the count to the severest penalties; but, on the other hand, they were those respecting which he felt himself the most innocent, and of which he was the most eager to purge himself.5

1210. But the legate Arnold, abbot of Citeaux, joined to the ambitious zeal of the pope an implacable hatred against count Raymond. He had summoned the council, to which Innocent III had referred the cause of the count, to meet at Saint Gilles, but, before its assembling, new successes of Simon de Montfort against the lords of the castles, who still defended either the independence of their jurisdiction or that of their conscience, and new judicial massacres, had inspired him with more confidence in the cause which he wished to see triumphant. Master Theodise, a canon of Genoa, whom the pope had sent to advise with the legate, had a secret conference with him at Toulouse. "He was," says Peter de Vaux-Cernay, "a circumspect man, prudent and very zealous for the affairs of God, and he desired above all things to find some pretext of right to refuse the count that opportunity of justifying himself which Innocent had granted him." He agreed, at last, with the abbot of Citeaux and the bishop of Riez, that he should seek some cause of dispute with the count, respecting the accomplishment of some subordinate conditions which the pope had

5 Innocentii III Epistolæ, lib. XII, 152. 169.

6 Hist. Albigen. cap. xxxix, p. 585.

enjoined upon him, founding himself upon the words of the bull of Innocent III-We desire that he execute our orders."

When, in fact, Raymond VI presented himself to the council of St. Gilles, to justify himself, and and offered to establish, by indubitable proofs, that he had never participated in heresy, and was a stranger to the murder of the legate, Peter of Castelnau, Master Theodise stopped him, by declaring that he had not yet destroyed all the heretics of the county of Toulouse; that he had not yet suppressed all the tolls, whose abolition was demanded by the pope; that he had not yet abolished or restored all the collections, which his officers had made upon different convents; and since he had disobeyed the orders of the church in smaller matters, they might conclude that he would, the more certainly, have disobeyed in the two crimes of which he was accused. Thus, the council, to prevent perjury either in himself or his witnesses, refused him the permission to clear himself of these two capital accusations. When the count, who thought himself fully assured that this day would establish his innocence, heard this unexpected declaration, he burst into tears. But Master Theodise remembered a passage of holy Scripture, by which to free himself from feelings of humanity. How great soever be the overflow of waters, said he, turning his tears into derision, they

Petri Vallis Cern. cap. xxxix, p. 585. Concilia generalia, t. xi, p. 54.

8

will not reach unto God; and he fulminated, in the name of the church, an excommunication against the count of Toulouse. The council of St. Gilles did not assemble till the end of September, and its rigour augmented in proportion to the success obtained by Simon de Montfort in the course of this same campaign. During the winter, Montfort had been reduced to stand upon the defensive, and revolts in every part of the province had sufficiently proved to him how much his yoke was detested. But the monks of Citeaux had recommenced the preaching of the crusade in the north of France. There was, said they to those ferocious and superstitious warriors, no crime so dark, no vice so deeply rooted in the heart, the very trace of which, a campaign of forty days, in the south of France, would not obliterate. Paradise, with all its glories, was opened for them, without the necessity of purchasing it by any reformation in their conduct. Alice of Montmorency, Simon de Montfort's wife, undertook the direction of the first army of crusaders, raised by the monks. At the beginning of Lent, her husband came to meet her at Pezenas, and no sooner found himself at the head of an imposing force, than he gave full scope to his cruelty."

He attacked, in the first place, the castle of

8 Psalm xxxi, v. 8. Petri Val. Cern. cap. xxxix, 586. Histoire de Languedoc, liv. xxi, p. 197, et note xvi, p. 561.

9 Histoire de Languedoc, liv. XX1, ch. lxxxiv, p. 191.

Lauraguais and Minervois. The feudal state of independence had multiplied these fortresses, and the smallest province was covered with citadels. They did not all however appear to their possessors capable of sustaining a siege; the terror which the crusaders inspired caused a great number to be abandoned. Simon de Montfort generally caused all their inhabitants, whom he could lay hands upon, to be hanged upon gibbets. Some castles, calculating too favourably upon their strength, endeavoured to resist him; that of Brom was taken by assault the third day of the siege, and Simon de Montfort chose out more than a hundred of its wretched inhabitants, and having torn out their eyes, and cut off their noses, sent them, in that state, under the guidance of a oneeyed man, to the castle of Cabaret, to announce to the garrison of that fortress the fate which awaited them. The castle of Alairac was not taken till the eleventh day, and even then a great part of its inhabitants were able to escape from the ferocity of the crusaders. Montfort massacred the remainder. Farther on he found castles abandoned and absolutely empty; and, not being able to reach the men, he sent out his soldiers to destroy the surrounding vines and olive-trees.1

1210. Montfort afterwards conducted his army to a more important siege, that of the castle of Minerva, situated at a small distance from Nar

1 Petri Vallis Cernai Histor. Albigens. cap. xxxiv, xxxv, p. 581, 582.

bonne, on a steep rock, surrounded by precipices, and regarded as the strongest place in the Gauls. This castle belonged to Guiraud of Minerva, vassal of the viscounts of Carcassonne, and one of the bravest knights of the province. The army of the crusaders appeared before Minerva, at the beginning of June; the legate Arnold, and the canon Theodise, joined it soon after. The inhabitants, among whom were many who had embraced the reform of the Albigenses, defended themselves with great valour for seven weeks; but when, on account of the heats of summer, the water began to fail in their cisterns, they demanded a capitulation. Guiraud came himself to the camp of the crusaders, one day when the legate was absent, and agreed with Simon de Montfort on conditions for the surrender of the place. But, as they were proceeding to execute them, the abbot Arnold returned to the camp, and Montfort immediately declared that nothing which they had agreed upon could be considered as binding, till the legate had given his assent. "At these words," says Peter de Vaux-Cernay," the abbot was greatly afflicted. In fact, he desired that all the enemies of Christ should be put to death, but he could not take upon himself to condemn them, on account of his quality of monk and priest." He thought, however, that he might stir up some quarrel between the negociation, profit by it to break the capitulation, and cause all the inhabit