persecuted him for his compassion, not only during his life, but even for ages after his death. His son could never obtain the honors of sepulture for his body, but his coffin was deposited near the burial ground of St. John of Toulouse, waiting the permission of the church for its interment. It was still there in the fourteenth century; but, as it was only of wood, and no one took care for its preservation, it was broken, and his bones dispersed before the sixteenth century. The skull alone of Raymond VI was long preserved in the house of the hospitalers of St. John of Toulouse.*

1223. The death of the count of Toulouse was speedily followed by that of Raymond Roger count of Foix, the bravest of his vassals, and who had perhaps the most contributed to the recovery of his states. The count of Foix had not embraced the faith of the Albigenses, but it appears that his wife and many persons of his family belonged to this sect, and that he had himself, if we may believe the registers of the inquisition, sometimes assisted at the conventicles of the sectaries, but without making abjuration. He was then, in the eyes of the church, more guilty than the count of Toulouse, but they had, notwithstanding, treated him with more indulgence, because the conquest of his country was judged more difficult. He died in the end of March, or the beginning of April, of the fatigues he had

*Hist. gén. de Languedoc, liv. xxiii, ch. lxiii, p. 322 et seq., et note 37, p. 593. Guil. de Podio Laur. ch. xxxiv, p. 686. Bernardi Guidonis Vita Honorii Papæ III, p. 569.

endured at the siege of Mirepoix, which envenomed an ulcer that had long tormented him.* The death of these two counts did not, however, weaken the cause of toleration. Raymond VII was at least twenty-five years old, at his father's death. He was beloved by his subjects, whom he had governed for many years; he inherited the talent of his ancestors for war, and added to it more firmness of character than his father possessed, and more skill in government. Roger Bernard, who succeeded to the sovereignty of the countship of Foix, had, on his part, signalized himself, for a long time, and on many occasions, against the crusaders, and he showed himself neither less valiant, nor less attached to the count of Toulouse, than Raymond Roger.t

1223. These two princes, therefore, having resolved entirely to drive Amaury de Montfort from the province, besieged, in the spring of 1223, la Penne in Agenois, and Verdun upon the Garonne. The pope had sent a new legate into Albigeois, Cardinal Conrad, bishop of Porto, who wrote to all the bishops of France, to demand succors, whilst Amaury approached la Penne with the hope of intimidating the two counts, but was soon obliged to feel the inferiority of his forces. As his troops were deserting him, and he ran the risk of falling into the hands of his enemy, he made propositions of peace.

A

* Hist. Gén. de Languedoc, liv. xxiii, ch. lxx, p. 330. Extraits de l'Archive de l'Inquisition de Carcassonne, Preuves ibid. p. 437 et seq. Bernardi Guidonis Vita Honorii III, p. 569.

† Hist. de Languedoc, liv. xxiii, p. 328-330.

thought was even entertained of causing Raymond VII to marry a sister of Amaury, and, upon these overtures, a truce was signed between the two parties. Raymond, as confiding as he was loyal, hesitated not upon this assurance, to put himself into the hands of the hereditary enemy of his family. He entered into Carcassonne, and passed a whole day with count Amaury. Through a pleasantry, which served still to increase his danger, perceiving that his attendants were alarmed for his imprudence, he caused them to be informed that he had been arrested, during the night, at Carcassonne, and upon this news, all his guard whom he had left without the city took to flight. The two counts only laughed at the terror of these soldiers. They separated like men of honor; but, not being able to accomplish a reconciliation, recommenced hostilities at the end of the armistice.*

1223. At this same epoch, Cardinal Conrad convoked a provincial council, in the city of Sens, to deliberate on the affairs of the Albigenses; and one of the motives which he alleged for the church putting itself in a posture of defence against the heretics was, that, according to his statement, they had set up a chief or pope, who had established himself upon the frontiers of Bulgaria, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, and of Hungary. He added, that a great number of Christtians, and even bishops, in those countries, had ackowledged his authority; that the dispersed Albigenses had resorted to him, and received his

* Guil. de Podio Laur. cap. xxxiv, p. 686.

decisions as oracles; and that one of them, Barthelemi de Carcassonne, had returned into his country with the authority of a legate, and arrogated to himself the right of naming new bishops.*

There is reason to believe, in fact, that the opinions of the Paulicians had been, for the first time, spread in the West, through Bulgaria. The letter of Cardinal Conrad indicates, that there still existed a connection between the sectaries of the two countries, and that those of the Sclavonian language, to whom, two centuries later, we are indebted for the reformation of John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, had opened an asylum, and offered succors, to the persecuted Albigenses. But, it is not probable that the sectaries had given themselves the same organization as the church of Rome, which they opposed. The papists could conceive of no church without a pope; but he, whom they imagined in Bulgaria, and even whose name they do not tell us, disappeared without leaving a successor.

The chief object which the cardinal legate, and Fouquet, bishop of Toulouse, had proposed to themselves in the convocation of this council was, to alarm the conscience of Philip Augustus, and to determine him to send, at last, a powerful army against the Albigenses, and thus to accept the offers of the count of Montfort; but Philip seemed to have contracted, in the last years of his life, a political timidity, which accorded with

*Matt. Paris. p. 267. Martene Thesaur. anecdot. t. i, p. 900. Concilior. Labbei, t. xi, p. 288, et seq. Raynaldi Ann. Eccles. 1223, § xxxix, p. 333.

the progress of his age, and the decline of his health; and which caused him to reject every occasion of aggrandizing himself at the expense of his neighbors. William de Puy-Laurent assures us, upon the authority of Fouquet, the atrocious bishop of Toulouse, that Philip said to the bishop-I know that after my death, the clergy will prevail upon my son Louis to take part in the affairs of the Albigenses; and, as he is weak and delicate, he will not be able to bear the fatigues, and will die in a little time. Then the kingdom will fall into the hands of women and children, and will be thereby much endangered.' This prophecy, nevertheless, which afterwards was often repeated, may have been given after the event.*

At the time when the bishop Fouquet was impressing, upon Philip Augustus, the necessity of putting all the Toulousians to the sword, it became necessary to attend much more to the politics of his successor, than to those of the reigning monarch. A quatran fever which had commenced towards the middle of the summer of 1222, was continually reducing the strength of the king. It lasted him during a whole year, but did not prevent him from continuing his short journeys to inspect the works which he had ordered. Philip Augustus loved architecture, and monuments; many of the kings his predecessors had built churches, but he was the first to ornament France with civil architecture. The communes had, for a long time, surrounded them

* Guil. de Podio Laur. cap. xxxiv, p. 687.