At the same time, a new provincial council was called at Lavaur, either to hear the justification of Count Raymond, or to accept the submission promised by the king of Aragon, and to establish peace in the province.R

1213. But Simon de Montfort had such zealous partisans in the bishops of the province of Narbonne, he had connected his cause so intimately with theirs, he had taken so much care to provide the monks of Citeaux, the principal instigators of the crusade, with all the pontifical sees which had become vacant, that he was sure of gaining his cause before such prejudiced judges as those to whom the pope had referred it. In fact, the authority of the holy see was never more completely set at nought by its agents. Innocent III had repeatedly given positive orders to the bishops of the province, to hear, and to judge of, the justifications of count Raymond; and the bishops assembled at the council of Lavaur, in the month of January, 1213, again explicitly refused to hear him, or to admit any of his justifications. They pretended that the count of Toulouse, by not executing all the orders they had given him before, and by causing the murder of nearly a thousand Christians, through the war which he maintained against the crusaders, had lost all right of pleading his cause. They even refused to extend the benefits of the pacification to the counts of Foix 8 Petri Vallis. Cern. Hist. Albigens. cap. lxvi, et seq. p. 624.

and of Cominges, and to the viscount of Béarn, whom they declared to be supporters of heretics. Above all, they insisted upon the necessity of destroying the city of Toulouse, and of exterminating its inhabitants, that they might complete the purification of the province. And, as they had this object more at heart than all the others, the fathers of the council first addressed a common letter to the pope, recommending it to him; and then, each prelate wrote to him separately, earnestly to press upon him the entire annihilation of that city, which they compared to Sodom and Gomorrah, and the destruction of all the villains who had taken refuge in it.9

The agreement of all these bishops with Simon de Montfort and his numerous friends, the authority of the crusaders, of all those who had previously marched to the crusade, and of all who still intended to do so, made an impression upon Innocent III. It was he who had, at first, excited the sanguinary spirits which then lorded it over Europe; but he was himself, afterwards, the dupe of their concert. It was but too true, that the whole of Christendom then demanded the renewal of those scenes of carnage, that it prided itself on the slaughter of the heretics, and that it was in the name of public opinion that the fathers of Lavaur required new massacres.

9 Innocentii III, lib. xvi, Ep. 40, 41, 42. 44, 45. Histoire de Languedoc, liv. XXII, ch. xliii, p. 241.

Those who had contributed to create such a public opinion were, however, on that account, only the more guilty. Innocent III, deceived by the echo of his own voice, thought that he had shewed too much indulgence. He wrote again to the king of Aragon, the 21st of May, 1213, to revoke all the concessions he had made, to accuse him of having taken advantage of the Roman court, by a false statement, and to confirm the excommunication of the counts of Toulouse, of Cominges, of Foix, and of the viscount of Béarn.1

These negociations, at the court of Rome, had on neither side suspended the preparations for war; but the number of the French crusaders had diminished, through the pains which the king of Aragon had taken to announce the pacification of the province, and through the declarations of the pope's legate himself. But the two bishops of Orleans and Auxerre, thought it, on this account, much more their duty to proceed to the aid of Simon de Montfort, and they joined him at Carcassonne with many knights from their province. On the other hand, the king of Aragon, flattering himself that if his brother-in-law could obtain a victory over Montfort, he would, by this means, put an end to the vacillations of the court

1 Innocentii III Epist. lib. xvi, Ep. 48. Petri Val. Cern. Hist. Albigens. cap. lxiv, p. 126 et seq. Concilium Vauriense in Labbei Concilia, t. xi, p. 81, seq. Raynaldi Annal. Eccles. 1213, § xxvi, seq. p. 221. Hist. gén, de Languedoc, liv. XXII, ch. li, p. 246.

2 Petri Vall. Cern. cap. Ixix et seq. p. 233.

of Rome, passed the Pyrenees with a thousand knights, and came to join the counts of Toulouse, Foix, and Cominges. Don Pedro was at once a brave warrior, a skilful politician, and an elegant troubadour; he was subject to no other reproach than that of too passionate a love for women. At this very time he wrote to a lady of Toulouse, that it was for her sake he was come to combat the French knights, that he should be indebted to her beautiful eyes for the valour which he should show in the battle, and that from them he should expect the recompense of his atchievements. This was the language consecrated to the gallantry of the age; nor is there any reason to believe, as some moderns have supposed, that the letter was addressed to one of his sisters married to the two Raymonds of Toulouse. It fell, however, into the hands of Simon de Montfort. Our fortune is not doubtful, he exclaimed, God is for us. He has for him only the eyes of his lady.3

He

The king of Aragon, having united his forces with those of the counts his allies, went to lay siege to the little town of Muret, three leagues distant from Toulouse, on the south-west. arrived before it on the 10th of September. He had joined to his thousand knights of Aragon, those of the counts of Toulouse, of Foix, of Cominges, and of Gaston de Béarn, which might, at most, form a number equal to his own. But the

› Guillelmus de Podio Laurentii, cap. xxi, p. 678.

H

cavalry of the Pyrenees could not, any more than that of Spain, be compared with the French cavalry, either in respect to the weight of the armour, or the strength of the horses. The Spaniards, principally accustomed to contend with the Mussulmans, had acquired their method of fighting; and their squadrons more resembled light cavalry, than the heavy horse of the French. Simon de Montfort, who had assembled his troops at Saverdun, in the countship of Foix, had with him about a thousand knights, or serjeants at arms. These might be regarded as the flower of French knighthood; they were men enveloped in iron; and their bodies, seemed as iron as their armour. Amongst them was distinguished, William des Barres, uterine brother of Montfort, the ancient rival of Richard Coeur-de-lion, and the most renowned of all the warriors of France. Many others, without equalling him in reputation, did not yield to him either in strength or courage. Amongst them all, not a heart could be found susceptible of terror, or accessible to pity. Equally inspired by fanaticism and the love of war, they believed that the sure way to salvation was through the field of carnage. Seven bishops, who followed the army, had blessed their standards and their arms, and would be engaged in prayer for them whilst they were attacking the heretics. Thus did they advance, indifferent whether to victory or martyrdom, certain that either would issue in the