Meanwhile his agents (two monks, Rainier and Guy by name) arrived in Languedoc, accredited by papal letters to the “Prelates, Princes, Nobles and People” of Southern France, to begin the papal effort against the Albigenses. At this time there was no idea of using force on a large scale. There was already a precedent in Henry of Clairvaux’s little expedition which had taken Lavaur in 1181. But it seems to have been assumed that this sort of thing was unnecessary, perhaps that it was impossible. At any rate, it was not tried. Rainier and Guy were merely expected to persuade the religious and secular authorities to banish heretics and confiscate their property, the usual laws of the time against heresy. The two commissioners were empowered to compel obedience by interdict, and to reward those who should assist them by granting the customary “indulgences” usually enjoyed by pilgrims to Rome or Compostella. It should perhaps be explained that interdicts are sentences laid upon localities, and in a place so sentenced there can be no public worship, no bell may ring and no Church service be held. Sometimes marriages cannot be celebrated, even in private, nor extreme unction be given to the sick. In mediæval times they were powerful weapons but at the same time dangerous ones, because they accustomed people to living almost completely shut off from the public practise of religion. Six months later, the powers given to Rainier were enlarged so that he might reform the Church in the infected regions and restore ecclesiastical discipline. In July, 1199, he was formally designated Papal “Legate,” to be obeyed and respected as if he were the Pope in person. Thus early in the business it was necessary to “reform the lives” of the local clergy clear up to archbishops, as even these last could not be counted upon to lead outwardly pious lives, much less to take action against heresy in defiance of the public opinion of their flocks. But although he had already seen the weakness of the local clergy as instruments against heresy, nevertheless the Pope continued to act on the assumption that the local secular authorities were up to their work in the matter, if only enough clerical pressure of the proper sort could be put upon them.