XIII. an open war which they carried on with the CENT utmost exertions of cruelty, though with various PART II. success, for several years. The chief director of this ghostly war was ARNAL, abbot of the Cistertians, and legate of the Roman pontif; and the commander in chief of the troops employed in this noble expedition was SIMON earl of Montford. RAYMOND VI. earl of Tholouse, who, consulting his safety rather than his conscience, had engaged in the crusade against the heretics, was obliged to change sides, and to attack their persecutors. For SIMON, who had embarked in this war, not so much from a principle of zeal for religion, or of aversion to the heretics, as from a desire of augmenting his fortune, cast a greedy eye upon the territories of RAYMOND, and his selfish views were seconded and accomplished by the court of Rome. After many battles, sieges, and a multitude of other exploits conducted with the most intrepid courage and the most abomi-. nable barbarity, he received from the hands of INNOCENT III. at the council of the Lateran, A. D. 1215, the county of Tholouse and the other lands, belonging to that earl, as a reward for his of which he considers that of the Waldenses as the least pernicious. Mali erant Waldenses, sed comparatione aliorum hæreticorum longe minus perversi. It was not, however, from the city of Albigia, or Albi, that the French heretics were comp. ehended under the general title of Albigenses, but from another circumstance, to wit, that the greatest part of Narbonne-Gaul was, in this century, called Albigensium, as the Benedictine monks have clearly demonstrated in their Histoire Generale de Languedoc, tom. iii. not. xiii. p. 552. The term Albigenses, in its more confined sense, was used to denote those heretics who inclined towards the Manichæansystem, and who were otherwise known by the denominations of Catharists, Publicans or Paulician, and Bulgarians. This appears evidently from many incontestable authorities, and more especially from the Codex Inquisitionis Tolosana, published by LIMBORCH, in his History of the Inquisition, and in which the Albigenses are carefully distinguish ed from the other sects that made a noise in this century. XIII. CENT. zeal in supporting the cause of God and of the PART II church. About three years after this, he lost his life at the siege of Tholouse. RAYMOND, his valiant adversary, died in the year 1222. sition made of Tho louse to the Ro tif. The fruit- VIII. Thus were the two chiefs of this deless oppo plorable war far from extinguishing the infernal by the earl flame of persecution on the side of the pontifs, or calming the restless spirit of faction on that of the pretended heretics. RAYMOND VII. earl of Thoman pon- louse, and AMALRIC, earl of Montford, succeeded their fathers at the head of the contending parties, and carried on the war with the utmost vehemence, and with such various success as rendered the issue for some time doubtful. The former seemed at first more powerful than his adversary, and the Roman pontif HONORIUS III. alarmed at the vigorous opposition he made to the orthodox legions, engaged LEWIS VIII. king of France, by the most pompous promises, to march in person with a formidable army against the enemies of the church. The obsequious monarch listened to the solicitations of the lordly pontif, and embarked with a considerable military force in the cause of the church, but did not live to reap the fruits of his zeal. His engagements, however, with the court of Rome, and his furious designs against the heretics, were executed with the greatest alacrity and vigour by his son and successor LEWIS the Saint; so that RAYMOND, pressed on all sides, was obliged, in the year 1229, to make peace upon the most disadvantageous terms, even by making a cession of the greatest part of his territories to the French monarch, after having sacrificed a considerable portion of them, as a peaceoffering to the church of Rome [p]. This treaty of [] It was in consequence of this treaty (of which the articles were drawn up at Meaux, and afterwards confirmed at Paris, XIII. of peace gave a mortal blow to the cause of he-C E N T. resy, and dispersed the champions that had ap-PART II. peared in its defence; the inquisition was established at Tholouse, and the heretics were not only exposed to the pious cruelties of LEWIS, but, what was still more shocking, RAYMOND himself, who had formerly been their patron, became their persecutor, and treated them upon all occasions with the most inhuman severity. It is true, this prince broke the engagements into which he had entered by the treaty above mentioned, and renewed the war against LEWIS and the inquisitors, who abused their victory and the power they had acquired in the most odious manner. But this new effort, in favour of the Heretics, was attended with little or no effect; and the unfortunate earl of Tholouse, the last representative of that noble and powerful house, dejected and exhausted by the losses he had sustained, and the perplexities in which he was involved, died, in the year 1249 without male issue. And thus ended a civil war, of which religion had been partly the cause, and partly the pretext, and which, in its consequences, was highly profitable both to the kings of France and to the Roman pontifs [9]. IX. Paris, in presence of LEWIS) that the university of Tholouse [9] Many writers, both ancient and modern, have related the circumstances of this religious war, that was carried on against the earls of Tholouse and their confederates, and also against the heretics, whose cause they maintained. But none of the historians, whom I have consulted on this subject, have treated it with XIII. CENT. IX. The severity which the court of Rome emPART II, ployed in the extirpation of heresy, and the formidable arguments of fire and sword, racks and ren and sis-gibbets, with which the popes and their creatures ters of the reasoned against the enemies of the church, free spirit. were not sufficient to prevent the rise of new and The Breth most pernicious sects in several places. Many of these sects were inconsiderable in themselves, and transitory in their duration, while some of them made a noise in the world, and were suppressed with difficulty. Among the latter we may reckon that of the Brethren and Sisters of the free spirit, which about this time gained ground secretly and imperceptibly in Italy, France, and Germany, and seduced into its bosom multitudes of persons of both sexes, by the striking appearance of piety that was observed in the conduct of the members that composed it. How far the councils of this century proceeded against this new sect, we cannot with that impartiality which is so essential to the merit of historical writing. The protestant writers, among whom BASNAGE deserves an eminent rank, are too favourable to RAYMOND and the Albigenses; the Roman-catholic historians lean with still more partiality to the other side. Of these latter, the most recent are BENEDICT, a Dominican monk, author of the Histoire des Albigeois, des Vaudois, et de Barbers, published at Paris, in 1691, in two volumes, 12mo.-J. BAPT. LANGLOIS, a Jesuit, who composed the Histoire des Croisades contre les Albigeois, which was published in 12mo, at Rouen, in 1703, to which we must add, Jo. JAC. PERCINI Monumenta Conventus Tolosani Ordinis FF. Prædicator. in quibus Historia hujus Conventus distribuitur, et refertur totius Albigensium facti narratio, Toiosa, 1693, Fol. These writers are chargeable with the greatest partiality and injustice in the reproaches and calumnies they throw out so liberally against the RAYMONDS and the Albigenses, while they disguise, with a perfidious dexterity, the barbarity of SIMON of Montfort, and the ambitious views of extending their dominions that engaged the kings of France to enter into this war. The most ample and accurate account of this expedition against the heretics is that which is given by the learned Benedictines CLAUDE LE VIC and JOSEPH VAISSETTE, in their Histoire Generale de Languedoc, Paris, 1730, tom. iii. in which, however, there are several omissions, which render that valuable work defective. XIII. not say with any certainty; because we have up-c EN T. on record but a few of the decrees that were issued pART II. out upon that occasion. Perhaps the obscurity of the rising factions skreened it, in a great measure, from public view. But this was not the case in the following age; the Brethren and Sisters above mentioned came forth from their retreats in proportion as their numbers increased; they drew upon them the eyes of the world, and particularly those of the inquisitors, who committed to the flames such of these unhappy enthusiasts as fell into their hands; while the councils, held in Germany and other nations, loaded them with excommunications and damnatory edicts. This new sect took their denomination from the words of St PAUL [r], and maintained that the true children of God were invested with the privilege of a full and perfect freedom from the jurisdiction of the law [s]. They were called, by the Germans and Flemish, Beghards and Beguttes, which, as we have seen already, was a name usually given to those who made an extraordinary profession of piety and devotion. They received [r] Romans viii. 2. 14. T4 are, [] The accounts we here give of these wretched Fanatics for the most part, taken from authentic records, which have not been as yet published, from the decrees of synods and councils held in France and Germany, from the Diplomas of the Roman pontifs, the sentences pronounced by the inquisitors, and the other sources of information to which I have had access. I have also a collection of extracts from certain books of these enthusiasts, and more especially from that which treated of the Nine Spiritual rocks, and which was in the highest esteem among the free brethren, who considered it as a treasure of divine wisdom and doctrine. As I cannot expose here these records to the examination of the curious reader, I beg leave to refer him to a long and ample edict issued out against these brethren by HENRY I. archbishop of Cologn, and published in the Statuta Coloniensia, A. 1554. p. 58. This edict is, in every respect, conformable to those published on the same occasion, at Mentz, Aschaffenburg, Paderborn, Beziers, Triers, and other places. |