Honorius III, who protected the king of England, who had quite recently declared him of age, and in consequence, had ordered all his counts and barons to restore the towns and fortresses which they held as a guarantee for their safety, would also have gladly restored him to the full exercise of absolute power, and abolished the great charter. But when he perceived that the nation adhered strenuously to its rights, and was prepared to defend them, he wrote to Henry III to engage him to observe his oaths, until he should find a more favourable occasion to violate them: We suggest in particular to his highness, said he, and counsel him, in good faith, not to bring foward the rights of the crown, just at this time, and not to scandalize his subjects respecting the restitution of his revenues, but prudently to defer to a better opportunity this pretension, and others which might engender scandal.'† Henry III, however, did not follow the counsel which the pope boasted of having giving with such good faith. He entered into disputes with the earl of Chester and the greater part of his barons; he attacked Foulques de Brent, and his brother, in their castles; he hanged the defenders of several fortresses, and appeared to have some success in his English expeditions; but his whole army was occupied in retaining his subjects in their obedience, and he had no soldiers to send into France. ‡

*Matt. Paris Hist. Angl. ann. 1223, p. 268. + Honorii III Epist. lib. viii, ep. xliv. p. 345.

120.

Matt. Paris Hist. Ang. p. 270.

355, apud Raynaldi, 1224, §

Radulphi Coggeshale, p. 118.

When Savary de Mauléon, who was charged to defend Poitou, was informed of the approach of Louis VIII with a numerous army, he in vain demanded reinforcements and subsidies, for the treasury was empty. The counsellors of Henry III, judged, however, that they could not dispense with embarking, at the tower of London, boxes apparently filled with money, to inspire the soldiers with the confidence that they would very soon be paid; but when these chests were opened upon their arrival at Rochelle, they were found to be filled with stones and bran.*

The campaign of Louis VIII, against the former possessions of the kings of England in France, was speedily terminated, and left him time to meet, in the beginning of November, at Vancoulours, Henry king of the Romans, eldest son of Frederic II. These two princes signed a treaty of alliance, and reciprocally engaged to conclude no arrangement with the king of England without the consent of both.†

1225. In the beginning of the year 1225, the cardinal Romano di Sant. Angelo, was sent by the pope to Louis VIII to renew the negociations respecting the Albigenses. The zeal of Frederic II for the conquest of the Holy Land was cooled, or, at least, the difficulties of the undertaking, the revolts which were continually breaking out in Germany and Italy, the need which every part of his states had of reform, and of the inspection of the monarch, made him de

*Gesta Ludovici, viii, p. 305. Chron. Turon. p. 305. + Martene collectio amplissima, tom. i, p. 1195. Ludovici, p. 307. Chron. Turon. p. 306.

Gesta

of their errors, not considering that the felicity of sinners is the greatest of all infelicities.'*

The statesman would have blushed, who should have attempted to kindle a temporal war, without giving better reasons for it than such antitheses as these; but they were quite sufficient to justify a religious war. However, the cardinal of Sant. Angelo, who was employed to persuade Louis VIII to a crusade against the Albigenses, was also commissioned, not to break off the negociation with Raymond VII, until he was sure of success. In consequence, he invited him to repair to a national council, of all the church of France, to be held at Bourges on the 29th of November, 1225, thus reserving to himself all the summer, to treat beforehand with his enemies.t

Although the Albigenses of Languedoc could no longer really give any inquietude to the church of Rome, yet the intolerance of the pope was awakened by other symptoms of mental agitation which he saw around him. The persecutions of the sectaries, had, by dispersing them, spread the germs of reformation, through all the countries of the Romanesque language. The unhappy sufferers, who had been treated with such pitiless cruelty, and who, on account of what they had endured, (pati) were designated by the name of Paterins, distinguished themselves by the purity of their conduct, as well as by that of their doctrine; the contrast, between their morals and those of the priests, was apparent to all; they did

* Bull 15, Kal. Martii apud Raynaldum, 1225, § xxviii, xxix, p. 351. + Hist. gén. de Languedoc, liv. xxiv, ch. iii, p. 348.

not profess to separate from the church, but only desired liberty to effect their salvation, as different orders of monks had done, by a greater austerity. They had multiplied in Italy, and especially in Lombardy, and, in this same year, Honorius III charged the bishops of Modena, of Brescia, and of Rimini, to inquire after them, to pull down their houses and destroy their race.*

1225. The greatest obstacle to the renewal of the crusade against the Albigenses, was the war in which Louis VIII was engaged with the king of England. Henry III, profiting by the popu larity which his youth had still left him, had assembled a parliament at Westminster; he had exposed to his subjects the injustice which had been done him in his continental possessions, and had demanded their aid to recover the rich provinces of which the crown had been dispossessed. The English, occupied in their island with circumscribing the abuses of the royal authority, did not attach any very great value to the possessions of their king in France, which were not submitted to their laws. They acquiesced, however, in the demands of Henry, and his chief justice, Hubert du Burgh. A fifteenth, upon moveable property, had been judged sufficient subsidy to form a fair this was granted him, on condition that the king should confirm anew the great charter, and the forest charter, which he had repeatedly sworn to observe, and which he had observed always like a king. Henry III submitted to the condition; he sent express orders into all the

army;

* Raynaldi Annal. Eccles. 1225, ch. xlvii, p. 355.

counties, to respect the privileges of the people; and, in return, he raised the sums which had been granted him. On Palm-Sunday he despatched for Bourdeaux his brother Richard, whom he had recently knighted, and to whom he had granted the titles of earl of Cornwall and of Poitou, with only sixty knights.* William, earl of Salisbury, and Philip d'Aubignac, were given him as counsellors; in a little time they assembled around him the principal barons of Gascogny: they compelled to submission those who before rejected his authority, or who had embraced the French party, and with this little army they undertook at last to besiege Reole.†

On his side, Louis VIII had held many parliaments at Paris, and had occupied the lords who had assembled there, sometimes about the affairs of the Albigenses, and sometimes with the war against England. When he received the news of the landing of the English at Bourdeaux, he advanced as far as Tours, and afterwards to Chinon; and the count of Marche engaged in a trifling combat with Richard, lieutenant of his brother Henry II, in Aquitaine. But, on either side the forces were inconsiderable; the two princes stood equally on the defensive, and both lent an ear to the solicitations of Honorius III, and his legate, the cardinal of Sant. Angelo, who

* Matt. Paris Hist. Ang. p. 272. Annales Waverlienses, t. xviii, 209.

352.

Matt. Paris, p. 272. Chron. Turon. p. 308.

Honorii III Epist. apud Raynald. 1225, ch. xxx, xxxi, p.