of Foix and of Cominges, so incommoded the besiegers, by frequent sallies, killed so many of them, and made them so soon endure privations and famine, that Simon de Montfort was obliged to raise the siege on the 29th of June, and soon after saw himself abandoned by the greater part of the crusaders, whose time of service had expired.

*

To efface the remembrance of this check, Simon de Montfort extended his ravages into the county of Foix, which he desolated with fire and slaughter. He then passed into Quercy, the lordship of which he compelled the inhabitants to give him. But at the same time the count of Toulouse, having collected succours from all his allies, came in his turn to besiege Castelnaudary. He appeared before that city towards the end of September, with the counts of Foix and of Cominges, the viscount of Béarn, and Savary de Mauléon. Although the crusaders were reduced to an inferiority of number, Simon de Montfort did not abandon the besieged. He shut himself up in their walls, with a chosen troop of his old companions in arms, who did not exceed one hundred knights. At the same time he solicited his lieutenants, his vassals, and his wife, to collect all the soldiers who were at their disposal, and march to his deliverance; but as soon as his fortune began to waver, the hatred, that he had excited through the country, broke out in every

* Petri Vallis Cern. Hist. Albigens. cap. liv, lv, p. 600, 601. Historia de los faicts de Tolosa, p. 38. Lettre des habitans de Toulouse à Pierre roi d' Aragon. Preuves de l'histoire de Languedoc, p. 232 et seq.

part, and those, upon whom he had reckoned the most, declared against him. His mareschal Guy de Levis, and his brother-in-law, Bouchard de Marli, or Montmorency, succeeded, at last, in collecting a numerous body of knights, from the dioceses of Narbonne, Carcassonne, and Beziers. These were crusaders, who, like Montfort, had gained establishments in the country, and who saw, that, without an effort of valour, their conquests would be lost. The valiant count of Foix intercepted them about a league from Castelnaudary, attacked and dispersed them two several times, but his troops having broken their ranks, to pillage the vanquished, were attacked anew either by another body of the crusaders, or by Montfort himself, who at the head of sixty knights had sallied from Castelnaudary, and were in their turn, put to the rout. In spite of this success, in spite of the arrival of Alain de Rouci a French knight, with a fresh body of crusaders, the affairs of Simon de Montfort continued to decline to the end of the year. The count of Toulouse reconquered all the strong places of Albigeois, and, in more than fifty castles, the inhabitants eagerly expelled or massacred their French garrisons, to surrender themselves to their ancient lord. *

The hatred against the crusaders which seemed rooted in the hearts of all the inhabitants of the country, and of all who spoke the provençal

*Petri Vallis Cern. Hist. Albig. c. lvi, lvii, lviii, p. 604 et seq. Guill. de Podio Laurentii, cap. xix, p. 677. Historia de los faicts de Tolosa, p. 42 et seq. Hist. gén de Languedoc, liv. xxii, chap. viii, ix, x, p. 218 et seq.

language, gave occasion to the legates, the vicelegates, the monks of Citeaux, and to all that ecclesiastical council which hitherto had directed the crusade, to announce that it was time to complete the regeneration of the country, by changing the secular clergy. They had long accused the bishops of lukewarmness, or indifference to the triumphs of the church, and had solicited their deposition. This they at last obtained, in the year 1212, either from the pope, or from the timidity of the persecuted prelates themselves. Bernard Raymond de Rochefort, bishop of Carcassonne, consented to give in his resignation; and Guy, abbot of Vaux-Cernay, was invested with his bishopric. It is not known whether Berenger, archbishop of Narbonne, escaped by death from the persecutions which he had so long suffered, or whether he was deposed; but Arnold Amalric, abbot of Citeaux, and chief of all the legations to the Albigenses, took possession of this archbishopric. Amongst the bishops of his province, who assisted at his consecration, two others were taken from that order of Citeaux, which had preached and conducted the crusade. The abbot Arnold did not, however, content himself with the spiritual dignity which he acquired, as the fruit of his labours for the extirpation of heresy. To the archiepiscopal throne of Narbonne, and to the rich revenues of that metropolitan see, he The count resolved also to join the ducal crown. of Toulouse bore, at the same time, the title of duke of Narbonne, and the viscount of that same city was his vassal, and owed him homage. The abbot Arnold in excommunicating Raymond VI,

had abandoned his states to the first occupant, and he had taken care, in consequence, to be the first to occupy the duchy of Narbonne. He had taken possession of the archbishopric on the 12th of March, 1212, and on the 13th he demanded homage of the viscount of Narbonne, and an oath of fidelity.*

The fanaticism and cruelty of a monk were more easily pardoned, in that age, than the cupidity which induced him to seize upon the spoils of him whom he had persecuted. The monks of Citeaux began to sink in the estimation of the people, when it appeared that they had shed so much blood only for the opportunity of gaining possession of those episcopal sees which they coveted. Perhaps the legate, Arnold Amalric, who, by this conduct, had highly offended Simon de Montfort, and had dissolved that intimate union which had hitherto subsisted between those two ferocious men, endeavoured to cause this symptom of ambition to be forgotten, by rendering new services to the church; or perhaps he might be drawn, by his enthusiasm alone, to a new crusade, different from that which he had hitherto preached. Be this as it may, he had scarcely taken possession of the archbishopric of Narbonne, before he passed into Spain, to aid the kings of Castille, of Aragon, and of Navarre, against Mehemed-el-Nasir, king of Morocco. †

This Emir-al-Mumenim had been called into

Hist. de Lang. liv. xxiii, ch. xvi, p. 223- Preuves ib. No. 106, p. 236.

Guill. de Podio Laurentii, cap, xx, p. 677

Spain by the victories of the Christian kings over the Moors of Andalusia. A mussulman crusade had been preached in Africa; innumerable swarms of warriors had crossed the strait of Cadiz; and the victory of the Moors at Alarcos, on the 18th of July, 1195, had given them a prodigious ascendency over the Christians. After losing many provinces, Alphonso IX, of Castille, had been obliged to demand an armistice; but this truce expired in 1212. The fanaticism of the Almohadans, who had annihilated the African church, gave reason to apprehend the entire extirpation of Christianity from Spain. Innocent III had therefore granted the preaching of a new crusade, to succour the Spaniards. The abbot Arnold, archbishop of Narbonne, was not the only Gallic prelate who passed the Pyrenees; the archbishop of Bordeaux and the bishop of Nantes arrived also at Toledo, and with them a considerable number of barons, knights, and pilgrims, from Aquitaine, France, and Italy. This multitude, rendered ferocious by the war against the Albigenses, distinguished itself, however, only by the massacre of the Jews of Toledo, which it effected, notwithstanding the efforts of the noble Castilians to protect them; and, by its earnestness to put to death the Moorish garrison of Calatrava, in contempt of the capitulation. The French crusaders afterwards pretended, that they could no longer support the heat of the Spanish climate, and they retired before the terrible battle of Nevas de Tolosa, fought on the 16th of July, 1212. This battle saved the Christians of