engage, through the commands of their pastors, in this war which was denominated sacred, were Eudes III, duke of Burgundy; Simon de Montfort, count of Leicester; the counts of Nevers, of St. Paul, of Auxerre, of Genève, and of Forez."

The abbot of Citeaux, Arnold Amalric, distinguished himself with his whole congregation, by his zeal in preaching this war of extermination; the convents of his order (the Bernardins), of which there were already seven or eight hundred in France, Italy, and Germany, appropriated the Crusade against the Albigenses as their special province. In the name of the pope, and of the apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, they promised, to all who should perish in this holy expedition, plenary absolution of all sins, committed from the day of their birth, to that of their death. But whilst the Bernardins were recruiting soldiers for the cross, Innocent III charged a new congregation, (at the head of which he placed the Spaniard, Saint Dominic,) to go on foot, two by two, through the villages, to preach the faith in the midst of them, to enlighten them by controversial discussions, to display to them all the zeal of Christian charity, and to obtain from their confidence, exact information as to the number and dwellings of those who had wandered from the church, in

-Guillelm. Ar

Rigordus de Gestis Philippi Augusti, p. 62 et finis. moricus, p. 82.—Chroniques de Saint-Denys, p. 394.- -Hist. gén. de Languedoc, liv. xxi, ch. xli, p. 156.- -Historia de los grans faicts d'armas,

P. 4.

order to burn them when the opportunity should arrive. Thus began the order of the preaching brethren of St. Dominic, or of the inquisitors. The new bishop of Toulouse, Foulques, or Fouquet, a native of Marseilles, who had formerly distinguished himself as a troubadour, and who, quitting love and poetry, had thrown himself into the ranks of the persecutors, appears to have suggested to Innocent III the principal rules of this order, the experiment of which was made for seven years in his diocese, before the pope confirmed it in the council of Lateran.9

1208. The crusaders were not ready to march this year, but their immense preparations resounded throughout Europe, and filled Languedoc with terror. It was well known that the countries destined to vengeance and extermination, by the monks of Citeaux, as being more particularly the seats of heresy, were the states of Raymond VI, count of Toulouse, and those of his nephew Raymond Roger viscount of Alby, Beziers, Carcassonne, and Limoux in Rasez. Although Raymond of Toulouse had been a soldier of some distinction, he was mild, feeble, and timid, desirous of saving his subjects from confiscations and punishments, but still more desirous of saving himself from persecution. His nephew, on the contrary,

8 Guillelmi de Podio Laurentii, cap. x, p. 673.

Theodoricus in Vita Sancti Dominici, lib. i, cap. ult. Apud Surium, tom. iv, die 4 Augusti.—Raynaldi Annal. 1215, § xvii, p. 245.

was generous, lofty, and impetuous: he was twenty-four years of age; he had succeeded his father fourteen years before, and during his minority his states had been governed by guardians inclined to the new doctrines. These two princes, having learned that Arnold, abbot of Citeaux, leader of the crusade, had been nominated, by the pope, his legate in those provinces from which he designed to eradicate heresy, and that he had assembled a council of the chiefs of the sacred war, at Aubenaz, in the Vivarais, went thither to avert the storm, if possible. They protested that they were strangers to heresy; that they were innocent of the death of Peter of Castelnau; and they demanded at least to be heard, before they were condemned. The legate received them with extreme haughtiness, declared that he could do nothing for them, and that, if they wished to obtain any mitigation of the measures adopted against them, they must address themselves to the pope. Raymond Roger perceived by this language, that nothing was to be expected from negotiation, and that there remained no alternative but to place garrisons in all their strong towns, and to prepare valiantly for their defence. But Raymond VI, overwhelmed with terror, declared himself ready to submit to any thing; to be himself the executor of the violence of the ecclesiastics against his own subjects; and to make war against his family, rather than draw the crusaders into his states. The

two relations, not being able to agree upon the conduct they were to pursue, separated, with reproaches and menaces. Raymond Roger retired into his states, and immediately put himself into a defensive condition; he even began hostilities against the count of Toulouse, whose attacks he apprehended; whilst Raymond VI, after having assembled his most faithful servants at Arles, engaged the archbishop of Auch, the abbot of Condom, the prior of the Hospitalers of Saint Gilles, and Bernard, lord of Rabasteens in Bigorre, to proceed to Rouen, in order to offer his submission to Innocent III, and receive his indulgence.'

Raymond VI at the same time applied for the protection of his cousin, Philip Augustus King of France, and that of Otho King of Germany. The former at first received him with fair words, but afterward took occasion from the solicitations of Raymond to his rival, Otho, to refuse him all assistance. The ambassadors of Raymond to the Pope, were on the contrary, received with apparent indulgence. It was required of them that their master should make common cause with the crusaders; that he should assist them in exterminating the heretics; and that he should. surrender to them seven of his best castles, as a pledge of his intentions. Upon these conditions

1 Historia de las Armas, p. 4, 5, 6. Hist. de Languedoc, liv. XXI, ch. xlii, p. 157. Hist. Albigens. Petri Vallis Cern. c. ix, p. 566.

2 Guillelmi de Podio Laurentii, cap. xiii, p. 674.

the pope not only gave Raymond the hope of absolution, but promised him his entire favour.3 Innocent III was, however, far from having pardoned Raymond in the bottom of his heart. For, at this same epoch, he wrote to the bishops of Riez and Conserans, and to the abbot of Citeaux, "We counsel you, with the apostle Paul, to employ guile with regard to this count, for in this case it ought to be called prudence. We must attack, separately, those who are separated from unity, leave for a time the count of Toulouse, employing towards him a wise dissimulation, that 'the other heretics may be the more easily defeated, and that afterwards we may crush him when he shall be left alone." We cannot but remark, that whenever ambitious and perfidious priests had any disgraceful orders to communicate, they never failed to pervert, for this purpose, some passages of the holy Scriptures; one would say that they had only studied the Bible to make sacrilegious applications of it.

All the fanatics whom the preachings of the monks of Citeaux had engaged to devote themselves to the sacred war began to move in the spring of the year 1209. The indulgences of the crusade had been offered to them on the lowest terms; they were required to make a campaign

3 Historia de los faicts d'armas, p. 6. Petri Cern. Hist. Albigens. cap. xi. p. 567.

4 Innocentii III Epist. lib. xi. Ep. 232. Hist. gén. de Languedoc, liv. xxi. p. 160.