City of Béziers Captured By Crusaders; "Kill Them All; God Will Know His Own"

 by Siggurdsson

 

July 22, 1209 At the beginning of the 13th century, the Catholic Church faced a heretical dogma that was viewed in the same light as the followers of Islam. Called Catharism, this popular mass movement presented a challenge to the faith of Christ. That challenge was met with the same zeal as was used to meet the Muslim threat in the Holy Land. In 1208, Pope Innocent III declared that a crusade be preached against the Cathars. For the next 20 years, the Cathars of southwestern France were the targets of the Cathar, or Albigensian, Crusade. Background: The Cathar Heresy and Languedoc Catharism can be traced to sects in the Byzantine Empire and Bulgaria, which likely reached western Europe via trade routes. The name “Cathar” was not used by its followers, who usually referred to themselves as “Good Men.” It is believed that the name is derived from the word “catharsis” which means “purification” in Greek. It was coined by German clerics in 1181, referring to a group of these heretics in the city of Cologne. Catharism believed that God was a dual being, one insubstantial and one material. They believed that the physical, material world was a corrupting influence on humans. It was their objective to strive for a pure, spiritual existence.
The Cathar leadership (the Perfecti) followed some very interesting beliefs: a) They did not give oaths, including marriage vows. During the later Inquisitions, many charges against accused Cathars were dismissed if they were revealed to be married. b) They did not engage in sex, as it propagated the slavery of spirit to the flesh; the term “bugger” was a corruption of the word “Bulgarian” which was used as an alternate name for the Cathars, as they were thought to engage in unnatural sex habits. c) They were essentially vegans, avoiding the consumption of any foods that were by-products of sexual reproduction, even eggs and milk (no, I’m not making this up), with the possible exception of seafood. d) War and capital punishment were condemned, truly a great abnormality in the medieval age. There were pockets of Cathar believers located in the northern France, western Germany and northern Italy. The largest group of Cathars was centered in the region of France known as Languedoc, a border region with a language and culture closer to Spanish Catalonia than France. [The main language of this region is Occitan, a dialect of Catalan with Latin influences, which is still spoken in portions of Spain, France, Italy and Monaco today, with up to 7 million people in France said to understand the dialect. It is also, somewhat inexactly, referred to as Provençal.] This differing language and culture tended to set the region apart from the rest of the French realm. Political boundaries in early medieval Languedoc were mostly defined by association with nearby strong fortresses, which might be a walled town or merely a castle. The feudal system was weaker than in northern France, and the local lords maintained considerable independence. Many towns were controlled by councils. Contributing to fragmented political unity in the region were the incursions of the counts of Barcelona. This powerful ruling house in Catalonia had been acquiring fiefs to the north of the Pyrenees from the early twelfth century. There were other 'foreign' pressures upon Languedoc. To the west was Aquitaine, its duke was technically a vassal to the king of France, but he was also the king of England. To the east, some territories in Provence were considered properties of the Catholic pope as well as of the Holy Roman (read German) Emperor. The most prominent counties in Languedoc were Toulouse, Foix, and Comminges. Of equal prominence were the viscounties of Trencavel. Count Raymond VI of Toulouse was also count of Provence (the region just east of Languedoc). His domain encompassed an area of particularly active trade and commerce. The wealthy lords of the counties and viscounties in this area lived well, and they allowed an atmosphere of relatively open-mindedness and tolerance of beliefs. The Roman Catholic parishes of the area were not as strong a community focal point as they were in many other parts of France. Jews and Cathars served in many of the courts of the count of Toulouse and the viscount de Trencavel, the latter was very open in his support of the Cathars. Background In 1198, Pope Innocent III came to the Papal throne. He was concerned by reports of the growing Cathar heresy, and the threat to Church authority it presented. Therefore, he was determined to break the sect and restore Catholicism to the region. For the next eight years, he tried to peacefully effect this change, achieving small successes. During this time, some Catholic monks held a meeting with Cathar Perfecti in the town of Albi, where a debate took place that settled very little. [Because of this meeting, the later crusade would sometimes be called the “Albigensian Crusade.”] In 1206, the Pope contacted the King of France, Philip II Augustus, and asked for his help to break the Cathar heresy. Specifically, Pope Innocent asked that Philip’s son Louis be allowed to lead the military effort against the heretics. Philip refused, first because he was a cousin to Count Raymond of Toulouse, and second because he was involved in the Bouvines War, which saw England, the German emperor and Flemish nobles

allied

against him. Innocent then contacted Raymond of Toulouse directly. When Raymond refused to take action, the Pope excommunicated him. In late 1207, the Pope sent Pierre de Castelnau, a French monk as his personal agent to convince Raymond to act against the Cathars. In early January of 1208, Castelnau and Count Raymond met at the town of Saint-Gilles in Provence. The two men argued and threats were exchanged. The next day, January 14, as he was leaving the town, Castelnau was assassinated, supposedly by an agent of Count Raymond. Consequently, the Pope proclaimed a crusade against the Cathars of Languedoc. His proclamation offered indulgences for participants and declared that the heretics' lands were open to be taken. This latter offer enticed many knights, especially those from northern France, who needed or merely sought more land. Over the next year, French knights began to gather their retinues and travelled south to Languedoc, hoping to acquire lands for themselves. One such knight was Simon de Montfort, an English knight recently disinherited from his uncle’s lands in England by King John (also called Lackland, the “evil Prince John” of the Robin Hood legends). He had acquired a fief in northern France, but coveted more lands. [Montfort had gone east to participate in the Fourth Crusade of 1204. But when the Crusader forces attacked Constantinople rather than Jerusalem, he refused to take part in the sack of the Byzantine capital and came home.] Cathar Crusade: Opening Phase, 1209 By June of 1209, an army of crusaders gathered in Lyon, numbering probably between 10,000 and 20,000 soldiers. [Some contemporary accounts estimate over 100,000, but this is likely a gross exaggeration.] Besides Simon de Montfort, there were the duke of Bourgogne, the Counts of Nevers and Saint-Pol, the Seneschal of Anjou, and numerous other noblemen. This host marched south along the Rhone River towards Provence. They were joined by Arnaud-Amaury, a Cistercian monk and papal legate who had a titular leadership position as spiritual advisor in the campaign. Meanwhile, Count Raymond of Toulouse, finally recognizing the seriousness of the situation, sought to be reconciled with the Church. In June, he returned to the town of Saint-Gilles, stood barefoot before the sepulcher of Pierre de Castelnau, and pledged to expel Cathars from Toulouse. When reports of his actions reached Pope Innocent, the pontiff lifted his excommunication, and Raymond tentatively joined the crusade. The crusaders marched onward to Montpellier, (which, it should be noted, was a fief of the King of Aragón). Raymond-Roger III of Trencavel (aged 24 or 25 and nephew of Raymond of Toulouse) realized that the crusaders were heading for his lands. Though he was a Roman Catholic, Roger de Trencavel tolerated the particularly strong Cathar concentrations in his lands of Carcassonne and Albi. He met with the Arnaud-Amaury at Montpellier, to “surrender to the Church.” However, Amaury refused to meet with Raymond-Roger. Knowing that his lands were to be attacked, Raymond-Roger quickly returned to Carcassonne, his strongest city, to organize his defenses. Continuing on, the Crusader army’s first target was the town of Béziers, a walled town of 5000 close to Montpelier. Local refugees fleeing the Crusaders had swollen the population to almost 20,000 persons. Arriving before the town on July 21, 1209 the Crusaders sent a message to the Catholic Christians in the town. The message enjoined them to either give up their Cathar neighbors, or for themselves to leave the town. Amazingly, the Catholics did neither. As a result, the Crusaders began preparations to invest the town, with the likelihood of a long siege looming. The next afternoon, as the Crusaders were busy organizing their siege lines, the townspeople of Béziers took the initiative. The town gates opened, and a large of group of town militiamen – probably augmented by local merchants and laborers – came out of the town and launched a sortie against their besiegers. Taken by surprise by the bold move, the knights and their men-at-arms were at first shocked by the swift attack. However, the better weapons and armor, as well as the discipline and zeal, of the Crusaders quickly took their toll of the townsmen. The attackers retreated back into their town. However, a group of Crusaders – no doubt likely mounted – began to pursue their foe closely, and managed to enter Béziers before the gate was shut. As a result, the Crusader forces poured into the town, and within the space of two to three hours, Béziers was taken. The victorious Frenchmen began to pillage the town and slaughter its inhabitants. Many of the town’s inhabitants took refuge in the churches, a common act during wartime. However, the Crusaders were in a killing frenzy. The doors of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene were broken down and those inside were dragged out and slaughtered. Elsewhere in the town many thousands were mutilated and killed. Prisoners were blinded, dragged behind horses, and used for target practice. Another church, the Cathedral of Saint Nazaire, still filled with refugees, was set afire and the occupants died when the building collapsed. By nightfall, the entire town was in flames. There is a popular story, telling of a Crusader knight asking one of his leaders how they could tell the Cathar heretics from the true Catholics. According to a later chronicler, the papal legate Arnaud-Amaury heard the question and replied in Latin, “Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.” (Kill them all. God will know His own.) A report to Pope Innocent by Arnaud-Amaury succinctly told of the attack, capture and burning of the city: While discussions were still going on with the barons about the release of those in the city who were deemed to be Catholics, the servants and other persons of low rank and unarmed attacked the city without waiting for orders from their leaders. To our amazement, crying "to arms, to arms!" within the space of two or three hours they crossed the ditches and the walls and Béziers was taken. Our men spared no one, irrespective of rank, sex or age, and put to the sword almost 20,000 people. After this great slaughter the whole city was despoiled and burnt… No casualty figures are noted for the Crusaders, and an estimated 7000-20,000 townspeople and refuges were slaughtered. This action was the first major act of the Albigensian, or Cathar, Crusade, which would finally be ended in the year 1255. Footnote #1: Despite the razing of the city, the Cathedral of Saint Nazaire was rebuilt, and still stands today.