entered fully into the spirit of the orders given him. All the guilty parties surrendered unconditionally. Raymond made act of submission in April, turned over all his remaining dominions to the legate and even included a promise to exile himself anywhere the Pope might designate. On returning from England, he and his son lived for some time in Toulouse, with their wives, as private persons. Peace now seemed assured. Thus checked, the indomitable de Montfort had another string to his bow. As before he had played off the Languedocian clergy against the Pope, so now he used the papal nuncio at the Court of France. This man, Robert de Courcon by name, had been vigorously preaching the Albigensian Crusade. While Peter of Benevento was temporarily absent escorting Pedro’s son to Aragon and organizing the regency there, de Courcon might fairly claim to be the principal representative of the Pope in France. With the usual independence of mediæval agents at a distance from their master, the nuncio at Paris proceeded to go clean counter to that master’s wishes. In June he had a conference with de Montfort at the latter’s camp, and in July he confirmed the leader of the Crusade by a solemn charter in the possession of all the lands in the Albigeois, the Agenais, Rouergue, and Quercy, already conquered or to be conquered from heretics and favourers of heretics! The Crusaders whom de Courcon had persuaded to take the field began operations on their way south by capturing the castle of Maurillac in Auvergne. Here for the first time we hear of the burning of Waldensians, that is of heretics not obviously enemies to society. After the fall of the place, seven of them refused to recant before de Courcon and were accordingly burned ... “with immense rejoicings by the soldiers of Christ.” The event is significant, and we shall return to it. The reinforcements thus brought in enabled de Montfort triumphantly to promenade the Agenais, Rouergue, Quercy, and even the Perigord. So great was his prestige that, in July, he married his son Amaury to the heiress of Dauphiné. Meanwhile Philip Augustus broke Otto and John of England on the decisive field of Bouvines so thoroughly, that neither of them was afterwards a factor in the affairs of Continental Europe. No wonder de Courcon, the papal nuncio at Paris, was emboldened. For the first time the French monarchy was free to take up the Albigensian business. On December 7 a courier from Rheims arrived with letters from de Courcon calling a council of nobles and high ecclesiastics of Languedoc to meet in Montpellier on January 8. De Montfort’s party had decided to renew the sentence of deposition passed upon Raymond by the Council of Lavaur, this time by a more imposing body. Cardinal Peter of Benevento, on returning from Spain, had to content himself with taking the presidency of this assembly which was determined to go against the entire spirit of his actions.