In addition to this, the

speak of moderation. troops of Louis were engaged only for the feudal service of forty days: this term was already expired, and he felt at last the impossibility of retaining them longer. He, therefore, resolved, on the first of August, to abandon or burn his warlike machines, to raise the siege, and retire with precipitation.R

1220. The yoke of the house of Montfort and its lieutenants was become so much the more insupportable to the people of the South, as the religious zeal of the crusaders preserved them from no crime. The two brothers, Folcaud and Jean de Brigier, the most celebrated amongst Amaury's captains, were not less signalized by the infamy of their manners, than by their devotion. In their seraglio were found married women taken from the most respectable persons in the province : they had fixed at a hundred sols d'or the ransom of their prisoners, and they suffered all those who could not pay this exorbitant sum to perish with hunger at the bottom of a tower. Raymond VII had the happiness, in 1220, to take these two monsters prisoners, and he caused their heads to be cut off, as a punishment for so many crimes.9 About the same time the cities of Montauban and Castelnaudari drove out Montfort's garrisons, and raised the standard of Raymond VII. Beziers

8 Historia de los faicts de Tolosa, p. 301. Chronic. Guil. de Nangis, p. 507. 9 Guil. de Podio Laur. cap. xxxiii, p. 685.

also, with all its viscountship, returned to its allegiance to the young Trencavel, son of the ancient lord of that city, and to the count of Foix, his tutor. To stop the progress of rebellion, Amaury came, at the beginning of July, 1220, with Guy, his brother, count of Bigorre, to lay siege to Castelnaudari. Guy de Bigorre was killed there the 27th of July, and his body was honourably sent to count Montfort, by Raymond VII who had shut himself up in the place. Amaury obstinately persisted, for eight months, in the siege of Castlenaudari, and thus completely exhausted himself both of men and money. He was at last compelled to raise the siege in the beginning of March 1221, and to retire to Carcassonne, which was almost the only place remaining to him of all his father's conquests.1

1221. About the middle of the summer, Amaury again took the field, and was with his army at Clermont upon the Garonne, when he was informed that the inhabitants of Agen had entered into a treaty with the house of Toulouse. He sent for their consuls to meet him on the first of August; he granted them a complete amnesty for all the faults they might have committed; he engaged also, for the future, to grant them the greatest privileges, but could inspire them with

1 Guil. de Podio, cap. xxxi, p. 684. Præclura Francor. facinora, p. 772. Hist. Gen. de Languedoc, liv. xx111, ch. xlvii, p. 314. and Note xxi, p. 569.

L

no confidence. The people had learned what this count was capable of, when he was the strongest, and they regarded this moderation as only a proof of his weakness. Before the end of the month of August, 1221, Agen had opened its gates to Raymond VII.

Cardinal Bertrand felt it a reproach to himself that, during his legation in Albigeois, these provinces, where the church had shed so much blood, had all returned to their ancient masters. The faithful appeared disgusted with the crusaders; the bishops could no longer succeed in exciting fanaticism; the legate therefore endeavoured to establish a body more completely devoted to the destruction of the heretics and the lukewarm. With the authority of pope Honorius III, he instituted the order of the holy faith of Jesus Christ, to combat and annihilate those who do not profess an ardent faith for the church and a blind obedience to all the secular powers. We have the letters patent of Peter Savaric, humble and poor master of the militia of the order of the faith of Jesus Christ, dated at Carcassonne, 9th February, 1221, by which he professes that the vows of his order are "to promise aid and succour to Amaury de Montfort and his heirs, for the defence of his person and domains; and to engage to discover and destroy heretics, and rebels against

2 Hist. Gen. de Languedoc, liv. XXIII, ch. lvi, p. 318, Preuves, p. 271. Privilége de Raymond VII, à la ville d'Ągen.

In the

the church, and all others, christians or infidels, who shall make war against that count."s events of our days, we have seen the Santafedisti, or knights of the holy faith, figure in Italy and Spain, professing the same doctrines, engaged by similar vows, and whose actions, as well as their language, recall to mind the crusade of Albigeios.

Honorius III did not depend alone upon the knights of the faith to succour Montfort. He addressed himself afresh to Philip and Louis, to whom he granted, as the price of an expedition against the Albigenses, a new twentieth, to be levied upon the clergy. But Louis having, with this money, collected an army, conducted it into the domains of the king of England in Aquitaine and Poitou, instead of attacking the count of Toulouse. Both French and English historians are equally silent, with regard to the events of this campaign. Honorius also addressed the different bishops of France, and particularly the archbishop of Sens, of Rheims, and of Bourges, engaging them to inquire after, to seize, and burn, those of the Albigensian heretics, who had sought a refuge in their provinces. This severity obliged a great number of the unfortunate Languedocians

3 Héliot, Histoire des ordres religieux, tom. viii, p. 286. et seq. Hist. gén. de Languedoc, liv. XXIII, ch. lii, p. 316. Raynaldi Ann. Eccles. 1221 § xli, p. 316.

4 Hist. gén. de Languedoc, liv. XXIII, ch. liv, p. 317.

5 Raynaldi Annal. Eccles. 1221, § xliii, p. 316.

who were dispersed to great distances, to return to their country, in the hope that they should be protected by the same men who, on every side, had risen against the house of Montfort and the church.

1222. In reality, during the year 1222, the sectaries, who had been driven out for their faith, found themselves sufficiently numerous in the places where their fathers had suffered, to give them the hope of renewing their instructions, and of organizing their church. If we may credit the registers of the inquisition at Toulouse, about a hundred of the principal Albigenses held a meeting at a place named Pieussan in Rasez, and Guillabert de Castres, one of their ancient preachers, who had escaped the researches of the fanatics, presided. This assembly provided chiefs for the desolated churches the ancient directors of which had perished in the flames. Three new preachers, described in these registers by the titles of bishop of Rasez, of elder son, and of younger son, received, from Guillabert de Castres, imposition of hands, and the kiss of peace. The monks of Saint Dominic abandoned, at this moment, by the secular power, were reduced to the necessity of only noting these circumstances in their books, against the day of vengeance.6

In the mean time Amaury de Montfort was losing the hope of entering into possession of his 6 Hist. gén. de Languedoc, liv. XXIII, ch. lvii, p. 319.