Cathar Crusade

The Albigensian Crusade or Cathar Crusade (1209 - 1229) was a 20-year military campaign initiated by the Roman Catholic Church to eliminate the religion practiced by the Cathars of Languedoc, which the Roman Catholic hierarchy considered apostasy. It is historically significant for a number of reasons: the violence inflicted was extreme even by medieval standards; the church offered legally sanctioned dominion over conquered lands to northern French nobles and the King of France, acting as essentially Catholic mercenaries, who then acquired regions for France which at the time had closer cultural and language ties to Catalonia (see Occitan); finally, the Albigensian Crusade had a role in the creation and institutionalization of both the Dominican Order and the Medieval Inquisition.


The Catholic Church had always dealt vigorously with strands of Christianity that it considered heretical, but prior to the 12th century these groups were organized in small numbers such as wayward street preachers or small localized sects. The Cathars of the Languedoc represented an alternative and popular mass movement, a phenomenon that the Roman Church had not seen for almost 900 years since Arianism and Marcionism in the early days of Christianity. In the twelfth century much of what is now Southern France was converting to Catharism, and the belief was spreading to other areas. Catharism, along with other religious movements of the period such as the Waldensians, appeared in cities and towns of newly urbanized areas. Although Cathar ideas had not originated in the Languedoc, one of the most urbanized and populated areas of Europe at the time, it was there that their theology found spectacular success.

The Cathars were especially numerous in what is now western Mediterranean France, then part of the Catalan-Aragonese Confederation or the Kingdom of Aragon. They were also called Albigensians, after the city of Albi; there are at least two plausible explanations of this fact - first, simply because of the movement's presence in and around the city, and second, that the name stems from a Church Council held near the city in 1176 which, after considering the Cathar doctrine, declared it to be a heresy. Political control in Languedoc was divided amongst many local lords and town councils. Before the crusade, there was little oppression in the area and a fairly advanced cultural level.

When he came to power in 1198, Pope Innocent III was determined to suppress the Cathars. At first he tried peaceful conversion; however priests sent in to convert the Albigensians met with little success. The Cathars were protected by local nobles, and also by bishops who resented papal authority. In 1204 the pope suspended the authority of the bishops in the south of France, appointing papal legates. In 1206 the Pope sought support for action from the nobles of Languedoc. Noblemen who protected the Cathars were excommunicated.

The powerful count Raymond VI of Toulouse refused to assist and was excommunicated in May, 1207. The Pope called upon the French king, Philippe II, to act against those nobles who permitted Catharism, but Philippe declined to act. Count Raymond met with the papal legate, Pierre de Castelnau, in January 1208, and after an angry meeting, Pierre de Castelnau was killed the following day. The Pope reacted to the killing by issuing a bull declaring a crusade against Languedoc — offering the land of the heretics to any who would fight. This offer of land drew much of the nobility of the north of France into the conflict, against the nobility of the south.


Crusades
The military campaigns of the Crusade can be divided into a number of periods: the first from 1209 to 1215 was a series of great successes for the crusaders in Languedoc. The captured lands, however, were largely lost between 1215 and 1225 in a series of revolts and reverses. The situation turned again following the intervention of the French king, Louis VIII in 1226. He died in November of that year, but the efforts continued under Louis IX. The area was reconquered by 1229, and the main protagonists made peace. From 1233 the efforts of the Inquisition were crucial in crushing Catharism. Resistance and revolts continued until the military action finally ended in 1255, but Catharism's days were now numbered.
 

Catharism  Suppression of Catharism   Cathar Crusade   Cathar Success    Cathars Revolts  Cathar Castles  Cathars