V. in turn besieged the chief of the crusade in Castelnaudary. The war continued with varying success until, in 1213, Peter King of Arragon, victorious over the Spanish Mahommedans, had leisure to turn his attention north of the Pyrenees. Having collected proofs of the monstrous acts of cruelty and injustice committed by the Papal legate and commanders, he appealed to Rome, complaining at the same time that not only had the crusaders ravaged towns and massacred populations belonging to the Counts of Toulouse and Foix, which were in nowise affected with heresy, but they had invaded dominions belonging to the crown of Arragon, whilst he was himself engaged in combating the infidel. The Pope was either shaken and shamed by these remonstrances or affected to be so. But the legate and his clergy were determined to keep possession of Languedoc, some of them styling themselves dukes and counts, as well as bishops and archbishops. England and Naples were fiefs of the Holy See, why not the south of France? The King of Arragon pretended to suzerainty over it, and this it was that the crusading prelates resolved to repel. Peter of Arragon, therefore, crossed the Pyrenees against them; but at the head of very insufficient forces, not more than a thousand knights. De Montfort mustered as many French men-at-arms. The citizens of Toulouse and other cities swelled the ranks of the King of Arragon, whilst the bishops brought their serfs and retainers to support De Montfort. Each chief was well fitted to represent the cause he fought for. Peter of Arragon was a valiant knight and a gay troubadour, a gallant and a poet. De Montfort a sincere and zealous devotee, abhorring gallantry and scorning verse. He intercepted a letter of Peters' to his mistress, declaring that her charms had been his inducement to cross the Pyrenees. The Abbot of Panniers remonstrating with V. De Montfort against his project of attacking the larger CHAP. army of Peter, the Count replied by showing him the amatory effusion of the King of Arragon, and asking: "How could he, who undertook the cause of God, fear a man who crossed it for the sake of a woman?" Raymond of Toulouse advised Peter to stay within his entrenchments, and from thence weaken and wear out the heavy cavalry of De Montfort with his missiles ere he attacked it. The king would not listen to his advice, but drew up in the open field, when the knights of De Montfort issued from Muret in a compact body to attack. Their impetuous charge swept Spaniard and Provençal before it, the victors making for the banner of the king, in order to complete the success of the day by his death. Peter was slain valiantly fighting. The citizen warriors of Toulouse had followed the advice vainly given to Peter, and had entrenched themselves. within their camp. But when they heard of the king's death, they flung themselves headlong, to reach the vessels in the Garonne, and perished in large numbers. Simon de Montfort being led before the naked body of Peter, showed no signs of commiseration; and marched forthwith barefooted to the church to return thanks for his signal victory. The battle of Muret, fought in 1213, completely crushed not merely the Albigenses, but the native princes and populations of the south. The citizens of Toulouse proffered hostages: the Counts of Foix, of Comminges, of St. Gilles, of Toulouse submitted to the decree of the future council, which, assembling at Montpellier in the commencement of 1215, transferred the sovereignty of the country to Simon de Montfort. For the southerns there was no longer any trust in themselves, any hope from Arragon, any mercy in the Pope. All, therefore, turned their regards towards the King of France. Montpellier placed itself under his sovereignty, forbad Montfort to put his foot within its walls, and V. CHAP. drove him out when he made forcible entrance. In the spring, Louis, son of the French king, came with a body of troops, under the pretence of joining the crusade, after its every result was accomplished. The prince by this means maintained the French king's rights, intervened between several towns and their persecutors; made them, indeed, demolish their own walls, but at the same time enabled them to feel that they had a suzerain, other than the Pope, to whom they might in case of need appeal. The Pope in the meantime assembled the fourth council of Lateran, in which it was to be considered how those nations and princes were to be treated who differed from the Church. What had been already done with regard to the Count of Toulouse was here converted into a general rule. The prince who refused to extirpate heretics was to be excommunicated, his vassals released from their allegiance, and his territories transferred to the first Catholic occupant. How heretics were to be discovered and punished was also formally regulated, and this regulation was the establishment of the Inquisition. A council that passed such laws could scarcely prove indulgent to the Count of Toulouse and the other princes implicated. A poet of the age, however, insists that the Pope, Innocent, was touched with pity and remorse, and that he fain would have restored, if not Raymond, at least his son, to a great portion of his dominions.* This, however, would have been to despoil De Montfort, the most consistent, able, and unflinching champion that the Church had found. If the Pope felt compassion towards the old family of Toulouse, he was unable to indulge it. The council passed a decree in favour of De Montfort; but certain cities and districts of Provence were assigned to the son of Ray "I will give him the Venaissin store him Tholouse, Agen, and Beaucaire." mond. The Dominicans took possession of Toulouse; whilst, to combat such dangerous enemies as the Waldenses and the Poor of Lyons,-who preached humility and poverty in contrast with the luxury and splendour of the Church of Rome,-the order of the Franciscans was founded, who were to practise for the rest of the Church the virtues of poverty, and who, by the performance of those acts of piety which attract the poor and humble, were to secure the attachment to Rome of that lower class which appeared ready to escape from it. The decree of the Lateran Council went forth in 1215. Humbled as were the Languedocians, the population would not submit to the monks or to De Montfort. The son of Raymond raised, in 1216, the standard of war in Provence; the father appeared in the Toulousan country. De Montfort, in revenge for the citizens displaying their predilections for the ancient count, seized, pillaged, and destroyed the principal inhabitants, and then hastened to Paris to do homage to Philip Augustus, and no doubt besought of him those succours from the north, without which it was impossible for De Montfort to dominate the south. Philip gave but a hundred knights, who were to remain and to war for six months in Languedoc. This was insufficient; and, in 1217, Raymond of Toulouse once more took possession of his ancient capital. De Montfort, with his usual activity, hastened to expel him; but the country rose on all sides in execration of the oppressor, whose brother and nephew, in a precipitate attack on Toulouse, were both stricken down, and himself obliged to retreat. This compelled De Montfort to convert the siege into a blockade, which lasted all the winter; and it was not till spring that he could commence active operations. In the meanwhile, the citizens had gathered courage, gained military science, and made ample provision of food and of the engines of war. CHAP. V. V. CHAP. They repelled the assault of De Montfort and the legate with an energy which, if exerted sooner, might have saved the south, its civilisation, and its creed. At length, on the fête of St. John, 24th of June, a stone from an engine struck Simon de Montfort on the breast, and delivered the south from its great oppressor. The siege was immediately raised by Amaury de Montfort, son of Simon, who found it impossible to retrieve the fortunes of his house. A crusade directed against Egypt turned away that current of fanaticism and greed which had at first overwhelmed Languedoc. In 1219 Prince Louis, heir to the French throne, having taken La Rochelle from the English, finding himself with a victorious army in the neighbourhood of the disturbed south, marched, at the instigation of a papal legate, to lay siege to Toulouse. The town of Marmande lay in the way of their march, and the garrison capitulated. The bishops of the French army, however, declared that faith should not be preserved with heretics, and insisted on burning them all. The nobles opposed this infamy, and succeeded in saving the garrison; but the French soldiers, excited by the Bishop of Saintes, rushed in, and massacred the population, amounting to 5000 souls. After this exploit, Louis marched to Toulouse, but, large as was his army, he could make no impression upon its walls. His troops were only bound to a term of feudal service, and he was thus soon obliged to decamp, after having burned his own engines. Shortly after, the old Count Raymond of Toulouse expired, and his son acquired fresh strength as well as rights. Amaury de Montfort could not hold his ground before him; he therefore, in 1222, made offer to Philip Augustus to cede to him all his rights in Languedoc. The French king, then weakened by age and illness, refused to undertake so weighty an enterprise; and thus the natural termination of the struggle between |