History of the Crusades

the Crusades Episode 116 the Crusade against the Cathars forward then soldiers of Christ.

Hello again.

Last week we finally reached the point in time at which we started our discussion of the

Crusade against the Cathars.

That point in time being, of course, January 1208, with the murder of the people

legate Peter of Castelno by a servant of Raymond the 6 sixth, the count of Toulouse.

Up until the murder, Pope Innocent III had been trying to force Count Raymond to address the growing heresy problem within

his domain. And Count Raymond had been doing his best not to address the growing heresy problem within his domain. Now one of

Raymond's men had just killed the man the Pope had sent to represent him in the

region. What we want to know, and no doubt what Raymond wants to know,

is how is Pope Innocent going to react to this event.

When news of the murder reached the Pope in Rome a few weeks later,

a witness reported that he sunk his head into his hands, then placed his

busy schedule on hold while he sought solace and guidance in prayer before the

shrine of St Peter within the Vatican Basilica.

Now up until this point Pope Innocent has tried to solve the heresy problem in southern France in a number of different ways.

He first attempted to address the issue by sending church officials to the region to convert the Cathars

to the Catholic faith. That didn't work. He tried to deter others from accepting the Cathar faith by excommunicating the heretics from the Roman

Church. That didn't work. He tried to pressure the Count of Toulouse into addressing the problem.

That didn't work.

And he tried to convince the King of France to invade Long dock.

...