with authority to prevent tumult and preserve order and regularity-that the conference should be held in some place to which all parties concerned might have free and safe access-and lastly, that a particular subject should be agreed upon between the disputants, which should be steadily prosecuted until it was fully discussed and determined, and that the party which could not maintain it by an appeal to the ́scriptures, the only standard of faith to Christians, should own themselves vanquished.

The proposal was so reasonable that it could not with decency be rejected; it was therefore accepted by the bishops and monks. The place of conference agreed upon was Montreal, near Carcassone, in the year 1206. The umpires on the catholic side were the bishops of Villeneuse and Auxere-and on that of the Albigenses, R. de Bot, and Anthony Riviere. On the part of the latter, several pastors were appointed to manage the debate, of whom Arnold Hot was the principal. He arrived first at the place appointed. A bishop of the name of Eusus met him on behalf of the papacy, accompanied by the renowned Dominic, two of the pope's legates, and several other of the catholic clergy. The points which Arnold undertook to prove were, that the mass and transubstantiation were idolatrous and unscriptural -that the church of Rome was not the spouse of Christand that its polity was of a pernicious and wicked tendency. Arnold drew up certain propositions upon those points, which he transmitted to the bishop, who required fifteen days to answer them, which was granted. On the appointed day, the bishop appeared, and produced a large manuscript, which was read in the public assembly. Arnold, requested that he might be permitted to reply by word of mouth, only entreating their patience if he took a considerable time in answering so prolix a writing, and fair promises were made him of a patient hearing. He then discoursed for the space of four days upon the subject, with such fluency and readiness, such order, perspicuity, and forcible reasoning, that a strong impression was produced on the audience. Arnold, at length, called upon his opponents to defend themselves. What they said on the occasion, we are not informed, but the cause of

1

the abrupt termination of the conference is a fact allowed on all hands, and may possibly suggest what was the real state of the controversy. For, while the pope's legates were disputing with Arnold, the umpire of the papal party, the bishop of Villeneuse, declared that nothing could be deter mined, because the army of the crusaders was at hand.* What he asserted, alas, was but too true; the papal armies advanced, and, by fire and faggot instantly decided all the points of controversy. Arnold and his brethren, indeed, might have been fully assured that it never was the intention of the pope to submit to any decision of the controversy by argument, which might happen to be unfavourable to his party. The bull which he had already issued, in consequence of the death of Peter de Chatineau, had made that suffici ently apparent. He had dispatched preachers throughout all Europe, to collect an army which should revenge the blood of that man, promising Paradise, and the remission of all their sins, to those who should bear arms forty days in that holy warfare; and, after telling them that "they were not to keep faith with those who do not keep faith with God,” he thus proceeds, "We exhort you, that you would endeavour to destroy the wicked heresy of the Albigenses, and do this with more rigour, than you would towards the Saracens themselves; persecute them with a strong hand; deprive them of their lands and possessions, and banish them and Roman Catholics in their room."

put

RAYMOND, the sixth count of Toulouse, in whose territories the Albigenses chiefly abounded, still humanely extended to them his protection and patronage. Pope Innocent, by a bull, had excommunicated him as favourer of heretics--he was prohibited the communion of holy things and of the faithful-all his subjects were absolved from their oath of allegiance, and power was dispensed to any catholic man not only to act against his person, but to seize his dominions, and dispossess him of them, under the pretext that by the prudence of the one, they might be effectually purged from heresy, as they had been grievously defiled by the wickedness of the other. Yet he does not appear to have

* Perrin's History of the Albigenses, b. iii. ch. ii.

been in the least diverted from his purpose by these horrid proceedings. His character is variously represented by the. friends and enemies of his party. The former describe him, not only as generous and brave, but as pious and virtuous, while the latter revile him as a hypocrite. The true ac count of him seems to be, that whether he had adopted the sentiments of the Albigenses or not, he humanely sympa. thized with them—that he understood the spirit of true religion to be a spirit of tolerance; that he studied to promote the real interests of his country, and with these views, at least, that he was desirous to protect all such as were useful members of society, whatever might be their peculiar religious tenets. Under such patronage their numbers rapidly increased, but it proportionally inflamed the indignation of the fierce and bloody inquisitors.*

While affairs remained in this critical posture, it unfortunately happened that Peter Chatineau, one of the inqui sitors, was assassinated, and Count Raymond was suspected of being, at least, privy to the murder. The catholics loudly inveighed against the crime as of the deepest dye. The Count was loaded with infamy, and with the highest censures of the church; and, in a little time, an expedition of more than one hundred thousand crossbearers (crusaders) was actually equipped against him. Raymond was justly alarmed —he offered to submit, promised obedience, and as a proof of his sincerity, delivered up into the hands of the pope seven fortified places in Provence. But that was not a sufficient sacrifice to ecclesiastical pride and malignity. He was required to present himself before the gates of the church of St. Agde, in the town of that name. Upwards of twenty bishops and archbishops were present, convened for the purpose of receiving his submission. He was required to swear upon the holy solemnities of the eucharist and the relics of the saints, which were exposed with great reverence before the gates of the church, and held by several prelates, that he would obey the commands of the holy Roman church. When he had thus bound himself by an oath, the legate

Rankin's History of France, vol. iii.

ordered one of the sacred vestments to be thrown over his neck, and, drawing him by means of it, he was brought into the church, where, having scourged him with a whip, he absolved him. It is added, that "he was so grievously torn by the stripes in scourging, that he was unable to go out by the way in which he had entered the church, but was forced to pass, quite naked as he was, through the lower gate. He was also compelled to undergo the same degrading process at the sepulchre of St. Peter the martyr at New Castres."*

The immense army of crusaders, however, being now in motion, was not to be reduced to a state of inactivity because the Earl of Toulouse had effected his reconciliation with the see of Rome. On the contrary, they every where attacked the Albigenses, took possession of the cities in which they were known to be, filled the streets with slaughter and blood, and committed to the flames numbers whom they had taken prisoners, Raymond had a nephew of the name of Roger, who was more bold and determined than his uncle. He was at the head of seven fiefs, or baronies, dependent, however, upon the Earl of Toulouse, and he evinced no disposition to yield an implicit obedience to the orders of Rome, nor abandon the people who had put themselves under his protection. Among the humiliating stipulations imposed upon the Earl of Toulouse, the one most repugnant to his feelings was, that he himself should lead the crusading army against Beziers, the capital of his own nephew's dominions, which was in effect now to make him the instrument of the destruction of the Albigenses, as he had hitherto been their protector, and indeed the destruction of his nephew also. This has ever been the detestible policy of the court of Rome, never to be satisfied with reasonable offers of submission, without degrading the wretched suppliant, even in his own eyes. The earl continued with the army a few days and then took his leave of the legate, choosing rather to take a journey to Rome, in order to humble himself before the pope, a privilege which could not be denied him, than continue with it to be a spectator of the murder of thousands Limborch's Inquisition, ch. xi..

of peaceable and virtuous men, and the ruin of his own nephew.

When the army advanced towards the neighbourhood of Beziers, the fate of the city was easily foreseen, and the nephew of Raymond, fully sensible that it could not be defended against an hundred thousand men, went out of the city, threw himself at the feet of the pope's legate, and supplicated his mercy in favour of his capital, beseeching him not to involve the innocent with the guilty, which must be the case if Beziers were taken by storm-that there were many Roman Catholics in the city, who would be involved in one indiscriminate scene of ruin contrary to the intentions of the pope, whose object was understood to be, solely the punishment of the Albigenses. Numerous other topics of entreaty were urged by the young prince, but the answer of the legate to all he could plead was, that all his apologies and excuses would avail him nothing, and that he must do the best he could for himself." Thus foiled in his object, the Earl of Beziers returnedi nto the city, convened the inhabitants, to whom he explained the ill success that had attended his mission, and particularly, that the only condition upon which pardon would be granted by the pope's legate was, that the Albigenses should abjure their religion, and promise to live according to the laws of the Roman church.

The catholic inhabitants of Beziers now interposed, using every entreaty with the Albigenses to comply with that stipulation, and not be the occasion of their death, since the legate was resolved to pardon none, unless they all consented to live in subjection to one rule of faith.

The Albigenses replied, that they never could consent to purchase a prolongation of this perishing life at the price of renouncing their faith-that they were fully persuaded God could, if he pleased, protect and defend them. But they were as fully persuaded, that if it were his good pleasure to be glorified by the confession of their faith, it would be an high honour conferred upon them to sacrifice their lives for righteousness' sake-that they much preferred displeasing