That there was need of strong measures was proved by the continued activity of the heretics. After the Count of Toulouse, the Count of Foix was the greatest noble of Languedoc. In this same year his sister Esclairmonde was “hereticated,” and in the great crowd present at the ceremony only the Count himself failed to “venerate” the “Perfect” according to the prescribed heretical form. His wife was already a “Cathar,” and another of his sisters was a Waldensian. So things went in the “midi.” At the same time that the powers of the legates were increased, Innocent empowered them to offer Philip Augustus and his son Louis complete remission of sins, as if for a crusade to Palestine, if they would move against the Albigenses of Languedoc. The indulgence was to be extended to all nobles who might aid in suppressing heresy; and all who were under excommunication for crimes of violence, nobles or villains, were to be absolved on joining the expedition. At the same time, the Pope himself wrote direct to Philip, promising him not only full indulgences, as for a crusade against the Moslem, but also the territories of such nobles as might obstruct the pious work of suppressing heresy. The time was altogether unfavourable for the King of France to grant such a request, for he was otherwise engaged. About the middle of the twelfth century, as a result of two great marriages, the Plantagenet Counts of Anjou (in addition to their hereditary lands of Anjou, Maine and Touraine) had become kings of England and Dukes of Normandy, suzerains of Brittany, and Dukes of Aquitaine, which included Poitou, Guienne, Gascony, and Auvergne. Naturally, as masters of this great sweep of territory so much greater in extent than the little royal domain which alone was directly ruled by the kings of France, the Angevins were almost continually at war with the French kings to whom they theoretically owed homage for their Continental possessions. Besides their vast lands, the Plantagenets possessed high personal energy and complete ruthlessness; their line was supposed to descend from a devil, and from their behaviour it seemed fairly probable. Further, the Norman system of administration and (as we should say) “civil service” which they directed and applied throughout their territory, was the best of its kind in Latin Christendom, at least outside of the kingdom of Naples and Sicily which was also Norman-ruled. On the surface of things, the “kings of Paris” seemed hopelessly overmatched. On the other hand, the Angevin dominions could have no possible feeling of attachment to one another. They were held together only from above. Whereas behind the kings of France were dim, vast, memories of the Roman unity; as yet mere “ideas,” to be sure, but in France ideas have power.