Bad Things Afoot

On 13 April 1233, Pope Gregory IX officially established an inquisitorial system in France by announcing that he would be conferring unlimited authority upon the Preaching Friars (the Dominicans) to combat heresy. He appointed Fr. Robert le Bourge as General Inquisitor for the Kingdom. The Inquisition had come to the Languedoc. By the Treaty of Meaux, Raymond VII had ceded the Languedoc to the French Crown. French troops had also come to the Languedoc occupying what were now lands belonging to the monarchy and the Capetian dynasty.

Sworn to allegiance to the ruling monarchy and to be a good Catholic and take up again the fight against the heretics, Raymond VII made several half-hearted attempts to lay siege to the pog under the watchful eyes of the French troops and envoys of both Crown and the Inquisition in 1241. His forays yielded no result, and he declared that the pog could not be taken. This would be reported back to Paris and hopefully be the end of it. Raymond VII was stalling for time, and a window of opportunity to drive out the troops and take back his domains.

In addition, he had no legitimate male heir. He had only his daughter Joan, by Sancha of Aragon. By the Treaty of Paris (1229) with the French Crown, he had to give Joan in marriage to Alfonso, Louis IX’s brother. In this manner, the crown was assured of gaining these lands upon Raymond VII’s death. He was also trying to divorce Sancha so he could marry a woman who could give him a male heir, but the Crown and Church were balking this action to protect their own interests. It seems Raymond finally succeeded, for in 1241 he did divorce Sancha and married Margaret de Lusignan in 1243. Margaret was the daughter of Hughes X de Lusignan and Isabella d’Angouleme. Isabella had previously been married to John Lackland (‘evil King John’), who was a son of Raymond’s grandfather Henry II Plantagenet of England. The Church quickly played this trump card and declared Raymond’s marriage to Margaret void on the grounds of consanguinity. Even if he did have a son by Margaret or even another daughter, the child would not be a legitimate heir.

Whichever way he turned, things were looking bleak for Raymond. He must have felt tremendously frustrated, but he didn’t give up the fight. The question remains as to whether or not Raymond was ‘using’ the Cathars in his opposition to the French Crown having taken his lands. They represented resistance to the northern monarchy and there had to be a general cause to rally around. The Crusade and its results had left the local populace in opposition toward those who would take away their culture, their language and their lands. The ‘cause’ thus became more than something personal to Raymond and the other lords – at least outwardly. They were all struggling, however, to maintain their own titles and lands.

History has it that in 1242, Raymond was the architect of a plot that arose amongst the lords of the Languedoc against the Crown. This plot involved not only the counts of Foix, Comminges, Armagnac and Rodez, but the viscounts of Narbonne and Béziers, Hughes X de Lusignan (Comte de la Marche), and no less than Henry III Plantagenet. Reportedly, Frederick II the Holy Roman Emperor was also aware of it. Frederick was often at odds with the papacy himself over the Fifth Crusade, and was excommunicated four times. The plot was to form a rebellion against the Crown. It would seem however that Blanche and Louis became aware of the plot and determined to thwart it. It is thought that the following actions were deliberately undertaken to set the rebellion off before their adversaries could solidify their plans and positions. They had a previous model to work with in what happened with Pierre de Castelnau, and there was even more reason for the people of the Languedoc to hate the Inquisition since the Crusade.

In May of 1242, two inquisitors appeared at the castle of Avignonnet and set up a tribunal. The castle was commanded by Ramon d’Alfaro, the bailiff of Raymond VII. Ramon d’Alfaro sent a message to Pierre-Roger de Mirepoix at Montségur informing him of the presence of the inquisitors. Brothers Armand Guilhem of Montpellier and Étienne of Narbonne were both cruel and fanatical. They’d left many enemies and much bitterness in their wake. Pierre-Roger’s announcement of the news of the inquisitors’ presence at Avignonnet to the village and the troops of Montségur was the match that set fire to the planned rebellion. Those at Montségur had family and loved ones to avenge. Jean Markale reports:

“A group of about fifty knights and men-at-arms converged and made their way toward Avignonnet. While en route, their ranks were swelled by sympathizers who also had kinfolk to avenge. This expedition was in fact far from secret – everyone knew that the men were determined to murder the Inquisitors – but oddly enough, nobody alerted the future victims.” [Montségur and the Mystery of the Cathars – pg. 33]  

   

Ramon d’Alfaro guided the angry throng into the castle himself. The inquisitors, their notary and bailiffs were all murdered. The news spread rapidly as those involved returned home, and soon the whole region was up in arms. Moving quickly, Raymond took himself and his men to Albi and occupied it. Albi had once belonged to him, but the Crown had taken it. Like it or not, the rebellion had begun and he had no choice but to act on the plans that were in place.

What happened next happened very quickly, reinforcing the idea that the rebellion was deliberately provoked by the Crown. This will be told in the next installment.

Until then my friends!

Rayvn

Life on the Pog

Montségur was far from a monastic sort of enclave, such as we might think of today – i.e. as in a Buddhist monastery. In point of fact the fortress itself was a garrison and most of the people who lived in the village were not Cathars themselves. This can be said because large quantities of animal bones were found buried around and on the pog, and Cathars we are told did not eat meat except fish. The perfecti and credenti that lived there most likely lived in the village and only went into the fortress in times of siege for protection. Certainly the soldiers in the garrison were not Cathars, or they could and would not have been soldiers. Their wives and children may have been, but not the soldiers themselves.Village life was like life in any other village that supported itself and its people of the time. There were chores to be done, clothing to be made, things to be fixed and fashioned, as well as livestock to care for.

Cathars were spread all over the Languedoc-Rousillon and not all congregated in one area. There were even Cathars in Italy and other countries. They were however centered predominantly in what is now southern France. The lords of the Languedoc remained independent lords and answered to no king. This coupled with the fact that heretics lived in the lands of, and were protected by these lords was a recipe for trouble and a thorn in the sides of both Rome and the French monarchy. The monarchy wanted those lands and the Church wanted the heretics gone.

Given what we think the Cathars believe and the principles by which they lived, it is fairly well certain that the lords of the Languedoc were not Cathars themselves. They owned property and they engaged in warfare. They were powerful local lords fighting to keep control of their hereditary holdings and titles. We know they were at least nominally Catholic by the fact that several of them were excommunicated not just once but many times. That is not to say however that some of their wives and children were Cathars. We know that the daughter of Roger-Bernard I de Foix was a Cathar, Esclarmonde de Foix, who was a perfecti and is known as such in historical records. At the time she took her consolamentum, she did so with three other ladies of high rank, Aude de Fanjeaux, Fays de Durfort and Raymonde de Saint-Germain. Esclarmonde de Foix was present at the Conference of Montreal in 1207, an attempt at a peaceful debate and settlement with the Catholic Church, represented by Dominic Guzman. Dominic Guzman would become Saint Dominic, who later led the Inquisition. The year after the debate, Innocent III declared the Albigensian Crusade.

It is necessary as well to understand that women of noble status often retired to convents when they became widowed or divorced in these times and in times previous to this. By Salic Law women rarely inherited their husbands’ lands or titles upon the lord’s death, unless they were a ‘queen regent’ themselves – i.e. they were the daughter and heir of a king or a lord. Blanche of Castile was a queen regent, for she was the daughter of a king, Alfonso VIII of Castile and Eleanor of Aragon, who was also a queen regent. Even in this case, they acted only as regents in the kingly sense if the heir, a son, was in his minority – under aged. When the son reached his majority, he became king but his mother was still ‘the Queen Regent’, while his wife was simply ‘the Queen’. A ‘lady’ married to a king who became his widow was called a ‘dowager queen’, and inherited nothing unless it was her father’s lands and titles and she had no surviving brothers. While the lords of the Languedoc did not adhere to monarchies and their rules, they too inherited by Salic Law established by Clovis I, the first historically verifiable King of the Salian Franks, who came to be known as the Merovingians.

Esclarmonde de Foix was a widow in 1200 when she turned to the Cathar faith, which infers that before that she was probably a Catholic herself. It is therefore nothing exceptional or extraordinary in the fact that she ‘retired’ to live a more or less monastic life as a perfecti and spiritual leader. What is unique and extraordinary about her is that she became the symbol and the legend that she remains to this day. That however, is not entirely due to anything in particular that she did in her life. She was a good woman who made every attempt to help people: she established schools for girls and hospitals as well as a home for the elder parfaits. As far as anyone knows for certain, that is the extent of her doings. Such acts did qualify one for sainthood in those times on occasion, but Esclarmonde de Foix was not a Catholic. The story of her turning into a dove and flying away with the equally legendary Cathar Treasure, the Holy Grail, was most likely a fiction invented by Otto Rahn, the Nazi medievalist. To my knowledge, there is no mention of it before his telling of it. If indeed, as he claimed, he was told this by local shepherds it may have been a legend that had risen up around the fortress, the pog and the Cathars in the neighborhood. Places like Montségur tend to engender and invite legends, and not without good reason. But truly, it was the pog, the fortress and the crusade and its circumstances more than anything else that brought a certain fame, or infamy, upon the place – depending on whose side you’re on – and made it and Esclarmonde icons of the times and the Cathars themselves.

The reason for this will be revealed in the next installment. Until then, my friends, take care and be kind to one another.

Rayvn     

Simon de Montfort

If Philip II Augustus, the King of France was not interested in taking up arms against the Cathars and the lords of Languedoc, a northern noble named Simon de Montfort was keen on it. The Seigneur de Montfort-l'Amaury, was also the 5th Earl of Leicester. The de Montfort family were descendants of the Counts of Flanders.

Simon was said to be a very pious man – at least from a Catholic point of view. In 1209, he took on the role of the Captain-General of the Albigensian Crusade. He went with Philip’s blessing, but Phillip apparently turned a blind eye to Simon's methods. Simon’s first target was Béziers a territory which fell under the lordship of Raymond VI of Toulouse. Béziers became a hallmark of what was to come, as well as Simon’s ruthless character.

 

 

On July 22, 1209 Simon and his forces came to the town of Béziers. The Catholics were given the opportunity to leave before the Crusaders besieged the city. They refused and fought with the Cathars. Their combined forces were defeated outside the walls and those left were pursued back inside the walls of the town. Those who took refuge in the Cathedral of St. Nazaire and the Eglise de la Madeleine were not spared. The Cathedral was set ablaze and those inside the Church were mercilessly butchered. As the Cathedral collapsed, those who escaped were also slain. Those who remained inside were either crushed or burned to death.

Simon became notorious, and not in a good way. He was seen as a cruel, harsh and treacherous man of no honor and bad faith. He was a terror, with a reputation for slaughtering entire villages. In the village of Minerve, Simon burned 140 Cathars who refused to recant their faith. Prior to the sack of the village of Lastours, it was reported that he took prisoners from the nearby village of Bram and had their ears, noses and lips cut off, and gouged out their eyes. He left one poor soul with one eye, to lead them into the village – a warning to those who would not recant.

Simon de Montfort went on to defeat Peter II of Aragon in the Battle of Muret. The counts of the Languedoc were vassals of the King of Aragon. In 1212, Peter learned that de Montfort had partially sacked Toulouse and exiled Raymond. Raymond happened to be Peter’s brother in law at that time. Raymond went to Peter, asking for assistance. Together they crossed the Pyrenees and arrived at Muret in September 1213 to confront de Montfort's army. They were joined there by Raymond’s militia he had gathered from Toulouse, and the armies of the counts of Comminges and Foix. Raymond tried to convince Peter to starve out Simon’s forces, but Peter rejected the idea and proceeded to mount the battle. The number of Peter’s forces far exceeded those of Simon’s, which no doubt led him to be more than a bit over-confident. Simon’s forces numbered less than a thousand, but approximately a fourth of those were knights and not just regular cavalry or infantrymen. They were also battle-hardened and Simon was – for whatever else might be said of him – a savvy tactician.

Peter was so over-confident he refused his royal armor and instead donned the armor of a common cavalryman. In the disarray and madness that followed, Peter was thrown from his horse and was killed – in spite of or perhaps because of his protestations that he was the king. With their king and leader gone, the Aragonese and Catalan armies fled back over the mountains and deserted the battle. Simon de Montfort had won yet another victory. In military terms, it was a hollow victory, but that never stopped Simon from counting. He was appointed the Count of Toulouse and Duke of Narbonne in 1215.

Raymond and his allies continued their battles to regain their lands with some successes. The battles raged on in the years 1216 and 1217. In the later quarter of 1217, Raymond returned to Toulouse and Simon saw his chance to get Raymond once and for all. Simon besieged Toulouse for nine months. He finally met his end on the 25th of June, 1218. According to a song or chanson written about the Albigensian Crusade, his head was smashed by a rock catapulted from a mangonel operated by the women of Toulouse.

Simon was buried in the Cathedral of Saint-Nazaire at Carcassonne. His body was later moved home to Montfort l'Amaury by his son. There is still a tombstone in the Cathedral called "of Simon de Montfort" in the South Transept. Reportedly the inscription on the stone envisaged Simon as a saint in heaven, enjoying the favor of God's reward for his deeds in life. His enemies left him a far different epitaph:

The epitaph says, for those who can read it
That he is a saint and martyr who shall breathe again
And shall in wondrous joy inherit and flourish
And wear a crown and sit on a heavenly throne.
And I have heard it said that this must be so -
If by killing men and spilling blood,
By wasting souls, and preaching murder,
By following evil counsel, and raising fires,
By ruining noblemen and besmirching paratage,
By pillaging the country, and by exalting Pride,
By stoking up wickedness and stifling good,
By massacring women and their infants,
A man can win Jesus in this world,
Then Simon surely wears a crown, resplendent in heaven.

[http://www.midi-france.info/190403_paratge.htm]

I invite you to read the page from which the above quote was taken and compare the idea of ‘paratage’ that was espoused by the Cathars to the principles and practices of ‘God’s warrior’ Simon de Montfort and his Church.

Until we meet again, walk in peace and love my dears,

Rayvn

Ad abolendam: Heresy and Heretics ~ Part II

Recall what is said in Part I about nobles “who did not join in the struggle against heresy when called upon to do so would be excommunicated and their territories placed under interdict”. In light of this, the refusal of the Counts of Toulouse, Foix, Beziers and other districts in the Languedoc becomes a blatant refusal to be manipulated or controlled by either the King of France or the papacy. One might suspect that this really stuck in Innocent’s craw.

According to web sources Pierre de Castelnau was ‘born in the diocese of Montpellier’. This diocese was located in southwestern France. Given his name, Pierre was most likely born in Castlenaudary.  He was a monk of the Cistercian order, also known as Benedictines or Bernardines. This is the same order to which Bernard de Clairvaux belonged. Bernard was said to have had significant ties with the Templars and was involved to a great degree with the Second Crusade. The Cistercians supported themselves by farming, raising sheep for wool and brewing liqueurs.

These same sources state that by the year 1199, Pierre de Castelnau had become the archdeacon of Maguelonne. He was appointed by Innocent III to lead the way in the suppression of the Cathar heresy. Castelnaudary lies in the heart of this particular Cathar country, and so the archdeacon would have been very familiar with not only the particulars of the area, but the politics and ways of the people as well.

In 1207, Pierre de Castelnau became involved in a dispute between Raymond de Foix VI and the Count of Baux. Some sources state that this may have had more to do with the monk’s death than his other involvement with rooting out the Cathar heresy. By other reports [1], the monk met with the lords and in particular with Raymond VI, the Count of Toulouse and Marquis de Provence. The author of the referenced document reports that the monk threatened Raymond that if he did not abjure his associations with and protection of the Cathars, he would forfeit his lands, title and other rights mentioned above as a heretic. It is also reported herein that Raymond did in fact threaten the papal legate with death if he continued on this track. This same source states that it was not a retainer loyal to Raymond or even a family member who slew Pierre de Castelau, but that Raymond hired an assassin to do the job. Other sources state that it was one or more of Raymond’s knights who slew the monk. For that matter, it could be said that Innocent hired an assassin to slay Pierre de Castelnau to force the issue for reasons explained in the final paragraph here. It is not unheard of, as the Borgia popes did such things. This, however, is purely a speculation and one that would not find great popularity.

In any case, it can be said that NO ONE knows for sure what happened that fateful night and speculation has run rampant down through the years. Those speculations are colored by which side of the fence one is standing – the side of the Church or the side of the Cathars. We have seen that the Church was not averse to making up things – devising false documents such as the Donation of Constantine and the collection of the “False Derectals of Isidore” mentioned previously. Personally, in spite of his feelings for the Church of Rome and the Papacy, I don’t think Raymond would have been so blatantly stupid as to threaten the papal legate. Raymond was about 52 years old at this time and hadn’t held on to his lands or titles by being an impetuous hot-head. Furthermore, this was a private meeting between the lords and the legate, so how would anyone know whether de Castelnau was threatened or not, save those directly involved? It comes across as pure supposition on the part of pro-Catholic ‘historians’ who would prefer to see Innocent III as justified in launching the slaughter of thousands of innocent people, men, women and children – from infants to elders - Cathars and Catholics alike.

Pope Innocent III did indeed take the event and run with it, declaring Raymond VI of Toulouse excommunicated. He called for the King of France to take up arms against the Albigensians in the Languedoc. At this particular time Phillip II was the King of France. Due to previous confrontations with Innocent III to do with his own throne, Phillip was not particularly keen to enjoin the battle. Phillip was more interested in the finer pursuits of education and construction. Under his guidance, Paris became the first city of teachers the medieval world had known. He continued the construction on Notre Dame which had begun shortly before he took the throne, and he had the Louvre built. Phillip left it to those who came after him to take up the call to arms. If one studies the history of these particular times, it will be seen that these were times in which everyone seemed to be at war with everyone else – often due to disputes with the papacy and who should or should not be king.

Until we meet again my friends take care and be well,

Rayvn

[1] http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=16889493



Ad abolendam: Heresy and Heretics ~ Part I

In November of 1184 Pope Lucius III issued a derectal and bull from Verona. It was called Ad abolendam which means ‘toward abolishing’. The document prescribed measures to abolish any and all ‘heresies’ that threatened the sovereignty and authority of the Church of Rome. Pope Lucius III was one of the popes under which Lotario dei Conti di Segni served. Lotario was later to become Pope Innocent III.

Lucius III condemned any and all persons who preached or offered scriptural interpretations without the authority of the Church, either publicly or privately. He also condemned any persons who supported such heretics openly or covertly. They were all to be excommunicated. Those who supported the heretics were also considered heretics. They were deprived of their rights to hold public office, the right to a trial, the right to draft a will and the hereditability of their lands and offices. They were to be handed over to the authorities to receive their ‘due penalty’ – whatever that might mean in each case.

The Ad abolemdam seems to have been drafted somewhat in response to Lucius’ answer to settling his dispute with the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa over the disposition of the territories left by the passing of Countess Matilda of Tuscany. Frederick made what seems to be a fair proposal that wasn’t going to break the backs of the locals on these lands. They apparently were not to Lucius’ liking. He wanted the land itself, not just a tithe of the imperial income. This was not the only bone of contention between the Pope and the Emperor but it seems to have sparked the need for wording in the derectal to the effect that: all counts, barons, rectors, and consuls of cities and other places who did not join in the struggle against heresy when called upon to do so would be excommunicated and their territories placed under interdict. He declared that these provisions joined the apostolic authority of the church with the sanction of imperial power. With this sort of wording, he made Frederick and any future Emperor complicit in and answerable to this decision. 

In a move much like todays ‘corporate sales goals’, Lucian III obligated all his patriarchs, archbishops and bishops to re-announce these rules and the excommunication on certain feast days and holidays. If they didn’t do this for three consecutive years, they were stripped of their offices. They were furthermore obligated to seek out heretics in their bi-annual or tri-annual rounds of their dioceses, by visiting places rumored to harbor heretics and questioning people about heretical activities in the area.

Those they questioned were required to swear their testimonies of anything they knew about heretical activity under an oath. If they were later found to have been lying in any way, they too were considered sympathizers and condemned as heretics. If those found guilty were landed persons, their lands were seized by the Church. In this way, the Church became wealthy in lands and fiefs. Any ecclesiastic who did not turn up a heretic now and then became suspect himself, so it was to their benefit to find one or two on occasion. This wasn’t the official beginning of the Inquisition, but it set the stage for it and for the Fourth Crusade, also known as the Albigensian Crusade.

There were several specific sects mentioned in the Ad abolendam – among them were the Cathars, the Humiliati, the Waldensians, the Arnoldists and the Josephines. In 1211, under the pontificate of Innocent III, more than 80 Waldensians were burned as heretics at Strasbourg. It was a specter of things to come.

Continued in Part II

The not so innocent Pope & the Cathars

Before going any further with this, I want to reiterate that I went into this all as a skeptic and a bit of a cynic because there were too many holes in the things I’d read – at least as near as I knew. I am a dogmatist’s nightmare. I live by Fox Mulder’s credos of “Question everything!” and “The Truth is Out There.” I have since before Fox Mulder even existed. My father raised me to be like that.

This tends to be a double-edged sword that cuts both ways. I consider it one of my strengths, but it’s also one of my weaknesses. I will seldom take anyone’s word for anything – unless I know from experience that they do their homework fairly thoroughly. This leaves me room to learn and figure out things for myself, which is the whole point of undertaking one’s own ‘grail quest’. You don’t find your own grail by reading about someone else’s adventure. That is to say, you can use these things as sign-posts and maps, but the map is not the territory, and you shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. For you see, there are bits of truth mixed in with all the fallacies and outright fictions.  On the negative side, it takes a lot longer to ‘get there’ but once you have arrived, the journey and the conclusions are yours and yours alone. You made them and you ‘own’ them. They don’t belong to anyone else but you. This is the difference between ‘knowledge’ and ‘wisdom’. Knowledge is knowing the things other people say. Wisdom is learning and knowing it for your-self and therefore equal to ‘understanding’.   

 

That being said let us continue now with the story.

Albi is a commune in Southern France in the department of Tarn. It is also a city on the Tarn River, located about 85 kilometers northeast of Toulouse. Albi is an Occitan word but it is also a Latin word, meaning ‘white’ or ‘fair’. This word is the root of other words like Albany, and Alban – another name for Scotland. The root word gens means ‘people’ or a lineage of people. Albi is also an Arabic word that means ‘my heart’ or ‘beloved’.

This region was first settled in historical times in the Bronze Age, somewhere between 3000 and 600 BCE. It would seem that those who came there were coming back to a place buried deep in their ancestral memories from the days when people lived in caves and drew interesting pictures on the walls. That period of time was, ironically enough, called “the Magdalenian.” The Magdalenian period was named after the type site of La Madeleine, a rock shelter located in the Vézère valley, in the commune of Tursac, in the Dordogne department of France. Before it was called the Magdalenian period, it was originally termed "L'âge du renne" (the Age of the Reindeer). This might seem an odd bit of information to throw in at the moment, but it becomes a link to the Scythians later on in the story. Or perhaps I should say ‘earlier on’ in the story.

Toulouse, located in the department of Albi was the capitol of the Languedoc, a region that was once separate from France. It was the seat of Catharism and in fact the flag and coat of arms of the Languedoc is the Cathar cross. The name Languedoc comes from “langue d’oc”, for the people there spoke the Occitan language.

Catharism (from Greek: katharos, pure) was a name given to a Christian religious sect with dualistic and gnostic elements that appeared in the Languedoc region of France and other parts of Europe in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th and 13th centuries. Catharism had its roots in the Paulician movement in Armenia and the Bogomils of Bulgaria which took influences from the Paulicians. Though the term "Cathar" has been used for centuries to identify the movement, whether the movement identified itself with this name is debatable. In Cathar texts, the terms "Good Men" (Bons Hommes) or "Good Christians" are the common terms of self-identification.

Like many medieval movements, there were various schools of thought and practice amongst the Cathari; some were dualistic (believing in a God of Good and a God of Evil), others Gnostic, some closer to orthodoxy while abstaining from an acceptance of Catholicism. The dualist theology was the most prominent, however, and was based upon an asserted complete incompatibility of love and power. As matter was seen as a manifestation of power, it was believed to be incompatible with love.

The Cathari did not believe in one all-encompassing god, but in two, both equal and comparable in status. They held that the physical world was evil and created by Rex Mundi (translated from Latin as "king of the world"), who encompassed all that was corporeal, chaotic and powerful; the second god, the one whom they worshipped, was entirely disincarnate: a being or principle of pure spirit and completely unsullied by the taint of matter. He was the god of love, order and peace.

According to some Cathars, the purpose of man's life on Earth was to transcend matter, perpetually renouncing anything connected with the principle of power and thereby attaining union with the principle of love. According to others, man's purpose was to reclaim or redeem matter, spiritualising and transforming it.

This placed them at odds with the Catholic Church regarding material creation, on behalf of which Jesus had died, as being intrinsically evil and implying that God, whose word had created the world in the beginning, was a usurper. Furthermore, as the Cathars saw matter as intrinsically evil, they denied that Jesus could become incarnate and still be the son of God. Cathars vehemently repudiated the significance of the crucifixion and the cross. In fact, to the Cathars, Rome's opulent and luxurious Church seemed a palpable embodiment and manifestation on Earth of Rex Mundi's sovereignty.

The Catholic Church regarded the sect as dangerously heretical, although the actual reason for its spread was most likely the discredit of the Church itself in the medieval society. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catharism]

Pope Innocent III, reigned as Pope from 1198 to his death in 1216. He was one of the most powerful and influential popes in the history of the papacy. He claimed supremacy over all the kings and royal houses of Europe. He used his position well to his advantage and that of advancing the interests of the Church of Rome. A strong opponent of anything that threatened the Church, he declared the Third Crusade, to once again attempt to stop the intrusion of the Muslims into the Holy Land. He also knew about the Cathars and knew that this ‘heretical’ movement was growing uncomfortably popular – not only amongst the people, but amongst his own clergy. He himself estimated that probably 80% of his clergy were at least sympathetic to the ideas of the Cathars. The royal houses of the Languedoc were also very sympathetic to the Cathars, if not Cathars themselves. Not only was the Roman form of Christianity being threatened, but he feared the Church itself would implode from within, if he did not stop this heresy dead in its tracks.

The Lords of the Languedoc and Toulouse moved into his sites, because of their Cathar allegiances and sympathies. Being the cunning, ambitious, power-mad and clever man that he was, he devised a plan to enable him to declare yet another crusade – this time on European soil. We shall learn more of that in the next installment.

Have a beautiful day/evening my friends!

Love, Rayvn