A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume ILea, Henry Charles
History
A History of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages; volume I
Lea, Henry Charles
Inquisition -- History
Immediately on his return from the council Pons, Archbishop of Narbonne,
made haste to publish this decree, with all its anathemas and
interdicts, and he included in its terms those who exacted new and
unaccustomed tolls from travellers--a rapidly growing extortion of the
feudal nobles which we shall constantly see reappear, like the
Cotereaux, in the Albigensian quarrels. Henry of Clairvaux had refused
the troublesome see of Toulouse, which had become vacant shortly after
his mission thither in 1178, but had accepted the cardinalate of Albano,
and he was forthwith sent as papal legate to preach and lead the
crusade. His eloquence enabled him to raise a considerable force of
horse and foot, with which, in 1181, he fell upon the territories of the
Viscount of Béziers and laid siege to the stronghold of Lavaur where the
Viscountess Adelaide, daughter of Raymond of Toulouse, and the leading
Patarins had taken refuge. We are told that Lavaur was captured through
a miracle, and that in various parts of France consecrated wafers
dropping blood announced the success of the Christian arms. Roger of
Béziers hastened to make his submission and swear no longer to protect
heresy. Raymond de Baimiac and Bernard Raymond, the Catharan bishops,
who were taken prisoners, renounced their heresy and were rewarded with
prebends in two churches of Toulouse. Many other heretics gave in their
submission, but returned to the false faith as soon as the danger was
past. The short term for which the Crusaders had enlisted expired; the
army disbanded itself, and the next year the cardinal-legate went back
to Rome, having accomplished, virtually, nothing except to increase the
mutual exasperation by the devastation of the country through which his
troops had passed. Raymond of Toulouse, involved in desperate war with
the King of Aragon, seems to have preserved complete indifference as to
this expedition, taking no part in it on either side.[97]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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