which induced him to seize upon the spoils of him whom he had persecuted. The monks of Citeaux began to sink in the estimation of the people, when it appeared that they had shed so much blood only for the opportunity of gaining possession of those episcopal sees which they coveted. Perhaps the legate, Arnold Amalric, who, by this conduct, had highly offended Simon de Montfort, and had dissolved that intimate union which had hitherto subsisted between those two ferocious men, endeavoured to cause this symptom of ambition to be forgotten, by rendering new services to the church; or perhaps he might be drawn, by his enthusiasm alone, to a new crusade, different from that which he had hitherto preached. Be this as it may, he had scarcely taken possession of the archbishopric of Narbonne, before he passed into Spain, to aid the kings of Castille, of Aragon, and of Navarre, against Mehemed-el-Nasir, king of Morocco.9

This Emir-al-Mumenim had been called into Spain by the victories of the Christian kings over the Moors of Andalusia. A mussulman crusade had been preached in Africa: innumerable swarms of warriors had crossed the strait of Cadiz; and the victory of the Moors at Alarcos, on the 18th of July, 1195, had given them a prodigious ascendency over the Christians. After losing many provinces, Alphonso IX, of Castille, had been

9 Guill. de Podio Laurentii, cap. xx, p. 677.

obliged to demand an armistice; but this truce expired in 1212. The fanaticism of the Almohadans, who had annihilated the African church, gave reason to apprehend the entire extirpation of Christianity from Spain. Innocent III had therefore granted the preaching of a new crusade, to succour the Spaniards. The abbot Arnold, archbishop of Narbonne, was not the only Gallic prelate who passed the Pyrenees; the archbishop of Bordeaux and the bishop of Nantes arrived also at Toledo, and with them a considerable number of barons, knights, and pilgrims, from Aquitaine, France, and Italy. This multitude, rendered ferocious by the war against the Albigenses, distinguished itself, however, only by the massacre of the Jews of Toledo, which it effected, notwithstanding the efforts of the noble Castillians to protect them; and, by its earnestness to put to death the Moorish garrison of Calatrava, in contempt of the capitulation. The French crusaders afterwards pretended, that they could no longer support the heat of the Spanish climate, and they retired before the terrible battle of Navas de Tolosa, fought on the 16th of July, 1212. This battle saved the Christians of Spain, and overturned the power of the Almohadans.1

1

1 Roderici Archiepiscopi Toletani, lib. v111, cap. i, ii, p. 129, et seq. In Hisp. illustrate, t. ii. Roderic of Toledo had himself preached the crusade in France and Italy, and he describes, in detail, the events of which he was the principal author. We cannot, however, admit his testimony for the incredible number of combatants, or that of the slain. lo. Mariunæ, lib. XI, cap xxiii, xxiv, p. 548.

The crusade against the Moors of Spain, occasioned but a short interruption to that against the Albigenses. During the winter, Simon de Montfort had been reduced to the small number of knights attached to his fortunes; but, at the same time, the monks of Citeaux had recommenced their preaching, throughout all Christendom, with more ardour than ever; and the expedition against the Albigenses, to which, according to their assurances, such high celestial favours were attached, was, nevertheless, so short and so easy, that the army of the crusaders was renewed, four times in the course of the year, by pilgrims, who, after forty days' service, returned to their homes. Guy de Montfort, the count's brother, (who had just returned from the Holy Land), the provost of the church of Cologne, the archbishop of Rouen, the bishop of Laon, the bishop of Toul, and an archdeacon of Paris, were amongst the principal chiefs who, in the year 1212, came to range themselves under the banners of Montfort. Their hope of contributing to the slaughter and punishment of the Albigenses was not entirely disappointed, but they had no opportunity of distinguishing themselves by great achievements in arms. Upon the arrival of these fanatical bands, almost all the castles of the Toulousians were abandoned by their inhabitants, who sought a refuge in the cities of Toulouse and Montauban, almost the only places which they thought proof against a siege. But

the crusade had been preached only for the destruction of heretics; the indulgences of the church were only promised at this price. All the prelates, who arrived in Albigeois surrounded by bigots to whom they had promised the forgiveness of their sins, would have thought their vow unfulfilled if they had not avenged God against his rebels. They were, however, forced to content themselves with such fugitive peasants as they could surprise in the fields, or some prisoners, taken in the castles which had dared to resist them. Those of Saint Marcel and of Saint Antonin furnished them with a considerable number of human victims. But when Simon de Montfort saw that the greater part of the population of the countries, where heresy had prevailed, was exterminated, and that the remainder had placed themselves out of the reach of his attacks, he resolved to take advantage of the zeal of the crusaders, by conducting them into Agenois, whose entire population was catholic, and to make them gain their indulgences at the siege of la Penne, which, after an obstinate resistance, surrendered on the 25th of July. The siege of Boissac, which followed, was remarkable only for the perfidy which Montfort compelled its inhabitants to practice. He refused to grant them their lives, till they had consented to sacrifice, with their own hands, three

2 Petri Vall. Cern. Hist. Albig. cap. lxiii, p. 616. Hist. gén. de Languedoc, liv. XXII, ch. xxv, p. 228. Historia de los faicts de Tolosa, p. 46.

3

hundred routiers, who formed their garrison, and who had, to that time, valiantly defended them. On this condition, the gates of the city were opened to him on the 8th of September; and the crusaders, contenting themselves with this carnage, received from the citizens a sum of money, to save their houses from the flames. Simon conducted his army, afterwards, into the counties of Foix and of Cominges, which he ravaged afresh, whilst the count Raymond of Toulouse, despoiled of almost all his states, passed into Aragon, to implore the intercession of his brother-in-law, the king Don Pedro, with the court of Rome.1

At the end of November, 1212, Simon de Montfort assembled a parliament at Pamiers. Under this title was commonly understood a diet, or conference of lords, who united voluntarily to deliberate and decide upon their own interests. The parliament of Pamiers was composed of archbishops and bishops; of French knights drawn into the country by the crusades, or attached to the fortunes of Montfort; of certain knights who spoke the provençal language; and of some inhabitants of the principal cities of the country. The general of the crusade wished them to draw up statutes, for the government of the conquered provinces, and it was necessary that

3 Petri Vall. Hist. Albigens. cap. lxiii, p. 621. 4 Hist. Albig. Petri Vall. Cern. cap. Ixiv, p. 622. liv. XXII, ch. xxx, p. 231.

Historia de Tolosa, p. 46.

Hist. gén. de Languedoc,